Muskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday August 1, 2021
Message: Truth & Promise
Reverend Glynis Faith
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Announcements
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* Monday evening ‘The Story’ study group via Zoom, 7 pm
* Tuesday afternoon, Music for Prayer & Meditation, 2-3 pm at Knox
* Thursday evening study group via Zoom, 7:30 pm
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Prayer of Adoration & Confession
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Truly, Lord God Almighty, truly You are Holy. Your Word is truth and filled with Your promises. We learn through Your Word that we can trust you fully, for You, O Lord, have kept Your promises – You have honoured Your covenants with Your people.
We confess, however, that we have not always honoured our covenant with You God. In the busyness of our lives, we have put things before You, making gods of money, power, position, possessions. We have not always treated our neighbour as ourselves, putting our own wants and needs ahead of others.
Forgive us, we pray. Forgive us and help us to grow in our relationship with You and with our neighbours that we might live in Your peace and love.. AMEN
WORD OF ASSURANCE Friends, God promises forgiveness and salvation to all who will repent of their sins and follow Jesus. Thanks be to God. AMEN
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Prayer of Intercession
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God of truth and promise we come now to offer up our prayers of intercession.
We continue to pray healing for all who are battling Covid-19. We pray for those in ICU fighting for their lives, and for those at home wondering if they should be going to the ICU. We pray for those who are recovering and for those who are suffering prolonged affects of the virus. We pray for peace between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
We lift our prayers for people who are mourning the loss of a loved one. Wrap them in Your comforting Spirit and bring them peace through the love and support of family and friends.
Hear our prayers for families who have suffered loss due to violence, for people whose lives were forever changed due to gun violence, hate, and the careless actions of others.
Lord, we pray for revival in our land, revival that begins in our hearts, revival that comes through a commitment to You in prayer, revival that heals and strengthens all people through Your truth and in Your love.
Hear our prayers, O Lord. In Christ’s Name we pray. AMEN
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“ Truth & Promise ”
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Last week we took a glance at the prophets, individuals who relayed a message from God to the people. These men and women spoke God’s truth, but, as can often be the case, people don’t always want to hear the truth.
As we have travelled through ‘The Story,’ and for anyone who is not familiar with the Story, it is an abridged Bible translation that reads chronologically – it reads like a novel, and is especially helpful in reading through the Old Testament. Some truths we have uncovered along our journey are:
1) “In the Beginning God” – God is, was, always has been and always will be. The opening line of the Bible introduces us to the main character of the Bible, and serves to remind us that all things come from God. We would do well to give God praise with every breath we take, every glass of water we drink, every bite of nutrition we consume, for God is their source.
2) God told Adam and Eve that disobedience would lead to death – they did not listen and the first thing to die was their innocence, before they were escorted from Eden and separated from God and the Tree of Life.
3) We have discovered the truth that humans fail – we sin – more than we might like to admit – But God never gives up on us. (and that is a very good truth to remember) Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Now, there are plenty of truths to be found about the sinfulness of humanity – how easily we stray from God and fall into sinful behaviours – BUT, the truth that shines the brightest throughout Scripture is God’s unending love and His kept promises.
Think for a moment about the people in your life you trust and why.
The people we put our trust in are the people who are honest with us. When someone has a reputation for honesty, it is easy to stand behind what they say, even when the evidence seems to say otherwise. If your best friend has always kept their promises to you, you won’t feel the need to worry if they are running late on your special day, because you know in your heart they will be there - - they always have been and always will be.
Well, another pattern we have seen as we are travelling through the Old Testament is the reminder to the people to remember – remember how God brought you up out of slavery – remember His provisions, the manna, water, and even clothes and sandals that never wore out 40 years in the dessert – and the Promised Land, an inheritance for the nation God had built. Remember God’s promises and remember that He ALWAYS keeps His promises.
Yet, as we have learned, the people often forgot, they strayed from worshipping God, sometimes even falling into the practice of worshipping other gods and the idols of other nations. Yet, despite our sins, God keeps His promises; therefore, we can trust Him and the truth revealed through His Word.
This week we are looking at chapter 16 in The Story, and we come face to face with the prophet Isaiah. His writing shows him to be an educated individual, whose prophetic writings included much historical details. His attention to historical detail helps date the prophecies and their fulfillment. Isaiah is quoted over 400 times in the New Testament, showing that Jesus and the early church put weight in his writings.
During his ministry, Isaiah saw the northern kingdom of Israel taken captive by the Assyrian army. The northern kingdom had not managed to put one king on the throne who honoured God in over 200 years (not a single one), and the current king had no interest in listening to Isaiah preaching repentance. Israel relied not on God, but on their material prosperity and alliances with neighbouring kingdoms, which gave them a blind sense of military security. The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom fell to the Assyrian army, but even worse, they just vanished into the history books when King Sargon II divided them up and dispersed them throughout his nations.
This was a very good military tactic used to keep captives from rallying together and attempting to rise up against their captors. Over time dispersed individuals would marry into and adapt to the culture they lived in and their own culture faded from their mind.
Only the two small tribes of the Southern Kingdom, Judah remained in the Promised Land, and one can only imagine how vulnerable they felt. Their larger sister nation, Israel, destroyed – the powerful nation of Assyria breathing down their necks. They were a small army in comparison to Assyria (small being an understatement), but they had something their sister nation did not. Judah had a king on the throne who served and trusted God, so instead of trying to make alliances with neighbouring nations or to take matters into their own hands, King Hezekiah prayed, and God answered.
Hezekiah put his nation in the hands of the One to Whom the nation belonged – they were, after all, God’s chosen people and God had protected them more than once. Through Isaiah, the LORD confirmed His protection of the people. Not one military fighter in Judah drew their sword, because God sent an angel of the LORD to fight for them.
For a time, the people knew peace under Hezekiah’s reign, but like we have seen time and time again, the hearts of the people did not commit fully to serving God. No surprise that when Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, ascended the throne, he was not faithful to God and the people returned to a state of social injustice, moral decay and one by one the people fell away from God and the commands He had given to guide them. Judah would eventually be taken into captivity, only their captors would be the Babylonians!
Just how terrible of a king was Manasseh? Well, Jewish history notes that he had Isaiah sawn in half. I don’t know about you, but I would say he was not governing by God’s commands, not to mention snubbing his nose at God by killing His prophet!
Okay, it is sounding pretty doom and gloom up to now, wouldn’t you say? And that was part of the prophets call – tell the people the truth – you are living in opposition to God and you are facing difficult consequences if you don’t change your ways and return to the Lord. But God let Isaiah in on the bigger picture – God gave Isaiah a glimpse into the Good News.
Now, here is an interesting fact, Isaiah’s name means “Yahweh saves,” so although he prophesied truth to a people who did not want to hear it, he also prophesied God’s promises to those now living in exile.
Isaiah the prophet of the Lord saw the greatness of God – He saw a great future for God’s people, and He saw a great Saviour.
 Isaiah saw the greatness of God – Isaiah 6:1-3
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Isaiah saw the Promise Maker – the Great Promise Keeper:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

 Despite Judah’s current situation, Isaiah saw a great future for the people. Isaiah 14:1-2a
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land.
Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
Into their captivity, Isaiah speaks words of hope. God’s nation would not be subject to foreign power forever, the would not disappear forever, as the northern tribes had – God would restore the people to their inheritance, the land promised to Abraham’s descendants would be restored, and He would fulfill the promise made to David that his house, his kingdom, and his throne would be established forever.
 700+ years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah also saw a great Saviour, one who would come from the seed of David to save the people from their sins. This is what Isaiah saw. Friends, hear the Word of the Lord from Isaiah 53:1-9
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

700 years before the birth of Jesus, the Son of God - the seed of David, Isaiah saw the Saviour – the Messiah – Christ our Lord, who would suffer for our sins, who would lay His life down on the Cross, that repentant hearts could be raised up with Him in glory. Into the suffering of the world around him, the great prophet sought God’s Word, and God’s word was a promise of hope – a future – a Saviour.
I believe the prophet’s words are as relevant to us today as they were to the people of Judah 2700+ years ago. We need to hear the truth – a call to turn from our sins – a call to speak out against injustice and to make our world a better place for everyone. And in the midst of our struggles – and we have certainly experienced great struggles throughout this pandemic, yet amidst these struggles we can trust in God – for God keeps His promises - - Christ was born, Christ died for our sins, God raised Him from death and now He sits at the right hand of the father until the day He will come again, calling home all who put their faith in Him and who live for Him here on earth.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. AMEN

Please, bow your heads and join me in prayer:
Into a sin filled world You, O Lord, shine Hope for the future and the Promise of Salvation. Into a sin filled world, Jesus, you entered our struggles, showing us Your love and teaching us how to live in obedience to God’s Laws.
Into a sin filled world Jesus’ blood was shed as an atonement for our sins. Holy Spirit, help us to hear the truth of God’s Word and give us courage to always put our trust in His Promises. Teach us to follow Jesus, the Promised One of God, sharing the Good News with others. This we pray in Jesus’ name. AMEN
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#645 Follow Me, the Master Said
Words: anonymous, alt Music: annonymous
Words: public domain Music: public domain
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'Follow me,' the Master said: we will follow Jesus.
By his word and Spirit led, we will follow Jesus.
Still for us he lives to plead, at the throne will intercede,
offers help in time of need; we will follow Jesus.

Should the world and sin oppose, we will follow Jesus.
He is greater than our foes; we will follow Jesus.
On his promise we depend; he will hear us and defend,
help and keep us to the end; we will follow Jesus.

Though the way may dark appear, we will follow Jesus.
He will make our pathway clear; we will follow Jesus.
In our daily round of care, as we plead with God in prayer,
with the cross which we must bear, we will follow Jesus.

Ever keep that end in view; we will follow Jesus.
All his promises are true; we will follow Jesus.
When this earthly course is run, and the Master says, 'Well done!'
life eternal we have won; we will follow Jesus.
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Commission & Benediction
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I encourage you to study the truths and promises of God in His Word, trusting always in His promises.
and as you do . . .

May the love, grace and peace of God go with you. AMEN
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Support the Work of Knox and Zion in 2021
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DONATIONS TO KNOX, PORT CARLING
Mail cheques to Knox Presbyterian Church Box 283, Port Carling, ON,
P0B 1J0
E-Transfers to KnoxChurchPC@gmail.com No security question required
Pick up ~ Please call the office (705) 765-3797 to arrange pick up

DONATIONS TO ZION, TORRANCE
Mail cheques to Zion Presbyterian Church 1046 Torrance Rd, Torrance, ON, P0C 1M0
E-Transfers to zionchurchpc@gmail.com No security question required
Truth and Promise