Kings of Isaiah: Could You Be Resisting God?

A few weeks ago, when I last spoke, you'll remember I talked about the kings of Isaiah, and how when God spoke to—had Isaiah lived during those times, and he learned under the men that were ruling Judah at that time, some very important lessons. And as we look at those kings and their lives, there's lessons that we have for us today. You remember those kings were Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And last time we spoke about Uzziah and how he was a good king for the very several years of the beginning of his reign, but then he began to trust in himself.

As God blessed him and as God made Israel wealthy and armed him with all the weapons of time, Uzziah began to think highly of himself. And then, at the end of his life, he became presumptuous and started to take liberties that God never gave him, and that included going into the tabernacle and wanting to burn incense. He was warned by the priest there, as you recall, not to do that. He simply would not listen to them. God struck him with leprosy, and he lived the rest of his days in that regard.

It's a strong lesson for us to never become presumptuous and take more under our authority, I guess, than God would give us to do. We always need to be cognizant of that. His son Jotham was a good king. He learned from his father, if you recall, and he didn't make those mistakes.

Even though God blessed Israel during his reign as well and armed them, they were a strong nation. He never relied on himself, and he left a good example for his son Ahaz. But Ahaz, as so many children do, didn't follow in the footsteps of his father. No one knows exactly why. Israel was prosperous during that time. Israel was strong during that time. Maybe Ahaz looked at the world around him and just wanted to be part of that world, and he became completely resistant to God in anything God wanted to do with him.

We'll get to that in a minute. But I want to go to one verse back in 2 Chronicles that describes Ahaz. It's not a name that comes frequently to our minds, but when you read through Isaiah and you look at chapter 7, he's a key figure in the book of Isaiah. And what God does as a result of Ahaz is the way he lives his life.

So in chapter 28 of 2 Chronicles, you can read the whole chapter on yourself about what Ahaz did, but there's a key verse down in verse 19 that I want to draw our attention to. It pretty much sums up his life and is a warning to us that we would not want to live our lives like him. In 2 Chronicles 28, 19, it says this, it says, For the eternal brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had encouraged moral decline in Judah and had been continually unfaithful to God.

Isn't that a horrible legacy to leave? He brought all of Judah low because of what his example was. Because he encouraged the moral decline, and he brought so much pain and suffering on Judah in the years ahead. You know, it's a lesson to all of us, a lesson to all of us in the ministry.

Boy, our examples really matter, don't they? We don't ever want to be people who would say, well, because of what they did, because of the way they live their lives, because of the example that they set, I just kind of thought I could follow him the same way. People follow Judah, an awful, awful legacy of Ahaz. Later on, we see that he was buried, and not with any honor at all. He never did turn to God in any way, shape, or form. But let's go over to Isaiah then, because as we look at the life of Ahaz, and when we look at it in 2 Chronicles 28, and 2 Kings 16, he just looks like another king that just didn't do right in the eyes of God.

But when we look at Isaiah, we find some things about him and learn some things that open our eyes to God, how he works with us, how he tried to work with Ahaz, and how Isaiah resisted and rejected him. You know, Isaiah 7 has been on my mind for months.

You know, as we've been going through a really verse-by-verse Bible study over the last several months in Isaiah, you know, we came to chapter 7, and I never understood chapter 7 the way I do now, and to see what a pivotal chapter it is in Isaiah, in prophecy, and what God speaks to us.

It speaks of him, it speaks of us as well if we allow ourselves to become like this. So let me just read through a few verses of chapter 7 here and make some comments along the way until we get to the verse that I will head. I will head to. In chapter 7 of Isaiah, in verse 1, it says, It came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that resin, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they could not prevail against it.

So we have the kingdom of Judah, we have two enemies, right? They've combined together, they want to take over Judah, they want to conquer it and establish their own king in it, we'll see in a little bit. And it was told to the house of David, that's the king's house, right? The lineage there that Ahaz was part of it, was told to the house of David, saying, Syria's forces are deployed in Ephraim.

So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. They were trembling. Now, Syria and Israel were powers in that day, and they combined together against Judah, so you can imagine what it was like in that day and age. If we bring it into modern context, think about some of the things we've heard lately on the news.

What if Russia and China allied against the United States with the threat, we will conquer you and we will put our own leader in there? We might tremble a little, right? Here's two powers in the land, and here we have Judah and Ahaz facing that very same thing. Israel and Syria want to conquer us. They want to take us over. And so you can understand how he would tremble and how the people would tremble and think, what's going to be coming of this?

It's interesting, then, in verse 3, as they're terrified, as they're looking at the state of the world around them, thinking, what will become of us, that God sends Isaiah to them in verse 3.

The eternal said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Shear Jehub, your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fuller field, and say to him, Take heed, and be quiet. Similar words that God told Moses when the people of Israel were backed up against the Red Sea, Take heed, be quiet. Don't fear or be fainthearted.

Calm down. I'm with you, he's going to say. Trust in me is what he is saying. You don't have to fear. I'm with you. So he goes on and says, For these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezon and Syria and the son of Relemaliah, because they have plotted evil against you, saying, Let's go up against Judah. Let's trouble it. Let's make a gap in the wall for ourselves and set our own king over them, the son of Tobel, whoever that is. So God is saying, This is what they're saying against you. He's verifying. This is what their plan is. How are you going to react, Ahaz? What are you going to look to?

God says in verse 7 through Isaiah, It will not stand, it shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, the head of Damascus is Rezon, and within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken.

He begins to give some prophecies. If you're ever interested, you can go back and listen to some of those things of how God fulfilled exactly what he's doing. But look what he's doing to Ahaz. Ahaz has shown no indication in his life up to this time that he has any intention of paying attention to God. He is completely enamored with the world, looking to the world, and looking to run his kingdom in that way. God says in the time of trouble, Look to me. This is what's going to happen. They will not conquer you. Verse 9, the head of Ephraim is Samaria, the head of Samaria is Ramaliah's son.

And then he says something that you and I should believe as well and take to heart. If you will not believe, Ahaz, surely you will, shall not be established.

If you won't believe, surely you will not be established. Ahaz, do you believe God? Or do you believe in your own self and the world around you? Now keep your finger there in Isaiah 7, because we're going to come back there in a minute. Let's go back to 2 Chronicles again, this time to chapter 20, because the same sentence and same thought is given to another king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, who did trust in God. Now when trouble came his way, he looked to God and not to himself, and not to his weapons, and not to his allies, but he looked to God. And you can read later on what leads up to Jehoshaphat's statement here. Let me just begin here in verse 18, and we'll go down to verse 20. It says, Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah in the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the eternal, worshiping him. And the Levites of the children of the coathites stood up to praise the God of Israel with voices loud and high. So they rose early in the morning, went out into the wilderness of Ticohah, and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, hear me, O Judah, and you it habbits as Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe his prophets, and you shall prosper.

Believe. Have faith. Believe what God says. It's a simple thing, simple thing to say, right? But in the face of danger, Jehoshaphat did, Judah did, and God gave them the victory. But if we go back to Isaiah 7, we find Ahaz. What is he going to do with this prophet and these words of God that have come to him? If you will believe Ahaz, or if you won't believe Ahaz, you will not be established. If we go back to verse 10, verse 10 in Isaiah 7, it says, Moreover the eternal spoke again to Ahaz, as if, Are you getting it, Ahaz? Look what I've said to you. Are you getting it? Let me say it again. Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. Basically, what it's saying, Ahaz, believe me, I will be with you. I will be with Judah. Ask anything you want, and I will show you what it will be, and I'll show you that I will be there.

Wouldn't we all like to have that? God say that to us. Look how he's reaching out to Ahaz. Look at how he's telling him, whatever you need, I want to show you I'm with you every step of the way.

Now, you would think Ahaz would be like, okay, this is it, right? But look what his retort is in verse 12. Ahaz said, I'm not asking. I will not ask, nor will I test the eternal.

It's quite an interesting comment that he replies there. His clear message is, I'm not doing it. Not going to do what you ask me to do. Don't want to do that. He's going to do it. He's going to do messages clear. I don't want what God has. I don't care if he says, ask me anything. My mind is made up. I'm not going to look to God. But then he uses kind of a biblical principle. I'm not going to ask. I'm not going to test God. It's an interesting response because what he's doing is what some in the world today would call virtue signaling. Like, see, I'm above that. I don't need to ask a sign from God. I'm not going to be testing him. God knew what the intent of his heart was. I'm not listening. But his comment would be one that, you know, kind of sounds spiritual. Oh, I don't need to ask God for anything. I don't need to test him. You know, we hear this virtue signaling in the world today sometimes when people are faced with something that they don't want to hear.

Sometimes you might hear back. Someone say, are you judging me? That's kind of like, well, wait, should you be judging me? Are you supposed to be sitting as my judge? Sometimes it's, well, I'm a good person. All these comments that go back that, you know, like, don't be telling me what to do. You know, you've got this comment and rather than just accepting it and looking at myself and thinking, well, I should be trusting in God or I should be doing this, I'll virtue that, you know, I don't need to do that. One of the tactics of resistance is this virtual signaling. And when we hear it, we, or think about using it when someone makes a comment to us, we might think, well, that's, that may be that we're looking to resist something that we should be paying attention to. Ahaz didn't pay attention. He wasn't paying attention to what God said.

So in verse 13, you know, God is clear and Isaiah was clear of what was the real intent of Ahaz's heart. In verse 13 says, Isaiah said, here now, house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also? Really, you're going to do this? This is how you're going to respond to God who is offering you everything? Look at the mercy, look at the grace, look at the love he has. I want you to know, I want you to understand, I want you to follow. And then you're going to flippantly come back and use a comment when we know what the intent of your heart is. You're simply not going to listen. And then God, through Isaiah, through the next several chapters, unleashes a tremendous set of prophecies, many of which were fulfilled in Ahaz's time.

He saw that what God said really came to pass. Jerusalem was never conquered by Israel and Syria. In fact, they were conquered by us, Syria. Assyria never did enter Jerusalem, even though they came close. Everything that God said actually came true in Ahaz's life. You would think as he went through this, he would think, whoa, God really meant what he said. He really is with us.

We'll see in his life that he never did. He just continued to resist, and that resistance led to something deadly. But as you read down through verse 14 and the rest of the chapters, you see that God begins giving these prophecies. And the first one he gives is, here's a sign I give you, I'm with you. There will be. There will be a Messiah. He will be born by a virgin. And then he gives in the next several chapters the specifics of the Messiah's birth clearly fulfilled. Now that didn't happen during Ahaz's time, but the other prophecies did. And most of those that are listed in the next several chapters have the dual application or the dual prophecies of yet a future fulfillment, in addition to the fulfillment that they already had, a very inspiring set of scriptures that makes us know God, a proof of the Bible, and believe Him because we're on the other side of history now. We can look back and see God did exactly what He said He would do. So we know that He'll do exactly what He said He will do in the future. He will always be with us as long as we remain with Him, as long as we believe in Him, as long as we have faith. And don't look to the world like Ahaz did and think, just let me, just let me have, sit on the fence and believe in both. No, as you heard in the sermonette, follow God. Put your trust in Him. As we live our lives, more and more, we learn to trust in God and a little less in ourselves and a little less, bit by bit, in the world, because we will be to trust in God. When our time of trouble that lies afraid of us as it did Ahaz comes to pass. So we go on and we see, we see that, you know, Ahaz had this resistance. And Ahaz isn't alone in feeling resistance. Every single one of us has felt resistance, right? Maybe we've had a boss who said, you know, I thought, will you do this? Or, I want you to do this? It's like our initial reaction is awful, awfully often. I don't want to do that. Sometimes when we hear what God says, sometimes when we read in the Bible about, well, this is what you should be doing. We think, I don't want to do that. Is that really necessary? That's kind of a natural reaction, isn't it? We don't need to turn to Romans 8 verse 7.

It's just part of our human nature. Romans 8, 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's going to naturally resist Him. It's not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.

Without God's Holy Spirit. What Ahaz did, we do. With God's Holy Spirit, we need to lessen those aspects of resistance that we might feel and that we might even voice in the way we do things and respond to things and how we submit to God and what His will is. We see in the New Testament this spirit of resistance. If we turn over to the book of Acts, and if you've been following the really verse by verse Acts classes that have been posted every week from the ABC classes, you would have gone through these verses. But in Acts 6, as we have the New Testament Church beginning and God calling people and the Word of God going out, which was contrary to what the Jews wanted to hear. In verse 7 of Acts, after the deacons are ordained, it speaks of one of those deacons, Stephen, in verse 7. Acts 6 and verse 7, it says, the Word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Now this probably was of some concern to the Jews that some of their priests actually were, wow, they're actually following these disciples of Christ who we have tried to kill His message. But they began to believe and Stephen, verse 8, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freed men disputing with Stephen. He's out preaching the Word of God, inspired by God, led by His Holy Spirit, and here they're disputing with him. But you can't really argue. You can't win an argument against the truth, and that's what it says in verse 10. They weren't able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which He spoke. Okay, okay, we can't fight against the words anymore. The Word of God is the greatest weapon we have to live by it, to speak it, to do it. They couldn't speak against it. So what do they do? They don't want to hear it. It's clear. We don't want to hear what Stephen says. We are resisting that word. What do they do? Another tactic, an indicator of resistance. Then they secretly induced men to say, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. Oh, let me cast some aspersions on him. Let me attack the messenger. We can't attack the message, but I can maybe cast some doubt on the messenger, and if I discredit the messenger, it'll discredit the message. Oh, that's a tactic, isn't it? That's a tactic of resistance. They didn't want to hear. They couldn't fight against the truth, but they could do what they could to discredit the messenger, and thereby, maybe in their own minds, think I don't need to listen to that. In verse 11, or verse 12, it says, they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon Stephen, seized him, and brought him to the council, set up false witnesses, and the story goes from there. We'll come back to it a little bit later. But we see this attitude of resistance that's there, and there was a way that they used to kind of discredit that word. We don't want to hear it. We want to continue doing things our own way. We don't want to do what Stephen says. What we've been doing always is good enough. Now, we have no intention of changing. We have no intention of following and listening to what Stephen said, and this truth that they weren't able to speak against.

You know, as we read through all the acts and the Old Testament and all the New Testament, we always have to stop and think about how does that apply to us today. I mean, none of us in this room would say, oh, you know, when we hear the truth, we're not going to go out and discredit the message here, although I have a feeling that's probably, no, I have no doubt that that's happened in the Church of God, and that there are ways of resisting messages and doing that very same thing, maybe not as overtly, in most cases, as what the Jews did to Stephen. But it's there.

Let me give you one example. It's one example that maybe is there. You know, in the last, it's very clear when you read through God's commands and what His will for His people is and how we worship Him, He tells us how to worship Him. He says, one of the key ways is, on my Sabbath day, keep it holy. And there is a holy convocation. I want my people to come before me in person, if they're not sick, if they can, if they come. I want them to be before me in person.

I want them to show their honor and respect for me and they know and to understand the importance of binding together as one, to be in that holy convocation one day a week, on a day that God says, no work, no entertainment, not doing your own things. Simply, this 24 hours is your way to honor me and to remember who I am. And I know people hear that. I know people know that. And yet, not everyone comes to services every week, even if they live close. And I'm not talking about if you're sick or contagious or anything like that. And I know we have several hundred people every week on the webcast here and other webcasts around the world. And I'm not speaking to you or glad we have you with us. Most of those people on the webcast don't live near Cincinnati and they're tuning in other places. But what do people do? They make excuses, right? Well, it's good enough. If I sit at home and listen to it on the webcast, that's good enough. Maybe COVID gave us that excuse when we had to sit at home and watch webcasts. But is that what God would say?

Our excuse is also another way of showing resistance to what God wants. I know a little better than Him. I'll think for God, and God is okay if I don't come to Sabbath services this week. Just don't feel up to it. Easier for me to flip on the TV, watch it at there, and aren't I getting the same benefit? The answer is absolutely not because you're not doing what God said to do.

Now, we could apply that to any other commandment as well, right? Sometimes we have to kind of look at ourselves for the time here before six weeks to pass over where we're examining ourselves. What are our motives? Asking God, what is the intent of my heart? What is it that I'm doing? Because God is not fooled. A has his words didn't fool God when he used the Bible, right? God knew exactly what the intent of his heart was. God knows exactly what our motives are. We need to ask God, what are our motives? What are we really telling him by the choices we make? So you've got this, you know, I'm a good person syndrome that can excuse ourselves. We've got these, we've got the, you know, I'm just going to resist and I'm going to discredit the messenger and I don't really want to follow him. And we've got excuses. Now, there's another man who probably you're reading, if we go back to Exodus, who also, you know, resisted God when he was first called. He didn't want to do what God asked him to do and that man is Moses. That man is Moses. If we go back to, if we go back to Exodus 3, Exodus 3, we find Moses being called. We have the incident of the burning bush.

God talks about the holy ground and what all that means and he calls to Moses out of there and tells Moses he has a mission for him. If we pick it up in verse 11 of Exodus 3, you know, verse 10, God says, well, Moses, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to, I want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Well, Moses, you know, responds. Moses said to God, well, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Well, that's kind of a nice sign of humility. Well, I'm no one. Why would I do that? You know, most of us feel that way whenever God puts us in any way. Who am I? What do I want to do? Moses is saying here, I, you know, basically we're going to see, I don't want to do that. You know, who am I? Who am I that you would use for this thing? In verse 13, God says, you know, I'll, I will give you a sign for verse 12. I will be with you and this will be a sign to you. Well, the sign wasn't that day. It's like, you do what I say, Moses, and people are going to come back out here and you will serve God on this very mountain. Then you will know I was with you the entire time. Trust me, do the work, and you will know that this is of God when it happens. And you do what I ask you to do. Moses heard that. Moses wasn't completely sold. So in verse 13, you know, after God says that, he says, well, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your father says, sent me to you, and they say, well, what's his name? What am I going to say to them? See what he's doing? Well, what about this? I don't know how to answer that question. Tell me what it is.

Tell me what that name is. God tells him what it is. We move over to chapter 4, verse 1.

After God says, what's going to happen? Moses answered and said, but suppose they won't believe me or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, the Lord hasn't appeared to you. What do I do then?

I have all these reasons why I can't do this and everything negative that's going to happen How do I deal with this? And then God gives him a sign with the the rod and the snake. We dive down to verse 10. Well, that wasn't enough for Moses. In verse 10, he says, Oh, my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and I'm slow of tongue. Moses didn't know God can make people do anything, anything He can give us the talents and skills that we need that are never part of us.

But Moses has another excuse and God says, I made man's mouth. Trust me, I will put the words in your mouth that you need, Moses. And you could probably feel God getting a little, a little frustrated with Moses at this point. And so in verse 13, Moses finally has to admit what the real motive of all these questions is. Verse 13, Moses said, Oh, my Lord, please send by the hand of whom over else, whomever else you may send. I don't want to do it. That's what he said. I don't want to do it.

But God says, do it anyway. And to Moses' credit, he did. And he saw what God could do through him when he simply did God's will. But he did a tactic as well, these excuses. Now, you may remember in Luke 6, I think it is, where, you know, all these people are invited to the wedding supper and one after another, they have excuses. Come to the supper. Come sit down. Well, I have this to do.

Well, I have that to do. I don't want to do it, is what they're saying. They're resisting what God's will is. We haven't been called to mix our will with God's will. We pray, thy will be done. Whatever it is that God asks us to do, we will do it. That's what he expects us to do. That's what he's called us to do. If we look back in our lives, we can probably see where we did some of the same things that Moses did. I can remember years ago, years ago, and back in Indianapolis, when we lived, and the pastor there at that time, you know, said, I want you to be in the leadership club. And speaking was not my forte, not something I ever wanted to do. Didn't really enjoy it.

And I literally gave him every excuse in the book. I don't want to do it. I didn't finish spokesman club. This is not me. I don't need to do this. Basically, it came down to the fact he didn't say it, but I knew what it was is, you will be there. There was absolutely no choice.

None. And I thought, okay, so I had no choice, but okay, God, if I have to do this, I'm do it.

And it turned out okay. And I learned trust in God. He can do things in you that you never wanted to do, never thought you would do. But with God, all things are possible. Moses learned the same thing. Each of you have learned the same thing if you go back in your lives and you think about what God has done. Or if you resisted, go back and think, why did I resist? Let God work through me. Let him do the things that he wants to do. It is his will. And when we were baptized, we said, whatever you ask, I will do. Don't resist. Let him work with it.

Well, Moses did it. Another man we can turn to, one of the minor prophets, is Jonah. Jonah was someone who God was going to use to send to Nineveh. And you know the story. You can be turning to Jonah. I'm going to take us to verse chapter 4 while I give you just a little bit of reminder of what that story is about. God says to Jonah, go to Nineveh. Go to Nineveh and speak to them because their wickedness has come up before me. What does Jonah do? You know what he did. He turned and ran the other way. In fact, it says he went to Tarshish. Those of us who have been on the Bible study, we know that Tarshish was on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, a colony of the Phoenicians. He went as far away as he could get from God. You told me to go to Nineveh. I'm headed out this way. I don't want to go to Nineveh is what he was clearly saying. Well, God, you know, through all the things that happened with Jonah with the great fish, finally ended up in Nineveh. And in chapter 4 of Nineveh, we find out what was Jonah? Why didn't he just do what God said to do? Why didn't he just do it? Verse 1 of chapter 4 says, it displeased Jonah exceedingly because the people did because the people repented. Jonah went there and they actually repented. And so in verse 2, Jonah prayed to the eternal and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? That's why I fled to Tarshish, for I know you're a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. You know what? Fine. Just take my life. I'm through with it.

You know what Jonah's problem was? He didn't like the people of Nineveh.

I don't want to go there. I don't want them to repent. I don't like them. You want me to go there, but I don't want to go there. I don't like Nineveh. And I would just as soon see them all dead. But here you are, God, you are gracious. They repented. You've forgiven them. And here I am where I don't want to be. Do we ever resist because we just don't like a person? We just don't want to hear what they have to say. Maybe we've got some kind of issue with them from the past, maybe some predisposed problems that we have with them. Sometimes it's a boss, you know, that we've heard rumors about before they ever get there in companies. It's like, okay, I have to tolerate it, I have to tolerate it, but I don't really want to do what they have to say. Maybe it's even someone in the church you just don't want to listen to. I just choose not to because that does happen. We have the examples in the Bible of that happening in the church. You know, God sent Isaiah to Ahaz and basically said, I'm not listening. I'm not listening to Isaiah, and I'm not listening to you, God. I don't want anything to do with it. You know, resistance is quite a concept. I've got a definition here, and I think we know what it is, but let me just read it just so that we're all on the same page of what resistance is and what when we resist what it tells God. This comes from the internet. It says, resistance in psychoanalysis refers to oppositional behavior when an individual's unconscious defenses of the ego. What's that? Oh, you're going to tell me what to do? You're acting like I don't know what to do? You're attacking my pride, right? Resistance refers to oppositional behavior when an individual's unconscious defenses of the ego are threatened by an external source.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalytic theory, developed this concept of resistance as he worked with patients who suddenly developed uncooperative behaviors during sessions of talk therapy. What? You're telling me I've got a problem I need to overcome? You're challenging me? You're kind of showing me something that I need to do? Who are you to tell me?

Is what the thing is? And so patients would become uncooperative. When we resist, we become uncooperative. Sigmund Freud's associate, a man by the name of Otto Rank, actually called the resistance we feel when we're told to do something a counterwill. I'm against. It's a counterwill. I'm against what you're asking. Counterwill is a psychological term that means instinctive resistance to any sense of coercion. Well, that's human nature, right? The natural me is I immediately want to resist. If it's not what I want to hear, if it's not what I want to do, if it attacks what I've always done, I'm going to resist. I'm going to resist in some way. And patients become uncooperative. Employees and workforces become uncooperative. All these signs of things that we do that show a resistance. Israel certainly was resistant. You know, they angered God as they came out. They just simply didn't believe. Resistance is a very deadly thing. It might start off naturally or innocently enough, right, because we all have that. But as we see it, if we allow it to continue, it has deadly consequences. You know, when God gives us this Holy Spirit, it's the carnal nature is supposed to be being weeded out of us, little by little. Those things that God shows us, and as we read in the Bible, and as we listen to others, and we listen to sermons, and we read what God is selling us as we're in Sabbath services and other occasions that we might have to gather together and hear God's Word, we do learn, stop and think, well, why don't I want to do that? That's what God says. Well, it's just simply, I just don't want to do it. Or I don't like the person that told me, that said that. I don't want to listen to him. I don't want to yield to that.

And sometimes that happens. What they have, I'm not going to turn to 2 Chronicles 28. You can read 22 to 27, the verses in there. You can see that what Ahaz did as his resistance against God, no matter what prophecy was fulfilled, no matter what God showed in the lives, in the life of Ahaz and what happened with Israel, he continued to just turn against God. More and more, he turned against God to the point where he finally just closed the temple, sold off some things, and just almost forbade people to listen to God because he hardened his heart. Does that term ring a bell?

Hardening of the heart begins with resistance. Resistance that isn't overcome, resistance that just is allowed to continue, eventually leads to hardening of the heart. For Ahaz, it led to a ignoble death. He wasn't buried with any honors. He's not recorded in the Bible with any kind of honor whatsoever. He's a legacy and an example of what we absolutely should not do when we look at him, say, that can't be us. We have to learn to rely and trust in God. And whatever he says, just learn to do it. As we're here in coming up on Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread, we have Pharaoh, an example, right? Pharaoh saw God's wonders. He saw all those plagues that God brought upon Egypt, and one by one he was breaking down those gods of Egypt. Pharaoh resisted it, as a natural human being would do, but he never got it. He never stopped. It led to the hardening of his heart, and eventually he lost everything. Everything. He lost everything because he simply resisted and would not stop resisting, and finally he just wouldn't listen anymore.

Let's go to Zechariah. Zechariah.

Zechariah.

I have seven in my notes, but I think I want 12, but let me see.

Nope, it is. Zechariah 7 verse 11. We know, Christ even said, you know, prophets were sent to you over and over and over again. You simply wouldn't listen to them. And so what they said eventually came to you. Israel, you lost it. You lost it all. You lost your kingdom. Judah, you wouldn't listen even when you had the example of Israel. You lost your kingdom as well. So chapter 7 of Zechariah verse 11. They refused to heed. They shrugged their shoulders. I don't need to do that. And stopped their ears so they couldn't hear. I'm simply not allowing those things to register with me. I'm not listening anymore. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the eternal of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.

As a result, when they wouldn't listen, great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. And it happened just as he proclaimed that they wouldn't hear. So they called out, and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts. Oh, when they suffered the consequences, then they were ready to turn to me. But God said at that point, I was done. Suffer the consequences of what you've done. You've developed this hardness of heart. You've grieved the Holy Spirit over and over again by resisting what the Spirit would have you do, rather than what you personally wanted to do. You were choosing your own way, rather than my way, because resistance is telling God, in essence, I kind of want to do it my way. Sorry. I kind of think that's okay, and you should be listening to me. So when we pray, thy will be done, I would challenge us all, myself included. Do we really mean that? Are we really saying, thy will be done, or is that just kind of like nice words that flow off of our lips? Because if we pray, thy will be done, then we need to be practicing that in our lives. Whatever God sends to us, we do. We do.

Well, that's Zechariah. That's Zechariah 7. Let's go to Mark 7.

Mark 7 and verse 15.

Well, we're coming up on Lot 11, Brad, and so Christ references the leaven of the Pharisees here. So let me begin in verse 14. Verse 14, When Christ had called the multitudes to Himself, He said to them, Hear me, Listen, everyone, and understand. There is nothing that enters a man from the outside which can defile him. I'm not sure this is where I want it to be. Let me...

Nope. Let me look at 8.

Ah, it is. It's Mark 8. Mark 8 and verse 14.

Disciples. You remember this is where Christ fed thousands with the five loaves and two fishes.

And the disciples learned a lesson. God can provide everything. It's beyond our comprehension of what can happen, but we learn to trust in God and He does it. Verse 14, The disciples had forgotten to take bread in this occasion, and they didn't have more than one loaf with them in the boat. And Christ charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

What is that leaven? Well, we know it's the sin. Don't do things the way they do.

That is in them. That needs to be weeded out. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, Well, it's because we have no bread. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, Well, why do you reason? Because you have no bread. Don't you yet perceive or understand?

Is your heart still hardened? Wow! To the disciples, the ones who were following Him, just because they didn't get yet, God can do anything. And if we have no bread, if we have no food, we don't have to fret, we don't have to worry. God can provide whatever He wants.

And yet He says, Why is your heart hardened? Believe! You've already seen what God can do.

Don't resist what I'm saying. Don't have all these doubts. Having eyes, don't you see? Having ears, don't you hear? Don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments you took up? And then He goes on and says that. And so, verse 21, He says, How is it you don't understand?

Haven't we all seen God in our lives? Hasn't He worked wonders in our lives? The fact that we're sitting here and we know what we do, isn't that a miracle that we understand?

And that we don't rely on the world. We don't rely on the things around us. That we have to come to the point where we follow God and learn more and more to trust in Him and not harden our hearts. I could give another example as I see my time fleeting away here. You know, one of the things is anointing, right? We all believe that God heals. We know that God heals us.

He is our healer. We have every example in the Bible. We have no reason to not believe God heals.

And over my years as pastor, I would be sometimes surprised. And I'm not casting any aspersions on anyone. We all have things to learn. But I would sometimes have people call or they would talk at service about all these health problems they had and how they go on to this doctor and that doctor. And sometimes they'd even been in the hospital, didn't bother calling, didn't ask for God's anointing at all. And I would think, but you never ask God. Or sometimes it would be, you know, ask and then run out and do all these other things. And I would think, you know, well, the Bible says ask. Ask to be anointed. And sometimes I would remind people, but you know, we have to remember whatever we do, and there are things we can do. I'm not saying anything about that. Always, always, always put God first. He is the healer. He is the healer.

We might do these other things, and those are fine to do, but always know it's God.

It's not those other things. It's faith in God that we keep our eyes on. And that's what the disciples are, he's being told, remember, I can do anything. Would have been wrong for the disciples to bring however many baskets of bread loaves they needed? No, it wouldn't have been bad.

But they didn't need that. They needed Christ, and they needed to have the hope in him. And so we look at this concept of resistance, and I want to go back to Isaiah again.

Because leading into chapter 7, we have chapter 6.

Chapter 6, where God is calling Isaiah, Isaiah yields to God. God says, I will bless your mouth, I purified your lips, go out, you will preach this gospel until the cities are laid waste. The message that Isaiah preached then, same message we preach today. But in verse 10, as he's sending Isaiah out, he tells him in verse 10, be prepared, Isaiah, you're going to say my words, you're going to say, but this people, this people you're going to, you know what? Their hearts have become hardened. They're not going to listen to you. They're going to kind of resist what you have to say. And so in verse 9, he says, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but don't understand. Okay, you're listening to the message, but you're not getting it. It's not sinking in. Keep on seeing, but don't perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, their ears heavy. Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and returned and be healed. They aren't going to hear.

Sadly, that's some people in the church as well. We know the world resists God. I mean, we see that all around us more and more. It's like, forget God, forget Bible, forget anything about morality. If God says, do it, we're going to do the opposite. That's the way the world is going, that we see it. But even in the church sometimes, we can just kind of like, eh, I hear it, but I don't want to do it. If we turn back to the New Testament in 2 Timothy, read a very familiar set of scriptures here, a few of them anyway. 2 Timothy 3, you know, we read what the traits of the people will be in the last days, right? 2 Timothy 3.1 says that, and often we read through it and say, you know, that's exactly the world.

That's exactly what the world is, and that's absolutely true. What we see is exactly what the world is. But you know, Timothy wasn't writing this to the people of the world.

People was writing, Timothy was writing this to the people, or Paul was writing this to the people of God and to Timothy. If we drop down to, you know, have all these traits, and maybe we need to analyze ourselves sometimes, could we be guilty of any of these things as we resist that God would look at us in the lights of 2, 3, and 4, the verses there, and say, kind to them? But notice in verse 5, they have a form of godliness. Oh, they're doing this virtual signaling. Oh, we're a good person. Oh, we do this. Oh, we believe. Oh, these things that we say about ourselves, they have a form of godliness. Well, that's not the world around us anymore.

They have a form of godliness, but deny its power.

Well, the power in all of us is God's Holy Spirit to overcome. That we don't do those things, but we do exactly what the Bible says, exactly what the Bible says, live by every single word, and measure ourselves against the stature and fullness of Jesus Christ. Not the world around us, not our next-door neighbor, not our spouse, but the measure and stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. And then in verse 8, well, in verse 7, he says, they're always learning.

Ah, they read the Bible. They can quote you chapter and verse. They're always learning, but they're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. How do you apply the truth of the Bible? How does it affect your life? How does it affect you? The truth is what we are to become in our hearts. We live it. We breathe it. We think it. We respond to it. Jesus Christ said, I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. We live the way. We live by the truth. We live by the hope of life that he gives us. And in verse 8, he says, now as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, and we know who they were, priests and the foreign and the pagan gods there, so do these also resist the truth. Really? Could some of us be showing God that we resist the truth by the actions that we have, by the refusal that we do to do even simple commands that he gives us to do?

I guess we could. I guess I could. I guess we could look and see what's going on, and as we examine ourselves, you know, pray David's prayer with with the sincere heart, show me the intent.

Show me what I'm doing. Am I doing this? And then listen to what he has to say.

Going back a few books in Romans 13.

You know, we see this word, resist, show up in the New Testament. It shows up in interesting places. Romans 13, most of you know, this is the one where God says, be subject to the authorities. You know, a lot of people don't like authority, don't want to think that anyone's under authority, even though Christ said he was under authority, and that's the way God set up. We're all under authority. Romans 13, verse 1, says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. He's talking about in the world, he's talking about the civil laws that we have, he's even talking about in the church, in our employment, in the places that we operate. Therefore, whoever resists authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment upon themselves. Well, that's an interesting verse. Resist. See how wide-ranging resistance can be, and what God wants us to do as he leads us. Let's go back to Acts 7.

Acts 7, as I begin to bring this to a close here. In Acts 7, you know, we spoke of Stephen earlier, and he was, you know, as the Jews there resisted him, arrested him, hauled him off to appear before the council at that time, and Stephen gives a magnificent sermon. A very true, but a very cutting, clear, and bold sermon to the people that are listening there that day. And in verse 51, he makes quite a statement that irks them, just irks them, and it leads to his death. He says in verse 51, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you. What a dangerous thing to resist the Holy Spirit. What a dangerous thing.

And maybe we just take it casually and all these things that might happen with us.

When we resist, we are putting ourselves into opposition with God. Do any of us want to do that? Do we want to fight against God? Do we want to challenge His will with our will and tell Him, well, we know better. We know better than what you do, God. I want to run from this, or I want to run from that, or I want to just keep doing what I'm doing, and you're attacking my pride here, and you're wanting me to do something different. If we back up two chapters to Acts 5, find a very wise man at that time who puts it pretty much into clarity about what the Jews are doing as they fight against or as they challenge the disciples of Christ and what is being said. In verse 39, well, verse 38, Gamaliel says, And now I say to you, keep away from these men. Let them alone. For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you can't overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. Don't resist it, he's saying. Let's see what God does. You will know by the fruits of what happens. Just don't resist.

One thing we can all don't resist God in any way, shape, or form. And as we move toward Passover, let's examine ourselves and let's pay attention to that. Now, I've spoken a lot against resistance, but there is one area that we should resist in, right? I think you all remember.

In James it says, don't resist God, but resist what? Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Don't resist God. When you feel that feeling of resistance well up in you against something that God would have you do, or you read something in the Bible, or hear something, resist. Turn it around and realize that's Satan. He's the father of counter-will. He's the father of resistance.

Resist him. Stop and think, no, I'm not going to resist God. I'm going to resist.

I'm going to resist Satan.

So I started in Isaiah. Let me end in Isaiah as well.

He'll turn with me to Isaiah 45.

Isaiah 45.

And verse 9.

Woe to him, Isaiah 45. 9. Woe to him who strives with his Maker. Well, that's what we've been talking about. Striving against God, resisting him. Woe to him who strives with his Maker. Let the potured strive with the potures of the earth. Shall the clay say to him who forms it? What are you doing?

I don't want to do that, God. I don't need to be that. I think I'm good enough the way I am. I don't think I need to pay attention to that. You may think I need to, but I don't really need to, right? Shall the clay say to him who forms it? What are you making? Or shall your handiwork say, he has no hands? What's he doing? Who's controlling the show here? Woe to him who says to his father, what are you begetting? Or to the woman, what have you brought forth? Woe to him who resists. If we drop down to verse 20, God says, assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together you who have escaped from the nations. That's us, right? God has called us out of the world. Come together, you who have escaped from the nations. They, the world, they have no knowledge. They don't know where things are going. We can see the mess that is happening and what the Bible prophesies is going to have. And they have no knowledge. You carry the wood of their carved image. All the idols and gods of the world that God says, don't follow those gods anymore. One by one, put those gods away. Who carry the wood of their carved image and pray to a God that can't save. Tell and bring forth your case. Let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Haven't I, God, haven't I told you what will be? A has, I told you what would happen. It happened. People of the 21st century, I told you what would happen. You can read the Bible. You can see that every single thing God said would happen has happened.

There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that to me every knee shall bow.

Time to be yielding to God. Time to be submitting ourselves to God. Every tongue shall take an oath and he shall say, surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.

As we look at ourselves, me included, what are we doing? Let's God lead us and let's do things the God the way God said and let earnestly pray, thy will be done.