Isaiah 1:18 - God Reasoning With Man

welcome to morningstar christian chapel if you're watching on youtube please remember to hit that subscribe button like button and the notification bell so you can find out when we go live or we post a new video and be sure to leave a comment about what god has shown you in this message thanks and enjoy the study all right let's open our bibles this morning to isaiah chapter 1. isaiah the prophet begins the last section really in your old testament which consists of five what we call major prophets followed by 12 minor prophets and they're really not major and minor based on their importance obviously but usually on their length lamentations get squeezed in there as a major prophet it's not that long but it is attached to jeremiah's writings through his tears to the people one of the things and it is our desire to go through these 17 books topically um if you are around or have been around in your bible for a long time you know that these 17 books you could pick them up and move them back towards history books because that's certainly where they took place and i suspect as we go through these different topics that the prophets brought to the people in the next few months that you're going to hear a lot about the same historical setting that i think you should know and here's the crux of it and we'll do it in one minute when solomon died in 931 bc there was a great revolt among the people led by his son and some others that divided israel into two ten and a half tribes went north they rebelled against god where he had put his name in jerusalem they stood against the leadership that god had raised up and for the next 200 and nine years they would exist as the northern kingdom and it is called during that time israel not a good king not one good thing did god have to say these people lived in rebellion for all of that time eventually in 722 the assyrians would take them out and they would not be reconstituted as the north in the south where judah and part of benjamin stayed the lord called them at the time judah or that's what they were called during the time of the split jerusalem was still the capital as their devotion to the lord was was more solid if you will there had eight really good kings they lasted not just until 7 22 but in 606 or 116 years later for the next 20 years after that the siege of the babylonians against jerusalem and judah would come and the lord would allow judah to fall really for the same reason the north did but god had made a promise to david and to judah and as a result he would take them out for 70 years to babylon as captives and then they would be released to come back to the land in 536 and god would again begin to deal with them as a nation all that to say that all of those northern and southern kingdoms and their dates and their times are useful to you because most of the prophets can be placed in one of those two time periods either speaking to the north and warning or speaking to the south and so it is good that you have i think the the big picture as you read the prophets because it helps you to understand who the lord was speaking to and why and when if you want the historical settings excuse me for this book you would go through to second kings chapter 15-20 or second chronicles chapter 26-32 or if you like look at verse 1 of this chapter it gives you the names of the kings in which isaiah spoke because isaiah was sent to the southern kingdom he was sent to them to warn them about the way they were living and that the lord wanted very much to deliver them from that way of life and bring them back to himself it is generally believed that manasseh hezekiah's son killed isaiah by sawing him in half every prophetic book and we're going to be in these for a little while is written from as words from the lord that oftentimes have a near term in other words what's coming next and then a far term application sometimes what is spoken to a nation or to a people it will be applied by the lord years later in his fulfillment for example in the book of revelation so whenever you study the prophets you want to look at them historically you also want to look at them prophetically and obviously you want to look at them practically so that we know how we should walk before the lord well isaiah it was the prophet to the south he came to begin ministry in seven oh sorry eight i think 39 if you will no 73 39 and he spoke until 6 86 so he began to speak 13 years before the north would fall which gave him a good example to give to the people and he would speak until about 80 years before the south would fall as well the book itself is like a miniature bible there are 66 chapters and there are 66 books in the bible the first 39 chapters and there happened to be 39 books in the old testament speak really of the judgment of god and the call of god to to turn from sin and his judgment that would come the next 27 chapters and by the way there are 27 chapters in the new testament speak of the promised messiah that is to come and the heart of god to just draw him into himself as we wait for him to come for us his name verse 1 means the lord is our salvation and he will remind us of that constantly we don't know much about isaiah we know that he was married we know that his wife was a prophetess we're told that in chapter 8 we also know that he had two children but he was a guy that in a culture that didn't really want to walk with god stood out he loved the lord with all of his heart he was a true patriot he constantly used the term his people uh of israel he hated sin he was he was very ashamed of the religious shams that he saw around him and so he called the people from a phony religion which is exactly what was going on to a real devotion to the lord in relationships he was a courageous guy he was unafraid of mobs which he faced he was he stood before very wicked kings unashamedly if you will he was a great linguist he uses wonderful comparisons and examples to kind of illustrate what the lord wants us to do and while he was speaking to the south up in the north right before their fall amos and hosea were speaking to the kingdom in the north on the verge of overthrow well this morning i just wanted to just look at the first 20 verses or so of this chapter 1 because it is a word from the lord to god's people seeking to be bring them out of religious kind of vanity the problem for for isaiah's day was the hearts of the people was empty but the church or the temple was full not something god really approved of so in verse 2 we hear god's word through isaiah and his word begins hear o heavens and give ear o earth the lord has spoken i've nourished brought up children they've rebelled against me the ox knows its owner the donkey it's master's crib but israel doesn't know my people do not consider alas sinful nation the people laden with iniquity a brood of evil doers children who have become corrupters they've forsaken the lord they've provoked the anger of the holy one of israel and they've turned themselves away backwards isaiah begins by calling the heavens and the earth to listen because he says god's people are not maybe someone will pay attention to what god has to say obviously the people aren't listening i don't know if you've ever talked to somebody and you realize about halfway through they're not paying a bit of attention to you so you can begin to say still you know they're not listening so i do that with my wife sometimes she likes to tell bike back stories i don't care about backstories so she'll start you know back in 85 and i okay when she gets real close to the time then i wake she knows it and tells me about it a lot but but here the lord says to god's people hey i'll just talk to the earth because my people have decided not to listen to me at all and they're harsh words but but but they're more pertinence because this is going on in a culture where people are filling the temple where it looks outwardly like there's tremendous revival going on the feast days the offerings everything is just clicking you know it just looks like a revival outwardly they couldn't have been more impressive but inwardly god wasn't satisfied with what he saw he had birthed this nation he says that to them he had brought them up he had he had filled them to glory and now he finds themselves not even listening you know our our nation was founded upon a faith in god we put it on our money in god we trust we put it in our declarations we put it in our pledge of allegiance one nation under god we're not there anymore from a spiritual standpoint israel wasn't there anymore and notice in verse 3 that the lord said to israel you've really become less sensitive than a instinctive animal when god first met with the nation after they came out of egypt there in exodus 19 and 20 he met with him six weeks after they'd gotten out at mount sinai and he would spend a year telling them who he was showing them his glory giving them an an approach to him through sacrifice they at that time in great fear watching the mountains shake and the the earth move and the voices and the thunders said to the lord through moses we'll do whatever you want and the lord said here's what i want i just want you to hear my word and follow it whatever dude we'll do what you i don't know if they said dude whatever we'll do what you want they made a promise but now they had long ago laid it aside their loyalty and their response to his goodness now were less than wed felt well-fed animals who who knew the hand of god and acted accordingly his love had been forgotten by his own people is that possible it is you know the donkey and and the and the ox which are used here as an example are known for their stubbornness and their stupidity and yet somehow by ink to instinct they know who feeds them who cares for them and the lord said my people i brought them up and nurse them they've forgotten they've absolutely turned away in fact he writes here they did not consider they didn't keep in mind what had made them great and what that had brought them this far instead verse four at the end they turned around backwards they just began to walk away from the lord and now they were laden down with sin the word laden overburdened if you will right just burdened down with sin and i want you to notice the word alas because in hebrew that's a lamenting word if you want to know what the tone of god's voice might very well have been as the the prophet declares this it isn't just the anger of the lord it is the heartbreaking of a god who loves his people and they're headed for judgment and the north is about to fall and if this southern kingdom doesn't listen they too will face the same kind of difficulty their children have become corrupters people have forsaken the lord that they're they need a national repentance to bring god's restoration but it hasn't happened what god might say to our land today to our people we read in verse 5 the lord saying to them why would you be stricken again you will just revolt more and more the whole head is sick the whole heart is faint from the soul of the feed him into the head there's no soundness in it there's just wounds and and bruises and pet petrifying sores that haven't closed up or bound up or soothed with ointment your your country's desolate your city's burned with fire strangers are devouring uh you shall devour your land and your presence it is desolate and overthrown by strangers the son the daughter of zion is left like a booth in the vineyard or a hut in the garden of cucumbers as a besieged city and unless the lord of hosts had left a very small remnant we would have become sodom and made like gomorrah they had been stricken that now understand the lord had been leaning on the people and certainly one of god's goodness good actions towards us as his people is if we're not listening he's not opposed to leaning on us they've been leaned upon there's been some tough times to go back in the history up to this time that judah had been facing as a result of their separation from god though they were his people but but look what the lord says in verse five why would you be stricken again it's kind of like how many times you have to get hit in the head for you to go man that hurts i maybe need to straighten out nothing had helped them see their error nothing as far as consequences i turned them around around it had verse five to no avail the lord says from your head to your toe nothing seems to get through there's just a great wickedness that has engulfed you and in setting turning back you've you've walked back you've walked back and the land is showing the consequences you're isolated verse seven you're under siege you're greatly reduced the handwriting is on the wall but people aren't reading instead of turning to the lord they watch their land become eaten up by strangers be defeated by enemies that they should easily have stood against and i interesting verse from the lord verse 9 and 10 or verse 9 where it says you know the lord had left a faithful remnant in us or we might have been destroyed and i'm sure that isaiah reached back to that time when abraham was speaking to the lord about the destruction of sodom and gomorrah and he said you know the the lord of all the earth's going to do right lord what if there's 20 righteous in the city and the lord said for 20 righteous people i want to destroy the city and abraham thought he'd push the envelope he said lord how about 10 and the lord said if if there's 10 righteous the city stands and i i think that's exactly what the lord is referring to here and isaiah is speaking to there were some a few in the midst of this generation that were loving the lord and as a result they were spared the judgment that sodom and gomorrha faced how though in verse 10 isaiah speaks of them as being the rulers of solomon and the people of gomorrah you're close to being wiped out you're close to not having enough but thank the lord that a small remlant remained faithful and that remnant has brought god's mercy and his patience there were still some believers like isaiah clinging to the lord but it was a modern day sodom and gomorrah but the temple was full hear the word of the lord verse 10 you rulers of solemn give ear to the law of your god you people of gomorrah to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me saith the lord i have enough of your burnt offerings of the rams and the the fat of the fed cattle i don't delight in the blood of the of the bulls or of the sheep or of our lambs or the goats when you come to appear before me who has required this from your hand to trample my courts bring to me no futile sacrifices incense is an abomination to me the new moons the sabbaths the calling of the assemblies i cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meetings your new moons and your appointed feats my soul hates they're troublesome to me i'm weary of burying them now when you straight out your hands i'm going to hide my eyes from you and when you make many priors i'm not going to hear your hands are filled with blood the lord likens the people and the rulers to still being citizens of this nation sodom and gomorrah these cities that were destroyed and maybe the most disgusting thing or the most difficult thing to understand is this was happening all this rebellion in the midst of a a country that was widely religious in practice attending temple services bringing the various sacrifice never missing the sabbath or the feast days everyone was involved it was a religious place without a heart for god and and you know if nothing else know this religion outward behaviors of little value to god he he sees everything the the the interesting thing is you can be away from the lord come to church raise your hands and we'll be impressed you can fool everyone in your room except the lord who sees everything and what he longs for is a relationship with you that is honest and pure religious practices in the lives of those devoted to sin is tremendously s deceitful if you're here with your hands worshiping and you're sleeping with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or you're out doing drugs on the weekends but here you are on sunday you never miss it's not going to cut it with god because he sees everything and he understands it how many folks are in churches today promoting gay lifestyles because the bible says god loves everyone well he does he just says he loves you enough to not leave you that way or those in churches that proclaim that they are pro-life i mean pro-choice i should say that they speak about reproductive rights whatever that means and yet sunday their hands are raised and their voices are are lifted and their bibles are in in their hands true religion before the lord is a behavior towards him that evidences itself in obedience and in love in fear and in worship and fellowship with him and if you look at these five verses from chapter verse 11 through at least 14. and then you can add verse 15 as a consequence the lord says to his people who asked you to do this i i certainly didn't in fact he says it makes me sick verse 11. i find no delight in it verse 12. i didn't ask for it verse 13. i hate it every bit of it and and look at the words that he uses here just in these few verses i've had enough i don't delight who required the trampling of my courts no more futile sacrifices they're just an abomination to me i can't endure it my soul hates it they're troublesome to me i'm weary of bearing it up knock it off in consequence the lord said so if you want to live your life pretending to know me but not really walking with me i'll tell you what i'll do when you need me i won't be there seems harsh but isn't it fair when you pray since you're out of fellowship with god and you want to live that way you don't want any part of your life i will not just take emergency calls if you have a life without his involvement heaven will be silent when you want his involvement in your life the psalmist wrote in psalm 66 if i regard or or or hold iniquity in my heart god won't hear me isaiah will write 59 chapters from now surely the the hand of the lord is not short that he can't save and surely the lord's ear is not dull that he can't hear it's your iniquities that have separated you from god your your sins have hidden his face from you he won't listen to you he won't hear you god is looking for hearts that are turned towards him that's all he wanted from this people that's all he wants from us not hand stained with blood hard stained with idolatry or adultery the pew survey last year said that 93 of hospitals in america have a bible and they believe it not true if that was true our voting would be different our crime rates would be different our derosa divorce statistics would be different our morality would be different one's you know claiming that you love the lord while your behavior and involvement priorities and commitments say that the opposite is not it's not going to get you there so the lord said this when you're desperate when your hands raise in deport desperation i'm not listening pretty pretty tough way to start off a prophet ministry gee thanks isaiah i hope we'll have you back next week to speak but god never deals with this like that in fact god never indicts without directions to restore he never demands without enabling us to remedy the situation he will point out the problems and then point out the solution and he does so here as well beginning in verse 16. what can i do you can wash your hands make yourself clean put away the evil from your doing from before my eyes and cease doing evil learn to do good seek justice rebuke the oppressor defend the fatherless and plead for the widow come let's reason together saith the lord your sins though they are like scarlet could be white as snow and though they are red like crimson they can be as wool if you will are willing to be obedient you will eat the good of the land but if you refuse and rebel you will be devoured by the sword the lord cries out to them come back admit with me that you're going through the motions and your life doesn't match your your outward devotion wash yourself spiritually turn to the lord repent of your sin and put away the evil from before your eyes they were hypocrites they were idolaters they lived lives far removed from the lord and the lord just says this stop doing evil i don't know if you ever saw the bob newhart little comedy skit that he did years ago where he played a psychiatrist or a counselor and he had a little sign on the desk that said i can fix any problem in five minutes for five dollars and the lady came in and she sat down she goes oh let me tell you what's going on in my life and she just rattled on for five minutes every crazy thing in the world and he said she said can you help me with that he said i can what should i do he said stop it there anything else that i can do for you that was invite just knock it off well bob newhart must have read the bible because that's what the lord says here stop it stop cease from these things cease from doing evil make a an about face and all of the commandments in verse 17 are really are ways of life for those who have died to self and are walking with god even the word learn to do good which is an interesting little concept because doing good does not come naturally you got to learn to do good you want to go the natural route you'll do you'll do evil rebuke the oppressor stand with those who have been taken advantage of by others actively oppose them if necessary go to bat for the those who can't protect themselves for the widows or the for the fatherless spiritual repentance will lead to godly behavior and if you'll do that then god gives you a great invitation in verse 18. come on let's sit down and talk for every every reason that he could have turned away from these folks because they were his he instead shows grace he could have made a great argument for just we're not talking anymore we're done now justice cries out for the sword mercy invites them to come to the conference table and sit down isaiah will write 49 chapters into this book can a nursing mother forget her baby will she ever get to the point where she'll have no compassion for the child that she had borne and then the lord said even if she forgets and she may i would never forget you because that's god's heart for his people as poorly as they're doing that's his desire in lamentations the prophet jeremiah in declaring the word of the lord said to the people for men are not cast off forever by the lord he will bring them to grief but then he will show them compassion and great is his unfailing love he does not willingly bring affliction it's not god's best he doesn't willingly bring grief to the children of men his desire is like every parent bless and jeremiah would write in chapter 31 of the lord is not ephraim my dear son in whom i delight i have spoken often against him but i still remember him and my heart yearns for him i have great compassion for him look the lord was angry with all this religious nonsense words that had no meaning commitments that had no root in reality but his love doesn't change and his call is the same come i will offer this generation a complete pardon and i should say he's still doing that today jesus will still forgive you of your sin and it's available to anyone who is interested let us reason together let's settle our differences that are caused by your sin the word scarlet is a at least a word in greek that literally refers to something that has been dyed twice and because of that the color is is permanent the fabric can't be uh cleaned and and the color can't be removed crimson is just a synonymous word with that it just says it's very deep seated and so the lord says i see the problem and and how deep this sin runs in your life but but i can make a difference i can i can give you a clean slate i can make you new again i'll do the work if you'll let me to those in isaiah's day to us today who deserve the wrath of god his cleansing is offered and it is he alone that can provide it he can provide it to your life he can provide it to our church life he can re provide it to the nation's life and there's no one else that can provide it even to the to the very latest hour it's available the thief on the cross in the very last moments found the mercy of god however verse 19 and 20 it depends upon our willingness to follow him and obey notice the the word if in verse 19 in the word but in verse 20 if and when when moses stood before the people before he went off to die and handed them to joshua there in chapter 30 of deuteronomy he said to the people i've set before you today life and death prosperity and destruction i would command you today to love the lord walk in his ways keep his commandments you'll live you'll increase the lord will bless you you'll go into the land of possession everything will be fine but but if you turn away and you're drawn away to the other gods and you begin to worship them you will certainly be destroyed in this land that i'm giving you you'll lose that's exactly what happened god gives us a choice but he defines the terms you do well to agree with him and not argue so here's the good news god is reasonable and he's willing to reason with you the question really is are you reasonable enough to be willing to surrender to him if so blessing awaits if not the stubborn refusal and the uh and your defiance may very well go unchallenged for a long time this would go on for another 133 years with the nation however you will certainly meet his judgment in the end because god has said so and the word of the lord has spoken it and you can count on it if you refuse you'll be devoured here by the sword you'll lose the land you'll lose your place you'll lose your blessing religion in any to any degree is unacceptable with god it just doesn't work so even if you live in sin and you seek to cover it up by church going and song singing and participation and all he sees everything he's ready to reason with you if you're ready to reason with him i don't think anything's changed so if you're in that position this morning where you're far away from the lord but here you are bible in hand i love jesus smile on your face but it ain't happening knock it off in the famous words of the prophet stop it god has greater things in mind for you he can take the worst of us and cleanse and make us his own if you're willing if you're willing and obedient verse 9 if you're willing he's willing if you need prayer this morning we'll be here but don't just sit here playing church it doesn't suit you and it doesn't please him father thank you this morning for your word to us i know that what a ministry isaiah must have had to bring this kind of word to god's people the ones that he loved the ones that were so proud to be his people that were proud enough to show up at temple at every possible occurrence at every available time at every every opportunity there they were and yet lord you hated every bit of the services you hated the singing the meeting the offerings the fellowships you just hated you were weary you you said you couldn't endure it and father yet so often we find ourselves like the nation of israel just figuring gosh it's he's got to be happy with this look at what we've done look what we're doing and lord what you really long for is there's a fellowship with us that's defined by obedience and love if we're willing you're willing if we're willing you're reasonable and may i say this to you this morning no one needs to know about you and the lord but you you should make that connection you should certainly be willing to say lord i'm i'm going through the motions but my heart isn't in it so far removed from you my life wouldn't say that i love jesus no one could tell the difference in my life the good news is god does see it and he longs to restore you and he's offered to make you white as snow from the deepest stains of sin to white of snow come come let's reason come and god would say to you this morning god may today be that that that place in your life that you you turn from religion to a relationship with god he would love it and that's what he calls you too shall we stand you

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Length: 35min 19sec (2119 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021