Is God Your Sanctuary or Your Judge? (Isaiah 8)

Isaiah 8:1-22; 13

"The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread" (Isa 8:13, NIV). "And he will become a sanctuary..." (Isa 8:14, ESV).

1. Despite Your Failures, Let's Meet and Talk (Isaiah 1).
2. The Ideal and The Reality (Isaiah 2-4).
3. A Worthless Vineyard (Isaiah 5).
4. I Saw The Lord (Isaiah 6).
5. Trust or Bust (Isaiah 7).

Coram deo, not coram hominibus. Christians are called to live their lives coram deo (before God), rather than coram hominibus (before man). To do so, we must always recognize that our ultimate audience is God. The Bible thus calls us to fear God and not man (Prov 1:7; 9:10; 29:25). But this is a great challenge when our circumstances and what we see and feel make us fear what others think and do. Thus, we must regain Isaiah's perspective: "do not fear" what the world fears (Isa 8:12), but "The Lord Almighty is ... the one you are to fear" (Isa 8:13).