(The Word for Today) Isaiah 27:6 - Part 2 — Chuck Smith

To the word for today. The word for today is a continuous study of the Bible taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament and if you're following along in your Bible we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 27 beginning with verse 6 as we continue with an in-depth message entitled the restoration of Israel now with today's study.

Here's Pastor Chuck.

Israel Fills the Earth With Fruit

And they began to ship this fruit out to Europe. The valley of Megiddo was much the same it was a large swampy area. They began to buy up property in the valley of Megiddo and again they opened up the river on out to the Mediterranean and they gained a lot of fabulous farmland there in the valley of Megiddo they began to plant it with wheat and with cotton and other crops and it was very fertile.

And gradually they began to reclaim the land. Of course they later on made the aqueduct that goes from the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the deserts around Beersheba and they began to plant these once desert areas and the the ground was very fertile and the crops were growing in tremendous crops.

And so gradually Israel became an agricultural nation. Until today they that have come from Jacob have blossomed and budded and they are filling the earth with fruit. This prophecy is being fulfilled all through Europe.

You can find the fruit and the flowers that are grown in Israel down in the Jordan Valley in the wintertime. It's like our Imperial Valley. So they grow tomatoes and cucumbers and squash and all there in the Jordan Valley all winter long.

And they then sell these crops in Europe. And so you can go to Europe and you can find the bananas you can find the citrus fruits and all you can find the flowers that are grown in Israel and shipped to Europe.

And Israel is now the fourth largest nation in the world of fruit export. It ranks number four in the world. And this is a nation which size is about the size of the state in New Jersey and yet the fourth largest fruit exporter in the world.

So this prophecy of Isaiah has literally been fulfilled in our day and is being fulfilled at the present time as they fill the face of the world with fruit. Now he goes on now to talk about his judgment against those nations that he used to judge Israel.

God's Judgment on the Nations Used Against Israel

God used the Assyrians as his instrument of judgment against the northern kingdom. He used the Babylonians as his instrument of judgment against the southern kingdom. And the prophet asked has he smitten him as he smote those that smote him.

So there were those that smote Israel. And has God smitten those as he did smite Israel through them. Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him. Did God get retribution against those nations that were used to take Israel and Judah into captivity in major when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it.

And he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. Now don't ask me what that scripture means. I've been wrestling with it. I don't have any answers. That's one of those scriptures that I have filed away.

This is wait for further information. I I've read this and I've looked at it and I'm sorry I I just don't have a clue to what he's referring to there by this. Therefore shall the inha... shall the iniquity of Jacob be cleansed.

And this is all the fruit to take away his sin. Now God is saying this is what I'm gonna require of Jacob of Israel to cleanse it. I this is the fruit that I'm looking for to take away their sin. I John the Baptist when he was preaching said bring forth fruit that demonstrates repentance.

Repentance Demonstrated by Fruit

You can't just say well I repent. I'm sorry. Well let me see it. Let me see some kind of a demonstration in your life that you have changed quite often. Husbands can be jerks. I mean they treat their wives like dirt.

They don't pay any attention to them. They treat them very shabbily. They spend their time out with the guys and they they don't say kind words. They they don't compliment their wives. They just they treat them like dirt.

And many times the wives get so fed up with that they say hey who needs you. And who needs that kind of treatment. And so the guy comes home and he says where's the paper. And there's no answer. He goes out to the kitchen there's no dinner being prepared.

But there's a note and says see you later buddy. I've had it you know. And then they come down here and they say Romaine call my wife tell her I'm a changed man. I'm so sorry I've been a jerk. I've treated her wrong and call her up and tell her Romaine that I I'm down here praying and I'm really changed.

And Romaine will say you made your bed man lie in it for a while. You're a jerk. You don't have enough sense to get up in the morning. I'm not gonna call your wife. How do I know you've changed. It's because you're down here crying and all that doesn't mean you've changed.

Let me see something in your life that shows you've changed and let her see something. In other words you just can't say I'm a different man. I've changed I'm a different man. Show me let me see bring forth some fruit that demonstrates the changes.

And that's what God is saying here he's looking for certain fruit that demonstrates the change of their attitude and of their hearts. You see they had turned from God and they had turned to idolatry. And they were worshiping false gods.

They were worshiping the sex goddesses. They were into pornography and all of these other things. And God is saying I wanna see some fruit I wanna see demonstrated some fact that you have changed. And the fruit that God was looking for is for them to destroy their altars that they had made to these other gods and these images of these other gods that they had filled their houses with.

So that's the kind of God said when when I can see this fruit I will know that they've really changed when their altars they grind into chalk, chalk stones that are beaten into fine dust and they've destroyed the images and the idols that they have made.

The Desolation of Ephraim

Yet he said the defense city because of their sin and they're turning to these things. Their defense city will be desolate. They're going to be taken into captivity and their place where they dwell will be forsaken.

It will be left like a wilderness and in the city streets the calves will feed. In other words it'll be just such a there won't be people living there. It'll just be a place where where cattle and all sort of pasture in their cities.

And there he shall shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof. And when the boughs thereof are withered and he's talking about the strength of the nation it's withered. They shall be broken off.

The women will come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding. Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will show them no favor. He's talking here the impending doom that is going to come upon the northern kingdom of Ephraim.

And it did follow within three years. This prediction was fulfilled upon Ephraim. But it shall come to pass in that day. And this again is is that day when God hides Israel and and he establishes them again.

It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river under the stream of Egypt. The channel the river would be Euphrates and under the stream of Egypt and you will be gathered one by one.

Oh ye children of Israel it shall come to pass in that day that a great trumpet shall be blown and they shall come that we're ready to perish in the land of Assyria the outcast in the land of Egypt. And they shall worship the Lord in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem.

And so this is that regathering of the people into the land that we see at the present time. Now in chapter 28 he pronounces the wall upon Ephraim that was the northern kingdom who turned immediately to idolatry.

Jeroboam's Idolatry and the Division of Israel

You remember when Solomon died his son Rehoboam began to reign. And the people came to Rehoboam from the north the ten tribes in the north. And they said your dad put heavy taxes on us and and they're heavier than we can bear.

We need tax relief. And the older men who had counseled his father Solomon said you better listen to them Rehoboam. It is true that you know your dad was making all these great buildings and everything.

And he did overtax the people. And it's time for tax relief. And if you will relieve them they will remain faithful to you. But his young contemporaries said hey man if you give them this then they're gonna be wanting more and there's no end to it.

So you gotta hang tough go out and hang tough. So he went out to hang tough. He said you think my dad was tough on you guys you haven't seen anything yet. I'm gonna lay on you greater taxes than even my dad did.

And he talked very rough to them. And they said hey forget you man to your tents. Oh Israel. And the ten tribes to the north revolted against Rehoboam and they set up Jeroboam as their king. Now Jeroboam figured that if they go back to Jerusalem every year to worship at the feast and the three times a year the feast of Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles they go back to Jerusalem.

He said if they go back and worship in Jerusalem their hearts will soon be drawn back to the kingdom there. So he set up a golden calf in Bethel and another one in Dan the southern most part in the northern most part of the kingdom of Israel he set up these golden calves and altars of worship and on he said these are your gods that deliver you out of Egypt.

And and he introduced idolatry and calf worship immediately in the northern kingdom. And as the result the northern kingdom never did recover. It was never strong it was always involved in idolatry never did really serve God.

And so the northern kingdom the chief tribe of the northern kingdom was a tribe of Ephraim. It was a major tribe the largest tribe. And thus the northern kingdom is often referred to in the scriptures as Ephraim and so often when you read of Ephraim it is a reference to the whole northern kingdom as it is here woe to the crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which are in the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine.

The Fall of Ephraim and the Faithful Remnant

Ephraim is about to fall as I said within three years it did fall but it is about to fall. It was a place of beauty. The valleys of the area of Ephraim were beautiful valleys. They are beautiful valleys today very fertile valleys.

The city where the capital of Samaria is is just beautiful beautiful country. And there was this pride and all involved with the people. But worse than that in the time of their national calamity rather than facing the reality they turned to to drinking and they became a drunken nation not facing up to the realities of life but trying to just sort of put themselves in a state of blotto.

So they don't have to think about the dangers that they're faced with or the problems or the calamities they would just get bombed out on booze. And so he's speaking to them behold the Lord hath a mighty and a strong one which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm as a flood of mighty waters overflowing shall cast down to the earth with his hand.

So God is going to bring the Assyrians and they're gonna overflow the land like a storm mighty tempest a destroying storm a flood and the crown of pride. And the drunkards of Ephraim they will trod under their feet.

And so Ephraim is to fall to this storm that God is gonna bring against them. And the glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower. And as the hasty fruit before the summer when he that looketh upon it seeth it while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.

So they're gonna be gobbled up. Actually he's talking about the first ripe figs. Now if any of you have fig trees you know that in a good year you'll have ripe figs in June that they that you'll get early figs and they're usually just a few of them.

They're not many. This past year I have maybe six of these June figs but they're the sweetest. They really are the they're the sweetest. Then come August you get lots of figs. You get your second ripe figs.

But there was always the first ripe figs around June which were very sweet and they look forward to these first ripe figs and and they would eat them. You know they really look for them to eat them quickly.

And he's talking about how Ephraim will be like that first ripe fig that as soon as they grab it they eat it up. And in that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people.

There will be those faithful ones who will seek the Lord. And this is always true no matter how dark the world is how deep it falls into sin God always has his faithful remnant. Now at the time that Elijah was a prophet in Ephraim the northern kingdom he had this contest with the prophets of Baal 400 prophets and priests of Baal and they came to Mount Carmel and they built their alders and they asked Baal to light the fire.

Elijah, Baal, and the Power of God

And so about the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah said okay guys step aside you've had your fun. And and then he said now Lord you know not for my sake because I know you're there but for the people's sake demonstrate that you are God and send fire and you know kindle the sacrifice and all.

And fire came from heaven and the sacrifice was consumed the altar itself and the people said Jehovah is God. And he took the prophets and priests of Baal down to the stream there and he killed all 400 of them.

And then Jezebel the wife of the king heard of what Elijah did and she said God do more to me also if I don't get the head of that prophet. And so frightened by the threats of Jezebel he began to run until he came all the way down to the area of Mount Sinai and there he hid in a cave remember the story.

Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few closing comments but first I'd like to remind you that today's message is available in its unedited form on cassette or CD. Simply write or call and ask for ordering details on tape or CD number C3254.

Again that's tape or CD number C3254. Well as the holiday season is approaching we'd like to bring to your attention a very helpful resource for families. Knowing it's the time of year when families gather together undoubtedly one of the most glaring signs that our society is in trouble is the breakdown at the family unit.

Marriages just aren't making it today and kids are suffering as they watch the breakup of their homes. The word for today would like to present Pastor Chuck Smith's marriage and family Bible study. In this series Pastor Chuck discusses basic principles designed to keep your family's love alive.

Each member of the family has a different set of needs and responsibilities. And when you know and apply God's principles everyone in your family can experience real peace real joy and unconditional love.

And when you call and order Pastor Chuck's marriage and family series the word for today would like to bless you with a resource entitled Christian family relationships taken from the books of Ephesians and Colossians.

This study reveals the secret to a solid and biblically based Christian family relationship. And right now you can get it for free. When you order the marriage and family series and remember the word for today would like to assist you this Christmas in spreading the gospel of Jesus to your family friends and co-workers.

Please call our customer service department to help you in finding that perfect gift that will reflect the true meaning of Christmas. And if you call right now and mention this radio ad the word for today will give you a twenty percent discount on any resource carried by the word for today.

So call the word for today at 1 -800 -272-WORD. Or write to us at PO Box 8000 Costa Mesa California 92628. Once again that number to call is 1 -800 -272 -9673. And for those of you that would like to visit our website you can do so at www .TWFT .com.

Or if you'd like to email us you can do so at info at TWFT .com. Well coming up next time on the word for today Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah that's coming up next time on the word for today and now with a few closing comments.

Here's Pastor Chuck.

Doing God's Will and Bearing Fruit

At that point there's only one thing that will be a vital importance. Have I done God's will? Have I brought forth fruit? Is God pleased and satisfied with me? When I face my maker will he say well done good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful in the little things and now I will make you ruler over many. Enter into the joy of the Lord with your life. It's the same thing God has put you here for one purpose. There's different fruit to be brought forth from our different lives.

He has a plan for you just like he has a plan for me. Now so many times we are so busy trying to work out our own plans our own schemes our own ambitions that we spend our lives upon ourselves. And we come to the end of the road and we realize that it's been a wasted life.

I have nothing to show the Lord of eternal value.

This program is sponsored by the word for today the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa California.