Lies That Make Sin Look Good

Sin doesn’t usually announce itself as destruction. It shows up polished, persuasive, and “normal” enough to pull us off the narrow road one small yes at a time. Pastor Carl continues a verse-by-verse walk through Isaiah 30 and confronts the cultural lies that make rebellion look harmless while it quietly steals courage, peace, and clarity.

We talk about what pride does to a soul and to a community: confidence evaporates, fear takes over, and we end up with little to show for the path we chose. But Isaiah’s warning is also a window into God’s character. The Lord waits to be gracious, and He speaks ahead of time so we can turn back before consequences harden. That patience is not weakness. It is mercy with purpose.

One of the most hopeful moments is the link between justice and forgiveness. God is the Judge, yet He offers grace without excusing evil because Jesus pays the cost at the cross. From there, the message gets intensely practical: what “waiting on the Lord” actually means, how the Holy Spirit teaches and guides, and why spiritual growth includes learning to say “get away” to the idols and inputs that defile us.

If you’re looking for Bible teaching, Christian discipleship, and a clear call to resist temptation and trust God’s Word, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find Come On Up.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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There's so many lies out in the culture today leading people astray, leading them to death. And a lot of them are very attractive. If we deny the truth of the word, and we start listening to the flesh, start listening to the temptations of the enemy that he's bringing to us that are very exciting at the moment. May he give us a heart that says, get away.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Get away. There was a time when they would advertise cigarettes as being the doctor's choice. Now every pack has a Surgeon General's warning on it. Alcohol advertisements depict a bunch of attractive people having a good time, but what they don't show is the vomiting, the bad choices, and the next day hangovers. In today's message, Pastor Carl tells you that the culture paints sin as being attractive, when in reality, it's a very ugly thing. Sin may be pleasurable for a moment, but it always ends in disaster. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

He gives us a confidence and a boldness to stay there and to say no to our flesh, say no to the world because we know where it's going, because the one that is true has told us, and the one that is true has proven himself to us again and again and again. The problem is, most of Jerusalem did not do that. They went their own way and in their pride thought that they could accomplish what they wanted to accomplish. Verse 17: one thousand shall flee at the threat of one, and the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain, as a banner on a hill. In your pride, you will run. And in your pride, you're quickly going to lose that confidence. Because your enemy is going to pursue you and you're going to become afraid of everything. You know, a thousand of you will flee at the threat of one. Because you've lost that confidence, because you've seen the enemy come and take you over. And when it's all said and done, you're left as a pole on top of a mountain, as a banner on a hill. That's an interesting phrase. I went to the New Living Translation to get a little more insight into it. And listen to this: you will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill or a tatted banner on a distant mountaintop. You will have run to the mountain, and all it's left is just shambles. And you become an emblem to the world. This is what happens when I go my own way and do my own thing. There's not much left to show for it. May we find wisdom in that, in the fact that they showed us that the word of God is true, even though they weren't going in that direction. They showed us this is where it ends. In destruction and humiliation. Nothing left. Therefore, the Lord will wait. He told us to wait on the Lord, and he's also waiting on us. He's waiting for us that he may be gracious to you. He's telling these things to Jerusalem in advance so that they would turn and that they would find hope and healing and mercy. And even after the judgment comes, even after the result of their foolishness happens, the Lord's mercy and grace is still shown out. And there'll be glimmers of this in the next few minutes. But even in the future, there's even a more glorious time set aside for Israel when they are restored, when they come to faith in the Lord during the millennial reign. It'll be a glorious time. Therefore, the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you, and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. Now there's a lot in there. Let me just touch on a couple little things. Our Lord waits, he's patient, he's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. But it's his will that all would repent and come to a knowledge of him. The Lord's not in a rush, but at the same time, there is a time where he said is enough, is enough. He knows when that time is. Grace is imparting what we don't deserve to people. It's a gift. Grace, the key word is gift. The Lord is gracious and he desires to change us from the inside out. Another word for grace is grace is God doing it. The work of the Lord in our lives is his grace working in and through us. He's changing us and making us more like him when we let him. He is exalted when he's gracious, and he's exalted that he might have mercy on you. Nobody can find anything against him, not truthfully. He's honest, he's faithful, he's truthful, he is truth. And if God the Father exalts him to the highest position, that all would be subject to him. So that he could have mercy on you. And this last part is God is a God of justice. The Lord is a God of justice. He is the judge. Do you understand? He's the judge. And he could toss heads in jail and throw away the key, and he'd be totally right in doing that. And yet he's gracious and merciful. If we go to a court today, a judge can either lay the hammer down, lay down the law, or he can let somebody off hoping that they would change because they got a little bit of a grace. Now, when they do that, the price hasn't been paid for their sin. The price hasn't been prayed for their crime. They've just been let off and given another chance. God, our Lord, has a way to be able to give grace and mercy and not excuse justice. Because he's taken it on himself. He's paid for your sin so he can say you're forgiven and not lessen the impact of it. When we say, Oh, it's okay, don't worry about it. And there's still this wrong that's happened. If somebody has stolen something from you and they don't restore it to you, you forgive them, but there's still this loss. But Jesus, in dying on the cross, paid for the sin of the whole world, and he can say, It's paid for. You're good. Would you accept my gift? So God, who's the judge, can at the same time be merciful and gracious and be perfectly holy in doing that. Chew on that for a while. Blessed are all those who wait for him. Are you going to wait on the Lord? Are you going to trust him? Are you going to follow him? Now, waiting on the Lord just real quick, that doesn't mean just sitting there doing nothing. It means doing the last thing he told you until he tells you to do something else. Right? In the strength that he gives you to do it. Don't just do it on your own because God told me to do this. But in the power and the strength of the Spirit, He's guiding and directing you every step of the way. That's waiting on the Lord. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, and you shall weep no more. There will be a remnant that stayed behind in Jerusalem. There would be a remnant that said, You know, God is good. I don't care what the rest of you are doing with your plans to make a deal with Egypt. We're going to stay. And the Lord's going to protect them. You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry, and when he hears it, he will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of reflection, yet your teachers will not be moved to the corner anymore. But your eyes shall see your teachers. The pride of Jerusalem did not want to hear from the visionaries, did not want to hear from the prophets, from the teachers that represented the Lord. They did not like Isaiah. Isaiah had a very hard job. He was proclaiming the truth, but people didn't want to hear it. But those, the remnant that did, that stayed behind, that trusted in the Lord, they would listen. They would listen to the teachers. They would respond. And in the New Testament, who is our main teacher? Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit is our teacher. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. The Holy Spirit is the one that empowers us to live a life of righteousness. He is our teacher. And as we get into the word, as we listen, as we respond and hear what the Lord has to say, and not what we want to put to the words, then we begin to hear from him and he directs our lives. Verse 21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand, or whenever you turn to the left, when we fall at the mercy of the Lord, and we recognize that He has nothing but good and truth and protection and wisdom for us. Then we begin to listen, we begin to study, we begin to get into the Word, and we believe what we read. And the Lord begins to speak to us by the Holy Spirit through the word and as you go during the day. And he'll tell us turn right, turn left. And when we do it, we'll be found that we're being used by the Lord to touch other people's lives, people we wouldn't even think about touching. And at the same time, you will also defile the covering of your images of silver. I think that's a funny phrase because usually we go after the things of the world, and that defiles our relationship with the Lord, that defiles the things of the Lord. And now we're defiling the things that defiled us, which is how the world should be. The world is defiled. So we just begin to agree with the Lord. These things defile me. So I'm defiling them. I'm pushing them out of my mouth, my eyes, my life. I get rid of the images of silver and the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing, and you will say to them, get away. Get away with quit talking to me that way. I'll throw out the television set because of this too much junk that comes into my head. Too many things that bring me away from the truth of the Lord. A real healthy, righteous indignation. As we grow in the Lord and we realize the truth and we realize what's really going on in the world, what the enemy is really doing to our souls, it ought to make us sick. And I don't want any of that in my life, Lord. Not a legalistic thing trying to make ourselves clean before God, but in response to the work that the Lord is doing in our lives, he changes our hearts, and we get burdened and sickened by these things that are going on in my world, in the world of my family, in the world of my church and community. In the culture today, there's so many lies out in the culture today leading people astray, leading them to death. And a lot of them are very attractive. If we deny the truth of the word and we start listening to the flesh, start listening to the temptations of the enemy that he's bringing to us that are very exciting at the moment. May he give us a heart that says, get away, get away. I want the Lord and to serve him only. Then, and I believe this is a picture of the millennium reign. Then he will give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground and bread of the increase of the world. It will be fat and plentiful. In that day, your cattle will feed in large pastures. Likewise, the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground will eat cured fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and the fan. In other words, your animals are going to have the best of the best. Your fields are going to flourish. It's going to be a glorious time. And in verse 25, there will be on every high mountain and every high hill rivers and streams of water. Revelation talks about a river that comes out from the throne of God and waters the nations. This comes after the great day of slaughter when the towers fell. Out of this time of judgment that's to come on the earth when God's wrath is poured out on an unbelieving people. What comes out of that is beauty. What comes out of that is the Lord Himself reigning and ruling with us, and our earth restored to a place that we've never experienced before. Pure water. And then this is an interesting phrase. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days. In that day, the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the stroke of their wound. Specifically talking about Israel. Israel will be restored and healed and placed in this position, and God's glory is going to be so bright and glorious. Revelation talks about the Lord being our light, and there would be no more need for the sun, moon, and stars. So what does it mean about the moon being brighter than the sun and the sun being seven times as bright as it usually is? Well, I didn't know, so I did a little investigating and I looked up Chuck Missler. Anybody familiar with Chuck? He is smart, isn't he? He knows everything and he has all these ideas. And you know what he said? I have no idea. This is the weirdest thing I've ever read. This is Chuck, you know, Chuck Missler. He would go back, he said, I got these, you know, scientist friends that that believe there was some point where the speed of light changed, and that might have something to do with it, but I really don't know. The point is it's going to be glorious. The point is the Lord is bringing healing. And the deal is we don't have to wait for the millennium for this to happen in our lives. The kingdom is being built in us today. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and he's going to brighten your path as you seek him. Let's not go our own way. Let's resist our flesh and let's go wholeheartedly after the Lord so that we can experience all the healing, all the forgiveness, all the protection, everything we need for life and godliness to accomplish his purposes in our lives on this world until we see him forever and ever and ever. The Lord is good, but the Lord is a judge. And Assyria would come. Verse 27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and his burden is heavy, his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue like a devouring fire, his breath is like an overflowing stream which reaches up to the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of futility. And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people that causes them to err. When Assyria came in, they were very cruel in how they took over people. They would put hooks in people's jaws and take them away. And you remember that Assyria was used by the Lord to bring judgment on his people because his people went astray. And the Lord is appealing. Don't let this happen to you. Turn back to me. And there was a remnant that would that would find hope and healing. But there would be a majority that still went their own way. They were still filled with pride and they would be taken away. But you, the remnant, verse 29, you have a song, as in the night when a holy festival is kept, and gladness of heart is when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of God, to the mighty one of Israel. That word for mighty one comes from the root word of rock. He's the solid rock, the rock which uh Moses hit and water came out to quench the thirst of his people. When we come to the mountain of the Lord, uh during this the festivals, there would a lot of times there are weeklong festivals, and people would you know stop everything they were doing just to come and to celebrate the goodness of God. And believe it or not, the Lord loves a good party, not a debauched, drunken party, but a party of celebration with food and feasting and songs of praise to our God, of celebration, of acknowledgement of how good he is. And to them, the sweeping judgment through Assyria comes through. The remnant can stand there and sing in boldness, in praise to their Lord, because the Lord has saved them, because they have trusted him. Verse 30 says, The Lord will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and showed the descent of his arm with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire with scattering tempest and hailstones. His judgment is being poured out upon all those who who decided to go against him, to go their own way, whose lives were filled with pride. And that was, you know, God's people and those that were enemies of God's people. His wrath would be poured out on all who do not believe, all who do not trust, all who do not follow after the Lord, and accept his mercy and his grace. And it'll be a song in the night that gives us strength. For through the voice of the Lord, Assyria will be beaten down. Assyria, that enemy that God used in order to bring judgment against his own people, but that enemy is still the enemy and will be destroyed. A lot of times Assyria is used to describe the work of the enemy, to describe the work of the Antichrist in the end times. He will be defeated, and he will be brought low as the Lord strikes with the rod. And in every place where the staff of punishment passes, which the Lord lays on him, it will be tambourines and harps. And in battles of brandishing, he will fight with it. This idea that when we come together and we lift up our voices and praise and worship to our God, we're doing spiritual battle. God is using that to destroy our enemies. My song is my weapon to defeat the enemy. Do your hearts resonate with that? Is the Lord putting a new song in your heart to help you fight against the enemies in your life? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. That's the answer. Verse 33 for Toffit was established of old. Now, Tophet, if I understand it correctly, in Jerusalem you'd have the temple, and then there'd be a kind of a valley next to it, and in that valley would be the city dump, and it would be burning continually. With the rubbish that was in there, the leftover, the sacrifices, everything, and just keep on burning and burning. At the very bottom of that hill is the place called Tofit. And at that place called Taffit is where they had set up an idol to the God of Moloch. And this God of Moloch was this giant stone figure with hands out of it. And they'd put a fire under the hands and make it burning hot. And on that they would place their children as a sacrifice. All in this place of punishment. They started to call it Gehenna, which is a picture of the lake of fire. So Tophit was established of old. This lake of fire, if we're looking toward the future, was established a long time ago to destroy the enemy, to destroy Satan and his demons. Yes, for the king, it is prepared. This word king is a play on the word Moloch. It was made to destroy Moloch. Moloch is there with burning hands accepting these sacrifices, but Moloch is going to be destroyed by fire. He has made it deep and large. Its pyre is fire with much wood. The breath of the Lord is like a stream of brimstone. He kindles it. The fire will keep burning, keep burning. And it's a picture again of the lake of fire that at the end of the ages will be the final destination for everything that exalted itself against God. Again, it was made for Satan and his fallen angels. But it is also the destination for those who refuse to accept the gift of God that's already been paid for. The answer to the sin problem has been made, has been fulfilled. And now it's up to mankind to accept it or reject it.

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You're listening to Pastor Carl teach through Isaiah on Come On Up. As you may know, the book of Isaiah was written by a prophet who was telling of the coming exile of the people of Israel. They had strayed far from God and they were about to face consequences for their sinful behavior. However, this exile isn't the end of the story for God's chosen people. Isaiah also shares a message of hope, reminding his readers that God can use even the darkest of circumstances for the good of all humanity. The Israelites may be away from their homeland for a while, but one day they will return. Pastor Carl wants us to learn that we are spiritual exiles, living in a world unlike the one we were made for. We were meant to be in communion with God, but we were separated from his presence by the curse of sin. But just as the Israelites came back to their homeland, we will one day be restored into the presence of our Creator, thanks to the blood of Jesus. Would you like to hear more from Pastor Carl? If so, go to themountaincross.com. There you'll find links to our Bible studies and our podcast feed, where you'll be able to listen to more of Pastor Carl's lessons. But you'll also find information about our in-person services at the Mountain Cross. If you're in Waynesville, North Carolina, you're invited to join us for our Sunday services at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. Thanks for listening today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.