Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Sep 05, 2007: Isaiah 1
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007. Chapter 1, verse 1 says, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Here we are beginning the book of the prophet Isaiah. It starts the next section of the Old Testament known as the major prophets. We just finished the poetic books which were Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. We finished Song of Solomon last week, and now as we continue our trek through the Bible, we begin in the book of Isaiah, studying this massive book, this incredible book, this powerful book of the prophet Isaiah and the things that took place in his ministry for about the 50 years or so that he was ministering. On the way in this evening, you received a little booklet or pamphlet, a The book of Isaiah is a book of life and death, and it is a book of life and death, and it is a book of life and death. And so on that pamphlet is a timeline that they're going to show on the screen right here. And just I want to walk you through this real quick, because it's very important to understand the timing of these things so that you might understand who Isaiah was ministering to and the state of the nation that that the state of the nation while he was sharing these things and while he was speaking to the leaders and to the people. We have on the screen here, this is part of a biblical timeline. And for the most part, you'll recognize a lot of these things. The time of the judges on the very top with that green bar is the time of the book of Judges when there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes and God raised up leaders, pharisees, from time to time to deliver them from captivity because of their disobedience to God. And they would do well for a time, but then they would slip away and God would raise up another leader. And so they would continue to do that for quite some time. And then God gave them a king. They requested a king and God gave them Saul. He's the little pink bar there because he was kind of a sissy. No, I'm just kidding. Um, But Saul was the first king of Israel, and so he was anointed and appointed as king and established in the land. And his reign lasted for about 40 years. And then David became king. And David is one of the most popular and most common names that you'll read about in the Bible. He's known as Rehoboam. really the standard for kings. All the kings after him were compared to him, whether or not they walked in the ways of David or didn't walk in the ways of David, meaning whether they kept the word of the Lord or were rebellious to the Lord. After David reigned, then Solomon, his son... took the throne. And under Solomon, the temple was built there in Jerusalem. The kingdom was established and reached the farthest extent of its borders. It was a time of peace and wonderful, incredible prosperity. Silver, like, you know, the stones. It was just phenomenal, the work that took place while Solomon was king. And so he reigned for about another 40 years. And then his son, Rehoboam, ascended to the throne after Solomon. Well, Rehoboam wasn't as wise as Solomon and did some foolish things. And as a result, the kingdom of Israel then was split in two. There was somewhat of a civil war that took place, although mostly it was negotiations. And so Jeroboam became king of Israel, which was known as the northern kingdom or the nation of Israel. And Rehoboam, Solomon's son, became king of the southern kingdom, which was also known as the nation of Judah. And so prior to this, under Saul, David and Solomon, there was one kingdom, the nation of Israel. And after Solomon, it was split in two. The northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom had a very, very bad history because they did not follow the ways of God. The temple was in Jerusalem, which was part of the southern kingdom, so they didn't worship God. They worshipped their own idols and idolatry. And so every king of the nation of Israel went from bad to worse to worse to worse to worse until finally, you see the Assyrian captivity there. God had to deal with their sin and rebellion and the nation was completely obliterated, taken captive. And the Assyrian army put new people in the land, but there was no longer a nation of Israel, no longer a northern kingdom. The southern kingdom was a little bit similar, but they did have some good kings here and there. It was kind of just about every other one was a good king. And so they'd have a good king who followed the Lord, and then they'd have a bad king that went away from the Lord. But it began to get worse and worse. Fewer and fewer good kings as time went on. To the point that they were in continual rebellion, just like the nation of Israel. And so God allowed them to be wiped out as well and taken into the Babylonian captivity through the king Nebuchadnezzar, which you probably have heard his name once or twice. And so the divided kingdom was was a bad situation, and it was downhill from there. The peak of the glory was under Solomon's reign, and then after that, the people began to go farther and farther away from the things of God. You see, Isaiah's ministry is right there in the middle. Part of his ministry, well, during his ministry, the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom, was taken captive. And the southern kingdom, he's towards the end, was on the same path. They were heading that direction. And so Isaiah is calling the nation of Israel back to repentance with the example of the nation of Israel saying, look at what happened to Israel because they did not listen to God. They did not turn back to God. And he's telling the nation of Judah, The same thing will happen to you if you do not repent, if you do not turn back to follow the ways of God. But they continued to progress towards rebellion and more rebellion. to the point that they were taken captive and carried off to Babylon. So that's the historical background of the book of Isaiah. It was about a hundred years after his ministry that the nation was conquered and taken captive to the land of Babylon. And so he was ministering there, kind of a last-ditch effort, really, to turn the people back to the ways of God. And really, that is the purpose of all of the prophets or most of the prophets that we'll be studying as we go on to Isaiah and then Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel. All of these were prophets during this time up to this point in the word, as you go from beginning in Genesis all the way through, you know, first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, first and second Samuel. As you go through all of those, Ezra and Nehemiah, it's all historically in place. It's all in order chronologically of what took place. Well, now as we look at the prophets, we'll be going back and looking at what is already taking place. This is not new information. But this is going back and these guys will be speaking in that historical context. And so I would encourage you to consider the nations of Israel and Judah as we continue to look at these prophets in the coming weeks and months. As we study through Isaiah, there's some difficulties that we'll encounter. Some of the difficulties of Isaiah is that his prophecies and his messages are not always in order. It's not always very clear who he's talking to or when he's talking about them, if the prophecy is already taking place or going to be taking place many years from now. And so we'll be struggling with that, and you'll get to see that in the coming weeks as we study through it. One of the interesting things about the book of Isaiah is it can really be divided into two sections. The first section consists of the first 39 chapters and the second section consists of the last 27 chapters. And it really corresponds to the 66 books of the Bible where Where the first 39 books of the Bible are the Old Testament and the last 27 books of the Bible are the New Testament. And the message of the Old Testament corresponds very much with the book of Isaiah and the first 39 chapters. And the message of the New Testament corresponds with the last 27 chapters of Isaiah. In the first part, chapters 1 through 39... Isaiah is pronouncing judgment and he's calling the people to holiness. It's really a call to holiness that Isaiah is proclaiming through that first half of the book or first part of the book. But the last part of the book, the emphasis is mainly on those last 27 chapters corresponding with the New Testament. The emphasis is on redemption and the Messiah that is to come. And of course, in the New Testament, we have the Messiah who has come, who is Jesus Christ. There's a saying that John Corson says often that I really enjoy and think is appropriate. And that is, we are where we are in the Word. We are where we are in the Word. What that means is, as we're studying through these books, chapter by chapter, book by book, that where we are in life is what we are reading about. And what we are reading about is what we need to hear because of where we are in life. And I really believe that as we now begin the book of Isaiah. God's message to Israel and the surrounding nations that Isaiah will address will be very applicable to us as Christians. It will really point to our lives as well, what we need to hear and pay attention to because of where we are in this life and in our Christian walk. And so Isaiah starts out introducing himself there in verse 1. We can take that off the screen. And he says that he is the son of Amos and he prophesied these things or he had these visions during the reigns of these four kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It's also suggested that he also had some ministry during the reign of Manasseh, who is Hezekiah's son, and that it was actually Manasseh who put him to death. And tradition says that he was sawn asunder, or sawn in two, by King Manasseh. Now, if you'd like some historical context to read along on your own, I would encourage you to check out 2 Kings 15-20 because those chapters deal with these kings, their reigns, and what was taking place with the nation during the time of Isaiah's ministry. So that's 2 Kings 15-20. Or you could also look at 2 Chronicles 26-32. 2 Kings 15-20 and 2 Chronicles 26-32. Well, let's get going now in our study of Isaiah chapter 1, looking at verses 2 and 3. It says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know. My people do not consider. One of the distinctives of Isaiah's ministry and the prophecies that he will bring forth, the messages that he will deliver, is he uses a lot of illustrations or pictures for us to understand. He first compares the nation of Israel to children. God is speaking and he says, I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. And as a parent, you could understand, you could relate to a child in rebellion against you and how that would make you feel and how you would react to that and what that would mean in your life, the hurt that it would inflict. And so God is expressing himself in that way so that we might understand him in that sense, knowing that his children, the nation of Judah, have rebelled against him. They're living contrary to him in opposition to him. He also compares them, gives us the picture of animals. He says that the ox knows its owner. The implication being... The children of Israel, the nation of Judah, even though an ox knows its owner, knows who to go to when it needs food or knows who to receive instruction from, the ox knows its owner, but the nation of Judah, the people of God, they don't know their owner. They don't know their God. They don't know their maker. They're far from Him and they do not recognize Him. It's a sad state to be in. He goes on to say, the donkey knows its master's crib. Also could be translated manger or the place where they were fed. I think this is a beautiful reference to Jesus who was laid in a manger, the bread of life. The people of God did not know God. They didn't know, just like today, there are those Christians, there are those believers who in our midst and outside of our midst that do not know God. They're religious. They have the outward appearance. They attend church or read the Bible or pray out loud or whatever, but there's no real relationship. Like a child that's in rebellion, they live contrary to the things of God. Now, it's interesting that God has always wanted relationship. It's always been the point ever since the beginning. It's why man was created. It's why redemption is available because God desires relationship and fellowship with us. But his complaint against Israel is, hey, Israel does not know. My people don't consider. They don't have relationship with me. Even though it's what I desire and it's what they're created for, even though I created them and I put them into this land and I've blessed them abundantly, my people do not know me. And I would challenge you and I this evening as well. How much has God done for you? How much has he blessed you with? Starting with the cross, of course. And that's more than enough. But He even blesses us above and beyond that. He does so much for us continually. And so the question for us as well is, do you know Him? Would God say this of you? My people at Calvary Chapel Living Water, they don't know me. They're like children who are in rebellion against me. Even an ox knows its master, but these believers or these people who call themselves my followers, they don't know me. They don't consider me. They don't have relationship with me. So many times as Christians, we are distant and not in close relationship with God. We don't know what God says. We don't hear His voice or know how to hear His voice. We know what everyone else says and we hear all kinds of other opinions about life and what we ought to do, but we don't know God. And we don't know what He says about the matter that we face. And we don't know what He says about our life and the situation that we're in. We don't know what He says about the direction that we're to go. It's a sad state when God's people do not know Him. And I want to challenge you as Isaiah is calling Israel back to holiness, back to relationship with God, that we need to be challenged as well. Where do we stand? Are we in a close and personal relationship with God? Do we know him? Do we hear his voice? Is he leading and guiding our lives? Let's go on verses four and following. He says, Alas! Verse 1. And the whole heart faints. Verse 6. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. Nice picture that God is painting again for us here. Talking about His people. He calls them sinful nation. This is what Judah has become. There are people laden with or full of or weighed down with iniquity. It's not just, well, I stumbled in and was involved in sin, but this people, their life is filled with sinful activity, rebellion against God. Their lifestyle is such of iniquity that God calls them a brood of evildoers and children who are corruptors. Not only are they themselves full of iniquity, but they are being used to corrupt others. They corrupt everyone around them and everything around them. Their iniquity is not just affecting their life, but it's affecting all those around them. And that is always the case with sin in our lives. We always justify things and think, well, my sin only affects me. But the reality is when you or when I live in sinful situations or sinful activity, we become corrupted and we also become corruptors and our sin will affect the people around us. God says of his people here, they've forsaken the Lord. They've provoked him to anger. They have turned away backwards. And so you understand, this people is not following God. They're against God. They're in rebellion to God. They've turned their back on God. They're full of iniquity and they're corrupting everyone around them. The wages of sin is death. Galatians chapter 6 verses 7 and 8 says, It tells us, God describes them as being sick. He says the whole head is sick. The heart faints from the sole of the foot to the head. There's no soundness. There's wounds and bruises and open sores that haven't been tended to taking care of. There's been no band-aids put up on them. It's just this disgusting picture of a person who is just completely messed up. But nobody is paying any attention. There's no medical attention being applied. And this is their spiritual state. They're messed up. They're corrupt. They've got wounds and sores and stuff oozing out of them. And it's this horrible picture, but this is what they look like spiritually. This is what they look like to the Lord. This is what the Lord sees. But as we'll see in a moment, on the outward, everything looked fine. Everything looked great. There didn't seem to be any problems. But what God is seeing is the heart. And he's seeing what's taking place within them spiritually. Let's look at verses 7 and following. He says, your country is desolate. So not only is their sin affecting themselves and their hearts and their own lives and their own spiritual state, but now their rebellion against the Lord is affecting their country. And he says, your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. Here in verses 7 through 9, God compares their sin and rebellion with that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their sin and rebellion has destroyed their country. It's been left desolate. It's burned with a fire. They're just like a little hut in a big field. There's nothing around them. It's all been taken away. It's all been wiped out. And there's just this city of Jerusalem. That's the last stand. It's the last part that has not been conquered. And God says, Isaiah says, if God had not left a remnant... a small remnant, then we would have just been wiped out completely like Sodom and Gomorrah, which is no more, which is completely gone with nobody surviving. This idea of a remnant is a common theme throughout the scriptures and especially here in Isaiah. In all of the promises of destruction that God will give through the prophets, God always preserved a remnant. He always preserved a group that remained, a group of people that were faithful to the Lord. God will not break His covenant with Israel. He will not cast them off completely. There will always be Remnant there will always be a group that is faithful to God. He has not cast them off There's a popular teaching today known as replacement theology Where they say that the church replaces Israel and so all of the promises to Israel now apply to the church and and they go on and on with it and that God has no future plan for the nation of Israel that is not what the Bible teaches and Romans chapter 11, Paul spells out very clearly, God still has a plan and a purpose for the nation of Israel. There is still today a remnant and God will begin to restore and unite the nation of Israel once again. He will begin to work with them as a nation once again. He always has a remnant of his people, a small group. And small, you need to understand that that really does mean small. If you think about the extent of the destruction that they've experienced thus far because of their rebellion against God, it's quite devastating. When the children of Israel left the nation of Egypt, the Exodus, you know, Moses leads them out into the wilderness. There was a census that was taken in the book of Numbers. One at the beginning and one at the end, both of them were about the same number. And it was just done of the men, 20 years and older. And the number of men counted in both censuses was 600,000. 600,000 men, so not counting women and children, it's estimated that it was probably at least 2 million people that were with Moses as he left Egypt into the wilderness. A whole generation died, but the same number, essentially, the same amounts of people went into the promised land to inhabit the nation of Israel. So we're talking about a group of 600,000 men or roughly 200 million people, counting women and children. At the time, 100 years after Isaiah's ministry, when the nation of Judah is taken captive by the kingdom of Babylon, the nation has been reduced to 4,600 people. From 2 million to 4,600 people. Or from 600,000 to 4,600, depending on how you look at the numbers. But either way, you understand, we're not talking about a huge nation any longer. But because of the rebellion to God, their lives have been devastated and destroyed. Just like we looked at the book of Proverbs. God gives life, or He gives us principles for life. And if you live according to His principles, you will be blessed. But if you disregard them... Well, it's just the natural course of this life. There will be great destruction and devastation in your life. The nation of Israel is a picture of that for us, that we would remember to walk with God, to be obedient to Him. We don't know exactly how many populated the nation of Judah while Isaiah was ministering, but it was significantly less than those that went into the land. And Isaiah is saying, there's just a few of us. We would have been completely wiped out. There's nations much greater than them that were coming against them. He says, we would have been wiped out. Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, if God had not preserved a small remnant, a small group, God will continue to protect His people because He still has a plan for the nation of Israel. Going on in verses 10 and 11, Isaiah says, Here we find Isaiah being very bold, comparing the leaders... to those of Sodom and Gomorrah, comparing the people to those of Sodom and Gomorrah, calling them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Now, he's not talking to the literal place. Those have been demolished and wiped out long ago. But he's looking at, and can you imagine, looking at the rulers of the nation, these religious, zealous people, and calling them, it would be, Well, there's probably not anything that we could understand, but calling them the worst thing that we could imagine by calling them and relating them to the nation of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's always a sad state when God's people can be compared to the world. He's telling the rulers and the people, the nation has become just like Sodom and Gomorrah. It's in that state of rebellion to God. And so in that state, God asked the question, hey, what is the point of all of your sacrifices? Why do you keep bringing these sacrifices to me? You keep coming to the temple. You keep bringing your bulls and your goats and your lambs and you keep offering them to me. Now, God commanded the sacrifices. They were part of the Levitical system that was established there through Moses. But what's upsetting God, what God is frustrated with in his complaint against Israel, is that they continued to live in sin and rebel against God, yet they tried to be religious. And they tried to keep on their religion and keep on offering the sacrifices on the one hand, but on the other hand, they were living contrary to the things of God, in rebellion to God. And as Christians, we often do that. We justify our sin. We convince ourselves, hey, I'll just go to church and that will kind of help make up for all of the things that I've said and done this week. We get in the mentality of, well, you know, I've been bad, so I'll just give a little bit extra in the offering or I'll read a little bit longer or I'll pray a little bit more or be good to someone. We try to kind of bargain with God in that sense. But God hates this type of activity. It's hypocrisy and it makes mockery of God and his word. He doesn't want your offerings and sacrifices if they're not an act of worship. You can't buy offerings and sacrifices, appease him for your sin. The only thing that can do that is faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us. See, it was never about the blood of bulls and goats, but it was about the heart. And God's saying, hey, if you want to come and bring sacrifices, that's fine, but let your heart be right and come with a repentant heart. Come wanting to change and wanting to meet with me and wanting to seek me, but don't come with this hypocrisy saying, I want to live my lifestyle, but I want to be right with God, and so I'm going to do both. That's religion. It's the outward works, the system. And God hates that type of religion. He despises it. Look at verses 12 and following. He says, Verse 2. Here is God's case against the nation of Israel. Their hands are full of blood. They're in rebellion to God. They are living contrary to Him, but they're trying to somehow appease Him or still be right with Him and hold on to their sin by performing all of these sacrifices. And God says, bring no more futile sacrifices. These sacrifices don't do anything for you, He's telling them. God would rather you not bring any offerings or sacrifices unless... It's out of a heart that desires to seek Him and please Him and be obedient to Him. God would rather that you not read the Bible or come to church if it's out of anything other than a repentant heart and a desire to seek Him and know the truth. To come here to somehow make atonement for, well, you said a few extra things that you shouldn't have said or to make up for how bad you've been, that is contrary to the ways of God and it's an abomination to Him. It makes mockery of Him in His Word. He knows your heart. And if you come to Him, then come to Him willing to receive Him. Willing to be obedient to Him. Willing to submit to Him. See, it's one thing to come seeking the Lord and wanting to know Him. Not sure even if you want to make a commitment to Him, but wanting to know the truth. Jesus invites you to come. He invites you to investigate. Find out, yes, this is the truth. This is the way I want to walk. But to know the truth. And then continue to live in sin. To know the truth, living in sin, and come pretending that everything's okay, and just fulfilling the outward works of a religion, that's an abomination to God. In verse 14 he says, My soul hates those things. God hates the acts of worship that are done in hypocrisy. He hates the offerings that you give without meaning. To the point that he tells the nation of Israel, when you spread out your hands, when you're calling out to me, I'm going to hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers and cry out a lot, I will not hear because your hands are full of blood. This is heavy stuff. God is telling his people, I am not going to hear you because you have chosen to live in rebellion and hypocrisy forever. And so when you come to the point where you will call upon me, I am not going to hear you. I will not listen. This is heavy stuff. God is serious about sin. He's serious about how he is worshipped. He's serious about how you and I live our lives. You cannot expect to be heard by God when you are living in rebellion against him. And if you live in rebellion against him, Understand that you will come to a point that it doesn't matter how much you pray and how much you cry out to him, he will not hear you because you chose to live in hypocrisy and to make mockery of him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you will reap. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption and destruction. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap everlasting life. Here's what God desires of the nation of Israel and of you and I in verse 16 and 17. He says, "...wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow." In verse 16, he tells them, these are the things that you're to take off. These are the things to remove yourself from. And then in verse 17, here's the things to do. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away evil, cease to do good, put those things out of your life, stop living in sin, stop speaking that way, stop practicing that evil, turn from those things and instead pursue good. Pursue the things of God. Learn to walk in His ways is the command of God. This is what He demands of His people. Not your sacrifices, God says, but your obedience, your repentance, your willingness to walk in my ways. Wash yourselves. Cease to do evil. This is God's message from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end. In the book of Revelation, if you remember in chapters 2 and 3, Jesus is writing to the seven churches. And five of those churches... Jesus has issues with them and things to deal with with them. And in each of those five churches, Jesus tells them to repent. The last two churches are doing well. They're obedient to God. They're walking in the ways of God. And so Jesus has no reason to tell them to repent. But to those five whose church, whose life is out of whack, out of line with the Word of God, He tells them to repent. If you want to be saved, He tells them, repent. And God still brings that message to you and I today. Listen, the way that you live your life is important. It's not just about being religious and coming to church and offering offerings, but it's about giving your entire life to him and living for him. And if the rest of your life is not in line with the word of God, you need, you must repent. That's what God desires. He doesn't desire your sacrifices. Don't come here just to try to please him or please someone else. Don't spend time, you know, trying to offer to God things that you don't have your heart in or you're not desiring to worship Him. Don't try to atone for your sinful activity by being more religious or being more active. God desires repentance in our hearts. He demands that we turn from sin, that we wash, that we cleanse ourselves, that we remove ourselves from those things and pursue the things of God. Verses 18 and following, he says, Here's what God says. Come now, let's reason together. God doesn't ask you to do something that is unreasonable. He says, look, here's the deal. Your sins, they're like crimson now, but they will be white as snow. Your sin, that which condemns you and I to hell eternally, God says, hey, I can take care of that for you. I can deliver you from hell. I can deliver you from eternity separated away from me. Let's make a deal. Let's reason together. Make sense of this. Here's the trade. Here's what God desires in exchange. Verse 19, if you are willing and obedient. God says, if you're willing and obedient, then I will take your sin and I will save you from eternal separation from me. I will save you from eternal judgment if you will be willing and obedient. He doesn't demand much. All He demands is our heart, that we would be willing and obedient. All God wants in exchange for your blessing, for your everlasting life, is your willingness and obedience. Now, let us reason together. That is a great deal. That is the best deal you could make. Because it's the only deal that delivers you from eternal separation from God. To be willing and obedient to Him. To be surrendered and submitted to Him is all that He desires and requires. That you would know Him. That you would have a relationship with Him. Hey, let's stop kidding ourselves. Saying, I want to follow God, but... And we have our exception. I want to follow God, but I need to take care of this. I want to follow God, but I have this Irish temper and I just can't seem to get over that. I want to follow God, but I need to fulfill this desire. I'm not strong enough to turn away from that sin. I want to follow God, but there's this hang-up that I have. It's all foolishness and excuses. If you are willing and obedient, that's all that's demanded. That's all that's required. If you are willing and obedient, you will follow God. You will keep His ways. Jesus said in John 14 verse 15, He who loves me keeps my commandments. Oh, I love God, but you know, I just think that I can live in this and do this. I know God says I shouldn't, but you know, there's grace. And Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. In John 14, 21, he says it the other way. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. You can tell very easily if you love the Lord by whether or not you keep his commandments. Whether or not you walk in his ways. Of course we stumble. Of course we fall short. But we're talking about a lifestyle. If you live contrary to the ways of God, if it's your practice, your lifestyle, that you disobey God, you don't love God. If you are willing and obedient, you will follow His ways. You will follow His commands. If you love God, then come to Him through Jesus Christ and you will walk in His ways. Let's stop kidding ourselves. If you love God, if you are willing, He will do that work in you. If not, then that's what verse 20 is about. But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. There's only two choices. To be willing and obedient and follow the ways of God, or if not, then like the nation of Israel that went from 2 million to 4,600, your life will be destroyed. You will reap corruption if you sow to the flesh. Look at verses 21 and following. He says, How the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them. Here God compares how they used to be to how they are now. They used to be faithful, but now they're a harlot. They worship other gods. They fill their life with the things that are not of God. They used to be full of justice, but now they're full of murderers. They used to be silver, but that silver has turned to dross, which is the junk, the scum that they take out of the silver. Their life has been reduced. It used to be valuable and precious, and now it's worthless. It used to be like wine, but now it's just watered down and diluted, good for nothing. Because if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. And this is a real danger for those who have been Christians for a while. If you've been a Christian for a while, we figure, I've accomplished a lot. I've really grown a lot. And so if I slow down a little bit in my Christian walk, it won't hurt. It's not a big deal. I've already come this far. Or if I compromise a little bit, it's not a big deal. I can receive God's grace and ask for forgiveness. It won't really affect me, but what we don't understand. It's not like you get this far and then you're just kind of messing with this extra area. No, but what you have will become corrupted. What you think you have, what you think you have attained will become corrupted because if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. And so what you think you have and what you think you have attained in your Christian life will become corrupted and destroyed if you live in rebellion to God, compromising His ways contrary to His Word. You cannot live in sin and not be affected It will destroy your life. The wages of sin is death. 24 and following says, Therefore the Lord says, The Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel. I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Israel was in a state of complete corruption, but God's not willing to let them go. He still desires relationship with them. So he says, hey, you won't clean up your act, so I'm going to clean it up for you. And how do you think that God does that? How does he purge away the dross? By turning up the heat. Specifically, he does it by allowing the nation of Babylon to come and conquer them and take them away captive and hold them there in that captivity for 70 years. God essentially is telling the people of Israel here, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. It's your choice. And for you and I as believers, God tells us the same thing. Look, you want to keep living in sin? We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you can turn and repent. Either you can be willing and obedient. Or I will purge away the dross. If you're not willing and obedient, God will work that out in your life through the purging fires of trials and difficulties. Because he loves you too much to let you continue in that way. But you will suffer great loss by taking that route. Great loss of what you have and great loss of missing out on the blessings of that God would love to pour out. And I'm not just talking about physical. I'm not saying, hey, if you're obedient to God, you'll be rich and wealthy and never get sick. No, but in your heart, in your soul, being fulfilled in satisfaction in your relationship with the Lord, you're going to suffer great loss if you insist on rebelling against God. But if you will be willing, if you will turn and repent, God will do that work in you. He says, afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness. One way or the other, Now you can still be stubborn and refuse to let God bring you back to Him. And that's your choice. And you can spend eternity away from Him because you spent your life convincing Him that you want no part of Him. And so He'll say, okay. He'll respect your decision to refuse Him and want no part of Him. But if you will turn to Him from whatever state, at the beginning of the fires, at the end of the fires, before the fires come, when you begin to walk in compromise, when you begin to live in sin, Or after you've been living there for a long time. Whenever you turn, whenever you come, God will receive you. That's what he desires. He desires that relationship with you. Finally, we close with verses 27 through 31. He says, Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. Here God describes the destruction of the rebellious. The remnant, the repentant, they will be redeemed, he says. They will be rewarded with righteousness for their repentance or their penitence. But the rebellious will be destroyed. The reference to gardens here and trees in this passage is the places where they would perform their idol worship. They would go there and worship these other gods and bow down before these images that they have created and made. And they would participate in all types of lewd activity, living contrary to the things of God. And God says, you will be ashamed of those things. You'll be embarrassed at those things. You will be destroyed. He concludes by saying, the strong shall be as tender. Essentially, the message here is, turn or burn. The strong will be as tender. You want to be strong? You want to be stubborn? You want to continue to go away from the things of God? He says, the work of it as a spark. Both will burn together and no one shall quench them. Turn or burn. Repent. Or experience the fire of God's refining. And if you still don't repent, then experience the fire of God's wrath. A heavy beginning to the book of Isaiah. He comes out strong out of the gate saying, Listen guys, God is going to wipe you out if you don't repent. I'm sick of your sacrifices. I'm sick of your hypocrisy. I'm sick of you living in sin and trying to appease me by going through the ritual and following the religion. I'm sick of it. If you guys don't repent, if you're not willing and obedient, Isaiah says to the nation of Israel, to the nation of Judah, if you're not willing and obedient, if you don't turn, you will be destroyed. God will send the purging fires and the repentant will be redeemed, but the strong will be destroyed. The stubborn, the rebellious will be wiped out completely. And guys, as I shared at the beginning, this is a wonderful book. There's so much more in store for us. So many great things. But we start off with a challenge and it should cause us to reflect. And we should challenge our own hearts. Where do I stand? Because we are where we are in the Word. And the fact that we're here in chapter 1 of Isaiah and listening to this strong and to-the-point message means that in our hearts, God wants to work. It's a call back to holiness, not just for the nation of Israel, but for you and I. It's a call back to wholeheartedly walking with God. And having our whole lives reflected. And not just simply being religious, but really having a relationship with God. God's messages to Israel and the surrounding nations are to us as Christians as well. The message has not changed. We have grace and redemption through Jesus Christ, but it's not a license to live in sin. If we don't repent, if you continue to live in sin, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you will reap. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap everlasting life. Isaiah calls the nation of Judah back to holiness. And through Isaiah, God is calling you and I to holiness. Come out from the world and be separate. Turn from sin, because the wages of sin is death. And if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. And so I challenge you, I challenge me, I challenge us. We need to reflect. Does your life line up with the Word of God? Do you keep His commandments? Because Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. The one who keeps my commandments, that's the one who loves me, Jesus said. No, it's not a works relationship. It's not about religion. It's not about being perfect. It's about relationship. But the reality of that relationship is demonstrated by how we live our life. And if you don't live your life right with God, then know that you are not right in your relationship with God. It's a call back to holiness. It's a call back to relationship with Him. And you need to get right with God. You need to turn or burn. Experience the fire of God's purging fire. And if you continue to be stubborn, if you continue to rebel, then you will experience the fire of God's wrath eternally separated from Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I lift up our hearts to You with such a powerful word and a strong message from Isaiah. God, I pray that we would take heed to it and not disregard it like the nation of Judah did. God, they didn't turn. They didn't repent. Lord, they suffered great loss as a result. Lord, I pray that You would not Allow this evening to come to an end without us getting right with you. Lord, that you would bring all of us into right relationship with you. Lord, that we would come to you not religiously, but Lord, repentantly. God, we need, we need you. We need your redemption and grace and mercy. So Lord, we come to you this evening and we ask that you would forgive us. Lord, we repent. We turn around completely and wash ourselves. We cast those things away from us. Lord, this evening we present ourselves to you. Lord, we're willing. Help us to be obedient. Transform our lives as we walk in relationship with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.