FBC Morning Light – June 9, 2022

A good Thursday morning to you, and again I hope your week has gone well thus far. Today we're in Isaiah chapter 30 again, and really picking up where we left off the other day when we were in this chapter.

We talked about the expressions of a rebellious people, people who've turned their back on God, and how they say to the preachers of the time, don't preach hard things to us, preach smooth things to us.

Tell us things that we want to hear. Tell us things that are going to make us feel better, even if they're not true.

But whatever you do, don't preach to us things like judgment and God's truth and that kind of stuff.

We don't want to hear that. Don't tell us, thus saith the Lord. Tell us things that make us feel good.

We pointed out that the consequence of that kind of an attitude that doesn't really want to hear from God, doesn't really want to hear

God's truth, the consequence will be opening the floodgates of sin. That's where we picked up in today's reading in verse 12, that because you despise the

Word and trust in oppression and perversity and rely on them, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly and in an instant.

We pointed out when we anticipated this the other day that that's what we're experiencing right now in our own land.

We're experiencing the floodgates of iniquity being opened because of a generation or two ago, there was the determination not to listen to the words of God and to get rid of all scriptural influence, even from things like our schools and so on and so forth.

By the way, in that regard, I know I sound like an old man now, but even in the mid -60s, when this cultural tide was turning,

I attended elementary school, it was in 1967, 8, 9, that time period.

The elementary school I attended every morning. This was in Niles, Ohio. Every morning the principal came over the loudspeaker and he read a passage of the

Bible, and we all prayed together the Lord's Prayer. This is a public school.

And then recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag in a public school.

Now I think all those things are gone. Do kids in the public school even pledge allegiance to the flag?

I don't know. But I definitely know they don't allow any reading of the

Scriptures or praying the Lord's Prayer. That is foreboding. You can't have the

Ten Commandments on the walls anywhere in a public place. The consequence of that is the floodgates are open, and it's only going to see more of that.

It's inevitable. We have abandoned any standard of determination, what's right and wrong.

We have no moral compass anymore. You eliminate what God has to say, you have no moral compass, and that just allows the floodgates to be open.

Is there any hope? Yes, there is. It's brought out in verse 15, in returning and rest you shall be saved.

Returning to whom? To what? Returning to the God that has been abandoned.

Resting in what? Resting in Him. Resting in His truth.

Trusting and depending upon Him. That's the essence of this rest. In returning and rest, you shall be saved.

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Quietness.

There is a peace and a tranquility that comes when a people as a whole, not everybody, never going to be the case, but when a people as a whole are trusting in and depending upon the providence of the

Sovereign God, and they're looking to Him and counting upon Him. There's a quietness that comes with that, and there's a confidence that comes from it as well, that the

God who is on the throne of the universe is our God and has our welfare in mind, and He is working in our behalf when we have returned to Him and rested in Him.

There's quietness and confidence that comes from that return, from that kind of repentance.

This is what is so desperately needed in our day. It may be something desperately needed in your own life, in your own heart.

Have you found yourself coming to the place where you really don't want to hear what

God has to say about some matter, about some issue, maybe some question, a decision that you're wanting to make?

Deep down, it's not the right thing to do. Someone comes up alongside you, puts their arm around you, and says,

I don't think you ought to go down that road. Here's what God has to say. Do you find yourself pulling away, if not literally, at least in your heart and your mind, you're pulling away from such counsel, saying,

I really don't want to hear that. You don't want to hear that because you want to hear what you want to hear.

I've known too many people who have had that attitude of heart. I've seen it in things like marriages and divorce.

I know that God hates divorce, the person says. I know that God doesn't want me to divorce my wife.

I know that's not what God's will is. I know what God has to say about it, but I know what

I want. I think God would want me to be happy. Tell me that God wants me to be happy.

Don't you think God wants me to be happy? I'm not happy with this person that I married 15 years ago.

I want somebody else. Listen to what God has to say. God has to say, repent.

Turn from your sin that has caused disruption in your marriage relationship.

Return to the Lord and return to your spouse where you belong. Don't be surprised when the floodgates open.

You found yourself there, and the floodgates have opened. Then return to the

Lord and rest in him. Repent and return, and you will find rest for your soul.

There will be quietness and confidence in that repentance. May we not find ourselves in that position.

Our Father and our God, our hearts grieve when we look at the state of affairs in our nation, but that state of affairs can also be that which is true on an individual basis.

I pray today that we would not get to that point in choosing a path of sin, following a course of sin, where we don't want to hear what you have to say.

We just want to do what we want to do. Deliver us from that, we pray. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Have a good rest of your Thursday, and if you would, please pray for our vacation Bible time.

Tomorrow is the last day of that for the week, and just pray for God to work in a great way.