Isaiah 48 Refined For God's Glory Series

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

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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