Isaiah (Old Testament Survey)

To Incorporate:

1 person reads Matthew 3:3, John quoting Isa 1 person reads Isa 40:3 1 person reads Matthew 11:2-6, quoting Jesus’ response to John the Baptist 1 person follows up with Isa 35:5, we discuss which part of Jesus’ response matches that part of Isaiah 1 person reads Isa 61:1-2 and we discuss what Jesus left out Finish up talking about what John would have realized when he heard that message -Importance of understanding the Old Testament in context of the New. *Jesus came with new wine skins, not coffee. He isn’t replacing the covenant, He’s simply moving from the adherence of the letter of the law to the spirit of the law, like the tutor Paul mentions in Gal 3:23-29

Galatians 3:23–29 NASB95

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Homework for the end of the night:

-Take a passage you’re reading, either in the OT or the NT, and and find the unification, or the opposition, between a theme/phrase in that passage in the other testament. For example: Hosea talking about God’s love for His people may correlate to passages in Revelations about Christ and His bride (the church). Hebrews is a cheat sheet for this assignment. —Write down the passages you’re compare, a brief observation of how they compare, and one way it affected you. This is not required, but if you’d like to turn it in, brown points shall be given. The true reward, however, is developing this important skill.

Isaiah 59:1-3 - God is not the issue when you’re far from Him. The issue is unrepentant sin (Gen 3:6-10) -Unrepentant is important, because this chapter is clearly referring to intentional sin

“Working in collections. Our students sign a contract with us, and they agree to a payment plan. When a payment is missed, we call them, make sure everything’s ok, and sort it out. Most of the time it’s just a card issue, or banking issue. But, if they keep missing payments, we keep reaching out. Because of the contract, we have the legal right to reach out as much as we want to collect the payments they agreed to give us. Now maybe the student’s friend told them, ‘hey man, I’ll cover all your missed payments.’ And that’s great! But until the covered price is handed over to the company needing the money, we don’t view it as covered. We’ll continue contacting the person. Intentional sin is similar. Jesus has covered the price for all of your sins, and to be very clear, nothing you can do will ever change that fact. Jesus’ sacrifice will always have been more than enough to cover all of your mistakes, screw ups, bad habits, etc, etc. Always. But, when we intentionally do what God told us not to do, then we’re intentionally hardening our hearts to the Holy Spirit (a terrifying idea) and giving the devil the legal right to reach out to us. Why? Because, like teenagers, disobeyed God and hung out with the only other person available to hang out with, the devil. I won’t say that mistakes are agreements with the devil, but intentionally breaking what God has told you to do or not to do, is demonic. Demonic is a scary trigger word, so take a breath, and hear me out. Demonic is simply anything of the devil. What’s of the devil? Whatever is not of God. We use the word demonic for the big stuff, like possession, but intentionally lying to your parents so you can sneak out of the house to drink is also demonic. Why? Because it’s signing an agreement with the devil. How? You’re saying ‘What God has for me isn’t enough.’ And the devil doesn’t do gifts. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23) So when you go to what the devil has for you, then you have to walk into some kind of agreement with him.

Here’s the good news. Jesus already conquered satan. He already conquered the grave, and He already sees you as fully forgiven and free. You just have to repent, meaning admit where you were wrong and see where God was right (everywhere) and do a 180. Don’t sneak out again, type thing. Jesus is always good to forgive. So if you intentionally sin, should you freak out? No. Should their be grief? Probably, but God gets to guide that part.