Seeking The Wrong Salvation – Part 2
Isaiah 51:9-52:12 (52:1-12)
July 7, 2024
Last week were able to get back into the flow of our study in Isaiah.
You know that here we have Christ confronting apostate Israel.
In Isaiah 50 He asked:
Isaiah 50:1-2a “Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away. “Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer?”
It really is the question:
“Why was there no man when I came?”
It conjures up images in our mind of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem:
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!”
We have Christ who came to save and Israel rejected that salvation.
Isaiah 50-66 deals with that rejection and the future salvation of Israel.
Currently we are looking at Isaiah 51 & 52 and seeing really the root of the problem and that is that Israel sought the wrong salvation.
In Isaiah 51:5 we were introduced to “the arm of the LORD”
Isaiah 51:5 “My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for Me, And for My arm they will wait expectantly.
Isaiah said that this arm would bring salvation and thanksgiving and gladness and justice and deliverance and blessing.
And so when we got to verse 9 last week, we saw that Israel was eager for this “arm” to arrive and save!
#1 THE CRY FOR A SAVIOR
Isaiah 51:9-11
In those three verses you actually have the captives of Israel crying out for this arm to wake up and come and save!
Aren’t you the Savior?
Aren’t You the famous One who delivered from Egypt?
Then let’s get too it!
Come save!
And on the surface it looks like a great and genuine call.
It looks like a sinner in need of salvation crying out for that salvation.
Yet I would remind you again, that this is a hypocritical request, for when we fast-forward we see the response when the arm actually arrives.
Isaiah 53:1-3 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
So it may look good on the surface to see them calling for the arm to come and save, but we’ve read further in the story.
We know that when He came they did not esteem Him.
But it is a cry none the less.
It’s just that it was a cry for the wrong kind of salvation.
And God made that clear in the second point which we saw last week:
#2 THE CORRECTION OF GOD
Isaiah 51:12-23
There God corrected the faulty assumptions of the people, and even the assumptions which it appears Isaiah was buying into a little.
Namely that somehow God had forgotten to save.
But God revealed to His people that He had not forgotten them, in fact He had made promises to save them and God never fails in regard to His word.
The problem was not that God had forgotten, the problem was a failure of the people to realize why they were in bondage.
They were not in bondage because God had forgotten them, they were in bondage because they had rejected the LORD and He was punishing them.
Verse 17 indicated that they had “drank from the LORD’S hand the cup of His anger.”
Verse 20 indicated that they were “full of the wrath of the LORD”
They weren’t forgotten by God, God was the One punishing them.
So God responded to their cry for comfort with this question: (19) “How shall I comfort you?”
And it reveals that their desires were distorted.
They wanted comfort, not cleansing from sin.
They wanted relief, not repentance.
They wanted God to ease their suffering when it was God who was causing their suffering.
What they needed was repentance and forgiveness.
The lost world still needs to hear this.
While there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, the unregenerate man needs to understand that he has no right to ask God for comfort.
It may very well be that the unregenerate man’s suffering is from the hands of God to drive Him to Christ. For God to comfort that man would be to go against the very purpose God had in punishing him.
These people wanted salvation from their suffering, what they needed was salvation from their sin.
And to that God promised that if they would cry out to Him, He would most certainly deliver.
God has always promised mercy and forgiveness to any and every sinner who called upon His name.
God never rejects a sinner who humbles himself and asks for salvation.
And that is an important point to reiterate.
We are certainly those who believe in the sovereignty of God.
We certainly believe in sovereign election and effectual call.
We certainly believe that no man can come unless the Father draws him.
Scripture teaches that.
However, there are then those who accuse us of cutting off the offer of salvation from people.
They accuse us of saying that God is therefore unwilling to save some, and this is not true.
Jesus said it best:
John 3:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
There has never been and there will never be a single sinner who comes to Jesus requesting salvation that Jesus will not save Him.
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
And that is what God promised to Israel in verses 21-23.
His desires is not to destroy them, but to save them.
So Israel was crying for salvation as though God had forgotten them.
God corrected them by revealing that He had not forgotten them, but they had failed to understand that it was their sin that needed to be dealt with. God is in fact an eager and willing Savior.
They just needed to seek the right salvation.
Well, let’s continue that discussion this morning.
#3 THE CLARIFICATION OF SALVATION
Isaiah 52:1-10
What you find here is one of the most encouraging and uplifting calls of God in the entire Old Testament.
It is Christ, looking directly at the captive and offering him freedom and deliverance.
This is a gospel invitation.
This is a gospel explanation.
And even by the end there is rejoicing that such a glorious gospel has been presented.
This section reminds us that Israel’s lost condition is not because God did not offer salvation.
Israel’s lost condition is not because God was unwilling to save.
These 10 verses celebrate the gracious and merciful gospel call of God to sinners and we will love walking through it yet again.
Let’s just notice some of the elements of this saving call.
1) FREEDOM TO CAPTIVES (1-2)
“Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”
The picture there is unmistakable.
It is as though Christ Himself has walked into the dungeon where the prisoners are kept.
He looks into the filthy cells…
He sees the dirty and foul prisoners…
He sees them in chains, held in bondage…
He sees their hopeless disposition…
And into that darkness the hope and the light of Christ comes breaking forth!
He calls out to the prisoners, “Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city;”
It is the call to the suffering prisoner to wake up, rise up, and take off their prison attire.
Put on your new clothes, put on the clean clothes, take off the rags and dress yourself in your glorious formal attire.
He gives a promise:
“For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you.”
That is to say, “I have dealt with your enemy. I have dealt with the invader. I have dealt with those who have murdered you and exiled you and incarcerated you. They will never be back.”
And perhaps at this point the prisoners are sluggish…
Perhaps they view the offer as too good to be true…
Perhaps they are delaying…
So He cries out again, “Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”
They are pictured as in the posture of mourning.
They are clinging to the dust, they are broken and weeping.
They have chains on their necks to keep them in bondage.
And the Lord bids them to rise up, wipe off the dust of their humiliation, take those chains off their neck and be free.
Obviously the call here comes with His authority to do so.
No man can set himself free.
No man can remove his chains by his own strength.
No man can change his garments unless others are provided.
And certainly that is all implied.
Christ is here, standing in the dungeon, declaring freedom to the prisoners.
And this was the very gospel which Christ came and preached:
Luke 4:16-21 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 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.”
Jesus was there quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2, but it is the same call as we see here.
I have come to “proclaim release to the captives”
I have come “to set free those who are oppressed”
And when Jesus closed that book and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
He was doing precisely what Isaiah 52 shows.
He was standing at the doors of their prison and offering them freedom from their chains.
Those people were in captivity.
Not in a literal prison, but in a prison of their sin.
And Christ sat in that synagogue and told them to rise up, shake off the dust, throw off their chains and put on the new garments of His righteousness.
He told them He came to make them free!
That wasn’t the only time:
John 8:31-36 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” 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.”
The analogy is a little more clear there.
Jesus offered them freedom, but they were confused since they saw no bars, no jailor, no master.
Jesus corrected them and showed them their slavery saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
They couldn’t see their bars, but Jesus could.
He could see their filth, their dirt, and their chains.
But true to form, He offered them freedom.
“if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
It is the gospel offer of Christ.
And can we just stop and make sure everyone understand that here this morning.
The offer of Jesus has always been freedom, but it is freedom from sin.
And this is what Jesus came to bring.
The salvation of Jesus does not leave sinners in their sin.
The salvation of Jesus does not leave slaves in their chains.
I’m honestly quite bothered by this today, even among some otherwise orthodox gospel preachers.
We have spoken before about Paul’s great lament in Romans 7.
You know it:
Romans 7:14-20 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
There are so many who read this passage and seek to explain it as though Paul is here a mature Christian simply lamenting the undefeated presence of sin in his life.
And they say that a mature Christian will never be free from all his sin, but the more mature he grows the more he will hate it.
And he must wait until death or the return of Christ to get his glorified body and thus be finally free from sin.
Now, what is true about that is that in this body of flesh we will never be totally free from sin.
That is true.
We will not be sinless until glory.
And to some extent we will always war against sin in the flesh.
And the closer we get to Christ the more aware of sin we will become and the more we will hate it.
I absolutely agree with all of that.
But Paul here is not lamenting sinfulness in general, he is here lamenting a specific sin that he can not defeat. Namely in context it is the sin of coveting.
And I’ll tell you what Jesus did not do.
He did not look at Paul and say, “Well, yeah, about that, I’m sorry Paul but you’re just going to struggle with coveting for the rest of your life. There’s really no victory there until you die.”
Imagine such a statement given to someone dealing with alcohol or homosexuality or pornography or filthy language or greed or bitterness.
Is it true that there’s just no victory over some sins in this life?
If so, then what is with all this “setting the captives free” talk?
Do you see my point?
NO!
In Romans 7 Paul is lamenting how the Law could not help him defeat his sin.
Knowing his sin was sin was helpful but not powerful.
Knowing his sin was wrong was helpful but not powerful.
Knowing God hates his sin was helpful but not powerful.
He needed someone to release him from his captivity.
Romans 7:24-25 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
Do you see the question?
“Who will set me free..?”
Well keep going…
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Do you see that?
Christ came to do what the Law could not do.
Christ came to set the captives free!
Listen to Paul’s argument in Romans 6:
Romans 6:5-7 “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Paul said that when we came to Christ and by faith were identified in His death, burial, and resurrection that we also died to sin and were freed from it.
That means that alcoholics who trust in Christ are granted freedom from alcohol, they no longer have to drink it.
That means that homosexuals who trust in Christ are granted freedom from homosexual behavior and desire, they no longer have to do it.
That means that people addicted to pornography who trust in Jesus are set free from it…
And the list goes on with foul language, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, etc.
“for he who has died is freed from sin.”
And it is such a powerful freedom that Paul actually goes on with a direct order to those who have been redeemed.
Romans 6:12-14 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
There it is again.
That is the equivalent of Isaiah 52:2 where Christ says, “Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.”
That is the same message!
You are free, don’t let sin rule you anymore!
Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
What a glorious truth of the gospel!
Jesus came to rescue sinners from their sin.
He did not simply come to promise you forgiveness while leaving you in your sin.
Matthew 9:5-6 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”
That man was forgiven and set free!
Do you see it?
This is the gospel offer of Christ!
Prisoner, I have come to set you free from the sin which enslaves you!
I have come to free you from your sin, your guilt, your shame.
The gospel of Jesus offers freedom to captives!
What a glorious gospel!
2) REDEMPTION WITHOUT COST (3-5)
“For thus says the LORD, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.” For thus says the Lord GOD, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. “Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.”
The segment here laments not only the wasted nature of their bondage, but also the longevity of it.
When we talk about the pointless nature of their bondage, look at what Christ speaks of here:
(3) “You were sold for nothing…”
(4) “the Assyrian oppressed them without cause…”
(5) “My people have been taken away without cause…”
Yes, He is using Egypt, Assyria, and even Babylon as a backdrop for bondage, but the real message here is regarding the bondage of sin.
And think of it.
What benefit did it all produce?
Paul asked:
Romans 6:20-21 “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.”
What was the great benefit of all that alcohol?
What was the great benefit of that sexual immorality?
What was the great benefit of your tempter tantrum?
It was profitless bondage.
You were stuck there and it never paid off as promised.
Beer commercials are the biggest liars in the world, they make it look fun, but name someone whose life has been enriched by alcohol.
All sin looks fun at the moment, but what benefit did you actually receive from it?
I remember my dad, laying in a hospital bed shortly before he died recounting all the times in his life that he lost his temper in order to get his way. And he sadly recounted, “I can’t think were that ever benefited me at all.”
That’s so true of sin!
It is pointless bondage.
But when we are talking about sin, it is also continual bondage.
It never gives you a day off.
Look at the continual bondage of Israel:
(4-5a) “For thus says the Lord GOD, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what do I have here, declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?”
Bondage never ends.
Egypt to Assyria to Babylon to Medo-Persia, to Greece, to Rome, to you name it…
Sin never lets up and it never lets go and there is never any benefit gained from it.
BUT WHAT WOULD IT COST TO GAIN FREEDOM FROM IT?
How much would a man pay to gain freedom from his bad habits?
How much would a man give to gain freedom from his temptation?
How much does redemption cost?
The Psalmist had an idea:
Psalms 49:7-8 “No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him— For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever”
Micah asked:
Micah 6:6-7 “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?”
Jesus asked:
Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
How much would a prisoner on death row give to escape the dungeon?
That is the question.
And yet here is the glory of the gospel!
(3) “For thus says the LORD, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.”
The gospel offers redemption from sin without charge!
Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.”
Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It is Christ Jesus who came to pay the price of our redemption.
He came and lived the righteous life that we did not live and He offered that righteous life to God.
He then bore in His body the penalty for the sin that we committed so that our sentence of death would be satisfied.
That is why we sing:
“Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
This is the glorious gospel that sinners receive a free pardon and redemption through Jesus Christ.
And that is not all.
There is a third reality here:
3) RECONCILIATION WITH GOD (6)
“Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’”
If you will remember, this was actually the staple promise of the New Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
It was the sin of man that drove a wedge in his relationship with God.
It was the sin of man that caused God to dwell behind a veil.
It is our sin that makes God unapproachable.
But when Christ comes to pay our debt, redeem us from sin, and set us free from our bondage, the great benefit that comes from that is knowledge of God and intimacy with God.
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
It is because of the work of Christ that the writer of Hebrews can make this unfathomable command:
Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
We can now draw near to God.
We now can enter behind the veil.
We now have access to Him and knowledge of Him.
This again is the glorious gospel of God.
And that is precisely what Christ is proclaiming here and what He came to proclaim when He came to Israel.
He offered them freedom from bondage.
He offered them free redemption.
He offered them reconciliation with the Father.
And to that reality here Isaiah breaks out in a glorious doxology of praise!
(7) “How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
It is Isaiah’s way of saying, “Have you ever heard of a more glorious truth than this!”
What a message!
What a messenger!
What a wonderful truth!
We have peace with God and a glorious salvation from sin!
What a great and saving God we serve!
And Isaiah calls out for the people of Israel to recognize that and rejoice with him.
(8-10) “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, They shout joyfully together; For they will see with their own eyes When the LORD restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, That all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God.”
He’s calling out for the people to see it!
He’s calling out for the people to appreciate the glorious offer of the gospel!
He wants them to “shout joyfully”
He wants them to recognize “The salvation of our God.”
And you and I should too!
BUT HOW DOES A MAN RIGHTLY REJOICE IN THE GOSPEL OF GOD?
Does God just want you to sing songs of salvation?
Does God just want you to talk theologically about what He did?
How would God have you respond to His glorious gospel?
This is our 4th point
#4 THE CALL TO RESPOND
Isaiah 52:11-12
So what is the answer to how you should respond to this promise of freedom?
You respond by leaving the sin He freed you from.
“Depart, depart, go out from there, Touch nothing unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, You who carry the vessels of the LORD.”
If Christ has entered your dungeon and opened your cell and removed your chains and offered you new clean garments to wear, how do you honor Him?
You put on the garments, you lay aside the chains, and you leave that dungeon!
He paid the price of your freedom…
He called you to freedom…
SO WALK OUT AS FREE MEN!
And free you are!
(12) “But you will not go out in haste, Nor will you go as fugitives; For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”
You don’t have to run out quickly under fear of being recaptured, no, you are free.
You don’t run out merely as a prisoner being transferred to another facility, no, you are free.
Christ goes before you and Christ goes behind you.
He who the Son sets free is free indeed, now lay down your sin and go be free!
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)
Jesus told the paralytic from the Bethesda pool, “do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:14)
This is the proper response to the glorious gospel of Christ.
If He set you free from sin then leave it!
Romans 8:10-13 “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Freedom from sin is the litmus test of a follower of Christ.
1 John 3:4-10 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
And this is the gospel Christ came to proclaim to Israel.
BUT WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?
That is not the salvation they wanted.
Paul actually referenced this passage in Romans 10.
Romans 10:15-21 “How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.” But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.” And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.” But as for Israel He says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”
They heard the good news, but they did not want it.
They wanted salvation from Rome, not salvation from sin.
In Luke 4, as we read earlier, Jesus offered release to captives and freedom from prisoners, but His hometown didn’t want that either, they wanted miracles and by the end of the day they tried to throw Him off a cliff.
In Romans 8 Jesus told them “He who the Son sets free is free indeed”, but they balked at the notion of being slaves to sin, and by the end of Romans 8 they tried to stone Him.
And this is what we mean that they were seeking the wrong salvation.
So I ask you again this morning: WHY DO YOU WANT JESUS?
If you only want Him to make this life more pleasant or to satisfy your carnal longings, forget it.
But if you want a Savior from sin, that is exactly what He is.
His gospel is a glorious gospel of freedom from sin and reconciliation with God.
If you long for that, then run to Jesus.
“For he who the Son sets free is free indeed.”
