Isaiah 48
Refined for God’s Glory
Recognize My Hypocrisy vs. 1-2
Relent of Our Stubbornness vs. 3-5
Remove the Rebelliousness vs. 6-8
Undeserved Mercy vs. 9-13
Unrealized Potential vs. 14-19
Go Forward vs. 20-22
Intro:
We have just spent the last three chapters looking at how God will judge Babylon
Now we are going to see God turn his microscope on the Jews and inspect them
These words are addressed to the righteous, God’s people
How does God define the word, wicked?
We reserve it for notorious sinners; terrorists, serial killers, and the like
We see people like this airline pilot who crashed the plane into the mountain as wicked
While that is true, God includes a much larger group (vs.18)
Pay no attention to his word, they disregard it.
Wicked do not heed God’s commandments
Deliberately disobey his commandments
A perfect example is the remnant that came back from Babylon
Vs. 20 commanded to flee Babylon
Historically overwhelming number of Jews didn’t return to Jerusalem
The Messiah hung in the balance on their obedience
God didn’t say that Jesus would be born in Babylon, but in Bethlehem
Read
Transition: No Peace
Isaiah 48:22 ends with “There is no peace for the wicked”
The Israelites were a people with absolutely no peace
Their wickedness had ended them up in captivity and their future didn’t look promising
God says for those who are wicked there will be no peace
God’s word is designed to produce a world in which the righteous prosper & wicked are penalized
As you move away from God’s word you set up something that rewards corruption & Persecutes righteousness
This denunciation of the wicked is as needed today as back in Isaiah’s day
Unfortunately if you call out wickedness you are attacked
Worse yet it often appears as if the wicked are the ones who are doing well
You may be thinking that it appears that the wicked are prospering and the righteous aren’t
It almost pays to be wicked
To a certain extent you would be right if you judged by outward appearances
But God tells us that they have no peace
Selfies
Recognize My Hypocrisy vs. 1-2
Vs. 1 Hear this all those who swear by my name
So God has switched his audience from Babylon to Judah
He has judged all of the nations and now he turns his eyes towards his own
He starts by calling out all those who swear by His name
So these are the righteous who follow Jesus, his chosen people the Jews
He is not talking to the sinners on the outside but those on the inside
He starts by calling out their hypocrisy
vs. 1b Who confess the God of Israel but not in truth or right
You call me your God but you don’t obey me
It was all appearances for the Jews
They liked all the blessings and associations with being God’s chosen but it was lip service
God is calling them hypocrites
Isaiah 29:13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
Their hearts were far from Him
This is a danger we fall into as well
We can have all the accoutrements of being a Christians but our heart can be far from God
What marks us as a Christian is our obedience to God’s word
This is why the world calls us hypocrites, we say we are Christians but we don’t live the word
The World knows what that is
But more importantly God sees when we aren’t being obedient
Ezek 33:31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.
God calls this wickedness
And those who are living like this are in spiritual no mans land and they know no peace
The only cure for hypocrisy is obedience
It’s not more church attendance, more serving, more giving.
It’s simply doing what God’s word says
If you don’t have peace in your life don’t blame someone else
My Sister
I have a sister that is five years older than me,I love all five feet of her
She hasn’t darkened the door of a church in over 25 years
Yet on her Facebook page she is always posting “godly” things
It is usually a quote from Joel Osteen
Honestly Joel Osteen is really good at making backslidden Christians feel good about themselves
People see that and wonder
God sees that and says you acknowledge me with your mouth but your heart is far from me
Relent of Our Stubbornness vs. 3-5
Vs. 3 The former things I declared… I did them and they came to pass
Now God has a “I told you so” moment
He recounts all the prophecies that has given and tells them to do a fact check
Vs. 4 I know you are obstinate
Obstinate: stubbornly refusing to change one’s opinion or chosen course of action, difficult to overcome or change
He is calling them Stubborn
We heard this last week as well
Is 46:12 Listen to me, you stubborn of heart.
The theme of stubbornness is a well won path with the Jews
Is 30:31“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
God’s motivation for acting was because of his knowledge that the Israelite nation was “hard, stubborn” and had a neck constructed of inflexible iron muscles that made it nearly impossible for it to turn to listen or change directions.
Israel’s forehead was so impenetrable that it metaphorically appeared like it was made of bronze
These metaphors of the nation’s unresponsiveness were used again and again from Sinai to the exile.
This is not some new or unusual characteristic of the nation
When we refuse to be turned by God hypocrisy turns into stubbornness
Our necks get hard and we close off our brains to God speaking to us
Running into my pastor
Friday morning after I dropped my kids off to school I went by the new Starbucks in Santa Maria
As soon as I walked in the door the first person I see is my pastor, Paul Berry
We hugged and then sat and talked for 30 minutes
We laughed and shared stories of how God is working
Then he spoke very gently and firmly into my life and I received it
Israel refused, after multiple warnings, to listen to His warnings
Psalm 81:11-13 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.13 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
Why do we get so stubborn?
We want our way
Is 30:31 “who carry out a plan, but not mine.”
If things aren’t working out on top of us not having peace then it maybe because we are being stubborn
Remove Our Rebelliousness vs. 6-8
Vs. 6 You have heard… I announced new things
God tells them that I have been telling them for awhile he is going to do a new work
Things they haven’t heard before
God is so wanting to do something new and special in these peoples lives but they won't listen
The same can be said for us; he wants to do something new in your life
God gets to the heart of the matter
Vs. 8 from before birth you were called a rebel
As soon as the first sin was committed we were born into rebellion
We are born sinners and have the seeds of rebellion in our hearts
The only things that removes that is the grace of Jesus Christ
God can do a lot of things in a persons life but he leaves the rebellious to their own
Psalm 68:6 God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
The solitary he gives them a home
To the prisoners he sets them free and prospers them
But to the rebellious he leaves them to dwell in a parched land
This is exactly what it means to have no peace
Receive Undeserved Mercy vs. 9-13
But God doesn’t abandon us
He may let us linger in the barren wasteland for awhile but that is because he is being patient
Vs. 9 For my name’s sake I defer my anger.. that I may not cut you off
This is the definition of mercy
God is saying “I am being very patient with you, withholding my judgment, that I don’t lode you.”
Mercy is not getting what we deserve
Eph 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
We can be hypocrites, stubborn, and rebellious but God patiently waits for us to return
It’s not that he is not actively trying to bring us back
Vs. 10 He actually tries us through the furnace of affliction
He turns up the heat on us so that we will turn back to him
Realize Our Potential vs. 14-19
Why does God do all of this?
Why is he so patient with us?
Vs. 16-17 Draw near to me because I want to profit you and lead you in the way you should go
God wants us to realize the potential he has in store for us if we will just walk in obedience
Go Forward vs. 20-22
Vs. 20 Go out from Babylon
God is telling the Jews to leave Babylon when it's time
Do it with a shout of joy
Is 52:9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
He will provide you with everything you need
If you don't obey there will be no peace
Closing:
