“Thus says the Lord GOD:
‘Behold, my servants shall eat,
you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;
behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
but you shall cry out for pain of heart
and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,
and the Lord GOD will put you to death,
but his servants he will call by another name,
so that he who blesses himself in the land
shall bless himself by the God of truth,
and he who takes an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of truth;
because the former troubles are forgotten
and are hidden from my eyes.’” [1]
Throughout the pages of the Word God has given us, we witness the Living God identified by multiple names. He is called “the God of heaven” and “the God of earth” [e.g. GENESIS 24:3], because that is what He is. Of course, He is known as “the God of Israel” [see EXODUS 24:10], and indeed, He is Israel’s God. These names speak of the scope of God’s reign or influence. The LORD is Israel’s God, and He reigns in Heaven as He reigns over all the earth. While the scope of God’s reign is recognised, the impact on mankind is not always recognised. However, all mankind must give an account to God. We read that when Korah led a rebellion against God’s appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces pleading with God, confessing Him to be “the God of the spirits of all flesh” [see EXODUS 16:22]. That is, as you will acknowledge, an appropriate designation for the Lord God, for we must all give an account to Him for the lives we have had.
Elsewhere, the LORD is identified as “God of knowledge” [see 1 SAMUEL 2:3] and also as “God of hosts” [e.g. 1 KINGS 19:10, 14], referring to His divine reign over the angels of Heaven. I also find the LORD identified by one name that is especially meaningful to the people of God, and that is “God of our salvation” [see 1 CHRONICLES 16:35]. He is known by the yet more personal term, “God of my salvation” [see MICAH 7:7]. Then, we find that our God is a “God of Justice” [see ISAIAH 30:18]. that brings us to the text chosen for this message, where we witness the Living God spoken of as the “God of truth.”
“God of truth,” in the Hebrew text, the phrase appearing twice near the end of our text, is literally, “God of [the] Amen,” ['elohê 'amen]. I find this an arresting piece of knowledge. You are undoubtedly familiar with the word, “Amen” and its use. “Amen” is that word we utter without giving much thought to what we are saying. Unconsciously, whenever a member of the church concludes offering up a prayer, we anticipate the closing word, “Amen.” You will hear multiple voices saying, “Amen.” What you are hearing is an affirmation of agreement with what has been asked in the prayer. We could well be saying, “Truth!” For that is the thrust of our agreement at that point. When one speaking during a church service makes a good point concerning what is written or concerning how a Scripture may be applied, you will hear others voicing agreement by saying “Amen.” Speaking thusly, people are voicing agreement. It is as though they were saying “Truth! I agree!”
When the Lord God is identified as “God of ‘Amen,’” it is as though Isaiah is stating that God represents truth. When God speaks, His words are true. When God acts, His acts are true. God represents truth; His character is truth. The Apostle of Love recognises this, writing, “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” [1 JOHN 5:20]. If we want to know truth, look to Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ is chaos and confusion. All one need do to verify this is consider the world about us, viewing especially the confusion revealed in the attitudes and actions of this dying world.
STANDING ATHWART CONTEMPORARY IDEOLOGY — The world in which we live is marked by lies and opposition to righteousness. Speaking to followers of the Risen Lord of Glory, the Apostle to the Jews cautions us, “Preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” [1 PETER 1:13-16].
Just as God expects those who call on His Name to be holy, He expects those of this world to be holy. The world is not a holy place, however, resulting from the fall of our first parents. Because this is the situation prevailing in the world, the Apostle Peter instructs us who follow the Christ, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” [1 PETER 4:1-5].
What Peter has written mirrors the words of the Apostle to the Gentiles when he writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” [ROMANS 12:1-2].
What sort of actions and attitudes defy God’s righteousness in this present day? The current prevalent idea that we can change our biology is an affront to God Who gives us our being. Though the inhabitants of this darkened world refuse to believe what is said of God and our relationship to Him, the truth still prevails.
“You formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
[PSALM 139:13-16]
I understand, we are more sophisticated than was that poor untaught Psalmist, but really, do we know more than David knew?
I spent time in the sciences. I conducted post-doctoral studies in the department of obstetrics and gynecology. I invested time studying foetal development. I have at least a rudimentary grasp of embryology, and we have a vast number of unanswered questions. Perhaps we should hold our opinions concerning our birth and why fifty-four percent of births produce females and forty-six percent produce males. To imagine that one can change the sex they were at birth is the height of hubris, it exhibits unimaginable chutzpah, as one accuses God of making a grave mistake of unbelievable proportions.
Shouldn’t we reveal humility in the face of God’s choice made before we were born? Isn’t this what we witness when the Apostle writes, “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use” [ROMANS 9:20-21]?
Indeed, the one who foolishly attempts to change his or her sex in defiance of God’s working needs to hear the biblical view of what they are doing. God, through Isaiah has spoken, saying,
“You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
‘He did not make me;’
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
‘He has no understanding?’”
[ISAIAH 29:16]
Elsewhere, the LORD challenges all such individuals, asking through His prophet,
“‘Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, “What are you making?”
or “Your work has no handles?”
Woe to him who says to a father, “What are you begetting?”
or to a woman, “With what are you in labor?”’”
[ISAIAH 45:9-10]
God stands athwart the contemporary effort to deny biology. Such foolish efforts are nothing short of an attempt to spit in God’s face, exalting mankind even as people dismiss God as an intruder into their self-made reverie.
We hear those in the world, and many professing Christians, mindlessly saying, “Love is love.” The mantra is meant to generate sympathy for homosexuals and sympathy for the homosexual lifestyle. The ongoing effort is designed to normalise same-sex marriage. Though same-sex marriage is indeed the law of the land and almost universally accepted in contemporary western society, the Living God still stands opposed to the effort to normalise what is clearly an affront to normalcy.
The Bible is quite specific in stating,
“God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
[GENESIS 1:27]
The ideal of male and female forming the created pair is iterated shortly when we read, “Male and female [God] created them, and He blessed them and named them Man when they were created” [GENESIS 5:2].
That man and woman are the divine plan for marriage is emphasised when the Master responds to a query from the Pharisees who were asking about divorce. Jesus emphatically stated, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” [MARK 10:5-9]. The old saw remains accurate: God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Never ignore that the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, were destroyed because of the perverse sexual proclivity that identified those cities. Late in history, God warns, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” [JUDE 7].
The general exaltation of sexuality as the summum bonum of existence is a form of defiance of God and His righteousness. God gave sex as a gift to mankind, a gift that is to be enjoyed by husband and wife in the intimacy of marriage. Have we not read, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” [HEBREWS 13:4].
In that same vein, we must not dismiss the divine commentary provided when man and woman were first given their being: “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” [GENESIS 2:24-25].
The divine warning has not been rescinded: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” [1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10].
Our time is limited, so it is impossible to list every behaviour in contemporary western societies that defy the righteousness of God. It must be noted however that the world attempts to feminise males, asserting that women are somehow marginalised, demeaned, denied a place in life if they cannot be just like men. Such efforts lead to such abominable practises as medicating little boys so they will not be rambunctious and daring, creating effeminate men, and castigating what is presented as toxic masculinity, appointment of women preachers and female elders among the churches, and so forth. Such efforts are an affront to Holy God. If we will please the Christ Who is Lord, we will “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” [1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14].
I will add that the degeneration of speech in contemporary western society must surely qualify as a stench in the nostrils of the God Who gives us our being. He demands of His people, in repeated admonitions, “Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them” [EPHESIANS 5:3-7].
These words follow on another admonition given shortly before, when the Apostle wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” [EPHESIANS 4:29-32].
Elsewhere, we see the warning, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” [COLOSSIANS 3:5-10].
Our Lord has taught, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” [MATTHEW 15:18-19].
THE SETTING FOR THE TEXT — It may help us to understand why the LORD chose this point in history to issue the stern words of our text. God was known as Israel’s God; why, then, was it necessary that He so ruthlessly distinguish between the wicked and the righteous? It seems evident to me that He was seeking to purify His professed people. God was drawing a distinction between those who pretended to be godly and those who were legitimately righteous. Listen as He initiates His case.
“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’
to a nation that was not called by my name.
I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;
a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and making offerings on bricks;
who sit in tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat pig’s flesh,
and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
who say, ‘Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.’
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.
Behold, it is written before me:
‘I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their lap
both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,
says the LORD;
because they made offerings on the mountains
and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds.’”
[ISAIAH 65:1-6]
God was speaking to Israel, and He made a surprising announcement. The LORD said He had been speaking to the Gentiles and they were listening! These Gentiles hadn’t sought the LORD, nor had they experienced the blessings that Israel had known. Israel had proven rebellious throughout their history from the time God chose them. The history of Israel is a history of ups and downs, with the general progress always trending downward. So God pointedly exposes some of the attitudes that defied Him and made a mockery of His expectations.
We may struggle to understand how this applies to us, but the primary application becomes evident as we read the pages of the New Testament. For instance, you may recall that Paul clarified that God was speaking of the Gentiles when He said through Isaiah, “But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
‘I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’”
[ROMANS 10:19-20]
The history of Israel had reached a point where the LORD was saying, in effect, that if Israel did not want the blessings that God was offering, He would give those blessings to the Gentiles! It must have seemed shocking, but it is precisely what our Master says when He delivers a parable on one occasion.
Jesus attended a dinner party hosted by a prominent Pharisee. Reclining at the table, the Master watched as many of the invited guests jockeyed for the most prominent seats. Then, He proceeded to tell all present a parable. Though the parable was meant to expose what these guests were doing, it went much further in speaking of how a favoured nation was even then being displaced.
This is the parable Jesus told. “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet’” [LUKE 14:16-24].
The verses that follow the opening verse of this sixty-fifth chapter continue with specific descriptions of some of the more egregious ways Israel had resisted God’s grace and how they had gone out of the way to provoke Him. These verses are a recitation of the wickedness that characterised Israel as they moved with deliberation toward their final disastrous confrontation with the LORD before He sent them into the humiliation of Babylonian captivity. God had reached the limit of His patience, and there would be no further restraint before Israel would be delivered into the hands of a brutal foe.
Before that awful judgement descended on Israel, God did promise that He would not totally destroy His people, He would preserve a remnant. The Lord says it this way,
“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.”
[ISAIAH 65:8]
Israel would be judged, but they would not be totally and utterly destroyed. A remnant would survive. And of course that is precisely what happened. Israel did survive, and a remnant did return. With this, God looked far into the future and promised,
“For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.”
[ISAIAH 65:17-18]
This is not the New Heaven and the New Earth such as seen when John writes in REVELATION 21:1-4 since Isaiah speaks of people growing old [see ISAIAH 65:20] and intimates that though Judah lives in safety, in places removed from Judah the possibility of invaders still exists [see ISAIAH 65:21-23]. Jerusalem, moreover, in that renewed environment, will be a source of joy for the whole earth. The city will be marked as a place of holiness, harmony, and happiness. In this new environment, people will pray and the Lord will answer [see ISAIAH 65:24]. The rules that now govern nature will be redrafted as revealed in the final verse of the chapter.
“‘The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,’
says the LORD.”
[ISAIAH 65:25]
It is apparent that God is giving a description of the Millennial reign of the Christ; in the final verses of this chapter He is not speaking of the New Heaven and the New Earth that is coming after the final great conflagration we identify as Armageddon, after which Satan himself will at last be thrown into the pit and forever banished from opposing God. With the promise that is written God is giving Israel hope; though He will chastise His people, He is not abandoning them. Thus, it is obvious that the primary purpose of this prophecy points to God’s dealing with Israel because they had been continually rebellious and the LORD can no longer ignore their rebellion.
There is a secondary understanding to this prophecy that has a more immediate application to the faithful in this day. Without denying the primary application of the prophecy, we are witnessing God’s character in dealing with the faithful in this day. God is long suffering, patient with His beloved people. Paul reveals this when he writes of God, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles” [ROMANS 9:22-24]?
Elsewhere, Peter speaks of God’s patience when he writes of the consummation of the universe at the end of this age. The Apostle to the Jews writes, “Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare” [2 PETER 3:8-10 NET BIBLE 2nd].
Indeed, people should take to heart the character of our Lord and not presume against His mercy. This is just as Peter says when he writes, “Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him” [2 PETER 3:15].
If there is a limit to God’s patience, then no church, no community of the faithful, no single Christian, should ever slip into the state of presuming against God’s mercy. That congregation that tolerates sin, that congregation that has slipped into a casual attitude toward the One Whom they call Lord, must know that God will not forever ignore their proclivity toward sin and the continued affront to His righteousness. Ultimately, because He is holy, He will hold that church to account. And the punishment meted out will be painful. He will not destroy those who truly hold to the Faith, but He will winnow out the wicked who are mere pretenders.
The Baptist saw this from afar, warning those who listened to him in that day in which he served, “[Messiah’s] winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” [LUKE 3:17].
And what he foretold of the separation in that final judgment takes place on a smaller scale as God judges churches in this day. Recall how God, speaking through Malachi cautions. “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him’” [MALACHI 3:16-18].
The Lord is moving us toward that day when He reveals the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. And He makes that distinction even in this day, though we are often blinded by the scales from this dying world and thus unable to see His work.
BLESSINGS PRONOUNCED — The Lord God does speak of what He does for the godly even now when Isaiah writes,
“Behold, my servants shall eat,
you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;
behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
but you shall cry out for pain of heart
and shall wail for breaking of spirit.”
[ISAIAH 65:13-14]
God will feed the righteous. I’m going to wax somewhat spiritual at this point. While I don’t deny that God seeks to bless His people by providing what is required for daily nourishment, I cannot help but think that here He is speaking of feeding them with the Bread of Life. Jesus has presented Himself as the “Bread of Life.” Recall how He promised, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” [JOHN 6:35-40].
Jesus also taught, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” [JOHN 6:44-51].
God promises to quench the thirst of all who drink from the Well of Living Water. Has not the Saviour promised, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” [JOHN 7:37-38]. We are told that “[Jesus] said [this] about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” [JOHN 7:39].
This side of the Cross and the Resurrection of the Lord, the new reality prevails for all who are redeemed. Indeed, our situation is described when Paul writes, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” [1 CORINTHIANS 12:13].
In Christ, we Christians, we who follow the Risen Lord of Glory have joy—an abundance of joy. Therefore, we are taught, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” [PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7].
There is truly a melody in our hearts because the Spirit of Christ dwells therein. This is what the Apostle had in mind when he penned those joyous words recorded in the Ephesian Encyclical. You undoubtedly remember the admonition. “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” [EPHESIANS 5:18-21].
I know that the promises listed in the text were first delivered to the righteous living in Judah at the time Isaiah wrote, but I am confident that those same promises as referenced short moments ago are intended for Christ’s holy people who serve Him now. Christ the Bread of Life, the refreshing water that is the Spirit of the Lord, overflowing joy in the blessed Spirit of Christ, a heart filled with joyful songs and hymns of praise—all this and so much more are the blessings of God promised as the heritage of those who walk with the Risen Saviour. I can’t begin to count all the promises God has given for those who trust in Him and lean on His Word, but I can seize those promises, claiming them for myself as I walk with Him and as I serve Him. Amen.
CURSES PRONOUNCED — For every blessing named for those who are known by the LORD, a curse is pronounced on the pretenders. And just as I have spiritualized the promises God has given, so I will spiritualize the curses that are pronounced. These curses rest upon the lost, whether they are religious or not. And unfortunately, just as the curses were pronounced at a time when the LORD was speaking to people who claimed to be serving Him, though they were focused on fulfilling their own desires, the curses rest on those claiming to be church members without benefit of a transformed heart, the curses apply to lost people especially among the churches.
Behold, my servants shall eat,
you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
but you shall be put to shame;
behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
but you shall cry out for pain of heart
and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,
and the Lord GOD will put you to death,
but his servants he will call by another name”
[ISAIAH 65:13-15]
If the blessed are filled with the Bread of Life, the cursed are hungry. They go to a church service, but they gain nothing from the worship. They cannot be satisfied because they are feeding on husks at best.
If the blessed have their thirst assuaged by the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the cursed are always athirst because they have no way to quench the burning in their throat. They recite the prayers but never pray. They hear the Word that is preached, but they have no understanding. They know the words to the hymns, but they cannot learn the melody. Like Tantalus who stood in water up to his neck, though he could never drink of it for it receded from him each time he stooped to drink, the cursed are always thirsty and unable to quench their thirst.
If the blessed rejoice always, the cursed are shamed before the Lord. They want to praise Him, but they haven’t the ability to glorify His Name. They cry out for relief from the press of guilt, but they find no relief because they always seek the relief on their terms, refusing to submit to Christ as Master over life. Superficially, they appear to be complete, but inwardly they are barren and their life is arid and bereft of joy. This is the curse of being religious without a transformed heart. In many respects, it would be better to be openly hostile to God, because at least then such tormented souls would be able to indulge in the pleasures of sin for a season.
I’ve spoken of the blessings promised by the Living God—blessings promised to those who serve Him, seeking His glory. I’m blessed to pastor a congregation that seeks Christ’s glory for the most part. We have had at times among us individuals who were seeking something other than Christ’s glory. No one, to my knowledge, ever said to such dear souls, “You should leave and go elsewhere.” Yet, they did seek other venues for their efforts to worship. I cannot help but wonder if they were perhaps weighted down with the curses the Holy One pronounced. I grieve to think that such could be the case.
What I know for certain is that the Son of God calls all to receive Him and the life He freely offers to all who receive Him. Listen to the repeated invitation of the Son of God. Jesus the Lord pleads, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” [MATTHEW 11:28-30].
God sent His Son to present His life as a sacrifice for the sin of all mankind. Jesus was crucified and buried. However, the good news is that Jesus didn’t stay dead; He conquered death, rising from the dead. He has now ascended into the Glory where He is seated at the right hand of the Father. God invites all who are willing, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” [ROMANS 10:9-10].
If this appears too complex to comprehend, know that the Living God simplifies this call, promising, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13]. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
