Isaiah Lesson 7

I'd just like to say good afternoon to everybody. Welcome back. We're, I can't believe this is week seven already. Your thing says lesson seven. I just read what you wrote here. Lesson seven. Lesson seven, that's what I said.

At this pace, it will be interesting to see if the Lord comes before we finish. There you go. Wouldn't that be awesome? Yeah. That would be awesome. But right now, we're about to learn some more about the leaders of the people carry an extra burden as Pastor Jeff is gonna be leading us.

Let's open with a word of prayer. Father, thank you that we can gather together in your presence, studying the word that you have given, the very words that you have inspired, empowered by your very Holy Spirit.

Pray that the Spirit would speak through Pastor Jeff and speak into each one of our hearts. Pray that this is not an academic exercise of words, but it is an opportunity to have our lives changed for you.

We offer all this up to you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Before he goes on, um, he's, this is a plug for Sundays as Pastor Jeff is taking us into Hebrews. Just the very name of Jesus, the amazing depths of the riches of the power of just the very name of Jesus, which made me stop as I was saying the prayer at the very end.

It's too easy for us to close a prayer. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. And let those words roll off our mouth for a minute. And when you say that, because you're actually calling to the very throne of God in the name of Jesus.

I've said too much, Jeff, it's all yours.

Leadership Matters: The Titanic and the Southern Baptist Convention

No, well said. April 14th, 1912. It was a calm night. Oh, you gave it away, Rich. The sinking of the Titanic. That night at about 9 .30 p .m., a wireless room became very busy sending passengers routine messages to friends, relatives, and business contacts.

During this time, the most important ice warnings were ignored. The steamer Masaba sent an urgent message reporting that a large ice field lay in the direction in which the Titanic was headed. Up in the crow's nest, Frederick Fleet was staring into the darkness around 11 .30 p .m.

He noticed a black object immediately in their path. He urgently called the iceberg warning down to the office in charge. On the bridge, First Officer Murdoch ordered full speed ahead. And hard as starboard, slowly the ship began to turn and it looked as if it would clear the ice.

When they heard a strange scraping noise, Murdoch knew they had hit an iceberg, a seaman's worst nightmare. He then ordered the watertight doors shut.

I need to stop you for half a second. Full speed ahead, hard starboard with the rudder is a standard procedure. You want water rushing past the rudder so that the rudder can take a bite and make a turn.

And the best way to do that is full ahead so that the propellers are running at full speed, creating as much water. So going full speed isn't like, oh, we're gonna ram this iceberg. No, that was standard procedure.

Right, right. The author of this book,.

His name is Hans Finzel, talks about leadership. And he points out that in the course of these, this night when the Titanic shank, sank, the captain was blinded by his natural instincts. He under-calculated his enemies, which in this case was the icebergs.

He over-calculated his strengths, which was the strength of the ship. He took too many risks with his crew and ship. He became reckless, pushing the ship too hard. His pride got in the way of effective leadership.

He took ill-advised counsel from the ship owner to charge ahead. He left subordinates in command at a dangerous time. He was overconfident in the latest technology. The list goes on and on. Leadership failures that resulted in the sinking of the Titanic.

There was nothing structurally wrong with the Titanic until it hit an iceberg, right? So the point is, leadership matters. Many lives were lost because of the leader of that. Now, is that true from your perspective?

Have you seen other writings on that, that he had ignored warnings coming in? 100 true. Yeah, 100 true. So, bad leadership can result in death. On the flip side, anybody recognize this book,.

Who, the author of this book? John Mattoli, he was that person. I knew that you would.

John, you recognize it? Sure. This is a book that the men are studying by Albert Muller, Conviction to Lead. It's a leadership book. It has just tremendous, 25 principles for leadership that matters. We've enjoyed going through this as men, but one of the things that really qualifies this man, Albert Muller, to write the book is because in the early 90s, the Southern Baptist Convention was Titanic.

It was a sinking ship. Why? Because it had given in to liberalism. And when Muller took the seminary, the flagship seminary of the SBC, it was rife with liberal professors who were training up liberal pastors.

And when he came in, Muller was hated by the faculty. They all despised the man because he taught the word of God. And it resulted in many of them being dismissed. He had to come in and clean house of the professors who had tenure there and all kinds of difficulties that went along with that, but he was willing to do it to keep the ship from sinking.

Now, does that mean that Muller is forever immune to failure? No. In fact, why did they pick this man to run the ship? Because he was the best of the best. He was driving the Titanic because of his prowess as a leader.

Let that be a warning to you, Muller, that if you ever drift from the conviction that you had to lead, you yourself could become like that. And I say that tongue in cheek, let that be a warning to me as a pastor of Cornerstone Church.

Let that be a warning to John or John leading men's ministry or Kimberly leading women's ministry or any of you leading your families, leading in the circle and spheres of influence that God has called you to.

Isaiah 3:1-3 — Judgment by Siege and the Removal of Leadership

Today, we turn to chapter three of the book of Isaiah and the emphasis here, of course, as you can tell, goes to the leaders. See, it was the leaders who were steering the ship. And as the king went, so often went the nation.

In the South, we know that there were righteous kings who set good examples. Josiah, Hezekiah, David in the first place, men who would tear down idols. And then there were unrighteous kings, men who set up idols and bowed down to the gods of the nations.

And very often, the people followed in the direction of the leaders. So let's get a first reader. Raise your hand if you don't want me to call on you. You'd rather not read out loud at any point. Anybody?

Okay, just one. Anybody else? Okay, I won't call on you if you don't want me to. Okay, so my first reader here, Sandy, would you please read Isaiah three, one to three, nice and loud. Okay, so this, again, is an oracle of judgment as we've seen very often in Isaiah.

Look at verse one. What kind of judgment is coming to Jerusalem? What does this look like? What kind of judgment is coming down? Famine, is it just that the skies won't release the rains or is there something else happening?

Support and supply, all support of bread and all support of water. This is a siege. And what will end up happening is the Assyrian onslaught that's coming from the east will wipe out the entire northern kingdom.

And then at this point, as Isaiah's prophesying, it's moving in on Jerusalem. Eventually, they will be up to their neck in a siege by the Assyrian army. You know what a siege is? The troops coming upon the city and will the walls of Jerusalem be able to withstand?

Now, of course, we know how this ends as we get to the end of the 30th, in the 30s of Isaiah. Hezekiah prays and God sends that angel to deliver them, 185 ,000 dead in one night. But the judgment is a siege, but that's not the only judgment.

So there's the cutting off of a support of bread and support of water, water supplies cut off. All of these things are coming, but look what else they're deprived of. The mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.

So many of these are unrighteous leaders, but they're neat leaders nonetheless. There's no captains. There's no people to stand up and fight. The captains of the army, the man and the soldier, mighty man and soldier, where are the warriors to fight off the onslaught?

Yes, military and spiritual leadership is lacking, and this is part of the judgment of God. One of the signs of judgment in a culture is a lack of leadership. Verses four and five, Bob. We're in Isaiah chapter three.

Which Bob? Oh no, I'm kind of gonna move this direction. Yeah. When John was training to get his ordination from the EFCA, one of the verses that the Lord gave him, would you like to read it for us, John?

Psalm 71 verse 18.

So even to when I am old and gray, oh God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those who come.

Love that verse. In fact, when the board went on retreat in, was it April, May this year? We did it via Zoom, but we came away with this verse as an important verse for us moving into the future. Proclaim his might to the next generation.

We looked at ways to proclaim his might, that expression. But the first part of the verse, even to old age and gray hairs. I'm halfway there, I feel it coming in, in my beard. But listen, in Isaiah chapter three, verses four and five, notice the judgment here.

I will make boys their princes. A boy is not a man. A boy is becoming a man. Well, if you look out at the culture in which we live, there is an environmentalist who is so well studied and so learned in her trade, her name is Greta Thunberg, that as an eight-year-old, she lectures the world as to what is best about the Paris Accords and all of the political issues of the day.

And the world exalts her as the expert in all things environmentalism. Do you see the problem?

Yes, somebody actually brought her as the price.

Oh, she's the second coming, is she? Yeah, but do you see the judgment here? Look at verse four. I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. We live in a culture where youth is exalted and age is derided.

People don't look to age as wisdom, but youth have a secret special knowledge that the rest of us lack. There's a Gnosticism associated with the millennial generation, some people have said, and it's not fair to pick on any generation, but there is a movement in our culture to exalt voices who have not borne the scars of time.

Experience is a teacher. If you've been through the world and you've seen things come and go, you've seen the propositions of men brought forth and you've seen over time how those things bear out and the unintended consequences that come with such a grand idea as socialism, how that bears out in time.

The World War II generation, there's still a few living who fought the battles of World War II. There are people alive today that lived through Stalin's gulags, the gulag archipelago, Solzhenitsyn writes about.

But how many of the boys at university who are clamoring for socialism have ever read Solzhenitsyn, gulag archipelago, or who have ever studied and learned history? You see, it's a judgment on a nation when the youth lead the way.

I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor. The youth will be, what's that word? Insolent to the elder and the despised to the honorable.

What does the word insolent mean? Scornful, insulting, kind of prideful and arrogant towards them, puffed up. And that's a judgment on a people. So this is what's happening in Israel. God's judgment is falling and the way it looks in practice is youths taking the lead and elders scorned and derided as just some old fogies that don't have it.

You know, they're called Karen or they're called, what was the one for guys? Mocked in the culture as just like, ah, you old fuddy-duddy, you don't know anything. You're the ones that are holding us back.

But the progressives, the youth, always have the special secret knowledge. Proverbs 16, 31, how does the scripture regard gray hair? A crown of glory, it is gained in a righteous life. It's completely contrary to how the world views experience and wisdom and the scars of life.

Isaiah 3:6-8 — The Dearth of Qualified Leaders

Isaiah three, six through eight. My next reader, Kimberly. So lacking is leadership in Israel at the time and in the southern kingdom of Judah. So lacking that people grab any random person. This is what you call warm body syndrome.

It often happens in probably smaller churches because there's just nobody to be the youth pastor. So here's somebody who's a young guy that looks like he's hip and fun, doesn't know six verses in the Bible, but he's a warm body.

Hey, you be our youth pastor. A church that's struggling and some charismatic leader comes to town. Oh, people will listen to him. You come be our pastor. Warm body syndrome. For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father saying, you have a cloak.

What kind of qualification for leadership is that? You have a coat, right? Like you're pretty well off. You're doing better than the rest of us. You have a cloak. You shall be our leader. Yeah, you've got some money.

You've got a coat. Well, we should trust you. And this heap of ruins shall be under your rule. Well, we got nothing much left, so might as well just, why don't you run it for us? In that day, he will speak out saying, I will not be a healer.

Not even pretending. In my house, there is neither bread nor cloak. You shall not make me leader of the people. So this person, the only person they have to turn to, he's saying, not me. I don't want it.

I have no desire for it. And then finally, for Jerusalem has stumbled, Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. This is an absolute dearth of leadership.

There's no man among them who wants the job, and those who are looking for leaders are willing to make anybody and everybody that leader. This is a problem. Now, let's transition this to New Testament times and to the church, because we're all here churchmen and churchwomen.

Are there qualifications for elder? Where would we find that? Very good. The elder qualifications in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3. So let's turn to, we're gonna look actually at Titus 2, because it applies not just to elder, but also to women.

There's men and women here. Turn with me to Titus chapter 2. In judgment in the book of Isaiah, God is allowing the people to appoint unqualified men. But in Titus 2, John, would you mind reading for us?

Which verses? Titus chapter 2. I just want the first five verses, Titus 2.

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-control, sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.

Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure. I'll stop there. Very good, thank you.

Qualifications here. The kind of character that's to be taught, this is not for elder or deacon, this is the kind of qualities that should be taught to all believers, both men and women, okay? So, should there be a lack of elders, qualified elders in the church?

Flip back a couple chapters here to 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1 says, "'The saying is trustworthy. "'If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, "'he desires a noble task.'".

And the implicit idea there is that kind of desire, the desire to be an elder, is noble. That's a good desire. As men, Titus 2, are growing in these principles of being sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, teaching what accords the sound doctrine, there should be a desire growing, and it won't be every man, but it'd be a good ambition for us to say that every man should desire to be an elder.

That should be a good ambition, to grow at least into the qualities that would qualify you to be an elder, even if you're never to be called to that, yeah. I think the context here that Paul's addressing is polygamy, but there would be a lot of questions to be asked about the nature of any divorce, whether it was biblical grounds or not.

If the male who, say, committed adultery and was therefore divorced by his wife, I think he would never be qualified to become an elder. But if there were biblical grounds, the two exception clauses, 1 Corinthians 7, Matthew 19, if those were the case, then there's a possibility that somebody could become an elder having been divorced, i .e. been abandoned by someone who wasn't a Christian, or has the person committed adultery against that man.

Does that help? Yeah? Yeah, okay, and we can talk more about that later. Here's the big point I'm trying to make. We're bringing this to the New Testament now to try to understand in the context of the church.

We as a church must constantly be training up men and women in the character qualities that lead to leadership, so that women, as they grow, according to Titus 2, training other young women to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, submissive, that women would be growing in quality, character traits, and that men would be growing in this way, according to Titus 2.

That many would desire this so that when it comes time to look for an elder or a deacon, that you have a giant pool of men. And the problem that you have is, look at all of these guys that would be qualified to serve as elder.

Rather, the problem in Isaiah, which is, ah, where could we possibly find a man that could meet these qualifications? I got a question. Yes, back to Isaiah 3, yeah.

What would either motivate a man to not desire or what would lead a man to believe that he doesn't need to desire the role of an elder? What do you guys think? Okay, so I would go down that path by saying that that individual, if he is willing to acknowledge that there is sin, is already becoming qualified because he's submitting himself to God.

So I go back to the question that why would a man feel that this is not something for him or what would make him think, I don't even wanna go, what would make a man go down that path? Okay, Barb, why do you say Satan?

Okay, that's a great answer. What lie does Satan give men? You're not qualified, you're not good enough, but there's another one too. I'm not worthy, there's another one. False humility. There's so many ways that Satan will convince a man that it's inappropriate for me to say, I want to become an elder.

There's so many lies that Satan put out there that can be used as an excuse to not go down that path.

Well, then there's that, true. Then there's that, true. Yeah, and that's an important point that we want to make sure that the people who become elders are objectively and genuinely qualified, not that they've just gotten to that disposition of heart where they're on the road towards those qualities.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so here, back to Isaiah 3, six to eight. What's the judgment here? The aim is being directed now towards leaders. The judgment is you have men just taking hold of their random brother and saying, you have a cloak, you be our leader.

So not qualified whatsoever, that's no kind of qualification, but putting that person there and he doesn't even want it, there are no leaders. The leadership dearth in the nation. Verses nine to 12. Dave, would you mind reading?

This is Isaiah 3, nine through 12. Okay, so let's walk through that a bit. The look on their faces bears witness against them. They proclaim their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. So is this saying it's good to hide your sin?

No, it's not saying that, but there's a point that people reach as people drift into sin and compromise with it. The first time someone steps into sin, what kicks in? Guilt, conscience. The second time a person falls into the same sin, conscience kicks in, but it might not be quite as strong as the first time.

And as conscience hardens, callousing over, there comes a point where a person is no longer ashamed of the things that once caused shame. Something that would have been embarrassing is now something that they are willing to broadcast to the world.

And so you have things like pornography where people will broadcast openly, intentionally, and things of that nature. So the look on their faces bears witness against them. They proclaim their sin like Sodom.

So what's happened here? In the town of Sodom, when the angels were held up in the house of Lot, the men came out in public yelling and beating on the door saying, send them out so we can have sex with them.

Just the horror of the debauchery of that culture at that time. No shame, no shame. They proclaim it like that. That's how Israel is becoming. There's just not even the horror of sin. They do not even hide it.

It's open and they're not even embarrassed. Woe to them, for they have brought evil on themselves. Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. See, God is still making a distinction between individuals in the nation.

If the remnant exists, that always existed, right? In the days of Elijah, the remnant was only 7 ,000 out of the entire nation. But we know there is a remnant still in Israel. And God recognizes that.

He's not just going to group think like our culture does. Our culture groups everything, right? But God sees individuals and he judges individuals. Each one must appear before the Lord, before the bar, okay?

So God recognizes that. Verse 11, woe to the wicked. It shall be ill with them, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. And now here is kind of a national judgment. My people, so you notice it's looking as the nation Israel, he's talking to the nation.

Infants are their oppressors. And women rule over them. Very interesting. Oh, my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. All right, so for those watching online, because I know in this room we're of a common mind, I will say something very offensive.

Here's what I'm not gonna say. I'm not going to say that men are higher than women. Even as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal, there is an economy within the Trinity where the Son submits to the will of the Father.

And there is a relationship of headship therein. So it is in the church and in the home. In the home, the man is to be the head of the family. The man is to lead. That doesn't mean that the woman is under his foot, that he's domineering him.

When I'm doing weddings, I often say, God didn't take from Adam's skull that she would be above him, or from his heel that she would be beneath him, but from his side, that she would be under his arm of protection, and she would be a support to him, a help me.

But notice there's a role in that. As sin progresses in a nation, and in a home, and in a church, you see reversals of role. And women, this is the curse, by the way. I think that the Genesis 3 curse, where it says, her desire shall be for her husband, and he will rule over her, right?

His temptation in the fall, remember, this is his judgment, is that he would be domineering towards her, and overbearing in the home. And her temptation would be that she would rise up to take his position for his leadership role.

That's the problem in the home. And in churches, we have explicit instruction, 1 Timothy 2, verses 11 to 15, Paul says, I forbid for a woman to teach or exercise authority over men. Now, when he grounds that argument in 1 Timothy 2, he grounds the argument not in something cultural, or the practice of the churches, but rather in the created order.

The grounding for that argument comes from creation itself. This is immutable, unchangeable. And so I say, what Paul says, that only men should be pastors, that's a teaching role in the church, the role of elder is a teaching role, and it's an authority role, exercising authority in the church.

Now, is that demeaning towards women? Let's hear what women say. What do you, ladies here, do you feel demeaned by that teaching? No, but you're a pastor's wife. This is John's wife, yeah. You see this as the godly order.

Yes, yes, that is absolutely true. You see this cycle of passivity in men, and you see a control with women, and that's a very dangerous cycle in marriages. In fact, that's a lot of marriage counseling, is teaching men to be men, and to step up and lead in the home, and teaching women to submit, even if the man hasn't yet gotten there.

So, keeping that order. Yeah, definitely more so nowadays, yeah. Feminism. Right. John, do you, wait, you gotta have, whenever something is said, you have to give the other person a chance to respond.

John, do you force Sandy to walk behind you? We gotta clear the record. Sorry.

There's a phrase that I've used often, and I've heard said often, happy wife, happy life, okay? And I wanna, it's in second hesitation. Second hesitation. Hang on a second. So, how do I, as a man, encourage my wife to be happy?

And I think that part of it comes down to not putting her in a position where she needs to step up and do things that I'm supposed to do. But I don't do it in a way that is oppressive, or I am man, hear me roar, any of that.

It's recognizing that God has mandated that I accept spiritual accountability for the family. And if I do that, then I have a happy wife.

Yeah, and I can hit a golf ball from my front yard to the Laskin home. So, not because I'm good at golf, but I could hit like a pitching wedge. They live very close. And I see them walking in the neighborhood a lot, and it's always hand in hand.

It's not John with Sandy trailing behind. Dave. Dave, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I met her, and the main thing she told me, yesterday we celebrated our 29th anniversary. Congratulations. And years ago, when we first got married, she said to me, she said, I'm so glad that you can be dad and I'll have you.

Oh, man, amen. She said that to me. She had a 13-year-old at that time, so she said, I'm so glad I don't have to be dad anymore. Amen.

Beautifully said. You know, what you said is profound. As I sit here teaching, this is my role. I believe with all my heart that my wife, two miles from here, teaching my children and homeschooling is every bit as important as what I'm doing here.

There's not a hierarchy of value. There's roles that God has ordained, and that's good. And we delight in that. And when that's functioning, it's beautiful. It's to be celebrated. And the world doesn't know what they're missing with the feminism that they promote.

It's not leading to their happiness. They know that much, but they will never admit that it's because they're roaring and raging against this, the word of God. Yeah. So it's, yeah, we gotta get to one last section.

Yeah. I wanna get back to wealth. Yes.

Yes, good point. Yeah. So even in this judgment, infants are their oppressors and women rule over them. And my people, your guides mislead you. See, again and again, the issue here is leadership. It's the guides.

They have swallowed up the course of your path. Now, of course, leaders are supposed to be servants. The Bible teaches servant leadership. Instead, these are leaders that feed on the people. They swallow them up.

Isaiah 3:13-15 — God Judges Corrupt Leaders

Now, finally, 13 to 15, let's see the price for this, the harsh judgment that God has to leaders. And I'll read the accompanying verse first just to set the stage. Jesus said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Let that be a word to every pastor that opposes the word of God and says that men can marry men and women can marry women.

Or that teach transgenderism, that an eight-year-old boy who's experiencing some kind of gender confusion can demand the right, even against his parents' wishes, which is what this new legislation is proposing, to take hormones to stunt his sexual development.

That is a level of evil that is beyond the pale. Woe to every pastor that supports that. And every leader in this culture, whether a politician or a judge or anyone who stands up and says such a thing, woe to them.

Better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea. And it's not new. So let's read 13 to 15. I didn't get very far in my readers today, sorry. We had a lot of ground to cover.

Would you mind to read? Yeah, thank you, Louisa. Wow. Tremble at those words. Verse 13, the Lord has taken his place to contend. You see, the leader, even if he has the role of king, he is not the highest person in the universe.

There's always somebody higher. And God himself will contend with these leaders. The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders and princes. God will judge the elders and princes of his people. It is you who have devoured the vineyard.

The spoil of the poor is in your houses. I wonder sometimes how it is that people who have been in public service have become millionaires multiple times over. Joe Biden? Yeah. Many, many politicians, multi, multimillionaires, and they've been in nothing but politics their entire life.

Where did all that money come from? Often corruption. What do you mean by crushing my people by grinding the face of the poor? God will vindicate. So I'm gonna call on my brother, John, to close us in prayer, and then we can stay and talk after.

Lord, Father, God, you have established order according to your wisdom, according to your design. You created, and you said it was good, and then you created man, and you said it was very good. Man has rebelled against you, but you are still the author of order.

Father, we want to submit to you. We want to submit to your sovereignty. Teach us, Lord, to respect your order, to desire your order, to be men and women that we read about in Titus 2, who grow into men and women that seek after you and then teach the next generation.

Protect us, I ask, Lord, against the temptations, against the lures of our current culture, as it was happening in the time of Isaiah, so it can happen now. Be with us, I pray, Father, in your name we pray, amen.

Amen, thank you.