Okay, so we are continuing our study through the book of Isaiah.
And if you look at verse number one, it begins by saying the burden of Damascus.
The burden of Damascus is the title for the sermon tonight.
And you may recall that previously, the titles that Isaiah has had in his teachings
has been the burden of Babylon, and then we saw the burden of Moab,
and now we're looking at the burden of Damascus.
Now Damascus, if you don't know, is or was the capital city of Syria, the capital city of Syria.
And so God is telling the nation of Syria that,
hey, a burden is going to come upon them, a judgment is going to fall upon them.
And as we keep going through this chapter,
that judgment is once again the Assyrian Empire.
And I'll show you in a moment why we can prove that it is the Assyrian Empire
as we continue going through this chapter.
But it says in verse number one, the burden of Damascus,
behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
So the capital city is going to be wiped out by the Assyrian Empire.
Verse number two, it says, the cities of Auroa are forsaken,
they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
And so the cities of Auroa, of course, these are cities of men, obviously,
where people are living, and God is saying that they're going to be so destroyed by the Assyrians
that the people, or not necessarily the people, but the creatures
that are going to populate the city there of Auroa, the cities of Auroa, are flocks.
So the flocks of sheep, flocks of goats, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
So normally, goats and sheep have a fear of man in a sense,
which is why often you can have a shepherd that would lead those flocks,
but there'll be no man left in these cities directing these creatures
from essentially making this place their habitation.
And then verse number three, it says, this is what's interesting.
So we start with the burden of Damascus, and we see an interesting lesson here.
Because God is telling the nation of Syria that he's going to judge them for their weakness.
But notice in verse number three, it says, the fortress also shall cease from Ephraim.
Now Ephraim, you may recall, is obviously one of the tribes of the Twelve Tribes of Israel,
but many times God in the Bible refers to the whole nation, the northern kingdom of Israel,
as Ephraim, because Ephraim was one of the largest, or the largest tribe in the nation.
And so now God is judging the northern kingdom of Israel together with Damascus, or together with Syria.
And you say, why would that be?
Well, because the northern kingdom of Israel made an allegiance with Syria.
They made an allegiance with an ungodly people, with gods that they do not know,
and so as part of this process of God judging the wicked,
because his people, technically, you know, his people have joined together or made alliances with the wicked,
they too are going to be judged by God.
And you know, this ought to be a warning for you guys,
because you as God's people, you as the children of God,
you have to be mindful about the friendships, the allegiances that you form, you know.
And if you surround yourself with wicked people, you know, wicked friends,
where God may very well judge that wickedness, if you are in that very presence, in that wickedness,
associating yourself with wicked people, God's judgment may cause you to be, you know, destroyed.
You know, God's judgment might hurt you, even though the burden was for the wicked nations,
the burden was for others, but you hanging around the wrong kind of people
may cause God's judgment to fall very well on you.
And so it says in verse number three,
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim and the kingdom of Damascus and the remnants of Syria.
They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, sayeth the Lord of hosts.
So God is essentially saying, look, I'm lumping you all together, right?
You know, God wanted to make sure that, you know, his kingdom or his people always serve God first and foremost.
You know, they would always live in holiness and keep his commandments
and keep his ways.
But once again, because the northern kingdom of Israel had drifted far from the Lord,
you know, making allegiances with ungodly nations,
God is just lumping the children of Israel within this judgment that would fall upon Syria.
Now the reason we know we're talking now about the Assyrian Empire,
because once again we're referencing the northern kingdom of Israel,
and who was it that destroyed them? Who was it that took them into captivity?
It was the Assyrian Empire.
And so because of that mention of Ephraim,
we now know who God is using to bring this burden upon Damascus, the Assyrian Empire.
Let's keep going then, verse number 4.
And in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin,
and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
Of course, Jacob's name was changed to Israel,
again, reference to the northern tribe, the northern kingdom of Israel.
God is saying, look, right now they're plenteous, they're flourishing,
but when the judgment of the Assyrian Empire comes upon them,
they're going to be lean, they're going to be lacking.
And so verse number 5, it says,
And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn,
and reapeth the ears with his arm,
and it shall be as he that gathereth ears from the valley of Rephaim.
And so God is saying, just like you go and you harvest,
you know, and you take the wheat or the corn,
you know, there's nothing left,
that's how the destruction's going to fall upon the people of Israel.
And then it says in verse number 6,
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it.
So God is saying, there's going to be very few left in the northern kingdom of Israel,
very few people.
It says, as the shaking of an olive tree.
So he uses another illustration,
an olive tree, if you took an olive tree and you tried to shake that tree,
you know, you would have the fruit fall off it,
and some of it will remain, but a lot of it's going to fall,
and so God is using that illustration that,
you know, captivity's going to take them away,
but there'll be a few that are going to be left on the land.
It says two or three berries in the top of the uttermost bough,
four or five in the utmost fruitful branches thereof,
save the Lord God of Israel.
So very few, two or three, four or five,
he says very few of the Israelites are going to remain on the land
when the Assyrians come and take them into captivity.
Now, the next verses are the ones
that I really want to park on in this sermon today,
because what we see in verse number seven,
as God brings judgment upon his nation, upon his people,
it says in verse number seven,
at that day shall a man look at his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
The Bible says that the Holy One of Israel is our Maker.
Our Maker.
You know, God has created us, God has made us,
and God has, you know,
the God that we ought to worship and serve is the God of Israel,
is the God of the Bible,
and when God brings judgment,
the reason for it is he wants his people
to set their eyes upon him once again,
because their eyes obviously are not fixed upon
the Lord God at this moment.
And you know what?
This is something I've learnt in my life.
You know, the 42 years that God has given me,
when I am not walking faithfully with the Lord,
you know, and that's been so long now,
I mean, being a pastor has changed everything,
but you know, going back in my earlier life,
when I've not walked with the Lord,
you know, the Lord has allowed some,
some difficulty to enter my life,
some problem, some trouble,
where, you know, I may not even have been
necessarily living a wicked, excessively wicked life,
but I've just lived a life
where my eyes were not on my Maker.
My eyes were maybe on the world,
or my eyes were on myself,
and what I can achieve and what I can accomplish,
where God sends a problem
simply for you to set your eyes upon your Maker,
for you to remember the Lord God
who loves you, who makes you,
and this is why he's bringing judgment upon
Damascus and upon his people,
that they may remember the Lord God who made them.
But notice what it said at the end of verse,
halfway through verse number seven,
and his eyes shall have respect.
Respect is where I want to park on this chapter today.
You know, what should we be respectful about?
Well, you see, from this verse,
we ought to have our respect
to the Holy One of Israel.
We ought to respect our Lord God,
we ought to elevate him highly,
we ought to honor him and praise him,
and always remember the blessings that he's given us.
And look at verse number eight,
instead of respecting God,
what do they do? It says,
and he shall not look to the altars,
the work of his hands,
neither shall respect that which his fingers have made,
either the groves or the images.
So God is saying, when this happens,
people are not going to be looking
at their images any longer.
They're not going to have a respect
for their idols any longer.
And of course, when I think of idol worship,
I often think about the Roman Catholic Church.
They're not the only ones, of course.
You know, Buddhism has a lot of idols as well,
and pictures of so-called Jesus,
or so-called saints,
or so-called Mary.
And you know, God says here
that people generally have a respect
of the work they have made with their fingers.
Now obviously,
if we want to take an application for ourselves,
you know, I doubt,
I mean, I've been to some of your houses,
I don't remember seeing an idol.
I don't remember seeing some image,
something you used to respect
that you made in your hands.
Some golden image of some angel,
I've not seen that in your house.
But we always want to take an application
for ourselves.
And notice, what do they have respect for?
They used to have respect
for that which his fingers have made.
You see, sometimes,
we might be successful in our workplace.
We might be successful in our jobs.
You know, as we go,
and we accomplish something great,
and there's nothing wrong with that in of itself.
But sometimes, instead of respecting God,
who gave us the ability to work hard
for those things,
instead of respecting the God,
who has allowed us to have success,
and has blessed us with success,
we start to have respect on the things
that our fingers have done.
You know, the bank account that we have.
You know, whatever accomplishments that we've had,
and sometimes we look at what we've achieved,
and wow, look at me.
Look at my success.
And we start to have respect
on the work that we've done,
and we forget to put our eyes on our Lord God.
And it's so easy, brethren.
It's so easy to do.
Because, like I said, there's nothing wrong.
God wants, especially men,
to be productive.
You know, God wants men to work.
He's made us to work,
to labor, to serve him,
you know, to look after our wife,
to look after our children.
And so we're going about and doing the right thing.
But we need to remember,
as we succeed and we do well,
that we always give glory to God,
and not glory for the work of our fingers,
the work of our hands.
You see, it's not like you intentionally went out
to respect the work of your fingers.
But there is something about man,
I don't know what it is.
It's just so hard, you know,
to accomplish and to do something,
and then just pat yourself on the back
and say, look what I've done.
And we forget to thank the Lord.
We forget to respect the Lord God.
And sometimes, even though what we've achieved
is not sinful in of itself,
God, in his judgment,
might take it all away from you.
You know, it may judge you
and take everything away from you,
just so you can have a respect
for the Lord God once again.
And so that's the lesson
that I want to take out of this.
Now let's look at how, you know,
the Bible speaks of this word respect.
If you can keep your finger there in Isaiah 17
and come with me to Genesis,
the first time respect is mentioned in the Bible.
Genesis chapter 4, please.
Genesis chapter 4.
Genesis chapter 4 and verse number 3.
We're going, obviously, back to early history.
And, you know, when Adam and Eve
had their first children,
Cain and Abel were their first sons
that they bear.
And you know the story, of course,
in Genesis 4-3.
Let's read it together. It says,
And in process of time it came to pass,
that Cain brought of the fruits of the ground
and offering unto the Lord.
So Cain was a farmer.
You can see he is farming
the fruit of the ground.
And, of course, the fruit of the ground
is the work of his fingers, as it was, right?
Like, you know, he's labored hard,
he's plowed the ground,
he's planted the seeds,
he's brought forth fruits.
Then he said,
I'm going to take the fruit
that I have gathered,
and I'm going to present this
as an offering for God.
You know, this is going to help me
to be made right with God, as it were.
What about his brother, verse number 4?
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings
of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Look at this.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel
and to his offering.
So Abel is a shepherd,
he's got the flock, he's got sheep.
Instead of fruit, like Cain,
he brings a lamb.
He brings blood as a sacrifice for God.
And look at verse number 5, it says,
But unto Cain and to his offering,
he had not respect.
And Cain was very wroth,
and his countenance fell.
So what you see here, brethren,
from the very beginning,
we have what is right,
what cleanses us from sin
is the shedding of blood.
And of course, the blood of the lamb
of Abel's offering, you know,
is a picture, a shadow,
of the blood of Jesus Christ.
That, you know, with the blood of Christ
is the remission of sins.
It's the payment of our sins,
the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
And God has respect for that offering.
You know, if you're saved today,
it's not out of respect
of the work of your fingers.
If you're saved today,
God has the respect for the shed blood
of Jesus Christ,
that has washed us from all our sins.
But Cain brings a false religion.
Cain brings an offering
that God has no respect of,
And again, is there anything wrong
with working with your hands?
No.
Is there anything wrong
with planting and having fruits?
No.
But what we saw,
you know, we won't go look at it now,
but back in Genesis 3,
you know, when Adam and Eve
sinned against the Lord,
the Bible says that God made coats of skin
to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve.
And so if he made coats of skin,
the Lord God would have slaughtered an animal.
And that which pictures a covering of sin,
again, would have been a picture
of the shed blood of an animal.
And so Abel learns the lesson.
He knows what God requires.
Shed blood.
Cain thinks,
I can impress God
with the work of my fingers.
Look, Cain should have just
thanked God for the labor of his hands.
Right?
Thank you, Lord,
for the plenty of fruits
and crops that I've grown.
And then he should have
just gone to his brother Abel,
so Abel can have a sheep.
I need a sheep for an offering
for the Lord.
Like that would have been
the right thing to do, right?
But out of his pride,
he thought, no, I'm going to bring
the works of my fingers instead.
God does not have respect for that.
You know, works-based salvation.
Look how good I am, Lord.
God has no respect for that kind of
method of salvation.
That doesn't save anybody.
God has no respect for that.
In fact, the Bible says that
our righteousness are as filthy rags
in the sight of God.
So we're trying to,
look, God respects my good works
and God says,
look, put that away from me.
It's disgusting, it's filthy.
It's not righteous, it's sinful.
Brethren, the only way
we can do righteous acts
in the sight of the Lord
is to do those acts
within the new man.
Once you're saved and born again
and you can do things
by the Spirit of God,
now you're actually
accomplishing righteousness
through, you know, the Spirit,
the new man that God has given you.
So God has a respect for salvation
of shed blood alone,
and of course,
that's a picture of Jesus Christ.
But he does not have
a respect of good works.
But man thinks of that.
Man thinks,
they think about that
all the time, like,
oh man, this person,
surely they're going to heaven
because look how good they are.
Look what they've accomplished.
God has no respect for that.
You know?
Can you come with me
to Leviticus 19?
Leviticus 19.
Leviticus 19, verse number 15.
And look, some of you thought
you had God's respect
for your good works
before you got saved, right?
Like, it's one thing to preach
against these false religions,
and we need to do that,
don't get me wrong.
But you were once like that.
You know, if you were
saved later in life,
you once thought,
I hope I'm good enough
to go to heaven.
I'm trying my best
to go to heaven.
And you know what?
It just reminds us,
even though God did not
respect that method of salvation,
it reminds us just how
merciful God is
and long-suffering
to give us time
to get things right,
to seek Him,
you know, to encounter
a soul winner,
to encounter the
gospel message,
to encounter Jesus Christ
and His salvation.
You know, when it comes
to respect,
we need to also remember
there are times in our life
that we need to pass judgment.
You know, especially
if you're put in an authority of,
you know, you're given
a position of authority.
You know, you might be
a manager or a supervisor
in a workplace,
and you're going to have to
sometimes make judgment
calls between people.
You know, if you want
to be a pastor one day,
you're going to have to
make judgment calls
sometimes at church,
you know, amongst brethren.
And the Bible says
in Leviticus 19, 15,
Leviticus 19, 15,
it says,
You shall do no
unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect
the person of the poor,
nor honor the person
of the mighty,
but in righteousness
shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
You know, if you're given
positions of authority,
you know, you're not
to look and make
a certain judgment,
well, I'm going to judge,
I'm going to be more lenient
if they're of the mighty,
if they've got
a respectful name,
a respectful title,
they've achieved
things in life,
you know, even though
they've done wickedness
or, you know,
I need to call them
out for this.
You know, God says
don't have respect
of the person that they are.
Don't even have
respect for the poor
and go, well, aren't they poor?
Maybe I shouldn't
make that decision.
Look, the Bible says
when we need to make
judgment, it says,
but in righteousness
shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
We need to make sure
that when we pass judgment,
it is righteous judgment.
It is right.
You know, you've looked
at the evidence
and you're making
the best decision you can,
especially aligned
with God's word
to help you make
that right decision.
And you know what,
when you pass judgment,
especially people with authority,
you're going to be criticized.
Like people are going to say,
you know, I don't think
you made the right decision
there, you know,
but look, at the end of the day,
you know, if you're going to be
put in position of authority,
you need to remember
I can't respect persons.
I can't be,
well, that's my best,
like as a pastor,
I can't say,
well, that's my best friend
or that's my family member
and so I'm going to judge
them differently
within the church
or that's a faithful
brother in the Lord
and you know,
that brother has been
putting in the most money
in the church
and therefore, you know,
a situation comes up
and I can't judge him.
No, the Bible says
to judge righteously
regardless of who they are
or what they've done
because our Lord God
is not a respecter of persons.
But it's hard for us
like it's hard, you know,
it's easy for our judgment
to be, you know, affected
and you know,
you might have emotions
and feelings
and thoughts toward one person
or contrary to one person
and it's very difficult.
If you come with me
to Proverbs 24,
come with me to
Proverbs 24 please.
Proverbs 24.
Book of Proverbs,
Proverbs 24 verse number 23.
Proverbs 24 and verse number 23.
The Bible says,
these things also
belong to the wise.
It is not good to have
respect of persons
in judgment.
Boy, you know,
if I ever have to
make a decision,
you know, for church,
you know, if I have
to make a decision
whether, you know,
this brother
or the sister of the Lord
should or should
not be in church.
You know what,
you need to,
you can't have respect
and say,
well, you know what,
you need to,
you can't have respect
and say,
well, you know,
this brother
is like this
and that sister
is like that
and look,
if there's a situation,
a judgment needs to be made,
a decision has to be made
and so, you know,
it's something,
you know,
especially as a pastor
that I try
to be very careful about
because sometimes
I'm put in a position,
positions that
I don't really want
to have or decisions
that I don't really
want to make
but you need to understand
and I hope I've
earned, you know,
at least, you know,
the honor of the title
of the pastor
in your eyes
that sometimes
I need to make
a certain call,
a certain decision
and understand
that I'm trying
to do so
without respect
of persons.
You know,
if there's a situation
that needs to be dealt with,
it needs to be handled.
That decision
needs to be made
even if it's
unpopular.
Come with me to,
let's keep going there,
actually,
verse number 24.
It says,
Proverbs 24, 24.
Hear that safe
unto the wicked.
Thou art righteous.
Him shall the people
of all nations
shall abhor him.
You know,
people, you know,
judges, you know,
in a court case
or something like that
where they might let
the perpetrator go free
and say,
well, you know,
they're righteous.
They didn't do anything wrong
and they let them go free.
The Bible says that
the people are going
to curse that judge.
People are going
to hate that judge.
You know,
when you're given
a position of authority
and you've got to
make judgment calls,
you need to understand,
I don't know
if this saying
but, you know,
you're damned if you do
and you're damned if you don't.
Like, it doesn't matter
what decision you make,
someone's going to say
that wasn't the right decision.
It's just how it is, okay?
But you need to make sure
whatever decision you make,
it's one out of righteousness.
It's one based on evidence.
It's one where you're
lining yourself up
with God's word
as best as you know how
and making sure
you're not a respecter
of persons.
Can you come with me
to Proverbs,
sorry,
same chapter,
verse number 25.
It says,
but to them that rebuke him
shall be delights
and a good blessing
shall come upon them.
So you might be fearful
to pass judgment sometimes
but God says
if you pass judgment,
you're not a respecter
of persons,
you do things righteously,
it says that God
is going to bless you.
There's going to be
a special blessing
if you make decisions
based on righteousness,
decisions based on
the word of God.
Proverbs 28 now,
Proverbs 28
and verse number 1.
Proverbs 28
and verse number 21.
Proverbs 28
and verse number 21.
The Bible says
to have respect
of persons
is not good.
For a piece of bread
that man will transgress.
So,
a piece of bread.
The Bible's saying that
you know,
if you're a respecter
of persons,
you're going to be,
you're going to give
into bribes
where someone should
righteously be
a good person
and you're going to be
a good person
and you're going to be
a good person
and you're going to be
a good person
and you're going
to be a good person
and you're going
to be a good person
and someone should
righteously be judged.
You know,
maybe as a church pastor
someone should righteously
be kicked out of church.
But if you're,
you know,
oh man I don't know
that person is like this,
You know,
you need to make
that judgment based
on the situation at hand.
Bible says,
man,
if you are someone
that would easily
just give into bribery,
you're going to
basically distort
your judgment
even over a piece
of bread.
Like,
a piece of bread
is nothing, right?
Like a small piece
your judgment is going to be so affected, you know, if you're someone that, you know,
steams one person over another person. And you know, especially as a pastor, one
thing that I try really hard to do is to just be friendly to everybody. Like,
I don't want to be a pastor that's seen as, oh, this church member, he's
his favorite, or you know, this person's his best friend, or this
church member, he gets along with more. I don't want to be that way, and in
fact, if I come across that way, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be that way. You know,
you know what, when I look at each one of you, again, I see you as a brother or
sister in the Lord, and I need to esteem you better than I esteem myself. You're
a child of God, and I don't want to. It doesn't matter how long you've been
saved. You might be saved for two weeks, and someone's been saved for 20
years. You know what, I don't want to treat the one that's only been saved
for two weeks lesser than the one that I would, you know, the one that was
saved for 20 years. Or you might have been a church member here from the
very beginning. You know, I don't want to esteem you higher than someone who's
been a church member for six months. You know, my goal is to try to be equal
with my brethren, you know, treat them the same, and not be someone that
respects one or another, because when you're put in a position of authority,
if there are certain decisions you need to make, you know, if you can't
set aside the person that, you know, you need to make a decision on, you're
going to make massive mistakes in life. You're going to respect persons, you're
going to let the wicked go free, and you're going to, you know, judge against
those that were innocent and what-have-you, and you know what, God is
going to, he's not going to bless you, and the people are going to hate
you for it. So we can see that it's important that we are not a respecter
of persons. Now you're in Proverbs. Come with me to Psalm. Psalm, you're not far
away. Come with me to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119, and verse number six.
There is something we ought to be respectful toward, though. We know we
ought to be respectful to our Lord God, our maker, our creator, but also in
Psalm 119, look at verse number six, it says, then shall I not be ashamed when I
have respect unto all thy commandments. So we ought not to respect persons, but
one thing we definitely can respect, all of God's commandments, all of them.
Again, you know what, most people are like this, oh I like the New Testament, I
don't like the Old Testament. The New Testament, God is more merciful, I
don't like the God of the Old Testament. Well, no, God says if we are people of
respect, you know, we ought to respect all of his commandments, all of them.
Like, you know, when I get up here behind the pulpit and I'm teaching
against sin, and I explain to you where God's standard, especially against a
crime, it might be corporal punishment, it might be the death sentence, and as
a pastor, you know, my job is to preach God's Word faithfully, you know
what, don't get offended when God's Word says the right punishment for someone
is a death penalty. You know what, God wants you to be someone
that respects all of his commandments. So when we look at that, we say, you know
what, Lord, maybe that might make me uneasy, you know, especially in a
society that I live in, but I'm going to love your commandments because it's
your word and I'm going to respect your decision rather than what society is
telling me, you know, in my life. Come with me to the same chapter, drop down to
verse 115. The Bible says, I will meditate in thy precepts and have
respect unto thy ways. So what else we should respect? His ways.
Before that, precepts is mentioned, you know, the word precept has to do with
direction. God's direction, that's why it says, and I will have respect unto thy
ways. You know what, we ought to respect the ways that God wants us to live.
You know, sometimes, you know, I hear things like, you know,
Christians live in, you know, Christian living is dorky or, you know,
Christian living is just too difficult, you know, it's too weird, you know what,
you ought to have respect for God's ways. Look, I understand sometimes
Christians go too far, you know, I understand sometimes Christians create traditions of men
and they teach it as commandments of God. I understand, you know, I'm not saying be like
the Amish, I'm not saying be like the Mennonites, you know, that is not God's ways.
But you know what, if a believer is trying to live a holy life, a life that pleases God,
and they're lining themselves up with God's ways found in the Bible, you ought to have respect
for them. You know, you have to respect that they're trying to live a life that pleases
God rather than to look down upon them and think of them as some dorky Christian or something
like that. Hey, we ought to have respect for God's ways. Can we meet to verse number 117,
same chapter? Psalm 119 verse 117. The Bible says, hold thou me up and I shall be safe,
and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. Continually. Now statutes is written
as legislation, it's obedience to the law. What do you think of God's laws? Look, I know
you break God's laws every day, so do I, because we're sinners every day. I understand
that. But you know what, instead of getting angry at God's laws, by saying, oh it's too high
of a standard, instead of getting angry at God's laws, why don't you just remember what
you are, humble yourself and say, Lord God, I'm sorry for breaking your law, I'm sorry
for transgressing against your law, I'm sorry for sin against your law, there's nothing
wrong with your law, there's something wrong with my flesh, and you know that,
Lord, please forgive me. That's the right way when you mess up. Sometimes as Christians
we want to make ourselves feel better. We break God's laws and then we diminish God's
law, oh that was from the Old Testament. That's how God felt about it back then, but
he doesn't feel about it like that anymore. Oh, like we saw earlier, we ought to love
all of God's commandments. And whatever God has written in his law, we ought to
be obedient to that. So we ought to respect what? His commandments, his ways,
his statutes, and all of these directions of life are found in the Holy Scriptures.
We ought to respect God's word, is what I'm trying to say. You know, God's word, his direction.
And it's not easy, I'm not here pretending it's easy to live like a Christian life.
You know, I'm not here pretending like it's always just the easiest thing, just,
you know what, if I look at my Christian life over the years, there are times that
I've done well and there are times that I've done bad. There are times that I've
done better and then bad. You know, sometimes in the Christian life we want this sort
of step-by-step approach, like, okay, I'm saved, step one, you know, what do I do?
Go to church, okay, okay, I'm doing well, and step two, read my Bible cover to cover,
okay, I've done that, maybe step three, soul winning, and like it's just this
sort of progress and progress and progress and progress, but if you've been
saved for a long time, you know that's not the case. You know it's like this.
But what you want, even though it looks like this, what you want is that the
trend is getting higher and higher and higher, even though it's up and down, up
and down and down, you still want the trend, you'll save ten, like, you know,
you'll save ten years ago to where you are now, you want to be saying, well, I'm
doing much better with my Lord God than I was when I first got saved, but
you'll still be going through this process, and that's life. That's the
truth, you know, but again, instead of finding fault in God's Word, just
realize you're the faulty one. That's why Jesus had to come and save you,
praise God. You know, I mean, God's given us every solution, salvation, His Word, His
direction, and when we mess up, we could go before Him, confess, He forgives us,
and He says, soldier on, keep walking in my commandments. Can you come with me
to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 10, verse number 34.
Why are we going through this past, though? Because we see as God is judging the
nation of, you know, it's a burden of, a burden of, um, of Damascus, God's now
judging these people once again. It's like, man, if you don't want God to come
down hard on you, like I said, number one, be careful of the friends you
make, the associations you make, okay? Don't be a respecter of persons, you know,
don't think, well, man, these are my friends, I feel peer pressure, I feel like
I need to go, you know, go along to get along, and therefore you start to
think about, you know, you prioritize what others have to say about you
rather than prioritizing what God has to say about you. You know, it's so
easy to be pressured and feel like, man, I need to live according to somebody
else's standard. Now, how about you compare yourself to this God's standard? That,
you know, having respect for what God's Word said, rather than what your
friends think of you, or what your work colleagues think of you. So Acts 10 34,
Acts 10 34, then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive
that God is no respecter of persons. Doesn't matter how big your bank account
is, you think you're better than someone else, God says, it's nothing, I don't
respect that. You know, a qualification, you know, whatever you've
graduated from, you know, you've got a doctorate degree in some history, you
know, I'm highly educated, to God it's nothing. God does not respect any of
that. What does he respect? Verse number 35, but in every nation he that fear
of him and work of righteousness is accepted with him. Brethren, here in
Australia we ought to fear the Lord. We ought to work righteousness. And the
Bible says if we do that, that's what he accepts. Like, God can look
down and say, I respect that. I respect their faithfulness, their righteousness,
their fear of God. God can look at that and say, that is respectful. But
how man thinks of respect, that's not how God looks at things. I'll just
quickly read through from Romans 2 11, for there is no respect of persons with
God. I mean, this actually, if you read your New Testament just once, you're
going to find this phrase, I mean, I didn't really look it up, but top of
my head you're probably going to look fine, something like that, six or seven
times throughout the New Testament, maybe even more. I'm just
trying to guess here, but I mean, that comes up over and over again
in so many of the New Testament books, that God is not a respecter of
persons. You know, as people are going out preaching the gospel, you know,
certain people think they don't need it or they're already
right with God because of their works or because of their religion or because
they've got, you know, Abraham's DNA and God makes it very clear that God
does not respect those things. You know, some people think they're better
because of their DNA or they're better because of the color of their
skin or they're better because of their race or the nationality. God is not a
respecter of persons. Can you come with me to James chapter 2? Come with me to James
chapter 2. Now I know I already spoke about making judgment and this kind of
falls under the same category. James chapter 2 verse number 1. James
chapter 2 verse number 1. It says, my brethren, have not the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. So it says here
if we want, you know, we ought to have the faith of our Lord Jesus, right?
But we ought not to be a respecter of persons. Like these things are, they're
not compatible one with the other, right? Because when you think about God, when
he sent, you know, he sent Jesus to die for the sins of man, once again God was
not a respecter of persons. When Jesus died, he died for every single man. He died
for every single sin. You know this stupid idea of
Calvinism, that Jesus just died for some, you know, where God from his
eternal state already predestined who he's going to die for and who is not
going to die for. That's essentially God being a respecter of persons. Like this
person deserves to be died for and that person does not deserve to be
died for. This person deserves their sins forgiven but not that person. No,
that's incompatible with the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. But look at
verse number two. This is about church. For if they come unto your assembly, if a man
comes to our church like this, a man with a gold ring, I forgot to put on my
gold ring actually, in goodly apparel, so he's got the jacket on, he's got the
tie, looks just like me, okay, but with a wedding ring. So I come in, that's the
pastor. You guys are like that, you know. I mean obviously you love me and we
ought to greet one another but if I come into the church, I'm like a
superhero and everyone looks up to me and I'm glad it's not that way, okay,
but you know, and then and they come in also a poor man in vile
arraignment. Some beggar, some homeless man off the street walks in, okay, so I
come in at the same time with some homeless man, okay, so what's going to
happen? And verse number three, and ye have respect to him that where of the gay
clothing, gay means happy or good clothing, okay, and say unto him sit
thou here in a good place and say to the poor stand thou there or sit here
under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves and I become
judges of evil thoughts? So I come in dressed all nice with my gold ring,
and you're like pastor, in like there's a throne here or something, pastor come sit
on your throne, come sit on a good chair, and I'll polish your shoes
pastor, and the beggar comes in you're like you know what, we don't even
have, even though there's somewhere to sit, it's like oh you stand over there, you
know what God says, that's what to say there at the end of verse number four, he
goes these are evil thoughts, judges of evil thoughts, you respect the man
because of the way he's dressed, and boy I've seen this in church and it
embarrasses me when I have seen this in church, I haven't seen it in my
church, praise God, I've not seen it at blessed up at this church or new life
at the church, but I've been in other churches and I've seen people come
to church, you know, they don't know how to speak properly, they might speak
profanity, and they don't, you know, they've got street
language, they're not dressed properly, a man might have long hair, they
might have tattoos, and I've seen Christians in the church look at them
and not even want to talk, not even want to greet them, almost like just
look at them, we have an evil eye, the desire of them to just get out of the
church because they don't belong, that's wicked thoughts, evil thoughts is what
it is, harmful thoughts, well it doesn't matter who walks into, if someone walks
into this church and we don't know who they are and they're dressed, you know,
whatever, you know what, that's a soul, that's a soul that Jesus died for
because God is not a respect of persons, what makes you better than that
person, Jesus died for both of you, and we ought to go to that person say
hey, are you 100% sure that your soul is going to heaven, we ought to have
enough love for that person, the love that God had for that person, to send
his son to die for their soul, so to what our fellow man, you know, we ought not
to think of someone, oh man, you know, if you have, let's say one day we have a
pastor, a guest preacher, you know, a pastor, you guys look up to that
preacher as well, you know what, and the same day someone comes in who we
don't even know, you know what, and if you just give, you know, you just
dote on that pastor over and over again and just ignore everybody else,
there's something wrong with your heart, but don't you think that's easy to do, that
would be easy to do, like let's say we had a pastor Anderson come in, just as
an example or something like that, right, and then we just have random, you know,
people turn up because of the name and, you know, you go, you know, shake hands
with Pastor Anderson, but who cares who these other people are, I'm telling you
those are evil thoughts, wicked thoughts, you know what, Jesus died for all man,
God is not a respect of persons, why are you respect of persons, why are we, we
shouldn't be, but it's so easy, it's so easy to fall in these sins, can you come
with me to Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6 verse number 8, Ephesians 6 and verse
number 8.
Now what we're about to read is kind of a relationship between a employer and
an employee, but let's take this this truth for all of us, in Ephesians 6
8 it says, Ephesians 6 8, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. God is
saying, doesn't matter if you're bond, it doesn't matter if you're a servant,
like if you're an employee or you're employer, you're free, you run your own
business or maybe you've earned enough passive income that you don't need to
be under anyone's authority, working for some other man, God says it doesn't
matter what station you have in life, like man looks at that right,
man goes oh you run your own business, you don't work for someone else,
respect, but God says it doesn't matter what situation you find
yourself in, you know those that do good things, God's going to reward them
and bless them for the good things that they do, again God is not a
respected person, and then verse number 9, and ye masters, again employers, do the
same things unto them for bearing threatening, he goes don't threaten your
staff, he says do the same things that God does to these people, you know
what if you have someone that works under you, you know you get a
contractor or an employee and they do a good job, then reward them for the
good that they've done, don't withhold that from them, God doesn't withhold his
blessings and rewards from us, he says here knowing that your
master, so even though we might be masters on the earth, we still have a
master, God, we're all servants of God regardless of where your positional
status is in life, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is
their respect of persons with him, what is God saying there, you know what if
you're an employer and you mistreat your employees, God sees it and
he's not a respected person, he's going to reward you for the wicker that you
do for those that are under your, you know, employment, God sees it all, he's
not gonna go well you're the master, you know what God sees it all and God
treats everyone the same and boy you know I look at that and I just think, are we like
that brethren or do we sometimes have favoritism and you know what, if you
you know you might be more friendly with one person but you know they've
done something wicked towards somebody else, you know you're going to just side
with your friend just because it's your friend or you're going to make the
right judgment, go hey friend you know I love you, you've made a mistake, you
need to fix that up, you need to go sort that out, you know, we ought not to
be respected persons because our Lord God most definitely is not. But come back
with me to Isaiah 17, like I said that's the sort of the main topic that I want
you to think about in this sermon today but you know when we look at
Israel they did not respect God, they respect the work of their fingers, they
respected their idols and and their successes and they forgot all about
the Lord God and in verse number 9, Isaiah 17 verse number 9, the Bible says
in that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough and an uttermost
branch which they left because of the children of Israel and there shall be
desolation because, look at this, this is why, because thou has forgotten the
God of thy salvation and has not been mindful to the rock of thy
strength therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shall set it with
strange slips. Now let's talk about the first part in verse number 10, they've
forgotten the God of their salvation, they've not been mindful of the rock
of their strength. You know what, if you want to be successful in
life, in the sight of God, you need to be set upon the rock of your
strength. The rock is our Lord Jesus Christ and the words that he
teaches, his commandments, his ways, his precepts, you establish your life on
God's ways and you will flourish. But sometimes when you flourish, you forget
the God of your salvation. Again, this is the problem with Israel, this is the
problem with us, this is the problem with our flesh. You know, please, when you
see these things in the Bible, please just don't forget I am like this too, or I
can be like this, or I have been like this. I'm sure if you've been saved long
enough, you can say to me, don't say it to me, but you can say pastor, yep,
there have been times in my life that I've just forgotten about my Lord God.
There are times in my life that I've just stopped going to church, I've
stopped reading my Bible, I've stopped praying to my Lord God and I've just
been focused on my own selfish desires, my own selfish needs. Even though God's
blessed you, like you know in the past God has blessed you and done wonderful
things for you, you get to a point where you're like, wow, look what I've done.
That's when judgment falls though, that's when God's judgment falls, so you can see
your eyes back on Lord God, your maker. Now at the end of verse number 10, God
begins to use a bit of a parallel, not a parable, but like another
illustration to talk about what happened within Israel. It says at the end of
verse number 10, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants. So God uses the
illustration of gardening, so you might want nice flowers,
a nice garden to look at, and then it says, and shall set it with
strange slips. I had to look up what slips are. Slips are basically just a
leafy branch, but the fact that it's called strange slips, it's like you
want nice flowers and you want nice trees, but you got like these strange, you
found some plants and you thought, oh well, I don't know what this is, but I'll plant it in my
garden. And like these could be weeds, okay, weeds that then overtake your
garden and destroy your garden. And so God is using this illustration. Look, you
know God has given the nation of Israel these pleasant plants, you know
he's given them the land of Canaan, he's given them a land flowing with milk
and honey, he's given them prophets and he's given them the word, and these are
things that they ought to be planting in their life. These are the things they
ought to be spending their time on, but instead they got the strange branches,
they got the false religions, they've got the false ways of the nations
around them, you know the strange ways of Damascus and of Syria, and they
brought that and planted that into their their land. And because of that
in verse number 11 it says, in that day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, so you
went in for the plants to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to
flourish, but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of
desperate sorrow. So instead of seeing your nice trees and your nice plants
and your nice flowers, you go out one day and it's all just destroyed, it's
been taken over, it's all been strangled by these strange slips or these weeds
that have overrun your garden. And God says, boy it's like that idea you know a
little leaven, leaven of the whole lump, you know you just allowed a little bit
of the world to come into your life and it's destroyed your life, you no
longer resemble a Christian, you no longer resemble somebody as a child of
God, a people of God walking in God's ways, you know you just dab with a
little bit, you just got that strange slip, that's that strange weed, you planted
it in your life and now your life doesn't look and resemble anything like
God's people any longer. These overgrown weeds, these ways of the world
will destroy your testimony for Jesus Christ. And look, if that's you, if
that's happened to you, you say pastor, my life, I look at my life and again I
don't know, it's up between you and the Lord, I'm not gonna come and
interfere with your life and tell you how to run your life, I'm just here to
preach God's Word, but if you can look at your life and you let your home
life and go boy, does this really resemble God's people, you know, does my
life truly give honor to God, you know, have I truly put my respect in his ways
or am I just respecting my own ways and you know and you look at your
life and you feel like boy it is over run with weeds, it doesn't resemble what
God wants in my life, like if that happens you don't panic and give up,
it just means you've got to pull out the weeds, that's all it is, okay, you
pull out the weeds, you get busy, you get gardening, you say Lord God help me to
clean up these issues in my life, just like any gardener, like I've got a
garden in my backyard right now, it's just overgrown with grass, like I
need, I feel like getting a gardener and just ripping out because it just
takes work and I don't know, I wouldn't even know what I'm ripping out, like I
don't know if that's a good plant or a bad plant, like you know I'd rather
get somebody that knows to come and do some weeding for me and of course
you know that the greatest person is the Lord God coming to you, Lord you know my
heart, search my heart, try my ways and show me the things that cause you
displeasure, show me that the areas of my life that has caused so much damage
and a life that does not resemble one that you want me to live and then we
have the last few verses here, verses number 12, 13 and 14, it says woe to the
multitude of many people which make a noise like the noise of the
seas and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of
mighty waters. I believe verse number 12 is referring to the armies of the Assyrians,
you know the noise as they come in their horses and chariots and
war cries, you know God is using that illustration of the noise of seas,
of waves roaring as they come and take over the nations before them and then
it says in verse number 13, the nations shall rush like the rushing of many
waters but God shall rebuke them and they shall flee far off and shall be
chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a rolling
thing before the whirlwind. Now I believe this is referring to and we've
already looked at this so I'm not going to rehash the whole story all over
again but remember God did allow the Assyrians to destroy or wipe out or
take into captivity the northern kingdom of Israel, then the king of
Assyria is like you know what I'm going after Judah, I'm going after the
southern kingdom of Judah and they have some success but the Lord
God sends an angel, remember that, where God sends an angel, a miracle
takes place and that angel wipes out the army of the Assyrians and so I
believe that's what he's referring to, where like they've come, they've rushed
in you know and then it says that the Lord will rebuke but God shall rebuke them and
they shall flee far off so as soon as this angel Lord kills many of the
soldiers they retreat and they go back to Assyria. Yes I do believe that's
just speaking about being rebuked by the angel of God and then verse
number 14 it says and behold at the evening time trouble so in the
evening like they're worried, they're concerned, right, they're worried that
they're going to take over Jerusalem in Judea but it says, or Judah sorry, it
says and before the morning he is not so in the evening there's fear of the
Assyrians and then they in the morning there's no more fear because
remember the angel comes through destroys them and they wake up in the
morning they see all these dead soldiers, the Assyrian empire, the Assyrian
armor and they're like man we've got to get out of here and so it's
like and this is God's ways like sometimes you might feel like my life
is about to collapse like it's all about to just hit the fan like it's all like
that's it it's all over for me and then you wake up the next morning and
it's all been settled like God just like just at the 12th hour is that the
right 12th hour or the 11th hour what's the right statement the 11th hour
but it almost feels like it's 12th hour right God comes through and fixes
it or answer the prayer how many times has that happened you know it says
this is the portion of them that spoil us so the portions is what they this is
what the Assyrian army is going to this is their portion this is what they're
going to receive them that spoil us that cause us trouble it says and a lot
of them that rob us now we've been going through Isaiah 17 and what's the
17th book of the Bible anybody know yes brother Tim you're preparing every week
now right you check making sure all right so let's go to Esther let's go to
Esther come with me to Esther chapter 3 Esther chapter 3 so these last three
verses of Isaiah 17 obviously it's about the Assyrian Empire but there is
so much that is it almost feels like this is coming out of the book of
Esther it you know and again I don't have time to you know teach for the
whole book of Esther but very quickly after the Babylonians took into
captivity the southern kingdom of Judah Babylon was then overrun by the
middle Persian Empire okay so the Jews are scattered you know in
Babylonia they're scattered even in in Persia places like this and the
book of Esther is about the Persian King and the Persian King is looking
for another wife because he doesn't like his first wife okay and Esther of
course is a is a Jew a Jewess and he chooses Esther as his queen and the
story goes where Haman one of the advisors or one of the chief captains if
you want of the king of Persia hates the Jews and decides is going to
slaughter them all okay and so you know if we take these last few verses
from Isaiah 17 and apply to the story even though even the language that God
uses is very similar to what we read in Esther but look at Esther 3 13 very
quickly it says Esther 3 13 it says and the letters were sent by posts
into all the king's provenance provinces look at this to destroy to
kill and to cause to perish all Jews both young and old little children and
women in one day even upon the 13th day of the 12th month which is the
and to take the spoil of them for a prey notice it says take the spoil of them
for a prey and in Isaiah 17 verse 14 it says this is the portion of them that
spoil us and so what we see in the stories Haman you know is allowed or
essentially starts with to plan you know to just kill all the Jews of the
land to kill all the Jews in Persia and of course he under estimates he
doesn't realize Esther the queen is one of these Jews okay and of course the
Lord then uses Esther to appease her husband the king and then Haman gets
killed you know like Haman gets gets yeah gets put to death with his
children if you come with me to Esther chapter 9 now come with me to
Esther chapter 9 Esther and by the way if you just have time read the book
of Esther it's such a such an interesting book you know even though
the name of God's not mentioned but you can definitely see the hand of God
delivering Esther and the Jews in in in Persia but remember as you turn into
Esther 9 it's interesting that you know again that the language is very
similar that you know as the Assyrians are trying to come and
spoil you know take for spoil the people of Judah we see you know the
same sort of language we've Haman trying to destroy and kill the Jews that he
has become to take the spoil of them as prey and then in Esther 9 24 would you
say the end of Haman in Esther 9 24 it says because Haman the son of Hamad
Hamadathah the agatites the enemy of all the Jews had devised against the
Jews to destroy them and had cast per look at this that is the lot to
consume them and to destroy them and so what he was organizing or the lot that
he wanted in this was the destruction of the Jews and what we also saw at the
end of Isaiah 17 verse 14 it says not only this is the portion of that
spoil us it says and the lots of them that rob us and so what
essentially is happening is that God is sort of turning the tables against
the Assyrians as they come to spoil the Jews you know God turns and sends
an angel against them and destroys them and then we have Haman doing the same
thing coming to destroy the Jews and the Bible says he's also got this you
know coming to spoil and and to sort of you know seeking his lots but then
God turns this you know turns the head there and sorry it says there in
verse 25 but when Esther came before the king he commanded by letters that
device which he devised against the Jews should return upon his own head and
that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows so Haman had created
these gallows to hang up all the Jews and instead when the king finds out
that you know Haman is organized this and of course he would cause his queen
Esther to be put to death the king commands that Haman and his sons would
all be hanged in those gallows and so it's very interesting how you know God
turns the tables against Assyria but then God also turns the tables against
Haman and uses the same language that we see there in Isaiah 17 but
brethren the title of the sermon tonight was the burden of Damascus the
burden of Damascus and it's just it's so interesting that God begins judging
Syria but then the rest of chapter is judging Israel why because they made a
allegiances with ungodly people they made allegiances with Damascus God is
like all right you don't want me as your God you don't want me on your
side you want to be aligned with the wicked of you know wickedness of
other nations then you can fall by the same judgment of these other
wicked nations and the big takeaway brethren is be careful of what you
respect please don't respect the opinions of society or the opinions of
your friends or even the work of your hands don't be a respecter of persons we
need to respect our Lord God what does God what you think about me you know
God what does your commandments say about me what do I need to fix what
do I need to do you know I need to have a fear of God that's something you
can look down and respect God when I have a fear of God and when I do
righteousness when I work righteousness according to your laws the burden of the
masochist let's pray