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Where Is This Salvation You Speak Of? – part 1
Isaiah 59:1–60:22 (1-8)
September 29, 2024

This morning we come to a new chapter in Isaiah,
But we are still discussing the previous question.

If you will remember from chapter 58
• The people asked God a sort of accusatory question
• And it prompted God to call for Isaiah to give them a loud answer.

Isaiah 58:3a “‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’”

And we remember the answer God gave.
You don’t fast for Me, you fast for you.
• You have this ceremonial, temporary, symbolic fast
• And you expect Me to just run down there and grant your every request.

God explained to them that what they were doing
Was not fasting and it was not humility.

He told them they needed
• To stop the oppression of sin,
• To stop ignoring the poor,
• And to stop dishonoring the Sabbath if they really wanted to get His attention.

But I bring that back up because
While we recognized their question,
We never really heard what it was they were wanting from the LORD.

• We know they were asking in the wrong way.
• We know their hypocritical fasting and praying was not accomplishing what they had hoped.

But what was it that they were wanting?
And the answer is: SALVATION

(1) “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”

Isaiah is still answering the question of 58:3.

THE IMPLICATION IS THAT
Perhaps the reason God doesn’t see or notice their fasts
Is because God is somehow incapable of saving.

“Maybe it’s just that He can’t do anything about our situation.”

To understand better what they want,
We need to stay in the context of Isaiah.

When we hear about God saving we tend to go to our understanding of salvation.
• We think of sinners being forgiven of their sin.
• We think of the lost being “saved”.
• We think of people be transformed into a new creation.

Indeed that is salvation.

But that is NOT what these Israelites were asking for.

They were talking about deliverance from their enemies
And their suffering as a result of those enemies.

We spoke of salvation back in chapter 56.

Isaiah 56:1 “Thus says the LORD, “Preserve justice and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come And My righteousness to be revealed.”

And if you’ll remember, the “salvation” spoken of there
Is what you and I call “The Second Coming”.

It is the day the Lord returns and saves His people from their enemies.

When Israel is referring to salvation that it what they are talking about.
They are talking about God delivering them from their enemies.

Isaiah spoke prophetically of the Babylonian Exile.
• And so part of this application would be exiles in Babylon wondering why God won’t “save them” from Babylon.

Isaiah spoke prophetically even to our day.
• So part of this would even be present times where Israel would cry out wondering why God won’t deliver them from their oppressors.

But you understand, when they want salvation
They don’t mean from sin, they mean from their enemies.
Perhaps “deliverance” would be a clearer term.

But, as we noticed in chapter 58,
• Despite them fasting and humbling themselves for it,
• God has not granted their request.

He did, however, inform them of what true fasting and humility look like,
And He said that if they would do that, then He would most certainly save.

And we saw Sunday night some pictures of that salvation they desire.

God promised LIGHT
(8) “Then your light will break out like the dawn”

God promised RECOVERY
(8) “And your recover will speedily spring forth;”

God promised RIGHTEOUSNESS
(8) “And your righteousness will go before you.”

God promised ANSWERED PRAYER
(9) “Then you will call and I will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

God promised to GUIDE, SATISFY, AND GIVE STRENGTH
(11) “And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones;”

God promised to REBUILD, RAISE UP, REPAIR, AND RESTORE
(12) “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.”

And ultimately God promised to bring them home and give them THE HERITAGE OF JACOB
(14) “They 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.”

Those are the things Israel wanted.
Those are the things they equated with salvation.

Those are things God had yet to give, even though they had asked.

And now the accusation is that maybe God just isn’t capable of saving.

So here, Isaiah responds to Israel to explain
Why God has yet to deliver the salvation they desire.

• Why must we live in such a world without justice?
• Why must we be exiled to Babylon?
• Why must we dwell in a world with such darkness?
• Why does God allow us to stumble and walk without hope?
• Why doesn’t God save?

IS IT THAT, HE CAN’T?

Now, before we jump into Isaiah’s answer to the people
I want you to just understand this simple reality even as it applies in our world and our nation.

• Now, no, we are not a covenant nation as Israel is.
• You cannot take prophecies given to Israel and apply them to the U.S.A.

However, you can learn here of the character of God
And understand why we, like Israel, live in an unjust and corrupt world
And God just seems to allow it to continue.

So while we’re talking about Israel,
There are some issues of great interest to us here as well.

The entire sermon actually encompasses all of chapter 59 and 60,
And there 4 main points to get us through all of that.

But let’s begin working our way through it this morning.

#1 THE LORD’S REPROACH
Isaiah 59:1-8

The question is obvious.
They want to know if God is just not strong enough
To deliver them from their enemies.

WHERE IS THIS SALVATION YOU SPEAK OF?

And here comes God’s brutal answer.

“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”

That makes clear the accusation that was going around.

It’s sort of like when Elijah was mocking the prophets of Baal, daring them to speak louder because maybe their god was hard of hearing.

That is the question here.
• Is God just not strong enough?
• Can He just not get to us?
• Can He not hear us when we call?

Again, it is the unbelievable audacity of sinners
To blame their predicament on the weaknesses of God.

In chapter 58 they questioned as though He just wasn’t faithful to keep His word.
In chapter 59 they question as though He’s just too weak to keep His word.

But the answer is given here.
NO! “the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save;”

It is coming in the form of a rebuke, which we will see,
But we can’t help but stop and rejoice in what great news this is!

There’s not a sinner God can’t reach.

David reminded us that there was no one God can’t see or hear.
Psalms 139:7-12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

Nebuchadnezzar reminded us that there was no one God can’t humble.
Daniel 4:37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Lazarus taught us that there is no one too far gone.
John 11:38-44 “So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Paul taught us that there is no one God can’t commission.
Acts 9:13-16 “But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

There is no such thing as a sinner outside of the reach of God.

Where could you be?
What sin could you be in?
What manner of pride could you have?

That God would throw up His hands in defeat and say,
“Sorry, you’re too far gone”?

That person does not exist.

It is true that not every person gets saved,
And this chapter will help us see why,
But it is not for lack of power on God’s part.

Beyond that:
“Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”

This speaks to God’s awareness to the plight of sinners.
• Is the noise too great?
• Is the distance too far?
• Is the grave too silent?
• That God is just somehow unaware of your plight?

Do you think God doesn’t know of your circumstance
Or cannot hear your cry for help?

THAT IS NOT THE PROBLEM.
God most certainly can hear and God most certainly can reach.

SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

(2) “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear you.”

Are you ready for the answer?
• It’s not that God can’t save you, it’s that He won’t.
• He can bring you home, He just doesn’t want to.

That does not mean that God doesn’t want men saved,
It means that He refuses to deliver you in your current state of sin.

Why were they sent to Babylon to begin with?
Was it not for their sin?

Why was Israel broken off in the days of Jesus?
Was it not for their sin?

So why would He bring the home
When they are still in the same sin that sent them there?

Think back to the beginning of Isaiah’s ministry.

Isaiah 1:11-15 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”

Now look at their current state:
(3) “For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue mutters wickedness.”

NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

What was the command of God back at the beginning to keep them from being exiled?

Isaiah 1:16-20 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

The command then was to repent and put away their sin
And that command hasn’t changed.

Now they are under God’s hand of judgment,
Crying for deliverance, wondering why God won’t bring them home,
And God says: BECAUSE NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

It’s not that He can’t save, it’s that He won’t.
He can bring you home, He just doesn’t want to.
Your sin has offended Him and caused a separation from Him.

And can we just add this to our doctrine of sin?

It is referred to as: HAMARTIOLOGY (the doctrine of sin)

From John MacArthur:
“Sin creates enmity, a hostile situation between parties. Romans 5:10 says that before salvation in Christ, people are “enemies” of God. Unbelievers are “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:18). Also, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). The responsibility for the enmity lies solely with man.”
(MacArthur, John; Mayhue, Richard; [Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary Of Biblical Truth; Crossway; Wheaton, IL; 2017] pg. 459)

That says it in a nutshell.
SIN CREATES ENMITY

It was one of the consequences of the Fall.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

But it didn’t stop there.
Genesis 4:8 “Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”

And it didn’t stop there.
Genesis 3:22-24 “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

There is a separation that occurs between man and God.

And even when God was willing to come and dwell with His people
He did so from behind a veil which no man could enter.

To dwell with God…
To walk with God…
Righteousness is required.

Sin wrecked that, and it wrecks it still.

These people of Israel are lost.
• They have sinned against God in every possible way.
• They have broken every commandment.
• And God refuses to dwell with them.

Consider the book of Ezekiel, which carries us through the events of God’s departure from Israel and the subsequent exile.

We don’t have time, but go read Ezekiel 8 sometime.
• Read about how everyone in Israel was worshiping false gods.

Read Ezekiel 9
• About how God promises to bring judgment as a result.

And then read Ezekiel 10
• When we see God on the move.

Ezekiel 10:4 “Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.”

God moved from the holy of holies to the door of the temple.

Ezekiel 10:18-19 “Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the LORD’S house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.”

God moved from the door of the temple to the gate of the city.

Ezekiel 11:22-23 “Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. The glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.”

God moved from the gate of the city to the mountain overlooking the city.

And then Babylon came in and destroyed the place.

SIN DID THAT.
• God was angry.
• There was enmity.
• He would no longer dwell among their sin.
• There was a separation.

Do you understand the devastating effects of sin in a life?

Those who are unredeemed are separated from God.
• There is enmity between them and God.
• There is no fellowship.
• It is terrible
• It is explanation for lostness and the coming judgment.

But, it is important that you also understand the difference
When one has been redeemed.

For we read regarding the saved:
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Scripture clearly teaches that
• Because of Christ’s atonement those who are in Christ can never be moved back again to that state of enmity.
• There can never again be a separation between God and man because we have been brought near in Christ and He is our peace.

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

So we know that the statement made here in Isaiah 59
Is NOT directed at a redeemed person, but at a lost one.

There is no total or final separation when we are in Christ.

SO DOES SIN NOT AFFECT US WHEN WE ARE SAVED?

• Since we can never be separated…
• Since there is no longer any enmity…
• Since there is no condemnation…

Do we not have to concern ourselves with sin any more?
Can we just do whatever without any fear of repercussion?

How does a believer look at the consequences of sin?
Let me give you some verses to chew on.

Ephesians 4:29-30 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Clearly there are dealing with redeemed people
• Who have been “sealed for the day of redemption”,
• Meaning they cannot lose their salvation or be separated from God.

But Paul is also clear that if they dabble in sin
They can “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”

That is to say they can cause the fellowship to suffer.
There can be a hiccup in the relationship.

If I offend Carrie with my behavior, or if she offends me with her behavior, it is not going to end our marriage. We know that our marriage is secure, but it still might make the fellowship a little chilly until repentance occurs.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession gives a great statement here:

“17.3 “They may fall into serious sins through the temptations of Satan and the world, the power of corruption remaining in them, and neglect the means for their preservation, and may even continue in them for a time. In this they incur God’s displeasure, grieve His Holy Spirit, have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, and hurt and offend others, and bring chastisement upon themselves. Yet they will [in time] renew their repentance and bed preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end.”

While a believer cannot be separated from God or lose their salvation, they can lose the joy of their fellowship.

Assurance can be taken, and doubt and despair slip in.
Sin messes up the fellowship we enjoy with God.

Let me tell you another thing sin can do in the life of a believer.
IT CAN BRING PHYSICAL DEATH.

Remember the Corinthians and the Lord’s Supper?
1 Corinthians 11:29-30 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”

Remember James warning the church?
James 1:15 “Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

Remember what John said?
1 John 5:16 “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.”

What we learn is that a believer can actually fall into sin,
And in their stubbornness God can actually decide
just to take their life to stop the sinning.

In such a case, death is actually God’s protective measure to keep you from going too far and falling away.

And my point is that even for the redeemed
Sin brings terrible consequences.

The only civil course of action is to repent of it and be reconciled to God.

A LOST PERSON
• Must confess their sins to God,
• They must repent of their corrupt thinking,
• They must humbly return to God for forgiveness and salvation through Christ.

A SAVED PERSON
• Must also confess their sins to God,
• They must also repent of their corrupt thinking
• They must humbly ask God for mercy and forgiveness and restoration of fellowship through Christ.

Sin kills relationships.
That is the point.

AND THIS TIME GOD WILL GET SPECIFIC
REGARDING THE SIN THAT HAS CAUSED THEIR SEPARATION.

READ 4-8

Do those 5 verses not strike us with a bit of familiarity?
They should.

We’ve read that statement of Paul in Romans 3 where he compiles several Old Testament texts to show us God’s view of humanity.
• It’s where we read that there is “none righteous, not even one”
• It’s where we read that “no one does good, not even one”
• In Romans 3:15-17 Paul actually quotes verses 7-8 here.

The idea is not lost on us here.
God is showing us the terrible sinfulness of humanity.
It is the terrible sinfulness of the unredeemed.

It also brings to my mind that other famous Old Testament passage:
Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.”

That is the type of passage we have here.
It is God elaborating on the offensive sin of humanity.

I think it will be easiest to see if we break them down into 3 points.

1) THEIR DISHONESTY (4)

“No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.”

What is the point here?
People will lie and cheat one another if it means they can get ahead.

We’ve read in 1 Corinthians and their attempt to defraud one another.
1 Corinthians 6:1 “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?”

We had brothers in the church suing one another.

Paul concludes by saying:
1 Corinthians 6:8 “On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.”

That is the picture here.

God certainly ordained law courts and the legal and justice system,
But it was a system designed to produce justice
Not to distort justice in order get what you want.

But that is what God sees taking place.

They get a lawyer to use big words “they trust in confusion and speak likes; they conceive mischief”

You see the problem.
God sees a people that will use any means necessary
To cheat and take advantage of one another.

They are dishonest.
They are greedy.
They are corrupt.

And that is nothing like God.
And quite frankly He doesn’t want to live among them.

2) THEIR DEEDS (5-6)

“They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth. Their webs will not become clothing, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And an act of violence is in their hands.”

I will admit, I spent a great deal of time on these two verses
Trying to figure out exactly what God was saying here.

And I have come to the conclusion
that what God is addressing here is their failure to do any real ministry or to care for the poor.

In verse 5 He speaks of them hatching and weaving.
• Clearly the emphasis here is on food and clothing.
• You eat eggs and you weave clothing.

But there is a problem in what they are producing.
• The eggs they are hatching are poisonous
• The clothing they are weaving is the equivalent of a spider’s web.

He says in verse 5, “He who eats of their eggs dies,”
He says in verse 6 “Their webs will not become clothing”

It seems to me that the idea is that
They produce nothing of any value to anyone else.

To which God says, “Their works are works of iniquity, And an act of violence is in their hands.”

So not only are they dishonest,
Dragging their neighbors into court to lawfully steal from them.

They also produce no benefit to their neighbor at all.
When they do feed their neighbor it is a poisonous egg,
When they do clothe their neighbor it is a useless web.

There is no brotherly love or care here.
And God does not want to live with people like that.

3) THEIR DIRECTION (7-8)

“Their feet run to evil, And they hasten to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, Devastation and destruction are in their highways. They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever treads on them does not know peace.”

This is the verse directly quoted by Paul in Romans 3.

And the key words make it clear to us what the point is.
“feet” – “hasten” – “thoughts” – “highways” – “way” – “tracks” – “paths” – “treads”

God is referring to their direction.
• He is referring to the path they walk and the way they go.
• He is talking about the tracks they leave for others to follow.

And there is nothing good in any of it.

This is a culture that not only lies and steals and exploits the poor,
But also a culture that wants more,
And teaches others to do the same.

• They love evil.
• They love to shed innocent blood.
• They love iniquity, it’s all they think about.
• They love destruction.
• They care nothing for peace or justice.

And by their example they are leading others there too.
And God doesn’t want to dwell with people like that.

These are the very types of people
That caused Him to depart from His temple to begin with
And you can’t figure out why He won’t bring you home?

Imagine a tenant renting a room in your house.
• All night long he screams obscenities
• He paints up the walls
• He trashes the room
• He stashes drugs
• He brings in other guests to do the same
• He is vile in every sense of the word

SO YOU EVICT HIM.

Then 3 days later, he starts calling you, still in his same condition, with no hint of repentance and he starts leaving messages wanting to come home.

BUT YOU ARE IGNORING HIS CALL

• He says, “I humbled myself and called you, why can’t I come home?”
• He says, “What, can you not hear?”
• He says, “Are you unable to talk on the phone?”

The problem is he hasn’t changed and you have no desire to let him back into your house in that condition.

Do you understand then the problem here?

These people are sitting here wondering
Why God won’t hear their prayers for deliverance
And rescue them from Babylon and bring them home.

And God’s answer is:
IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU!
• You’ve still got the same bloody hands you had when I kicked you out.
• You’ve still got the same lying tongue you had when I kicked you out.
• You’ve still got the same wicked desires you had when I kicked you out.

Why would I let you come home like that?

What an important lesson again for us.
• Sin is absolutely destructive and God will not overlook it.
• If your relationship with God is to be restored, it will only be restored with repentance.
• If you will repent and if you will return, God will forgive and restore.

That forces an internal look for each of us.
How is my fellowship with God?
• Have I ever been reconciled through Christ or am I still at enmity with God?
• Even as a child of God, am I grieving Him and quenching the fellowship with Him that I could have?

• Is repentance in order?
• Is it time to humble myself before Him?
• Is it time to turn from my sin and beg His mercy?

If you want deliverance, if you want the salvation God speaks of,
This is a necessary requirement.

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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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.

download here

That’s Not Humility – part 2
Isaiah 58:1-14 (6)
September 22, 2024

We learned last Sunday morning that God dwells with the humble.

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Sunday night we turned to Isaiah 58 and found a group of disgruntled people who were complaining that apparently that verse is not true.

Isaiah 58:3a “‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’”

We have people who are calling into question the promise of chapter 57,
For they say that they are humbling themselves
And yet God is not listening to them or dwelling with them.

In their minds, Isaiah 57:15 isn’t true.

And we noted how quickly mankind
Can recognize a perceived injustice like this
And immediately assume that the problem is somehow God.

• Apparently God’s word isn’t true.
• Apparently God doesn’t dwell with the humble.
• Apparently God isn’t faithful.
• Apparently God’s promises can’t be trusted.

But it is also just like humanity to blame God when in reality
The blame falls squarely on our own shoulders.

ISAIAH 57:15 IS TRUE.
So what is the problem?

These people did not actually humble themselves.
The problem wasn’t with God, it was with them.

And that is THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 58.
God does dwell with the humble, but what you are doing is not humility.

AND WHAT A VALUABLE LESSON FOR US TO LEARN.
There are few things we need to get right
As much as we need to get humility right.

Since God dwells with the humble…

Or as it says in:
Psalms 138:6 “For though the LORD is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, But the haughty He knows from afar.”

And in:
James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

Since God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble,

It should be of the utmost importance to us to know the difference
Between the humility God rejects and the humility He honors.

Isaiah 58 is a message to enlighten us to that very thing.

We began this last Sunday night, but allow me to recap it a little this morning.

#1 GOD CALLS THE PROPHET
Isaiah 58:1-2

One thing you can’t miss is how important this topic is to God.

Not only does God dictate the message that is to be presented,
But God also dictates the tone with which it is to be preached.

“Cry loudly, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet…”

• This is no secondary message to God.
• This is no optional piece of advice.
• This is coming through the loud speaker.

And what is the topic of this loud message?
“And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.”

It is important that we understand
Where we are in this final invitation of the book of Isaiah.

1. We know that the end of the book is an offer of salvation to wayward Israel.
2. We even recognize the prophetic implications that reach even into our own day.
3. We have a Christ who in chapter 53 has atoned for sin through His death on the cross.
4. And now we have a prophet who is calling men to come and accept the salvation which He purchased.

This salvation is particularly attractive to the humble and broken.
• People like that barren woman.
• People like that rejected woman.
• People like that eunuch.
• People like that foreigner.

They seem to be flocking to the salvation which Christ purchased
For they see no other way of being saved.

But the people who are proving difficult to reach are the proud.
The religious elite aren’t so quick to run to this salvation.

And it brings to our mind that important evangelistic reality,
And one that we face daily.

“You have to get a person lost before you can get them saved.”

By that we simply mean.
Before you can offer the grace of the gospel to a sinner,
You first have to show him that he is a sinner who needs it.

This was the purpose of the Law, to condemn sinners under God’s justice.
This was the cry of the prophets, to expose the sin of the people.

And that is what Isaiah is being commissioned to do here.
You go and yell about the sin of these people.

• Don’t let them rest in their self-righteousness.
• Don’t let them find comfort in their religious works.
• You go and expose them.
• You blow up their false assurance.

You go and loudly proclaim their sin until they fall on their faces
And realize how badly they need salvation.

That is the call of God to the prophet here.

And if we want to focus in a little more
We see that God specifically wants Isaiah to attack:

THEIR HYPOCRITICAL RELIGIOUS INVOLVEMENT.

(2) “Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the ordinance of God. They ask Me for just decisions, They delight in the nearness of God.”

And you remember the point.
• These were a people who had transgressed against God.
• These were a people who had forsaken His ordinances.

But they acted like they hadn’t,
They proudly marched right into God’s temple to present their requests
As though He ought to be glad to see them.

They had offended Him in every possible way
But were totally oblivious to the fact.

It’s no wonder God wanted Isaiah to get loud.
These people are deaf!

So God calls the prophet

#2 GOD CORRECTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:3-4

We saw this one Sunday night as well.

You see their point of contention with God.
They feel as though God has not kept up His end of the bargain.

“Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?”

We find out later in the chapter
• That by “fasted” they meant they stopped work for the Sabbath.

And we see here that in their mind
This was a demonstration of their great humility.

So they appear before God as if to say, “Look we humbled ourselves by not working on the Sabbath, don’t You think You owe us an audience?”

Well God corrects their misconception.

(3b-4) “Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers. “Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.”

They wanted to know why God failed to honor their humble fast
God says, “Because it wasn’t a fast and it wasn’t humility.”

Sure you took the day off of work,
• But you worked your employees twice as hard to make them make up the slack.

Sure you took the day off of work,
• But you didn’t use it to focus on Me and worship Me, you used it to conspire and scheme how to get ahead of your competition.

Fasting like that is not the way to get My attention.

And to that we gave our first principle of humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT CEREMONIAL

Physically going through the outward ordinances of religion
Without a heart that matches is not humility before God
And He will not honor it.

• So what you skipped work…
• So what you skipped a meal…
• Your heart never turned from focus on those things to Me.

God is not amused.
HUMILITY IS NOT CEREMONIAL.

God calls the prophet; God corrects the people

#3 GOD CONFRONTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:5

Here God addresses the pathetic nature
Of this so-called humble fast they participated in.

God confronts it with some very penetrating questions.

“Is it a fast like this which I choose, A DAY for a man to humble himself?”

• When we are talking about humility before God do you really assume that just one day will do it?
• Do you really suppose that you can live however you want for six days but then humble yourself on the Sabbath and all will be fine?

You’ve got a lot to learn about fasting and humility.

“Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed”

• A read sways in the wind and no sooner does it bow than it also pops its head right back up again.
• And God compares that to the short-lived humility of His people.

Sure you bowed in supposed reverence,
But you didn’t stay in that posture long.

“And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?”

• Yes you put on sackcloth.
• Yes you laid in the ashes.
• But you went to sleep!

You weren’t repenting, you weren’t confessing your sin,
You weren’t pursuing sanctification, you were sleeping!

Am I really supposed to be impressed with your humble piety?

And God asks:
“Will you all this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?”

Is that really what you are bringing to Me and calling humility?

And to that we introduced our second principle of humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT TEMPORARY

And this is where we had to stop Sunday night
So let’s continue on with this thought for a moment this morning.

HUMILITY IS NOT TEMPORARY
Just an example of what we mean:

Hosea 6:1-6 “Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

God is well-aware of the commitment of the heart regardless of the words of the mouth.
• He is not impressed by eloquent prayers or teary promises.
• God wants men whose humility lasts beyond the invitation.

We have seen this with Israel throughout their history.
• They are good at humbling themselves why the pressure is on,
• But once God lets up, they quickly forsake their commitments.
• The book of Judges tells that story repeatedly.

Psalms 78:34-37 “When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”

It is false humility and we know so because it did not last.

But I hope you are getting the point.
• The reason God hasn’t answered…
• The reason God hasn’t drawn near…

IS BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T HUMBLED YOURSELF.

I know you took off work for a day.
BUT THAT’S NOT HUMILITY

Humility is not ceremonial
Humility is not temporary

Humility is an inward state of the heart
And one that lasts beyond the moment.

So the first 5 verses have been rough to listen to.
• God is loudly proclaiming His displeasure for false humility.

But God doesn’t leave the people with only a rebuke.
THERE IS AN OFFER COMING.

And that is what the remainder of this chapter is about.

#4 GOD CHALLENGES THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:6-14

Now, we read that entire passage
And admittedly we see two sides of the coin.

We get a lot of those “If” – “then” statements.
(If you will do this, then I will that.)

(And we will get to all the promises
That God makes to those who truly humble themselves.)

BUT THE THRUST OF THE POINT
Comes in that opening statement of verse 6.

“Is this not the fast which I choose…”

God is about to define biblical fasting.
God is about to explain biblical humility.

And as we read all of those verses
I’m wondering if you spotted specifically what it is that God wants them to fast from if they are to fast correctly?

Let me read the explanatory verses again.
(6-7) (9b-10a) (13)
Those are the verses were God specifically outlines
What biblically humble fasting looks like.
The other verses are His promises.

Let’s read those again and you see if you can get a feel for what God is actually asking you to fast from.

(6-7) “Is this not the fast 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? “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?”

(9b-10a) “If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,”

(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,”

When you read those do you spot anything in common?
Is there anything in particular that God wants His people to give up?

• In verse 6 He wants them to set the oppressed free.
• In verse 7 He wants them to not to hide from the poor and hungry.
• In verses 9-10 He restates that again.
• In verse 13 He wants them to make the Sabbath about Him.

So what are we talking about here as the common denominator
Of what God wants them to fast from?

SELFISHNESS

If you want to know what biblically humble fasting is,
It is to stop being selfish.

If we could state in a positive light we would say,
It is to WALK IN LOVE.

• You know that the opposite of love is not hate.
• The opposite of love is “self” because love sacrifices self for the good of
another.

These people have approached God really proud of the fact
That they humbled themselves and took a day off of work
And God says that’s not the fast I want.

I want you to walk in love!
I want you to stop being so selfish!
If you want to fast from something, fast from that.

So let me first give you a third principle of humility:
HUMILITY IS NOT SYMBOLIC

That is to say, it is not a metaphor.
Humility is measurable.

That should not surprise you, everything God asks of you is measurable.
For example:
• How do you know if a person has faith? (works)
• How do you know if a person has love? (works)
• How do you know if a person has humility? (works)

Here God outlines the types of works that demonstrate true humility.
Here God outlines the types of works that demonstrate love.
Here God outlines the types of works that demonstrate a fasting from selfishness.

And let’s look at this a little more closely.
We’re looking first at verses 6,7,9,10, and 13.

And in those 5 verses I can give you
3 examples of fasting from selfishness.

1) STOP DISCARDING SINNERS (6)

(6) “Is this not the fast 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?”

It is certainly possible to read that in a purely humanitarian light
And see this as a mission to abolish slavery or perhaps political injustice.

• That God is asking you to set slaves free
• And go to work on behalf of people who have been unjustly treated by the penal system.

AND CERTAINLY THAT WOULD BE A NOBLE TASK.
I think you can even include this verse as justification for such labors.

But it is really the New Testament
That brings us clarity on what God means here.

Listen to Jesus explain the purpose of His coming:
Luke 4:17-21 “And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

There Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 and He mentioned some of the very things stated here.
• He talked about “release to captives”
• He talked about “set free those who are oppressed”

And you and I know what He was talking about.
• He DID NOT go on a national campaign to stop slavery.
• He DID NOT go on a march for prison reform or to renovate the penal system.

What Jesus spoke of was rescuing sinners from their sin.

You see the same from Him later:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

If we want to get even more specific
• We would talk about the people who were bound in a legalistic religious system
• That had pushed them to the brink of exhaustion
• With no peace or salvation to show for it.

We know about the Pharisees:
Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”

You had the Pharisees who were busy throwing burdens on people
And you have Jesus who was working to remove them.

I’m always mindful of:
Matthew 9:35-36 “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

These people were not being cared for by the religious elite,
They were being skinned and cast aside.
And Jesus saw that.

Now certainly there was physical relief given by Jesus
In His healing and feeding the multitudes
And we’ll come to that in a moment,

But the primary aspect of His ministry
Was to set sinners free from their sin
And the cruel consequences that came with it.

When the paralytic was lowered through the roof the first thing Jesus did was forgive that man.

When the woman of ill-repute wet His feet with her tears and dried them with here hair Jesus offered her forgiveness.

After He healed the paralytic at the Bethesda pool He told Him:
John 5:14 “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

After rescuing the woman caught in adultery He told her:
John 8:11 “Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

And later in that chapter Jesus said:
John 8:34-36 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

This is what is meant by release to the captives
And freedom for those under a yoke.

And Isaiah even makes that clear in verse 6 when God says “to loosen the bonds of wickedness,”

The primary focus here is of helping sinners escape their sin.

But let’s be honest, that is not something we enjoy.
• It is really difficult to help a sinner from a distance.
• It is really difficult to help a sinner simply by commenting on his social media post.

Helping sinners escape sin
Requires a much more hands-on approach.

AND YOU KNOW THIS.
• God gave His entire Law from heaven regarding a clear explanation of the ‘
reality of sin and the effects it will have.

• God sent His prophets to expose and warn about the dangers of sin in your
life.

But when God determined to set sinners free from sin, what did He do?
HE TOOK ON FLESH AND CAME TO US.

He entered the world.
He walked the streets.
He touched the lepers.
He ate with sinners.

He didn’t just look down from heaven
At sinners drowning in the muck and the mire,
He jumped down into the muck and the mire in order to pull us out.

And might I remind you that this is the call to the church today?

Galatians 6:1-2 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”

The word “caught” there in Galatians
• Can mean “caught IN any trespass” as in you caught him doing something sinful.
• It can also mean “caught BY any trespass” as in the sin has caught him and he can’t get out.

And Paul says that in order to “fulfill the law of Christ”
You and I must “restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness”

“restore” is a Greek word there is KATARTIZO
And it literally means “to mend nets”

Matthew 4:21 “Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.”

It means you take something that is broken and torn and tattered
And you get down there and do the work of patching it back together.

God does this for us:
1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

“perfect” there is that same word KATARTIZO
After you have suffered God will start to mend you.

THIS IS THE CALL,
To get down in the mud and help your brother out of his sin.

James 5:19-20 “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

BUT LET’S BE HONEST.
This is a difficult and messy and often times frustrating ministry.
• Sin traps are not the easiest to get people out of.
• Even once you get out sin traps have a way of luring people back in and you
have to help them out over and over.

Perhaps you’ve seen the video on social media where there is a trench and a sheep is stuck in that trench and the man works and works to pull that sheep out of the trench and literally within two jumps the sheep is right back in it.

That is what this ministry can be like.
• It is frustrating…
• It is exhausting…
• It is heartbreaking…
• It is confusing…

And it would be much easier to just cast people aside.

The Pharisee approach to sinners is much easier than the Jesus approach.
• It is much easier to throw rocks at sinners than it is to offer them mercy.
• It is much easier just to point the finger at sinners than it is to offer them a hand up.

That is what Isaiah says down in verse 9
“If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,”

But that is definitely easier.
• When you invite a Matthew into the camp he comes with a lot of baggage.
• When you enter the house of a Zaccheus you’re going to be confronted with some repulsive things.
• When you have a conversation with a woman at the well there is bound to be some bad decisions you’ll have to wade through.
• When you reach out to a prodigal you might have to deal with the smell of pigs.

And because of that it is easier to just throw sinners aside.
We live in a replacement culture, just replace them.
Toss them away.

Jesus approached sinners.
Jesus ate with sinners.
Jesus rescued sinners.

Perhaps the greatest illustration here is right after Matthew was saved.

Luke 5:29-32 “And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Do you understand the love of Christ there?
• We know He was not in there affirming their greed or covetousness.
• We know Jesus was not tolerating their sin.
• We know that.

But Jesus wasn’t avoiding it either.
And Jesus wasn’t avoiding them.

These were people who were caught in their sin
And Jesus came to set those types of people free.

THIS IS THE CALL.

If God had wanted you to be totally free from the nuisance of sinners
He would have raptured you the second you believed.

BUT GOD DIDN’T RAPTURE YOU WHEN YOU BELIEVED.

Instead God sanctified you and filled you with His Spirit
So that you could be the presence of Christ to other sinners.

1 Corinthians 5:9-10 “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.”

This is where God starts His explanation of the type of fast He wants.
• He wants you to get over yourself.
• He wants you to put your selfishness aside.
• He wants you to be willing to get down in the mud and help sinners escape.

This week I saw on social media
A man and a woman who spent probably an hour breaking into a car
Because a dog had been locked in it during the heat of the day

AND PEOPLE JUST RAVED OVER THEM ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And it should not be that we work harder to get a dog out of a car
Than a sinner out of sin.

WHICH IS WORTH MORE?

Jesus pointed out the same thing.
• You’ll work to get your ox out of a ditch,
• But you won’t work to get a sinner out of his sin.

That is because it is uncomfortable and hard work to do so.
• People with addictions…
• People with offensive sins…
• People with bad reputations…

To get down in the mud with them is costly,
But God is calling His people to fast from their selfishness
And get down there and help them.

STOP DISCARDING SINNERS

(6) “Is this not the fast 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?”

That is what Jesus did.

Philippians 2:1-11 “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Well that sums it up doesn’t it?
• Quit being selfish.
• See others as more important than yourself.
• Be humble.
• Look out for others.

Be like Jesus who left glory and came to this earth
And gave Himself up for sinners.

If you want to humble yourself in a way that God notices,
• Start there.

If you want to fast,
• Then fast from the selfish mentality that overlooks and discards such people.

“Is this not the fast which I choose..?”

We’ll look at the rest tonight…

download here

That’s Not Humility – part 1
Isaiah 58:1-14 (1-5)
September 15, 2024

This morning were reminded of a wonderful truth about our great God.

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

• Even if a man has offended God in every possible way…
• Even if he has continued in that sin stubbornly for some time…
• Even if he did it with absolutely no fear of God…

If that man will humble himself and return to God,
God will forgive him and heal him.

OUR GOD DELIGHTS IN THE HUMBLE.
That was true, is true, and will always be true.

And yet tonight we run into a disgruntled group of people
Who are doubting the truth of that statement.

For in verse 3 we read:
“Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice?”

These are a congregation who thinks they are “the contrite and lowly”
Whom God promises to dwell with,
And yet God doesn’t seem to be noticing them at all.

And isn’t this just like humanity?

When we read a promise of God,
And then things don’t work as we expected,
We immediately assume that the problem is with God.

We immediately question the character of God, the love of God,
The faithfulness of God, the compassion of God, etc.
But we never seem to question the genuineness of our humility.

But that is the point of Isaiah 58.
HUMILITY IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK.

God’s answer to this disgruntled crowd
Who fancies themselves to have been so humble before Him is:
“That’s Not Humility”.

And what a valuable lesson this will be for us.

Let’s begin our look at it here tonight.

#1 GOD CALLS THE PROPHET
Isaiah 58:1-2

The opening of the chapter is one of intentional confrontation.

God not only dictates the message,
But God here even dictates the tone.

“Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet,”

Today it would be “Type that message in all caps!”

This is quite a shock to the system
To people today who think that Jesus was only mild and soft spoken
And that any instance of raising your voice is sinful.

God here tells Isaiah to get loud.
• He tells Isaiah to give it all he’s got.
• He tells Isaiah to ring like a trumpet in their ears.

THE POINT IS that there is nothing subtle about what God wants to say.
He wants everyone to hear it.

And what is this message that God wants so loudly proclaimed?

“And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.”

The message that God wants shouted over the loudspeaker
Is a message ABOUT SIN.

And you will notice that the message is spoken to
“My people” “and to the house of Jacob”

He is NOT asking Isaiah to walk through Israel
And scream about the sin of the Moabites or the Philistines.
He wants God to walk through Israel and yell about the sin of His people.

So much for Joel Olsteen’s preference to not talk about sin and to only talk about things that make people feel better and build people up.

God’s subject is SIN.
God’s tone is LOUD.

AND WHAT IS THIS SIN?

The beginning explanation is that of
A total CLUELESSNESS regarding their devotion to God.

THE FIRST THING God would have Isaiah announce is that
They are not as pleasing to God in their behavior as they would assume.

(2) “Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, As a nation that has done righteousness And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.”

The key word in those two lines is “AS”
“They seek Me…AS a nation that has done righteousness.”

God speaks of their pompous arrogance
With which they appear before Him.

They march right in here and approach Me with their requests
Like they haven’t just spent the entire week offending Me.

And then “They ask Me for just decisions, They delight in the nearness of God.”

I hope you are detecting the absolute disdain in God’s voice.

• They spenk all week living in utter rebellion against God, doing the very things which offend Him to the core.

• And then they walk into the temple like they’ve done nothing wrong and ask God for justice and just to be near Him.

IT’S ALL QUITE OFFENSIVE TO GOD!

Remember Isaiah 1?
Isaiah 1:12-14 “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.”

Remember Jeremiah 7?
Jermiah 7:9-11 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD.”

Remember Malachi 1?
Malachi 1:9-10 “But now will you not entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.”

It’s like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who went to the temple to pray:
Luke 18:11-12 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’”

• He just knew that God was so pleased with him because of his service.

That is what God is talking about here.
God has announced that He dwells with the contrite and lowly.
God has announced that the humble are welcome to Him.

And these people quickly assumed that God was talking about them
And just pranced right into His presence
As though He would be glad to see them.

In reality He was infuriated that they would have such audacity to come into His temple and ask for justice.

• They are like Aaron’s sons with the gall to offer strange fire on the altar.
• They are like Uzza with the arrogance to reach out and touch God’s ark.
• They are like Saul with the brashness to offer his own sacrifice.

Who do they think they are?

It is clear that GOD IS NOT IMPRESSED
He wants Isaiah to loudly inform them of that reality.

This is a “Jesus clearing the temple” sermon.

Nothing Isaiah says here should be taken lightly.
This sermon is not a suggestion.
• God is intense.
• God is livid.
• God is jumping up and down, pounding the pulpit, and stomping His feet.

“Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet,”

You get in those people’s face and you give them a piece of My mind.

So just understand that as we get going.
Tone matters and God’s is heated.

God calls the prophet
#2 GOD CORRECTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 58:3-4

Why is God so intense?
Why is God so loud?
Because they have asked Him an absolutely offensive question.

He was angry at their sin.
They were totally oblivious to the fact.
They then walked into the temple expecting blessing.

God was actually quite merciful for not crushing them immediately.
He was actually quite restrained by simply remaining silent.

And then they had the audacity to ask this question:
(3) “Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?”

In a simple sense they approached God and asked,
“What’s the matter with You?”

Ever been in this situation in just a human relationship?
• You have offended someone greatly and didn’t even know it.
• They are seething mad and you are totally oblivious.
• Then you approach them, but they are cold toward you
• So you ask, “What’s your problem?”

And all at once they just unload on you!

Now you understand the force of Isaiah 28.
These people have determined that in some capacity God has failed to do that which He ought.

• “We fasted”
• “We humbled ourselves”
• “You do not notice”

That is to say, “You have not responded in the manner in which you are contractually bound to respond and we just thought we should point that out to you.”

It is no wonder Isaiah has been commissioned to answer them…LOUDLY.

But let’s further analyze their question to get to the heart of the problem.

As you can see the behavior in question is that they have “fasted”
Which they see as something God should respond to.

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT FASTING FOR A MOMENT.
Dictionary.com says fasting is defined as: “to abstain from all food.”

It is not something that is ever commanded in Scripture
But it is something that is practiced often.

• Jesus Himself fasted for 40 days while in the wilderness.
• The early church is found fasting as they sought God about who to send on mission.

I do think it is something that seems to get misunderstood
In religious circles today just as it clearly was here.

What becomes apparent to us here in verse 3 is that
These people clearly thought that their fasting
Merited a response from God.

“Why have we fasted and You do not see?”

It’s as though they viewed their fast as something
God was somehow legally bound to respond to.
It was a manipulative gimmick to strong-arm God into action.

And unfortunately much of the fasting I hear about today is exactly that.
• People seem to think that if they do without food that somehow God is now more obligated to respond.
• Sort of like Opie Taylor in the Andy Griffith Show holding his breath to force Andy to respond to his requests.
• But that is certainly not the fasting which Scripture mandates.

I’ve told you before but, “Fasting is any time that the spiritual becomes more important than the physical.”

It would be those times that you are so intent on seeking God;
So intent on finding His will
That it doesn’t make sense to stop and eat a hamburger.

We see this mentality in Jesus when He fasted.
Matthew 4:2 “And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.”

• I don’t know that we would say that Jesus was not hungry during those 40 days
• But the fact that Matthew says it was after that that He “became hungry”
• Does at least indicate that if He was hungry it wasn’t His priority.

In this light we see fasting then as a form of INTENSE SEEKING.

It is not a manipulative tactic
Whereby God is somehow forced to respond,
But it is a person who is seeking so intently
That perhaps God is motivated to respond.

What do we mean then?

If you go through the motion of the fast without the intent to seek God what are you actually accomplishing? NOTHING.

That is like a person who gets baptized but who has not truly trusted in Jesus; what is the water supposed to have done?

Or like a Jew who is circumcised outwardly, but not inwardly;
What good is that?

YOU GET THE POINT THEN.

These people are upset because they danced the dance,
But didn’t get the response.

One other thing we notice about their fast
Is that they obviously equated fasting
To somehow be the equivalent of humbling themselves.

That is made clear in the way they ask the questions:
“Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?”

So this is a people who in their minds
Wanted to demonstrate to God how humble they were
And the method they determined to use was to fast.

Perhaps they understood that God dwells with the humble.
Perhaps they understood that He is near to the contrite.

So they determined to fast in order to show God
Just how humble and contrite they are.

But again, in their minds, God messed up
Because He did not respond as they expected to their obvious humility.

What could possibly be the problem here?

How about:
Matthew 6:16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”

Could it be that their fasting was not humility,
But in all actuality only a religious show?

Apparently that is the case here too.

It’s like the old comedian who said,
“I received an award for being humble once, it was a humble button. But they took it away from me because I wore it.”

It’s really hard to demonstrate your humility
Through some sort of outward show,
But that is what they were doing.

Paul spoke of it too, to the Colossians:
Colossians 2:20-23 “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

There the newly believing Colossians
Had been hood-winked by a band of grandiose religious pretenders.

These religiousites were fasting and flogging themselves and boasting about their angelic visions and such and they had totally convinced the Colossians that they were at some elite spiritual level that the Colossians had not reached.

Paul called it out as nonsense.
“These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom…but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”

That is to say, their religious actions are all show and no substance.

And there we understand the fast here in Isaiah 58 again.

Here we have a group of people
• Who decided not to eat to put their humility on full display
• And then sat back and waited for God to respond favorably.
• When He was not impressed and did not respond they were frustrated.

SO HERE GOD CORRECTS THEM
With regard to this humble demonstration they put on.

(3b-4) “Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers. Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.”

First we pay special attention to the twice-stated “Behold”
There is the loud cry God spoke of.

God is here responding with an imperative.
God is firing back at their foolish accusation.

And God does so to challenge whether their fast was really a fast at all.

“Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire…”

A fast is when you gave up the desire of the flesh
In order to satisfy the desire of the Spirit.

Remember in the garden when Jesus asked the disciples to pray but they were sleepy?

Matthew 26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus indicated that there are instances in life, (in fact there are many),
In which the Spirit and the flesh do not have the same desire.

A fast would be when we tell the flesh to do without
So that the Spirit may be satisfied.

The Spirit wanted to seek God, the flesh wanted to sleep, which one are you going to follow?

Well here we have a people who actually did without food
And thought they were demonstrating their humble search for God.

And God sees through their hypocritical display as if to say,
• “But did you really fast?”
• “Did you really starve the flesh?”
• “Did you really disappoint the flesh for the Spirit?”

And the answer is – NO!

What does He mean?
“on the day of your fast you find your desire”

Well how did they do that?
How did they do without and get what they wanted at the same time?

THE ANSWER: You “drive hard all your workers”

Now we learn something else about this fast of theirs.

Not only was it somehow linked to humility,
Their fast was also linked to their observance of the Sabbath.

This fast of theirs is coming into view.
• We have a people who desired to fast and demonstrate their humility to God
• The way they did that was by giving up working on the Sabbath

“Look God, we didn’t go to work today,
We fasted from our labors so that we might worship You.”

And they’re mad because God didn’t honor their sacrifice.

But God says, “What sacrifice?”
You skipped work sure enough, but you made your employees pick up the slack!

You “drive hard all your workers.”

You didn’t sacrifice at all, your expected quotas remained the same,
You just took the day off and made your employees do more work.

Am I supposed to be grateful for such a noble sacrifice on your part?

AND THAT’S NOT ALL

God goes on:
“Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist.”

WHAT COULD THAT MEAN?

IT IS TRUE that they took the day off from their normal labors.
• No, they didn’t go to the field or to the vineyard.
• No, they didn’t go to the market or perform their normal labors.

They took a day off from the grind of physical activity.

But what did they use that day off for?

• Did they use it set their minds on God and to worship Him?
• Did they use it to focus on how God rested in His finished work and
someday we will rest in His work as well?
• Did they use to be grateful to God that they could rest their bodies while God
still promised to provide?

NO, NOTHING LIKE THAT!
They used this day off to do some plotting and scheming and planning
As to how they might further get ahead
And maybe even make ground on their competition.

They took the day off, but it wasn’t to focus on God
It was to focus on how to be more successful in the world.

So if we are understanding this humble fast a little better,
THIS IS WHAT IT WAS.

• They took off on Saturday,
• And told their employees to work longer and harder,
• While they went home and plotted how to gain ground on the competition and
become even more successful.

Then they tried to use it for “double credit”
And tell God that they fasted and He should bless them for it.

Like the Pharisee who gave money, but he did it for notoriety…
Like the Pharisee who prayed, but he did it publicly for fame…
Like the Pharisee who fasted, but he did it to be noticed…

And God says, “Was that really for Me?”

We see people do that today.
They make a big end of the year contribution to the church.

But they would do good to ask:
• Why was it given?
• Was it really a sacrifice or was it just to help on your taxes?
• Was it really for God?
• Which benefit were they after?

That is why God would not answer.
That is why God did not honor it.
That is why God did not bless it.

In fact God says,
“You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.”

That verse might read a little peculiar to you, but I can help you here.
There is no punctuation in the Hebrew to help us read it better.

But if you will put a couple of commas here,
You’ll understand God’s point just fine.

“You do not fast [comma] like you do today [comma] to make your voice heard on high.”

When you read it like that it is clear what God is saying.
If you are wanting My attention and My acknowledgement,
This type of fast won’t do it.

You can’t just go through some outward display with sinful motives
And expect Me to be fooled and honor you for it.

THAT IS NOT HUMILITY!

So now let me give you a principle of humility.
This is sort of a sub-point.

HUMILITY IS NOT CEREMONIAL

These people decided to humble themselves before God
And it was nothing but an outward display of a religious ritual.

• IT WAS NOT A SACRIFICE since their employees picked up the slack.
• IT WAS NOT A DESIRE OF THE HEART since their focus was on business.
• IT WAS NOT SPIRITUAL AT ALL, it was a calculated tactic meant to obtain God’s blessing while actually getting ahead in the world.

If anything we would say here that they were trying to deceive God
Into thinking that their worldliness was actually humility.

If you think you can go through some outward ceremonial ritual
And fool God about the desire of your heart you are gravely mistaken.

Joel 2:12-13 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.”

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

The outside without the inside does not fool God.

If you skip work to attend church,
• But you did it to manipulate God into blessing your work
Are you really worshiping Him for the right reasons?

If you give money to God,
• But you only do it so that God will give you more money
Is that a proper motive?

James 4:2-4 “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

If the motive is wrong can the action really be right?
TRUE HUMILITY IS NOT CEREMONIAL.

IN THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH
You had people who were participating in all sorts of community expected fasts.

They actually identified them as:
“The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months…” (Zech. 8:19)

• They fasted on the 10th month to commemorate the siege of Jerusalem.
• They fasted on the 4th month to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem.
• They fasted on the 5th month to commemorate the burning of the temple.
• They fasted on the 7th month to commemorate the murder of Gedaliah.

They were not commanded fasts, they were commemorative fasts.
Sort of like we might honor December 7th or September 11th
As we remember horrible tragedies in our past.

Well, in Zechariah
• The people were back in the land
• The temple was being rebuilt
• So the people wanted to know if they still had to keep that fast on the 5th month which remembered the burning of the temple?

Zechariah 7:2-3 “Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD, speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”

THEY WERE CONFUSED
• FIRSTLY it seemed strange to fast and weep over the lost temple when the temple was rebuilt.
• SECONDLY it didn’t seem like God was honoring the fast and so they wondered if they should keep doing it.

Here was the answer God gave through Zechariah:
Zechariah 7:4-6 “Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ‘When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?”

What a question!

They asked God if they should keep doing it.
God asked them,
• “Why were you doing it at all?”
• Was it for Me?
• Or was it for you?

And believe me, God already knew the answer.

And that is the same point here.

You can’t manipulate God through outward ritual.
Humility is not ceremonial it is of the heart.

Now it is true that a truly contrite and humble heart
Might very well fast before God.

But to fast without the humility is an empty diet.
It’s like baptism without salvation.
It’s like giving without loving.
It’s like attendance without worship.

And do not expect God to be pleased.

So God calls the prophet
God corrects the people
#3 GOD CONFRONTS THE PEOPLE
Isaiah 57:5

So God corrected them
As to why they were wrong to assume their fast should have worked.

But now God goes on the offensive
To poke holes in their “so-called” humility.

“Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?”

Wow! There’s a question for you.

You thought you were doing God some big favor
Because you took off of work to come to worship.

And God says, “You thought a day of humility (or a half-day of humility) was all it took to cause Me to be moved?”

Is God so starved for attention?
Is God so lonely
That if a person will just give up a few hours of their busy schedule
That He’ll just fall all over Himself and give them whatever they want?

Come on God I went to church, You owe it to me now to bless my labor!

I remember in high school when I was still unredeemed, but outwardly religious, I would go to church on Superbowl Sunday night because I wanted God to make sure the Cowboys won.

Somehow that doesn’t seem quite like humility or worship,
At least not of God.

Don’t you know that God was so grateful that someone like me
Would take time out of his busy schedule to attend Sunday night worship
That He would just give me whatever I wanted!

Do you see the blasphemy in that?

Or how about this one:
“Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed..?”

That’s just a courteous nod, sort of like you see in Asian cultures when they approach one another and sort of bow in respect.

And here is the person who wanted to show God how humble they were
So they laid down on the floor and then after a few seconds
Got right back up and said, “There, did that do it?”

And once again God must have been so impressed!
“Oh wow! They actually got on the floor!
Oh wow! They actually bowed their head!”

DADS…
When your daughter comes home and wants to go out with that local thug who is the known town playboy and every week can be seen with a different girl.

And she says, “But he loves me daddy, he told me how pretty he thought I was.”

And you say, “Oh wow! He must really love you to say something like that!”

You get the idea.

Or how about this one:
“Is it for…spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?”

What does that mean?
It means they spread out the ashes and the put on the sackcloth.
(a picture of humility)

(Hence the old humility presentation of “sackcloth and ashes”
Where a person would mourn before God over their sin)

But this guy spread out the ashes, put on the sackcloth,
And then laid down and went to sleep.

Is that what repentance really looks like?
Is that what humility really looks like?

Do you get credit for praying all night
If you fell asleep while praying the night before?

It that real humility?

To which God asks one more question:
“Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?”

Perhaps your definition of fasting is wrong.

THAT IS NOT HUMILITY.

I know we’re out of time here tonight,
But I’ll go ahead give you the second principle here.

We saw a moment ago that humility is not ceremonial.
Well here’s your second principle:

HUMILITY IS NOT TEMPORARY

If your conviction to respond to God
And walk the aisle and all of that religious stuff
Doesn’t even make it to the parking lot then it wasn’t humility.

True humility lasts.
We’ll talk about this more next time.

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Obtaining Peace With God
Isaiah 57:1-21
September 15, 2024

I really want us to begin this morning
Just be basking in one of the greatest descriptions
God gives of Himself in all of Scripture.

(15) “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

It would really do us all good for a moment
Just to rejoice that this is who the God of the universe is.

We rejoice that He is “high and exalted”,
This is HIS PREEMINENCE
• Namely that He is sovereign over all things.
• That He is in control of all things.
• That nothing is higher than Him and nothing happens outside of His control.

We rejoice that He “lives forever”
This is HIS PERMANENCE
• Namely that we will never have to find another god, or elect a new sovereign.
• That He has always been and will always be.

We rejoice that His “name is Holy”
This is HIS PURITY
• Namely that He is not a corrupt or unjust or in any way unscrupulous.
• He never does anything under the table,
• All His ways are right and true and good and perfect.

And we rejoice in HIS PROCLAMATION:
“I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

It is a determination by our great God, to mingle with the lowly.

Mankind constantly seeks to socialize upward,
But it is God who socializes downward.

He rejoices in men in their humility.
He delights in men in their lowliness.

This is the God whom Isaiah came to know personally.
• He saw the King
• He saw the Holy One
• He saw the train of His robe filling the temple
• He saw the One angles wouldn’t even look at.
And yet Isaiah felt the mercy of this One and fellowshipped with Him.

We rejoice in such a God who shows mercy to sinners.

We just start off this morning rejoicing that He is God and not another.
• He is a sovereign God.
• He is a holy God.
• He is a merciful God.
• He is a good God.

WHAT A BLESSING FOR US.

And what a way to begin our look at this 57th chapter of Isaiah.

If you’re following along in this wonderful study of the end of Isaiah
You know that the SUBJECT of the day IS SALVATION.

Isaiah 53 changed everything.
Because of the atonement of the Christ,
• Salvation is the offer of the day.

Because Christ atoned for sinners
• That barren woman can rejoice in her children,
• That rejected woman can come home,
• That eunuch can celebrate his great name,
• And the foreigner can rest inside the kingdom of God.

SALVATION HAS BEEN PURCHASED
And THE CALL of Isaiah is for the wayward sinners of Israel
To turn from their sinful ways and embrace it.

Most recently we studied chapter 56
Where Isaiah asked if we were ready for salvation?
• That is if we were ready for the Christ to return, to judge His enemies, and to deliver His people?

And what we are now finding out is that the answer is, “NO”
ISRAEL IS NOT READY.
They have not embraced the salvation which Christ purchased.

SUNDAY NIGHT WE SAW
How God first blamed that on their leaders,
• We looked at the 8 sins of a sinful shepherd,

BUT NOW the focus of the message
Turns to the wayward sheep themselves.

And the message of the prophet in this chapter is that
They most certainly are not ready to meet the Lord.

BUT, if they would humble themselves, they could be.

Chapter 57 is yet another invitation of the Lord.

And the subject of the day is: PEACE

A few weeks ago we were studying in Isaiah 55:12
Which spoke of the blessing of answering God’s call of salvation. It said:

Isaiah 55:12 “For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

And when we looked at that verse one of the questions we asked is:
HOW VALUABLE IS PEACE?

If you’ve ever been in turmoil than surely you have some idea.
• Just to be at peace
• Just to be at rest
• Just to know the conflict is over

Certainly (I would think) those who have been in the midst of war
Understand the desire for peace.

And anyone who has ever understood the gravity of their sin should understand the desire for peace.
• Romans 5 teaches us that in our sinful state we are enemies of God.
• Psalms 7 teaches us that God is angry at the wicked every day.

And if you’ve ever been made aware of that enmity
You know that peace with God is a tremendously valuable thing.

Peace is important.
And peace is the chief thought of this offer of salvation.

This chapter has for it ONE MAIN CONTRAST.
A contrast between the fate of the righteous and the fate of the wicked.

The fate of the righteous is shown at the beginning of the chapter in verses 1-2 “The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from evil, He enters into peace; They rest in their beds, Each one who walked in his upright way.”

The fate of the wicked is shown at the end of the chapter in verses 20-21
“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

AND THE DECIDING DIFFERENCE
As to whether you are one of the righteous who receives peace
Or one of the wicked who receives judgment
Is whether or not you will humble yourself before the God.

Ch. 57 is simply an invitation of salvation to the wayward nation of Israel.
It is a call for them to see the value of humility before God.

I want to break it down into 4 points.

#1 THE EXPLANATION
Isaiah 57:1-2

As we said, we have recently dealt with the question:
“Are you ready for salvation?”

Here in the first 2 verses we see an explanation of readiness.

It is no surprise to us that those who are ready
Are described as “the righteous man”.

That certainly makes sense since we were told in Ch. 56 to “preserve justice and do righteousness” if we wanted to be ready for Christ’s coming.

Here we have a person who did not make it until the coming of the Lord.
This person died before Christ returned.

• Salvation for him was not when Christ split the sky and returned to earth,
• Salvation for this man was when his body died and his soul departed to be with
the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-57 “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And that is what has happened for this man.
He has stood face to face with the Lord.

And here we find the fate of the righteous when their day comes.

And the FIRST THING we recognize
Is that it is a day totally lost on the unredeemed.

“The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart; And devout men are taken away, while no one understands.”

Worldly men see things with worldly eyes.
• They measure man’s success by what a man achieves in this life.
• They give no account to the afterlife.

Scripture tells us that this way of thinking is foolish.

We all remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
Luke 16:19-25 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.”

If you only have worldly eyes
It will be quite apparent that the rich man had figured it out.
• He is the one who appears to have God’s favor.
• He is the one who appears to be enjoying God’s blessing.
• He is the one who appears to be able to smile at the future.

But one second totally changed that for both men.
In the blink of an eye each of these men stepped from this life into eternity
And my what a difference we behold then.

It was the poor man who was comforted for all eternity
It was the rich man who will spend all of eternity in torment.

DON’T LOOK AT THIS THING WITH HUMAN EYES.

That is what Isaiah says here.
• You poor pitiful people,
• You see the righteous dying
• You think that somehow they are the losers.

NOT EVEN CLOSE.

“For the righteous man is taken away from evil, he enters into peace; they rest on their beds, each one who has walked in his upright way.”

That certainly held true for Lazarus.
• Lazarus stepped out of poverty into riches.
• Lazarus stepped out of suffering into comfort.
• Lazarus stepped out of reproach into glory.
• Lazarus stepped out of turmoil into peace.

Death for Lazarus was a welcomed friend.

He understood what Paul meant when he wrote:
Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

When a righteous man dies there should be no grief on his behalf.
• Grieve for his wife if you desire.
• Grieve for his children.
• Grieve for the church that will miss his service.
• Grieve for the world that will miss his light.
• BUT DON’T GRIEVE FOR HIM.

He has been
• “taken away from evil”
• “he enters peace”
• He “rests on [his] bed”

And we could go on and on with this comforting truth,
Just by examining what we know of the glories of heaven.

But the simple point to be made at the start of this chapter is that
There are those who are ready for salvation, and it is the righteous.

• They are ready for the return of the Lord.
• They are ready for death.
• They are ready to escape the corruption of this fallen world.

They aren’t living their best life now, that comes later,
AND THEY ARE READY FOR IT.

But it is NOT Isaiah’s plan that his audience should enjoy that comfort.

#2 THE OBSERVATION
Isaiah 57:3-13a

(3) “But come here, you sons of a sorceress, Offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.”

I hope you grasp his point.
Verses 1-2 were a setup for this carnal congregation.

Isaiah says,
The righteous man “enters into peace…”

BUT THAT IS NOT YOU!
• YOU ARE “sons of a sorceress”
• YOU ARE “offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.”

Jesus and John the Baptist preferred the term “brood of vipers” (sons of snakes) but the point is the same.

My how Isaiah would hate the modern-day funeral.
• At funerals today everyone is “going to a better place”
• At funerals today everyone is told to “rest in peace”
• At funerals today they love to sing “Go Rest High…”
• Like it is automatic that the next life is better for everyone.

Well Isaiah just broke up your funeral service.

He came walking down the aisle in the middle of the eulogy and said,
“Peace? Not hardly! This man was a wicked man to the core.
There is no peace for him!”

Isaiah is not here to pat rebels on the back and assure their loved ones that they are now enjoying the glories of heaven.

Isaiah is here to tell a wicked congregation that if things don’t change you’ll never know a stitch of peace in eternity.

This chapter is meant to rattle the wicked out of their complacency
And to invite them back to the Lord.

Let’s look a little at Isaiah’s observation of Israel.

1) IGNORANT SCOFFING (4)

“Against whom do you jest? Against whom do you open wide your mouth And stick out your tongue? Are you not children of rebellion, Offspring of deceit..?”

Isaiah already referred to them as “false sons” back in chapter 30:9

We find them here to be scoffers.

Do we remember them scoffing at Isaiah?

Isaiah 28:9-10 “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’”

Do we remember the religious leaders in Jesus’ day doing the same to Him?

Luke 16:14 “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.”

Luke 23:35 “And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”

Do you remember when Saul of Tarsus was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus?

Acts 9:3-5 “As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,”

It was just a total disdain and scoffing at Christ.
Israel does this even to this day
As they reject Him as God’s Son and their Messiah.

Can you really call a man who scoffs at Jesus Christ, “A righteous man who will be in peace in heaven”?

HARDLY.

2) PAGAN WORSHIP (5-6)

“Who inflame yourselves among the oaks, Under every luxuriant tree, Who slaughter the children in the ravines, Under the clefts of the crags? “Among the smooth stones of the ravine Is your portion, they are your lot; Even to them you have poured out a drink offering, You have made a grain offering. Shall I relent concerning these things?”

This is pagan worship.
This is pagan sacrifice.
• They were going out to the high places in their sensual passion to enjoy the pagan worship.
• They were throwing their children off the cliff as sacrifices to the pagan gods.
• They were pouring out drink and grain offerings in the very ravine where their children had been killed in order to seek the blessing of a pagan deity.

These are people who worship the wrong gods.
They are people who delight in the murder of their children.
They are people who sacrifice on that altar that they might be blessed.

So you’re going to tell me that a person
• Who worships a false god..
• Who seeks and celebrates abortion…
• Or who embraces abortion so that they can have an easier or more prosperous
life

Is going to heaven and will be at peace for all eternity?

God asks, “Shall I relent concerning these things?”
Do you think this is the sort of thing God just overlooks?

I THINK NOT.

3) HIDDEN INIQUITY (7-8)

“Upon a high and lofty mountain You have made your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice. “Behind the door and the doorpost You have set up your sign; Indeed, far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself, And have gone up and made your bed wide. And you have made an agreement for yourself with them, You have loved their bed, You have looked on their manhood.”

IT’S GETTING EVEN WORSE.

Do you remember what God commanded all of Israel to hang on their door and on their doorpost?

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

And certainly Israel did write that on their doors.

But “Behind the door and the doorpost You have set up your sign”

It was the sign that spoke of their love for another.

Like an adulterous woman she would sneak off to meet her lover
“far removed from Me” and she “uncovered” herself.

She made her bed wide to accommodate many lovers
And she made an agreement with them,
When she was supposed to be in covenant with God.

“You have loved their bed, You have looked on their manhood.”

It is idolatry spoken of in terms of adultery.
• She tried to hide it.
• In hypocrisy she tried to keep it a secret.
• She tried to maintain that sign on the front of the door to appear devout.
• But she was a harlot.

So you’re telling me that a person who pretends devotion to God but who loves and trusts in idols is going to die, go to heaven, and then rest in peace?

I DON’T THINK SO.

4) TIRELESS COMMITMENT (9-10)

“You have journeyed to the king with oil And increased your perfumes; You have sent your envoys a great distance And made them go down to Sheol. “You were tired out by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewed strength, Therefore you did not faint.”

This speaks to how devoted they were to their idols.
• Even though the journey was long and costly and tiring, they did not stop.
• The summoned up new strength and remained faithful to their deception.

Even when God put obstacles in the way that made it harder for her to go,
She fought through the obstacles and pursued it anyway.

She wanted her sin and nothing could hold her back from it.

And you’re telling me that this person who would not turn from their sin even when faced with obstacles is going to die, go to heaven, and rest in peace?

ARE YOU SEEING THE LUNACY YET?

5) LACK OF FEAR (11)

“Of whom were you worried and fearful When you lied, and did not remember Me Nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time So you do not fear Me?”

Here we see that horrific seared conscience of that one who doesn’t even care if God finds out.
• They reached a point where their love of sin was greater than their fear of God.
• They did what they wanted and no longer cared if God was displeased.

And you’re telling me that when they die God will allow them to rest in peace?

NO, THEIR JUDGMENT WILL NOT BE SO PLEASANT.

(12-13a) “I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, But they will not profit you. “When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind will carry all of them up, And a breath will take them away.”

On the day that this person stands before the Lord,
Their deeds will be clearly and justly and accurately judged.

• God will pour out all their good.
• God will pour out all their righteousness.
• God will pour out all their deeds.
(You know everyone is a good person at their funeral)

God will pour every bit of that out on the scales and then here comes the verdict: “they will profit you nothing”

ON THAT DAY,
• When the wicked are in hell
• They are screaming for Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in the water
• And touch it to their tongue,
• The answer will be, “Call on your lover; your idol, and let them do it for you.”

“let your collection of idols deliver you.”

But those idols won’t be found because they are nothing.
• They are NOT “high and exalted”.
• They do NOT “live forever”.
• They are NOT “holy”.
• They do NOT “dwell in a high and holy place”.

They are like chaff and “the wind will carry all of them up, and a breath will take them away.”

Do you really think that those who spend their lives mocking God’s truth, pursuing sin, walking in hypocrisy, committed to their iniquity, and without fearing God are going to die, go to heaven, and then rest in peace?

I’M AFRAID NOT.

And that is ISAIAH’S POINT even to the wayward people of Israel today.

It is true that the righteous man dies and then he rests in peace…BUT YOU ARE NOT RIGHTEOUS!

• You have rejected Christ.
• You have trusted in your pagan ceremonies.
• You have walked in hypocrisy.
• You have remained committed to it no matter the cost.
• And you have no fear of God.

PEACE IS NOT WHAT IS COMING FOR YOU.
That is Isaiah’s observation.

BUT… as we said, God is a gracious God!
God is a Savior of sinners!

And this is where Isaiah 57 begins to blow the mind.
• It is clear that God is furious with these people.
• It is clear that they have offended Him in every way.
• It is clear that they in no way deserve heaven.
• And if they stay that course they certainly will not receive it.

BUT…
Even though these prodigals have wandered far from home and offended God in every possible way…

#3 THE INVITATION
Isaiah 57:13b-19

(13b) “But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land And will possess My holy mountain.”

Do you want to see the gospel again?
There it is!

“he who takes refuge in Me”

“When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh may I then in Him be found,
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before His throne.”

We remember well the story of Jesus:
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

• The houses are your works.
• The storm is the judgment.
• The rock is Christ and He is the only thing that will survive that storm.

If you trust in your idols and run after your sin
• You will not be able to withstand the coming judgment,

But if you run to Christ and trust in Him
• You “will inherit the land and will possess My holy mountain.”

And for that person who comes running to Christ,
Here is the announcement of God:

(14) “And it will be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people.”

We are familiar with the similar message of John the Baptist
• Who told sinners to fill in the holes and smooth out the bumps to prepare for
the coming of the King.

Well here we find when a sinner decides to leave his sin and run to Christ
That God calls out that every barrier be removed from him too!

Get out of the way of His people when they are running to Him!

That is what James said when the Jerusalem church was discussing whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved.

Acts 15:19 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,”

In short, if you want to run to Christ, God will oblige you!
• He will not hinder you.
• He will not throw up a barricade to stop you.
• He will throw open the gates and smooth out the road.

If you’re a short little man like Zaccheus
• He’ll put a sycamore tree at your disposal.

If you’re a blind man like Bartimaeus
• He’ll be sure to walk down your road.

If you’re a wayward woman at a well,
• He’ll go to your well for a drink.

If you want to come to Jesus, God will clear a path.
EVEN IF YOU’VE BEEN A VILE IDOL WORSHIPING SINNER

Why would God do that?
(15) “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Very simply put because God loves to dwell with broken sinners.
God loves to save the lowly and contrite.

His favorite view is of broken people running to Him.
• He welcomes them.
• He dines with them.
• He embraces them.

Ask Matthew and his tax collector buddies.
Ask the prodigal when he got home.
Ask the woman at the well.
Ask Zaccheus.

That is what God does, He saves lowly sinners.

Listen to what He says:
(16) “For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would grow faint before Me, And the breath of those whom I have made.”

What does that mean except that God does not hold a grudge.
• He does not maintain His anger forever.
• He delights in forgiveness.
• He delights in reconciliation.
• He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

THAT IS WHO HE IS.

And then God gives an explanation:
(17-19) “Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, And he went on turning away, in the way of his heart. “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, Creating the praise of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” Says the LORD, “and I will heal him.”

God says,
• It is true, I was angry at him.
• It is true, his iniquity and idolatry did offend Me greatly.
• It is true, I did strike him for his sin.
• And it is true that he did stay in that sin a long time.

If you want to say that Matthew and Zaccheus grieved me for a long time you’d be right…they did.

If you want to point out that the woman at the well angered me and received a lot of punishment for her sin, you’d be right… she did.

If you want to point out that I was grieved by the prodigal and his financial ruin and pig pen occupation was My discipline…it was.

But now, “I have seen his ways”
That is to say, “I have seen his brokenness and humility and contrition”

And, “I will heal him”
“I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, Creating the praise of the lips.”

I will restore him and heal him and bring him home
Because he humbled himself.

And look at the final call of God.
(19b) “Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal him.”

That is and has always been God’s offer of salvation.
• You may have been the most dedicated idol worshiper in the history of the world.
• You may have offended God at every turn and stubbornly persisted in it.
• You may have played the hypocrite with God’s sign on your door but entertaining sin behind it.

And yet, God offers peace to any
Who humble themselves and become contrite in heart.
He promises to dwell with them and to heal them.

WHAT AN INVITATION!
Sinners who humble themselves are welcome to God!

Matthew 5:3-6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

THAT IS GOOD NEWS.

But there is one more point to be made.

#4 THE DECLARATION
Isaiah 57:20-21

This almost seems like
Just the opposite of what was being offered in verse 13.

But it helps us understand who Isaiah is talking about
When he is talking about the righteous
And when he is talking about the wicked.

Obviously the righteous cannot refer to people who have lived perfectly righteous lives…

WHY?
“Because there is none righteous, not even one.”

If God is going to talk about the wicked then that encompasses all of us.
• We are all wicked.
• We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But in this chapter the righteous
Is not simply those who have always done righteousness
And the wicked
Is not just those who have only done wickedness.

SO WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

THE RIGHTEOUS
• Are the formerly wicked
• Who have humbled themselves,
• Run to Christ,
• And found forgiveness in Him.

THE WICKED
• Are those who chose not to run to Christ,
• But instead continue with their idols
• And live as though this life is all there is.

THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE.

You and I have already done enough
That we have no logical reason to expect peace at all,
Especially in eternity.

But God has determined that He will extend peace
Even to undeserving sinners
If they will humble themselves and run to Him.

For that is the kind of God that He is!