WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.360 Good morning, beloved. 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:06.799 Stick our Bibles and turn with me over to the book of Isaiah, chapter 1. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:15.119 For those of you that are with us or don't have a Bible, you can find a Pew Bible in front of you, and you can turn to page 600, page 600 there. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:21.039 We're in the early days of a study through the book of Isaiah. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:27.039 This morning we'll be looking at verses 10 to 20. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:36.560 There's a Roman emperor who ruled from 361 to 363 A.D. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:38.320 by the name of Julian. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.079 He was the nephew of Constantine the Great. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:57.679 His immediate family was murdered, and the too often dynastic struggles had happened in Rome, and his uncle, Constantine, forced him to study Christian doctrine as a child. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:09.200 And sadly, that bred within him a lifelong hatred of Christianity, so much so that he was called Julian the Apostate as an emperor. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:18.480 But despite his deep-seated hatred for Christians and Christianity, there were some things that he had to admit about them. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:28.640 And in his letters, we have a little excerpt of how he spoke directly about Christians and the effect that they had had not only on him, but also on the community. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:33.040 Now he uses two derogatory terms to talk about Christians. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.079 He calls them impious Galileans. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:48.400 He called them Galileans as a derogatory term to talk about the obscure place where Christ came from, didn't come from the major powers of Rome or other cities, came from Galilee. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:53.920 And he also called them impious because Christians did not honor the gods. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:02:02.079 And so they were seen as atheist, even called atheist by some of the Romans, because of their singular focus on God. 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.599 So you'll hear that in this quote. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:09.039 And you'll feel his disdain as well. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:19.439 Julian wrote in his letter, It is disgraceful that the impious Galileans support not only their own poor, but ours as well. 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:25.199 Everyone can see that our own people do not receive aid from us. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:39.759 Though he didn't like it, Julian saw the meshing together of Christian devotion to Christ and love for one another and even people outside the Christian faith. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:45.520 He found that refutable and persuasive despite his strong contempt for Christianity. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:56.000 This demonstration of Christians who were giving sacrificial love not only for their own, but even for others, pagans who were in real need. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:38.000 James chapter 1 and verse 26 says this if anyone thinks he's religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.599 Then he goes on to talk about what true devotion looks like. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:52.000 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this, to look after the orphans and widows and their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:01.840 The Apostle John also wrote in chapter three of his first epistle in verse 16 this is how we know we have come to know love. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:05.680 He laid down his life for us, speaking about Christ. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.960 We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:18.720 If anyone has this world's goods and sees a fellow believer in need, but withholds compassion from him, how does God's love reside in that person? 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:24.079 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:29.839 And this is how we will know that we belong to the truth, and we'll reassure our hearts before him. 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:46.560 Well, that brings us into this passage in Isaiah chapter 1 in verses 10 to 20, where there is a flagrant disregard for and disconnect between the people of Jerusalem's worship and life. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:53.120 Isaiah is a book that is vital for us in the 21st century because it's easy. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.040 The temptations that they had lay in our own hearts. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:05.439 It's easy for us to get into a pattern of religious observance and have it disconnected from the way we live our lives the rest of the week. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:17.199 And this passage of scripture will discover that God despises devotion to him that doesn't also draw the worshiper to others in their need. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:33.279 But we'll also discover that despite God's disdain for that kind of hypocrisy, he has a full heart to forgive and to release and to receive sinners from the judgment they deserve. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:42.319 We'll look a little bit later at this, but in verses 16 to 20 is one of the most famous calls to repentance and forgiveness that are found in Scripture. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:47.040 Though your sins be as red as scarlet, they shall be as white as wool. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.399 We even sing songs with those phrases. 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:55.680 At the core of that forgiveness is the transformation of the heart of that sinner. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:01.839 Someone who was once rebellious and unyielding now becomes willing and obedient. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:03.120 We'll get there. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:07.839 But first we need to walk through the passage and find out how we get to that spot. 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:13.040 And the first thing I want us to notice is the rebuke that's found in verse 10. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:23.120 When Isaiah opens up his prophecy to the people of Jerusalem, he challenges them with a reality that they're unwilling to admit. 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:30.639 And he does this by giving them labels and terms that speak to the reality of who they are. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:34.560 They don't want to hear these words, but hear them they must. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:43.759 And these hard truths speak to the people to let them know that they're not embodying what God's people ought to be like. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:50.240 That they simply are speaking themselves as God's people, but not living out that life. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:56.959 So last week we saw in verses one to nine that they were called rebellious children in verse two. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.360 They were called denser than donkeys in verse three. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:06.639 They were called a sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, children who deal corruptly. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:11.360 They were described as sick and wounded and not seeking a remedy. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:18.879 And in verse 9, they made an admission: well, we're bad, but maybe not all bad. 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:25.920 There's some of us still alive, and if the Lord of armies had not left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:28.720 We would resemble Gomorrah. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:33.439 Well, yeah, we may be denser than a donkey, but we're not dead donkeys. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:39.120 And now the prophet's about to make a stronger announcement. 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:44.079 He's about to wake them up with some turns. 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:46.319 He's about to shock them. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.399 Take a look at verse 10. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:53.759 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:59.519 Listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:03.120 Wait a second. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.240 I thought we weren't like Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:09.120 But from God's point of view, they are. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:35.039 People of Jerusalem, the holy city, the rulers of this place where God inhabits his presence, is actually described as Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:46.000 The people were just about ready to thank God that they weren't like Sodom and Gomorrah, but God says they're exactly alike Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:51.759 Because they really resembled those two cities that were destroyed. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.159 What is the connecting point here? 00:08:54.159 --> 00:09:04.879 The connecting point is that Sodom and Gomorrah and the people that are living in Jerusalem and Judah at this time are living in habitual self-indulgence. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:08.799 They are concerned only about themselves. 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:14.320 Now, that self-indulgence can express itself in all sorts of ways. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:18.720 But at the essence, its nature is the same. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:21.840 And this is the connecting point. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:34.159 These rulers and the people of Jerusalem and Judah were living sinful lives of self-indulgence that at the heart was exactly like the sinful life of self-indulgence of Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:41.519 Ezekiel in chapter 16 says, Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:51.840 She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn't support the poor and needy. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.679 Self-indulgence. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:56.960 Jeremiah chapter 23. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.080 Among the prophets of Samaria, I saw something disgusting. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.679 They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.559 And among the prophets of Jerusalem also I saw a horrible thing. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.799 They committed adultery and walked in lies. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:12.720 They strengthened the hands of evildoers, and none of them turns his back on evil. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.039 They're all like Sodom to me. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.639 Jerusalem's residents are like Gomorrah. 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:29.120 Here we have it: self-indulgent lives expressed in oppression of the weak and unacceptable worship. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:42.799 The sins of which they were guilty are as plainly condemned in the Word of God as the sins by which the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had polluted their towns and villages. 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:46.960 Someone said that all sin is rebellion. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:52.320 And if you're going to rebel against God, it doesn't really matter which weapon you hold in your hand. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:01.279 Second thing that we learn here is that we can be utterly unaware of our real character. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:16.080 This shocking phrase, Sodom and Gomorrah to Jerusalem, made them realize that God had a perspective about them that they didn't have about themselves. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:21.279 Self-delusion is universal. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:27.759 It's easy for us to think about ourselves differently than others think about us. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:34.000 For instance, when something good happens to us, we think, well, it's because I'm so smart. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:39.200 When something good happens to somebody else, we think it's because they're lucky. 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:40.159 Right? 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:46.320 If something bad happens to us, well, the circumstances just weren't for me. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:51.039 If something bad happens to someone else, it's like, well, they're just a fool. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.279 What is it? 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:57.039 We estimate ourselves so much better than others. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:09.759 One researcher at Rutgers University discovered that college students would rate themselves better than their fellow classmates is able to get a good job and to buy a house and to make a good living. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:20.080 In a survey of business managers, 90% of them rated their performance as superior to their peers. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:32.480 In Australia, 86% of people rate their job performances above average, and only 1% at below average. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:37.919 This is not Lake Wobagon, where everyone is above average. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.559 There's got to be an average somewhere. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:46.480 But even in these lesser things, we see this bias toward self, don't we? 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:55.519 That bias toward self can make us blinded to the realities of who we are and not seeing ourselves for what we actually are. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:15.039 Laodicea, the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, Jesus said to them, You say, I'm rich, I have become wealthy and need nothing, and you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:19.279 They don't see themselves for what they really are. 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:31.759 David was confronted by Nathan with a story about this man who oppressed someone who couldn't stand against the oppressor and stole what he had. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:40.559 And David was infuriated with the man in that story and said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.600 Because he's done this thing and shown no pity. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:52.000 And it wasn't until Nathan said, You're the man that David realized the story was about him. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:03.200 Both Laodicea and David were at perfect peace with themselves until all of it came crushing down with the exposure of God's truth. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.399 How often that can happen to us? 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:13.279 This sense of self-delusion is not only common, it's sadly disastrous. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:19.120 And Jesus at the end of the Sermon of the Mount talks about the disaster of self-delusion. 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:26.720 That people would come up to him and he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:32.960 There will be people who will stand up and they will say, Didn't we prophesy in your name? 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:34.879 Didn't we drive out demons in your name? 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:37.440 Didn't we do many miracles in your name? 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:39.600 And he'll say, Depart from me. 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.399 I don't know you. 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:44.639 I never knew you. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:48.799 Depart from me, you evil doers. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:52.480 And that leads us to a third lesson here. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.200 God sees us for who we are. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:15:03.279 These people presented themselves as great, miraculous workers for God's kingdom, and he said, You're lawbreakers. 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:06.720 God sees us for what we actually are. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:11.039 He doesn't accept our boastings as reality. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:17.360 And what he sees is sometimes very, very different than any kind of term that we would give ourselves. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:22.559 Jesus talked about a wealthy man in Luke chapter 12. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:26.000 He seemed to be the envy of everybody in the community. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:29.919 This man had been successful as a businessman. 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:31.360 He had gained a lot of crops. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:34.080 He worked in the agricultural industry. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:40.320 And the harvest was so plenteous, he sits down with himself and he says, What am I going to do? 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:50.639 I'll tear down my barns, build bigger ones, store all my grain and all my goods there, and then I'll say to myself, you've got many goods stored up for many, many years. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:51.679 Take it easy. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:54.879 Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:59.120 This man had built a successful business. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:04.000 This man had ended his career at the peak of the market. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:16.000 This man had a surplus that was full enough, so full, that he contemplated actually tearing down his storehouses to make them larger and then retire. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.879 He didn't even have to conserve at the very end. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:38.000 And just as he's planning to, you know, go off to the architect's office and pick up a few drawing plans for what that might look like, he thought he'd stop over at the travel agency and get a brochure or two for a luxury cruise that he could enjoy now that he's about to retire. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:47.679 His neighbors, I'm sure, probably saw him as a, well, certainly a prosperous farmer, but perhaps a shrewd and wise one, too. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:51.279 But what has Jesus called him? 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.600 You fool. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.399 You fool. 00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:57.440 Why? 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:08.240 Because that day he was going to die, and he had vested all of his life in mere earthly possessions rather than eternal reward. 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:18.160 God's estimate of him was far different than the estimate he had of himself, far different than what anybody in the community might have thought of him, too. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:31.599 So here are these people, these rulers of Jerusalem, the rulers of the holy city, the rulers of where God dwells. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:36.799 The Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:41.119 What is needed for them? 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:50.000 What is needed for us whenever we get into a position where we have to have a hard rebuke shake us awake? 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.200 Well, what we need is prayerful self-examination. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:12.160 And sometimes that prayerful self-examination only begins when we're confronted with a hard reality, just like God confronts the people of Jerusalem and Judah with a hard reality, with these strong emotional terms. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:23.200 And we'll look at this later, but this rebuke is not simply God wanting to condemn them for their sin and leave them there. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:28.960 This isn't just him calling them Sodom and Gomorrah and walking away from them. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:31.359 Take a look at verse 10 again. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:38.400 Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:44.640 Listen to the instruction of God, you people of Gomorrah. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:56.240 These strong words are God's loving confrontation to bring them truth that would embarrass them so that he might save them. 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:18.319 This unflattering portrait that Isaiah brings to the people in Jerusalem and Judah in chapter one is God's way of disrupting and disturbing them until they get to the point where they start asking God-oriented questions about themselves. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:23.519 Because up until that point in time they weren't. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:47.359 It's not that. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:51.519 It's not God simply crushing our spirit. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:57.599 Conviction of sin is a health-giving injury, if I can put it that way. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:03.359 It's the scalpel of the surgeon rather than the blow of the soldier. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:19.039 Conviction of sin is the Holy Spirit being kind to us by confronting us with truth that we don't want to admit, with light that we don't want to see, with guilt we don't want to acknowledge. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:23.680 It's the Holy Spirit kindly showing us those things. 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:38.000 Conviction is the severe love of God to overrule our compulsive dishonesty, our willful blindedness, our favorite excuses, and to stop them all cold. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:48.079 Conviction is a merciful God declaring war against the false peace that we've settled into our heart. 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:59.359 He wants to bring us out of all of that to joy, to genuineness, to authenticity, to wholeness and health. 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.720 And so let's go deeper through this passage. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:08.319 We've only looked at the rebuke so far, but let's see what we're getting at here. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:15.440 What sin the Lord means to lay bare and confront the conscious with among the people of Jerusalem and perhaps us. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:26.319 And the first thing he brings up besides this rebuke is the refused worship, the refused worship that we find in verses 11 to 15. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:40.079 Now, when God calls Jerusalem Sodom and Gomorrah, people might have countered and said, You know, God, there's a big difference between us and Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.400 They were all pagans. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.200 We worship you. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:53.839 We go to the temple, we make our sacrifices, we honor you. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:55.759 We're called by your name. 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:57.279 They never were. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:09.039 But God's response to that temple worship is completely negative in this passage of scripture. 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:12.559 Take a look at the descriptions in verses 11 to 15. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:18.000 Verse 11, I've had enough of burnt offerings. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.160 I have no desire for the blood of bulls, goats, lambs. 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:24.319 Verse 12. 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:27.920 What is this trampling of my courts? 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:32.319 Verse 13, stop bringing useless offerings. 00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:35.359 Your incense is detestable to me. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:39.920 A little later, I cannot stand iniquity with a festival. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:44.079 Verse 14, I hate your new moons and prescribe festivals. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:46.079 They've become a burden to me. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:48.400 I'm tired of putting up with them. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:53.440 Verse 15, I will refuse to look at you even if you offer countless prayers. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:55.920 I will not listen. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:59.519 Wow. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:06.720 I thought you just had to be sincere in heart, and everything would be okay. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:08.319 No. 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:13.359 God was sick of their sacrifices. 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:16.000 He considered them worthless. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:18.319 They were a burden to him. 00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:20.720 He hated their feasts. 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:22.720 He had no delight in them. 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:24.319 He called it an abomination. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.720 That's a big word in the Bible. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:31.440 Now, hang on a second. 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:38.160 All of that was prescribed by God in the Pentateuch. 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:41.440 All of that was laid out as things to do. 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:51.200 So obviously, it's not what they were doing in the form of it all that is negative. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:53.200 There's something deeper. 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:59.599 There's something wrong at a deeper level than just the mere operations of worship. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:03.920 There was something going on inside. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:19.839 And what you I find interesting about this passage is that Isaiah never accuses them of simply offering mere formal worship, as if they were just doing it by rote memory rather than sincerity of heart. 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:25.279 He doesn't call them to be more connected with what they're doing. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:28.319 He speaks about something different yet. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:34.480 So it is possible that they really did mean every hallelujah. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:40.319 That they really did have a heart of urgency when they cried. 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:48.640 That there wasn't really a mismatch between their feelings and their expressions in worship. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:52.799 No, there was something different. 00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:59.599 There was a disconnect not between their heart in worship and their mouth in worship. 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:07.920 There was a disconnect between the heart of worship and the heart of life outside the worship. 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:11.359 That's where the problem was. 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:19.680 Verse 15 indicates fully God's conclusion of his displeasure with all of this. 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:23.519 Your hands are covered with blood. 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:31.279 And that gives us a clue of what God is driving at with them and what he really is finding as the source of the problem. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:40.480 When their hands are raised in fervent praise, God looks down on them and says, I see blood. 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:49.519 Now he's not talking about the blood of the sacrifices, he's talking about the blood that they have extracted from each other. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:58.640 As they spend their life in self-indulgence by callous, careless actions toward other people. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:04.240 The blood is their fellow Israelites. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:23.359 Now, obviously, these people are not actual murders, all of them, but they were living lives of indulgent self-pleasure, persistently looking out for themselves. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:38.960 Those in the ruling classes, the priests, the princes, and the prophets, all manipulating the system, the system of taxes and laws and landholdings in order to gain more for themselves. 00:26:38.960 --> 00:27:03.680 Enacting policies that would ignore those who had no power, refusing the care of the orphans and the widows, and depriving farmers of their ability to have a livelihood, abandoning any conviction at all that God's word meant that vertical worship must be intimately intertwined with vertical or horizontal care. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:16.559 These people lived lives outside of the worship that betrayed what they did inside of worship. 00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:23.119 And God's attitude is clear, and God's attitude is chilling. 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:25.920 Look at verse 15 again. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:48.240 What a horrible, horrible place to be. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:56.480 To actually be engaged in worship and God says, I'm not showing up. 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:01.759 This isn't something I take pleasure in. 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:13.920 Unless we think that this warning is simply tailored for Jerusalem and Judah in Isaiah's day, I'd like to draw your attention to a passage in 1 Peter 3. 00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:15.279 You don't need to turn there. 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.240 You can if you want, but I'll read it for you. 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:21.359 Husbands. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:24.319 Husbands. 00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:39.039 In the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as a weaker vessel, as if she were, with the kind of delicacy you would hold up a piece of china rather than a chunky piece of pottery. 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:41.119 Handle her with care. 00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:54.640 Showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, listen, so that your prayers will not be hindered, thwarted, refused. 00:28:54.640 --> 00:29:02.880 I will not listen if you treat your wife wrong, husband. 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:08.640 I will not listen if you don't honor your wife, husband. 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:15.759 I will not look on you if you treat her with disdain, husband. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:23.039 Peter doesn't just leave it for husbands, though. 00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:28.640 He continues, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic. 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:40.319 Love one another, be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:49.839 For the one who wants to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit, let him turn away from evil and do what is good. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:30:01.599 Now listen let him seek peace and pursue it, because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to Their prayers. 00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:07.680 But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil. 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:20.880 That was written to the New Testament church within the context of family life, saying that our worship will be affected by our life. 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:34.079 The reception of what we do on Sunday morning, in God's point of view, starts after the service is over, all the way until the time you show up again. 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:42.640 God's words indicate the importance of a proper attitude, both of Him and of others. 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:51.759 Merely showing up nicely dressed and well spoken in a worship service doesn't cut it in the eyes of God. 00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:54.720 Now let's move on. 00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:00.000 We got the rebuke, we got the refused worship, but what is the received worship? 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:05.599 The next paragraph, God speaks about two things. 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:09.759 He talks about repentance of heart and reconciliation of heart. 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:13.599 Reconciliation to him and reconciliation to others. 00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:29.119 And this paragraph is filled with nine bullet point exhortations, nine commands, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, just thrown out there, rapid fire, that illustrate what that looks like. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:37.039 And the prophet here is persuasively, forcibly calling us as listeners to that kind of life. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:44.559 Seven of these imperatives identify positive things, and two of them are to turn away from current behavior. 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:47.519 Let's listen to those nine words. 00:31:47.519 --> 00:32:04.079 Wash yourselves, cleanse yourselves, remove your evil deeds from my sight, stop doing evil, learn to do what is good, pursue justice, correct the oppressor, defend the rights of the fatherless, plead the widow's cause, rapid fire. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:12.720 These nine punchy imperatives stress the basic heart decisions that we are to have. 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:16.720 And it begins with our orientation to God. 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:31.119 Talking of the word washing there, speaking of a ritual washing that is indicative of a purity of heart, that the clean hands represent the clean heart of repentance toward God. 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:38.640 And when our orientation to God is right, then it will flow out into our relationships with others. 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:44.480 We will value and look for things that are right and righteous and just. 00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:47.839 And we will pursue those things. 00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:52.480 And in the pursuit of those things, we will stand against oppressors. 00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:55.200 We will surround the fatherless and the widows. 00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:58.319 We will care for those that can't care for themselves. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:03.440 We will stand up for those who don't have the strength to stand themselves. 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:21.759 One of the things we do, even outside the church, is to estimate one's character by what they do with people who can't pay them back or can't fight back, right? 00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:24.000 What is your character like? 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:37.200 Well, if you're kind to people who can't pay you back, and you're kind to people who can't fight against your strength, that's an indication, even outside of a Christian circle, of a person of integrity. 00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.079 How much more so here? 00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:43.119 How much more so here? 00:33:43.119 --> 00:33:53.200 When we cleanse ourselves before God, we find the overflow pouring into how we relate to others. 00:33:53.200 --> 00:34:02.880 The acceptable orientation to God becomes a caring orientation to others. 00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:21.280 And here in this context, particularly how the leaders, those who are in places of power, the prophets and the priests and the princes, how they took their responsibilities seriously and cared for the whole community rather than to indulge themselves in the positions that they had. 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:28.159 And obviously, in a church situation, that means we have equal care and regard for one another. 00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:32.639 We love each other as a body, not just individuals. 00:34:32.639 --> 00:34:38.000 And we're not playing power games with one another to try to attain some greater position. 00:34:38.000 --> 00:34:44.880 In fact, our Lord Jesus said, if we want to be great in his kingdom, you become the servant of everybody. 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:47.599 You take care of them. 00:34:47.599 --> 00:35:07.760 So God is calling on Israel at this juncture, using loving, biting words to awaken them to God-oriented questions about themselves, so that they might repent and reconcile themselves with God and with each other. 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:28.079 And he has to do it with these terms so that there might be a reunion of their worship with their life, that there be a consistency in it all, that their repentance would evidence itself in true love and true care. 00:35:28.079 --> 00:36:08.239 People in Jerusalem's day had to wait until chapter 53 to find out who that was. 00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:10.400 We don't have to wait anymore. 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:12.480 We know exactly who that is. 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:14.960 It's Jesus Christ. 00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:19.519 Let's get to the reasoned response. 00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:29.519 So we've got the rebuke, the rejected worship or refused worship, the received worship of repentance and reconciliation, and then the reasoned response. 00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:36.400 And here in this last little bit, God's words take an interesting twist. 00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:42.400 Up until this point in time, God has been acting as a prosecuting attorney. 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:46.320 And he's called heaven and earth into the courtroom. 00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.599 Take a look at the first verse or second verse. 00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:53.280 Listen, heavens, pay attention, earth, for the Lord has spoken. 00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:54.800 All right, we're in a courtroom. 00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:59.760 We've got a prosecuting attorney, and we've got witnesses called heaven and earth. 00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:04.800 And we've got someone who needs to be accused, and it's the people of Jerusalem and Judah. 00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:15.519 And God is speaking against them about their sinful state and about their wickedness, bringing indictment after indictment after indictment against them. 00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:18.480 But then we turn to verse 16. 00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:24.639 And in verse 16, everything begins to change. 00:37:24.639 --> 00:37:33.199 And then in verse 18, instead of being a prosecuting attorney, we've got one who wants to be at the table of conciliation. 00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:39.920 Come, let us settle this, says the Lord. 00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:45.440 Instead of being a prosecuting attorney, now he's an encourager. 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:47.679 Now he's a reconciler. 00:37:47.679 --> 00:37:51.920 Now he's even an advocate and lays out promises. 00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:56.400 Come, let's settle this, says the Lord. 00:37:56.400 --> 00:38:00.159 Though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow. 00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:03.599 Though they're crimson red, they'll be like wool. 00:38:03.599 --> 00:38:08.000 He wants them to find the solution. 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:10.079 Will they listen? 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:11.920 Will they listen? 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:17.199 The situation appeared hopeless until this moment, didn't it? 00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:28.000 They seemed so indifferent, so calloused, so unconcerned, so caught up in self that they didn't know who they were and they didn't know what danger they were in. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:34.800 But now God speaks with whispers rather than warnings. 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:41.039 And he talks about the possibility of settling this conflict between him and them. 00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:51.280 He wants them to heed the warning before there's a complete and utter separation where there's no recovery. 00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:56.000 And he tells them it doesn't have to end like that. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:58.320 It doesn't have to end that way. 00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:09.039 And he doesn't demean them, he doesn't demand, he doesn't act closed to their movements. 00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:11.119 He says, Come. 00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:12.719 Come. 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:23.760 The end of the book of Revelation, the very last chapter of the book of the Bible, the bride and the spirit say, Come, come. 00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:28.000 God is still inviting people. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:33.519 Come, let us determine what is right. 00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:36.079 Let's restore this relationship. 00:39:36.079 --> 00:39:45.920 Now, one thing you won't see in this passage is that God is not going to enter into an argument about whether or not Judah sinned. 00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:50.719 Well, you've got a different definition of the way I live my life than I have. 00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:56.079 And uh maybe, God, you need to just sort of welcome me as I am. 00:39:56.079 --> 00:40:01.280 God says, no, that's that's not the point of conversation here. 00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:09.280 Well, Lord, you you know, we really didn't mean it when we prayed. 00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:12.320 We we we really did have full hearts when we sang. 00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:18.559 We we we really did take animals from our flock to sacrifice to you. 00:40:18.559 --> 00:40:22.079 Shouldn't you like accept that? 00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:26.639 That's not part of the conversation either. 00:40:26.639 --> 00:40:32.079 What is the part of the conversation? 00:40:32.079 --> 00:40:36.239 Your sins are like scarlet. 00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:45.920 That's the point of conversation. 00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:51.840 The red like crimson. 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:53.519 You're guilty. 00:40:53.519 --> 00:40:57.679 What is the let us come and let's settle this? 00:40:57.679 --> 00:41:00.880 It means agreeing with God. 00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:07.039 Listen to this, agreeing with God in his estimate of you. 00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:08.960 Right? 00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:29.039 Seeing yourself the way God sees you, not the way you think you are, or maybe not the way your best friend thinks you are, but thinking of yourself the way God thinks of you, which means coming to terms with reality that we were not willing to admit before. 00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:56.000 That we are before a holy God, sinful people, that we really are full of self-indulgence, that we really do disconnect things that we might say about God from the way we talk about each other, that we really do only worship with words, and not the reality of a holistic life. 00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:06.639 However, when we acknowledge that and admit that before a holy God, listen to what he says. 00:42:07.199 --> 00:42:21.920 I'll forgive you, I'll receive you, I will cleanse you, I will wipe away the stay, as if it never was there. 00:42:26.239 --> 00:42:32.000 You see, God is not someone to be feared unless you refuse him. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:39.679 But if you realize your sinfulness and come to him, he will never cast you out. 00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:48.079 He is a receiving God to those who acknowledge that truth about themselves. 00:42:48.079 --> 00:42:55.840 And this is the beautiful truth that awakened my heart in 1983. 00:42:55.840 --> 00:43:07.039 When someone opened up the Bible and it said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. 00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:12.320 For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:38.639 And I had run from what I thought was an angry God my whole life until that very moment, and for the very first time I saw that he was not a God holding his arm stiff at me, but was calling me and willing to embrace me, as ruinous as I was, and as reckless as I was, and as rebellious as I was. 00:43:38.639 --> 00:43:43.119 What's the promise? 00:43:43.119 --> 00:43:47.599 Let's settle this, the Lord says. 00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:50.400 Though your sins are scarlet, they'll be white as snow. 00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:53.519 Though they're crimson red, they'll be like wool. 00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:59.920 And he puts the choice before them. 00:43:59.920 --> 00:44:02.159 Which way will you go? 00:44:02.159 --> 00:44:08.400 If you're willing and obedient, you'll eat the good things of the land. 00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:12.719 But if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword. 00:44:12.719 --> 00:44:16.480 For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:32.880 If they came to that place of recognition of who they really were, and came to the God of heaven to be reconciled, they would be received and welcomed. 00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:36.639 They would be reconciled and they would be cleansed. 00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:44.800 But if they refused, certain judgment awaits, the day of which only God knows. 00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:49.119 And God plays on words here. 00:44:49.119 --> 00:44:56.159 In verse 19, you will eat the good things of the land if you come to him. 00:44:56.159 --> 00:45:01.360 But if you refuse him, the sword will eat you. 00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:04.400 It is there's no other option. 00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:06.960 It's either eat or be eaten. 00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:13.840 It's either be destroy the food and happiness or be destroyed by the sword and judgment. 00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:16.400 There's no middle ground here. 00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:19.599 There's no other choice. 00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:27.760 There is the choice between it divine blessing or divine cursing. 00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:32.800 And it lies at the door of every one of us. 00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:38.800 This way of thinking is repeated in the New Testament by Jesus Himself. 00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:40.880 He said, No man can serve two masters. 00:45:40.880 --> 00:45:45.519 He will either hate the one and serve the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. 00:45:45.519 --> 00:45:48.719 There's no new neutrality here. 00:45:48.719 --> 00:45:51.920