That’s Not Humility – part 3
Isaiah 58:1-14 (7-14)
September 22, 2024
We’ll jump back in tonight.
• You know God gives grace to the humble.
• You know these people were upset because they thought they were being humble and yet God had not answered them.
• God responded to their frustration by pointing out that what they were doing was not humility.
#1 GOD CALLS THE PROPHET
Isaiah 58:1-2
• God calls for Isaiah to loudly confront the sin of His people.
• They fancied themselves to be a righteous nation, God did not agree.
#2 GOD CORRECTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:3-4
They had fasted.
• What that meant was they had stopped work for the Sabbath and they expected God to bless them for it.
God corrects them to say, what you call a fast wasn’t a fast.
• You still worked all your employees hard.
• You didn’t focus on Me but rather how to get ahead.
• That is not the kind of fast that works.
We gave a principle on humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT CEREMONIAL.
#3 GOD CONFRONTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:5
God breaks down the reality of this so-called humble fast.
• Do you think God only wants one day?
• Do you think God only wants a token bowing?
• Do you think God only wants you to sleep in the ash heap?
• That is not a humble fast.
And we learned a second principle on humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT TEMPORARY
#4 GOD CHALLENGES THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:6-14
AND THIS IS WHERE WE ARE.
God is challenging His people to participate in a genuine fast,
Not the phony ones they are accustomed to.
We are currently looking at verses 6,7,9,10, & 13
Where God outlines exactly the type of fast He wants.
If you really want to fast from something,
Fast from SELFISHNESS.
That is to say, “If you want to fast, then stop doing what the flesh wants all the time and start doing the things that matter to God.”
And this morning we saw the first example of this.
1) STOP DISCARDING SINNERS (6)
“Is this not the fat which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?”
When you look at that through New Testament eyes
We see Jesus reminding us that He came to “set the captives free”.
• We hear Jesus saying, “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin…so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
• We hear Jesus saying, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.”
Jesus came to rescue sinners from their sin
And the wrath that rests upon it.
God would have us do the same.
“To loosen the bonds of wickedness”
We read (Galatians 6:1-2) how Paul told us to fulfill the love of Christ
By restoring our brothers who are caught in their trespasses.
But as we also said,
• That is hard.
• That is time-consuming.
• That is messy.
• That can be frustrating.
It is much easier just to throw them away and go on without them.
JESUS NEVER DID.
He made a ministry out of calling the “throw aways” to Himself.
• We’ve read many times the story of that “throw away” baby in Ezekiel 16 that God passed by and rescued and washed and clothed and entered into a covenant with.
• Perhaps Jesus gave us the greatest picture of this when He took a man like Peter who had denied Him 3 times and entrusted Him to “feed His sheep”.
It is not easy, it is not comfortable, but it is what God desires.
So if you want to fast then fast from selfishness
And stop discarding sinners.
Well, let’s look at the second example of selfishness that God would have us fast from.
2) STOP DISREGARDING THE POOR (7)
“Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
There is no doubt that verse 6 is loaded with spiritual implications about freedom from wickedness.
There’s equally no doubt that verse 7 is loaded with practical implications about meeting physical needs.
AND DON’T WE NEED THIS REMINDER.
In our culture it is really easy to get sucked in to political narratives.
It is really easy just to align with one side of the aisle
And let them do all our thinking for us.
And the tragedy is that in many cases poverty and the needy
Have become a super-charged political issue.
When those on the left talk about things like
• Welfare
• The homeless
• Refugees
• Whatever else,
We tend to look at it through political eyes and not through gospel eyes.
Now I’m certainly not defending the ideologies of the left,
But I would like us to read a verse like Isaiah 58:7 without a political filter.
We see things like “divide your bread with the hungry”
• But nothing is said regarding why he is hungry.
• Just divide your bread with him.
We see things like “bring the homeless poor into the house;”
• But nothing is said about why he is homeless.
• Just welcome him in.
We are told “when you see the naked, to cover him”
• But again we are not told how he came to find himself naked.
• Just clothe him
We are simply commanded “not to hide yourself from your own flesh”
MY POINT IS THAT
It is part of our selfish human nature to see someone in need
And to first try and justify my own disregard of that need
If I can determine that the person has done this to themselves.
AND IT IS TRUE,
They may very well be suffering from their own poor choices,
But God doesn’t even factor that into the equation.
And maybe I’d just add that
• If they are suffering from their own poor choices
• Then now we have the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone
Since by helping them we will be helping a sinner leave their sin
AND a hungry man to be satisfied.
BUT AGAIN, I GET IT.
When you start talking about helping the poor
You are talking about a bottomless pit.
You are talking about an unfillable hole.
Even Jesus said:
Matthew 26:11 “For you always have the poor with you.”
And therefore it is very easy to grow cynical and hard
And to just want to be left alone.
And my only point here is that
Very rarely will you see a poor person or a hungry person or a naked person and your flesh want to help him.
• Your flesh wants to take the path of least resistance.
• Your flesh wants to do what is most comfortable for your flesh.
• Your flesh wants to take care of itself first.
So in order to help the poor you really have to crucify the flesh
And kill your selfishness and help beyond what may feel good.
IT IS HARD.
BUT THIS IS THE FAST GOD ASKS FOR,
And my goodness is there a lot of information on this in Scripture.
Let’s begin with MOSES.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. “Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. “For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’”
That one really covers it all thoroughly.
• We are told not to harden our heart.
• We are told not to close our hand.
• We are told to help “freely” “generously” “sufficiently” in “whatever he lacks”
• We are told not to be worried about being scammed.
God’s heart on the matter is not difficult to detect.
We even read it there as though the poor are left if for no other reason than to give us an opportunity to give God what He desires.
Proverbs 19:17 “One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, And He will repay him for his good deed.”
You see the connect there.
God takes our care for the poor personally.
THE PROPHETS who came after Moses certainly bear this out.
We read last Sunday night that passage in Zechariah
• About if they should keep fasting on the 5th month or not,
• And how God asked them if they were really fasting for Him or not.
Well God continued by telling them what He did want instead:
Zechariah 7:8-10 “Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”
Can I throw out a buzz word at you?
A word that has grown to have extreme negative connotation in our day?
SOCIAL JUSTICE
We hear that word in a negative light
Because it is often used to defend sinful and immoral behavior.
• We are programmed to think of things like LGBTQ or Black Lives Matter when we hear the word “Social Justice”.
• We think of those awful “He Gets Us” commercials where they turn Jesus into some sort of social activist instead of the Savior from Sin.
Our world clearly has no concept of true biblical social justice.
But don’t let the world’s bad policy
Cause you to throw aside a topic that is very important to God.
• It matters to God how we treat the poor.
• It matters to God how we treat the alien and the widow and the orphan.
If you let it get politicized and then justify ignoring them
Be careful you don’t find yourself on the wrong side of God’s justice.
Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
God calls for His people to biblically and socially active.
• We are NOT to just turn a blind eye to plight of humanity.
• We are NOT to pass them off as our enemy.
That is the easy thing to do.
That is certainly the less expensive thing to do.
But God calls for more from us.
Take that idea into the NEW TESTAMENT.
You’ve read;
Luke 10:33-34 “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.”
• And you remember Jesus saying “Go and do the same”
Or we remember the crowd gathering around Jesus
And the disciple concocting an excuse to send them away, but Jesus saying:
Matthew 14:16 “But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”
Or Jesus commanding His followers:
Luke 12:33-34 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
And of course no one can forget the famous “least of these” passage.
Matthew 25:45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’”
Jesus did not shy away from what He thought
About our responsibility to care for the poor.
We think of the APOSTLES:
Paul:
Romans 12:10-13 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”
We think of his first ever meeting with James and Peter in Jerusalem:
Galatians 2:10 “They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do.”
We certainly think of John the apostle who took a page right out of Isaiah 58 when he wrote:
1 John 3:16-18 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
You can’t get much more direct than that.
But perhaps the most direct comes from James.
I love the perspective of James.
When you read from Peter or Matthew or John you are reading from guys who followed Jesus for 3 years of ministry.
• They saw Jesus minister.
• They heard what He said.
• They saw what He did.
• Certainly they have an accurate understanding or what He expects from us.
But the perspective of James is different.
• James was His brother.
• James grew up under the same roof.
• James saw Jesus in all sorts of situations; personal and private.
And when James looked at the behavior of the church
He didn’t see a church that was failing to obey Jesus,
James saw a church that wasn’t living like Jesus.
What did James tell us about the poor?
James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Or again:
James 2:14-16 “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”
James knew exactly how Jesus lived,
And he called the church to act like Him.
And this again is reiterated in verse 10, “And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,”
And you know that we could go on and on with this subject,
But I think we get the point.
Here we have a people
Who thought they had fasted and humbled themselves because they took a day off of work.
God exposed that faulty fast and said that is not the kind of fast I want from you.
• I want you to fast from your flesh.
• I want you to fast from selfishness.
• I want you to stop discarding sinners
• I want you to stop disregarding the poor
Tell your flesh “No!”
Do what is uncomfortable
Do what your flesh doesn’t like and do it for Me!
If you want Me to feel honored…
If you want Me to feel loved…
Then fast like that.
And that goes back to that third principle of humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT SYMBOLIC
• It is practical, it is visual, it is measurable.
• It shows up in helping a brother out of sin.
• It shows up in helping a poor man in his poverty.
That is the kind of humility God is looking for.
Stop Discarding Sinners
Stop Disregarding the Poor
3) STOP DISHONORING THE SABBATH (13)
“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word,”
We talked about this one just a few weeks ago
So perhaps we don’t have to address it as deeply tonight,
But again we see the point.
• We had men who used the Sabbath to do “your own pleasure”
• We had men who did not call the Sabbath “a delight”
• We had men who did not consider the Sabbah “honorable” or “honor it”
• We had men who did not use the Sabbah to honor God or seek His pleasure or speak His word.
They used it for their own selfish desires.
I remind you again that THE ISSUE IS PRIORITY.
We know
• We rest from our labors daily through Jesus Christ.
• We rest in His finished work just as God rested at creation from His finished work.
We are NOT trying to earn salvation by recognizing a particular day.
We talked about this.
BUT
• A failure to recognize a day…
• A failure to love a day of worship…
• A failure to spend a day in gratitude…
• A failure to elevate the things of God over the things of the world…
Does say something about our priority
And perhaps the idols that dwell within our hearts.
And ultimately here it is God saying,
“If you really want to fast from something, then don’t take off work and make your employees work harder, take off work and call it a delight!”
LET IT COST YOU SOMETHING.
Do you remember when David sinned against God by numbering the people?
• God gave him the option of what punishment he wanted,
• Ultimately David chose a 3 day plague from the LORD.
• When David cried out to God to stop.
• God told him to build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:22-24 “Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; for the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be restrained from the people.” Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.”
That is sort of a lost mentality.
David wondered how you could call it a “sacrifice”
If he did not have to sacrifice to give it.
We might ask that same question regarding a fast.
How can you call it a fast if it does not offend the flesh to give it?
As it stood these people were ultimately dishonoring the Sabbath
Because they made the Sabbath all about them.
• It was a day for “their own ways”
• It was a day to seek their “own pleasure”
• It was a day to speak their “own word”
And God is left wondering if any of it is for Him?
So THE POINT is laid out for us quite clearly.
1. These people came to God with their phony fasts
2. And wondered why God didn’t respond
3. And now God has corrected them, confronted them,
4. And here challenges them to do better.
If you really want a fast that impresses Me…
If you really want a fast that captures My heart…
Then fast from your selfishness.
Fast from the gratification of your flesh.
1. Get over yourself and get down in the pit and help your brother overcome sin.
2. Get over yourself and take notice of the poor man and meet his needs.
3. Get over yourself and spend a day honoring Me and not yourself.
“Is this not the fast which I choose..?”
That is what God desires and we learn a lot there.
Now, here is where the goodness of God really shines.
God has every right to tell us to do that “or else”.
As in, do this or I will crush you!
But that is not what God does.
He actually promises tremendous blessing to us
If we will fast like He chooses.
And let’s take a look now at these tremendous blessings.
• We’ve seen the “If” you will portion of the text.
• Now let’s look at the “then” I will portion.
And this is verses (8-9a) (10b-12) (14)
(8-9a) “Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”
Look at the promises from God listed there if we will fast correctly.
GOD WILL RESTORE YOU
“Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth;”
Light breaking out like the dawn is a reference to HOPE
And that hope is seen with the promise of recovery.
Who doesn’t like the sound of God causing us to recover?
Well then fast as God has intended.
GOD WILL GUARD YOU
“And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”
Remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt and they camped but they were stopped from fleeing by the Red Sea?
Do you remember what God did?
Exodus 14:19-20 “The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.”
Wouldn’t it be something to have God that eager to defend His people?
GOD WILL ANSWER YOU
(9a) “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”
Wasn’t that their complaint in verse 3?
“Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?”
Well God says, it’s because you have not humbled yourself,
But if you would, then I would definitely hear.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Because God dwells with the lowly.
God gives grace to the humble.
Look then at verses 10b-12
“Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. “And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. “Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”
There are more great promises from God.
GOD WILL GUIDE YOU
“And the LORD will continually guide you”
GOD WILL SATISFY YOU
“And satisfy your desire in scorched places,”
GOD WILL STRENGTHEN YOU
“And give strength to your bones”
GOD WILL REFRESH YOU
“And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”
GOD WILL REPAIR YOU
“Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”
Who wouldn’t like a return to the good-ole days?
Do you see all the promises God makes
That are contingent upon Israel fasting properly
And humbling themselves the right way?
God is waiting for them to stop discarding sinners,
To stop disregarding the poor,
And to stop dishonoring the Sabbath.
He is asking them to put aside their selfishness and if they will
He will come through for them in a mighty way.
Then look down at verse 14
(14) “Then you will take delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
And I really like the way this one is put.
In verse 13 God asked them to honor His Sabbath.
• He asked them to deny themselves and put Him first.
• He asked them to stop their own ways and seek His ways.
• He asked them to forsake their own words and speak His words.
And THEN we see the blessing that will come.
“Then you will take delight in the LORD”
The timing and order there must be noted.
Denial of self precedes delight in God.
This is where faith comes in.
• First you leave the old life and then He blesses you with the new.
• First you sell your possessions then you get the treasure in the field.
• First you deny yourself then you gain Christ.
You honor and obey and trust God first
And then the blessing comes.
God is not a good of proof, He is a God of confirmation.
He tells the people, let go of your flesh and I will make it worth while.
When you fast for Me, I will compensate you.
Matthew 19:27-29 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”
God is not out to cheat anyone.
• He will gladly answer you.
• He will gladly dwell with you.
• He will abundantly bless you.
But He requires you to first love and seek Him.
“I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
What is this promise about “the heights” and “heritage of Jacob” ?
Do you remember when Jacob was fleeing from Esau?
Genesis 28:13-15 “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
That is the promise God is giving His people here.
Humble yourself and I will bring you home!
(Not just to the land, but to Me)
And with that comes our final principle regarding humility.
HUMILITY IS REWARDED
• God dwells with the humble.
• God restores the humble.
• God compensates the humble.
• God guards the humble.
• God satisfies and strengthens the humble.
• God restores and repairs the humble.
Humility is worth it because you gain the favor of God.
You gain God’s grace.
So as this chapter comes to a close
Learn from the loud sermon of Isaiah.
God is happy to visit and reward His people
But He will not do it based on a ceremonial, temporary, symbolic religious charade.
If God’s people really want Him He is happy to arrive.
But they must really want Him.
And they show that through their help of the broken
And their help of the poor and their love of His glory and honor.
Give God true humility and His blessing will follow.
