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Isaiah 1:1-20 “Alas, Sinful Nation” 1/3/2021

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Isaiah 1:1-20 “Alas, Sinful Nation” 1/3/2021 Isaiah 1:1-20 “Alas, Sinful Nation” 1/3/2021 In the book of Isaiah, we discover a way of thinking that is unlike anything you will hear in this world. We discover that God wants to talk about our sin. And we discover that we have a problem. We don’t want to have the conversation. We prefer to think about fun things. Things we like… Favorite foods, time with friends, a new truck, fishing, making money, happy memories. All good things, but sometimes God wants to talk about our sin. Paul Tournier, the 20th century swiss Psychiatrist and expert in patient care, observed, “A diffuse and vague guilt feeling kills the personality, whereas the conviction of sin gives life to it.” And so, we discover that Isaiah is uninterested in making us feel guilty. He is telling us that we are guilty. What He is after is confronting us with our sin so that we seek God’s solution. However we may feel, if God thinks that we have done wrong or gone wrong we are in trouble. We are going to find this year that this message is as important today as it was 2,700 years ago. What is it that God is using the prophet Isaiah to tell the people of His day that they have done wrong? Well, it is something that has become commonplace in this world. They Have made their religion about them, rather than about God. They are doing and saying many of the right things, but for the wrong reasons. They are interested in God when it suits them. They do the things that God wants them to do when it pleases them and fits into their schedule. They talk about worshipping God in all of life with all their heart, but that is not what they do. And we do the same thing. The Lord hates heartless religion. We easily become people who pretend to love God but actually live like we don’t. And when you or I pretend at loving God when we really don’t… well, then we really don’t. And when we really don’t love God, we are breaking the greatest commandment and inviting God’s judgment. Isaiah is long. It has 66 chapters. I have planned 40 messages in Isaiah for the year 2021. We will cover about two-thirds of the book. You will probably find it repetitive in some ways, strange, interesting (I hope), and difficult. Remember what I said last week. Isaiah (like most prophetic writing) is poetic discourse. It is a conversation between God, Isaiah, and God’s people. Isaiah is constantly doing 4 things: He is presenting God and His holiness. He is prosecuting us for our sin: accusation, evidence, conviction, sentence (judgment). He is telling us of God’s solution: His Messiah… King, Servant, Conqueror. (Structure of the book) He is demanding a response: Repent and seek His salvation in His Messiah. Recall that the name Isaiah means “The Lord is Salvation” = “Yahweh is salvation” In Isaiah 1:1 we read the beginning of this introduction to His prophesy (chapters 1-5). This is “the vision of Isaiah… concerning Judah and Jerusalem…” = southern kingdom, God’s people He prophesied during the reigns of four kings… but His message has echoed for 2,700 years. We begin in verse two with a command to the heavens and earth to hear when Yahweh speaks. It is as if Yahweh, God who is (Exodus 3:13-15), is calling all creation as witness to His accusation. And what is He speaking? Accusation and evidence. I. Exhibit A: You left your Lord Isaiah 1:1-9 Isaiah 1:2c-4 I want to look with you into the words we find in these three verses. A word about translations: There are many good translations. I like the NASB and the ESV. But one thing that is important in Isaiah is that you want a Bible that presents the text in poetry. Because this is what it is. So, you want stanzas, not paragraphs. If you have paragraphs in Isaiah get another Bible. It is that important. First, we discover that Yahweh is speaking to His children that He has raised. (vss. 2, 4) For 1,300 years, the Lord has rescued, spoken to, guided, provided for, protected these people. Next, we find in these verses the three great Hebrew words in the sin vocabulary. Three different ways of thinking about our sin problem: “rebelled” (vs. 2) = willful disobedience, insurrection, “I will not do what You say!” “sinful” (vs. 4) = specific instances of wrongdoing, breaking God’s Law, violations “iniquity” (vs. 4) = bentness, being twisted or warped, becoming corrupted, rottenness Then, in the center of all this accusation we find a metaphor, a word picture. The ox, the donkey (dumb animals)… they know their masters. But God’s people do not know theirs, they “do not understand.” Heaven and earth be amazed! Finally, at the end of verse 4 we find three poetic phrases In Isaiah 5-9 we find evidence for these accusations. You are in a courtroom and Isaiah is presenting evidence against you. This is exhibit A. Isaiah, the covenant prosecutor, begins this argument with two questions: Are you going to keep doing this? People, look to your head (how you think) and your heart (what you love) and your whole body (what you do). Look around you in your life, in your town, in your whole society. What is it like? What about you? How do you think? Is your thinking guided by God’s truth? What do you love? What do you spend your time dreaming of, wishing for, dwelling on? How are you living? Are you hurting people around you all the time? You see? Beginning in verse 7, Isaiah is showing them that this is why everything is so messed up. Isaiah here is actually describing the march of Assyria as it has laid waste to Israel. But look around in our own country, our churches. Are things going well? We are burning our own cities, our churches are apostate, and we are spending our grandchildren’s money. We are killing our unborn children, promoting all kinds of sexual perversions, and living like kings. Isaiah explains in the words of the faithful remnant that God’s people are left vulnerable and alone. Only a few survive. We are almost like Sodom and Gomorrah. You can hardly receive a worse indictment from God. You know what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah? But it gets worse. We are not done. II. Exhibit B: Fake worship Isaiah 1:10-17 Again, Isaiah delivers a command to listen, this time to the rulers of God’s people… To the kings, the priests, the prophets… today to the pastors, church leaders, book writers, those in power. To the Christian athletes, politicians, entertainers, community leaders, to the experts who are supposed to know. Isaiah 1:10 Are you ready to pay attention. You won’t want to but you’d better. Realize that no one wants to be talked to like this… but how will the message get through? God’s heart is broken. These are His own children that He has raised. Now what evidence? Isaiah 1:11-14 God is sick of their fake worship. All these things that they are doing are commanded by God. All of it. They are bringing offerings into the Temple, keeping the Sabbath, keeping the holy festivals. They are even having prayer meetings! “many prayers,” Isaiah 1:15 But God is sick of it. He says, “I have had enough.” (vs. 11) Verse 13, “Bring no more worthless offerings.” God says their festivals “are a burden to Me.” (vs. 14) He does not like their worship and He will not listen to their prayers. Why? Look at the end of verse 13, “I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.” (ESV, NASB) The solemn assembly was mandated in Deuteronomy 16 and Leviticus 23… a feast of repentance. So, they gathered together for repentance, but their hearts were full of twistedness. They were just acting repentful, playing at confession and obedience. They didn’t really care. And, when they left, they would go right back to lives ignoring God. Are we any different? Are you any different? God is speaking to you today about your life. Do you come to church and act like you care about God, confess some sins (the un-embarrassing ones)… But then you leave and get right back to living how you please… You spend your money and time how you please. You continue in secret sins. You worry and gossip and spend your time in front of the TV rather than God’s Word. You claim to love God’s Word, but you spend less time there than brushing your teeth. What evidence could Isaiah bring against you? In case you were wondering what it is that God wants, Isaiah takes two verses to remind us. Isaiah 1:16-17 This is a recitation of Torah, the Law of Moses. All Isaiah’s hearers would have known this. It is a call to repent and do these things, except that Isaiah knows that they will not repent and do these things. But this is part of the picture of how Yahweh expects us to live. III. The Verdict: One more chance Isaiah 1:18-20 Verse 18 begins with an invitation… not to listen to the Lord’s Word, though that would have to be part of it.
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