"Battle Royal - When World's Collide"
Session Three: The Call of Salvation
Isaiah 48 (Open Bibles for reading throughout the message)
Friday night
- Addictions to impotent gods
- Explored the battle strategy of needing an attraction toward the Omnipotent God!
- Realize the depth of his love for us it could be all the motivation we need to get into relationship. There is no greater motivator than love.
- Question: Warriors or Prisoners of War?
- Enemies are not flesh and blood. Bigger than that; more cunning than we something we can see or fully comprehend.
Yesterday
- The collapse of securities … not so much financial themes as we naturally assume but our position in Christ and the Kingdom is compromised.
- Impotent gods degrade, desensitize, destroy, distance us from God.
Today’s focus – the alternative!
Strong-willed Children
A website called Forefront Families hosts an article called “Surviving the Storm - The Strong Willed Child”. It quotes Dr. James Dobson:
“How do you know you have a strong-willed child? They are determined - they challenge everything. They want to know ‘why they should’, and ‘why they shouldn't’, and ‘said who?’ When they are not in control of a situation, they will do what it takes to get it – e.g. throw a tantrum. These are special children who need a specific approach so they traverse childhood unscathed. Parents need to ensure ‘the will is broken, but not the spirit’.”
Father is forever running and sprinting to block our path and save us from a destructive step or deadly plunge off the edge of obstinate obsession with things we should not taste, touch or smell. He determines to break our will but not our spirit. The chapter begins this way (48:1-2…)
It sounds good at first – God’s people invoke (beseech, entreat, petition) God but we find rather quickly that it’s all for personal gratification (“invoke the God of Israel but not in truth or righteousness”-v 1). We cling to the status of “citizens of the holy city” (v2) but don’t live like it.
We’re told that Isaiah 48 has the potential to be a sermon that Isaiah gave to the Israelite exiles in Babylon as they worshipped in a synagogue on a day of penitence. The language about idolatry and rebellion supports this idea. God’s children were being stubborn. Though all were not guilty, the whole community was judged as one community. You know how it is – everyone gets to stay after school in detention because Bruce the bully made the teacher mad; and no one is going to challenge Bruce because we’re all afraid of him! And that’s the reality here. While some people are sincerely worshipping God others are going through the motions of worship because they misbehave and the fruit of lives outside the sanctuary is nothing like the guise of godliness in the sanctuary. As a result everyone assumes responsibility for the whole community.
Picking up with our text the people invoke God’s name or call on his name – but they have a personal agenda, an outcome they’re looking for; they lay claim that they are God’s people but are not behaving any differently from those who do not invoke God’s name. There should be an evidence of Salvation but somehow the message does not match the manner.
Let’s stir this idea of salvation a little. Salvation is not an isolated moment in time when someone responds to the invitation to follow Jesus and after the decision the salvation moment is over. It most certainly includes making that decision but it doesn't even start there. For some of you Salvation began when you started to feel an attraction to the church and you decided to go to Men’s Fellowship and then you thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to come to Men’s Camp! Your Salvation is a process that is leading you to a point of decision, to follow Christ. But after that moment, our Salvation is a continuing evolution of physical, mental, social and spiritual transformation. My physical appetites are affected by my relationship with Christ, what I think and desire becomes adjusted, the company I keep and the places I invest my time are evaluated and sometimes changed, and there is an ever-deepening awareness of God in all things and His ever-present (Omnipresence) reality whether I'm “at church” like this or sitting at the lunch table in the workplace.
So this is where we run into problems. What should be an ever-evolving Salvation experience of change and reformation is often not the reality lived out. Theologian and scholar, Dallas Willard, in speaking of salvation, wrote in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God, that “those who profess Christian commitment consistently show little or no behavioural and psychological difference from those who do not.”
Salvation for too many of us is nothing more than a decision made at a point in time in our linear reality – I.e. “I got saved when I was 7” instead of saying, “I am being saved every day” which is what St. Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
We tend to be strong-willed children whose will needs to be broken so that the testimony matches the evidence.
Continuing in Isaiah 48:3-8…
God speaks in verse 3 of telling things long before they happened and then in verse 7 God mentions things happening in the moment that they did not know. This is for special reason. The temptation was to say “My images (idol) brought this about” (verse 5). There are two dangers presented – 1) they would take credit for what comes about; 2) they would give credit to Yahweh in the context in which they created Him. Professors James Muilenburg (Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Union Theological Seminary, NY) and Henry Sloane Coffin (President Emerius of Union Theological Seminary, NY) offer a jolting rebuke. “We produce an idea of God in our minds which we are pleasantly happy with so that we fail to deal with the disturbing God revealed in Jesus who really, when understood, makes us very uncomfortable and “[stirs] us to loftier life”. I get it. We have created a soft Jesus; a touchy-feely Jesus; a Jesus who just wants to cuddle up on the couch and eat popcorn and watch a movie, have a good laugh, go down and walk along the lake. “Jesus loves you” – yes, that’s true. “God is love” – yes, that’s true too. We've made him a bedtime story for our children.
We've made God safe. God is not safe. Author and pastor, Mark Buchanan, covers the subject well in his book, “Your God is too safe”. He speaks of the theme of Uzzah the High Priest in 2 Samuel 6 when David was transporting the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence, to Jerusalem. The cart began to topple at which Uzzah responded as any of us would and reached out to stop it from falling. Instantly God struck him dead. This act of God makes our minds reel with questions. We can’t explore the answers to that today, but I mention for the purposes of illustrating that God is not safe, that he is not a God who is understood as far as our minds can describe and explain him. Buchanan highlights several lessons in this account. Of the lessons he points out, he mentions this one, which is critical for our consideration this morning.
“Uzzah teaches us, at great personal cost, a valuable lesson about God. God is not safe. God is not a household deity, kept in our safekeeping. And – be warned – God’s safety is not our business. Our role on this earth, be it prophet, king, priest, or bank teller, is not to keep the Almighty from mishap or embarrassment. He takes care of Himself. It is, the writer of Hebrews says, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He’s dangerous, not safe at all. And yet there is something far more fearful and dangerous than to fall into His hands: to not fall into His hands. But perhaps the most fearful and dangerous thing of all is the sin of Uzzah: to think that our job is, should God stumble, to ensure He falls into our hands.”
God is love but he is also the Judge of nations and the Deliverer of Justice. Last time I checked, Armageddon is not an upcoming movie fest or backyard barbecue party! We want the soft side. We are made to squirm because the world rejects the Jesus who is counter-cultural. We try very hard to portray a Jesus who loves and anything goes. He definitely loves but not anything goes. There is a limit, there is a line and whether we like it or not, He is who He is. We can’t soften God down and make an idol of Him.
To top it all off, verses 6 and 8 expose a heart-breaking situation. The people of God are complacent about what he has done. They should know his work but do not pay attention and they are not roused to tell the story and witness to it. When a glorious opportunity to witness of God is put in their laps, they keep silent. To quote Muilenburg and Coffin again, they touch a nerve by saying, “The inattentiveness of his people is a trial to God. He speaks to us constantly – in the needs of [humanity], in alarming occurrences, in doors opening before his church. But he finds us apathetic. We are not servants on watch, but [shirkers]. We are both inattentive and tongue-tied. The routine of our days absorbs us and prevents our listening to God or witnessing his doings.”
Do you see how stubborn his children can be? So what is God’s response to all of this? He responds as most of us would respond to our children because how we respond is an inbred quality that comes from him. Of course we have imperfections because sin gets in the way but still the engrained nature is there. God responds of course on a grander scale than we could ever suppose possible. True to His nature,
Salvation Comes Calling
Isaiah 48:9-11…
His love is so great for us that he will not punish our sins as we deserve because he would destroy us. In the same breath, his love for us is so great that He cannot ignore our behaviour. I read an autobiography of David Cairns which speaks to the dilemma God is in because of us and the hopelessness we would be in if not for his love for us. Here’s the thought: “The longer I live, the more value I put on God’s sheer Grace, which I take simply to be what by our human standards we would call his extravagant goodness, the forthcoming-ness, initiative and persistence of His Love. It is our sole Hope.” God’s response is simply love. There were so many times my children did not behave as I had hoped; or done as I had instructed; or they challenged what I knew to be best. So off they went, made some of their choices and the very thing I predicted was the very thing that happened – the “less than ideal” outcome of their choices. What could I do? I could go into a rage and lecture how “I told you this would happen” and “you made your bed, now lay it” speeches. I could have but I didn't. I chose another alternative. I chose to explore what they learned through it and then did what I could to help them find encouragement and victory in the situation they were in. Love does that. Psalm 103:10-11 (of David) says it well:
"he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him"
God chooses to love us and look beyond our failing to redemptive opportunities.
God said, “I will not yield my glory to another” (v11). It is a message that God’s position is decided. He will not take any position next to any idol we want to erect. It’s all him or none. As much as he loves us he will not compromise who he is and his glory, to suit what we want. Someone once said “He will be Lord of all or not at all”. Now it’s our turn to decide. It’s him or it’s not him. Choose. Joshua, that great warrior who took the reins of leadership from Moses in leading God’s people, challenged them and he challenges us in 24:15, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” The gods could be attachments that we talked about through the weekend or it could come down to the idol of Yahweh God that we reformed that is more to our liking. But it’s time to make a choice.
Salvation is of the Lord! Here His victory message, spoken to the troops before battle. Imagine a warrior leader galloping along the troop-line as he offers his motivational call to arms just before the charge! – 48:12-16…
Sure things could have been different. Too often we tend to look at what could have been and the ground lost because what we failed to be. Images and thoughts of battles lost and defeat known, can keep us from courage and winning battles on the horizon. God does not pretend it did not happen. The way forward is to face the past, as God does by outlining what could have been in 48:17-19…
Contrary to popular opinion that suggests “there’s no point dwelling on the past” we are taken there to contemplate what could have been or what is as a result of choices made. The reason for this is to learn how to go forward. History is a great teacher. Teaching from the past, God offers hope by giving a glimpse of what can be – 48:20-21…
He did it once; He’ll do it again – and again – and again! God invites the people – he invites us – to celebrate with joy our deliverance from captivity. The bottom line of Isaiah 48 is simple – Yahweh is the only God our Saviour. The alternative is stated in verse 22…
CONCLUSION
We are at war. Where are you in the battle?
We must rid ourselves of impotent gods and follow the Omnipotent God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Our god addictions can completely separate us from God if we pursue them and allow them a place in our lives
God calls us to higher ground! He calls us by his mercy and grace!
Our fight is not of earth; it is not against flesh and blood but is in spiritual places against spiritual foes but we have spiritual power to confound the Enemy! (CLIP: SPIRITUAL WARFARE - www.sermonspice.com purchase)
The challenge we conclude with today is a question: "What is your Babylon"? We must leave Babylon or there will be no peace (v22).
