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False Sons
Isaiah 30:1-18
October 29, 2023

Leo stuck his head in my office Wednesday night
As he was working on the music for this morning.
He’d read Isaiah 30 and said, “Another chapter about rebellious people.”

Perhaps you have felt that fatigue as well.

It seems as though every time we turn the page in Isaiah
We are confronted with more of the same.

• Another chapter about Israel’s stubbornness.
• Another chapter about Israel’s rebellion.
• Another chapter about Israel’s refusal to listen.

It is easy to find this study a little exhausting
As we naturally want to move into something a little less heavy
And a little more cheerful.

And IT’S OK if you’ve had those types of feelings
As we cover this same issue week after week.

IN FACT, I might point out to you that God feels the exact same way.

All you have to do is read verse 18
(18) “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

• Do you know who else would like to move on?
• Do you know who else would like to leave judgment and talk about grace?
• Do you know who else would like to focus on compassion?

GOD

Nothing would make Him happier than to be able to move on
From warnings of judgment against stubborn and obstinate people.

The frustration that we feel in this lengthy section of rebellion
Is the frustration that occurs between a righteous God of justice
And sinners who refuse to repent.

THIS MORNING that frustration of God bubbles over to a whole new level.

For here God now looks at the inhabitants of Jerusalem and declares, “You are not Mine.”

• In verse 1 God says, “Woe to the rebellious children…”
• In verse 9 He calls them, “a rebellious people, FALSE SONS, Sons who refuse to listen…”

We knew their identity had already been in question.

Isaiah 1:2-3 “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”

In chapter 1 God had been questioning their quality as sons,
But He still called them “sons”, He still called them “My people”.

But now in chapter 30 it is being questioned whether they are His at all.
God calls them, “false sons”.

And that is not beyond the scope of possibility.
Romans 9:6 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;”

Galatians 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”

The implication being that those without faith are not true sons.

Jesus certainly had His moments
Of exposing the faulty DNA of the Jews in His day.

Who can forget Him telling Nicodemus He needed to be “born again”?

We certainly remember Him warning the Jews:
Luke 13:28 “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.”

It must have been shocking to the Jews to hear that in the afterlife
They would have no place in the kingdom with their ancestors.

Of course the most direct moment of conviction came in John 8
John 8:39-47 “They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

You can’t get much more direct than that.
• Abraham isn’t your father…
• God isn’t your father…
• “You are of your father the devil”

We are confronted once again with the sobering reality that
Not everyone who claims to be a child of God is a child of God.

Not everyone who claims to be saved actually is saved.

1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

There is such a thing as false sons.

Certainly then it should be our ambition to examine our own spiritual DNA
And make sure that we are in fact children of God.

Peter said:
2 Peter 1:10 “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;”

Paul said:
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

Jesus said:
Luke 8:19-21 “And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. And it was reported to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.” But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

False sons are real.
And this morning God is going to use Isaiah
To help us see what they look like.

Do you want some indicators of a false son?
Do you want some clues as to how to spot one?

We’ll break these verses into 4 points.
#1 THE ISSUE OF GOD’S WARNING
Isaiah 30:1-7

When you read those 7 verses in a lump
The problem of the day becomes evident.

As the Assyrian army is bearing down on the land of Judah
The response of the people of Jerusalem is to send to Egypt for help.

(2) “Who proceed down to Egypt, Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!”

THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
• We’ve known about this problem for several weeks.
• Back in chapter 28 Isaiah referred to it as “a covenant with death” and “a pact with Sheol”

It is the logical plan of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
To find salvation from the coming Assyrian threat.

But God has a warning for them in regard to this decision.

1) GOING TO EGYPT IS SINFUL (1-2)

• God pronounces “Woe” on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
• And God calls them “rebellious children”

And the reason is because they “execute a plan, but not Mine”.
They “make an alliance, but not of My Spirit”

It’s the reality of someone who faces a dilemma and needs a Savior
But does not consult God’s plan for salvation.

• They follow their own logic.
• They follow worldly advice.
• They do what seems best to them.

There is no room for faith.
There is no room for seeking God.
And they run to put their trust in someone who is not God.

IT IS A SINFUL ALLIANCE.
We remember Paul warning the Corinthians
About not being unequally yoked with unbelievers.

That is what Jerusalem is seeking to do here.
And God says to do so is “to add sin to sin;”

We have been told our whole lives that “two wrongs doesn’t make a right”
And that is being pointed out here.

Their FIRST SIN was idolatry and disobedience to God.
• That sin was what caused God to send Assyria in the first place.
• God sent His Assyrian Rod into Judah to punish them for their idolatry.
• The purpose was to cause them to cry out to Him for forgiveness and salvation.

But that let to their SECOND SIN which was to run to Egypt instead.
• They didn’t consult God.
• They didn’t try to find salvation in God.
• They went to Pharaoh as though he was a savior.

God says this was a sinful decision.

But that’s not all God says about it.
2) GOING TO EGYPT IS SHAMEFUL (3-5)

(3) “Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.”

That is to say, “What you think is your brilliant idea of salvation will end up being remembered as the dumbest thing you ever did.”

IT WILL NOT END WELL.

WHY?
(4) “For their princes are at Zoan And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.”

• “Zoan” and “Hanes” were Egyptian cities.

SO WHAT IS THE POINT?

You went looking for a savior
And you looked for someone who lives on earth.

Later Isaiah will say:
Isaiah 31:3 “Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.”

You needed a savior and you looked on earth for him.
• You didn’t consult the God of heaven.
• You didn’t consult the eternal Maker of the universe.
• You went to “Zoan” to find your deliverance.

You’re going to look back on this decision in humiliation someday.

(5) “Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

God DIDN’T raise Egypt up as a savior,
He raised them up as a means to humiliate all who trust in him.

Incidentally, even the king of Assyria knew Egypt was no savior.
2 Kings 18:19-21 “Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have? “You say (but they are only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? “Now behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.”

But it didn’t stop Jerusalem from seeking him.

And still God has more to say about trusting in Egypt.
3) GOING TO EGYPT IS STUPID (6-7)

Here we come across that word “oracle” again.
• You know it means “burden”
• And here it is a literal burden.

Isaiah looks at the leaders of Jerusalem and asks them for a moment
TO CONSIDER THE BURDEN OF SEEKING EGYPT.

Would you stop for a second and just consider how hard and how costly it is to try and recruit Egypt’s help?

Just look what it’s doing to your donkeys and camels!

(6) “The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev. Through a land of distress and anguish, From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on camels’ humps”

You pack up all your payment and treasures
And lead your donkeys through lion country and there are snakes.

And I don’t even know what a “flying serpent” is, but trust me I don’t want to.

Look at how hard this trip is!
Look at how dangerous this trip is!

AND IT WOULD BE ONE THING
• If you were making this journey to someone who could actually save you,
• But you are making this journey “to a people who cannot profit them;”

(7) “Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty. Therefore, I have called her, ‘Rahab who has been exterminated.’”

• Another translation would be “Rahab the do-nothing”

You went to all that work and faced all that danger and paid all that expense just to recruit a savior who can’t save. HOW STUPID!

WHEN ALL ALONG
• All God wanted was for them to consult Him.
• All God wanted was for them to repent and submit their lives to Him.

You see that later:
(15) “For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,”

God simply wanted His sons to submit to Him,
But instead they insisted on being “rebellious children.”

And there we learn our first indicator of what a false son looks like.

THEY WANT SHELTER WITHOUT SUBMISSION.

Are they a people who know they need to be saved? Yes
Do they want salvation? Yes

But they aren’t willing to submit to God to obtain it.

• The Bible says that in order to be saved you must confess Jesus as Lord.
• You are called to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.

IF YOU WILL NOT submit your life to Him in obedience
THEN YOU DO NOT get to be His child.

As we read a moment ago:
Luke 8:21 “But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

And yet there are many people
• Who will associate with God’s people.
• Who want to be saved and want a savior.
• But they are not interested in submission or obedience to God to obtain it.

So instead, when life gets difficult and judgment looms,
Instead of submitting their will to Christ,
They run to human means to find salvation.

• They don’t seek God.
• They don’t repent of their sin.
• They run to some human Egypt to deliver them from God’s discipline.

They would rather take their chances with a human savior
Than have to leave their sin and submit to God.

THEY WANT SHELTER WITHOUT SUBMISSION.
That is a mark of a false son.

Let’s keep going on the chapter.
#2 THE PRESERVATION OF GOD’S WITNESS
Isaiah 30:8-11

Because these people are so stubborn, God now has a command for Isaiah.

(8) “Now go, write it on a tablet before them And inscribe it on a scroll, That it may serve in the time to come As a witness forever.”

These people won’t listen today,
So write it down for the day in which they will listen.

Or perhaps write it down for their children who will want to know how this whole mess got started and they can read it and be informed.

• You likely remember 1 Corinthians 10 where Paul told us to learn from the example of Israel’s disobedience in the wilderness.

But Isaiah is told to quit preaching and start writing.

(9-11) “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

It’s quit a mouthful isn’t it?
• They aren’t interested in the vision of the seers.
• They aren’t interested in the message of the prophets.

WHY?
• Because the seers and the prophets keep giving them the word of God
• And that word is the same word over and over.
• That word is HOLY

Ever since Isaiah entered that temple and saw the Holy One on the throne
He has not been able to put it out of his mind.

God is Holy, Holy, Holy!
And I am not.
And we are not.

We are all people of unclean lips.
We all have bad hearts.
WE MUST REPENT!

But the people have gotten sick of hearing that message.
• “Quit telling us to repent!”
• “Quit telling us that we are sinners!”
• “Quit telling us that we need to be saved from the wrath of God!”

“Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions.”
• We don’t even care if it’s true we just want it to be more upbeat.
• We don’t care if it it’s accurate, just try to be funny.

And look, preachers like Joel Olsteen
Have built their entire ministries on this fallen mindset.

Paul warned us:
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

When Stephen preached
• He exposed the stubbornness of the people in Jerusalem
• But they covered their ears and rushed at him and stoned him to death.

God has had one standard for these people and it is holiness.
And they don’t want to hear it.

And this is yet another indication of a false son.

THEY WANT HAPPINESS WITHOUT HOLINESS

I just want God to make me happy.
I want a God who just loves me as I am.
I want a God who isn’t bothered by my sin.

My sin makes me happy
And I just want God to be happy for me and love me anyway.

“Quit telling me to repent!”
“Stop being so judgy!”
“Why can’t you just let me do what I want and be happy for me?”

Just preach me a little sermon about
How good God is
And how He wants to bless me
And how my picture is on His refrigerator.

You’ve heard it all haven’t you?
Well that is a mark of a false son.

They come to God because they want to be affirmed in their sin,
But if God insists on confronting their sin
They want nothing to do with Him.

They’ll leave that church and go somewhere
That makes them feel good about themselves.

Several years ago we had a couple leave our church and the reason given by the wife was: “I’m just tired of feeling bad when I leave church.”

My response was, “It’s called repentance.”

But the mark of a false son is that
THEY WANT HAPPINESS WITHOUT HOLINESS.

The Issue of God’s Warning
The Preservation of God’s Witness
#3 THE EXPLANATION OF GOD’S WRATH
Isaiah 30:12-17

Here God returns to their foolish decision
To seek refuge in some manmade shelter.

Like the man who built his house on the sand,
It’s just not going to survive the coming storm.

(12-14) “Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Since you have rejected this word And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them, Therefore this iniquity will be to you Like a breach about to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant, Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a sherd will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern.”

They were trying to provide their own refuge in Egypt.

God said
• “That is like a man building a wall to hold back a tidal wave.”
• “It’s going to bulge and crack and it’s not going to make it.”
• “It’s going to fall suddenly and be destroyed thoroughly.”

You cannot try to save yourself with human ingenuity.

God says that they “have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them,”

Those are human means of getting ahead.
• “oppression” is the word OSHEK and it means “extortion” or “unjust gain”
• “guile” is the word LOOZ and it means “to go wrong” or “devious”

It’s just a picture of how humans will bend the rules and cheat
To try and save themselves instead of placing their faith in God.

AND THIS WAS JERUSALEM.
• Instead of doing what God commanded them, they went wrong.
• They chose to be corrupt and run to Egypt instead.

And God says, that won’t work.
Egypt is like a poorly built wall in a tornado.

(15) “For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,”

God has reiterated that there is ONLY ONE WAY TO SURVIVE this storm.
YOU MUST REPENT!

• “repentance” – a Hebrew word that means “retire” or “withdraw”
• “rest” – a Hebrew word that means “quiet attitude” or “to sit down”
• “quietness” – a Hebrew word that means “be calm” or “quiet down”
• “trust” – a Hebrew word that means “trust” or “confidence”

You put it all together and it becomes clear WHAT GOD HAS WANTED
• I want you to sit down.
• I want you to close your mouth.
• I want you to listen to Me.
• I want you to do what I say.

This is God’s plan for how to be saved from Assyria.

What was Jerusalem’s answer? NO!

(16-17) “And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on swift horses,” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. One thousand will flee at the threat of one man; You will flee at the threat of five, Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top And as a signal on a hill.”

• No, we won’t sit down!
• We’re not going to listen to You!
• We’ve got our own plan and it doesn’t require doing what You say!

We’re going to run!
• And God says, “You’ve got that right.”

Well we’re going to run fast!
• And God say, “Not fast enough.”

God says I’m going to totally blow up your plans
Until you are left all alone in judgment.

How foolish!

But we see yet again another mark of a false son.

THEY WANT REFUGE WITHOUT REPENTANCE

• They don’t want to leave their sin, they want to escape with it.
• They aren’t looking to put their sin down they want to know how to escape and keep it.

If repentance is God’s only option then they look for another savior.

They’ve got other plans to try and escape judgment.

• Some men will cry for the mountains and hills to fall on them and hide them from the presence of the One who sits on the throne.

• Some men will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy and cast out demons and work miracles?”

• Some will try to wear their own clothes and sneak into the wedding banquet but they will be caught and thrown outside.

• Some men will simply beg for Lazarus to touch his finger in the water and give them relief from the flame.

All kinds of plans regarding how to escape judgment,
BUT NONE OF THEM WILL WORK.

There is only one plan that works and that is repentance.
You must leave your sin and submit yourself to God.

He will save you from your sin and make you holy.

But if submission and holiness and repentance are not your interest
Then you are carrying all the DNA of a false son.

One more point to make in this passage.
#4 THE REMINDER OF GOD’S WILL
Isaiah 30:18

And we’re going to talk again about these false sons,
BUT DON’T MISS A BEAUTIFUL POINT HERE.
• Despite their rebellion…
• Despite their stubbornness…
• Despite their love of sin…
• Despite their hatred for holiness…

How beautiful is it to see that God has not given up on them?

“Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion to you.”

Despite their rebellion God is not waiting to destroy them.
God is waiting to forgive them.

It is God’s desire to reconcile with them.
It is God’s desire to save them…STILL

He “longs to be gracious”
He “waits…to have compassion”

AND SINFUL MAN SAYS:
Well if that is what He wants to do, then why doesn’t He just do it?
• If He longs to be gracious, then why not just be gracious?
• If He longs to have compassion, then why not just be compassionate?

And that is very must the mindset of our world.

• They’ve heard many times over how loving and merciful and gracious, and compassionate God is.
• So now, our culture, even in their sin have decided that I’ll just stay in my sin and God will be gracious.

Why does God wait to have compassion?

“For the LORD is a God of justice;”

He is gracious and He is compassionate, but He is also just.
• He will immediately show you grace…when you repent.
• He will instantly have compassion on you…when you repent.

That is why Isaiah says, “How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

And notice the word “all”.

What a blessing to know that every single person
Who repents of their sin and seeks His face
Is guaranteed to receive grace and compassion.

It is available for all who will seek Him!
It is available for all who will repent and ask!

But He will wait for you to ask.
He will wait for your repentance to give out either.

And that indicates for us then THE PROBLEM.

Matthew 23:37-39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’”

• All they had to do was repent.
• All they had to do was submit to Him.
• All they had to do was cry out to Him for salvation.

He would bless them and save them and shelter them and secure them.

BUT THEY WOULD NOT.
• They told their prophets to stop preaching, in fact they killed the prophets.
• They told their missionaries to get lost, in fact they stoned them.

Jesus was ready to forgive but they were unwilling to repent.

And here you find one more attribute of a false son.

THEY WANT SALVATION WITHOUT SEEKING

• Just let us go about our business.
• Just let us keep doing what we want.
• Just let us keep on rejecting You.
BUT YOU GO AHEAD AND SAVE US ANYWAY.

Be gracious.
Be compassionate.
I won’t stop You.
That is not what a true child of God thinks.

False sons want shelter without submission.
False sons want happiness without holiness.
False sons want refuge without repentance.
False sons want salvation without seeking.

A true son submits to His Father in all things.
A true son delights in holiness because his Father is holy.
A true son repents of the sin which has offended his Father.
A true son longs for his Father’s presence, not just some benefit.

DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?

Now you know why God calls these people “false sons”
They don’t submit
They don’t listen
They don’t repent
They don’t seek Him.

And maybe as we study this text
God has convicted your heart that this is you.

As you took the DNA test you got honest and said,
• I don’t submit to or obey Christ.
• I don’t seek holiness in my life.
• I don’t listen to His word or seek it.
• I don’t repent of sin, I just try to get away without getting punished.
• I don’t seek God, I just want to go to heaven when I die.

Maybe that is you and God has confronted you this morning.
And you are wondering, what should I do?

Let’s end this morning with a story about a son who woke up one day and discovered that he had been a false son too.

Let’s look at what he did
And how the Father responded.

TURN TO: LUKE 15:11-24

You know that story.
• A false and ungrateful son who didn’t love his father.
• He wanted sin and he wasn’t afraid to chase it.

But one day he came to his senses.
• He humbled himself
• He returned to his father in repentance
• He sought his father in humility and silence

And his father couldn’t wait to have compassion on him.
• His father graciously threw him a banquet!

If you find yourself to be a false son, then come home to your Father.

“the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.”

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The Marvelous Work of God – Part 2
Isaiah 29:1-24 (2-24)
October 22, 2023

We started this chapter this morning which outlines
“The Marvelous Work of God”

• We are talking about God’s supernatural work.
• We are talking about God’s miraculous work.
• It is that which is too difficult for men, but it is not too difficult for God.

And as we said this morning, this is the work of revival.
This is the work of redemption.
This is the work of opening blind eyes and deaf ears.

Jerusalem certainly had both.
They were a hypocritical people whose worship
Was nothing more than learned tradition.

They had no love for God.
They had no fear of God.
They were robots going through the motions.
They were in need of revival.

What a blessing it is to know that God is in the revival business.
For all the miracles that typically get sought after today,
The one miracle God still does on a daily basis
Is the miracle of redemption and revival.

It is the miracle that is outlined for us in Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

• It is God who opens blind eyes.
• It is God who opens deaf ears.
• It is God who softens hard hearts.
• It is God who awakens dead souls.

The story of Lazarus is but one of many examples of God taking what is dead and making it alive.

The salvation of Saul of Tarsus is another example of God taking those who are blind and making them see.

The salvation of Zaccheaus is an example of God taking what is deaf and making them hear.

This is the marvelous work of God.

And as we saw THIS MORNING Jerusalem needed it.

We looked at the first point of this chapter.
#1 THEIR UNACCEPTABLE WORSHIP
Isaiah 29:1

This city, “where David once camped”
That is to say “This city that was once full of genuine worship”

“Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.”

It was a sarcastic statement as if to say, “What good is that going to do?”
• You keep showing up.
• You keep going through the motions.
• You keep doing the same old things.

But even though your words are near, your hearts are far away.
1. You’re nothing but robots following tradition.
2. And the second you get out of the temple you run into your sin as though I don’t see you.

THEY WERE PEOPLE IN NEED OF REVIVAL.
Fortunately God is the type of God who can bring revival.
He is the type of God will correct our faulty worship.

Tonight we move on to see exactly how God will do just that.
#2 THEIR UNSEEN ASSAULT
Isaiah 29:2-4

You’ll see why it is unseen in a moment,
BUT FIRST let’s look at the assault.

You will remember in verse 1 God referred to Jerusalem with a nickname.
He called her “Ariel” which means “Lion of God”

And here in verses 2-4 we see that this lion
Is now being hunted, surrounded, and put down.

God says, (2-3) “I will bring distress to Ariel, And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning; And she will be like an Ariel to me. I will camp against you encircling you, And I will set siegeworks against you, And I will raise up battle towers against you.”

It paints the picture of a group of hunters tracking a lion, encircling it,
Throwing up barricades and preparing to attack.

This is of course exactly what Sennacherib did to Jerusalem
During the reign of Hezekiah.

But here, before Sennacherib ever occurred,
God is promising that this “distress” IS COMING.

And for what purpose?
(4) “Then you will be brought low; From the earth you will speak, And from the dust where you are prostrate Your words will come. Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground, And your speech will whisper from the dust.”

It is extremely clear.
• The purpose is NOT destruction.
• The purpose is NOT total eradication.

THE PURPOSE IS HUMILITY.
God is going to break the pride of this complacent city.

• This city is full of hypocrisy and tradition.
• This city is full of worldliness and comforts.
• Their worship is unacceptable to God and they are filled with pride.

So God is rising up to do His marvelous work and it begins with distress.

This is how God brings revival to His people.

SOMETIMES IT IS LITERAL PHYSICAL DISTRESS.
• We’ve all experienced times of pain or suffering or hardship which humble us
and drive us to the ground.
• We’ve all experienced times of suffering which causes us to loosen our grip
on the things of the world and renew our interest in God.

BUT IT’S NOT ALWAYS PHYSICAL DISTRESS.

Many a man has been led to revival
Because of the distress of his soul.

AND REVIVAL NEVER OCCURS WITHOUT THIS.

Revival always starts with a time of confrontation
And conviction from the Lord.
It always begins with God bringing conviction to the heart.

He always begins by crushing the pride of the sinner.
• We are talking about people who have grown comfortable in phony worship.
• We are talking about people who talk a good game on Sunday, but then live
in sin throughout the week.

The first leg of revival is when
God will crush that phoniness and love of sin.

The Assyrian assault is in many ways a metaphor for what God does to the soul to bring about revival for His people.

Can we go again to Psalm 32?

Psalms 32 “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”

You see that point of conviction in David’s life.
“day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality drained away as with the fever heat of summer”

EVER BEEN THERE?
When God just seemed to put His thumb on you and lay you bare before Him?
• He began to put you in distress of soul and crush your pride
• Until you let go of all your self-reliance and love of sin.

That is the first step to revival in your heart.
And that is what God does here.

We have a city of proud hypocritical people
So God is bringing distress in the form of Assyria.

“Then you will be brought low; From the earth you will speak, And from the dust where you are prostrate Your words will come. Your voice will also whisper like that of a spirit from the ground, And your speech you will whisper from the dust.”

What a statement of humility!
• “brought low”
• “from the earth”
• “from the dust”
• “you are prostrate”
• “from the ground”
• “from the dust”
• “whisper”

It is a man who has lost all pride and dignity.
It is a man who has nothing left to hang on to.
And God is promising to bring that to Jerusalem.

It is the first step in revival.

But we said that this assault would be UNSEEN.

That is to say, despite the fact that Isaiah has been talking about it,
The people of Jerusalem would be caught totally off guard by it.

WHY?

Well, look down to verses 9-12
(9-12) “Be delayed and wait, Blind yourselves and be blind; They become drunk, but not with wine, They stagger, but not with strong drink. For the LORD has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep, He has shut your eyes, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, the seers. The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

Isaiah speaks of “the prophets” and “the seers”
And he says that God “has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep”

• They are “delayed”.
• They are “blind”
• They “stagger”

In other words, God has not allowed them to see what is coming.

DO YOU REMEMBER WHY?
We saw it back in chapter 28.

Because when God did try to speak to them,
They responded with scorn and mockery.

Isaiah tried to call them to repentance, but they wouldn’t listen.
• Remember, they made a covenant with Sheol.
• They had a plan…Egypt would protect them.

So when God spoke they saw no need to listen.

And in response to this arrogance
God has now hidden the plan from them.

(11-12) “The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

You have two men there.
• One is literate and learned.
• One is illiterate.

• You hand the first guy the book and he’s too lazy to open it and read it.
• You hand it to the second guy, he can’t read, and he’s too lazy to learn.

You have men here who have no interest in the word of God.
They don’t care what God has to say.
They don’t care to listen to God.

And because of this, they are totally unaware of what God is about to do.
God will bring Assyria right up to the neck of this city
And they will be totally shocked when it happens.

There will be no plan to prevent it.
There will be no plan to evacuate and escape it.
Assyria is going to show up unaware and bust you right in the mouth.

Can I state the obvious to you?
Perhaps God wouldn’t have to hit so hard if His people would simply listen to His word.

• If one cared to read what God had to say and do it…
• If one cared to investigate what God has said to do it…
• Perhaps God’s warning alone would lead to the necessary repentance.

But when a man won’t listen and a man won’t learn,
God has more severe means of getting their attention.

Here God is bringing and army to the gates.

WHY?
So “you will be brought low”

God is going to take you down a notch.
This is the first step of His marvelous work of revival.

• It is conviction…
• It is discipline…
• It is those things in life which pry our idols out of our hands…
• It is those things in life which refute our faulty speculations…
• It is those things in life which crush our self-love and pride…

God must take people who won’t listen
And change their demeanor to make them ready to listen.

JESUS
• Knocked Saul of his horse and struck him with blindness.
• He brought to the surface the immoral decisions of the woman at the well.
• He confronted the darkness and total depravity of Nicodemus’ heart.

THIS IS WHAT GOD DOES.

Even Isaiah first stood in the presence of God and cried, “Woe is me! I am undone!”

God must first crush that pride.
And while this is not pleasant it is so important.

Charles Spurgeon once said,
“I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me against the Rock of Ages.”

Well that is what God is doing here.
Because of their pride.

You see this spoken of yet AGAIN in verse 17
(17) “Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, And the fertile field will be considered as a forest?”

It is the picture of degradation.
• Cities become fields.
• Fields become pastures.

It is a picture of God bringing upon this city His distressing hand
In order to drive them to the dirt.

So far they have been unwilling to listen when He called.
By the time He is finished not only will they be listening, but they will be seeking Him.

This is part of His marvelous work.
This is how He brings revival and redemption.

But it is at this point in the chapter
Where it almost seems like God does a complete 180.

He goes from talking about the distress of Jerusalem
To the destruction of the one who will distress them.

Look at verses 5-8
(5-8) “But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust, And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; And it will happen instantly, suddenly. From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire. And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against Ariel, Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, Will be like a dream, a vision of the night. It will be as when a hungry man dreams— And behold, he is eating; But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied, Or as when a thirsty man dreams— And behold, he is drinking, But when he awakens, behold, he is faint And his thirst is not quenched. Thus the multitude of all the nations will be Who wage war against Mount Zion.”

So God just said that He was going to drive Jerusalem down into distress.

But then
• He will pulverize their enemy “like fine dust”.
• He will blow them away “like chaff”

According to vs 6, “From the LORD of hosts you will be punished”,
But then He will totally do away with those who punish you.

In fact, in verses 7-8 He compares the Assyrian invasion to a dream.
It will be horrible and terrible, but it will end instantly and suddenly.

Like when you have a nightmare and it’s horrible,
But you wake up and instantly have relief because it was only a dream.

And we know from history that this is exactly what happened.
• We know how Sennacherib surrounded Jerusalem.
• We know how his commanders read that letter to the men on the wall.
• We know how they promised to destroy Jerusalem.
• We know how Hezekiah humbled himself.
• We know that he spread that letter out to God.
• And we know how God killed 180,000 Assyrians in one night.

They came bringing distress.
They drove Jerusalem to the dirt in humility.
Then God blew them away like dust or like chaff.

And in the same breath which God announced their coming,
God also announced their demise.

What do we make of this?

Well this is the 3rd point of Isaiah’s chapter.

Their Unacceptable Worship
Their Unseen Assault
#3 THEIR UNFAILING COVENANT
Isaiah 29:5-8

Do you understand what is happening here?
• Is God angry with His people? Yes
• Is God frustrated with their worship? Yes
• Is God going to distress them and drive to the dirt? Yes

BUT THEY ARE STILL GOD’S PEOPLE
It has never entered His mind to abandon them.
It has never entered His mind to just do away with them.

They deserve discipline and they will receive it.
They need humility and God will teach it.
But He will not cast them away or abandon them.

They are His people.
He made promises to Abraham and He will keep those promises.

They need revival to be sure, and God will bring it.
But total destruction was never on the table.

REMEMBER THAT WHEN GOD BRINGS DISTRESS INTO YOUR LIFE.
He will humble you, but He will not discard you.

His punishment may even be severe.
(6) “From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.”

That’s how you drive a proud people to their knees in humility.
He will do that.
• But as soon as humility occurs…
• As soon as repentance happens…
• God will also remove their distresser and blow him away as though he was never there.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS IN YOUR LIFE?
• God brings about conviction and it is painful and it is harsh.
• He crushes you under the weight of His holiness and His word.
• He relentlessly squeezes until you turn loose of your idols and your sin.

But the second you do, that conviction is gone!
It is replaced with the most amazing peace and joy!

The goal of God was not to crush you beyond hope,
It was to drive you back to Him.

And so look now at THE END RESULT of God’s marvelous work.

Look down to verses 18-21
(18-21) “On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless will come to an end and the scorner will be finished, Indeed all who are intent on doing evil will be cut off; Who cause a person to be indicted by a word, And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate, And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.”

Do you know what we call this?
We call it revival.
• “the deaf will hear”
• “the blind will see”

That is not physical blindness or physical deafness.
That is when God opens the eyes and ears of the stubborn.

At this point “the afflicted will increase their gladness”

Those who were driven down to the ground in humility
Will be grateful for what God has done.

“the ruthless will come to an end” – that’s called repentance!
“the scorner will be finished” – no more mocking God’s word

God will put an end to evil and liars and defrauders.
It is the end result of God humbling His people.

And listen, only God can do that!

Can a leopard change its spots?
Can an Ethiopian change his skin?
• Can a deaf man hear?
• Can a blind man see?
• Can a dead man live?

No, not unless God does a marvelous work in their life
And that is what Isaiah sees here.

Because God has an unfailing covenant with His people
He will not allow them to remain in their unrepentant state.

Instead He will do a marvelous work that
Starts with distress, produces humility, and ends in revival.

This is the marvelous work of God.
• This is the supernatural work of God.
• This is the miraculous work of God.
• This is what man can’t do, but God can do.

We praise God that He does this in our lives.

And then we take a look at the celebration after revival occurs.

(22-24) “Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, They will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob And will stand in awe of the God of Israel. “Those who err in mind will know the truth, And those who criticize will accept instruction.”

There is that chief analogy we talked about this morning.
“Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham…”

That God who took a moon worshiping pagan
And transformed him into the father of faith and a friend of God.

THAT SAME GOD is about to go to work “concerning the house of Jacob”

Here Isaiah speaks of Jacob
As one who looks down through the centuries
With shame and embarrassment for what his children had become.

REMEMBER JACOB?
• The deceiver…
• The conniver…
• The self-sufficient…
• The one who had it all figured out…

Remember how God humbled him with Laban?
Remember how God terrified him with Esau?
Remember how God crippled him to teach him to rely on God?

• Jacob came out of that sanctified.
• Jacob came out of that as a man who listened to God.
• Jacob came out of that as a man with no need for the world.

How ashamed Jacob would have been
If he could have seen his descendants.

But Isaiah says, after God finishes his reviving work on Jerusalem, “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, They will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.”

Is that just a little bit of a contrast to what we saw earlier?
Look up again to verse 13

(13) “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

That is what they were.

And what did God say He would do?

(14) “Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

I’m going to take
• Those self-sufficient self-proclaimed wise men who trust in their own logic more than my word…
• Those hypocritical surface only worshipers who don’t love Me in their heart…
• Those celebrated wise men who have no need to listen to My voice…

I’m going to deal marvelously with them.
• I’m going to put them in distress until it drives them into the ground
• I’m going to humble them until they cry out to Me.
• And then I’m going to deliver them, revive them, and wake them up.

And after that, they will no longer scoff.
After that, they will no longer mock or reject.

After that, “they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.”

He goes on:
(24) “Those who err in mind will know the truth, And those who criticize will accept instruction.”

What a statement!
• God will take and transform those who think wrong!
• God will take and transform those who won’t accept instruction!

NOW BEFORE YOU START THINKING
…Of all the people out there who are wrong and need to be corrected…
…Of all the people who need to learn to listen…

STOP AND PRAISE GOD THAT HE DID THIS IN YOUR LIFE!

That was you!
That was me!

We were those who “err in mind”
We were those who “criticize” and would not “accept instruction”
• We were men and women of a depraved mind.
• We called what was evil good.
• We called what was good evil.
• We thought wrong about everything.

But God has transformed us.
• He has renewed our mind with His word.
• He has given us the mind of Christ.
• He has removed our heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh.

We didn’t do that, God did that!
He redeemed us.
He revived us.
He did His marvelous work in us.

And He can certainly do it in others.

You should also stop and consider what TRUE REVIVAL LOOKS LIKE.

REVIVAL IS NOT SOME EMOTIONAL FRENZY.

So much of the time when people speak of some revival occurring
They are talking about some emotion laden event with people crying and laughing
And filled with ecstatic happiness.

And look one ought to be happy and filled with joy.

But the fruit of genuine revival
Is far different and far more long lasting.

When God brings revival it starts with distress.
• Distress of soul
• Perhaps even distress of body

When God brings revival it produces humility.
• Men are confronted with their perilous state and are driven to the dirt in brokenness.

When God brings revival it is motivated by His sovereign grace.
• God revives those whom He has chosen to revive.
• God works on behalf of His children.

When God brings revival it results in love for His truth.
• It results in people who previously wouldn’t listen to God starting to listen to God.
• It results in people who leaned on their own understanding now leaning on God’s word for understanding.
• It results in obedience as opposed to mocking and scoffing.

Revival takes hypocritical worshipers
Whose hearts are far away from God
And leads them to genuine humility and obedience.

It turns their hearts back to God
And evidences that return with a love for God’s word
Over their own logic and understanding.

THIS IS THE MARVELOUS WORK OF GOD.

NOW,
Has God done that work in your life?
Is God doing that work in your life?

Are you in a state in your life where you can say that you “sanctify His name”?

Are you in a state in your life where you can say that you “sanctify the Holy One of Israel”?

Do you currently “stand in awe of the God of Israel”?

OR
• Do you merely draw near with your words while your heart is far from Him?
• Do you merely honor Him with your lip service?
• Is your reverence nothing more than practiced and learned behavior that was taught you through tradition?

DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?

If your heart has been revived
Then praise God for doing this marvelous work that only He could do in your life.

If your heart is in need of revival
Then confess that to Him and ask Him to go to work on your heart.

“On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

download here

The Marvelous Work of God – Part 1
Isaiah 29:1-24 (1, 13, 15-16)
October 22, 2023

Let’s start this morning
With what Isaiah says in the 14th verse of this chapter.

(14a) “Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;”

This chapter introduces us to what we might call
“The Marvelous Work of God”

The previous chapter introduced us to His “extraordinary work”

Isaiah 28:21 “For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, To do His task, His unusual task, And to work His work, His extraordinary work.”

• Isaiah was confronting a people who would not listen to God.
• They scoffed at Isaiah and mocked him when he spoke God’s word.

In response to their scoffing God promised to rise up and do
“His unusual task” and “His extraordinary work”

That work was judgment.
• God is by nature a Savior.
• He is long suffering.
• He is slow to anger.
• He does not delight in the death of the wicked.

And although He is just and willing to judge, judgment is referred to as His “unusual task” or “His extraordinary work”

But here in the next chapter
We are confronted with a different type of God’s work.

We see that God will “deal marvelously”
This is His marvelous work.

The word “marvelously” here is the Hebrew word (PAW-LAW)
And it speaks of something that is “extraordinarily hard or difficult”
Even something miraculous.

It is the word God used when He confronted Sarah for laughing at the announcement that she would have a son.

Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

There it is the word “difficult”

It is the word God used of the mighty signs He would perform against the land of Egypt during the Exodus.
Exodus 3:20 “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go.”

There it is translated “miracles”

And it is the word David used to describe the unbelievable things which God has accomplished.

Psalms 40:5 “Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.”

There it is translated “wonders”

So you understand that when we are talking about
God doing something “wondrously marvelous”
We are talking about something that only He can do.

It is something that depends on His intervention.
It is something that depends on His work.
GOD MUST DO IT.

It is a thing that CANNOT be accomplished through the effort of man.
It is NOT natural, it is supernatural.

And in Isaiah 29 that marvelous work which God is about to do is:
REVIVAL.

• God is about to awaken dead souls.
• God is about to open deaf ears.
• God is about to open blind eyes.
• God is about to soften hardened hearts.

It is something that cannot be accomplished
Through the efforts or planning of man.

When I was a kid every fall and every spring our church would schedule what they called a “Revival”.

• It was typically a Sunday through Wednesday event in which a guest preacher would come in and we’d have church services every night.
• And typically when it was over the pastor would get up and say something like, “Revival has really occurred here this week”

But it was always peculiar to me as a child that everything always
Seemed to just go back to the way it was before this mighty event.

And the point of course is that revival
Is not something you can schedule or plan.

Revival is something which only God can orchestrate.
And when He does it is a marvelous work.

Well that is what Isaiah 29 is about.
• It is God’s promise to bring about revival
• It is God’s revelation regarding why it is needed.
• It is God’s explanation as to how He’s going to bring it about.

In short God is about to transform false worshipers into true worshipers.
God is about to take people who worship only in ritual
And turn them into people who worship in spirit and in truth.

This is nothing short of the marvelous work of God.

I WOULD ALSO POINT OUT THAT
To better explain exactly what God is going to do in the lives of the people of Jerusalem, God actually calls upon A HISTORICAL REFERENCE.

Look down at the end of the chapter to verse 22.
“Therefore, thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob…”

If you want an example for what God is going to do in Jerusalem;
God says He’s about to do the same thing He did in the life of Abraham.

CERTAINLY YOU REMEMBER THAT.
• Abram, the moon worshiping pagan
• Who owned slaves, loved money,
• And would even trade off his own wife if there was a profit in it.

From a human perspective Abram was a lost cause.
But God chose Him.

And we read all about how God pruned Abram.
• We saw how God separated him from his family, even Lot.
• We saw how God forced him to trust solely in His promises.
• We saw how God granted him faith and then grew that faith.
• We saw how God corrected him and sanctified him in his mistakes.
• And we saw how eventually Abraham was called “the friend of God”

From pagan worshiping enemy to friend of God.
That was a marvelous work God accomplished in his life.

And the God who did that for Abraham is the God
Who is about to do the same thing for the people of Jerusalem.

That is what Isaiah 29 is about.

NOW, we’re going to cover it in a little different format that we usually do.
• We’re going to outline the first 8 verses
• And use the remainder of the chapter to reinforce that.
• The chapter communicates in circles and I think this is the clearest way to work through it.

So let’s look at the first 8 verses
And we’ll let the last 16 verses kind of be the supporting cast.

We’re going to break this message down into 3 points.

#1 THEIR UNACCEPTABLE WORSHIP
Isaiah 29:1

“Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped! Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.”

You know by now that Isaiah likes nicknames (or rather God does).
• Earlier he referred to Babylon as “the wilderness of the sea” (21:1)
• He referred to Jerusalem as “the valley of vision” (22:1)

Well now he calls Jerusalem “Ariel”
(We know it’s Jerusalem because of the reference to David)

The word “Ariel” is literally translated “Lion of God”

And that would explain the coming statements of how
God is going to surround her and set up battle against her and bring her down.

Other commentators have recognized that Ezekiel used the word HAR-EL as the word for “altar hearth”.

And they say that God here is calling Jerusalem His altar.

It seems more likely that the reference here is to a lion,
And perhaps even a rogue lion that must be captured and dealt with.

But aside from that the FIRST THING we notice about the chapter
Is again Isaiah’s usage of the word “Woe”

We saw it first when Isaiah entered the temple, saw the glory of God,
And was sure of his own destruction.

It is a big word to Isaiah.
He does not use it lightly.
And here he pronounces that response on Jerusalem.

The indicator of THE PROBLEM comes in the second line of verse 1.
“Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.”

It is a statement that references the monotony of their worship.
IT HAS BECOME ROUTINE.
• Year after year, month after month, week after week, it’s the same old same old.

It makes me think of the old Dunkin Donuts commercial
Where the man is walking out the door, “Time to make the donuts”

We just do it over and over and over and over.
• There is no enthusiasm.
• There is no excitement.
• There is no joy or anticipation.

It’s time to go to the temple and do it all again.

And what makes this apathetic mindset so regrettable is that
This is “the city where David once camped!”

Do you know anything about David?

Sure, David had his flaws.
• We know about Bathsheba.
• We know about Absalom.
• We know about him numbering Israel.

But in spite of his mistakes, ONE THING DAVID GOT RIGHT,
Is that he pursued the heart of God with everything he had.

David made some mistakes in some areas,
But he got worship right.

Let me just read to you some of the things David said.

Psalms 27:4 “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”

Psalms 29:1-2 “Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in holy array.”

Psalms 31:23 “O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer.”

Psalms 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

Psalms 62:1-2 “My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Psalms 63:1-5 “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.”

Psalms 66:16-20 “Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear; But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer Nor His lovingkindness from me.”

Psalms 86:11-13 “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever. For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”

Psalms 103:1-2 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;”

Psalms 103:19-22 “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the LORD, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!”

Psalms 113:1-4 “Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD From this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the LORD is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations; His glory is above the heavens.”

And that’s just the tip of the ice burg.

David made mistakes in life, but one thing he continually got right was worship.
• It was never mundane to him.
• It was never routine to him.
• It was never some mindless obligation.

And when David camped in Jerusalem
That city was a beacon of worship and the glory of God.

BUT MY HOW FAR THAT CITY HAS FALLEN.

It would be like someone 280 years from now standing in the pulpit of Grace Community Church (where MacArthur preaches) and denying the inerrancy of Scripture.

You’d say, “Wow! Denying the Bible in the pulpit where MacArthur once preached.”

That is the kind of downfall that has occurred in this once bright city.
It USED TO BE a city where God was worshiped and honored and adored
NOW it is a city where worship has become routine and heartless.

“Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.”

WHAT USE IS THAT?

Isaiah already addressed it.
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.”

It means very little to God that someone just keep a schedule.

We remember it from Malachi’s day.
Malach 1:6-11 “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’ “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts. “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. “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.”

There God actually wished that someone would lock the doors.
• If there is not going to be genuine honor…
• If there is not going to be genuine worship…
• If there is only some commitment to some routine…
• Just lock the doors.

Psalms 50:7-15 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God. “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me. “I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats? “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

With God it has never been about the routine or the ordinance.

Have we not read about the Corinthian church that was taking the Lord’s Supper but was getting drunk while doing so?

• Paul alluded that God was killing some of the Corinthians for that.

Going through the motions is not enough for God.
Being faithful to a routine is not enough for Him.

AND THIS IS ISRAEL’S PROBLEM.
• They know when to arrive and when to leave.
• They knew when to sit and when to stand.
• They know when to sing and when to be silent.
• But it is all empty.

Raymond Ortlund wrote:
“They were saying all the right things, doing all the right things. They feared God. But their fear of him – even this interior dimension of worship – was only a doctrine taught by human instruction. It was just an idea, a concept in their minds, a catechetical answer, not a Spirit-imparted awareness transforming their hearts. Beneath the beautiful observance, they were using the worship of God as a mechanism for avoiding God, for controlling God, for setting limits on God.”
(Ortlund Jr., Raymond C. [Isaiah: God saves sinners; Preaching The Word Commentary Series; Crossway Publishers, Wheaton, IL; 2005] Pg. 163)

In other words, if you asked them if they feared God?
They would say, “Yes, God is to be feared.”

But they said that, not because they really feared Him,
But because they had been taught to answer in such a way.

That is the danger of phony and routine religion.

Ortlund would also say:
“What is the problem? Jerusalem does not see her privilege and her peril. The God she worships is a fiery personality – not erratic but holy (Hebrews 12:28, 29). For us sinners, God is both high-voltage danger and overflowing salvation. And the only refuge from his holy wrath is his holy love in Christ, our substitute on the altar of the cross. In other words, the only escape from God is in God. But the worship of these people is impervious both to the heat of his anger and to the warmth of his love. They neither tremble nor rejoice in God’s presence. They just go through the motions. So, in his sight they’re wasting their time.”
(ibid. Pg. 161)

What a truth to ponder!
When you enter church to worship,
• You enter either as a sinner in need of salvation
• Or you enter as a sinner who has received salvation.

The first should tremble in holy fear
• That you would dare draw near to a holy God in such a sinful condition.
• You should be filled with “Woe” as Isaiah was when he entered God’s presence.

The second (the forgiven sinner) should be filled with tremendous gratitude
• You should be here to lay all on His altar.
• Your heart should be filled with the “Here am I, send me” of the redeemed Isaiah.
• You should be rejoicing that He has not treated you as your sins deserve.

This morning as you come to worship
You should either be trembling or rejoicing,
And if you are doing neither, then you are wasting your time.

That’s a pretty bold analysis, but he is absolutely correct.

And you hear that in the almost sarcastic tone of verse 1.
“Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.”

But it won’t do you any good.

But this is NOT ALL God has to say on the subject.
His frustration is explained more fully in verse 13.

(13) “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

What a statement!
What a tragedy!

They are a people of “words” and a people of “lip service”

NOW everything they say; all the songs they sing;
Are all filled with the right doctrine.

They quote the Scriptures, they sing the orthodox hymns.
They may even sing them on tune and with great volume and power.

Their worship services are a sight to behold and a joy to the ears.
They are pleasant to those around them.

BUT THEY ARE SUPERFICIAL
“But they remove their hearts far from Me”

David prayed:
Psalms 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”

David was not only concerned about the words he spoke,
But also the heart in which he spoke them.

BUT NOW, this “city where David once camped”
Has dropped the second concern.

They no longer concern themselves with the meditation of the heart.

With their lips they sing the words,
But with their heart they are focused on something else.
• How do I sound?
• What do other people think of me?
• I wonder how many songs we’re singing?
• I sure hope this is over in time for the football game?

While they are physically present and put on a tremendous display
They are absent in heart and God is not pleased.

God says, “their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

The word “rote” is defined as,
“mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned.”

What a dry and heartless time of worship!
A service filled with mechanical people who habitually do what they were told to do without any heart or feeling or genuine love.

• FILLED WITH habit and repetition and taught traditions,
• NOT FILLED WITH gratitude nor captivated by the greatness of God.

What a cold and heartless worship service that must be.
• People stand because they are told to stand.
• People sit because they are told to sit.
• People sing because they are told to sing.
• People pray because they are told to pray.

I’ve shared with you before about the Jewish man I met on the airplane who did not believe in Jesus.
I asked him what he did with Isaiah 53?
• He said, we only read the first 5 books of the Old Testament.

I asked him what he did with the veil that separates man from God?
• He said, we read those first 5 but we don’t believe them.

I asked him why he attended synagogue then if he didn’t even believe the book they study?
• He said, “I find comfort in the routine and the liturgy.”

WHAT NONSENSE!

Where does your heart stand before God?
• Do you love Him?
• Do you fear Him?
• Are you bursting at the seams to belt out His praises?
• Are you captivated and full of anticipation to hear His word?
• Are you blown away by His perfection?
• Are you humbled by His grace?
• Are you here simply to worship Him out of love and adoration?

Or are you just here because it’s what you do?
• Is there any love for Christ at all?
• Is there any desire to tell Him thank you?
• Is there any esteem for the holiness of God?

You may be worshiping in truth, but are you worshiping in Spirit?

John 4:19-24 “The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

10 times the word “worship” is used in that passage.
That’s a pretty good indicator that we can learn something of it there.

Jesus defines worship as that which must be “in spirit and in truth”
Certainly it must be accurate and orthodox.
Certainly true doctrine must be at the center.

But where is the spirit?
Where is the emotion?
Where is the love, the fear, the gratitude, the awe?

God is clearly not interested in worship without those things.

They aren’t here singing because they love Me,
They sing because someone made them and trained them to do it.

A few years ago I had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony for Norman and Brenda Hill.
• About 20 minutes before the wedding Brenda handed me a love letter that she
had written to Norman for the wedding.
• Brenda wanted me to read it before she came down the aisle.
• It was one of the most awkward things I’ve ever had to do in my life.
• Read a love letter to Norman that was written by Brenda in front of the entire
audience.

The words were true, and they were sincere from the one who wrote them, Yet I doubt Norman was too incredibly touched by the way I read it.

And that is what the worship of Jerusalem was like.
They showed up ever week and read a love letter to God
That someone else had written.

Psalms that David had written.
Hymns that some saint of old had poured his heart into.
The words were the same but the heart was missing.

And it was not pleasing to God.
It was “tradition learned by rote”

Matthew 15:1-9 “Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”

Men more concerned with going through the proper procedures of hand washing
Than they were with honoring God by obeying His words.

Their worship must have felt so cheap and so plastic to God.
It was so phony.

Like some sort of arranged marriage or blind date
WHERE NEITHER PARTY WANTED TO BE THERE.

And if you look at verse 14,
God says that their phony worship is the direct reason why He is about to do this marvelous work in their lives.

(14) “Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

Their phony worship is the catalyst to doing what He is about to do.

BUT STILL ISAIAH WAS NOT FINISHED.

God’s frustration with their worship is explained still further.
(15-16) “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?” You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?”

This is the SECOND great problem with their worship.
• The FIRST PROBLEM was “Empty Religion” and it was bad.
• This SECOND PROBLEM is “Concealed Iniquity”.

First they show up to church and offer God this phony display of love and adoration that is superficial at best.

But then when they leave church and assume that they are out of God’s presence they go about their sinful and immoral lives as though God doesn’t know it.

They act like God is only watching them when they are in church.
• They “deeply hide their plans from the LORD”
• Their “deeds are done in a dark place”
• They say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?”

It’s the person who acts and talks one way on Sunday
And different every other day of the week.

On Sunday you’d think, “Man this guy really loves God”
But on Monday you’d question if they ever met Him at all.

And the really stupid part about what they do is
They assume God isn’t watching the whole thing.

Do you really think God doesn’t know what you are doing?

(16) “You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, ‘He did not make me’; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”

In other words, “Do you think I’m as dumb as you?”
• Do you really think us on the same level?
• Do you think that just because you can fool men that you can fool Me too?

It is nonsense!

Do you remember the day when God grabbed Ezekiel by the hair of the head and transported him back to Jerusalem to see the sins they were committing in supposed secrecy?

God showed him many great transgressions, but look at the last God showed him.

Ezekiel 8:16-18 “Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. “Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”

Do you really think God doesn’t see?

We talked about this last Sunday morning with the youth at Disciple Now.
Luke 8:17 “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”

Psalms 90:8 “You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”

Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

Do you understand then how foolish it is
• To come to church and sing some song you’ve been taught to sing and pretend this great love for God
• Then go home and entertain some secret sin?

Take a man who spent all week living in sin and entertaining perversion.
• He gets up on Sunday morning and comes to church because it’s the thing to
do to keep up appearances.
• He sings the songs, he prays the prayers, but he has NO GENUINE LOVE for
God or gratitude to Him.
• And as soon as the service is over he goes right back to the sin that really
captivates his heart.

Is God supposed to be pleased with his worship?

Would you accept the love of your spouse under such circumstances?

You follow your spouse to the hotel where you see them enter with their lover, and day after day you see them continually engage in an affair.

But one night a week your spouse comes home and promises you that
“I love you” and “You’re the only one for me”.

Is that going to just warm your heart?
Are you going to feel extremely valued and treasured and loved?

So why would God be impressed with people who “add year to year” and “observe your feasts on schedule”?

This is what is referred to as unacceptable worship.
It may be worship in truth but it is not worship in spirit.
There is no love or fear or adoration for God.

The heart of David is noticeably missing.

And this is why God is motivated to do
This marvelous and miraculous work in their midst.

We’ll stop here today and finish this chapter tonight,
But this morning can you at least be honest with God about your worship of Him?

• Can you at least look inwardly and determine if your worship for Him is
genuine?
• Can you at least be honest with Him on that front?

And if your worship is phony can you be honest with Him this morning?
• Can you confess that to Him?
• Can you own it and repent?
• Can you ask Him to do a marvelous work in your heart?
• Can you ask Him to forgive you and bring revival to your soul?

HE WILL.
• He is merciful and forgiving and gracious.
• He is kind to ungrateful men.
• If you will repent, and confess your sin He is faithful to forgive you of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Jesus asked for worship
From one of the most immoral women in the New Testament,
He will accept yours as well
If you will worship Him in spirit and in truth.

 

RULES VIDEO

 

HIGHTLIGHT VIDEO

The Seed is the Word of God – Luke 8:11 – Ben Moore

The Parable of the Sower – Luke 8:4-15 (Ben Moore)

Take Care How You Listen – Part 1 – Luke 8:16-18

Take Care How You Listen – Part 2 – Luke 8:19-21

 

 

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