1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:05,000 Last week we began a new series entitled faith with questions, dealing with the 2 00:00:05,000 –> 00:00:10,560 darkness of doubt. Our aim is to diagnose some of the spiritual conditions in 3 00:00:10,560 –> 00:00:16,520 which doubt grows, and then to prescribe some remedies that will help us to deal 4 00:00:16,520 –> 00:00:21,740 with these struggles. We began by looking together at the condition of defective 5 00:00:21,740 –> 00:00:26,240 memory, which is very simply when we forget to remember the abundant goodness 6 00:00:26,320 –> 00:00:30,920 of God. We identified some of the symptoms. You know that you’re suffering from this 7 00:00:30,920 –> 00:00:38,680 if you detect pride or presumption or self-involvement, the for-me mentality in 8 00:00:38,680 –> 00:00:44,160 your heart. The only way to counteract this condition, the only 9 00:00:44,160 –> 00:00:49,720 prescription for it, is to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving. We saw that we 10 00:00:49,720 –> 00:00:54,639 do that as we intentionally remember God’s goodness from the past, as we focus 11 00:00:54,779 –> 00:00:58,660 on His abundant goodness now, particularly in relation to food and 12 00:00:58,660 –> 00:01:05,519 finance, and then as we intentionally reflect on where we would have been if 13 00:01:05,519 –> 00:01:11,080 it were not for the grace of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ and his 14 00:01:11,080 –> 00:01:16,440 death on the cross. Today we’re going to explore a second spiritual condition 15 00:01:16,440 –> 00:01:22,040 that is deeply destructive to faith. As you’ll see from your bulletin, 16 00:01:22,279 –> 00:01:28,879 is the condition of distorted pictures. Now, since we’re talking about pictures, 17 00:01:28,879 –> 00:01:38,040 I thought that I would show you a cherished image from 22 years ago when, 18 00:01:38,040 –> 00:01:41,300 thank you very much. 19 00:01:42,699 –> 00:01:48,959 We’ve hardly started yet, I promise you, where a young wannabe pastor and his 20 00:01:49,000 –> 00:01:53,839 bride were married. Unfortunately, this picture fell into the wrong hands 21 00:01:53,839 –> 00:02:05,080 in the last week. I’m realizing that my wife will be in the third service 22 00:02:05,080 –> 00:02:12,160 and I’m getting nervous. Our AV people have access, of course, 23 00:02:12,160 –> 00:02:16,479 to the digital images that are in the pictorial directory, of which this 24 00:02:16,580 –> 00:02:21,600 is one, and they are way too talented in terms of the type of work they have 25 00:02:21,600 –> 00:02:26,919 been able to do and obviously have far too much time on their hands in this 26 00:02:26,919 –> 00:02:34,460 last week. Now, the very simple point of today’s message is this. 27 00:02:34,460 –> 00:02:42,619 Some people have a desperately distorted picture of God. A very unattractive 28 00:02:42,679 –> 00:02:48,479 picture of God lurks within their minds, and it is that that gives rise to that 29 00:02:48,479 –> 00:02:54,800 incessant battle with doubt. The problem is not so much with God as he is, 30 00:02:54,800 –> 00:03:00,899 but with God as they perceive Him to be in the distorted picture that has got 31 00:03:00,899 –> 00:03:06,779 lodged within the frame of their minds. Now, let me begin by identifying some 32 00:03:06,820 –> 00:03:13,080 symptoms of this condition, some ways if you may know that this is affecting you. 33 00:03:13,080 –> 00:03:22,800 The first of these is simply boredom. If you think that God is dull, boring, or 34 00:03:22,800 –> 00:03:31,639 tedious, you can be certain that you have a distorted picture of God. The living 35 00:03:32,300 –> 00:03:39,339 God, the creator of heaven and earth, is not boring. When Jesus spoke to the first 36 00:03:39,339 –> 00:03:42,360 disciples and said to them very simply, Follow me, 37 00:03:42,360 –> 00:03:46,679 they left everything to follow him. Why? Because they found him so utterly 38 00:03:46,679 –> 00:03:52,539 compelling. And if you have not seen or felt that, then you are probably 39 00:03:52,539 –> 00:03:58,320 suffering from a distorted picture of the living God. If you think God is 40 00:03:58,639 –> 00:04:04,500 boring you do not yet know and have not yet met the God of the Bible. 41 00:04:05,520 –> 00:04:12,240 Here’s a second symptom. Cynicism. Now whenever you see a distorted 42 00:04:12,240 –> 00:04:15,919 picture, as you did a moment ago, the instinctive reaction of course, 43 00:04:15,919 –> 00:04:19,140 and natural reaction, is to laugh. We always laugh 44 00:04:19,179 –> 00:04:25,880 at distorted pictures. And if you have a distorted picture of God within 45 00:04:25,940 –> 00:04:30,920 your mind, it will be laughable to you. In other words, it will give 46 00:04:30,920 –> 00:04:34,640 rise to a cynicism within your mind and within your heart. 47 00:04:34,720 –> 00:04:38,339 And that can be true amongst God’s people as well as amongst unbelievers. 48 00:04:38,420 –> 00:04:44,320 You remember the story of Abraham and Sarah? God made a promise that 49 00:04:44,320 –> 00:04:47,839 Sarah would have a child long after the age of child bearing, 50 00:04:48,160 –> 00:04:53,739 and she laughed. Why does she laugh? Because she had a framework within 51 00:04:53,799 –> 00:04:57,500 her mind, a picture of what God could do and what God couldn’t do, 52 00:04:58,540 –> 00:05:03,059 and when God made a promise that was outside of that frame of reference, 53 00:05:03,239 –> 00:05:08,380 she simply found it ridiculous. Now, there may be some of us today 54 00:05:08,380 –> 00:05:13,959 who are precisely facing that trouble. You see, you may hear me say, 55 00:05:15,179 –> 00:05:21,980 God loves you. Or you may hear me say, the Holy Spirit can give 56 00:05:22,140 –> 00:05:27,100 power to triumph over ingrained patterns that are sinful in your life. 57 00:05:28,700 –> 00:05:33,980 But because you have a distorted picture of God, when you hear these words, 58 00:05:33,980 –> 00:05:37,220 they kind of fly over your head, and you, in your heart, tend to say, 59 00:05:37,940 –> 00:05:46,220 yes, yes, yes. Now when you detect that kind of cynicism within your 60 00:05:47,100 –> 00:05:54,059 you can be sure that at root you are suffering from a distorted image of the living God. 61 00:05:55,339 –> 00:06:02,299 Here’s the third symptom. Antagonism. Last year, I had a conversation with someone very 62 00:06:02,299 –> 00:06:07,899 close to me personally who had once professed faith in Christ, and he said, 63 00:06:09,019 –> 00:06:15,739 Colin, you need to know where I’m at now. I hate God, and I hate everything that you stand for. 64 00:06:17,100 –> 00:06:21,660 That cut me very deep. At first I found it difficult to know where to go with that. 65 00:06:23,260 –> 00:06:27,980 I talked with a friend who gave me some wise counsel. He said, ask him 66 00:06:28,859 –> 00:06:36,220 to tell you about the God that he hates. It was very wise counsel. 67 00:06:36,220 –> 00:06:40,059 See, you may know someone who is deeply antagonistic towards God, 68 00:06:40,059 –> 00:06:43,579 and that may be simply an expression of their perversity, 69 00:06:44,299 –> 00:06:51,019 but it may also reflect that they have a deeply distorted image of God in their minds, 70 00:06:51,019 –> 00:06:56,619 and their antagonism is focused towards that misconception of what God is like. 71 00:06:57,980 –> 00:07:04,459 So this field of doubt that we’re considering this morning is not so much a problem with God 72 00:07:04,459 –> 00:07:09,100 as he is, but with God as we perceive him to be. It is not so much a problem that 73 00:07:09,179 –> 00:07:15,660 exists out there in heaven. It is a problem that exists in here, in the confines 74 00:07:15,660 –> 00:07:23,179 of my limited human mind, and it is one of the most prevalent issues amongst believing people. 75 00:07:23,179 –> 00:07:31,100 A distorted image that makes God unattractive to us and leaves us somehow cold 76 00:07:31,100 –> 00:07:37,100 within our own hearts and within our own souls. Now let’s ask the next question. 77 00:07:37,100 –> 00:07:44,220 Where do distorted images come from? And I want to suggest two places from where we may derive 78 00:07:44,220 –> 00:07:50,140 distorted images and then to lead us in the Scriptures to a discovery of the true image. 79 00:07:50,779 –> 00:07:57,339 First of all we will have a distorted image if we draw a picture from our own experience 80 00:07:58,220 –> 00:08:07,019 if you allow your experience to be the artist who draws the image of God within your mind 81 00:08:07,019 –> 00:08:13,579 you can be very sure that it will be a distorted image and here’s the reason 82 00:08:14,059 –> 00:08:25,420 your experience of life is of life in a fallen world this is an abnormal world 83 00:08:26,779 –> 00:08:33,739 this is not the world as God created it this is a world at war with God 84 00:08:34,700 –> 00:08:40,619 God made this world but it is also a world that has been ravaged by evil powers 85 00:08:41,900 –> 00:08:48,539 and your experience therefore of life in this world will necessarily be a mixture of experiencing 86 00:08:48,539 –> 00:08:54,859 good and experiencing evil. It goes right back to the beginning of the Bible’s story where 87 00:08:54,859 –> 00:09:02,380 our first parents chose the knowledge of good and evil and we all experience both. 88 00:09:03,419 –> 00:09:12,539 So if you draw your picture of who God is from experience, you will get God all mixed up with 89 00:09:12,539 –> 00:09:19,739 evil and you will therefore have a distorted picture. This is a particular problem for those 90 00:09:19,820 –> 00:09:25,260 who have seen great suffering close up. If you’ve been on the field of battle in war, 91 00:09:26,460 –> 00:09:33,419 if you have seen or experienced torture, if you have been physically or sexually abused, 92 00:09:34,619 –> 00:09:40,619 what has happened is that in your experience there has been the shadow of evil 93 00:09:42,539 –> 00:09:47,179 and if therefore experience becomes the artist who paints the picture 94 00:09:47,179 –> 00:09:52,619 of God that you carry in your mind, then that image will be deeply distorted. It will be a 95 00:09:52,619 –> 00:10:00,619 confusion of God and evil and it may look very ugly indeed. Now this was Naomi’s problem. If 96 00:10:00,619 –> 00:10:05,500 you want to take an example from the Bible, remember the story of Ruth. Naomi this lady 97 00:10:05,500 –> 00:10:09,900 who was married to a man who made a foolish decision, decided to move off to another country 98 00:10:09,900 –> 00:10:16,539 in Moab, not a wise choice, moved the whole family and then he died. And Naomi was left 99 00:10:16,539 –> 00:10:22,940 to raise two boys on her own. She raised these two boys faithfully, they then married Moabite women 100 00:10:22,940 –> 00:10:30,059 and then the two boys died. And Naomi’s left coming back to her home town in Bethlehem, 101 00:10:30,059 –> 00:10:35,260 her life absolutely devastated, her experience of life in a fallen world 102 00:10:35,900 –> 00:10:40,859 cut through with loss and with bereavement, and she looks old and she looks haggard, 103 00:10:40,859 –> 00:10:49,179 and her friends say, can this be Naomi? And she says, don’t call me Naomi, call me 104 00:10:49,739 –> 00:10:57,500 Marah, which means bitter, and then she said, because God has made my life bitter. 105 00:10:58,780 –> 00:11:05,739 You see what she was saying, she was drawing from her experience, and because she had painted her 106 00:11:05,739 –> 00:11:10,859 image of God from experience, she had drawn the conclusion, if there’s a God, it must be a God who 107 00:11:10,859 –> 00:11:19,820 hates me. How else can I explain my experience? You see the problem. You draw your image of God 108 00:11:19,820 –> 00:11:27,020 from experience in a fallen world, you will necessarily get God all mixed up with evil 109 00:11:27,020 –> 00:11:34,380 and you will have a terribly distorted picture. And that is for many, many people a fundamental 110 00:11:34,380 –> 00:11:39,340 spiritual problem. In fact as you have your bibles open at Isaiah in chapter forty, which we’re 111 00:11:39,340 –> 00:11:43,979 coming to in a moment, you’ll see that the whole reason that Isaiah chapter forty was written 112 00:11:44,700 –> 00:11:50,859 was that so that people who were about to enter terrible experience, would know what God was like. 113 00:11:50,859 –> 00:11:56,380 If you look at chapter 39 in verse six, you’ll see there that Isaiah the prophet prophesied, 114 00:11:56,380 –> 00:12:01,500 the decline of the economy, the devastation of the nation, all kinds of disaster is going to 115 00:12:01,500 –> 00:12:06,059 lie ahead in this fallen world, Isaiah says. But now I want you to know what God is like, 116 00:12:06,059 –> 00:12:12,140 and that’s when the words of Isaiah 40 were spoken. You can’t draw your image of God from 117 00:12:12,140 –> 00:12:20,460 experience and if you do, you’ll end up with a desperately distorted picture. Now here’s a second 118 00:12:20,460 –> 00:12:26,859 way in which we get a distorted picture, and that is if we draw it from religion. Look in Isaiah 119 00:12:26,940 –> 00:12:35,020 40, in verses 18 and 19. Isaiah is speaking about idols. Remember what an idol is. An idol is simply 120 00:12:35,020 –> 00:12:44,059 a manmade image of God. And Isaiah says, verse 18 of chapter 40, as for an idol a craftsman cast it 121 00:12:44,059 –> 00:12:52,700 and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashion silver chains for it. Here’s this practice of 122 00:12:52,700 –> 00:12:57,900 making idols. Someone draws the shape of the thing on a piece of paper. Someone shapes it in metal. 123 00:12:57,900 –> 00:13:02,299 Someone plates it with gold, and then someone makes a fancy little silver necklace and hangs 124 00:13:02,299 –> 00:13:10,299 it around the neck. All this costs serious money. So Isaiah says in verse 20 if someone’s too poor 125 00:13:10,299 –> 00:13:15,179 to make this kind of investment, he will do the same thing with a piece of wood. And you 126 00:13:15,179 –> 00:13:19,820 notice a lovely touch that Isaiah has there, if you’re going to make an idol out of piece of wood, 127 00:13:19,820 –> 00:13:26,619 make sure that you choose a piece of wood that does not rot. It’s a shame to make your image of 128 00:13:26,619 –> 00:13:34,219 God and then find that it all rots away. Now his whole point here is that idols are images that we 129 00:13:34,219 –> 00:13:44,140 have created. They are our distorted attempts to represent God. That’s by the way why God 130 00:13:44,140 –> 00:13:50,780 gives the command that we’re not to make any graven image. And I think this speaks very powerfully 131 00:13:50,780 –> 00:13:59,179 to our culture today because we are also surrounded by a world of very diverse religions, as Isaiah was 132 00:13:59,179 –> 00:14:07,099 in his day. And our culture is awash with the idea that anything sincerely believed 133 00:14:07,659 –> 00:14:13,260 is a valid expression of truth. And that if we want to know what God is like, 134 00:14:13,260 –> 00:14:21,900 we can discover this by listening to all religions. Now, do you see how that is precisely the opposite 135 00:14:21,900 –> 00:14:28,700 of what Isaiah is saying here in the Bible? Remember that he was surrounded by a multiplicity 136 00:14:28,700 –> 00:14:35,179 of religions. There were fertility cults, there was the worship of Moloch, the worship of a God 137 00:14:35,179 –> 00:14:42,780 called Baal, and the worship of a female idol by the name of Asherah. And postmodernism, 138 00:14:42,780 –> 00:14:48,460 our kind of cultural thought if it was back there in Isaiah’s day would say, well of course they’re 139 00:14:48,460 –> 00:14:55,340 all talking about the same thing. Asherah, Baal, Moloch, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 140 00:14:55,340 –> 00:15:00,219 this is all really the same thing. And no doubt they would use that illustration that you’ve 141 00:15:01,659 –> 00:15:08,539 I’m sure heard many times. It’s all like five blindfolded men trying to describe an elephant. 142 00:15:08,539 –> 00:15:13,900 You heard this one. One man’s blindfolded and he feels the tail and he says oh, it’s like a rope 143 00:15:14,700 –> 00:15:20,140 and the other blindfolded man feels the side of the elephant and he says, no no it’s like a wall. 144 00:15:21,099 –> 00:15:25,340 And the other one’s at the front and he feels the trunk and says no, it’s like a great pipe 145 00:15:26,380 –> 00:15:31,739 and we’re often told in our culture that basically when we talk about God, 146 00:15:31,739 –> 00:15:37,500 all the religions are basically saying the same thing, it’s just that it’s a bigger thing than 147 00:15:37,500 –> 00:15:45,820 any of us can grasp. Now I want you to notice that that is precisely the opposite 148 00:15:46,700 –> 00:15:51,739 of what Isaiah says in the bible. These are very different views of the world and of religion 149 00:15:51,739 –> 00:15:56,460 and you need to choose between one or the other. They cannot both be right. Look at verse 18. 150 00:15:57,419 –> 00:16:05,419 To what can you compare God says Isaiah. What image can you compare him 151 00:16:05,419 –> 00:16:12,320 to? You see what he’s saying. The living God who’s the creator of the heaven and the earth 152 00:16:12,320 –> 00:16:17,299 cannot be compared to the idols, the manmade projections 153 00:16:17,299 –> 00:16:22,820 in the religious world around us of what he’s supposed to be like. He is not the same as 154 00:16:23,280 –> 00:16:29,359 Bill. He is not the same as Asherah and the idea that we can discover who God is by taking 155 00:16:29,359 –> 00:16:31,500 a little bit from each of these philosophies and cobbling 156 00:16:31,500 –> 00:16:37,820 them together is a complete and utter mistake. It will only give you an utterly distorted 157 00:16:37,820 –> 00:16:39,700 picture. 158 00:16:39,700 –> 00:16:43,000 And you see the problem for some of us is that it’s precisely what we’ve tried to do. 159 00:16:43,000 –> 00:16:48,820 We bought into postmodernism and we’ve tried to adapt a little bit from here and from there 160 00:16:48,820 –> 00:16:55,099 and we’ve cobbled together from the world of religion a kind of identikit picture that 161 00:16:55,099 –> 00:17:01,520 is confusing and is contradictory in its very nature. You cannot discover who God is like 162 00:17:01,520 –> 00:17:02,700 that way. 163 00:17:02,700 –> 00:17:09,699 Let me bring it a little closer to home. For some of us have picked up a distorted picture, 164 00:17:10,699 –> 00:17:17,699 not only from the world of religion around us in the broad sense, but from religious 165 00:17:19,739 –> 00:17:25,459 background in terms of family and even church. 166 00:17:25,459 –> 00:17:32,459 A lady was telling me recently, and I loved the phrase she used. She said, the church 167 00:17:33,020 –> 00:17:40,020 that I was brought up in, she said, everything was forbidden except for what was repulsive. 168 00:17:45,739 –> 00:17:52,199 I like that. You got to think about it for a minute and then you get where she’s going. 169 00:17:52,199 –> 00:17:56,719 Everything was forbidden except what was compulsive. It doesn’t leave you a lot of room for maneuver, 170 00:17:57,099 –> 00:18:03,579 does it? You see this kind of legalism had been the 171 00:18:03,579 –> 00:18:10,579 environment in which she had been raised and what it had done was it had produced a distorted 172 00:18:11,219 –> 00:18:18,219 picture of the living God as someone who is mean spirited, joyless, generally unattractive, 173 00:18:19,339 –> 00:18:22,560 easy to fear but difficult to love. 174 00:18:23,180 –> 00:18:29,219 I wonder if has ever occurred to you that is precisely the distorted picture that the 175 00:18:29,219 –> 00:18:35,380 enemy tried to paint in Eve’s mind at the beginning of the Bible story, in the Garden 176 00:18:35,380 –> 00:18:42,380 of Eden. You remember that God gave the fruit of all the trees in the garden to the man 177 00:18:43,400 –> 00:18:48,859 and to the woman except for one that they were not to touch but when the enemy Satan 178 00:18:48,979 –> 00:18:55,619 came and spoke to Eve he tried to paint a distorted picture. He said, did God really 179 00:18:55,619 –> 00:19:01,319 say that you can’t eat from any of the trees in the garden? The answer of course is no. 180 00:19:01,319 –> 00:19:06,380 God never said any such thing but what he was trying to do was to paint a picture of 181 00:19:06,380 –> 00:19:13,380 God who was mean and churlish and joyful. Fancy a God who would create a vast garden 182 00:19:14,099 –> 00:19:19,699 and not allow you to eat from any of the trees. Well, the whole thing was a distorted picture 183 00:19:19,699 –> 00:19:25,420 and the reason that he was painting that distorted picture is that if he could get Eve to think 184 00:19:25,420 –> 00:19:32,260 that God was mean and joyless and ungenerous it would be very easy for Eve to sin against 185 00:19:32,260 –> 00:19:39,260 God. The truth is that the devil has painted within some of our minds such a distorted 186 00:19:40,099 –> 00:19:47,099 picture of God that we find it very easy to sin against him, very difficult to love him. 187 00:19:50,359 –> 00:19:56,300 There’s a prayer that I think many of us know very well. You probably learned it at school. 188 00:19:56,300 –> 00:20:02,599 You know the one that begins, day by day, day by day, Lord, three things I pray. Remember 189 00:20:02,739 –> 00:20:09,739 one is to see you more clearly. That’s what we’re talking about today. Why? Because 190 00:20:11,300 –> 00:20:16,660 only when I see you more clearly will I be able to love you more dearly. And then I’ll 191 00:20:16,660 –> 00:20:21,439 be able to follow you more nearly. And the reason some of us do not have a great love 192 00:20:21,439 –> 00:20:26,579 that’s alive for Christ or a discipleship that’s at the cutting edge is that we’ve 193 00:20:26,579 –> 00:20:33,579 got a blurred and a distorted image of God. We drew it from our experience. We cobbled 194 00:20:34,020 –> 00:20:39,680 it together from religion. We basically absorbed it from some kind of background that left 195 00:20:39,680 –> 00:20:46,680 us with all sorts of distortions. Now if that’s the problem the next question 196 00:20:46,680 –> 00:20:53,680 inevitably must be how then can I know what God is like? If we cannot derive a true knowledge 197 00:20:54,060 –> 00:20:58,979 of God from our own experience because it’s experience of a fallen world or from the world 198 00:20:58,979 –> 00:21:03,459 of religion because it’s full of idols. Then where are we going to get a true picture of 199 00:21:03,459 –> 00:21:10,459 him? The answer to that is that God has revealed himself in the scriptures. Now if you think 200 00:21:11,439 –> 00:21:16,880 about it there is no way that any man or woman at any point, ancient or modern, in history 201 00:21:16,880 –> 00:21:22,719 could find out simply by thinking about it what God is like, because God is invisible. 202 00:21:22,719 –> 00:21:27,520 The only way we’ll ever know God is if he makes himself known. That’s what the word 203 00:21:27,520 –> 00:21:33,579 reveal or revelation means. It’s kind of like a stage with the curtains drawn and the curtains 204 00:21:33,579 –> 00:21:39,979 are pulled back so that we get a glimpse and then they’re closed again. God has indeed 205 00:21:39,979 –> 00:21:45,199 revealed himself, he has made himself known pulling back the curtains he did it to Abraham, 206 00:21:45,199 –> 00:21:50,339 Isaac and Jacob, to his people Israel and through the prophets. And we have the record 207 00:21:50,339 –> 00:21:56,420 of God’s revelation that is laid out for us in the Scriptures. Therefore we may discover 208 00:21:56,420 –> 00:22:07,420 God as he has revealed himself in the Bible. The prophets did not write their own ideas 209 00:22:07,420 –> 00:22:13,339 about God. In fact, that was the mark of a false prophet. The prophets wrote what God 210 00:22:13,339 –> 00:22:18,939 gave them to say. That is true of the whole of Scripture, but you find a wonderful picture 211 00:22:18,939 –> 00:22:25,140 of it, a snapshot of it in Isaiah 40. When you look there at verse 6, here the people 212 00:22:25,140 –> 00:22:30,920 of God are about to suffer terrible things in their experience and God says to Isaiah 213 00:22:30,920 –> 00:22:35,079 speaking to him directly, you have to go and comfort these people you’ve got to speak 214 00:22:35,079 –> 00:22:42,859 tenderly to Jerusalem. Verse 6, a voice says God says to Isaiah I want you to cry out. 215 00:22:43,060 –> 00:22:50,640 Notice Isaiah’s response, he says what shall I cry. I don’t know what to say. What am I 216 00:22:50,640 –> 00:23:00,060 to say to the people, and notice God tells him what to say. Not just general ideas but 217 00:23:00,060 –> 00:23:07,099 God gives him the precise words that He has to say. Verse 9, you have to go into the towns 218 00:23:07,099 –> 00:23:12,040 of Judah and you have to say here is your God. And throughout Isaiah 40, this is why 219 00:23:12,160 –> 00:23:18,819 it’s such a wonderful passage. God paints a picture of what he is like in His own words. 220 00:23:21,880 –> 00:23:30,180 God describing himself in His own words. God saying let me introduce myself to you as I 221 00:23:30,180 –> 00:23:38,640 am. Now this is the nature of the scriptures. It is God’s revelation of Himself given to 222 00:23:39,000 –> 00:23:44,459 the apostles, given to the prophets, given through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in which 223 00:23:44,459 –> 00:23:51,459 God reveals Himself as He is, He has disclosed Himself to them so that we may know Him. 224 00:23:54,880 –> 00:24:00,180 Now given that that is the nature of the revelation that we have in scripture let’s come to the 225 00:24:00,180 –> 00:24:07,180 prescription then for the spiritual condition of distorted images. The prescription is very 226 00:24:08,760 –> 00:24:15,760 clear it is the spiritual discipline of biblical meditation. Remember every week we are going 227 00:24:17,719 –> 00:24:23,920 to have some practical steps as to what you can do about this particular condition. I 228 00:24:23,920 –> 00:24:30,920 am commending to you the spiritual discipline of biblical meditation. What does that mean? 229 00:24:31,180 –> 00:24:37,520 Well when I talk about meditation I don’t mean emptying your mind, which is how the 230 00:24:37,680 –> 00:24:44,219 word is most commonly used these days. I mean filling your mind. Any practice that starts 231 00:24:44,219 –> 00:24:48,839 with the idea that you should empty your mind is highly suspect. When you empty your mind 232 00:24:48,839 –> 00:24:55,800 you never know what might come in. Biblical meditation is about filling your mind with 233 00:24:55,800 –> 00:25:02,800 one truth. Maybe as simple as God is good. And letting that one truth be like ointment 234 00:25:07,520 –> 00:25:14,520 poured on all the wounds that are there within your mind. Take ten minutes just to reflect 235 00:25:15,439 –> 00:25:22,439 on one basic truth, one statement from the lines of scripture. Soak your mind in it. 236 00:25:23,520 –> 00:25:30,239 Work it into every area of your heart and your mind. Let the truth begin to challenge 237 00:25:30,239 –> 00:25:37,219 your assumptions and straighten out the lines of the distorted image of God that exist within 238 00:25:37,359 –> 00:25:43,780 your mind and within your heart. The practice of biblical meditation, let the truth that 239 00:25:43,780 –> 00:25:50,780 God has revealed about himself in scripture penetrate into your mind and in your heart. 240 00:25:51,160 –> 00:25:56,959 If you don’t do that, all you’re left with is experience and religion. 241 00:25:56,959 –> 00:26:01,699 Now I’d rather do this in these last moments than simply talk about it so as you have your 242 00:26:01,939 –> 00:26:08,939 Bible open. Let’s reflect on what Isaiah says as the very words of God are given to him 243 00:26:10,420 –> 00:26:17,420 to describe who God is. Notice these two wonderful pictures. Let’s fill our minds with them. 244 00:26:17,560 –> 00:26:24,560 First God’s transcendent, and that simply means awesome and eternal. Look at verse 21 245 00:26:24,939 –> 00:26:30,540 through 22. Do you not know, have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning 246 00:26:30,540 –> 00:26:34,199 have you not understood since the earth was founded? Here’s what you need to know in other 247 00:26:34,199 –> 00:26:41,199 words. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and all its people are like 248 00:26:44,800 –> 00:26:51,800 grasshoppers. You see the living God is not like the idols, not like the religions created 249 00:26:52,859 –> 00:26:58,939 through human culture. He’s not a projection of our thought or of our imagination. He doesn’t 250 00:26:59,219 –> 00:27:04,199 rise out of the creation, He sits over the creation, because He is the creator of the 251 00:27:04,199 –> 00:27:11,199 universe and all its vastness. He is sovereign over all other gods. He is sovereign over 252 00:27:12,060 –> 00:27:19,060 the world of spirits and of demons. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and you were 253 00:27:20,939 –> 00:27:27,939 made by Him and for Him. Think about that. We saw a gathering of representatives of the 254 00:27:28,219 –> 00:27:35,219 whole world this week in the United Nations, and it was awesome. But to this eternal and 255 00:27:35,760 –> 00:27:42,760 infinite God, according to verse 15, all the nations are like a drop in the bucket. The 256 00:27:44,859 –> 00:27:51,859 earth itself is a tiny speck in the vastness of His universe. God makes our word awesome 257 00:27:52,760 –> 00:27:59,160 seem very small. I love a phrase of Stuart Brisco’s. He said on a number of occasions 258 00:27:59,160 –> 00:28:06,160 that we used to say that Michael Jordan was awesome because he could dunk a basketball. 259 00:28:06,939 –> 00:28:13,939 But God is awesome. He can dunk the world. I like that. Not only is God awesome but He 260 00:28:14,900 –> 00:28:21,900 is eternal. The Bible says that a thousand years with Him is just like one day. That 261 00:28:22,060 –> 00:28:29,060 means the entire history of this country is no more than a few hours of a morning. Even 262 00:28:29,060 –> 00:28:36,060 Europe’s not much longer. What is 200 years to an eternal God? Verse 24, no sooner are 263 00:28:37,439 –> 00:28:42,579 they planted that He blows on them and they are withered. And when you stand with Him 264 00:28:43,099 –> 00:28:48,060 and you know what eternity is, you will see that the whole of human history is like a 265 00:28:48,060 –> 00:28:54,540 blip on the screen. And that your life, in all your thoughts, and with all the importance 266 00:28:54,540 –> 00:29:01,540 that you thought about, is like a nanosecond. It’s good for me to remember that, if I ever 267 00:29:01,920 –> 00:29:08,920 get to a feeling that I am important. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns in Heaven 268 00:29:09,339 –> 00:29:15,400 above with wisdom, power and love. Our God is an awesome God and when you come to know 269 00:29:15,400 –> 00:29:22,400 this awesome, eternal God, you will never be bored. And when you have been in eternity, 270 00:29:23,060 –> 00:29:27,319 I don’t know how you measure eternity, but if you’ll forgive the confusion of categories, 271 00:29:27,319 –> 00:29:34,319 when you’ve been in eternity for 10,000 years, you will not have begun to enter into the 272 00:29:34,520 –> 00:29:41,520 fullness of fascination as to who He is. Here is your God. But of course, if that is all 273 00:29:43,280 –> 00:29:47,819 you’ve grasped, you’re still in danger of a distorted picture. Isaiah goes on in verse 274 00:29:47,819 –> 00:29:54,479 27 because God is not only transcendent, awesome and eternal, but He is imminent, which means 275 00:29:54,479 –> 00:30:01,260 up, close and personal. Here’s a person who thinks that this vast God can’t possible know 276 00:30:01,280 –> 00:30:05,500 what’s going on in my life. In verse 27, Isaiah says, 277 00:30:21,640 –> 00:30:23,239 You see, it’s precisely because of God’s 278 00:30:23,239 –> 00:30:30,239 awesome greatness that He never tires of us. I’m getting weary of myself, don’t you? I 279 00:30:30,280 –> 00:30:33,920 don’t mean you get weary of me, I don’t want the answer to that question. Don’t you get 280 00:30:33,920 –> 00:30:40,920 weary of yourself sometimes, don’t you get tired of the same frustrations, the same battles? 281 00:30:40,920 –> 00:30:45,479 But God never tires of you. He knows every thought in your head, every word in your mouth. 282 00:30:45,479 –> 00:30:52,319 He knows precisely what He is doing in your life. And the same God, before whom the entire 283 00:30:52,319 –> 00:30:59,319 population of the world is like grasshoppers, the same God for whom the nations are a drop 284 00:30:59,819 –> 00:31:06,819 in the bucket, is concerned about one person, you, and what you face today and tomorrow. 285 00:31:11,479 –> 00:31:15,800 I suspect some of us are reeling and saying, I can’t take in these two pictures at the 286 00:31:15,800 –> 00:31:20,839 same time. I just can’t. I see the one, I lose sight of the other. I see the other, 287 00:31:20,839 –> 00:31:27,839 I lose sight of the first. How can God be so awesome, and eternal, and yet up, close 288 00:31:28,719 –> 00:31:35,719 and personal? And you see everything that is said about God in the scriptures is brought 289 00:31:36,020 –> 00:31:43,020 into focus for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Think about this. The New Testament says, 290 00:31:45,000 –> 00:31:52,000 He is the image of the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God. He is God 291 00:31:52,839 –> 00:31:59,839 made known to you. In all His awesome transcendent power and in all His eminent personal love. 292 00:32:07,280 –> 00:32:12,239 And everything that the Bible says about God himself is portrayed for us in Jesus Christ. 293 00:32:12,239 –> 00:32:17,280 How is this for up close and personal? Jesus bending down and saying, Let the children 294 00:32:17,280 –> 00:32:19,280 come to me. This is your God! 295 00:32:21,760 –> 00:32:30,160 How is this for awesome? I choose to lay down my life. I have power to take it up again. 296 00:32:31,920 –> 00:32:37,680 So that on the third day after he was crucified the tomb was empty and Christ was able to say 297 00:32:37,680 –> 00:32:46,479 in his risen power, I was dead, I am alive, and behold, I hold the keys of death and hades forever. 298 00:32:46,479 –> 00:32:52,719 This is your God. And the last thing I want to say to you this morning is simply this. 299 00:32:53,599 –> 00:33:01,760 Distorted images are healed at the cross. For that is where God is brought into focus for you. 300 00:33:01,760 –> 00:33:05,880 This God who loved you and gave himself for you. 301 00:33:06,880 –> 00:33:14,680 And at the cross he invites you to believe in him and to turn to him to worship him, to serve him, and obey him. 302 00:33:15,680 –> 00:33:18,880 Why don’t you bring your boredom to the cross? 303 00:33:20,599 –> 00:33:24,439 You say you find God boring, got that distorted image? 304 00:33:26,680 –> 00:33:34,359 Can you really be bored with the awesome, eternal, God who came from heaven to earth 305 00:33:34,359 –> 00:33:38,199 in order to open the way for you to come and to know him? 306 00:33:42,280 –> 00:33:44,280 Will you bring your cynicism to the cross? 307 00:33:46,199 –> 00:33:49,880 Can you really write off as irrelevant a God who would not 308 00:33:49,880 –> 00:33:55,079 stand aloof from the suffering of this world, but entered it and plumbed its depth 309 00:33:55,079 –> 00:33:58,359 so that he may be able to embrace you in your suffering also? 310 00:33:58,359 –> 00:34:06,280 And will you bring your antagonism, your anger to the cross? 311 00:34:08,840 –> 00:34:21,239 Can you really hate the God who loved you and gave himself for you? 312 00:34:22,199 –> 00:34:32,040 Distorted images are healed at the cross. Let’s pray together shall we. 313 00:34:37,560 –> 00:34:41,000 And maybe as we’ve been thinking in pictures you may imagine 314 00:34:41,000 –> 00:34:52,760 you bringing the distorted picture in its frame. The picture, the unattractive picture, the ugly 315 00:34:52,760 –> 00:35:06,580 picture, the harshness, the meanness that you’ve projected onto God himself. And you bring that to 316 00:35:06,580 –> 00:35:17,280 the cross and you’ll break that picture in its frame as you look up into the face of the crucified 317 00:35:17,280 –> 00:35:33,719 and know that the awesome eternal God loves you and gave himself for you. Thank you that you have 318 00:35:33,840 –> 00:35:41,600 revealed yourself our father so that we may know who you are because otherwise we’d never get 319 00:35:41,600 –> 00:35:48,540 beyond the confusion that comes from our experience of a fallen world otherwise we’d 320 00:35:48,540 –> 00:35:54,280 never get beyond the idols the shots in the darkness to what men and women think you might 321 00:35:54,280 –> 00:36:04,399 be like, thank you that you have made your self known that you are awesome and eternal 322 00:36:04,399 –> 00:36:15,699 that you draw near to us in your Son Jesus Christ in compassion and in love, that in 323 00:36:15,800 –> 00:36:27,320 meekness and in majesty. You are our God. We count it the greatest privilege of our 324 00:36:27,320 –> 00:36:33,760 lives to know you and feel, even now within our souls, a great hunger and thirst to know 325 00:36:33,760 –> 00:36:43,340 you more. Grant we pray that as we, as disciples, develop that pattern of reflecting on what 326 00:36:43,439 –> 00:36:49,600 you have said about yourself that it may be like healing oil within our souls. 327 00:36:49,600 –> 00:36:57,479 That it may paint within our minds the pictures of truth. That we may worship you, love you, 328 00:36:57,479 –> 00:37:03,219 follow you, serve you and obey you all the days of our lives. 329 00:37:03,219 –> 00:37:10,300 Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.