Blessing Or Idol

A piece of licorice shouldn’t feel like a spiritual crisis, but that’s the point. We start with a small, everyday choice and uncover a pattern most of us know too well: God gives good gifts to enjoy, yet our hearts can twist enjoyment into idolatry the moment we push past His boundaries. Pastor Carl talks candidly about the grace of God that sometimes restrains us and other times steps back, letting us sit with the hollow feeling that follows stubborn self-rule.

From there we move into the big, weighty landscape of Isaiah 34 and Isaiah 35, where judgment and hope sit side by side. We talk about why Christians long for evil to end, not because we want people to suffer, but because sin destroys what is beautiful, good, and noble. Isaiah’s “day of vengeance” is sobering, and it should break our hearts, yet it also frames why repentance matters so much. When we pray for healing in our nation and our lives, we’re really praying that people turn to Jesus and find peace before judgment becomes the only way sin is removed.

Then Isaiah turns the corner toward restoration: deserts blooming, weakness strengthened, fear confronted, and a highway of holiness where even the simple can walk without going astray. We talk about abiding in Christ, staying in the Word, and living with the quiet confidence that God restores creation and restores people. If you’re discouraged by the battle between good and evil, this message aims to steady your knees and lift your eyes.

Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s one “good gift” you’ve felt tempted to turn into an idol?

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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And the Lord in his grace sometimes causes me not to do it, and the Lord in his grace sometimes allows me to do it, and I feel lousy afterwards. I am going to buy licorice today. Instead of having the blessing of the licorice, it becomes a rebellion, and I don't receive the blessing. He's given us all things to enjoy, but not to idolize. So may the Lord search our hearts. Are there things that we are fighting against God with that doesn't do any good to us, although our sin lies, tells us otherwise.

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In today's message, Pastor Carl opens up about how easily regular everyday enjoyments can turn into an act of rebellion when we push past God's boundaries. God wants you to enjoy the life he has given you. But there is a major difference between appreciating a blessing and turning it into an idol. Sometimes, in his grace, he stops you from making a poor choice. And other times, in that same grace, he steps back, allowing you to deal with the empty feeling that follows when you insist on your own way. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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When we look at things through the eyes of Christ, we see the sin problem that separates us from God. We see the enemies of God that stir up the fire of sin in our lives and in our world. And it's and it's the desire that sin would be destroyed. Either, and this is the greatest hope, by those that are committing the sins, that are fighting against God people, that they would repent and come to a knowledge of Christ. They would become part of the body of Christ, the family of God. That they would be changed, and now they have lives full of peace and hope and healing. But knowing, as the Lord knows, not all will repent. The only other way to get rid of sin is to eliminate it. Which means a lot of people will be eliminated. Which means the lake of fire will be filled with a lot of people not intended to be there. And so when we're praying for healing in our nation, we pray that people would come to a repentance and turn to the Lord. Otherwise, the wrath of God will bring peace. And either way, when it's all said and done, there will be comfort. After the Lord pours out his wrath, there will be a time of peace, and we're gonna look at it in the next chapter. That is glorious. And we rejoice that now we can experience all that God intended for us. There is peace, there is hope. Sin just sin has come to destroy, to kill, to steal. But the Lord has all that we need. So when he comes in his vengeance, it's nothing to have a party over. However, there is great celebration when it's all said and done. Because now indeed we have seen salvation. He consoles those who mourn in Zion when we see the sin of the world be destroyed. Again, it's not, woo-hoo! Look at all those people going to hell. It breaks our hearts, it breaks the Lord's heart. But he brings consolation to us. And when we we as Christians are fighting against our own sins, when we come to the Lord and He opens our eyes to our hearts, and we realize how ugly it really is. It breaks our heart. We mourn over our sin. But in his grace, he brings comfort, he consoles us, he gives beauties for ashes, the joy, the oil of joy for mourning. He turns these things around. It doesn't excuse, it doesn't um wipe away, it doesn't ignore the brevity of these feelings, of these situations that we find ourselves in. Yet he he does bring joy, he helps us work through it, he helps heal our hearts from our own sins, from the sins of those that sinned against us, from the loss we have. We're praying that the Lord would bring the oil of joy to the lawsons, but not to rush the morning. The morning is important, it's it's not to be ignored. And the Lord knows how to do that. He's the perfect, wonderful counselor, and he brings the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. If we're not careful in seeking the Lord, we can easily turn against the Lord when these things happen in our lives, in other people's lives. But if we turn to the Lord and seek him, he has a way of changing our heart around. And this supernatural, unnatural event happens in our lives where we're actually able to praise the Lord in the midst of the storm. Not for the storm, but in the storm, in the tribulation. Why? That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. He's implanted in you the seed of the word of God, and he's growing in you a mighty tree of righteousness with roots that go deep near the river that brings to life, the water from the washing of the word, that we might stand bold and glorify the Lord with the rest of our days. That's a little glimpse into Isaiah 61. But it's also a picture of this day of vengeance that is coming and the necessity of it, and the result of what happens in the lives of his people afterwards. So back in our study in verse 10, it shall not be quenched night or day, the smoke shall ascend forever, from generation to generation, it will lie in waste, and no one shall pass through it forever and ever. The area of Edom was made desolate, and and it's a lot of wilderness even today. And just in a in a figurative sense, the sin will be destroyed, and yet the fire will burn forever and ever, as a reminder of how bad the sin is, how bad our separation of God is. But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, and the owl and the raven shall dwell in it, and he shall stretch out over it the line of confession and the stones of emptiness. They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing. So here in this area where man had exalted himself and built his great kingdom, the Lord fills it with wild animals. And the wild animals is kind of a picture here of knocking on the door of the palace, looking for the leaders, and nobody's there to answer. For about seven years we lived in Tupelo, Mississippi, which is the home of where where uh Elvis Presley grew up, where he learned to play the guitar. And we when we first moved there, we lived about a couple miles from um the house where he grew up in, and there's a museum there. And always make the joke of, you know, I went over to the house and knocked on the door, and nobody ever answered. It's the same sort of picture here. The animals go to the door of the princes and the kings, and nobody's there to answer. Because the kingdoms that were built in rebellion against God were destroyed. And the kingdoms that we build in our own hearts, in our own lives, in rebellion to God. And again, I'm sure not any of you do this, but I'll admit before you there are times that I have rebellion in my heart still, and say, No, I'm gonna do this, Lord, today. And the Lord in his grace sometimes causes me not to do it, and the Lord in his grace sometimes allows me to do it, and I feel lousy afterwards. I am going to buy licorice today. Instead of having the blessing of the licorice, it becomes a rebellion, and I don't receive the blessing. He's given us all things to enjoy, but not to idolize. So may the Lord search our hearts. Are there things that we are fighting against God with that doesn't do any good to us, although our sin lies, tells us otherwise. Verse 13 And the thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and brambles and its fortresses, and shall be the habitation of jackals, a courtyard full of ostriches, the wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall bleat to its companion, and also the night creature shall rest there, or find herself a place of rest. There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay nest and lay her eggs and hatch and gather them under her shadow, and there shall be the hawks gathered, every one with her mate. The wild animals will find a great place to live in the destruction of mankind's kingdom that is destroyed because of the rebellion against God. And may I say in your free time, it'd probably be a good idea to do a study on all these different animals and why God named them and put them there, and I'm going to leave that in your hands to do, because uh you could find a lot of great nuggets in doing that. Verse 16 Search from the book of the Lord and read. None of these shall fail, not one shall lacquer mate, for my mouth has commanded him, and his spirit has gathered them, he has cast a lot for them, and his hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever, from generation to generation they shall dwell in him. From generation to generation the destruction shall be upon it, but from generation to generation he has brought wild animals to come live in there. Two by two. It's kind of like a picture of the ark, which is a picture of Jesus, where we find salvation. The Lord not only saves mankind, but he saves his whole creation. And as we see as we go on, he restores his creation and he makes it the way he intended it to be from the beginning, because sin had turned everything upside down. And two by two they are there to again replenish the earth with the animals, but how much more with mankind? If he cares so much about the animals, how much more does he care for those who love him and follow him and are called according to his purpose? That brings us to chapter 35. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom and rose, and it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with the joy in singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. Again he begins to restore his creation. These things that were just cursed a couple chapters ago, the cedars of Lebanon were cut down, the rows of Sharon and the beautiful vegetation and flowers were were destroyed, the might and the power and the fruit of Carmel was destroyed. But he's bringing it back. And bringing it back even better than it was before. The creation itself will reflect the glory of our God, the excellency of our God. He cares about every detail of our lives, every detail of his creation. And again, if he cares this much about his creation, how much more does he care about you and I because we've been created in his image? I find great comfort in that. If he knows when every sparrow falls on the ground, he knows even more so how many hairs that I have and how many I've lost. Of course, after three months of not having a haircut, it's I gotta lose a few more, but that's another story. But do you get this? He's restoring his creation. How much more is he restoring us that trust in him, that follow him? Verse three, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong and do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, and he will come and save you. One of the reasons Jesus is coming to destroy evil from this world is because he loves you. In fact, he loves everybody he's coming to destroy, but they have not repented and come to faith in him, and their hearts were at a place where they would never come. So for the sake of those that did put their trust in the Lord, he removes sin from the from the equation altogether. There's a lot of bad things that are happening. This is a this is a battle between good and evil. The God of this age, his work is alive and well today. He's destroying everything that's that's that's beautiful, good, and noble. He's destroying everything that that declares the goodness of God. And yet he that is in us is greater than he who's in the world. And he that is in us is working a battle right now. As we live our lives, as we forgive one another, as we love the world by proclaiming the truth of the gospel and grace and mercy and lightheartedness. We're battling right now, and the Lord is coming back, and there will be a great battle. We're just warming up. But with that, we need to see that. It's so easy to get down and to be discouraged and to be defeated when we see all these things happening in the world. We need to see the Lord at work. And Isaiah is saying, strengthen your hearts because the Lord is at work. Make firm the feeble knees. There are a few of us in this room who say, Yeah, I need some firm knees, right? The Lord will give us strength, practically, physically, as well as spiritually and mentally, to stand strong no matter what comes our way. Be strong, do not fear. Fear God, do not fear the enemy and his work in this world. We're greater with Christ in us. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. There's a a psalm, and then this theme is played out many times through the word. How long, Lord? How long will you allow this to happen? Lord, when are you gonna make things right? When are you gonna bring vengeance against my enemies? I've served you, and this is what I've gotten. Lord, are you still there? Can you relate to that? Lord, why am I still going through these battles? Why are these things still happening? And the Lord wants to comfort us in the fact that He is coming and He will take care of it. But at the same time, it's going to be terrible. The battle against sin is not pretty. Do you really want me to eliminate the sin? He's asking. It's going to hurt. It's going to be terrible. But the end result is peace. The end result is life. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the bet desert. The parched ground shall become like a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes. Again, when he sets up his millennial kingdom, he sets foot on the Mount of Olives and it cracks in half, and this river starts to flow from the throne of God to the east and to the west to water the nations, to bring life. Even now, we're walking in the kingdom because we have the king in our hearts. And if we ask for wisdom, if we ask for the Holy Spirit, He will fill us to overflowing, that we would have streams of living water flowing from us. The grace of God flowing us, the truth of the word flowing from us, that others might taste and see that the Lord is good and that they would come to a place of repentance so that they don't have to experience the wrath of God. Do you catch that vision? This is what the Lord has for us. With all the bad things happening in the world today, we get to be part of the solution if we let the Lord do it through us. A highway shall be there, a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. And I think the unclean will not pass over it, not because they're blocked from the entrance ramp, but because they don't want to walk, they don't want to go on it. The Lord has a road for us to go on, the road of holiness, the road of righteousness. He is the way. He is that road. Are we in Jesus? Are we following him? Are we trusting him? When we do, we're on that road of holiness, the highway to holiness. There was a they they oh, I forgot the other term, but a similar road, like the highway of the Lord or something like that, that came through Edom in order to come to Jerusalem. But Edom would block it, so people could not come to Jerusalem from that area. They'd have to go all the way around to make it to Jerusalem. They would block the people who are seeking God from finding God, or make it a lot more difficult. And sometimes to get on this highway to holiness is difficult because we have an enemy that hates us, we have a world that gives us all sorts of other ideas and temptations, and we have we have a flesh, we have our old man that desires anything but following after the Lord. And yet, the Lord is on our side, the Lord has made a way. Will we get on that path? That path shall be for others. What others? The others that are not unclean, the ones that are clean, that are made clean by the blood of the Lamb, the ultimate sacrifice that he made on the cross, the sacrifice that leads to life, not to death. Whoever walks on the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. I love that verse. It reminds me of one of the proverbs. You remember that one? This means you don't have to be a theologian. This doesn't mean this means you don't have to know the word inside and out. You just need to trust Jesus. And trusting means I don't understand a thing about you except that I know that you are the way, the truth, and the life, and I love you, and I want to follow you, I want to learn from you. Help me. And that foolish person is becoming wise because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I find great comfort in that. Because when I trust in the Lord and when I walk on his road, I don't need to be the total wise guy. And not the wise guy that they smart crack or anything. A man with wisdom and righteousness made perfect in the Lord. I mean, I'm sure you've had people in your lives that are like that, that have just been such saints that lived their whole life, you know, studying the word and living it out. And you're like, man, I wish I could be like that person. And what's funny is you probably talk to them and they'd say, it's not me, it's it's the grace of God and and I've got so far to go. Do you ever notice that as you grow in the Lord, you recognize how far you really are from Him? Which you can look at two different ways. You can be discouraged by that and give up, which is what the enemy wants you to do. Or you can say, Wow, the vast wisdom and treasure of the Lord is never ending. There's so much for me to learn and do forever and ever. Our lives with the Lord in heaven are not about stringing harps on a cloud. He has work for us to do. And work that's not hindered by sin. I could guarantee you that Mike is having a ball right now. And the Lord's just saying, Let me show you this, let me show you this, let me show you this.

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He's like, wow, yeah.

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And when we walk in the Lord, when we're abiding in Christ, we shall not go astray. But the key is walking on the road. The key is abiding in Christ. The key is being in the word. The key is having humble hearts that recognize our fallenness and our and how deceitful our hearts are. And falling on the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Every day. We need the Lord every day. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go upon it. It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransom that the Lord shall return, and come to Zion singing with everlasting joy in their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The Bible talks about the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes. And with that our hearts will be overflowing with joy, with thanksgiving, and with praise.

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Isaiah is an important book for us to read in the Old Testament because this is where we read many prophecies about the coming Messiah. While we now know Jesus as our one and true Messiah, the people who originally read Isaiah's prophecies did not know when the promised Savior would arrive. So while the book of Isaiah calls the nation of Israel to repentance, it also inspires its readers to have hope in the coming Messiah who will establish a new heavenly kingdom on earth. Well, if you would like to learn more about what it means to follow this Messiah we know as Jesus, we have some resources online to help get you started. Just visit us at themountaincross.com and head to our How to Know God tab. You can also find a link to our podcast feed in case you want to catch up on past teachings from Pastor Carl. If you'd like to get connected with us in person, we'd love to have you join us here at the Mountain Cross. We meet every Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. We also host a Faith Film Night on the first Monday of each month. To learn about our next film, visit us online or search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. Thanks for tuning in today. Well, that's all for 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.