Isaiah 33 And The End Of False Peace

A bully can look untouchable right up until the moment consequences arrive. We lean into Isaiah 33 with Pastor Carl starting with God’s warning to the plunderer and the treacherous. The Assyrians were notorious for cruelty, but the message does not stay locked in ancient history. We talk about what that spirit represents, how the enemy deceives and destroys, and why the gospel says, plainly, “It was finished” and the gift of grace is still offered.

From that warning, we move into a prayer we all need when life feels unstable: “Oh Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.” We explore what it means to wait on God without trying to manufacture our own rescue, and we take seriously the call to pray for leaders so they seek God’s wisdom instead of the wisdom of the world. Then the lens widens to the nations, judgment, and the timeless Psalm 2 reality of people uniting to resist God, chasing power while calling it peace.

The turning point is hope with teeth: wisdom and knowledge become “the stability of your times,” and the fear of the Lord is not treated as a gloomy threat but as a treasure that leads to repentance, relationship, and real change. We also connect faith to daily purpose: work was created good, and the Holy Spirit empowers what God calls us to do right now, not just someday in eternity. If you’re tired of pseudo peace and want the Prince of Peace, press play, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find this Bible teaching.

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.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

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

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Don't you get satisfaction in the job well done? Imagine what you can do when you don't have a body of sin to do it through. Imagine what kind of work we can do with the Lord in our new resurrected bodies. And imagine what you can do here now because you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. He's changing you here and now. What does the Lord have for you?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

It's a great treasure. I think most of us would love it if there were a way to do what we do more efficiently. Do you love to create art? What if you had more time to do it? What if you had all the resources you could dream of? What if your only limit was your imagination? Today, Pastor Carl shares with you that in eternity, you'll be free from all the limitations of this world. But you don't have to wait until then. The Holy Spirit will empower you to do whatever it is that God is calling you to do in the here and now. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered, and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you. The Assyrians were coming in, and the Assyrians had a reputation of being some of the meanest people around. It was one of the cruelest empires around, and they'd come through northern Israel and they were just doing atrocious acts to the people. But through the mouth of Isaiah, the Lord is saying, Even though I used you to judge my people, you will be judged with your treacheries, with your plunderings. And later on, Babylon would take over Assyria and do some of the same things to them. But doesn't this sound like a bully? Bullies who pick on younger kids to make themselves seem like there's something else. But what's the problem with bullies a lot of times? They're missing something, aren't they? They're missing love, they're missing acknowledgement, they're missing discipline. And when we look at the Assyrians, I don't know what motivated them. There are a lot of possibilities, but when we look at the picture of who the Assyrians represent, the Assyrian is a picture of Satan himself. And the Assyrian, he was never dealt treacherously with, he was never plundered. In fact, he was put into a wonderful position in heaven as Lucifer. He was the worship leader, he was the protector. And yet, he wanted to be God. And so he rebelled against God. And because he rebelled against God, he's defining his future. His future is rebellion, his future is destruction. He wasn't plundered, he wasn't dealt treacherously with. But that's what's going to happen to him. And for anybody who's outside of the grace of God, we're living like the world, the world lives treacherously. The world plunders. The world is influenced by the God of this age, which is Satan, right? Who's all about killing, stealing, and destroying, all about deceiving people, all about promising them one thing and giving them some idea that maybe they've experienced this, but but the truth is they've he's given them death. This is a picture of the fate of the enemy. It was finished. All we have to do is accept his gift. The sad part is many won't. And they'll end up in the lake of fire that was designed for the devil and his demons. Well, in verse 2, we see Isaiah and the remnant of those who this resonates with says, Oh, yes, I do not want to be on the side of treachery. I do not want to be on the side outside of God's grace. I want to be in the midst of God's mercy. And Isaiah cries out with the remnant, Oh Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Our confidence is in you. We're not trying to bring salvation to our own lives by ourselves and our own motives because you took too long. No, we're waiting on you to accomplish your perfect will. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. That third line there, be their arm in every morning. There are two ways that it's been translated. One is be our strong arm every morning. You're the one that brings us strength. You're the one that brings us safety. You're the one that brings us all we need to accomplish what you've called us to do. That's one. The other is praying for the leaders. He's talking about Hezekiah, King Hezekiah at the time, and his people that ruled with him, his leaders. Be their strong arm every morning. We need to pray for our leadership. We need to pray, Lord, be with our president, be with our vice president, be with our leaders in Congress, be with our governors, be with our county supervisors, our mayors, our sheriffs, be with our elders, be with our fathers and mothers, or be strong in their lives. Draw people to yourself, help them to seek after you. Help them to seek your wisdom and not the wisdom of the world, because the wisdom of the world leads to calamity. We see that today. Oh Lord, you're our salvation in the time of trouble. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you seek that? Do you surrender yourself daily to the fact that the Lord is good? Do you surrender yourself daily to the Lord, even when you don't see it happening? Lord, I know you're my salvation, but look at everything that's happening. Look what's going on in my life. Lord, you promise these things, but they're not happening. I see some happening, but some not. But Lord, I trust you. I trust you, I wait on you, and I know I'm positionally in heaven with you now. It's all done, it's finished. Help me to understand your ways, Lord. Help me to understand your ways. Verse 3, we acknowledge that the Lord is going to move. The Lord is going to bring judgment against the nations. At the noise of the tumult of the people shall flee. When you lift yourself up, the nations shall be scattered, and your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of a caterpillar, as the running to and fro of a locust. He shall run upon them. When the Lord finally comes and he unleashes his wrath against rebellious nations, against an unbelieving world. It'll be like insects all over the place. You can't not see it happening. The world will be affected. And I believe this is a picture of what will happen at the Valley of Meghetto when the nations were literally gathered together. There will be a unity among the nations. Finally, what's their unity in? To destroy God and the works of God. Now, if that sounds far-fetched, this is an attitude that's been happening for many millennia. Do you remember Psalm 2? King David writes this why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. The spirit of the world, which is empowered by the spirit of the Antichrist, Satan himself, the prince and power of the air, he is the ruler of this world, he influences the thinking of this world. And if we follow those things that are not renewed by the reading of God's word, if we're not renewed by the Holy Spirit, if we're not born again and changed, we fall into this trap. The world hates God, the world hates his Christ, Jesus Christ. The name by which is higher than any other name, and the only name by which anyone can be saved. The enemy has convinced the world that our only hope is not our hope. You don't want him, you want to fight against him. And this is true. This happens today. They even come together in the name of religion. They even talk about God, but it's not the God of the Bible. It might look like it, there are aspects of it, but they don't want anything to do with God. And so his wrath needs to be poured out. And in that time, the Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. But once again, he's going to stand up and he's going to come back down to earth with his saints in the armies of heaven to glorify himself on the earth. Evil will be done away with. The idea that even if we make the wrong decisions of what we call right and what we call wrong, put that aside, the fact that we would even differentiate in our minds that there is a right and there is a wrong comes from the fact that God exists. And He is right. Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times. Not emotions, not stirring of anger and strife, but wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord and knowledge which He has. He is all-knowing. And he wants to share that with us. And we need to acknowledge that in our fallenness we think we're smart, but we're not. We think we have knowledge, but we don't. The Lord has the knowledge, and in him we will have stability in our times and the strength of salvation. Wisdom and knowledge is the strength of salvation. Do you know Jesus? That's what makes you saved. Left to our own devices, we would ignore the fact that there's even a God that we need to be saved from and to. Do you ever ask yourself, what are you saved from? Well, you're saved from God. What? You're saved from God's wrath. And you're saved to God because in him you have the righteousness of God. He's already taken the price for you. And the fear of the Lord is his treasure. Do you treasure the fear of the Lord? It's a gift to you. Do you realize that? The fear of God is part of God's grace that he gives to us. It's what causes us to say, whoa, I'm not right with God. It causes us to say, I have broken God's commandments. It's what causes us to fall at his knees and say, Lord, please forgive me. And it's also what causes us to be picked up by the Lord and say, I love you, my son, my daughter. I've paid the price. I'm so glad that you're in the family. It's the fear of the Lord that causes us to say no to sin and to say yes to righteousness. It's the fear of God that causes a man who would rather sit in the corner and do work on his computer to stand up in front of people and teach the word of God. The fear of the Lord is real. It's a gift, it's a treasure. Not only for us, but him. It's a treasure to him. Oh, how it pleases him when people respond to him in the fear of the Lord. Because that's when relationship is built. That's when salvation happens. That's when we're conformed to the image of God and are able to experience the joys of our relationship with him forever. He's got so many adventures for us. He's got so much work to do. Good work. When he created work for man, he created it before the fall. It was good. And don't you get satisfaction in a job well done. Imagine what you can do when you don't have a body of sin to do it through. Imagine what kind of work we can do with the Lord in our new resurrected bodies. And imagine what you can do here and now because you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. He's changing you here and now. What does the Lord have for you? It's a great treasure. Then we look at the nations again. Surely, their valiant ones cry out outside. The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. There's always been a desire for peace in the world. You know why? Because there hasn't been. Ever since the fall, there has not been peace in the world. There have been taste of peace. But peace comes from the Prince of Peace, right? But if we don't seek after the Prince of Peace, if we don't receive the peace that he gives, we try to come up with our own. And we make deals with our enemies to protect us from our other enemies. We want to experience the peace, but we don't care about our fellow man and we'll step all over them so we can get what we want. This is the heart of what the problem is with Israel. This is the problem of what it is with mankind in general. We have this idea that we're good people. We have this idea that we look out for others when the truth is we look out for others because it benefits us. The real heart of sacrifice, the real heart of considering others more important than ourselves is something that's supernatural and comes from the Lord. But if we reject the Lord, we don't have it. So we go about our own ways of trying to make peace in this world. And the enemy gets involved in it, and he wants to bring a pseudo-peace along so that he can bring more people with him, deceive more people, and destroy more people. And when the Lord comes and destroys the nations that have rejected the Lord, he will also destroy all their plans for peace, all their talk for peace. And the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. It's not going to happen. This God has destroyed all our work. Why don't we serve the God that gives us real peace? Verse 8 says, the highways lay in waste, the traveling man ceases, he has broken the covenant and has despised the city. This idea of the traveling man is somebody that goes from place to place to place to wreak havoc, to stir things up, not to bring peace, but in the name of peace, he does it. But the truth is he's breaking the covenant. He's not trusting God, he's going his own way. He has no regard for man. He wants to destroy man. The enemy is the enemy of your soul. He wants to destroy mankind. The earth mourns in languages. Not only are people affected, but the earth itself is affected. Because of the rebellion of man against God and his ways. We want to build our own kingdom. We want to make our own peace. And the enemy comes alongside. Yeah, and I can help you do that. It just brings destruction. Lebanon is shamed and shriveled. A few chapters back, we we saw the prophecies about cedars. The cedars of Lebanon would be cut down and flattened. Sharon is like a wilderness. The rows of Sharon, just this beautiful countryside with flowers and vegetation flattened, and weeds and desert. And Bashem and Carmel shake off their fruits. Great mountain ranges with trees. And you know, Mount Carmel is where Elijah took on the prophets of Baal. The beauty of these places will be destroyed. Because mankind thought that we could do it better than God. It's okay, God, we don't need your way. We're gonna go our way. It brings destruction, it brings havoc. When that happens, now I will rise, says the Lord. Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift myself up. You have not chosen to follow me, but now I am going to sit myself in this seat of authority, and evil will be done away with. Greater than anything we've ever seen in history. But you shall conceive chaff, you who rebel against God, you who think your way is better than God's way. You shall conceive chaff. All your effort, all the things that you put together, what are you gonna birth? Things that fly away in the wind. You shall bring forth stubble, your breath as fire shall devour you. That's pretty harsh language. Everything you do, everything you say, everything you breathe will be a destruction to your own life, let alone those around you, let alone the nations. And you hear the Lord, his heart of Passion saying, why it doesn't have to be this way. The price has been paid. Just come to me. Come to me. Oh, you are heavy laden and burdened, and I will give you rest. Even if you created that burden yourself, it's been paid for. Just come to me. Acknowledge your ways. Repent and turn to me. This is an interesting verse, verse 12, and the people shall be like the burnings of lime. This is an idea of a lime kiln, and I don't totally understand it, but you take limestone, you put it in this lime kiln, and it creates another substance that you can mix with asphalt to make it even stronger. And so all your lives are going to be good for are to be burned up and used to pave roads. Like thorns, they are cut up and to be burned in the fire. All your life is going to be good for is to stop the flames. Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done, and you who are near, acknowledge my might. Again, the heart of the Lord. That's not what I have for you. I love you. I have a plan for you. I want a relationship with you. I want to save you from this death and destruction that's coming. Why does the Lord bring it up again and again and again? So that we will gain the fear of the Lord. So that we would turn to Him. So that our nation will see the path that we're on and repent and turn to God for mercy because He wants to give it to us.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Thanks for joining us for Come On Up. We've been hearing from Pastor Carl, the pastor at the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina, as he teaches us about the book of Isaiah. Toward the beginning of this book, the prophet Isaiah receives a vision of God's glory, and he is certain that he and the entire nation of Israel will be destroyed in the presence of a perfect creator. But God chose mercy on Isaiah and purifies him of his sin. This is an illustration of how God had mercy on us by sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. We don't have to be afraid to enter into the Lord's presence because the blood of Jesus has already paid the debt of our sin. We are made righteous and holy because of his sacrifice, which was prophesied to us all the way back in the book of Genesis and reaffirmed in the book of Isaiah. We're called to spread this message of hope to all who will hear it. And that is why this program that you're listening to is on the air. If you'd like to hear more from Pastor Carl, you can do so by visiting us online at themountaincross.com. If you're local to Waynesville, we'd also love to invite you to join us in person at the Mountain Cross. We meet every Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. You'll find more information about our services and our monthly faith film nights on our website. Pastor Carl has plenty more to share from the book of Isaiah, so be sure to 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.