Showing posts with label Chris Isaac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Isaac. Show all posts
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Authority of Scripture: Outside Evidences - Chris Isaac
Download MP3 audio
The Authority of Scripture
Matt 7:24-27
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
(NIV)
Introduction
A) Finding the Rock series
1) We’ve talked about Salvation by Grace
2) Then we spent the last four Wednesdays on the Lordship of Christ
3) This week and next we will be on the Authority of Scripture
B) The Purpose of this series
1) Is not just to teach you what we believe here at New Life
2) But why we believe
3) You should know that we Believe the Bible to be the word of God
4) But why do we believe this? That’s what we want to discuss tonight
C) I’m going to approach this on two levels over the next two weeks
1) I’m going to give you both knowledge and wisdom
2) Knowledge is simple facts and information
3) Wisdom is applying that knowledge
4) Example of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream
5) Tonight I am going to give you knowledge, and next week wisdom
D) Understand that the Bible is under attack
1) The enemy is constantly attacking the Word of God
2) It began in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day.
3) But his attacks on the Bible are his most subtle of attacks, why
(a) He understands the potency of the Word of God
(b) Far more intimately than you or I
4) The Word of God is the thing Satan fears most
(a) He is not afraid of your salvation, because it can’t hurt him
(b) In our spiritual armor described in Ephesians, the Word of God is the only offensive item, all the rest are defensive
Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (NIV)
5) Now we said that Satan first attacked the Word of God in the Garden, and I want to look at that attack tonight
(a) And key in on just how the enemy attacks the Authority of God’s Word
Gen 3:1-5
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (NIV)
6) Notice there were three attacks Satan made
(a) Raised doubt as to the accuracy of the word
Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
(b) Rejected the truth of the word
"You will not surely die,"
(c) Replaced the word
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
(d) These are the same attacks, Satan is making today against the Word of God
(e) Satan’s goal in all this is to get you make your own decisions, based upon your knowledge, not God’s
7) This is the error of Noah’s generation
(a) Every man did what was right in his own eyes
(b) And this is where we are heading today
(c) How often have we heard it said what someone does in the privacy of their own home is their own affair
(d) Or what two consenting adults do in private
(e) Now I’m not saying we should be legislating morality, but in our own lives we need to not be determining right and wrong based upon what we think or feel.
I) Raised Doubt as to the accuracy of the word
A) In Today’s sophisticated society the first attack of the enemy on the Word of God is to question the accuracy of scripture
B) Inerrancy
1) Inerrancy is defined as lack of error; infallibility; the belief that the Bible is free from error in matters of science as well as those of faith.
2) The concept of inerrancy has been around since Moses first wrote the Pentateuch 3500 years ago
3) The importance of inerrancy cannot be overstated
(a) The Bible is our tangible source for understanding who God is
(b) If any part of it is inaccurate, then we are left to wonder which parts are true, and which are incorrect.
4) Today most evangelical churches support the position put forth in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.
(a) This was agreed upon by most major conservative denominations at a convention in 1978
(b) It states that the Bible is inerrant in its original manuscript.
5) This inerrancy will cover not only faith based issues, but also historical, geographical and scientific issues.
(a) History: example of the Hittites
(b) Geography: archeological discovery of the location of Sodom and Gomorrah
(c) Science: Joshua’s sun standing still recorded by the Babylonians
(d) Also consider the flood
(i) Appears in almost every major form of mythology
(ii) When they dig deep enough archeologist and geologist constantly find evidence of a cataclysmic flood in the layers of the earth.
6) Has every part of the Bible been proven true
(a) No, but they continue to be
(b) But scientist have yet to disprove anything mentioned in scripture
C) The History of the Bible
1) Canonization of Scripture
(a) The Bible was written over a span of roughly 1500 years
(i) During that time many books were written, but not all were included in the cannon of scripture
(ii) To be canonized did not make a book or letter “divinely inspired, it simply recognized the pre-established fact.
(b) To be canonized a book had to meet certain criteria
(i) It was written by a man of God
• The author was recognized by his peers
• He was confirmed by an act of God
• The author was not a false prophet
(ii) The book was divinely inspirational
• It told the truth about God
• It had the power to sanctify and edify
(iii) The book was timeless
• It had to be immediately accepted by the people of the time
• Its message had to have the same relevance 1000 years later.
(c) Let me show you how this played out in the New Testament
(i) The First century church was constantly quoting the books that would eventually form the Bible.
(ii) Why
• Because they were written by men of God
• Because they were recognized as being divinely inspired
• Because they were relevant long after the books were written.
(iii) In fact the early church quoted so much from these books, that if we were to loose every single manuscript and copy of the Bible today, we could still reconstruct the bible based solely upon the quotations made by the early church.
(iv) Every verse in the Bible is recorded in a quotation by the early church, save 11 verses.
2) The issue of inerrancy is based upon the original manuscripts
(a) The problem we have is that the original manuscripts are no longer with us
(b) This is probably a good thing
(i) since if they existed today we would probably see a lot of worshiping of the manuscripts as opposed to worshiping of God
(ii) this already takes place with things like the shroud of Turin
(iii) Was a problem in the old testament with the bronze serpent Aaron made in the wilderness
(c) The question we then have to ask is: How does the Bible we are reading today compare to the original manuscript.
3) Comparing the manuscript
(a) The last book of the Old Testament was written around 400 BC
(b) Until 1945 the earliest manuscript was dated from 900 AD
(c) This left a gap of 1300 years.
(d) This gap was the subject of much debate regarding the accuracy of the Bible.
(e) In 1946 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
(i) These were a series of scrolls, manuscripts and letters from the Bible as well as other historical notes
(ii) They were dated as being from 100 BC to 100 AD
(f) This cut the gap from 1300 years to 200 years, big difference
4) Comparing these scrolls to our present Bible revealed a mathematical accuracy of 98.83%
5) Of these almost all differences were grammatical or spelling related, and nothing was found to change or challenge the meaning of any passage or doctrine.
D) Lets compare this to other works of history
Author Title Written Earliest Gap # Copies
Caesar Gallic Wars 74 BC 900 AD 974 10
Plato Tetralogies 410 BC 900 AD 1310 7
Tracitus History Books 100 AD 1000 AD 900 1
Herodotus History 450 BC 900 AD 1350 8
Aristotle Poetics 352 BC 1000 AD 1352 5
Pay particular attention to the number of copies. This can be compared to the 5300 Biblical manuscripts
If you walked into any secular college class on English Literature and asked the professor whether or not these classical documents are the same as the original, the reply would always be affirmative.
Yet when asked to apply the same principles for evaluation to the reliability of the Biblical documents and the response would be antagonistic and skeptical
Why…
Because the enemy wants to make you question the Word of God as his first attack.
The Authority of Scripture
Matt 7:24-27
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
(NIV)
Introduction
A) Finding the Rock series
1) We’ve talked about Salvation by Grace
2) Then we spent the last four Wednesdays on the Lordship of Christ
3) This week and next we will be on the Authority of Scripture
B) The Purpose of this series
1) Is not just to teach you what we believe here at New Life
2) But why we believe
3) You should know that we Believe the Bible to be the word of God
4) But why do we believe this? That’s what we want to discuss tonight
C) I’m going to approach this on two levels over the next two weeks
1) I’m going to give you both knowledge and wisdom
2) Knowledge is simple facts and information
3) Wisdom is applying that knowledge
4) Example of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream
5) Tonight I am going to give you knowledge, and next week wisdom
D) Understand that the Bible is under attack
1) The enemy is constantly attacking the Word of God
2) It began in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day.
3) But his attacks on the Bible are his most subtle of attacks, why
(a) He understands the potency of the Word of God
(b) Far more intimately than you or I
4) The Word of God is the thing Satan fears most
(a) He is not afraid of your salvation, because it can’t hurt him
(b) In our spiritual armor described in Ephesians, the Word of God is the only offensive item, all the rest are defensive
Heb 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (NIV)
5) Now we said that Satan first attacked the Word of God in the Garden, and I want to look at that attack tonight
(a) And key in on just how the enemy attacks the Authority of God’s Word
Gen 3:1-5
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (NIV)
6) Notice there were three attacks Satan made
(a) Raised doubt as to the accuracy of the word
Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
(b) Rejected the truth of the word
"You will not surely die,"
(c) Replaced the word
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
(d) These are the same attacks, Satan is making today against the Word of God
(e) Satan’s goal in all this is to get you make your own decisions, based upon your knowledge, not God’s
7) This is the error of Noah’s generation
(a) Every man did what was right in his own eyes
(b) And this is where we are heading today
(c) How often have we heard it said what someone does in the privacy of their own home is their own affair
(d) Or what two consenting adults do in private
(e) Now I’m not saying we should be legislating morality, but in our own lives we need to not be determining right and wrong based upon what we think or feel.
I) Raised Doubt as to the accuracy of the word
A) In Today’s sophisticated society the first attack of the enemy on the Word of God is to question the accuracy of scripture
B) Inerrancy
1) Inerrancy is defined as lack of error; infallibility; the belief that the Bible is free from error in matters of science as well as those of faith.
2) The concept of inerrancy has been around since Moses first wrote the Pentateuch 3500 years ago
3) The importance of inerrancy cannot be overstated
(a) The Bible is our tangible source for understanding who God is
(b) If any part of it is inaccurate, then we are left to wonder which parts are true, and which are incorrect.
4) Today most evangelical churches support the position put forth in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.
(a) This was agreed upon by most major conservative denominations at a convention in 1978
(b) It states that the Bible is inerrant in its original manuscript.
5) This inerrancy will cover not only faith based issues, but also historical, geographical and scientific issues.
(a) History: example of the Hittites
(b) Geography: archeological discovery of the location of Sodom and Gomorrah
(c) Science: Joshua’s sun standing still recorded by the Babylonians
(d) Also consider the flood
(i) Appears in almost every major form of mythology
(ii) When they dig deep enough archeologist and geologist constantly find evidence of a cataclysmic flood in the layers of the earth.
6) Has every part of the Bible been proven true
(a) No, but they continue to be
(b) But scientist have yet to disprove anything mentioned in scripture
C) The History of the Bible
1) Canonization of Scripture
(a) The Bible was written over a span of roughly 1500 years
(i) During that time many books were written, but not all were included in the cannon of scripture
(ii) To be canonized did not make a book or letter “divinely inspired, it simply recognized the pre-established fact.
(b) To be canonized a book had to meet certain criteria
(i) It was written by a man of God
• The author was recognized by his peers
• He was confirmed by an act of God
• The author was not a false prophet
(ii) The book was divinely inspirational
• It told the truth about God
• It had the power to sanctify and edify
(iii) The book was timeless
• It had to be immediately accepted by the people of the time
• Its message had to have the same relevance 1000 years later.
(c) Let me show you how this played out in the New Testament
(i) The First century church was constantly quoting the books that would eventually form the Bible.
(ii) Why
• Because they were written by men of God
• Because they were recognized as being divinely inspired
• Because they were relevant long after the books were written.
(iii) In fact the early church quoted so much from these books, that if we were to loose every single manuscript and copy of the Bible today, we could still reconstruct the bible based solely upon the quotations made by the early church.
(iv) Every verse in the Bible is recorded in a quotation by the early church, save 11 verses.
2) The issue of inerrancy is based upon the original manuscripts
(a) The problem we have is that the original manuscripts are no longer with us
(b) This is probably a good thing
(i) since if they existed today we would probably see a lot of worshiping of the manuscripts as opposed to worshiping of God
(ii) this already takes place with things like the shroud of Turin
(iii) Was a problem in the old testament with the bronze serpent Aaron made in the wilderness
(c) The question we then have to ask is: How does the Bible we are reading today compare to the original manuscript.
3) Comparing the manuscript
(a) The last book of the Old Testament was written around 400 BC
(b) Until 1945 the earliest manuscript was dated from 900 AD
(c) This left a gap of 1300 years.
(d) This gap was the subject of much debate regarding the accuracy of the Bible.
(e) In 1946 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
(i) These were a series of scrolls, manuscripts and letters from the Bible as well as other historical notes
(ii) They were dated as being from 100 BC to 100 AD
(f) This cut the gap from 1300 years to 200 years, big difference
4) Comparing these scrolls to our present Bible revealed a mathematical accuracy of 98.83%
5) Of these almost all differences were grammatical or spelling related, and nothing was found to change or challenge the meaning of any passage or doctrine.
D) Lets compare this to other works of history
Author Title Written Earliest Gap # Copies
Caesar Gallic Wars 74 BC 900 AD 974 10
Plato Tetralogies 410 BC 900 AD 1310 7
Tracitus History Books 100 AD 1000 AD 900 1
Herodotus History 450 BC 900 AD 1350 8
Aristotle Poetics 352 BC 1000 AD 1352 5
Pay particular attention to the number of copies. This can be compared to the 5300 Biblical manuscripts
If you walked into any secular college class on English Literature and asked the professor whether or not these classical documents are the same as the original, the reply would always be affirmative.
Yet when asked to apply the same principles for evaluation to the reliability of the Biblical documents and the response would be antagonistic and skeptical
Why…
Because the enemy wants to make you question the Word of God as his first attack.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Circumcision: the Cost of Crossing Over - Chris Isaac
Download MP3 audio
Circumcision: Consider the Cost of Being a Crossover People
New Life Church on the Rock Wednesday 5/16/07
Josh 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide:
2 "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-- to the Israelites.
3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates-- all the Hittite country-- to the Great Sea on the west.
5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
(NIV)
I) Introduction: Consider the Cost
A) It was about a month ago the God gave this word to Pastor Ken during our 21 day.
1) Arise and cross over, because the world needs a savior
2) And we’ve been talking about this as it relates to our building our building.
3) And God is saying to us that it is time to arise and crossover
B) And that’s exciting
1) Isn’t it
2) What’s not exciting about it
3) We are going to arise, cross over, and posses the land.
4) How exciting
C) Well tonight I want to share with you a little about the cost of being a crossover people.
Luke 14:28-32
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
(NIV)
II) I want to start by quickly looking at three examples from Joshua
A) Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh
1) This is found in Joshua 1:12-18
2) They had asked Moses if they could receive their inheritance on this side of the Jordan
3) And God acquiesced.
4) So that at the time that God told Joshua to arise and crossover, the 2½ tribes were already settling in.
5) But they arose
6) For them the cost of being a crossover people was that they had nothing to gain
7) The point
(a) As we cross over this Jordan, there are some of you out there who are going to step into new ministry,
(b) And God is going to use you, and open doors like you wouldn’t believe
(c) But others of you, like the tribes of Reuben and Gad, have already received
(d) and are crossing over to facilitate others
B) The story at Ai
1) Found in Joshua 7
2) The children of Israel crossed over
3) We know how they attacked and sacked Jericho
4) But the next story is when they approached a small town named Ai
5) It was so small, the city could only afford two letters in it’s name
6) But at the battle of Jericho one man sinned
7) And when the army went up against little Ai, they were defeated because of that one mans sin.
8) In fact the Bible says that 36 men of Israel died.
(a) 36 men who did not commit sin
(b) 36 men who crossed over, but did not personally receive the inheritance
(c) Wow, talk about paying the price
C) The next example is where I want to camp out a little bit
1) It’s found in Joshua chapter 5:2-8
Josh 5:2-8
2 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again."
3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.
4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt-- all the men of military age-- died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt.
5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not.
6 The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
7 So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.
8 And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.
(NIV)
2) Now this isn’t pleasant to talk about, but my friends there is a price for being a crossover people
3) Now I don’t want to discourage you in telling you that there is a price.
4) Instead it’s my prayer that after tonight you would get encouraged about paying the price.
D) Now allow me to preach for a minute
1) Israel was willing to pay the price for two reasons
(a) They didn’t want to go back
(b) They prize was worth the price
2) Parable of the pearl of great price in the field
3) Peter at the day of Pentecost
4) 3 Hebrew Children
III) What is Circumcision
A) In the natural it is the removal of the foreskin
B) The Hebrew word used for the foreskin is Orlah
1) It means barrier
2) It is also used in describing an uncircumcised heart: Orlas HaLeiv
3) Or uncircumcised lips: Orel S’fasaim
4) Each example denotes a barrier
C) So when we translate this from the natural to the spiritual
1) And we read in the Bible, God calling us to circumcise our hearts
2) He is calling us to remove the barrier
D) Now without getting to graphical
1) In the natural, that which is circumcised is the most intimate place found on the body
2) In the spiritual, God is calling for the removal of the barriers around the most intimate places in our hearts
E) There is a process that takes place in our Christian experience
1) The Bible uses many analogies to describe it
(a) Circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy)
(b) Discipline of the Lord (Hebrews)
(c) Crucible of God’s refinement (Proverbs)
(d) Pruning (Romans)
2) It’s all about something being removed
(a) Being purified
3) It is a part of the natural process for spiritual growth.
4) Both in the natural and in the spiritual God made growth to occur whether you want it to or not.
5) God’s perfect plan (before the fall) in a nut shell
(a) Growing
(b) Fully grown, and thus reproducing
(c) Dead
6) My question for you is, in the spiritual, which one of those three are you
Story about Romania
IV) Observations about Circumcision
A) It’s confusing
1) When a baby is being circumcised he doesn’t understand
(a) What is happening
(b) Why it’s happening
2) In fact do you know who decides who’s circumcised and who isn’t
3) It’s not the hospital, it’s the father, our Father
4) Often times it’s confusing to understand how a God who loves us would be hurting us
5) The answer to confusion is trust
Job 23:8-10
8 "But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him.
9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
(NIV)
B) It hurts
1) I’m not gonna lie to you
2) Do you know why there is not a line of 40 year old men at Baptist Hospital tonight wanting to get circumcised
3) Because it hurts
4) I had a friend who gave up on the Daniel Fast because he didn’t see why he should put himself through it
5) We have some strange thinking in the Church today
(a) We assume if it hurts, its bad
(i) But in the natural we don’t mind working out and exercising
(ii) Even though we wake up sore the next morning
(iii) In fact we’re proud the next morning when we are sore
(iv) But we don’t think this translates into the spiritual real
(b) We think learning discipline in our spiritual lives means we’ve done something wrong, or we’re weak
(i) Anyone here in the army
(ii) Did you have to learn discipline
(iii) Are you proud of that fact
C) Something is being removed (change is occurring)
1) A lot of times we blame God for things He didn’t do
2) Story of Mr. Fowler on the roof
3) The only way to learn to walk, is to walk
4) I used to pray
(a) God help Cheryl and I to better support each other during tough and trying times
(b) And then I would wonder why are we going through all these tough and trying times
D) You must be exposed
1) You are not going to be able to go through circumcision with your pants on
2) You will be exposed and vulnerable
3) It is innate in man to try to hide his sins
(a) God had to go looking for Adam in the garden
4) But God wants to expose us, and our sin
5) And there’s no better place to be
6) The story of Ziporah
V) Conclusion: Responding to Circumcision
A) Don’t move
1) Pastor Ron says “No matter how bad things are, you can always make them worse”
B) Shut up
Job 38:1-3
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
(NIV)
Job 40:3-5
3 Then Job answered the LORD:
4 "I am unworthy-- how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.
5 I spoke once, but I have no answer-- twice, but I will say no more."
(NIV)
Job 40:8
8 "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
(NIV)
C) Hang on
1) Story of Justin at Children’s Church
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
(NIV)
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Isaiah's Call - Chris Isaac
Download MP3 audio
Isaiah’s Call
New Life COTR, Wednesday 4/4/07
Isa 6:1-8
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
(NIV)
I) Introduction
A) Our text is Isaiah 6, but we will be referring as well to John’s vision of the throne of God, and if you want to look it up it can be found in Revelation 4
1) I would encourage you to read it later
B) I want you to notice what happens in Isaiah’s vision
1) He sees God in all His Glory
2) He observes the Angels worshiping God
3) He becomes aware of his own inadequacies
4) He become purified by God
5) He receives his call
C) This is not my sermon, but it could be. Here we see God’s outline for calling someone to do His work
1) They get a vision of who God is
2) They are purified by God
3) They receive their call
D) Some of you today may be wondering why God hasn’t given you you’re calling…
1) I would encourage you to look here for an example
2) Than seeking a vision of your calling
3) Seek a vision of who God is
4) Then seek purity
5) And the calling will come
II) The worshiping of God
A) But tonight is not about receiving your calling
1) Instead I want to focus on the subject of Holiness
B) The first real action that takes place in Isaiah’s vision is the angels worshiping of God
1) This is really fascinating to me
2) The angels are in the very presence of God
3) This is not the time or the place to discuss the differences in the relationship between God and man versus God and the Angels
4) But they are more keenly aware of who God is than us
5) They are in His very presence
C) And what is the first thing they say to worship who God is
1) Holy, Holy, Holy
2) This is repeated in John’s vision in the book of Revelations
(a)John describes seeing 4 living creatures
(b)And they are worshiping God saying…
Rev 4:8b
8 … "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
(NIV)
3) So often when we go to worship
(a)We praise God for His loving kindness, or His mercy
(b)This is not to diminish the love of God in anyway
(c) But the first thing on the minds of the Angels, and other spiritual beings was not God’s love, but His holiness
(d)So what is it about God’s holiness that deserves this kind of attention
D) What is holiness
1) Webster’s defines it as the condition of being holy
(a)Not very helpful
(b)Holy is defined as to be set apart for religious use
2) But the Hebrew word used here is qadowsh (kaw-doshe')
(a)Which means sacred, clean and purified
(b)The implication is that God is clean and pure
(c) Clean from what
(d)Clean and pure of all sin
3) Sin is what separates us from God, but understand something here
(a)Sin is not just an action
(b)The 10 commandments tell us not to commit adultery, that adultery is sin
(c) But Jesus taught us that to even look at a woman with impure thoughts is the same as adultery, it’s still sin
(d)likewise in Ezekiel we are given a glimpse of the time before Lucifer was cast out
Ezek 28:15
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.
(NIV)
(e)The Bible says he was perfect not until he did something wrong, but when wickedness was found in him
(f) Sin is not just a verb it is also a noun
(g)In other words, it’s not just an action, but an attitude of the heart
III) Isaiah’s Cry
Isa 6:5
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
(NIV)
A) His decree
1) I am a man of unclean lips
2) I dwell among a people of unclean lips
3) My eyes have seen God
4) Now I went to look at this a little out of order, because Isaiah never realized the problem with the first two issues until after he had seen God
B) My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty
1) Holiness is not defined by wearing the right clothes, or saying and doing the right things
2) Holiness begins and ends with a vision of who God is
3) There can in fact be no holiness without God
4) I heard someone say once when I was in Bible school
(a)If there is a God in Heaven, then why do the innocent suffer
(b)To which the reply was
(c) If there is no God, then what makes them innocent, and why should we care if they suffer
5) Our entire sense of morality, what’s right and what’s wrong was taught to us by God.
(a)It began in the Garden of Eden where we first learned not that we shouldn’t always indulge the appetites of the flesh
(b)Later in Genesis we learned through Cain and Abel the importance of controlling our emotions
(c) Still later God gave us the 10 commandments
(i) these were not simple rules to live by
(ii)they were the moral code upon which civilization was to be based upon
6) Now here in the New Testament area we have seen a clearer picture of who God is through His work on the cross
(a)And with that comes a clearer picture of the moral code upon which we live our live
(b)It’s not enough to not commit murder, now we are taught not to hate
(c) It’s not enough to bring sacrifices, now we must obey in our heart
(d)It’s not enough to simply follow the rules and regulations of our religion, now we must do it with a pure heart
(e)And it all starts with seeing God
7) I believe some of us here tonight have over the course of this fast begun to see God more clearly
(a)And with it has come a revelation
(b)About who God is
(c) About who we are
(d)And the gap in between those two revelations
(e)And what is our response to this revelation
C) Isaiah cried out “woe to me” for I am a man of unclean lips
1) What did this mean, did Isaiah cuss a lot
2) Maybe, but there are more ways than that to have unclean lips
3) How often do we speak out of anger
(a)And say the first thing that comes to our mind
(b)Especially to our families
(c) What about at work
4) When we look at our lives
(a)Do we look and say we’ll I’m doing pretty good at living the Christian life
(b)This is prompted by the fact that all to often we are comparing ourselves to other Christians
(c) And not looking at God for our comparison
(d)The fact of the matter is that when we compare ourselves to God, no matter how hard we try to live a pure life we fall far short of true holiness
Rom 7:15
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
(NIV)
(e)That was Paul speaking, surely he got closer to god than any of us, and yet he still struggled
1 Pet 1:15-16
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
(NIV)
(f) God is calling us to holiness
(i) the problem is we get lost in the definition
(ii) because we are using man as our guide for holiness
(iii) when we need to be looking at God
(g)My question to you today is when you look at your life what do you see
(i) This is not meant to be condemning
• And I hope it isn’t coming across that way
(ii) But is your life a pure and undefiled vessel that God can use
(iii) Because when we look at God, and not man for our example of holiness we all fall short of the mark
D) Isaiah said something else fascinating in this passage. He cried out that “I belong to a people of unclean lips”
1) I don’t have the enough time to dwell on this point
(a)And that’s a shame
(b)Because it is an often overlooked facet of our Christian walk
2) But we live in nation that calls itself Christian
(a)But is far from Godly
(b)We belong to a people of unclean lips
(c) And whether we realize it or not, that affects us, and our walk with God
3) I don’t know how it is at your job
(a)But I can’t go 5 minutes at my job without hearing a cuss word
(b)I can’t go an entire day without hearing somebody bragging about the sin in their life
(i) Talking about the person they had sex with
(ii) How they got back at someone who did them wrong
(iii) or how they hate this person or that person
(c) Spiritually these things affect us
(d)They weigh on us
Heb 12:1
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
(NIV)
(e)They so easily entangle us.
(i) This is not saying that we are engaging in that sin
(ii) But that that sin as reached out to grab us and entangle us
4) I liken this to a man who works out on a farm
(a)And he’s out there taking care of the animals
(b)Working out in the hot sun
(c) And at the end of the day he comes home sweaty, and smelling like the animals he’s working with
(d)And what’s the first thing his wife wants him to do?
(i) Take a bath
(e)Why, because the environment that he has to work in has affected his relationship with his wife
(i) This doesn’t mean that the man did anything wrong
(ii) And it doesn’t mean that the wife doesn’t love him
5) Let me give you another example from the Bible
(a)In the old testament there is actually a law that states when you go outside of the camp to take care of “your business” you need to take a shovel with you in order to bury “the business”
(b)There is also a law that states if you touch anything “unclean” then you yourself are now unclean and must go offer sacrifices in order to be made clean again
(c) So let’s say you are just out there walking along minding your own business, and you step in something
(d)you are now unclean, through no fault of you own
(e)Why?
(f) Because God want pure and undefiled vessels for His use.
(i) Purified not only of the sins we have committed
(ii) But also purified of the sins of those around us
6) We don’t have time to look at it now
(a)But read the book of Nehemiah
(b)Focus on his prayers
(c) And see how he prays and ask God for forgiveness for his sins, but moreover for the sins of the nation
(d)Why, because he is a part of the nation
IV) The Last thing I want to key on tonight is the purification that takes place in Isaiah’s life
A) The Bible says that one of the cherubim flew down and took a coal off of the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips, and with that he was purified
1) Revelation says that on this altar were the prayers of the saints
2) Now I’m not going to try and overanalyze this matter
3) But I will tell you that if you want purity and holiness in your life, there’s going to have to be some prayer involved
B) I’m not talking about the kind of prayer you say over dinner
1) You know where a lot of times we just gloss over the words, to show reverence, but in reality our heart is not on God, but on dinner
2) I’m talking about pouring your heart out before God kind of prayers
3) The nothing held back kind of prayer
4) The kind of prayer where we say Lord, nothing else matters, but having a pure and undefiled heart before God
(a)Not my job
(b)Not my ministry, or position in the church
(c) Not my social standing
C) Because here’s the point
1) God took Isaiah through this in order make him a pure vessel for his service
(a)After he was purified, then God called him to his ministry
2) God wants to use you
(a)But first He wants to purify you
3) God wants to use this church
(a)But first there will come a purification of our hearts
4) Before Israel received the promised land of Canaan God first told Joshua to circumcise the people.
V) Conclusion
A) We are coming to the end of a 21 day fast
1) And we have drawn closer to god in that time
(a)I know, I see it especially playing out in our worship.
(b)I also hear as I talk to people about how there fast is going
2) But God has not brought us to this fast, and indeed through this fast just so we can loose weight, and feel good about ourselves
3) God is preparing us for service, both on an individual level, and as a corporate body.
B) But I believe that through this fast many of us have seen God.
1) And with that has come a fresh revelation of who He is
2) And also a fresh revelation of who we are in the natural
C) And satan has used this revelation,
1) And the holy conviction that accompanies it to condemn some of you here
2) And some of you through the course of this fast have felt guilty
3) And you don’t understand why
D) God’s not mad at you
1) He’s not angry with you
E) God brought Isaiah to the throne room of Heaven to purify him, not to condemn him
1) Tonight he wants to bring you into the throne room as well
Isaiah’s Call
New Life COTR, Wednesday 4/4/07
Isa 6:1-8
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
(NIV)
I) Introduction
A) Our text is Isaiah 6, but we will be referring as well to John’s vision of the throne of God, and if you want to look it up it can be found in Revelation 4
1) I would encourage you to read it later
B) I want you to notice what happens in Isaiah’s vision
1) He sees God in all His Glory
2) He observes the Angels worshiping God
3) He becomes aware of his own inadequacies
4) He become purified by God
5) He receives his call
C) This is not my sermon, but it could be. Here we see God’s outline for calling someone to do His work
1) They get a vision of who God is
2) They are purified by God
3) They receive their call
D) Some of you today may be wondering why God hasn’t given you you’re calling…
1) I would encourage you to look here for an example
2) Than seeking a vision of your calling
3) Seek a vision of who God is
4) Then seek purity
5) And the calling will come
II) The worshiping of God
A) But tonight is not about receiving your calling
1) Instead I want to focus on the subject of Holiness
B) The first real action that takes place in Isaiah’s vision is the angels worshiping of God
1) This is really fascinating to me
2) The angels are in the very presence of God
3) This is not the time or the place to discuss the differences in the relationship between God and man versus God and the Angels
4) But they are more keenly aware of who God is than us
5) They are in His very presence
C) And what is the first thing they say to worship who God is
1) Holy, Holy, Holy
2) This is repeated in John’s vision in the book of Revelations
(a)John describes seeing 4 living creatures
(b)And they are worshiping God saying…
Rev 4:8b
8 … "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
(NIV)
3) So often when we go to worship
(a)We praise God for His loving kindness, or His mercy
(b)This is not to diminish the love of God in anyway
(c) But the first thing on the minds of the Angels, and other spiritual beings was not God’s love, but His holiness
(d)So what is it about God’s holiness that deserves this kind of attention
D) What is holiness
1) Webster’s defines it as the condition of being holy
(a)Not very helpful
(b)Holy is defined as to be set apart for religious use
2) But the Hebrew word used here is qadowsh (kaw-doshe')
(a)Which means sacred, clean and purified
(b)The implication is that God is clean and pure
(c) Clean from what
(d)Clean and pure of all sin
3) Sin is what separates us from God, but understand something here
(a)Sin is not just an action
(b)The 10 commandments tell us not to commit adultery, that adultery is sin
(c) But Jesus taught us that to even look at a woman with impure thoughts is the same as adultery, it’s still sin
(d)likewise in Ezekiel we are given a glimpse of the time before Lucifer was cast out
Ezek 28:15
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.
(NIV)
(e)The Bible says he was perfect not until he did something wrong, but when wickedness was found in him
(f) Sin is not just a verb it is also a noun
(g)In other words, it’s not just an action, but an attitude of the heart
III) Isaiah’s Cry
Isa 6:5
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
(NIV)
A) His decree
1) I am a man of unclean lips
2) I dwell among a people of unclean lips
3) My eyes have seen God
4) Now I went to look at this a little out of order, because Isaiah never realized the problem with the first two issues until after he had seen God
B) My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty
1) Holiness is not defined by wearing the right clothes, or saying and doing the right things
2) Holiness begins and ends with a vision of who God is
3) There can in fact be no holiness without God
4) I heard someone say once when I was in Bible school
(a)If there is a God in Heaven, then why do the innocent suffer
(b)To which the reply was
(c) If there is no God, then what makes them innocent, and why should we care if they suffer
5) Our entire sense of morality, what’s right and what’s wrong was taught to us by God.
(a)It began in the Garden of Eden where we first learned not that we shouldn’t always indulge the appetites of the flesh
(b)Later in Genesis we learned through Cain and Abel the importance of controlling our emotions
(c) Still later God gave us the 10 commandments
(i) these were not simple rules to live by
(ii)they were the moral code upon which civilization was to be based upon
6) Now here in the New Testament area we have seen a clearer picture of who God is through His work on the cross
(a)And with that comes a clearer picture of the moral code upon which we live our live
(b)It’s not enough to not commit murder, now we are taught not to hate
(c) It’s not enough to bring sacrifices, now we must obey in our heart
(d)It’s not enough to simply follow the rules and regulations of our religion, now we must do it with a pure heart
(e)And it all starts with seeing God
7) I believe some of us here tonight have over the course of this fast begun to see God more clearly
(a)And with it has come a revelation
(b)About who God is
(c) About who we are
(d)And the gap in between those two revelations
(e)And what is our response to this revelation
C) Isaiah cried out “woe to me” for I am a man of unclean lips
1) What did this mean, did Isaiah cuss a lot
2) Maybe, but there are more ways than that to have unclean lips
3) How often do we speak out of anger
(a)And say the first thing that comes to our mind
(b)Especially to our families
(c) What about at work
4) When we look at our lives
(a)Do we look and say we’ll I’m doing pretty good at living the Christian life
(b)This is prompted by the fact that all to often we are comparing ourselves to other Christians
(c) And not looking at God for our comparison
(d)The fact of the matter is that when we compare ourselves to God, no matter how hard we try to live a pure life we fall far short of true holiness
Rom 7:15
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
(NIV)
(e)That was Paul speaking, surely he got closer to god than any of us, and yet he still struggled
1 Pet 1:15-16
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
(NIV)
(f) God is calling us to holiness
(i) the problem is we get lost in the definition
(ii) because we are using man as our guide for holiness
(iii) when we need to be looking at God
(g)My question to you today is when you look at your life what do you see
(i) This is not meant to be condemning
• And I hope it isn’t coming across that way
(ii) But is your life a pure and undefiled vessel that God can use
(iii) Because when we look at God, and not man for our example of holiness we all fall short of the mark
D) Isaiah said something else fascinating in this passage. He cried out that “I belong to a people of unclean lips”
1) I don’t have the enough time to dwell on this point
(a)And that’s a shame
(b)Because it is an often overlooked facet of our Christian walk
2) But we live in nation that calls itself Christian
(a)But is far from Godly
(b)We belong to a people of unclean lips
(c) And whether we realize it or not, that affects us, and our walk with God
3) I don’t know how it is at your job
(a)But I can’t go 5 minutes at my job without hearing a cuss word
(b)I can’t go an entire day without hearing somebody bragging about the sin in their life
(i) Talking about the person they had sex with
(ii) How they got back at someone who did them wrong
(iii) or how they hate this person or that person
(c) Spiritually these things affect us
(d)They weigh on us
Heb 12:1
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
(NIV)
(e)They so easily entangle us.
(i) This is not saying that we are engaging in that sin
(ii) But that that sin as reached out to grab us and entangle us
4) I liken this to a man who works out on a farm
(a)And he’s out there taking care of the animals
(b)Working out in the hot sun
(c) And at the end of the day he comes home sweaty, and smelling like the animals he’s working with
(d)And what’s the first thing his wife wants him to do?
(i) Take a bath
(e)Why, because the environment that he has to work in has affected his relationship with his wife
(i) This doesn’t mean that the man did anything wrong
(ii) And it doesn’t mean that the wife doesn’t love him
5) Let me give you another example from the Bible
(a)In the old testament there is actually a law that states when you go outside of the camp to take care of “your business” you need to take a shovel with you in order to bury “the business”
(b)There is also a law that states if you touch anything “unclean” then you yourself are now unclean and must go offer sacrifices in order to be made clean again
(c) So let’s say you are just out there walking along minding your own business, and you step in something
(d)you are now unclean, through no fault of you own
(e)Why?
(f) Because God want pure and undefiled vessels for His use.
(i) Purified not only of the sins we have committed
(ii) But also purified of the sins of those around us
6) We don’t have time to look at it now
(a)But read the book of Nehemiah
(b)Focus on his prayers
(c) And see how he prays and ask God for forgiveness for his sins, but moreover for the sins of the nation
(d)Why, because he is a part of the nation
IV) The Last thing I want to key on tonight is the purification that takes place in Isaiah’s life
A) The Bible says that one of the cherubim flew down and took a coal off of the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips, and with that he was purified
1) Revelation says that on this altar were the prayers of the saints
2) Now I’m not going to try and overanalyze this matter
3) But I will tell you that if you want purity and holiness in your life, there’s going to have to be some prayer involved
B) I’m not talking about the kind of prayer you say over dinner
1) You know where a lot of times we just gloss over the words, to show reverence, but in reality our heart is not on God, but on dinner
2) I’m talking about pouring your heart out before God kind of prayers
3) The nothing held back kind of prayer
4) The kind of prayer where we say Lord, nothing else matters, but having a pure and undefiled heart before God
(a)Not my job
(b)Not my ministry, or position in the church
(c) Not my social standing
C) Because here’s the point
1) God took Isaiah through this in order make him a pure vessel for his service
(a)After he was purified, then God called him to his ministry
2) God wants to use you
(a)But first He wants to purify you
3) God wants to use this church
(a)But first there will come a purification of our hearts
4) Before Israel received the promised land of Canaan God first told Joshua to circumcise the people.
V) Conclusion
A) We are coming to the end of a 21 day fast
1) And we have drawn closer to god in that time
(a)I know, I see it especially playing out in our worship.
(b)I also hear as I talk to people about how there fast is going
2) But God has not brought us to this fast, and indeed through this fast just so we can loose weight, and feel good about ourselves
3) God is preparing us for service, both on an individual level, and as a corporate body.
B) But I believe that through this fast many of us have seen God.
1) And with that has come a fresh revelation of who He is
2) And also a fresh revelation of who we are in the natural
C) And satan has used this revelation,
1) And the holy conviction that accompanies it to condemn some of you here
2) And some of you through the course of this fast have felt guilty
3) And you don’t understand why
D) God’s not mad at you
1) He’s not angry with you
E) God brought Isaiah to the throne room of Heaven to purify him, not to condemn him
1) Tonight he wants to bring you into the throne room as well
