Isaiah Lesson 8
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Isaiah: Prophet of the Suffering Servant
Lesson 8: Isaiah 3:16-4:6
Pastors Jeff Kliewer and John Lasken
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- And good afternoon, welcome again. We're here at Cornerstone sitting in the sanctuary and I'm saying hi to those who are watching us on video.
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- This has been a great, a great period of time as we get together. I guess this is lesson eight in Isaiah.
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- There are so many truths in scripture. I'm just going to share briefly before he gets started.
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- Pastor Jeff and I get a chance to sit down before the study, just as a word of testimony.
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- I had a particularly tough day on Sunday and got home a little bit questioning, you know, what am
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- I, you know, am I being obedient to the word, you know, that kind of stuff. You know how
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- Satan loves to do that to you. And I'm working my way through Psalms and my devotions.
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- And so this week was Psalm 43. And it's a great
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- Psalm. It starts out, Rich, you know exactly how Psalm 43 starts. 42. 42, I mean. Yes.
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- As the deer panteth for the waters, so my soul longeth after thee. Well, Psalm 42 is going to have periods of dismay within it.
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- But at the end of it, in the middle of it, it's going to say, hey, wake up. This is the John paraphrase.
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- Hey, wake up, oh soul. Your hope is in the Lord. And it's just amazing because in this period of starting the week out, feeling a little bit concerned, a little bit just dejected and everything else.
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- I get this big wake up call and Pastor Jeff and I were talking about how it's such a coincidence how scriptures speaks to you right where you need it.
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- Right. Well, we're here in Isaiah and I'm sure as we're going to be looking at where is the real beauty come from?
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- Does it come from what's outside? Or does the real beauty come from what's within your heart, standing in front of the throne of God?
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- What a great message. So let's open with prayer. Father, as we gather together, as we look to your word, we want to come with hearts that anticipate learning and growing closer to you.
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- Open the eyes of our hearts. We pray that your spirit would anoint Pastor Jeff as he leads us and anoints each one of us to be hearing and responding to your word.
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- We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So last week we saw that Isaiah took aim at the leaders of Israel.
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- In fact, part of the judgment that he was sending was a dearth of leadership that they would look to children or women or those who are unqualified to be the leaders of the nation because there were no godly leaders in place.
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- Today, as we progress on, the aim is not at the leaders, but particularly at women.
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- Now, one would think that God would use maybe kid gloves or be softer towards women.
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- But do you expect that to be the case? No, not at all. Not at all.
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- As we read the scripture, God is not a respecter of persons and he judges men and women alike.
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- Hell will be populated by as many women as men. And so let's go into that scripture.
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- So my first, first of all, again, raise your hand if you would not want to read out loud. So I will not call on you.
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- OK, I got a few people. Gotcha. So how about we work left to right today? Because last time I only made it about this far.
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- So this time we'll move from left to right. Bob, can I get you to read 316 as we continue on in God's word?
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- Isaiah chapter three, verse 16. Every once in a while when
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- I'm titling messages, I feel like, yes, that was a good title. For example,
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- I once titled a message, The Insanity of Humanity. And I talked about the noetic effects of sin.
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- And I thought, that's a good title. Well, this is a good title. And I didn't need to do much to arrive at this title.
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- Where do you see it in verse 16? Right away, the
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- Lord said, because the daughters of Zion are haughty.
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- So the title of today's message is The Haughty Daughters of Zion. Just has a good ring to it.
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- And so it sticks in your mind. You can remember, what is Isaiah three about at the latter part? It's about the haughty daughters of Zion.
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- So these are God's chosen people. And yet the problem being addressed, the big issue today, is haughtiness or pride, arrogance.
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- Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks.
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- What's the picture there? Guys, you're not supposed to demonstrate. This will be another kind of problem here if the men are acting this way as well.
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- There's things about being effeminate in the scriptures that we don't want to go down that road. First Corinthians six.
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- But walking with outstretched neck, kind of like an ostrich, right? Pride, superiority, nose in the air, right?
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- Yes. What'd you say? Vanity. That's a perfect word because it catches the delighting and the arrogance in perceived beauty.
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- So it says, walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with the eyes.
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- What kind of look is that? A seductive look. And here's the issue.
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- Seducing men through outward appearance. Glances that are meant to entice or communicate something with the eyes towards men.
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- So the question is, is it necessarily wrong for women to dress beautifully?
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- No. In fact, what we'd have to first of all do is define beauty.
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- That's the issue. What's happening here is not a reflection of God's character and nature.
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- God is beautiful. He's to behold his glory.
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- There's a radiance that comes from him, but it's the radiance of his holiness, his purity that ought to be reflected.
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- Okay. And here, this is exactly the opposite of what's happening. It says, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet.
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- Now, please guys, don't mimic that. Tinkling with their feet. What? I can't quite picture that, but it seems like kind of prancing along like a deer sort of just, well, deer's actually move not so gracefully.
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- But what is the idea here? Well, part of it is going to be cultural. Okay. Because the adornment that a woman would use to entice back in the times of this is slightly different than today.
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- Right. Could these women be prostitutes and demons led to men? It could be.
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- There could be some reference to that, but I don't think that it should be exclusively, I don't think there's a clue to say that this is only referring to the prostitutes.
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- I think maybe more of a show on.
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- So the tinkling would be to try to stand out, drawing attention to themselves.
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- And in a haughty way, this is not a picture of true beauty. Turn with me to 1st
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- Peter 3, we'll just read 3 and 4, but that whole section there, of course, correlates as a
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- New Testament equivalent to this. And Neva, when you get there, 1st
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- Peter 3, 3 and 4. Notice whose sight is the issue here.
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- God's sight. And what's beautiful to God is different than what a culture may say is beautiful.
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- In God's sight, what is very precious? A gentle and quiet spirit.
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- Amen. So do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry.
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- Some translations will say merely external to differentiate or the clothing you wear.
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- But the issue here is what's precious in God's sight, not what attracts men.
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- That is not the desire here. In fact, the desire to attract men is part of the problem.
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- Back to Isaiah 3, 16. That's the glancing wantonly with their eyes.
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- Do you think that this is an outright denouncement of women trying to look beautiful?
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- No, it's not, is it? What would be an appropriate use of, let's say, wearing an earring or doing your hair as opposed to just going straight out with morning hair?
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- Would there be, what would be an appropriate reason to groom and things of that nature?
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- And where would the line be? Sunday's best?
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- Modest and pretty. Okay. Yeah. And is it okay to try to look pretty? Okay. You want to please the
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- Lord. Okay. Very good. Very much so. Yeah. It's a reflection of God's character.
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- Okay. And there's beauty in the Lord, right? Right. And incidentally, is that also not the case for men?
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- Yeah. What if a guy came in trying to look like the hip hop culture with his pants halfway down his bottom?
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- And is that an appropriate way to worship the Lord or to just dress in general?
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- I think, I think you would, you would say something. Would you? Yeah. Right. Excess makeup.
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- Right. You know, if you, if you love the Lord and you've read his word, you're going to dress appropriately.
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- Right. And you've nailed it. It's, it's your conscious thought is how can I be appealing in God's sight?
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- Not trying to, to outwardly make yourself look a certain way for, for other purposes.
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- And when you read that the Lord says, let your light so shine before men, that then you see your good works will glorify him.
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- Yes. That's what you want to do. Amen. Yes. When you come back next week, you know, it's a little chilly outside.
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- You might want to take a walk. Or we've been in medicine.
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- Everybody knows what that means. OK. Ah.
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- So the comment is made, in case on the video it didn't pick up. Just we have to walk kind of a balance of not being judgmental.
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- And you don't just come in with the hammer. But in a loving way, maybe a Titus 2 kind of way, older women correcting younger women and training in righteousness.
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- Very good. That's what they used to do when I was young. Yeah. And it even happened to me a number of times.
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- OK. OK. But then again, once I got in the Word, then
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- I knew what they meant. Very good. You've got to lay some building blocks before you just come in to destroy.
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- I think also as a parent, you have to help them understand what's appropriate.
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- Yes. Or what would be not. Stephanie, and she has three boys, but she does have a little girl.
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- And to her, showing her even in the way she dresses reflects your daughter in understanding that this is what's appropriate.
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- This is how we come and glorify our Father. Now, I wouldn't say if you don't have a nice dress or you don't have a nice pair of pants to wear, you should not come to church.
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- It's just if you're clean and you're coming to worship the Lord, that's really too big.
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- Yeah. But I think we've got in a society where parents don't want to say to their daughters, especially their daughters, you might not want to go back to church.
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- Right. Because you get a lot of plaque for that. Right. So wonderful point that a lot of this is parenting.
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- And so many things that people do in their lives are the habits that are built up from childhood.
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- So parents have a very big responsibility in this. All right, so verse 17 says, my next reader,
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- Gus, Isaiah 3 .17. Isaiah 3 .17.
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- Yes. Three separate parts.
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- Okay, so this is one of those harsh verses of judgment. And again, we mentioned earlier that God is not a respecter of persons.
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- There is judgment for men and women alike. And this, of course, is a picture of when the
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- Assyrians run through the north, and then ultimately the Babylonians overtake Jerusalem, there would literally be people led away, often naked.
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- And Isaiah, later on in the 20, I think it's 21st chapter, somewhere in there, he actually is called to go preach that way for a couple of years, which is very disturbing.
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- But he's warning of this coming judgment in order that they would avert that judgment by repentance.
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- Sadly, though, Isaiah knows that this judgment is coming. And this is a warning of God's judgment.
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- You know, we live in a country that we ought not take for granted. The number of things and blessings that we have here,
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- I just heard a woman recently tell me about how around the time of the
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- Vietnam War, the Viet Cong was so brutal and so harsh that women and men, everyone was trying to escape to America, those who could.
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- And one woman coming from the north, the communist north, was able to get on a boat to come to America.
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- And when she did, she shaved her head bald. Why do you think she did that?
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- To look more like a man, to be less likely to be raped, because on these journeys, that was so common.
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- So just the harsh conditions of having to shave her own head to preserve herself from such a horrible attack.
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- Verse 17, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion.
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- Listen, what's happening here is that the women are in comfort in the land in which they live, and they're beginning to adorn themselves in inappropriate ways, but the issue, the root underlying problem is pride.
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- So much pride in their hair. So much pride in their outward adornment. They're strutting like an ostrich with their nose in the air, and therefore they're going to fall under a judgment that is fit to that kind of pride.
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- God will humble them in the same way that they're strutting about. The hair that they prize will be shaved bald.
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- So it's a horrifying judgment that's coming. Now, verses 18 through 41 are a unit, so we're going to read that.
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- We need someone who loves to read, because God is not impressed by women's outward value signaling.
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- What I mean by this is the desire to be valued, to be accepted, to be loved and cherished and even exalted, that does not impress
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- God. We'll get into this a little bit more in just a minute, but I want you to ask this question before we read it.
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- Does God buy in to the self -esteem movement in the United States of America?
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- Because secular psychologists and psychiatrists and even, sadly, much of so -called
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- Christian counseling buys into the self -esteem movement, that if you could only have a higher self -esteem, then all your other problems would be worked out.
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- Now, just read this with that question in mind. Who's my reader? Next up,
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- I think, Luis, if you would, and then we'll go back to... No, Luis, and then
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- I'll get you next. Isaiah 3, 18 to 4 -1.
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- Yeah, it's a big section. I just want to kind of get it all in one. Okay. In that day, the
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- Lord will take away the jingling ankles, the scarves, the crescents and pendants and bracelets and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans and the robes.
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- And so it shall be. Instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench.
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- Instead of a sash, a rope. Instead of well -set hair, baldness.
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- Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth. The branding instead of beauty.
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- Your men shall fall by the sword and you're mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground.
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- And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own food and wear our own apparel.
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- Only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach.
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- Okay, some observations here. First of all, in verses 18 through 23, it almost comes across as excessive.
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- The list goes on and on and on. I mean, you could have just said all of your outer adornments, just cover it all in one fell swoop.
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- Why do you think that Isaiah lists one after another almost tediously?
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- Yes. That's good. You didn't say sashes.
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- You didn't say the one thing that they'll still keep doing. Very good. I like that.
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- I'm getting more to the point of the repetition has a purpose, right? This is all that they think about.
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- They're consumed and he's getting into their minds and example after example to show where their hearts are at.
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- It's meant to be an exhaustive just list of thing after thing. This is where they are in their thinking.
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- One thing after another. Okay, back to the main issue here.
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- The big issue is pride. It's vanity. These are vain adornments to feel good about oneself.
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- Self esteem to feel beautiful to feel loved and adored. Notice how this section ends.
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- Chapter four, verse one. What is the concern? Even after having everything stripped away?
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- What is the concern of the women at that point? Well, it's not just to have a man.
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- That's instrumental. But there's a reason that they want to have a man. Identity.
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- Disgrace. And the ESV uses the word reproach.
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- What is their concern? I think so.
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- Maybe so. They're willing to be independent at least. Ah. That could be.
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- I haven't taken it that way. It could be that's an independent streak.
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- I think what the idea is there's been a war. Men falling by the sword.
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- Mighty men in battle. There's barely any men left. So they're willing to seven women identify with the one man.
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- So this is polygamy. Which of course, what does Genesis 1, 26 -28 say?
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- No. Or is it in chapter 2? But one man and one woman, right?
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- There's no room for polygamy in God's original design. So it may be an independent streak.
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- There's probably something of that. But the concept here is they want the identity.
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- The esteem. The feeling of importance or acceptance that they could be identified with a man.
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- Does that make sense? Because what they fear the most is reproach.
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- Do you see that in chapter 4, verse 1? It finishes with take away our reproach.
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- You see, the problem is pride. Vanity. They're not looking at themselves relative to God.
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- But how other people see them. They want to be regarded a certain way by other people.
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- Rather than holiness in the sight of God. Now notice how the attempt to elevate oneself is met by a judgment that fits the crime.
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- Where do you see a parallel between something that they do and how God steps in? We already saw this in verse 17.
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- Chapter 3, verse 17. They're doing their hair and what do they get?
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- Baldness. They're trying to make their bodies look great and they get exposed. So what else do you see as a parallel between what they get instead of what they want?
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- In verses 18 to 23 it's a listing of things that they can buy and acquire by their own actions.
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- As if that's going to be the definition of their value and of their greatness.
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- But in verse 24 everything that they would attempt to accumulate for themselves turns into stench.
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- Okay. Or worthlessness. Because you can't acquire value. Okay. That's good.
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- Yeah, and you can't buy beauty, right? So how did we define beauty? Yes. So it's beauty in the sight of God.
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- So it's holiness in the sight of God. It's genuine beauty. It's a reflection of Him and His nature, His character.
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- And that's something that can't be bought. Now, as far as judgment meeting the wrong pursuit, look at verse 24.
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- Instead of perfume there will be rottenness or stench.
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- Instead of a belt a rope. Implication being a rope of captivity.
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- Just harsh material rather than something pretty and beautiful. Instead of well -set hair baldness.
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- Instead of a rich robe sackcloth. Your men shall fall by the sword.
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- Your mighty men in battle. They're so strong. They're so mighty. They fall. Your gate shall lament and mourn.
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- Empty she shall sit on the ground. So here we have a picture of God holding people accountable for sin.
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- We live in a culture that does the opposite. John MacArthur put it this way.
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- Our culture has declared war on guilt. No one, after all, is supposed to feel guilty.
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- Guilt is not conducive to dignity and self -esteem. Society encourages sin but it will not tolerate the guilt sin produces.
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- We live in a self -esteem culture where the highest good is self.
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- And selfism is to put one's self at the center of the universe. And feel good about who you are.
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- To elevate. And see, this is precisely the problem that Isaiah is addressing. Women in this case and at other times he takes aim at men so he's an equal opportunity offender.
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- He's willing to give offense. He's willing to make a person feel guilty.
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- Is guilt always bad? What is guilt? And is it always bad?
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- Okay, so someone can be guilty objectively. And then what do you mean by the feeling? What is that feeling?
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- It's not the same as legal guilt. Okay, good. Good differentiation. So here we are speaking of the feeling.
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- I'm referring to the feeling. It is conscience. And where does conscience come from? Right. Now can conscience be seared as with a hot iron?
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- And you grow numb to things that used to offend? See, the very idea that we have a conscience this is a bit of an aside, an apologetic aside is evidence that there's
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- God. Without God, why would there even be objective right and wrong in the first place?
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- There wouldn't. And Jeff Durbin from Apologia, he likes to say everything would just be stardust. What does your stardust matter?
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- You know, how you treat somebody else who's just stardust. Whether you kill them or you shake their hand wouldn't matter because we're just stardust.
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- You know, we just evolved from the stars and primordial soup and there's no objective right or wrong if we're just stardust.
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- So, back to the point though. Self -esteem is when people seek to get rid of any feelings of guilt but very often that guilt is there for a reason.
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- And it's good, it's not to be suppressed. Conscience is a gift from God that leads us to repentance.
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- It's part of his kindness that draws us to repentance. And here, the women, it doesn't seem like they are even repentant right away.
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- It's gonna take a period of captivity. How long does that Babylonian captivity go? 70 years.
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- Okay. Well, it seems pretty hopeless then, right? Is there any hope for us to change?
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- Yeah. See, nobody has a problem with self -esteem. Selfishness to esteem oneself is natural to us.
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- We always love to put ourselves at the center of attention. Or if not attention in the room, the most important person to ourselves.
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- Self -interest is easy for us to uphold. Yeah. But we're told to esteem others higher than ourselves.
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- In Philippians 2. And the point being, God sees that haughtiness and the judgment falls to humble them.
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- In every way that they're prideful, He is willing to bring a judgment. So you'd think at this point in the text, hopeless.
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- Completely hopeless. Selfish people being crushed and by the end, their arrogance is still there.
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- They're just more concerned about how they're looked at and their own reproach versus their repentance.
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- You don't see any sign of repentance here. But there's always hope in the gospel.
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- Amen? Now we have a prophecy. Many people think that the branch of 4 .2 is the same as Zechariah 6, which
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- John will be teaching on shortly in one of his classes. A messianic prophecy. In the bigger context here, what you have is the upholding of hope that God eventually will change selfish hearts, prideful, arrogant hearts to humility.
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- To the genuine love of the Lord and purity and holiness in the sight of God. So let's read 2 -6.
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- And Rich, I know you're biting at the bit to read. Come on now. Isaiah 4, 2 -6.
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- And above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
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- And there will be a tabernacle for shading in the daytime from the heat for a place of refuge and for a shelter from the storm and rain.
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- The first 11 chapters of Isaiah are not all judgment. There are these glimpses of hope.
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- The mountain of the Lord in chapter 2. Here, this chapter 4 is a hopeful picture of when the branch comes.
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- Now, what is this metaphor of a branch? Christ is that branch.
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- Now, in Isaiah chapter 11, it's part of the same section here. It begins, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.
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- A branch from his root will bear fruit. The branch in this context refers to what seemed to be dead and gone, a stump.
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- Namely, the daughters of Zion, the people of Israel. It seems like they're laid waste by the captivity.
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- Out of that will come a branch, a shoot. It will begin to bear fruit. And that refers to ultimately
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- Christ. He will be for Israel what they failed to be. He will be the descendant of Jesse.
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- Now, who's Jesse? A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, David's father.
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- So it must come through David. Through David, the descendant of Jesse. A descendant will come from David, who will be this branch that will bear fruit.
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- There will come a time of righteousness. So you have this hint towards that, and we'll get more of it from Isaiah 11.
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- I think it appears again in maybe like 43 or something like that. But then Zechariah picks up on it.
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- Other prophecies in the Psalms pick up on this branch theme. So it's a common thing that Jesus fulfills.
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- But here, I want you to see that what seems like a country laid waste will one day be holiness to the
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- Lord. In other words, is there hope for the haughty daughters of Zion? There is.
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- In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious. I love that word beautiful.
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- Because it is possible for all of us, men and women, to be beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. Beautiful and glorious.
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- Reflecting His glory as we walk in holiness to Him. A true beauty.
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- An inward, gentle, quiet spirit that's very precious in the sight of God. And the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
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- This holiness is what they're now delighting in. They're no longer prideful in the merely external, and even the sinfully external, of trying to entice men.
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- Verse 3, And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem.
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- This idea of what's left or remaining is this concept of a remnant. God always has a remnant within His people.
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- Now most of Israel falls in judgment, but the remnant remains.
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- Did I make note of it here? I think Romans chapter 9, verse 27. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.
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- This is picturing the remnant. Not all who are Israel are
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- Israel indeed. Yes, in the back. Protection and honor.
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- When he says the signet rings and the nose rings. This is the signet ring, your father and your family.
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- He will remove you from your father's ears and from that day on she will have a nose ring.
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- So you are no longer the signet ring of your father, you are no longer all these things are identity.
- 38:25
- The festal rose mantle, the cloaks, the handbags, these are things for joyous occasions and so you can take away the joy.
- 38:31
- The mirrors, the linen, the garments, this is for them to admire themselves as vanity. All of these things go to identity.
- 38:37
- And it says in that day God will take these things away, the Lord will take these things away. In that day the branch of the
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- Lord shall be beautiful and glorious. Take away your worldly identities and the identity of Christ shall be beautiful and glorious.
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- The fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. Meaning you will be blessed when the identity of Christ comes upon you.
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- Not just you, but the land also. It's like amazing. I've never seen this before, but in sitting here seeing it, seeing it now through the lens of another culture and if I were to show that to anybody over there, they would see that instantly because of how deeply rooted their culture is in the meanings of it.
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- Who is this guy? Man. Amen. That's precisely right.
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- So in verse three, we're looking at the remnant. Well, no, let's not. We're on YouTube.
- 39:45
- It's a good idea though. We can talk after. So, verse four.
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- When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion. How does the filth of sin get washed away?
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- By the blood of the Lamb. Yeah, and the imagery of fire, refining fire, that comes up here too. The spirit of burning.
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- Yeah, and the spirit cleansed. So you can only be cleansed of your blood stains by the blood of the
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- Lamb of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Or the concept there is purging, refining that God himself is going to spiritually and powerfully burn away this perverted heart.
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- And this identity will be changed. So verse five. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day and smoke and a shining of a flaming fire by night.
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- So there's that imagery of Israel in the wilderness with the fire by day and the cloud. It's the glory of God now is with Israel again.
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- For over all the glory there will be a canopy. Now the festival of booths here, or the concept, there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.
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- It's the idea of God as protector again. He's blessing. He's their covering. He's their shelter.
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- They're no longer strutting in their arrogance and completely vulnerable and will be wiped out.
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- Now they're walking in holiness and with that glory comes the shelter, the blessing, the covering of God.
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- It's a beautiful picture. So I wanted to kind of quickly get through that and then leave a couple minutes here to talk.
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- Two more things I wanted to say in closing. I love this quote.
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- That's okay. By David Tyler. The cross, once a symbol of man's wickedness and God's grace, is now said to be proof of man's value and worth.
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- Pride is always inconsistent with the true doctrine of the gospel. There is nothing more eloquently condemned in scripture than pride.
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- When I read that, I thought about Isaiah 3. That this is an eloquent condemnation of pride.
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- And see, in today's evangelical world, we hear words like this. Sound familiar?
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- You didn't want heaven without me. So Jesus, you brought heaven down.
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- Now, it turns out to be a beautiful song the rest of the way. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus.
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- And I love singing that song because of that. But when you stop and reflect on that opening line, you didn't want heaven without me.
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- So Jesus, you brought heaven down. Why did Jesus come down and die on the cross according to that way of thinking?
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- Because of me. Because of the value of me. Now, we used to understand the cross better than that.
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- What did we bring to the table? Our sin that was so wretched that God had to pour wrath on it.
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- God, in his love, brought grace to meet our need and our wretchedness.
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- But we've turned this around somehow and evangelicalism says, well, you didn't want heaven without me.
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- So you came to get me. Because I was what was so valuable. I was the one that had the importance.
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- And so once again, that's that self -esteem, therapeutic kind of Christianity that's sadly infecting the evangelical world.
- 43:36
- Isaiah 3 says no. It doesn't esteem man. It esteems
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- God. And there's coming a time when he will accomplish what they were unable to walk in. He does it by the branch.
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- The branch is Jesus Christ. His blood washes our bloodstains.
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- His burning fire, his Holy Spirit purges us of our sin and makes us walk in holiness.
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- 1 Thessalonians 4 .3. I'll close with this and then we'll keep talking. I'll turn off the camera after that. 1
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- Thessalonians 4 .3 and then also 4 .7
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- For this is the will of God, your sanctification. That you abstain from sexual immorality.
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- And 4 .7 For God has not called us to impurity but in holiness.
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- The lesson of the haughty daughters of Zion is to be humble in the sight of God, to pursue holiness in the sight of God, to pursue sanctification because that's true beauty and it's precious in God's sight.
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- Amen. John, will you close us in prayer? Then I'll turn off the video. My Lord God, we are confessing the fact that we live hearing these words but yet lured into living according to the world.
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- The dangers of what's here attack us all but the promises that are here stand in front of us all.
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- Lord, by your grace, by the power of your Holy Spirit, let us Father, choose you.
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- It says the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the
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- Lord will create and there will be a booth for shade. That's our promise.
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- Father, let us look to that. Let us live for that by your grace and in the power of your