Isaiah 10 Responding To God's Correction Series

Isaiah 10

Responding to God’s Correction

Self Examination vs. 9:8-10:4

God’s Retribution vs. 10:5-19

Restoring What’s Right vs. 10:20-34

Intro: The Hand of God

Pray for Matt & Crystal Brown (2nd Service)

Introduce Ethan & Angelica

Isaiah 1–5 describes the spiritual disaster that we are.

Chapters 6–11 show us the triumph of God’s grace over our failure

Nobody likes correction no matter how much we need it

Israel raised it to an art form

God has corrected them but they have ignored it

Isaiah is saying, “Yes, God has struck you. And he isn’t finished yet.”

God has more resources for confronting us than we have tactics for evading him.

Four times today we see a phrase that should catch our attention

In vs. 12, 17, 21, and 10:4 we see the phrase “His hand is stretched out still.”

This is the sign of God’s judgment on his people Or His wrath

As I mention every Sunday Isaiah is the book of Conviction & Comfort, Judgment & Salvation

Four times today we see God talk about how he is going to judge Israel in four areas

Every time God spoke to Israel they didn’t respond in a way that brought change

They continued to live their life sin and pride

We too can continue to live and sin and reject the correction of the Lord

This morning God wants to show us how to recognize the sin in our lives and respond

Read Isaiah 10:1-4

Transition: His Hand Stretched Out

Does Isaiah believe in the wrath of God?

Yes. But he can see the wrath of God taking us further into his grace than we ourselves would ever go.

God's grace would be incomplete without the wrath of God.

What is the wrath of God?

His wrath is his active, resolute opposition to all evil.

His delight is spontaneous and intrinsic to his being, but his wrath is provoked by the defiance of his creatures.

His love will never make peace with our evil.

His wrath is not moody vindictiveness; it is the solemn determination of a doctor cutting away the cancer that’s killing his patient.

And for God, the anger is personal, not detached and clinical.

This Doctor hates the cancer, because he loves the carriers of the disease and he will rid the universe of all their afflictions.

God destroyed the guilt of sinners at the cross of Jesus.

He will destroy all remaining sin in the hearts of those who take refuge in Jesus.

He will destroy all injustice and suffering here in this world when the kingdom of Jesus creates a world better than our sentimentality could imagine.

So how do we receive God’s correction?

Self Examination vs. 9:8-10:4

For us to understand the wrath of God and the correction he wants to bring we must take a self examination

Ads for self examination

Once I turned 45 I started to receive promotions for male problems

Rogaine, Viagra, Testosterone, Colon cleansers, etc...

All of them start be telling me to examine myself

Always taught as a child not to touch myself

Now I am being told touch myself to check for abnormalities

If I haven't checked before how do I know now?

God hits four areas that Israel has failed

You know what? Things haven’t changed in 2700 years

We still struggle with the same things

So I want you to a little introspection on yourself

This is not for someone else, but for you

As the old saying goes: “When you point your finger at someone there is three pointing back at you.

Unholy Pride vs. 8-12

The first area that Israel is failing is Unholy Pride

Israel has heard of how God’s judgment will destroy their land

Instead of listening to his Word and correcting their behavior they react in Pride

In their pride, the leaders and the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel said, “Who cares if God judges us?

Whatever is torn down, we will rebuild with something better.

We have nothing to fear from what God can bring against us.”

If God knocks down things built with Brick we will rebuild with stone

If our sycamores get cut down we will replant cedars

“Instead of humbling themselves before the face of God on account of the many calamities that had already descended on them, they still entertained a lighthearted optimism regarding the future

Ps 59:12-13 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter, consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth.

There is no solution to God’s correction… we can’t overcome it

How do we overcome our pride?