[LAUGHTER]

Chapter 29. A little background for you. When this was written-- and keep in mind that Isaiah prophesied for 58 years. Talk about long suffering. God was patient with people, and it's often seen in the Old Testament and the New Testament-- God isn't willing that people should perish.

He wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. And it seems that God will say the same thing over, and over, and over again in such patience. Because he wants to give people a chance to turn, to change. Isaiah prophesied for 58 years. And the nation, by and large, did not receive what he had to say. They indeed went into captivity, even though he warned them of their sin and told them to turn.

In chapter 29, the background is the Assyrians are slowly becoming more powerful and mounting themselves against Judah, the southern kingdom. Just to refresh your memory-- remember, the kingdom is divided into two. There's 10 northern tribes.

There's two southern tribes. Israel in the North, as she is called, has already blown it. And it's fallen to the Assyrians. Judah in the South is about ready to. And so Isaiah is warning them. And there's an imminent siege.

In verse one, he says, "woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on. Yet I will be besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth." "Ariel" means lion of God. And so far, she has been a lion that has withstood the Assyrian campaign.

But notice, in verse 2, God says, "yet I will be besiege Ariel." And there is a description now of what a siege was all about. "I will encamp against you all around. I will encircle you with towers. I will set my siege works against you. Brought low, you will speak from the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will become ghostlike from the earth. Out of the dust, your speech will whisper."

When people would take over a city-- today, it's a lot faster to have a war. You get machine guns, nuclear weapons, bazookas, and you send planes to bomb. In those days, it was different.

When you would attack a city, it would take months, sometimes years. You would build siege works and battering rams. And you would build ramps that would go up to the level of the highest top of the wall, and eventually, you would bring that battering ram, this huge machine of war, up to knock down the city wall.

Oftentimes, the enemies would camp around the cities so that people could neither go in nor come out. Eventually, if the water supply was outside the city, the city would have no water, would get no food, so they would starve to death. And that's exactly what happens to Jerusalem later on, when Babylon comes against her. In fact, Jeremiah, in weeping over Jerusalem and lamenting over it, beheld the worst sight of any kind of a war-- where people were in such despair that they even ate their own children to keep from starving to death, hoping that at least they would outlive their children, because the children were so weak already.

And he sees that. And he laments over Jerusalem-- the depths of depravity that sin has brought her into. But notice, in verse 3, "I will encamp against you all around, and circle you with towers, and set up my siege works against you." It's ironic that God is speaking first person. He's saying, I will be the one that will besiege you. God is the one that is using the enemy of Israel to punish Israel.

And then in verse 5, there is a switch. It says, "but your enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord almighty will come with thunder, and earthquake, and great noise, with wind storm, and tempest, and flames of a devouring fire."

Although God used Assyria to spank, if you will, Judah, God holds the Assyrians accountable. Because they did have a free will. That puzzles a lot of people, that God would say he uses somebody for something and then turn around and punish them for it. But the reason God can get away with that, folks, is that he has something you and I don't have-- that's called foreknowledge.

That means he can think and see what will happen before it happens. And even though a person has free will, he knows the choice that you'll make. It's like watching a football game on a rerun.

You saw the game yesterday. You see it the next day. You're seeing a rerun. And you start calling all the plays for all the people who were there. They're like, how'd you know that. That's no fair. You can't decide who's going to win. You say, sure I can. I saw the game already.

God, in seeing the game already-- although He used Assyria to get the attention of Judah and to spank his kids with this tool, God told Israel that whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye. And God turns now and says, I'm going to get Assyria for doing it. "Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord almighty will come with thunder, and earthquake, and great noise, wind storm, and tempest, and flames of a devouring fire." And he goes through speaking about what will happen.

It says, in verse 9, "be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless. Be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer or intoxicating drink. The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep. He has sealed your eyes--" that is the prophets-- "he has covered your heads--" that is the seers.

"For you, this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give this scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, read this please, he will answer, I can't. It's sealed. Or if you give this scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, read this please, he will answer, I don't know how to read."

In verse 9 and 10, there is a spiritual principle of confirming a decision. He says that you will be drunk, but not with wine. He speaks about a blindness, a deafness that occurs. But it's a spiritual blindness. It's a spiritual deafness. And he says, "the Lord has brought over you a deep sleep. He has sealed your eyes. He has covered your heads."

It's a very important principle that whenever we make a choice, either for God or away from God, God will harden or confirm the choice that you make. He will firm it up. If you say, God, I want to follow you, He will strengthen you in that position. That's wonderful to know, isn't it? Because we're weak and feeble, and our flesh is so weary. And we want to make a commitment, but we think, what will happen if I fall. When you make a commitment or a movement toward God, God sets that in clay-- He hardens it.

However, when you make a decision from the Lord, away from Him, he will also stiffen you in that choice. He will firm it up. Remember when Jesus spoke parables, and the disciple said, Jesus, how come you're talking in these stories. He said, I speak in parables.

For two reasons, basically-- I'm going to paraphrase this. To you, it has been given to know the secrets or the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to those who are outside, it hasn't been. They're blind. They don't care about it. It's hidden from their eyes. When I speak a story to you guys, because you're already tuned into spiritual truth, the story is going to make the point a lot clearer-- you will understand it with greater depth.

However, to those who are outside and blinded, the parable will serve to blind them further. They won't understand. They will think, what on earth is he talking about. He's just telling a bunch of stories. And so Jesus spoke a parable to drive the truth home to people who are interested and to keep the truth from people who are not.

It's a principle that runs through scripture. Ever been puzzled when you read the Old Testament and it says, "God hardened the heart of Pharaoh?" What do yo think? Now, God, why would you harden Pharaoh's heart? You should soften his heart. That's what we pray, don't we-- God, soften their hearts.

We could puzzle that God would harden his heart, but you have to read back a little further. It says, "and Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Lord and against the children of Israel." You read the next chapter, "therefore God hardened--" literally in Hebrew, made stiff and firm-- "the heart of Pharaoh." You see, Pharaoh made the first move. God said, I'll raise you five.

I'm hardening my heart against you. OK, I'll firm you up in that choice. If Pharaoh would have made a move toward God, God would have hardened or made firm his heart again, and it would have been easier for him to make a commitment to the Lord.

And so there's this spiritual blindness. And God says that, in part, he's responsible. "He's sealed your eyes-- the prophets-- He has covered your heads-- the seers." Now, in the next several verses, I want you to notice just how blind religion can become. Religion can be one of the most damning things in a person's life.

Because many people are content with an outward ritual and they feel good about themselves. They went to church. They went through the ritual. They signed on the log. Their name is now put on the roster of the church. I'm a member over at this Church. I never attended, of course, but I'm a member. And it can blind people from their true spiritual need.

God goes on through Isaiah. The Lord says, "these people come near to me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore, once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder.

The wisdom of the wise will perish. The intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." I like that. "Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, who sees us, who will know.

You turned things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay. Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it. He did not make me. Can pot say of the potter he knows nothing?"

Religion majors on the outward. God doesn't. God majors on the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. God could care less about the outward appearance. He's concerned about the heart.

And "these people," God said, "come near to me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips." Jesus talked about the Pharisees, and he used the same words, didn't he? And he said, "they do these things to be seen by man."

It's funny. It's so hard for people to rest in the grace of God, that God just loves them and accepts them because of their faith in Jesus Christ. It's hard for us to think that way.

We think we've got to give God reason to love us, and so we try so hard. We make a list of what is righteous and holy, and we try to keep to our little lists. I don't smoke. I don't chew. I don't go with girls that do.

[LAUGHTER]

When we have to fulfilled the list, we say, I'm righteous. I by myself have fulfilled the list, therefore, I am self-righteous. And God is always looking at the heart. It says that "these people are drawing near to me with their lips." What a portrait of spiritual blindness. A person who is spiritually blind lives on substitutes. And these people substituted words for actions.

I found a great definition one time of loneliness. This writer said, loneliness is malnutrition of the soul which comes from living on substitutes. Malnutrition of the soul which comes through living on substitutes. There's a great number of people who live on substitutes, folks. They will substitute, instead of actions, words.

They will go through the God talk. They'll go through the ritual. They'll hang out at church. They'll try to be like he or she, yet they are so lonely, and so empty, and so miserable inside. Because they're living on substitutes. God says, "here's a people who have substituted words for actions.

They draw near with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." In other words, they would rather live their lives according to man-made lists and regulations rather than worshipping God in honesty, in spirit, and truth.

Notice, down in verse 16, there's another picture of spiritual blindness. "You turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay." In other words, a person who is spiritually blind has a limited concept of God. They turn things upside down-- they mold God in their image.

Remember it says that God made man in His image? There's a lot of folks who make God in their image. Ever meet a person who says, well, you know, I just don't agree with the Bible. I picture God as being this or that. My view of God, I tend to picture. And my concept of God is this.

And what they are doing, instead of saying, I will base my life upon His Revelation of who He is, I'll say, I don't like that Revelation of who He is. I want to picture God different than that. I picture Jesus like this.

I have a lot of people who tell me how they picture God without being content to live their life according to what God said He was-- his own Revelation. And so they turn things upside down. They come up with their own concepts of God. That's what the humanist does.

I'm going to read to you something you're familiar with out of Romans, chapter 1. It's a declension from a high position. It says, "although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Their thinking became futile. Their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over, in the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity, and degrading," on, and on, and on.

"Because they worshipped and served created things rather than the creator, who is forever praised. Amen." They knew God, but they didn't glorify him as God. They didn't give thanks. And they turned things upside down. They had a limited concept of who God was. And so we have a portrait here, in Isaiah, something that Jesus used, of spiritual blindness.

Verse 17, however, there is a spiritual transformation that takes place in a very short time. "Will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field seem like a forest. In that day, the death will hear the words of the scroll. And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.

Once more, the humble will rejoice in the Lord." This, I believe, is speaking of a spiritual transformation. Why is there a transformation? All of a sudden, these spiritually-blind people can see. All of a sudden, these spiritually-deaf people can hear.

Because it says, in verse 19, "once more, the humble will rejoice in the Lord. The needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." In other words, people finally recognized their spiritual need. And whenever a person recognizes his own spiritual depravity, he thus recognizes his own need.

And when a person recognizes his own need, the result of that is what is at the end of this chapter, verse 24-- "those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding, and those who complain will accept instruction."

There has never been a person who has entered the Kingdom of God who has not been poor in spirit. Jesus said, "blessed are the poverty-stricken in spirit--" literally-- "those who are spiritually destitute, those who recognize that they are not good enough in and of themselves." Blessed are the spiritually poor. They are going to see God. They are gong to be filled. They're going to know Him.

Jesus went up to the Pharisees one time, and he spoke about spiritual blindness along these same lines. The Pharisees got ticked off at Jesus. They said, are you saying that we're blind. Jesus could have easily said, yeah. But he didn't. He said something very interesting.

He said, "if you were blind, you would have no sin. But because you say we see, therefore your blindness remains." You who say, I'm not blind. I have all spiritual wisdom. I'm a leader and a teacher of the truth. I'm a scribe.

Because you say that you are not blind, you're blind, your blindness remains. But if you were to admit your need, and say, Jesus I'm blind. I don't have it all together. I might be a religious figure, but I need something deeper.

I'm spiritually depraved apart from the righteousness of God. If you'd admitted that, you wouldn't be blind. But because you say you're not blind, your blindness remains. That's the spiritual principle here.

Now, chapter 30. And in chapter 30, God points out a fundamental flaw that many people have. And that is they misplace their trust. It's the old case of God helps those who help themselves.

Ever heard people quote that? Ever witnessed somebody who said, I know the Bible. It says God helps those who help themselves. No, Ben Franklin said that.

[LAUGHTER]

Not the Bible. In fact, it was Ben Franklin who said that. And he also said, "cleanliness is next to godliness." I'll never forget-- when I first became a Christian, I shared with my parents the gospel.

And I was sharing the gospel of grace. And my dad came in to me and said, the Bible says, God helps those who help themselves. I said, where does it say that, Dad. He goes, it's in the Bible. So I had my Bible with me. And I said, show me.

[LAUGHTER]

He got angry at me.

[LAUGHTER]

He said, I know it's in there somewhere. I said, I don't know what Bible you read, but I never found it. God doesn't help those who help themselves. He helps the helpless. That's what the gospel of grace is all about. And again, that is the blinding, damning thing about religion, that people think they can help themselves.

And they go through their little list, and they find out it doesn't help. "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, we did this, we did that. I'll say, I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity." Whew, what a trip to hear that.

What a surprise. From the lips of Jesus, when you're banking on the list of things you performed to be righteous. When he says, don't cut it, pal. I never knew you. I never had a relationship with you.

Do you have a relationship with Jesus, tonight? Are you banking on your background? For years, I banked upon my spiritual background. I was raised in a church. I was raised in a denomination.

Why, I've been to church every Sunday since I was a boy. But do you know Jesus? Of course I know Jesus. My parents know Jesus. My grandparents know Jesus. I'm an American.

[LAUGHTER]

Everybody in America knows Jesus. There's going to be an awful lot of surprised people come Judgment Day. "I never knew you." I've always thought that heaven is going to be one big surprise for the first couple hours.

You're going to turn around and see people-- first of all, you're going to think, well, where's so-and-so. I was sure that-- oh, I don't know. I haven't seen him. Then you will have a bigger surprise-- you'll turn around and see somebody you didn't expect. And you'll go, how did you get here.

[LAUGHTER]

And he's going to say, the same way you did-- by the grace of God. You'll find out God doesn't help those who help themselves. Israel was helping themselves. They were relying upon an alliance with a country that God said, look, I'm taking you out of Egypt.

Don't ever go back to Egypt. Don't ever make a pact with these guys. Don't ever glue yourself to them for security ever again. And so He says, "woe to the obstinant children, declares the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but it's not by my spirit, heaping sin upon sin, who go down to Egypt without consulting me, who look to help to Pharaoh's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge.

But Pharaoh's protection will be to your shame. Egypt's shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace."

God has a will for you. He has a plan. That is the most fundamental truth that I had heard as a young Christian. When people witness to me, they said something like, do you know Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

That's really the truth. God plans for you. He has a will for you. Yet, there are an awful lot of people, I am afraid, who do their own plan in the name of God. It's not God's plan done in His name, for His glory. It's their own thing done in His name.

You say, well, Skip, what's the difference between doing His will and His name and my will and His name. Results.

[LAUGHTER]

You'll bang your head against the wall trying to do your thing in His name. In fact, it's the greatest form of blasphemy, isn't it-- to do something that you haven't consulted God about, just throwing around that the God lingo. To get away with it-- well, I just think God led me to do this. I just feel it.

Well, I prayed about it. Well, what answer did you get. Well, I prayed about it. You're supposed to pray about things, right? Don't tell me about the answer. "Obstinant children," God calls them. "They made plans, but it's apart from His spirit."

Now, when you do this, if there is a person who continually makes plans, claims to be a Christian, and does his or her own thing for his her own glory in the name of God without consulting God, eventually that person can get to a place where that person is unteachable, unable to be taught, it seems, from God's word.

I want you to look at a verse. Look at verse 9. "These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instructions." Now, God still calls them His Kids. They're still my children, they just don't listen to me.

I find this interesting. "They say to the seers, 'see no more visions!' To the prophets, 'give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way. Get off the path and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel." Sounds vaguely familiar, does it not?

The plight of the counselor, whether he's in a church or outside of a church-- if he's a Christian counselor, there's a real plight, I feel, for anyone who has to council. Because a counselor always has to put up with people who want to do their thing in God's name. And they don't go to counselors oftentimes for counsel-- they go for a pat on the back.

They want to hear, oh, that's all right. What you're doing is fine. Nothing wrong with that. You're doing your best. See you later. That'll be $50 please. They don't want to be confronted with the truth. I have watched people storm out of some of the guys offices during the week for counseling.

And I'll go up to the pastor and I'll say, what went on in there. How come he stormed out. One of the guys will say, because I told them the truth. I told them that they were in an illicit affair, and they needed to repent from it. Or I told this guy and girl who were living together before marriage they had to stop having sex, quit sharing the same apartment, repent of that, and get right before God. And they left.

Or I told this guy that he wasn't in any marriageable position because he divorced his wife on unscriptural grounds. And he wants to remarry. And I told him he has no scriptural grounds for remarriage. They got out and they left. They didn't want to hear it.

Don't tell me the truth. Prophesy to me pleasant things. I have itchy ears. Pat me on the back. Don't tell me to change. Don't tell me to repent.

Repentance is not a popular thing to preach in churches because people figure, well, if you preach repentance and you get really straight with folks, they are not going to come back. You've got to entertain them, make them feel good, positive.

I believe in positive thinking. But I believe in negative thinking before positive thinking. And you know that the scripture always puts negative thinking before positive thinking? Because you really can't think positive until you first think negative.

Listen to this statement. "I am crucified with Christ. I am put to death on the cross with Christ." That's negative. "Nevertheless, I live." That's positive. "Yet not I, but Christ-- he lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me."

That is positive. That is a guy who is not dragged down by the past. He's going on with himself. But he first saw himself in the light of the cross, and he got right with God. "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit." That's negative. In fact, it sounds contradictory. "Blessed" means, oh, how happy to be envied are those who are spiritually poverty stricken.

Oh, how happy to be envied are those who mourn. Doesn't that sound wild? It sounds ironic. But you see humility and repentance-- negative things come before you can think positively, always.

So many people try to bypass the cross and just think positive things-- be happy all the time. And when somebody tells them the truth, they say much the same things-- don't tell us these things. Tell us pleasant things. We just want to go out with a big smile.

"Stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel." Look down at verse 15. This is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says-- I love this. God says in response to that, "in repentance and rest is your salvation." In repentance and rest. And before you can have rest, you must have repentance.

What was Jesus' first message? What was his first public word ever spoken? "Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand." What was his forerunners first message? "Repent." Same thing. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." "In repentance and rest is your salvation , in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."

What a grand invitation. Come and repent. Come have rest. Sounds like Isaiah, chapter 1-- "come, let's reason about this thing. Though your sins are like scarlet, they are white as snow." What an invitation God is giving here. And what a gross refusal, for he says, "but you would have none of it."

Doesn't that remind you of Jesus standing before Jerusalem? As he looked over Jerusalem, Jesus wept over the city. When I first read that, Jesus weeping over the city-- I remember I was standing on the Mount of Olives over in Israel. And I was going over this passage of Jesus standing in front of Jerusalem weeping over it.

And I had a little picture. We always have stereotype pictures of Jesus. We read something and we kind of picture in our mind, or we think back to the movies that we saw-- the Jesus movies.

And so I pictured Jesus standing up there, looking over Jerusalem, and just little tears started swelling up in his eyes, and he just wiped them away. And then he went on. Until I found out that the original word in Greek means he sobbed loud convulsively.

He looked over his people who rejected him. He said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you together, just like a mother hen takes care of her young, but you would not." And when Jesus saw Jerusalem, he sobbed loud convulsively because he saw the pain and the sorrow that they themselves were bringing upon themselves.

He said, "therefore, your enemies will cast a trench about you. Not one stone of this temple will be left upon it. It will all be thrown down." 80 AD, that prophecy was fulfilled to the nth degree. God weeping over his people, "but you would have none of it. You said, no, we will flee on horses. Therefore, you will flee. You said, we will ride off on swift horses. Therefore, your pursuers will be swift.

A thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee away till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountain top, like a banner on a hill." And I always loved this about God-- just when Israel's being beaten down with all of this hard prophecy of punishment, God turns it around and predicts future restoration.

And Isaiah is in interweaving together of God calling them to repent, but always promise of restoration. Look at verse 18. "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice, and blessed are all who wait for Him."

One of the characteristics of God is called long-suffering, which simply means he suffers long, he puts up with us. Moms know what long-suffering is all about. Those of you who have kids that run around, especially if you have more than one. One is plenty. But if you have more than one, moms know what long-suffering is all about.

My mother had four boys, and they were pretty rowdy kids. And I look at that woman-- she's in her 70s today-- and she is so patient. Because it's a truth in the scripture-- "tribulation worketh patience."

[LAUGHTER]

And we sent her through it. Long-suffering-- one of the characteristics of God, one of the marks of Jesus. It says, "he rises to show you compassion." Remember all the times we read on Sunday morning that Jesus looked over crowds and he compassioned for them?

That just touches my heart. Jesus didn't look at a crowd, and say, those grope, rotten sinners. Those heathen gentiles. Man, I'm going to just get down on them. He had compassion.

In Greek, the word is splanchna. It literally means guts, intestines-- literally. And if you were to literally translate it, if you were a Greek scholar, Jesus saw the multitudes, and he had intestines for them.

[LAUGHTER]

You're thinking, that's gross. Until you understand what it means. And a lot of you have even used that metaphor yourself. The Hebrew people believed that the deepest feeling comes from the guts. Ever hear the term the "pit of your stomach?" Stand up before a group of people, some of you, you get what?

Butterflies. That knotting up feeling in your stomach. A tragedy happens, someone dies, some great catastrophe, and you feel it deep inside your guts. Jesus had compassion. He deeply felt. And the word means, not to just emotionally feel, but to physically feel as well-- to be moved physically for someone. He always had compassion.

When he came to Lazarus' tomb, and there was Mary and Martha. And they were crying. And they said, Jesus, if you had come earlier, my brother wouldn't have died. He saw the people, and says, Jesus was moved and groaned in the spirit. Same word, splagchna, he was feeling deeply, physically, emotionally with these people.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, they came to arrest him. Jesus didn't care about himself as much as his disciples. First thing he said to those people who were coming to arrest him-- he said, if you're hunting me down, then let these guys go. He had compassion for them.

On the cross, when he was dying, shedding his own blood, he wasn't concerned about himself. He wouldn't give up his spirit until Mary, his mother, was released into the hands of the apostle John. John, take care of this woman. Compassion. One of the characteristics of God. One of the characteristics of God's people toward other people.

And you know that's not easy. It's very easy to love God. He's lovable. It's people that we have trouble with.

Having compassion and loving people-- because a lot of us are unlovely. In fact, let's just be honest-- all of us are unlovable. All of us have characteristics that would grind, that would rub on somebody else. There's personality differences among this group.

Jesus never called us to think alike. He just called us to love each other in spite of our differences. I've always loved that passage in the Gospel of Luke. And I've thought about in a different light. Luke, chapter 4-- I'll just read it to you.

Jesus goes into his home town, and he says, "the Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, the recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Now, we often look at that, but we fail to remember the kind of names Jesus gives to those of us who he came to save. Listen again. I'll just read the list-- "poor, prisoners, blind, oppressed." You get all of those people together in the same room, that's a messy bunch of folks.

[LAUGHTER]

And we're all different from one another. And we all have pains and hurts. And we all bleed. There's some area in our life we all have a problem with. We bleed. But you know what, it's OK to bleed at the hospital. If you went into the emergency room and you were bleeding, would they say, you're bleeding, get out of here.

[LAUGHTER]

Don't get stuff all over our floor. We just cleaned the thing. Hey, man, I'm in a hospital. If I can bleed anywhere, it should be here. If I can hang out anywhere, I should be able to hang out with you guys. And the church is not for people who are together.

I spoke to a young man-- what was it-- last Thursday night. Bill and I were speaking to him. In fact, Bill said, come over here. This guy was having a problem that God could love him, because he had flaws. Now, those of us who know the grace of God, we think, well, who doesn't.

But you see, there's a thinking that says, I have to have my act together before I can be accepted by God. Well, then who could be accepted by God? Because who doesn't have warts in their spirit? Not a one of us is flawless.

Because of that, the characteristic of compassion should be one of the principal characteristics of God's people. And God says, "the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice, and blessed are all who wait on Him.

Oh, people of Zion who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help. As soon as He hears, He will answer you.

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, you'll see them. Whether you turn to the rider to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.

Then you will defile your idols, overlaid with silver, and your images is covered with gold. You will throw them away like a menstrual cloth, and say to them, away with you." In other words, God's graciousness and compassion will be the catalyst for you to turn. Remember the scripture? The goodness or the kindness of God leads you to repentance.

There have been times when I have realized just what a jerk I really am. I know others realize that about me more often than I do. But there are times when God shows me very plainly just what I'm made out of.

And when I realize who I really am and that God loves me anyway, you know what that does for me? It drives me to the Lord. Man, I've driven down the street sometimes where I've just been overwhelmed by God's goodness. I think, God, I'm such a creep.

And you have blessed me this week so much. I haven't read my Bible every day. I haven't memorized my verses. I haven't done all the disciplines that I should be doing. And yet, you've seemed to bless me more.

God, your grace so overwhelms me, and it drives me to God. And God says, "my graciousness will cause that turning. And you will hear a voice saying, this is the way, walk in it."

Jesus promised us something-- New Testament believers. And I think it's a very important point. It's well-worth capitalizing on before we close in the next few minutes. He made some promises about a person. He said, I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave you. You're not going to have me with you.

But it's to your advantage that I leave, and I'm not with you anymore physically. Don't you think the disciples were saying, it's to our advantage that you leave us-- could you explain that, Lord. There's something wrong with that picture.

What's better than having Jesus physically with you all the time? Jesus said, it's to your advantage that I go. Because if I don't go, I can't send the Holy Spirit. And Jesus made some promises about the Holy Spirit. I'm going to refresh your memory on a couple of them if I can find it in my Bible. It's here in this chapter.

Jesus said, "if you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever-- the spirit of truth. You know him for he lives with you. He will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. All of this I have spoken while I was still with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I've said to you."

In other words, Jesus promised that you would have a built-in guidance system, IE the Holy Spirit of God-- the person of the Holy Spirit. And keep in mind that verse that we just read. "You will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it." It is so important that we are sensitive to the voice of the Spirit.

Now, I understand that some people make more mystical idea out of this than probably Jesus intended. And I know a guy in his early Christian walk who would actually stand-- he'd get up, go walk out the door, get in his car, and he would drive down to the first stop sign, and he would wait.

And he would ask the Lord-- he'd say, Lord, do you want me to turn right or do you want me to turn left. And he got so frustrated doing that all day long because he thought, well, maybe it's right. No, maybe it's left. Of course, if he got in an accident, he'd say, Lord, I guess I didn't hear you right.

Listen, you have the Holy Spirit, who is probably more eager to guide you than you are to be guided. I've heard often people say, well, I put a fleece before the Lord. I guess I see nothing wrong with that if you don't take it too far. However, it's often a substitute-- I want a sign rather than walking by faith and trusting the Holy Spirit.

You live in the New Testament, Christians. You don't need fleeces like Gideon. You've got the Holy Spirit living in you. If you went to a foreign city, would you like it if you couldn't find a way around, say, New York City?

You were to stop a cabbie in New York-- pretty grumpy guys-- and you were to say, hey, how do I get to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he'd say, OK, Mac, I'll go down the street, take the first left, go about five blocks, take the first right, watch out for the subway about to hit you, go down two miles, turn right at Central Park-- oh, I'll write it down for you.

And so he writes it down for you. Would you rather have him write it down and give you a map, or would you rather have him say, I'll tell you what, I'm going there myself right now, I will take you there personally? Wouldn't you rather have the guide personally than the mapped-out guidance in advance?

So often, though, we're looking for the map. God, tell me what I'm going to be doing in the next 20 years. No, I'm not going to give you the map. I'll give you the map maker. He'll live inside of you.

The Holy Spirit will be your guide. He'll take you there. But where am I going? You don't need to know. He'll just guide you the right way. And we need to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit would be prompting us to do.

Phillip went down to Gazen. As he was down in the desert wondering what's going on, the scripture says the Holy Spirit told him, see that guy in the chariot, go hang out with him. And he went over there. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53-- the chapter we will get to in a few weeks.

He led him to the Lord. In Acts, chapter 13, it says, "the Holy Spirit said, separate to me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work that I've called them to do. And being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went their way after the church laid hands on them."

Acts, chapter 15-- James writes his letter to the Gentiles who had accepted the gospel. And he said, "it seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us." I liked that. It seemed right to us-- oh, yeah, and God too.

"But we first made sure it was the will of the Holy Spirit, then we confirmed what he already said. You will hear that voice. You will have the guidance of the Spirit of God." And then God says he'll send you rain, and speaks about the covenant that God spoke about in Deuteronomy being restored.

Verse 27-- "see the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath, his tongue is a consuming fire, his breath is like a rushing torrent." Full of this imaginative metaphor all the way through.

Look at verse 30. "The Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire." Verse 32-- "every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing rod will be to the music of tambourines and harps.

As he fights with them in the battle with the blows of his arm, Tophet has long been prepared. It has been made ready for the King." There is a play on words here. "Tophet" is a word that is a synonym for a valley to the south of Jerusalem called Hinnom.

Ever heard of Gohanna? It means "valley of the son of Hinnom." And it was a large pit. It's a valley. You can still see it today. In the Old Testament, it was the city dump-- you would throw your garbage in it. Also, because it was a dump, there was burning going on. It was of perpetual burning.

It was a place where the people in pagan worship worshiped the God Molek, or as the Hebrews say, Molech. And he was a little God that stood in the valley of Hinnom with his arms out. He was made out of metal. They put a fire under Molech, and they burned the image with the coals so bright, until his arms became red-- even white hot.

The way they would worship Molech is that they would take their newborn infants and lay them in the arms of Molech, and they would sizzle to death. Now, God was ticked off by his people, who claimed to worship him, sacrificing their children to idle gods. There's a play on words here.

"Tophet has long been prepared. It has been made ready for the king." In Hebrew, King is melech. You worship Molech. This valley of burning is prepared for the melech, the king, the king who has allowed the children of God to go astray for so long.

"It's fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze." I wanted to get through some more chapters tonight, but we don't have time. But it's kind of a tough note to end on, isn't it? God loves his people. God says, I'll restore you, but you wouldn't have me.

I wanted to love you. You guys were so wrapped up in your religious ritualistic nonsense that you wouldn't pay attention to me when I tried to get through to you. Therefore, I just want you to know, that because you've rejected the plan that I've had for you, you are buying yourself judgment.

There's a lot of people that get bummed out at God because there's a hell. Why would God send a person to hell? He doesn't. You go there by choice. You go there by rejecting God's plan for your life.

And if you choose to reject God's plan and, in a sense, buy a ticket to the everlasting fires of punishment, don't blame God in the end. Because God will never keep you from going there if you choose to make that your destination. But he didn't make it for you. He made heaven for you.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your promises, but we also thank you that you tell the truth. You just don't pat people on the back. You just don't prophesy pleasant things. You tell people the honest truth.

You lay out a plan, and then you say, OK, choose life. Here it is. In fact, you urge people. We are told that you don't want anyone to perish, but all people to come to repentance. You want people to repent or to change, Lord-- to change the way they think about you, to change the way they think about them.

Lord, I pray that before this evening closes you might gently extend your hand of compassion, as well as your truth, to people in this room who don't yet know you, who haven't trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior personally, who have relied upon a church, a ritual, a system, a religion, a philosophy, but they haven't trusted in Jesus personally.

We pray, Lord, that you'd rescue them, that you'd' bring them home into the kingdom tonight. As you're continuing to pray, I want to extend an invitation to you. It's an invitation that we make quite often when we meet together. It's an invitation to be at rest with God, to be at peace with him, by the blood of Jesus Christ.

God has made a way for all men to come to know him. And yet, many people stop short of a relationship with God, trusting in the wings of their own religion, in the wings of their own self righteousness and goodness, saying, well, I'm good enough. I'm not an evil person.

I don't need to repent. Repentance is for everyone. It was the message of Jesus. I urge you tonight, if you don't know the Lord, Jesus Christ, as your personal Lord, as your Savior, if you don't walk with him, if you haven't experienced his cleansing, his forgiveness, if you are uncertain that, were you to die tonight, you'd be in the arms of God, then you need to make Jesus your Savior tonight.

And God is giving you that invitation. If that is your desire, will you raise your hand in the air as people continue to pray. Raise if you're--