The video discusses the breakdown of the family unit in society and the negative impact it has on marriages and children. Pastor Chuck Smith's Marriage and Family Bible Study is presented as a helpful resource to address these issues. The series focuses on basic principles rooted in God's word that can help keep love alive in families. By understanding and applying these principles, families can experience peace, joy, and unconditional love. Additionally, the video mentions a resource called Christian Family Relationships, which is based on the books of Ephesians and Colossians and provides further guidance on building strong family relationships.

Welcome to The Word for Today. The Word for Today is a continuous study of the Bible taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament. And for those of you following along in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah, Chapter 25, beginning with verse 1, as we continue with an in-depth message entitled, The Praise to God. One thing is needful, O my Father, One thing is needful, O my God, That I sit at your feet, And pour out my love, This thing is needful, O my God. And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. In the last verse of Chapter 24, Isaiah was looking forward to that glorious day when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His ancients gloriously. So looking forward to the wonderful Kingdom Age when the Lord of Hosts is reigning. Chapter 25 is a response of praise to this marvelous event. As Isaiah now responds in his heart to this glorious anticipation of the children of God, that day when God's Kingdom will come and His will will be done on this earth, even as it is in heaven. We cannot understand the purposes and the intent of God in the creation of the world as we look around and see it today. You do not see a world that is in harmony with God. You see a world that is in rebellion against God and is suffering the consequences of that rebellion. As you look around, you cannot see God's intention for man. For man is suffering as the result of sin and the fallen nature. And so we long for that day. We pray for that day. For at the present time, God's will is not being done on the earth. God, in allowing man the freedom of choice, has honored the choices that man makes. And if a man chooses to destroy himself, God will allow him to do so. God will honor that choice. For choice is not a true choice if it is violated. And so God allows you to make your choice and then He honors the choices. And man has made his choice to rebel against God, the law of God, to destroy himself. And God allows man to do that. But we long for that day when we will see the world that God intended, when the Lord of hosts shall reign, when His kingdom shall come and His will will be done here in this earth, even as His will is done in heaven. Believe me, they don't have the problems in heaven that we have here on earth. They don't have the problems with environmental pollution and those things that are plaguing our earth. Glorious day when the Lord of hosts comes to reign. And so as Isaiah responds to that, he declares, O Lord, Thou art my God. I will exalt Thee. I will praise Your name. For You have done wonderful things, and Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Now, as you read this praise of Isaiah, we recognize that Isaiah is borrowing heavily from the song of Moses and the praise that Moses offered to God for the victories that God wrought for His people in delivering them out of Egypt. And so it's interesting to me, and I believe that it is significant, that these men, such as Isaiah, were men of the Word. He was thoroughly imbued with the Word of God. His life was saturated with God's Word. And it's marvelous that when your life is so saturated with the Word of God, that as God is working in your life or does marvelous things for you, that as you respond, the response is taken out of the background of the richness of the Word that is within your heart. So Isaiah is responding to God. O Lord, or Jehovah, Yahweh, You are my God, and I will exalt Thee and praise Thy name, because You have done wonderful things. And the counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. That is, You have fulfilled the things that You said You would do. The counsels of old, the prophecies, the promises of the glorious kingdom and the reign of Jesus has now been fulfilled. And thus, faithful is God to keep His Word. The Word of God is true. These are the things that you can count on, the faithfulness of God to keep His promises and to keep His Word. For you have made of a city a heap, of a defense city a ruin, the palace of strangers to be no city, and it shall never be built. That is, those cities that have defied God, they become a heap, a ruin, destroyed, obliterated. The strong people therefore shall glorify Thee, and the city of awesome nations shall fear Thee, or worship Thee, reverence Thee. For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in His distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the awesome ones is as a storm against the wall. And so, he speaks of how God has watched over the poor, the needy, and that He is a refuge in the storm. I love that. A shadow from the heat. God becomes to you whatever your need may be. There's not an experience that you go through in life, but what God is not there to help you, to guide you, to be for you a refuge in those times of storm, to see you through. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the awesome one shall be brought low. God will triumph. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, a fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees that is well refined. So, speaking of that glorious day, the Lord and the wonderful feast that God will have. Now, in the oriental customs and the mindset, the act of feasting together was a very important experience. And probably because of the way they feasted and ate, it had a lot to do with how it, the significance that they put upon it. You see, when they ate, they didn't have beautiful table settings. That's not the way they ate. When we were over in Tonga and went to the feast that the king had, that's more the way they ate. We came to the table and there was the food. And you want some of that little pig, you'd reach and you'd pull off. Then you just eat it with your hands. And the potatoes and everything else, you just had your hands to eat with, not even a napkin to dry them with. And that's the way it was in the Bible days. They would have all of these sauces and soups and the meat. And you would have the bread. And they would pass the bread around the table and you'd pull off a piece of bread. They didn't have the kind of etiquette that we have today. You know, if you dip the shrimp in the sauce once and take a bite, you don't dip it again, you know. You don't want to get your germs from your mouth in that shrimp sauce. Not with them. They'd pull off the bread, they'd dip it in the sauce and they'd eat it and dip it back in and eat it. Scoop it, use it sort of as a spoon. And the various salads, they'd scoop with their bread and eat it. The soup, they'd all dip in and eat it. A real sharing of germs. And that is why they felt such a total oneness when they ate together. Because we're really sharing. We're dipping our bread, which came from the same loaf, in the same bowl of soup. And thus, we're sharing from the same bread, we're eating from the same bowl of soup, and we're even sharing each other's germs. So I am becoming part of you, you are becoming part of me. And that's what feasting together symbolized to them. That unity, that oneness that you have with a person when you eat with them. That is why they were very careful who they ate with. They'd look and say, hmm, do I want to be one with them? Doesn't look like he brushes his teeth. And so they were very careful. They would not think of eating with a Gentile. They even would not eat with sinners. And they found fault with Jesus because he was eating with sinners. Eating with sinners and publicans. And it was a big shocker to them. Because they looked at eating together, feasting together, as unifying and becoming one with each other. That is why the Lord's table was so vital and important to them because it brought them to that consciousness of their unity with each other and their unity with Jesus. He was the common bond. And they were unified through the bread. I am the bread of life. And they were unified through that bread and through the cup and through eating together of the bread. And drinking together of the cup. They didn't have nice little sterilized communion cups like we do, plastic throwaways. They had the one cup. They all drank out of the same cup. Now my grandkids talk about backwashing. I found out what that was lately. Once in a while they share their Coke or something, you know, but careful you don't backwash. It creates real problems. The bars are down, totally open. I've become a part of you. You've become a part of me as we have feasted together. And it symbolized to them that beautiful, beautiful union. And thus, as we look forward to the marriage feast of the Lord, now we have these beautiful pictures, a lovely table all set. There's the china's over and all. And we see, come for all things are now ready, the marriage supper of the Lamb, you know. And a beautiful table, nice chairs, everything else. You might be surprised when you get to the table. You might be like I was in Tonga looking for some knife to cut off a portion of the pig. Now Isaiah speaks to the glorious feasting with the Lord. The fact, the wine. He speaks of the feast of wines on the lees. Now when the wine would settle in the lees, the flavor would become strong. However, the wine would become murky. And so as it would begin to settle on the lees, they would pour it into another vessel. And thus they'd pour from vessel to vessel in order that they might get a very clear wine. And yet it was of a more mellow kind of a flavor. So the wines that he says that are on the lees, and yet it is refined. So it's a very special kind of wine, well flavored, and yet clear, refined. He will destroy in his mountain the face of the covering cast over all the people in the veil that is spread over all nations. Now Paul wrote about the children of Israel, how that when they read the law of Moses, there was a veil over their eyes. And it would seem that over the nations there is a veil, a blindness to the things of God, to the word of God, the understanding. And we look around the world in which we live and we see the people living in darkness as far as God is concerned. That spiritual darkness that is there, like a veil is over their face, and they just can't see. And in that day the Lord is going to remove that covering over the face, the veil that is spread over all of the nations. And then the glorious promise, he will swallow up death in victory. When Paul the Apostle was writing concerning the resurrection from the dead in 1 Corinthians 15, he cried out at the end of his discourse, oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? For the sting of death has been swallowed up in victory. Paul quotes this passage from Isaiah. And then Paul goes ahead and interprets it for us. He said, for the sting of death is sin, but Christ having removed our sin, the sting of death is gone. Death is swallowed up in victory. It's like driving down a country road on a summer day with the windows open and a bee flies into the car. And the little girl begins to scream, a bee, daddy, a bee, help, daddy, a bee. And she gets panicky. And while he's driving, he's swinging at that bee, trying to catch it. And finally he gets hold of it, grabs it in his fist, and he holds it there in his fist until the bee stings him. And then he lets the bee go. And it's flying around the car again. And the little girl starts to scream again, daddy, a bee, a bee. He said, don't worry, honey. It can't hurt you now. And he opens his hands and he says, there's the stinger there. The bee can't hurt you. Jesus took the sting of death, our sin. Death can't hurt you anymore. No, it can't hurt you. Jesus shows his hands. I took the sting of death away. Death is swallowed up in victory. That is true in Jesus Christ, who removed the sting of death by taking away our sin. So there's no more sting. The Bible speaks of those who all of their lifetime were subject to bondage because of the fear of death. But the sting is gone. There is no more fear. And like David, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And at the rebuke of his people, shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it. We read in Revelation, God shall wipe away all tears. They shall sorrow no more. There shall be no more pain, no more suffering. The former things are passed away. It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, and we have waited for him. Face to face, Lord, let me know. Face to face, Lord, let me see you. Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few closing comments. But first I'd like to remind you that today's message is available in its unedited form on cassette or CD. Simply write or call and ask for ordering details on tape or CD number C-3253. Again, that's tape or CD number C-3253. Well, as the holiday season is approaching, we'd like to bring to your attention a very helpful resource for families, knowing it's the time of year when families gather together. Undoubtedly, one of the most glaring signs that our society is in trouble is the breakdown of the family unit. Marriages just aren't making it today, and kids are suffering as they watch the breakup of their homes. The word for today would like to present Pastor Chuck Smith's Marriage and Family Bible Study. In this series, Pastor Chuck discusses basic principles designed to keep your family's love alive. Each member of the family has a different set of needs and responsibilities. And when you know and apply God's principles, everyone in your family can experience real peace, real joy, and unconditional love. And when you call and order Pastor Chuck's Marriage and Family Series, the word for today would like to bless you with a resource entitled Christian Family Relationships. Taken from the books of Ephesians and Colossians, this study reveals the secret to a solid and biblically based Christian family relationship. And right now you can get it for free when you order the Marriage and Family Series. And remember, the word for today would like to assist you this Christmas in spreading the gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and co-workers. Please call our customer service department to help you in finding that perfect gift that will reflect the true meaning of Christmas. And if you call right now and mention this radio ad, the word for today will give you a 20% discount on any resource carried by the word for today. So call the word for today at 1-800-272-WORD or write to us at P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628. Once again, that number to call is 1-800-272-9673. And for those of you that would like to visit our website, you can do so at www.twft.com. Or if you would like to email us, you can do so at info at twft.com. Well, coming up next time on the word for today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah. That's coming up next time on the word for today. And now with a few closing comments, here's Pastor Chuck. The hopeless dilemma of trying to live a life apart from you. And Lord, there are some here tonight that are living in that same desperate condition without God and without hope in this world. But Lord, help them to call upon you while there is opportunity, while you may be found, while you are near. Thank you, Lord, for coming near to us tonight. Thank you for being close by. Thank you, Lord, for being available. And may we avail ourselves the opportunities of fellowship, of love, of communion. Tonight and through the week, may we walk in the joy, in the peace and in the glory of our Lord. In Jesus name. Amen. Oh, this program is sponsored by the word for today. The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.