Sermon Isaiah chapter 1…
Chapter 1 of Isaiah is really an introduction to the rest of the book. It deals with rebellion and the sin of Israel but, I believe you could put the United States of America in the same court as God did Israel.
It was a time of crisis when Isaiah lived and prophesized.
God had answered the prayers of His people many times in the past and would in the future.
One of my favorite characters of the Bible and one that Isaiah prophesied to was King Hezekiah.
Hezekiah had turn to God many times in his life and God had heard him. One that comes to mind is when God defends Judah from Assyria.
Assyria, the most vicious and brutal country to ever put an army together was looking to take over the world and had already taken northern Israel into captivity.
It had 185000 solders just outside the walls of Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah turned to God in prayer and God sent some encouraging words for the King. God said they will never set foot in the city of Jerusalem, they will never cross the threshold of any gate and they didn’t. if you remember the story, God sent an Angel to destroy the Assyrian army and answered the prayer of Hezekiah.
But God was preparing another nation called Babylon that would eventually take Judah into captivity unless they turn to Him.
God was giving His people chance after chance to turn to Him and ask forgiveness.
Chance after chance to throw their self at the mercy of His court to establish the justice of His cause
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In the way the world thinks today God has been removed from the throne of judgment.
God has been stripped of His authority.
God has been robbed as the moral ruler of this universe.
He has been pushed off the world and His name dragged through the dirt.
But Folks, God is still on the throne, He is still the moral ruler of this universe.
He still punishes sin!
Isaiah records the principles on which God judges the nations. God raises nations and judges them.
God has permitted great nations to rise and allowed Satan to use them but, only God can move them off the map.
He moves them off without asking Satan.
You can see in Gods own people the Jews…. they are a testimony that God rules in nations affairs.
God’s judgment of nations or individuals…. is just ….and there is nothing that is hid or unjust in His court.
He invites everybody to come in the day of judgment of the rebellious in verse 2 of chapter 1 of Isaiah
Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Why didn’t He judge Israel and wipe them off of the map or give them over to another country?
The same reason I believe that He hasn’t destroyed America yet…but it’s coming.
The answer is in verse 8 and 9
Isa 1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isa 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
In other words, if there had not been a faithful remnant, God would have destroyed Israel.
I believe there is a very small remnant in America and that is the only reason God has not destroyed it.
God is telling Israel why He is judging them and I believe it’s the same reason why He will judge America..in verse 4
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Man…God says in a since, you backsliding sinful nation…you are acting like Satan’s children!…You are forgetting who I am….I’m so mad I should take a belt and wear you out!
God had every right to do just that. All the evidence was there. They were guilty of sin and rebellion ….and so are we.
Written by Thomas Jefferson and carved in stone inside the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC it says.
"Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
I believe that our leaders in Washington have forgotten that.
Maybe they all need to meet for lunch one day at the Jefferson Memorial and read it together. But the problem is………... non belief ….the problem is….there is no fear of God
The problem is they have taken God from everything….
The solution ..Repentance and put God back in America
What about America? What happen? I believe Isaiah chapter 1 shows us how God feels about our country just as He did about Israel in that day.
First of all God said we are a sinful and are a rebellious nation.
We are liken unto the day of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But there is another thing...listen to what God says in verse 7
Isa 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
…strangers devour it in your presence....I’m not talking about being prejudice..I’m talking about letting other gods come into to our country….I’m talking about when you worship another god except the God of Abraham, Isaacs and Jacob.. Judgment is right around the corner. . Just like Israel in that day, God is very angry because of sin and rebellion and it sounds as if He was going to destroy Israel at that very moment and He says something very surprising in verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 1 Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool
God’s own people turned their back on Him and He says “Come let us reason together”
The very God of this universe...who spoke this world and everything in it into existences and says “come let us reason together”
We have taken prayer out of school….we are killing unborn babies by the millions.
Men are marrying men….women are marrying women.
But God says “come let us reason together”
Somebody said: “You may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, but there is a
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Have you ever thought how unimportant, small and insignificant we really are compared to our universe?
Have you ever thought just how big our universe is?
Scientist say if we were in a space ship traveling at the speed of light….186,000 miles per second it would take over 100,000 years just to travel around it…..God is outside of that and He comes to a place in each of our lives and we stand under His judgment and we are found guilty of sin and rebellion ...our lives are as fitly rags ……..and He says…
Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
You’ll notice that He says “come Now”
Folks, time is running out for America….I believe Jesus is standing at the threshold of Heaven right now waiting on the word of the Father to come get His own.
I’m really surprised He didn't come last night.
My Dad died in Dec of 04
He was the strongest man I ever knew...he was the most honest man I ever knew….he was a good farmer...good mechanic ...good Dad...good husband...but he wasn't strong enough….to defeat death….and if I could write down the good deeds my Dad done in his life on paper...I couldn't have hauled them in the back of his old red Ford pickup.
But that’s not what got him in Heaven and reunited with Mom
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
God said, come let us reason together ...you can’t make it on your own...the only way is through my son Jesus Christ
Billy Graham said:
There are three things that all of us have to do:
1.) You have to be born, you cannot be unborn
2.) You have to die, (unless Jesus comes soon)
3.) And you have to stand before God and be Judged.
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Just before the death of actor W. C. Fields, a friend visited Fields’ hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, “I’m looking for loopholes.”
There are no loop holes in the word of God.
How about you ...have you reasoned with the Lord?...have you laid everything before the Him?
Or will you wait until your day of judgment.
Love in Christ Jesus, Ronnie Miller
www.themillersbiblestudy.com
