Sermon Central
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A Disgusted God Series
Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Aug 22, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: God is patient, but His patience is limited. He can get to a point of disgust, disgust which is then followed by His wrath.
A Disgusted God
1. Mary received a parrot as a gift. The parrot was fully grown with a very bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was profanity.
Mary tried to change the bird's attitude by constantly saying polite words and playing soft music, anything she could think of. Nothing worked.
She yelled at the bird and the bird got worse. She shook the bird and the bird became even madder and ruder. Finally, in a moment of desperation, Mary put the parrot in the freezer to get a minute of peace.
For a few moments she heard the bird swearing, squawking, kicking and screaming. Then, suddenly, there was absolute quiet. Mary was frightened that she might have actually hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door.
The parrot calmly stepped out onto Mary's extended arm. Perfectly calm, the parrot said, "I am very sorry that I offended you with my language and my actions and I ask your forgiveness. I will endeavor to correct my behavior, and I am sure it will never happen again."
Mary was astounded at the changes in the bird's attitude and was about to ask what had changed him, when the parrot continued, "May I ask what the chicken did?"
2. Mary was aggravated to put her parrot in freezer. Did you know God gets aggravated?
Main Idea: God is patient, but His patience is limited. He can get to a point of disgust, disgust which is then followed by His wrath.
I. Overview: God Shares His Utter DISGUST with Israel Through An Allegory (1-7).
A. The disappointing nature of the VINEYARD (1-2)
B. The owner determines to desert and DESTROY it (3-6).
1. If He were merely disappointed, He would abandon the vineyard.
2. But He is disgusted, so He also destroys it.
C. The ALLEGORY explained (7)
1. The owner is Yahweh.
2. The vineyard is the land of Israel.
3. The plants are the people of Judah.
4. The grapes he expected were justice and righteousness.
5. The grapes that actually grew were bloodshed and unrighteousness.
6. There is an interesting play on words in verse 7. God looks for “justice” (mishpat) but finds “oppression / injustice” (mispach); He looks for “righteousness” (tzedakah) but hears “cries” (tzedkah) of wretchedness (The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge).
II. Israel’s DECADENCE Disgusted God and Brought Judgment (8-17).
A. “Woe” pronounced against rampant MATERIALISM (8-10).
1. Amassing property by cheating their rightful owners.
2. Society had turned into might mean right.
3. There are material aspects of life, and there are non-material; when we lose balance…materialism and overspending can be like drugs…
4. Disobeying the Year of Jubilee.
Leviticus 25:8-9a, 13, “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month…In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.” [source: preventchildabuse.org]
B. “Woe” pronounced against drunkenness and PARTYING (11-12).
1. Heavy drinking and parties reduce inhibitions, allowing all sorts of sins to surface.
2. National Library of Medicine, “Forty-nine percent of the child molesters were drinking at the time of commission of the offense, and 34% were drinking heavily, defined as 10 or more beers or the equivalent.” [pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov].
3. Adultery, violence, and other forms of abuse that go along with drunkenness.
4. In our day, alcohol is just one type of drug problem.
C. Judgement: EXILE
III. Israel’s REVERSE Morality Disgusted God and Brought More Judgment (18-30).
A. LYING became the norm and sin a joke (18).
B. God was MOCKED instead of respected (19).
Smith’s Bible Commentary summarizes meaning: “They begin to challenge God and challenge the judgment of God, ‘If it's so, let God do something that we might see it…If He's really there’."
C. Good and evil CHANGED places (20).
1. This has certainly been true in our society. A few years ago, the Boy Scouts pledged to be morally straight. Nowadays, if we hold to being morally straight, we are immoral for our intolerance and narrow mindedness.
2. We see the exchange of right and wrong in the LGBTQ agenda, in Abortion rights, and in refusing to judge where God has already judged.
3. We cannot force lost people to act like Christians, but we have to believe what God says is true, whether others do or not.
4. Politically, both parties condemn wrong in opposite party while turning a blind eye to their own wrongs: right & wrong not longer exist as an objective standard, but a political weapon. Wrong doesn’t exist in our political party, just the other one.
D. MAN, not God, became the measure of all things (21).
