In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the illogical premise that creation can exist without a creator. He argues that children are being taught this illogical premise from an early age, which leads them to believe that there is no real design behind the human body or the world. The preacher compares this teaching to a child being taught that 2 plus 2 equals 5, which would hinder their ability to understand and do math. The sermon also touches on the importance of recognizing Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the miracles he performed to confirm his identity.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Wherefore, the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, And with their lips they do honor Me, But have removed their heart far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men. It isn't a genuine fear of God. They are taught, well, you should fear God, so they fold their hands and close their eyes when they pray. But it isn't a true reverence of God from their hearts. And so, He speaks of these people, and these are the people who are in the temple worshipping. They were drawing near with their lips, but their heart was far from Him. Therefore, because of this, God said, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among the people, a work that will cause them to wonder, for the wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? These people thought that they were doing things that God didn't see, God didn't know. They are saying, who can see us, and who knows? But surely, He said, your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay, for shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not. Or shall the thing say of him that framed it, he hath no understanding. God's going to turn things upside down, and so the logic of man is turned upside down. Like a piece of clay on a potter's wheel, the pot that has been formed by the potter. As it sits there in its finished state, can it say, well, I just evolved. He didn't make me. I just exist. That's inert. And we laugh, we know that the pot doesn't form itself, even though it is of inert material, is not alive, is not complex, but we can see in the creation the fact of a creator. That's logical. Our minds can buy that logic and that reason. How can you have a building without builders? How can you have a watch without a watchmaker? But what has happened is that through the years, from early childhood, our children are being taught an illogical premise that you can have creation without a creator. That's illogical. That there is no real design behind the human body. It is all the result of accidental circumstances over billions of years, matter acting upon matter. There is no real design to your eye. It's just a marvelous, marvelous series of accidents by which you can see. No real design. Now that's illogical. But it is as if when your child is first playing with blocks and you start teaching your child 2 plus 2 equals 5. And when he starts to school and from kindergarten on through school, he is taught 2 plus 2 equals 5. It's an illogical premise. But he will come to believe that 2 plus 2 equals 5, but he will be destroyed from ever able to do math or understand math. You've destroyed the base for mathematics. And so he'll believe a fallacy because he's been taught the fallacy. But he'll never be able to logically do math problems. Now in the same token, you teach a child that he is the product of accidents that you can have a design without a designer. There's no understanding with the creator. There's no real mind, intelligence behind life. That all of these life forms do not manifest intelligence. But they are all the product of accidents. Now if you continue to teach the child that these things all came about as the matter worked on matter and the mutations took place and so forth and it's evolved into this complex form that appears to have a design, but there's no understanding with the creator. He didn't really make you. You just exist by this series of accidents The child will come to believe that he is the product of an accident, but he will never be able to logically deal with the issues of life because his whole basis for logic is gone. And so they believe that fallacy and thus they're destroyed from ever being able to logically. And that's why so many illogical things are being done today. You say, how in the world can they do that? What's the matter with them? Where is their brain? Well, their whole capacity to think logically and rationally has been destroyed because of the logical base being destroyed. And so Isaiah is speaking about that here. The piece of clay saying, he didn't make me. The thing that is framed says of him that framed it, he doesn't have any understanding. It's illogical. And man has turned to that kind of illogic and calls it science. It's bunkum. Now, the prophet as he so often does at this point goes out into the future and he goes out into that glorious new age that is coming. Now, people talk about the new age today, but this isn't it. And I'm rather glad this isn't it because I had hoped for a lot better. And the Bible promises me a lot better. The glorious day of the Lord when he shall reign and righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters do cover the seas. And so is it not yet a very little while in God's timing. Days as a thousand years, thousand years as a day. That's what Peter tells us and he tells us to wait for the coming of the Lord, have patience. A very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field. The fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest and in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book. The deaf ears will be open. The eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. And the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. And the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. When Jesus was ministering and John the Baptist who had been the forerunner had said to his disciples there's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and Herod put John in prison and Jesus wasn't coming and knocking Herod off the throne and getting rid of the Roman appointed powers and John was getting impatient they're in prison so he sent some of his disciples to say hey are you the one we're looking for or shall we start looking for someone else let's get the show on the road and so in the same hour there were many who came to Jesus deaf he touched and they were able to hear, blind they were able to see, the lame they were able to walk and after about an hour or so Jesus said to John's disciples go back and tell John what you saw the deaf are hearing, the blind are seeing, the lame are walking and unto the poor the gospel is being preached he was referring to this day of the Lord prophesied in Isaiah now that was only a foreshadowing when Jesus Christ comes to establish His reign and His kingdom upon the earth it will be wholesale throughout the earth as the earth is restored to as God's original intent there will be no physical infirmities, no sicknesses, no suffering no pain, no debilitating diseases no blindness now the terrible one is the Antichrist verse 20, for the terrible one is brought to naught, nothing, and the scorner, the false prophet is consumed and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, it's going to be a righteous reign he shall reign in righteousness and in judgment and in justice and the iniquity will be cut off, that make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turns aside the just for a thing of nothing therefore thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob Jacob shall not now be ashamed neither shall his face now wax pale but when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel they also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding and they that murmured shall learn doctrine so that day when people will turn to God will understand and they'll see the work of God on the earth now in chapter 30 he deals with the rebellion of the people to the word of God the Assyrians have now conquered the northern kingdom of Israel the Assyrians are now on their way to attack Jerusalem, they have already taken many of the fenced cities of Judah and this military juggernaut is on its way to Jerusalem and the prophet Isaiah is telling Hezekiah just trust in the Lord and the Lord will deliver you from the Assyrians put your faith and your trust in God He will deliver you, but they're not satisfied with that they feel that they must get help from Egypt and so they are sending emissaries down to Egypt with donkeys and camels that are loaded down with rewards, treasury of Judah, to pay for the Egyptians to send a military force to help them defend themselves against the Assyrians in their sending to Egypt for help and in their relying upon Egypt for help they are denying their faith in God's ability to help them and their going to Egypt is in a direct disobedience to the command of God and thus God looks upon it as rebellion against Him and thus He begins declaring woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsel, you've gotten together in your councils, the cabinet meetings and you decided that this is diplomacy and this is the wisest strategy to defend ourselves against the Assyrians but the counsel is not of God, in fact it is against God and you seek to cover with a covering but not of my spirit you're seeking to cover the bases with with the Egyptians and with this alliance with Egypt but you're not really seeking my help and the help of my spirit you're actually adding sin upon sin those that go down into Egypt and they have not sought my advice they seek to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh and they trust in the shadow of Egypt and Egypt's help will only be as a shadow, there will be no substance to the help that Egypt can give therefore, because of this shall the strength of the Pharaoh be your shame the Pharaoh's gonna let you down, Egypt won't help you in reality Egypt, the forces of Egypt were destroyed by the Assyrians and the trust in the shadow of Egypt will only lead to your confusion for his princes were at Zon and his ambassadors came to Hain, Zon was in the area of the delta, the Nile Delta and Hain was about a hundred miles up river from the present day Cairo and here's where they met with the ambassadors, those ambassadors from Israel met with the ambassadors of Egypt and they were all ashamed of the people that could not profit them nor be a help nor a profit but a shame and a reproach the burden of the beast of the south into the land of trouble and anguish, in other words you pass through the Negev desert, the land of trouble and anguish where there are lions and vipers and fiery flying serpents and you carried away the riches upon the shoulders of the young donkeys and the treasures upon the camels to a people that shall not profit them, you're wasting your money using your money to gain the help of the arm of flesh is a waste of your money trust in God, put your confidence in God for he said the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose, there won't be any help from Egypt, therefore have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still now this probably means that the Egyptians strength will come to nothing now go and write it before them in a table now this is what the Lord is telling Isaiah, now write this down on a tablet, make note of it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever, write these words down Isaiah, and he did because we're reading them here but the Lord instructed him to do that so that when the help of Egypt fell through, when all of this money was spent in vain and when the real crisis comes and Egypt is not there to help them then these people will know that they rebelled against me and that I told them not to do it and the record will be there so that they can see their folly in trusting in man rather than trusting in God so write it before them in a tablet noted in a book that it might be there in time to come forever and ever, write that this is a rebellious people lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers of the prophets, don't see and they say to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits now there are many people today that are sort of speaking in the name of the Lord smooth things deceitful things, how you can be a better you, it is all in the attitude that you take towards things friends we need to take a more positive attitude towards life and you can conquer, you can conquer over your fears and all of these smooth things and people say yay, yay preach it brother, I want to hear it the Bible said in the last days they will have itching ears, they will not endure sound doctrine, they want to be entertained, they have itching ears and they want to hear things that are, you know, everything's going to be alright and so they're saying to the prophets, don't prophesy to us the truth, tell us deceitful things and so he said get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us, we don't need God, we can do it ourselves wherefore, because of this, thus saith the Holy One of Israel because you despise this word and you trust in oppression and perverseness and you put your confidence in that therefore, this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant, in other words, it's like a high wall that begins to bow out it has a crack in it and it begins to bow out and the thing once it starts to tumble, just boom, you know, and all of this pressure is built up behind the dam and as the water begins to come through, the more that it comes through, the more the thing erodes until finally the whole thing just collapses and you have this flood that comes over you and there's no defense, it just you're totally overwhelmed and so God said such shall it be because they don't want me, they don't want the truth they don't want my word and they want to trust in these vain things We'll return with more of our verse by verse venture through the Bible in our next broadcast as Pastor Chuck continues to guide us through the fascinating book of Isaiah and we do hope you'll make plans to join us, but right now I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message simply order Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13 when visiting thewordfortoday.org and while you're there we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck You can also subscribe to the Word for Today podcast or sign up for our email subscription. Once again, all this can be found at thewordfortoday.org. If you wish to call our toll free number is 1-800-272-WORD and our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Again, that's 1-800-272-9673 For those of you preferring to write our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, CA 92628 And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support and be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible. That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing prayer May the Lord bless you and draw you in to that sweet, glorious communion with Him May you get a side quiet, alone where you can hear His voice where you can see His face, where you can enjoy His companionship. God bless you Make it a beautiful week Sometimes it's difficult to know what to say or how to help someone who is going through a recent death in the family or a sudden tragedy that's happened. And it's in times like this that we want to be used by God to bring encouragement, hope, and most of all, love to our family and friends who are going through a hardship. That's why I'd like to tell you about a book by Chuck Smith called When the Storm Hits I'm amazed when I read this book that it's able to encourage and strengthen a person and persuade them to look to Jesus and not at their problem. It encourages us to be patient not to lose hope, and when the storm hits, to get anchored on Jesus, the Rock, and don't let go. To order a copy of Chuck Smith's book, When the Storm Hits, please call The Word for Today at 800-272-9673 or you can visit us online to read a preview of the book by visiting thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.