← ArchiveIsaiahListen to ThisDateSeptember 29, 2019SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextIsaiahTranscriptMachine transcribed · click any line to jump0:00Music.0:30My name's Josh, and I am here today. It's nice to see that some of you miss me. But I'm here live in person. We have some guests with us today also. So you might have a parent that's going to tell you to be quiet at some point. But if you are in first through sixth grade, if you'd make some noise really quick. Okay. They can. So adults, if you're glad to be in the house of the Lord today, make some noise.0:57So adults, if you're glad to be in the house of the Lord today, make some noise. So we will not be outdone by our kids today. It's family worship, and so it's great to have them with us. If you're a guest here and this is new to you, welcome. If you're a Covenant member, if you're watching online, man, there is no better place to be than with the people of God. Because from the foundation of the world, the people of God gather. That's what we do. We gather to rest on the Sabbath. We gather to worship on the Sabbath.1:27We gather to worship on the Sabbath. We gather to encourage one another in the name of Jesus Christ. We gather to reflect His glory. And we gather to sing His praises. That is what we do. We are gathering people. So today, we gather around the Word. And we will look at Isaiah again. We're continuing a brand new series. Pastor Brad started us off last week and did a phenomenal job. So we're going to backtrack today. So Isaiah chapter 1, verse 1.1:56So Isaiah chapter 1, verse 1. Isaiah is in the Old Testament. He was a prophet that lived in the 8th century. Scholars call him the Prince of Prophets. One for the length and the breadth of His oracles, His prophecy. Everything from creation to redemption to judgment to missionary call, you will find it in Isaiah. So we're going to look simply at a message today called,2:25So we're going to look simply at a message today called, Listen to this. Listen to this. Our sermon series is called, Yahweh saves. Because Isaiah's name literally means, The Lord saves. Yahweh saves. And so for the next weeks, you'll hear that refrain over and over and over again. God saves. The Lord saves. Yahweh is our deliverer. So let's look at the word together. Isaiah 1, beginning in verse 1.2:53Isaiah 1, beginning in verse 1. Isaiah 1, verse 1. The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah of Judah. Listen, heavens, pay attention, earth, for the Lord has spoken.3:22for the Lord has spoken. I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master in its feeding trough. But Israel does not know. My people do not understand. Oh, sinful nation. People weighed down with iniquity. Brood of evildoers. Depraved children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel.3:52They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned their backs on Him. Why? Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep on rebelling? The whole head is hurt, and the whole heart is sick. Let's pray, Father. We have read Your Word. Lord, we ask right now that we would not have worship that is mere ritual without depth of heart and true faith.4:20that is mere ritual without depth of heart and true faith. Lord, we pray that right now that we would not be hearers only, but that we would do what Your Word commands. Lord, we pray that those in our midst right now that are not following You, that they don't love Your commands, that they don't love Your Son, that something that they would hear today would stir their heart and that they would see that Jesus is the treasure that they long for, the hope that they need. The narrow way is the good way.4:49The narrow way is the good way. So, Lord, we ask that You would radically change lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. So let's look back at Isaiah 1, verse 4. The Lord speaking to His covenant community through His prophets. Isaiah unveils this revelation steeped in patristic or familial language. Listen to what the Lord says here in verse 2.5:19Listen to what the Lord says here in verse 2. It's as if God is calling His people to lean in, to listen to a Father who loves Him. And Isaiah begins here with this familial, loving language.5:46And Isaiah begins here with this familial, loving language. It's as if God wants His people to know His heart. And when we know the heart of God, we realize that it's our heart that also matters. So knowing the Father's heart then begins to help us examine our heart. We spent this last week in Bulgaria, and my mind is somewhere still over the Atlantic. I woke up last night, and I was thinking,6:14I woke up last night, and I was thinking, man, I've had a good night's sleep. I think I slept through the whole night. So I picked up my phone, and it said 12.15. And I realized this was going to be a long day. But one thing that one of our friends, Ruman, he's a pastor and he's a leader of the church. His dad started the underground church to the gypsies in Bulgaria. But one thing he would do over and over again, he would grab and he would pray for people, but he had these enormous Eastern European hands.6:43but he had these enormous Eastern European hands. And he spoke that thick Bulgarian accent. You come here. They would, when we'd get in the van, they'd say, let us go now. But when he was praying over people, he would put his big hands, and he would grab these young men and young boys by their face, and he would bring them in, and he would just pray a blessing over their life. As if to say, listen, I want you to know my heart, and I want you to hear my love for you.7:13and I want you to hear my love for you. That's exactly what God's doing here. He's grabbing his people, and he's grabbing us, and he's saying, listen to me. Listen to my heart, because I'm about to tell you something that's difficult. But when you understand the heart of God, then it helps you understand your heart. And this is where Isaiah begins. And it's not an easy beginning, but it begins with our heart. So place your hand over your heart really quick, because this is what God is going to ask you to examine this morning.7:40because this is what God is going to ask you to examine this morning. Look at verse 4. He says, That's where Isaiah begins. And David also understands. David was one of the greatest kings that Israel has ever known. David was called a man after God's own heart.8:08David was called a man after God's own heart. And David understood the depths of his own heart, because he understood God's heart. Listen to Psalm 51. David, when he has completely fallen in sin, says, Lord, against you and you alone have I sinned. I have done evil in your sight, so you are just in your sentence, and you are right in your justice.8:37and you are right in your justice. David, a man who understands God's heart, understands his personal heart, and he says, God, I have sinned against you. God, I look at my life, and it is not pretty. God, I have fallen, and I live in this fallen condition. I am this sinful person, and I live in a sinful nation. That is you and I. And church, when you diminish the sin in your life,9:04when you diminish the sin in your life, when you ignore that, you will never find healing. You will never find cleansing. We cannot ignore our sin. If we do not chop the root of our condition, the seeds and the sprouts and the weeds in our life will continue to crop up. That's why so many of us struggle. Right? They're still continuing sin, and we put this religious band-aid on our sin, but God says, you haven't addressed the root. I'm looking for people who have my heart,9:34I'm looking for people who have my heart, and to have God's heart, we have to look at our hearts. And when we look at our hearts, it's not a pretty thing, because we are fallen people with fallen conditions. The words of this prophet are shocking and horrifying. What a way to begin 66 books of prophecy. He doesn't say, guys, I know you're struggling right now. I know it's about to get bad, this whole exile thing, but God's going to be there.10:03but God's going to be there. Cheer up. It'll get better. Isaiah says, examine your heart. Look at who you are. Oh, sinful nation. And then he begins to unfold of what our hearts look like, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. So let's look at Isaiah 4. Oh, sinful nation. Our heart is sinful. To sin simply means to miss the mark. God sets the standard, and you and I have not lived up to that. Now you think,10:33Now you think, well, that's a horrible thing to say. Well, when you understand God's grace, it's freeing. Because here's what the Bible says about all of us, right? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So I am not here pointing fingers at you and saying, you sinful, ugly people. No, what we're saying is, we are sinful. We are ugly. And we are fallen. And we're in the same boat. But it gets worse. Not only are we sinful,11:02Not only are we sinful, but what else does Isaiah say? We are people weighed down. This is the same word, kabod, that often describes the glory of God. The weightiness of a sovereign, holy creator. But in this passage, Isaiah is not talking about God's glory. We've exchanged God's glory for a lie, Romans tells us. And so Isaiah says, we are weighed down by our sins. And if I can say anything about our society,11:30And if I can say anything about our society, we are people who are weighed down. We're weighed down by our occupations and our preoccupations and our preferences. And often we're weighed down by our sin that only mounts up and up and up. And religion is not the remedy for that weight. We'll find out the answer shortly. But it gets worse. Not only is my heart sinful, not only is it weighed down, but what else does Isaiah say here? He says, you depraved children.12:00you depraved children. You have abandoned the Lord. So by nature, when you and I sin, we reject God. We abandon Him. God did not reject you. You rejected Him. That's exactly what Isaiah tells us. And so if God feels far off to you this morning, it's not because God walked away. It's because you and I walked away from Him. We have abandoned the Father who loves us so much.12:29who loves us so much. And Isaiah continues. He says, Israel, you have turned your backs on God. You have despised Him. You have treated Him with contempt. You have reviled Him. You blasphemed Him. You might think, well, what does this sound like? It sounds like the hissing of the crowd. Or it sounds like the spitting of someone that you just can't stand. You say, this is difficult.12:59this is difficult. What a dark picture that Isaiah is painting of the people. Yes, that's exactly what he's doing. Isaiah is painting a dark picture of you and me so that we will greater appreciate the light of Jesus Christ. I remember when I was growing up my parents decided to take a trip with all of the three kids to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. And we drove. I don't know what they were thinking. And you had to drive13:30And you had to drive through that continent called Texas. And I remember going to the caverns and you go deep down in the caverns and when you get to the bottom and it's the same at Ruby Falls. When you get to the bottom and there's no natural light, there's only man-made light, then what do they do? They turn the lights off. And the darkness is so heavy you can almost feel it, can't you? You can't even see14:00You can't even see your hands, doesn't matter how far you put them in front of your face. Whether it's a foot or whether it's an inch, you just cannot see because the darkness is overwhelming. And what Isaiah is doing for all of us right now, he's drawing a picture of your heart. And he's saying, you are so dark that you have no hope on your own. And I know that you're badness and you feel good about that. And I know you're Americans14:29you're Americans and you feel like you're just good inherently, but you are dark and you're so dark that no matter how hard you try, you will remain in darkness. But what happens when you're at the bottom of Ruby Falls or Carlsbad and they flip the lights on? The light is almost overwhelming. That is exactly what Isaiah is doing for us today. He's saying, church, examine, Israel, examine the darkness of your heart and when you do,14:59and when you do, you will greatly appreciate the light and the goodness and the mercy of Jesus Christ. You are a fallen people, but there is hope. His name is Jesus Christ. Never forget the merciful light of Jesus. Never forget the merciful light of Jesus. But he continues, not only are we fallen, but we are foolish in our rebellion. Look at verse 5. Why do you,15:29Why do you, why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? The whole head is hurt. The whole heart is sick. God is asking these questions as a loving father. Why do you do this? Why? Why are you walking a path of destruction that you were never created to endure? See, that's what sin does in our life. And God is calling out15:58And God is calling out to us, why are you doing this? Don't buy the lies of Satan. Don't buy the lies of the world. Don't continue to walk a path where you will get beat and you look at the world and you say, well, that was nice. It hurt, but it wasn't that bad. And is that not what we do with sin? We see the devastating effects of our hearts and our minds. And then a day later we think, you know what? It wasn't so bad. Oh, what a foolish16:27Oh, what a foolish rebellion that we live. Sin is not only unreasonable, but it is unreasoning. Sin in our lives causes us to get beat and then turn around and say, thank you. Let's do that again. And God is calling out to us, why would you do that? Why would you like the hurt that you were not created to endure? And how often do we make foolish decisions in our life when we're living in sin and we expect16:56and we expect reasonable outcomes? We're in sinful relationships, maybe with a young man or a young woman and we're living in a way that God does not want us to live and we are surprised when it doesn't end well. God is saying, why? Why do you do this? And for Israel, this foolishness of individual rebellion is easily seen on the corporate nationalistic level.17:25nationalistic level. You see, if we're honest, and history tells us that the kings of Israel during this time were anything but foolish. they were shrewd, they were excellent leaders economically, politically, and in their defense. But, the nation as a whole morally was decaying. So, economically, thriving, moralistically, and decay. Sound familiar? Anyone?17:55Anyone? But listen, we live in a nation that elevates sexuality as a God. And we live in a nation where we sacrifice our families at the altar of our jobs to win a prize called retirement. That when we die, we can't take anything with us. And we say to God, God, I'll serve you when I have more time. And then we look18:27And then we look at the world and we say, well, our nation is falling apart. And God is looking at us and saying, but Josh, if you weren't falling apart, maybe your nation would be stronger. If you took care of the widows, if you took care of the orphans, if you served me with a full heart, if you sought first the kingdom of God, maybe your nation would not be as wrong and as bitter as you see. And so God is calling us to not live18:56to not live in our foolishness. It's the old line from a song that says this about sin. Sin will take you further than you want to go. Sin slowly but wholly takes control. It will leave you longer than you want to stay and it will cost you far more than you want to pay. Listen, if you are walking in sin today, it is not worth it. It's not. If you're in a relationship19:27If you're in a relationship and you are living a life of sin sexually in that relationship, that is not God's desire for your life. End it. It's better to honor Christ and be heartbroken than to have a life full of pleasure and to God to turn His back from you because He cannot bear to see the weight of your sin. God is calling to people who are living in sin. Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you taking more beatings?19:57taking more beatings? Why are you taking rebellion but it is not too late to turn to the Messiah? Oh, how fallen we are and how foolish is our rebellion. But Isaiah continues. You think it can't get worse but it does. But wait, there's more. Look at verse 11. If this doesn't wake you up being in a worship center on a Sunday morning nothing will. Listen to what God says about worship. What20:26What are your sacrifices to me? Ask the Lord. I have had enough of your burnt offerings and your rams of the fat of well fed cattle. I have no desire for the blood of bulls lambs or male goats. When you come to appear before me who requires this from you? This trampling of my courts. Stop bringing useless offerings. Your incense.20:58Your incense. Your songs. Your chants. Your meet and greet times. They are detestable to me. Your new moons. Your Sabbaths. And the calling of the solemn assemblies. I cannot stand iniquity with the festival. God says I hate your new moons at prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to me. I am tired of putting up with them. When you spread out your hands in prayer I will refuse to look at you even if you offer21:27even if you offer countless prayers. I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Sin that is left ignored and unchecked always leads to faithless worship. Sin in your life and my life that is left unchecked or ignored always leads to faithless worship. And if you want to know how God21:57to know how God thinks about our worship that's without faith read Isaiah 1 where God says I hate it. Is that not different than what we hear often in our land? Just come to church. God will accept you as you are. Just pray. God will love you and He just wants you. God needs you. Though God looks at people who are living lives of idolatry22:25lives of idolatry and we come in here with full of pompous pride. God says Josh I hate it when you do this. I hate it when you give because I know your heart's greedy. I hate it when you sing these songs because you don't sing with a heart that loves me. You sing it because you want your neighbor to hear. Oh that we would wake up to faithless worship. This activity22:56This activity that God is describing here is probably seen as Judah's response to an impending disaster. God is judging their idolatry. He's judging their sin and so the synagogue is filled up because God's people are saying we don't want to be hurt. It's as if after 9-11 the pews were filled at the church I attended which is a great thing. People wanting to something more but in the end most people didn't want God.23:25want God. They just didn't want hurt. And that's exactly what is going on in Judah's day. It's the people of God saying well we don't really want Jesus but we don't want hell so I think Jesus is better than hell so I'll give him lip service. God says Josh I have no desire for faithless worship. And listen to what he says about this. I'll give you three quick assertions about faithless worship. Look at verse 11.23:55verse 11. Faithless worship means nothing to the Lord. Look at verse 11. What are your sacrifices? God is saying you don't even believe in me. What are you doing? It means nothing. Why are you wearing your Sunday best when you don't believe that you should give me your hearts? Faithless worship means24:24worship means nothing to the Lord. Look he says faithless worship adds nothing. God says I have had enough of these rams. These costly sacrifices you're bringing. And faithless worship does nothing for the Lord. Look at verse 11 again. He says I have what? I have no desire. It's as if my faithless24:53my faithless worship turns the stomach of God because he knows I'm doing it in a self-serving hypocritical way. And the danger of all of this, the danger of this text for people who say they know God is that you can't see my heart. It's a cancer that is festering under the surface. But you don't know25:23don't know my heart right now. My heart can be the furthest from God and yet it looks like I'm still proclaiming his mercies in my life and God says stop what you're doing. I don't want faithless worship. I want your heart. I want your life. That is what God desires. You see the gospel even in the Old Testament is this. Exodus 11 and Moses. God redeems25:53God redeems his people out of Egypt by the Passover lamb. Redemption first. Exodus 20 and 21 then the law is given. It's given. So redemption God redeems his people. He gives them the law and then Leviticus where he prescribes this is how you worship. So the gospel is this. You don't obey and worship and then you find redemption. God redeems you. He transforms26:23He transforms you so that you can obey so that you can worship. Oh that we would reject faithless worship in our lives. So why would Isaiah begin with this three layered horrible description of the people of God? You're fallen from sin. You're foolishly rebellious in verse five and now you are faithfully faithlessly worshiping me and26:53me and God hates it because there's good news at the end and the good news is found in verse 16. And God says this through his prophet. Wash. Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove the evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil. Learn what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the27:23Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow's case. You see God does not want us to languish in empty worship. One of the dangers of the western church is that we have so institutionalized worship that it becomes faithless. Why are so many youth who go to college turning away from the faith? Because they27:52Because they never had faith to begin with. And they see in their parents and they see in their church people who go through the motions and they say if that's what God is about I don't want that. And as soon as I get out from my parents house and I have freedom if this is what God is about I'm not in it. But God doesn't want us to live faithlessly. God wants us to have more in our life. Abundant life. A faith that works does not begin by28:22begin by dressing up for church. It begins by washing our lives. Verse 16 Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove the evil deeds from my sight. stop doing evil. See these instructions to remove and wash do not point to tidying up our lives but they point to God radically changing who we are. That's exactly what Isaiah says. He's saying this is a faith that works. Wash28:54Wash your lives. Pursue right. Live a life where God is working in and through you. God doesn't want you just to be sorry for your sins and we live in a broken world where we think that to apologize all you have to say is I apologize. That is the lamest apology you can offer. Right? It drives me crazy when people leaders get on TV and they've had these horrible failings in their life and they get up and say29:24and say I just want you to know that from my heart and from my lawyer I will apologize. That's not an apology. And how often in our sin do we say God I want you to know God that I apologize to you. God wants our hearts to be broken. God against you and you alone have I sinned. but God wash me.29:53me. God cleanse me. God I want worship and faith that works in my life. And God I know that it won't work from the outside in. But God I've seen my heart. I know that I'm sinful. I know that I'm weighed down. I know that I've abandoned you. And I've turned my backs. So God if you change my heart I know that you will change my life. That is what we need. Faith that works in the midst30:23midst of our brokenness. I want to share a story from Bulgaria. Another story. We went on Monday to these villages that had nothing. These broken gypsy villages. They call them gypsy villages. They're not really gypsy villages. They're Bulgarian villages. The Bulgarians live in the center of town. Then where you have the trash dump you have the gypsy villages. And really the first30:53first village that we pulled up to they were living in the dump. They were looking for food and looking for any type of resourceful tool in this trash dump. And I'll never forget just the slums and the stench. And these little children would come in and we were playing with them. And some shaved their heads because they would have lice. And the only way to get rid of the infestation would be to shave their heads. And as I tell that my head31:23my head is itching right now just thinking about it. But we had one lady that invited us in because we were giving her a box of food and items for her children. And we walk into this poor poor little shack maybe nine foot by nine foot and you walk in and it's different. You walk in and everything's tidy. Everything's neat. Everything's clean. She was poor. She had nothing but31:52but she had tidied up her little shack in this village of shacks. You know what was different about this lady? She had found Jesus. And we begin to ask the missionaries why do these gypsies why do they not change their way of life? And here's a simple response. He said when you don't have hope for tomorrow you don't care about today. But when32:22when God changes your life He changes and He cleanses your heart everything changes. And you could walk around in this village and you could see the Christian kids because they didn't look different. They had pride in what they wore and they didn't have any by our standards they had nothing but they had pride in their hygiene and they had pride in being orderly and purpose why? Because tomorrow they had hope in Jesus. and32:50and what a powerful display of faith working out in their life. And this is exactly what we find in Jesus. In verse 16 in Christ a faith that works is decisive abandonment of the old life. Verse 16 wash yourselves cleanse yourselves remove your evil deeds. God did not remove them from the villages he did not remove them from their poverty but they changed your life33:20life because they had hope that Jesus was the answer. And that is the way that we need to live. In Christ a faith that works also renews our minds. Look at verse 17. Learn to do what is good. God renews our minds by the power of his word and the power of his spirit. When you have hope for tomorrow your mind is transformed by the33:50by the renewing of his mercy. And a faith that works begins now to build new priorities in our life where we follow Christ. Look at verse 17 again. When we learn to do what is good, we pursue justice, we correct, we defend, we plead the widow's case. Oh, that God would give us faith that works. And you know the greatest thing that these kids are going to hear today and see today is not from the34:20from the pulpit. It's seeing a faith that works out in their parents' lives. It's seeing a faith that works in their grandparents and their friends. This is what we need. And then we find in verse 18 after all of this horrible news and this desire for us to wash our lives, verse 18 says this, God, speaking through Isaiah, it says, come let us settle this, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet,34:50scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are crimson red, they will be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land. But if you refuse, if you rebel, you will be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. In response to a community that was living a lie, and by our terminology playing church, God lovingly speaks and says, come let us reason together. It's a35:20It's a legal term. It means to settle the score, to settle the account, and God knows that in our strength and in our power, we can do nothing to make our situation better. That's why God says, children, listen to me, brother, sister. God says, I love you. I know your fallen condition. I know your desperate state. And I sent my son to settle this once and for all. And he settled it by sending35:50by sending his son to die on the cross for our sins, so that our sins, as though they are dark and marring, as scarlet will be white as snow. And he settles it so that as we are dark as crimson red, God will purify us and make us like wool. So I just simply ask today, in view of this faithful God who wants to settle things36:19settle things and make them right in your life, are you willing? Are you willing? God asked, verse 19, if you are willing and obedient, you will eat good things. But if you refuse, the choice is yours. And this picture of this gypsy shanty town is stuck in my mind. There were those who chose to live in the filth and in the squalor of their village36:49their village and their neighbor chose to live differently because Jesus had radically changed their life. This is what we need. And I just simply ask if Jesus were to visit your house today, what would he find spiritually? Some of you right now are thinking, man, I was not expecting a visitor. My house is not in order. But it can be. Some of you37:20Some of you don't want to think about that because you just feel like you're not loved by God. You feel like you're so far from God that even if you screamed out to him, he couldn't hear you. And God's response is, Josh, I did not walk away from you. You walked away from me. But if you were called out to me with a repentant heart, I will hear you. I will redeem you. I will restore you. That's what we need. Some of you have been37:49have been so far in your walk with Christ you forget how dark it was before Jesus. That's why you're grumpy. That's why you worship sometimes and it looks like you're sucking on a lemon. I do that sometimes. You know why we do that? Because we forgot how dark our hearts are. and when we realize the darkness that God brought us from, oh, it changes the way I sing. It changes the way I pray38:19I pray and changes the way I worship because I know I'm not worthy. I never want to go to that dark place again because I know that my sinful heart is wickedly evil above all. so this morning it might do you some good to look at your heart. Oh, people of Bethel, you don't deserve God's grace, but he freely38:49freely gives it and we need to let the world know that although our sins were as scarlet, he can wash them white as snow. Listen to this. What a beautiful, majestic Savior we have. But God today says if you are willing. Are you? Let's pray. Father,More from Isaiah →
