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Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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We get stuck in our own minds and our own devices and we make up stuff. We build our own kingdom and we put God in a box. And we miss them. Either we just go our own way and subconsciously we're rejecting God, or we've totally gone off the deep end and we shake our fists at God and we've totally rebelled. I'm gonna go my own way because you're a liar, God, and we believe the lie. We believe the father of lies.

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In today's message, Pastor Carl warns of how easy it is to get stuck in your own thoughts and schemes. You might create your own plans, build your own kingdom, and put God in a small box. In doing so, you'll miss him and his message for your life. Sometimes you might drift your own way and subconsciously reject God without even realizing it. Does it really sound like a good idea to trust in your own ways instead of the God of truth? Take God out of the box and surrender fully to his way, not your own. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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On the first day, he created the heavens and the earth. The heavens with nothing in them and the earth there, and he created light from the beginning. So if you're a student of God's word, you recognize, well, yeah, the earth shall be made in one day. Shall a nation be born at once? Wow. Well, when Moses took the children of Israel out of Egypt, they became a nation that day on their own. They were just a family or a clan before, but now they're a nation. But even more profound in 1948, when Israel, the modern-day Israel, became a nation in one day because they were declared a nation by a few countries. It's it's it's prophecy being fulfilled that we read right here. For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring the time of birth and not cause delivery, says the Lord? Look, you guys have gone astray, but I have a plan for you. I've done all these things to prove my faithfulness and my power and my determination to complete it. What makes you think I'm not going to complete what I promised? Israel will be saved. Israel will rule and reign with Jesus in Jerusalem, along with his church, alongside, we will be grafted in. And it's a great mystery. I don't all understand it. But the Lord says this is going to happen. And it's going to be good. Why should we not believe it? Because he's proven himself already. Shall I who cause delivery shut the womb? says your God. I'm the one that brings life. That is my purpose. Should I just stop in the midst of it? I won't. I'm faithful. I'm true. I will finish what I start. Remind you a verse in the New Testament. He was begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it till the day of Jesus Christ. Verse 10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all you who love her, rejoice for joy with her, and all you who mourn with her, that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. Israel in Jerusalem is going to be a blessing to the nations. This is why we need to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Because when Jerusalem has peace, it benefits the rest of the world. When Israel is established in the millennial reign, it benefits the church. That's why we need to be praying for Israel. We need to be rejoicing when we see God working in her midst. And we need to be mourning when enemies come against her. Verse 12 For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed, and on her sides you shall be carried, and be dandled on her knees. But this is a picture of God as a mother. This is a picture of God with her newborn child, feeding her, caressing and and and um rocking her, and bouncing her on her knee, enjoying, having fun, living life and growing together. This is the picture of what God intends for Israel and the rest of the world as a result. The nations will come. They'll come to Israel, they'll come to Jerusalem and partake of the streams of living water that constantly flow but are peaceful in their flow, that brings strength and nourishment. The word is described as water. Waves of living water come forth as we partake of the word. Are we in the word? Are we drinking it up? Are we letting it satisfy us and renew us and and see a glimpse of this picture that he has for us in the future? Verse 13, as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. We've got amazing times still ahead, but there's some scary times to come as well. And the Lord wants to give us this as the church right now. He says the kingdom of heaven is alive in you. There are aspects of this that he wants to do in our lives right now. Let him conform yourself to him. And of course, I can't conform myself to the image of God, but I can surrender to him. I can say, Lord, I need you to change me from the inside out. I need you to do a work in me. Would you please do it? And those sorts of things he's happy to answer. Liberally. He wants to bless us abundantly with his presence, his purpose, as we allow him to change us and make us like him. Verse 14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass. The hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and his indignation to his enemies. It's going to be a glorious time for those who have been looking forward to it, those that believe that he's going to do what he said he was going to do. But for those who have in the last couple chapters, we talked about, you know, we get stuck in our own minds and our own devices and we make up stuff. We build our own kingdom and we put God in a box and we miss him. Either we just go our own way and subconsciously we're rejecting God, or we've we've totally gone off the deep end and we we shake our fists at God and we've totally rebelled. I'm gonna go my own way because you're a liar, God, and we believe the lie. We believe the father of lies. His indignation will be upon his enemies. His heart is to bring us all this blessing and goodness and prosperous life, and you know, the time of the millennium is gonna be glorious. And that's nothing compared to what's past the millennium. But it's it's what he intended the earth to be like from the beginning. We've been living in a worth this world is still beautiful, isn't it? It's amazing God's creation in this world, but it's been tainted by the fall. How much more beautiful did he intend it to be? We can't even grasp it. But he's trying to give us little glimpses into this is what I intend for you. And for the church right now, and with the kingdom in our hearts, he said, This is what I intend for you now, in the midst of the darkness, to have this. And it's even hard to describe what it is. It's a great mystery, but it's the relationship with God, it's the abundant life, it's it's the peace like a river, it's the peace that goes beyond understanding. It's, you know, whatever comes my way, praise God, he's still on the throne and he's working in my life. My problem is I don't like the things that are happening in the world. I don't like to see, you know, lives destroyed. I don't so it's hard for me to fully grasp everything God wants for me, which is just an excitement that he's in control. But you know what? The things in this world break his heart too. He's not looking forward to coming with judgment upon this world. That's not his heart, but he has to do it because he's holy and it's right. And when we feel that, if we're feeling it from his heart and his perspective with a righteous indignation, that's aligning ourselves with the Lord. But if we're feeling something that goes along the lines of, man, I'm gonna lose my 401k because these people have done this thing and people haven't repented and turned to God and whatever, we were falling back into this other camp. It's all about me and my life and and and my peace, my kingdom. When when I think that I'm serving God, but I'm drifting away. Do you understand that? The Lord through Isaiah here in 66, especially, is just trying to put this picture out for us to chew on, to consider. Are we as friends or are we as enemies? Uh do we want to really walk in in the blessings, in the flourishing that he wants to give to us, or do we have our own definition of what we think an exciting, peace-filled, flourishing life will be? If we're making it up, we're missing everything God has for us. Verse 15 For behold, the Lord will come with fire and his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword the Lord will judge all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Just take a look at Revelation, you can see some of that. And in I don't know, hundreds of miles and and and what, it was ten or twelve feet deep of blood from all those that he executed. How can a loving God do that? Because a loving God has to, because he cannot let evil continue. That's why it's so important for us to come back to the Lord and say, Lord, search me and know me. Point out in me any sin that is there, so I can be right with you. I want your blessing. I I want to be, I want to be part, I want to be in this number, you know. I I want to be a part of your team. I I want to work with you. I want to see great things happen. But I won't if I'm building my own my own kingdom. Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse, they shall be consumed together, said the Lord. I can just check off this checklist, and my heart can still be uh ratchet, just eating me you know, dry men's bones from the inside out, just rotting away. But I think I'm I'm doing all these good things. I am presuming these are things God wants me to do, and so I do them, and yet I never seek God to ask him what he wants me to do. I try to make myself godly with with the enemy's schemes. It doesn't work. And and I go to the gardens, that's where where we met, where where they met with uh the other gods, you know, they they put their idols up there and and they met with them and did other things up there that they shouldn't be doing. They eat swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse. These were dietary rules that said, don't eat these things. They're an abomination to me, they're not made for food. And yet, well, I just go and eat what I want to eat, because it's good. We need to be careful to honor God's word and to understand it. And this isn't a a sermon against pork necessarily. Um you know, there Peter was said, go go and kill and eat. You know, if if you're going to a place and you're bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ, eat whatever is before you. Pray and let it bless you. But but that that isn't the the idea here. The idea here is I'm gonna make up my own rules and do my own things. I don't care what the Old Testament said, I don't care what God said. In fact, uh what God really said here, He meant this. And we justify our actions in our own minds and put ourselves at enmity with God. May the Lord give us wisdom. For I know their works and their thoughts. You know, that thought that verse from Jeremiah sounds familiar to this, but the other way around. I have my I know my thoughts for you, and they're they're they're thoughts of good, a blessing, you know, and so on and so forth. But he says, I know your works and your thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations in tongues, and they shall come and see my glory, and I will set a sign among them, and those among them who escape I will send to the nations, to Tarshish, to Pulfin, to Lud, and draw the bow, and Tubul and Javan, and to the coastlands afar off who have not heard my fame or seen my glory, that they might declare my glory among the Gentiles. He's talking to these that are building their own kingdom, and yet he shifts all of a sudden and and and looks at the remnant. There are there are a few that get it. There are a few that hear. There are a few that when God is speaking to them, they recognize, oh, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm going my own way, I'm doing my own thing. I'm I'm not seeking God. Lord, forgive me, help me, reveal yourself to me. And when Jesus came on the scene and he finished his work and he ascended into heaven, and Pentecost came, and the Holy Spirit came down, and Peter said this sermon that he was like, Peter said this sermon. You know, if you follow Peter, you're like, that's not Peter talking, but it was talking because he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He was changed, he was made new. The light went on, and he proclaimed the truth. And 3,000 people came to the to the Lord that day, and the church was born. And the church was born, and the enemy, you know, went after Israel, but the enemy also went after the church because all of a sudden the church is becoming more powerful than Israel was. The church was actually proclaiming the truth, and people were actually hearing it and being changed among the Jews and among the Gentiles. And isn't that what happened with the church? It went all over the place. There were, he names all these places, basically, the four corners of the world. The church went and the gospel was spread by people who understood what God was saying, by people who who had broken hearts and contrite spirits who came before the Lord and trembling and receiving the gift of eternal life, receiving his grace, unmerited favor, and now with boldness, not because they're anything, but because Jesus is and he's in them, they have boldness to go forth, no matter what comes their way, to declare the truth of the gospel. And they did, didn't they? And here is Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus even hits the scene, declaring what would happen in the last two thousand years. Isn't that amazing? Then they shall all bring all then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of the nations, on horses and in chariots, and in leaders, on mules and on camels to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, says the Lord. As the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord, and I will take up some of them for priests and Levites, says the Lord. So the church goes out and they proclaim the good news to the world. And part of what is accomplished is the church again blesses Jerusalem. The church has a heart for Israel. Now there have been problems in church history. Instead of being on Israel's side, we have been enemies of Israel. We've fallen into that other camp. But true believers have seen the import of blessing Israel. And the Gentiles help Israel, people from all over the world come back to Jerusalem. And many of them come to know the Lord. Many of them have not. But God has used the Gentiles to bring Israel back to Israel. And as they do, again, many of them come to faith. They become completed Jews. And God puts them in positions of authority. Throughout Isaiah, he's he's given us a glimpse of the timeline here and here and here. And the main purpose is he is restoring Israel. He is using his church. And in the end, those that haven't rejected him but have embraced him wholeheartedly will rule and reign with him. Verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. Israel will be a name that goes on forever and ever and ever. The people of God, chosen by God, and the rest of the world will rejoice forever and ever and ever, because of the goodness of God restoring Israel, the whole world is blessed. And because of Israel, we have come to faith in Jesus. And because the Gentiles have come to faith in Jesus, then Israel becomes jealous and they come to faith in Jesus. And it all works, and it's just a grand mystery. I see pieces and parts of it, but I don't understand it all. But when it happens, we will go, wow, Lord, you are glorious. How did you do all that and put all these pieces together and save as you have? Because the flip side of that is we recognize our fallenness, we recognize how deceitful, how wretched we really are. 23 says, It shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one net one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come and worship before me, says the Lord. They'll come before me, they'll celebrate my goodness because he is good. He doesn't say this because he's full of himself, he says it because he's true, and he wants to share his glory with us. He's such an amazing God, and will come wholeheartedly and serve and celebrate and worship before his throne. And then the book wraps up with this strange, strange verse, verse 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. We rejoice in the goodness of God, He's so good, but then we walk past, and I guess this is a glimpse into hell, into the lake of fire, where the fires are never quenched, and this idea of the worm is never satisfied, you know. Not to be too graphic, but when a body goes into a grave, if you don't have too many things that seal it, if you just put a body in the grave in the dirt, the worms will come and and and break down the body, right? That's how nature works. Their bodies will never be broken down. Their souls will never be broken down. They'll suffer for eternity. And we'll walk past. And we'll see it. And it'll make us sick. And we'll realize we should have been there because of our sin. And we realize how good God is to have saved us. And it's an abhorrence to all flesh. And we live in a time where sin is celebrated. We live in a time where we're told not to judge other people. So we're told in a world that if we tell somebody they're a sinner but God loves them and wants to clean them up, we're doing something wrong. But that's exactly what we're called to do. We're called to be a liar to the world so that those who we run into don't end up here. And boy, I just last year when the Lord, I believe, told me to to go through the book of Isaiah, I would have never thought how appropriate it would have been this year. May the Lord search our hearts. Being changed by the from the inside out, not dictating my way to the Lord, but saying, Lord, have your way with me. And then going out and declaring the good news of Jesus. The problem is the good news starts with the bad news. And yeah, there are ways that we've done a poor job as a church in pointing out sin and others. May the Lord give us what we need in every circumstance. You know, every person is different. And every person responds to the gospel in a different way. We need the Holy Spirit to show us what I need to say to this person. How do I go about proclaiming the truth in the midst of this situation? The Lord is faithful to give us what we need in that moment. May we have hearts willing to let him use us.

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Isaiah is an important book for us to read in the Old Testament because this is where we read many prophecies about the coming Messiah. While we now know Jesus as our one and true Messiah, the people who originally read Isaiah's prophecies did not know when the promised Savior would arrive. So while the book of Isaiah calls the nation of Israel to repentance, it also inspires its readers to have hope in the coming Messiah who will establish a new heavenly kingdom on earth. Well, if you would like to learn more about what it means to follow this Messiah we know as Jesus, we have some resources online to help get you started. Just visit us at themountaincross.com and head to our How to Know God tab. You can also find a link to our podcast feed in case you want to catch up on past teachings from Pastor Carl. If you'd like to get connected with us in person, we'd love to have you join us here at the Mountain Cross. We meet every Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. We also host a Faith Film Night on the first Monday of each month. To learn about our next film, visit us online or search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. Thanks for tuning in today. Well, that's all for today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.