Follow the Lord's Will - Isaiah 24:1 - 35:10

The lesson title today should become one of your habits that surfaces at least two or three times every day, and should appear in both action and words and involve heart, mind and body. Personally, I seldom offer a prayer that I do not ask the Lord to have his way and will in my life. It becomes easier to shun sin and do right if one is committed to stay in God’s will and walk in his way daily. It is fairly easy to do if you refuse to walk anywhere Christ would not walk with you, for any reason He would not approve.

If you are a born again Christian, I hope you will not ask how you are to know God’s will for your life. If you do ask, it will reveal a great weakness in your character and understanding of our Savior and his teachings. The Holy Bible is your guide, your map and your book of instructions regarding what God wants you to do and what he has told you not to do. In order to cover all circumstances He reminds us of two types or ways of sinning—omission and commission. If one’s desire is to stay in the will of God; it requires doing what God says we must do; and it forbids doing those things that God tells us not to do. It requires simple obedience. How then can you know lest you “study to show thyself approved?”

Art Linkletter once had a very popular show entitled “Children are Funny—or say the funniest things.” Then he proved it with several episodes of a popular T. V. special. I am here to tell you that people are funny to me in a different way. The nation of Jewish people had been in Egyptian bondage, [crewel slavery] for over four hundred years, when Moses led them out into the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land that was flowing with milk and honey. God’s will was that they reach their new home in a year, maybe two or three at most. They refused to walk in his will and the short journey turned into forty years in the wilderness, and the death of a generation of people.

Those same people finally reached their land of milk and honey, settled in Judah, built the city of Jerusalem and dedicated it to Almighty God. The city was a fort that protected everyone, with walls all around and gates for the people to leave to go to their farms and vineyards to work by day and to enter again at night for protection. It was God’s will that they continue to depend upon him for protection, prosperity, continued growth in the independent life. They did some funny things! Some unbelievable things! They married out of the Jewish line, to heathen and ungodly people. They desecrated the Holly Temple by worshipping the gods of the heathen they had married. They placed their dependence in their armed forces—and when they felt week they placed their fate in the arms of other nations that would eventually turn on them. All the time, the prophets like Isaiah, kept warning them of the end result that would come when they REFUSED TO FOLLOW THE LORD’S WILL. Listen, you can be sure that God has not changed one bit, and He will treat America the very same way.

A little over two hundred years ago the early American immigrants were scattered all across Europe and the Middle East in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy and several other smaller nations. Their conditions, both physical and spiritual resembled the conditions of the Israelites. Word spread throughout that part of the world that a Spanish explorer named Columbus had found a new land of milk and honey that was just waiting for a bunch of hard working, God fearing people that would like to escape their present conditions. Listen! History books and not just the bible, recorded this westward expansion story, and most of the people came seeking religious freedom. Their faith in and dependence on God Almighty was confirmed by appearing in every government document that was written including the constitution. During the past forty years the voices have grown louder arguing that America does not need God any more.

This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened. Remember back in the Garden of Eden? God told Adam and Eve to live happily. Eat freely. Enjoy everything. Want for nothing. Everything is yours to do with as you please. Enjoy! You are in a perfect place where there is nothing else that man can desire and it is all yours! But, But, there is one thing…it is God’s will that you do not eat the fruit from this one tree. It was just one tree out of many but it was not in God’s will…for them to eat the fruit of it. They disobeyed and mankind has suffered horribly until this day.

When His own people became so immoral that they were abusing the temple and worshipping other gods, Jerusalem fell. The greatest nation in the early world, Rome conquered the known world and prospered until it decayed morally from the top down, and fell. Not since the fall of the Roman Empire has there ever been another nation with the prosperity, power, and prestige that the USA gained through the WWII period. Then during the decades of the 50s through the 70s, the Godless hearts and minds of a New Age movement became strong against our Christian heritage. God will not contend indefinitely with a people that continually disobey him; not even if their leaders live in a white house.

Isaiah’s message, found in the 30th chapter, deals with the situation that existed in Judah during the three year period from 704 to 701 BC and following the death of the powerful king, Sargon. Hezekiah became king of Judah. Times were troubled and the nation was week and against God’s will, Hezekiah tried to forma an alliance to stand against the North. He even went so far as to invite Egypt to join him, when God had forbid such an alliance ever since His people were in bondage there. God immediately called his people a “rebellious children” for disobeying his rules. Disobedience is no more than lack of reverence, and our people today have lost all reverence toward Jehovah God.

Egypt was a weak nation at this time, and the alliance formed proved to be too weak to withstand the invasion that came down and destroyed the entire southern kingdom except the city of Jerusalem. I see America in comparison today as a nation with very few allies and they are not the strongest of nations. The stronger nations feel that their currency is worth more than ours: some of our major banks are broke: our dominant industries have fallen into bankrupt status or at least are talking about it. Jobs are gone and fear is rampant and even at this low ebb in our history we have totally forgotten how dependent we are on the favor of God, and refuse to place our faith in him instead of a welfare-buyout by a government that is broke.

There are signs on every corner that tell us that God is unhappy with his people. We are re-living the days of Isaiah when the people of Judah had lost faith in God, their worship was empty and they were depending on their own schemes, power, and alliances and were ignoring God. The prophets and priest had spent their lives teaching the people how to please God and prosper, but they moved away from his WILL AND WAY and chose to follow their earthly leaders who were depending on their own decisions and the strengths of those who aligned with them. It is past time in America for our leaders to learn to follow the Lord’s will and by so doing, they could regain the respect of the people and the blessings of God.