Fire on the Fourth
Notes
Transcript
Text: Isaiah 48:1-11
Three-fold View
Three-fold View
On Father’s Day I preached on the many ways God manifests Himself in fire.
Remember:
Hebrews 12:29 (NASB 2020) for our God is a consuming fire.
I encouraged us, and continue to encourage us, to pray the words of the new song that we learned:
Holy Spirit, fall like fire
Burn away everything not of you!
Think about that prayer as we read our text:
READ TEXT
Our text and another passage I will read later, Ezekiel 22:17-22, tells us why and how God uses His fire to refine us and make us more like Jesus.
They will teach us about why and how God puts those He loves into the furnace of affliction.
But, please, even as we think about the furnace of affliction!
Understand that God uses the fire of the furnace of affliction to redeem us — NOT destroy us.
The devil, on the other hand, as we discussed in our Bible study Wednesday night, will put us through the fires of theft, destruction and death.
But Jesus, the One of whom Sister Terri Sills sung.
He is our Protector. As the lyrics say:
Protector
You never, never, never let me go
You said You wouldn't leave me, and You won't
You're right by my side
Protector
You hide me in the shadow of Your wings
Your presence is my peace, my covering
My song in the night
Protector, ooh-ooh
Protector
No weapon, no worry will prosper against me
No darkness, no evil will tease or torment me
All power, dominion to one name is given
My fortress, my freedom, my refuge, my Jesus
Even if we are not going through the devil’s schemes to destroy us — when we are instead in God’s furnace of affliction — even then, Jesus will protect us from destruction.
He will walk with us — even as He disciplines us.
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are punished by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”
Even as He prunes us ...
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
So, this morning, I would like to encourage us as we consider our text this morning to look at it in three ways simultaneously.
I believe we can do this through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The first way I want us to look at this scripture is in the way it was first presented ...
To those in Judah and Israel who needed, and indeed received, correction from God.
They were a people who had the victorious name of Israel or “Prince with God”
Complete Biblical Library tells us that: Israel is a title of victory and speaks of contending for the faith with power from God.
That might have been what they were called.
But they LIVED like Jacob
A man who lived up to what his name meant: a heel-grasper, a supplanter
His brother Esau, who thought of Jacob as a deceiver, a cheat, said of him in:
Genesis 27:36 (NASB) … "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me [cheated me] these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." ....
Jacob deceived and cheated everyone he could and tried to twist everything he touched to his advantage.
Unless God had changed Him in a supernatural wrestling match, His family would have had to screw him into the ground after he died he was so twisted.
Secondly, let’s look at this passage as speaking to the 21st century United States of America
Who, on this 245 celebration of its birth is, unfortunately, following right along in Israel’s rebellious footsteps.
Finally, let’s look at it from a personal perspective...
Do I have the NAME of Christian — but am I REALLY living like a unbeliever?
How am I living that needs God’s correction?
that needs God’s furnace of affliction?
So, let’s go through this passage this morning.
Jacob in Israel’s Clothing
Jacob in Israel’s Clothing
As I’ve already said, listen to how God addresses His people in vs. 1 -2 ...
As I just said, God is saying to Israel:
The nations call you Israel, but really you are a Jacob — you are a cheat, you’re a deceiver.
You say one thing and do another.
You proclaim to be a people who praise God (Judah vs 1), but in reality all you do is whine and complain.
You swear by God, you claim to lean on God saying “In God We Trust”, but that is a lie!
What you SAY you are doesn’t line up with what you REALLY are.
God’s Judgment Foretold
God’s Judgment Foretold
So, let Me tell you what I’m going to do.
In Vs. 3-8 God tells Israel, I’m going to fix the situation — I’m going to fix you.
In Vs. 4 God says ...
You are a bunch of stubborn, hard-hearted, hard-headed rebels — as vs. 8 says: You’ve been that way since the day you were born.
So, before I apply My corrective solution, a LONG time before I apply my corrective solution, I am letting you know.
You won’t be able to say, like a little, spoiled brat, that you you didn’t know it was coming.
God says: “I ALWAYS give warning! … LOTS of warning”
But how will you receive that warning?
Ezekiel 33:30–33 (NASB 2020)
30 “But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk with one another about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak one with another, each with his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the message is that comes from the Lord.’ 31 And they come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them; for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart follows their unlawful gain. 32 And behold, you [Ezekiel] are to them like a love song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them. 33 So when it comes [God’s judgment] —as it certainly will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”
I like the way the Message says Verse 32: To them you’re merely entertainment—a country singer of sad love songs, playing a guitar.
God is faithful to give warning so that when the fire falls we cannot say we didn’t know it was coming.
Like Jesus said in:
John 14:29 (NASB 2020)
29 And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.
God’s Refining Fire
God’s Refining Fire
So, we’ve heard the why of what God is going to do — you’re called Israel but live like twisted Jacob.
We’ve heard the when of what God is going to do (Read vs.5)
No let’s hear WHAT God is going to do:
Vs. 9-11
God says: I’m going to put you in the furnace of affliction.
Like Ezekiel said in:
17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become waste metal to Me; all of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the smelting furnace; they are the waste metal of silver. 19 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because all of you have become waste metal, therefore, behold, I am going to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the smelting furnace to blow fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath, and I will place you there and melt you. 21 And I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in the furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My wrath on you.’ ”
Israel was to God like waste metal or dross.
So God puts it into His furnace to refine it.
God tells Israel in vs.9 ...
God is like that.
He gives space for us to repent.
8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
But, if we do not turn in repentance, He WILL put us in the furnace of affliction.
Because He loves us too much to let us stay the way we are.
But, one of the big questions is, if we go into the furnace “How high will He need to turn the heat to burn away our impurities?
How long will we have to go through His purification so that we will accomplish His purpose?
To give Him ALL the glory?
Vs. 11 reminds us that God will not give His glory to us or anyone or anything else.
Lord, Burn Away The Dross
Lord, Burn Away The Dross
How will we respond in the furnace of affliction?
The original nation of people that God had Isaiah prophesy to is dead and gone.
But if they were here, they would tell us how hard the furnace of affliction was.
For 2000 years they were an oppressed and conquered people.
Many of those years they were a people without a land of their own.
Even though today Israel is a nation, many Jews still live in rebellion against God and His Messiah — and they continue in the furnace.
So, what can we as a nation and as individuals learn from this?
Can we learn from what God told Israel thousands of years ago here in Isaiah 48?
Maybe through Israel we can learn what God does to nations.
So that we will pray that God will use His refining fire to draw this nation to Himself.
He has done it before — He can do it again.
On this 4th of July let us recall how God brought a bunch of revolutionaries through the fire with many losses before they experienced miraculous victories that turned the tide of the war and gave this nation its independence.
“God, send Your refining, purifying fire — starting even today — on the fourth of July.
“Send fire on the fourth!”
So, let’s pray for this nation on this 245th birthday, that God will break the rebellion in our hearts and turn us back to dependence on Him..
But I think the breaking of rebellion against God as a nation must start with the breaking of that same rebellion in our own hearts.
We as individuals must turn to back to Him with our WHOLE heart — our half-hearted ways walking with God has contributed to the whole-hearted rebellion of our nation..
Will we do that this morning?
If you need to turn to Jesus, please come forward so that we can pray with you.
Altar
Music
Dismissal Prayer: Pastor Ben Day