Introduction
Having lived in several years in cold northern climates in my life, but having grown up in California, I am amazed at the difference between winter and spring as it relates to the appearance of a snowy place. In the height of winter in Northern Michigan, for example, snow covers everything. Old buildings whose edifice cries out for demolition appear to be magical when covered by a foot of snow which drapes over the edge of rooftops from which dangle long mystical ice crystals through which the sunlight dances. The potholes of old city streets are filled and disappear to the eye as powdery snow fills them in.
Then comes springtime with its rays of hot sun and the snow vanishes. Muck and mud are left in its place. The beauty departs and what was there all along but covered with placid snow becomes visible again. So it is with the sin and idolatry in our life. Though our rebellion and false worship through manmade structures of religion are vile in the sight of God, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18 NIV84) The blood of Christ covers our sins and they are white as snow.
Transition
Our sin is detestable in the site of God because it robs Him of His glory in us. God’s holiness and glory are central in this universe, not our comfort and well being, not our satisfaction and happiness. (Flattery by the Train cars, encourage)
Our religious efforts, when they are devoid of the genuine articles of faith are likewise detestable. Our religious efforts are meaningless unless and to the extent that they grow out of dependence upon Him rather than an attempt to garner His favor.
In other words, incense and offerings, religion, do not contain any inherent value. They are only as valuable as they are shells which contain repentance and faith.
CIT: God does not need our offerings; He calls us to repentance and dependence.
CIS: No amount of religion can save; look to the Cross in humility and obedience.
Outline
I. Judah was a rebellious nation in Isaiah’s time.
II. Judah’s religion was outward.
a. Religion devoid of sacrifice.
b. No amount of religion can replace obedience.
c. The sacrifice was infused with pagan views, “feeding the gods.”
III. The Church is rebellious, focused on entertainment and comfort.
IV. The Church must repent of its religion and exalt the Cross.
a. The early Church flourished spiritually because of persecution.
b. The modern church withers spiritually because of comfort.
c. This comfort stifles the prophetic voice of the Church.
d. The sacrifice of Christ makes men free from sin and corrupt religious efforts which only compound the problem of sin.
Exposition
In Isaiah’s day Israel was a rebellious nation. The prophet is speaking to the people of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The prophet even draws a parallel with Sodom and Gomorrah. In Isaiah 1:4 the prophet laments the state of His people. “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.” (NIV84)
This is exactly opposite of that for which Israel had been created by God. In Deuteronomy 7:6 it is said of Israel: “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (NIV84)
The nation of Israel was chosen by God as an instrument to bring about the Messiah. Through Israel God would one day proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring healing and redemption to the nations; to the entire world. Here in chapter one of Isaiah, they are a reproach to God.
Rather than putting future redemption on display through their righteousness they only practice religion in the same inward manner of the pagans who worship their multitude of false gods all around them.
Rather than pointing the way to coming Messiah through righteousness, obedience, inward commitment to God, and obedience to His will, they desecrate the worship of God with their religion.
Right at the heart of their sinfulness was their false religion. Their sin was not that they fulfilled their religious obligations and made sacrifices before the Lord. Their sin was in the manner in which they performed their religious ceremonies. The Lord, through the prophet, declares to them: “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:15-17 NIV84)
They lifted unclean hands to the Lord. The Israelites in Isaiah’s day fulfilled their religious duties with the wrong heart. They sought to gain the favor of God by their much religion but they neglected the weightier things that gives religion meaning; seeking justice, encouraging the oppressed, the fatherless, the widow.
They made sacrifices and recited many prayers but they forget the message of both the Old and New Testament. There is no return to God’s favor without amendment of life. In Luke 15:7 Jesus says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (NIV84)
Repentance is a matter of the heart. An outward expression of religion which does not encapsulate a heart that is given over to genuine repentance and obedience to God is detested by God. When we exercise religion without exercising faith we make God our servant.
In the ancient pagan world animal and grain sacrifices, among other types of sacrifices, were seen as a way of gaining favor with the gods. This was not connected to a Judaic form of worship and sacrifice as a symbol of obedience.
It was literally seen as a way of gaining favor with the gods because humans were providing the gods with a service that they could not or preferred not to do for themselves. It was actually seen as providing a meal for them.
In fact, origin myths in Egypt and Mesopotamia portrayed humans as having been created as “servants or cattle of the gods. Specifically, they were to provide food for the gods, relieving them of having to do so.”
Such notions are absolutely foreign to true worship.
Sacrifices in the Old Testament system were intended only as symbolizes of internal sacrifice to God and of the coming of Christ, who was the perfect sacrifice, a lamb without defect or blemish. (I Peter 1:19)
The sacrifice finds it ultimate expression in Jesus Christ who became our sacrifice to free us from sin through His blood. The sacrifice in the Old Testament and the sacrifice in the New Testament that God desires is the sacrifice of praise and obedience to His will for us.
God, desiring to express His glory in us, uses our religion only as a vehicle, through which we make a commitment, through faith, to obedience to Him. The Lord does not need us to make a dwelling or to provide any material or spiritual sustenance for Him. He didn’t create us because He was lonely.
Nor did He create us because He had a need that only we could meet for Him. God has existed throughout all of eternity in a triune mystery of perfect love and union within Himself. He chose to express that unity and love in creation. We are His creation and He needs nothing from us.
The Israelites had fused pagan ideas with their worship. They were heavily committed to many prayers and many offerings that were done in the right pattern of worship but the Bible makes it clear that their hearts were far from God. It is entirely possible to look good in the eyes of religious men but make of our religion an idol which is detestable in the sight of God.
Howard Hendricks, the well known Christian educator of Dallas Theological Seminary wrote the following in an edition of “Preaching Today” magazine.
“Chad Walsh wrote an intriguing book entitled Early Christians of the Twenty-First Century. He provoked my thinking with words like these:
“Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quiver, divorced from the intellect, divorced from the will, and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes. “I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a person travels far enough away from Christianity, he or she is always in danger of seeing it in perspective and deciding that it is true.
It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a person with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.”
While it is perhaps easy to see the blunder of these Jews to which Isaiah writes, if it were not for a want of self-examination we would easily see ourselves in them. The Church must take careful measure of herself lest she stumble down the same hill of idolatrously vain religion, which sadly she has already begun to slide down.
Writing in Christianity Today Katie Wiebe says “Whenever I attend yet another church spectator event, I am reminded of Tozer’s disdain and despair for “that strange thing—the program,” for “conventional religious chatter,” for our wholesale “pursuit of happiness, rather than holiness,” for our bondage to the conscience of people rather than bondage to God.”
The early Church was characterized by suffering, persecution, a commitment to true godly wisdom, and yes, oh yes, God’s care and provision through it all.
When did phrases like “He’s an entertaining preacher or I go to that Church because they have the loveliest music” replace the desire and need of followers of Jesus to be nourished by the Word of God, grow in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to walk in unity as the people God?
The Church has, to a large extent lost its prophetic voice and the way to get it back is repentance and to the casting off of perfunctory religious works. Yet, what man or woman of God will heed such an encouragement in our day?
Only the man or woman of God who desires to be free of religious drudgery in favor of loving God and others out of the freedom that obedience and abandon to His will brings. The Lord has ill use of more religionists! He seeks worshippers!
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24 NIV84) The Church must reclaim its prophetic heritage and seek purity.
Conclusion
“It’s hard to imagine: Paul having the gift of entertainment. -Barnabas being the minister of entertainment, rather than the minister of encouragement. -Jesus selling tickets to the feeding of the 5,000. -James begging money for “tickle the ear and emotion programs” of people in his church who had developed wrong expectations. -Peter peddling his “Feed My Sheep” seminars. Far too often, we’ve tried to bring ministry, music, and entertainment together, and in so doing, we’ve lost the integrity and true meaning of the music of the church. No one can honestly say they’ve been “called by God to entertain.”
The Church must regain its prophetic focus. This means individual Christians must repent of religion and look to the Cross of Christ. We’ve got to lay hold of the atonement of Christ for sin by faith. Then submit to Him in obedience and be transformed. God is calling each one of us to bring to Him the sacrifice of a contrite heart and a changed life.
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27 NIV84)
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
(Romans 12:1 NIV84) Gomorrah was religious too. God was neither pleased with them or the Israelites who had the proper form of religion but were as vile inwardly as Sodom and Gomorrah. What sacrifice is pleasing to God? Not much, just all of you. Amen.
