God's Standard

God’ Standard Aug 02

We have got to root out and tear down everything that is in opposition to the Lord

Isa 59:19: So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.

God’s standard is a standard of pure holiness and power.

1. In order for us to walk in this standard we will have to have a fear of the Lord

2. When there is no fear of the Lord the devil has a field day

3. He will come in like a flood

We must not accept anything short of God’s holiness and righteousness

It will be hard for us to get God to do something when our lives are not right before Him

In the first part of this chapter the word says

Isa. 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear

v God has not lost His power

a. We have all the power we have in the New Testament to live a victorious life

b. Jesus said in Luke 10:19 behold I give you power over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

c. He said his “Hand is not shortened and His ear is not heavy… He has all the power that we need

Sometimes it is sin that separates us from the living God

a. It sometimes on our plate

b. Sometime s it is us that has to change

c. The Cross-of the Lord Jesus Christ is our standard

Quote from Alexander Maclaren in The Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah: “It is not because God is great and I am small, it is not because He lives for ever, and my life is but a hand-breadth, it is not because of the difference between His omniscience and my ignorance, His strength and my weakness, that I am parted from Him: ‘Your sins have separated between you and your God.’

Hands (1–3). God’s hand is unable to work when our hands are defiled with unconfessed sin.

Our prayers accomplish nothing Ps. 66:18: 18If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

His power is absent from our lives and ministries.

There will be an insincerity of our prayers with unconfessed sin in our hearts

In order to receive the ministry of deliverance

a. A person has to want to receive it

b. There must be a genuine and sincere repentance

c. An acknowledgement of our weakness in ourselves

d. And a dependency on the Spirit of the Living God

Isa. 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men

a. If we do not have a personal relationship with the Lord we will “grope about in darkness”

b. There will be spiritual blindness and deafness and dullness of hearing

Israel’s ear was deafened they could not hear the Lord

Word shows that the Lord’s ear was not deaf

c. The light of the Word of God will scatter the darkness

1. IT WILL EITHER DRAW OR DRIVE YOU

Isa 6:9-10: 9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

1. In these vs Isa was preaching to an arrogant and religious people

2. The more he proclaimed the Word of the Lord

3. The less response that He would get

4. IT TAKES A HUMBLE HEART TO RECEIVE THE WORD OF THE LORD AND RESPOND

c. What a difference it makes when we repent and return to the Lord

v We have light instead of darkness,

v Healing instead of disease,

v Righteousness instead of defilement,

v Glory instead of disgrace; and

I am reminded of the story of Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34 REFORMATION UNDER JOSIAH

a. 2 Chron. 34:1–2: Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. (2) And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left

1. Josiah did what was right in the site of the Lord

2. Not in the sight of people; But the LORD