(The Word for Today) Isaiah 35:1 - Part 1

Welcome to The Word for Today. The Word for Today is a continuous study of the Bible, taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament.

And if you're following along in your Bible, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 35, beginning with verse 1, as we continue with an in-depth message entitled, The Coming Kingdom. And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. Many of you realize that Isaiah is composed of 66 chapters.

We know that there are 66 books in the Bible, and that the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are 39 books in the Old Testament, there are 27 books in the New Testament, and thus our Bible composed of 66 books. Isaiah has 66 chapters, and interestingly enough, they are divided into the first section of the book of Isaiah, which is 39 chapters, and the second section, which is 27 chapters.

It is interesting that the 40th chapter, which would be the first chapter of the second section, opens with the prophecy of John the Baptist, the voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. And so you have sort of a miniature Bible in Isaiah. Now we come to the end of the first section, as we get to chapters 34 and 35.

Chapters 36 through 39 are historic. They are really not the prophecies of Isaiah, but they are the historic background in which these prophecies of Isaiah were being given. And thus the history is parallel to that which you find in 2 Kings chapter 18 and all.

But the prophecies of Isaiah in the first section actually end with the 35th chapter. And so as we enter into the 35th chapter, we are entering into the final prophetic section of the first part of the book of Isaiah. It is significant that chapter 34 deals with the great tribulation of the last days.

God's judgment that is coming upon the earth, God's judging of man's sin and man for sin, the battle of Armageddon, the great destruction that God will bring, cataclysmic destruction upon the earth, as is recorded in chapter 34, and aspects of the great tribulation, the host of heaven dissolved, heavens being rolled together as a scroll, their host falling down as a leaf falls from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree, and God's judgment coming upon the earth. Now the Bible never ends on a dark note. There are dark notes in the Bible.

Because of the darkness of sin, it brings its resultant and inevitable consequences of destruction, death, desolation. And so the Bible speaks of those dark days that will come upon man, upon a nation because of sin. And over and over again, the prophets were warning the nation of Israel, the nation of Judah, that they were headed for difficult times.

Because they had turned their backs upon God and were worshiping other gods, they were going to be carried away captive by their enemies. They were going to be destroyed. The cities were going to be ravaged.

And these prophets spoke to them of the great persecutions and trials that they were to experience. But they never stopped there. They always went on.

And when you are in captivity, when you turn to the Lord, the Lord will hear you and the Lord will bring you back into the land. And they always spoke of the restoration. God never leaves and ends the story with desolation.

But there is always the glorious light, the hope that God lays out for the ultimate future. Now in our lives, we do go through dark experiences. We are called upon many times to go through suffering, go through pain, go through hardships.

We many times go through things that we don't understand. Things that in our heart challenge God's love. If God loves me, then why am I suffering like this? Why do I have these problems? Why, as David said, go I mourning all the day long.

But God never leaves us in that state of darkness or hopelessness. But he always points to a new day. He always points to the light that will come.

And he never leaves us without hope. Now the world is without hope. They do not have that same hope for the future.

As things become dismal, as things become desperate, there's no hope for the future. They're left in that desperate state of desolation, but not the child of God. And so Isaiah speaks in chapter 34 of this great cataclysmic judgment, the tribulation period.

But that's not the end of the story. Jesus spoke of the tribulation that is coming. He refers to it as a tribulation such as the world has never seen before or will ever see again.

The worst hours of man's history are not behind us, they're ahead of us. And we're entering into the darkest period of history of man. Nothing in history to equal what we're facing.

And it is quite possible that we are entering into the beginning of this time of sorrows that the scriptures speak about. In the 13th chapter of Isaiah, he does tie this time of sorrows together with the destruction of Iraq. And if Iraq is completely desolated and destroyed at this time, then there is good reason, very good reason, to believe that we are entering into that day.

For as he speaks of the destruction of Iraq by this combination of nations, he said, How ye for the day of the Lord is at hand. And he goes on and speaks of the great tribulation period that the world will enter into. So it is possible that we are coming into those darkest hours that the prophets spoke about, that Jesus spoke about, that we're on the verge of this darkest period in the history of man.

If that be so, then that also means that we're on the verge of a glorious new day. As Paul the Apostle said, For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent and the day is at hand.

The glorious day of the Lord. And so the hope for the believer, the hope for the church is that glorious new day that God has promised for his people. Now, Isaiah, having gone through the darkness of the tribulation period in chapter 34, ends this section of the book, apart from the history that we have from 36 on, he ends it with the glorious aspects of that new day, the new world, the conditions in that new world, and who will dwell in that new world.

And so as we enter into chapter 35, we enter into that time when Jesus Christ has returned to establish God's kingdom upon the earth. Jesus said, And immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall they see the sign of the Son of Man coming with clouds and great glory. The Lord himself coming to the earth to establish God's kingdom upon the earth.

And the prayers of the church through the centuries will be fulfilled as we have been praying, thy kingdom come and thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. The earth having been renovated by fire, the sinners having been destroyed, the Lord will establish now his righteous reign over the earth. Chapter 35.

In this time, the wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. The rose is thought to be the anemone.

It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. And the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, and they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. As you look at the world today, you do not see the world that God created.

God created a perfect world, a beautiful world. But you see a world that's been spoiled as the result of sin. We see vast areas of desolation.

We see vast areas that are covered with ice and uninhabitable. We see other areas that are desert and practically uninhabitable. But in that new world, the deserts will blossom as a rose.

They will blossom abundantly. And the deserts will be turned into lush forest, woods and meadows. As Sharon is a meadow, Carmel the woods and Lebanon the forest.

And so the Lord says, strengthen the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees, encourage the people. He had just told of the horrible darkness that is coming. Now the Lord says, encourage the people.

There's hope for the future. It doesn't end. The story doesn't end for the child of God in defeat or in a fiery judgment.

The end of the story is the kingdom of God being established and the reign of Jesus Christ over the earth. And so say to those that are fearful of heart, be strong, don't be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even with a recompense, but he will come and save you.

Yes, God is coming in vengeance. God is coming in judgment. He's going to repay the sinners for their sin, but he will save you.

You are his children. And now the conditions, then the eyes of the blind will be open. The ears of the death will be unstopped.

And the lame man will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing prophecies that have to do with the kingdom age prophecies that have to do with the Messiah. In the 11th chapter of Matthew's gospel, he tells us that as John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus and he asked them to ask Jesus, are you the one that we are looking for? Or shall we start looking for someone else? Now, when he had baptized Jesus, he testified that the one who sent him to baptize told him that whoever he saw the spirit of God descending and abiding upon, that was the Messiah. And that when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were open and the spirit of God descended as a dove upon him.

And so later as John was standing with some of his disciples and Jesus passed by, John said, there goes the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He testified of Jesus. John was like the disciples in that he expected Jesus to set up the kingdom immediately.

And so when John was placed in prison, as he was sitting there in prison, time goes very slow. And so he began to think, well, Lord, when are you going to get the show on the road? When are you going to get me out of here and let's get things moving? Let's establish the kingdom. And it was sort of a little subtle message that he sent to Jesus through his disciples.

Hey, what's going on? Let's get things moving. Are you the one that we're looking for? Or shall we look for someone else? When are you going to get going here? When are you going to demonstrate your power? When are you going to take over? And the Bible tells us that in the same hour, there were multitudes that came to Jesus, many who were blind, those that were lame, those that were deaf, and those that were mute. And Jesus healed them so that the blind were able to see, the lame were walking, and the deaf were hearing.

And after many of these miracles were wrought, Jesus just turned to John's disciples and he said, go back and tell John what you have seen. Blind eyes are being open, the lame are walking, the deaf are hearing, and unto the meek the gospel is being preached. These were the signs of the kingdom age.

These were the signs of the Messiah. What we saw in the ministry of Jesus when he was upon the earth is only a foreshadowing of the kingdom age. When God restores the earth, He will also restore man physically so that there will be no aging process.

There will be no lameness. There will be no physical infirmities. There will be no blindness, deafness, no mutes.

But when God establishes the kingdom age, we will all have perfect health in that perfect world that Jesus will establish. That's basically the hope that Isaiah is giving to us here of that coming day of the Lord when he shall reign and God's will will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. There's no sickness in heaven.

There's no death in heaven. There's no sorrow or pain or suffering. And thus you'll come to a world with Jesus reigning and you'll see what the world could be like if the world was only living in obedience to God.

You'll see what God designed and what God desired for mankind. Not what we see today. You see a world that has been corrupted by sin.

You see mankind that has been corrupted by sin. You see the awful consequences of sin. The death, the sorrow, the pains, the suffering, the infirmities.

But a new day is coming. God's going to give man another chance. He's going to restore, as he said, I'm making all things new.

A new start for man and mankind. And this time Jesus will be here on earth reigning over the earth. The lame will leap like the deer.

The tongue of the mute will sing. For in the wilderness, the deserts, there will be artesian wells just breaking out and streams flowing out of the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool.

In the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals. Now jackals can inhabit the most desolate areas.

Where they lay there will be grass with reeds and rushes. It'll be like the banks of the Nile River. There will be a highway there and it will be called the way of the holy great boulevard.

The unclean will not pass over it. So those that will not be there are the unclean. The sinner.

Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few closing comments. But first I'd like to remind you that today's message is available in its unedited form on cassette or CD. Simply write or call and ask for ordering details on tape or CD number C-3258.

Again that's tape or CD number C-3258. As we come to a close in today's program we'd like to discuss the true meaning of Christmas and why a man born 2,000 years ago can still affect the world today. Do you know the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus' birth and death and why they had to take place? The word for today presents two Bible studies by Pastor Chuck Smith entitled Tidings of Great Joy and The Purpose of His Coming.

Discussing the reasons why Jesus was born including the fulfillment of prophecy and the historic background. In the Christmas season there is so much focus on presents that we may forget the greatest gift of God's only beloved Son, our Savior. Pastor Chuck examines the birth of Christ and leaves no room for doubt that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah.

To order Tidings of Great Joy and The Purpose of His Coming by Pastor Chuck Smith call the word for today at 1-800-272-WORD or write to us at P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 92628. And remember the word for today would like to assist you this Christmas in spreading the gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and co-workers. Please call our customer service department to help you in finding that perfect gift that will reflect the true meaning of Christmas.

And if you call right now and mention this radio ad the word for today will give you a 20% discount on any resource carried by the word for today. Once again that number to call is 1-800-272-9673. And for those of you that would like to visit our website you can do so at www.twft.com or if you would like to email us you can do so at info at twft.com. Well coming up next time on the word for today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah.

That's coming up next time on the word for today. And now with a few closing comments, here's Pastor Chuck. You will come to an understanding of what God has set you apart for and what God has ordained for you.

That work that God has ordained that you should fulfill while you are here on this earth. That work for his kingdom and his glory. And so may your heart be open that the word of the Lord might come to you to guide and to direct you in that place of service where you might find the will and the purpose of God being fulfilled in your life.

The Lord be with you. The Lord bless and keep you in Jesus name. Amen.

This program is sponsored by the word for today. The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California.