Call to Worship: Psalm 15 (responsive)
1 Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
3 Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
4 Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the LORD,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
5 Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.
• Hymn - If My People’s Hearts are Humbled #574
• Scripture: Isaiah 42:18-25
18 “Listen, you who are deaf!
Look and see, you blind!
19 Who is as blind as my own people, my servant?
Who is as deaf as my messenger?
Who is as blind as my chosen people,
the servant of the LORD?
20 You see and recognize what is right
but refuse to act on it.
You hear with your ears,
but you don’t really listen.”
21 Because he is righteous,
the LORD has exalted his glorious law.
22 But his own people have been robbed and plundered,
enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped.
They are fair game for anyone
and have no one to protect them,
no one to take them back home.
23 Who will hear these lessons from the past
and see the ruin that awaits you in the future?
24 Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt?
It was the LORD, against whom we sinned,
for the people would not walk in his path,
nor would they obey his law.
25 Therefore, he poured out his fury on them
and destroyed them in battle.
They were enveloped in flames,
but they still refused to understand.
They were consumed by fire,
but they did not learn their lesson.
Message Part 1 – Steve
Conviction of sin is unpleasant, but so is washing out a cut. I remember a time when my son came home from a bike ride, during which he had wiped out on some gravel. It was a pretty ugly road rash – full of dirt and gravel and dried blood. The initial pain of the fall had died down some during the trip the rest of the way home, but now the skin had to be cleaned and that was going to hurt some more. Since it wasn’t hurting much at the moment, and since it was going to hurt some to clean it, Thomas was not eager for me to help. He would have rather I didn’t touch it, just left it alone, cover it up and leave it.
But we know what happens if we do that. It festers. It gets infected. The dirt gets into the wound and it doesn’t heal properly. Left alone, it will get far worse. As a parent I knew that the pain of cleaning out the wound is brief and necessary, and can see the longer term consequences of not dealing with it properly.
As a pastor, I see the same thing. After the initial guilt we feel when we have sinned, we start to feel a little better. We convince ourselves it isn’t so bad, no one was really hurt, the fact that we haven’t prayed or read our Bible or shared our faith hasn’t really done any damage. Like my son with the dirty cut, we’d rather not touch it, just leave it alone, cover it up. But sin festers also. Sin infects us. Sin keeps us from being properly healed. Sin dulls our spiritual senses, it is like wearing really dark sunglasses in a cave, or like having thick padded hearing protectors over our ears when trying to listen for a gentle whisper. And then we wonder why we aren’t seeing and hearing God.
Our journey through Isaiah 40-44 has been mostly about the promises of God, to restore and rescue and redeem. It has been about how great it will be when the wounds are healed. But the cuts have to be cleaned out. So God addresses the issues, in these 7 verses in chapter 42 which we just read.
First we read of deafness and blindness. God, in His frustration, accuses His people of being deaf and blind. The first verses (18-19) are clearly about spiritual deafness and blindness (otherwise it is plain cruel to say “listen” to the deaf and “look and see” to the blind!). And the most convicting verse, in the whole section, that I felt stab into me and I think we should also feel stab into us, is verse 20: “You see and recognize what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear with your ears, but you don’t really listen.” We often think of sin as actions we do which are wrong, like if we got mad and smashed a wall with a baseball bat, or if we got drunk and smashed a car into someone else’s car, or if we stole money out of our parent’s wallet, or if we gossiped. But this is something different, “You see and recognize what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear with your ears, but you don’t really listen.” These are not things we have done which are wrong, but rather things we have not done which are right. The theologians call these “sins of omission”.
And here is where the dullness of spirit is plainly evident. We hardly notice these sins, because we have not been walking with the Lord day in and day out. We have been pursuing our own interests and pleasures, and that has darkened our eyes and plugged our ears. So yes, we know we have been commanded to “pray unceasingly”, but instead we have only said grace at dinner (when it wasn’t in front of the TV) and figured that was ok. Or we know we have been told that there is life in God’s Word the Bible, but we figure we heard a sermon 2 or 3 times last month so that suffices. We know we have been commanded to “have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave” (Phil 2), but we still get up and go through most of our days thinking about ourselves.
And that, my friends is sin. Just as much as drunk driving and stealing and gossip. And that is why we are blind and deaf.
Verse 22 has a powerful description of what this sin does to us. “his own people have been robbed and plundered, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped.” This is what sin does to us – it robs us of life and joy, it plunders the enthusiasm and eagerness to live, it enslaves us by making us want more of this temporary pleasure (or even temporary lack of pain, like cleaning the cut), it imprisons us in this sedentary place where we don’t move in new directions that give us life, and it traps us because we don’t know how to get free.
And that is why God hates it. Because sin robs and plunders and enslaves and imprisons and traps. And God has more for us. God wants us to enjoy life and Him more than we do! God wants us to be free and whole and forgiven, to engage our lives and our world with a hope and power and a love that looks in the face of despair and hopelessness and laughs at it while it overpowers it completely. God wants us to be able to put our heads on our pillows at night with that sweet knowledge that what we spent our day on matters for eternity. Did you feel that way last night? Will you tonight?
So here is how it works, and it is very simple. God knows we are robbed and plundered and enslaved and imprisoned and trapped, just like the Israelites were. And so He sent His one and only Son.
Hymn – O Sacred Head Now Wounded #178
Communion – Steve
I am going to jump down a few verse. In 43:4, God says “4 Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” We just sang, “O make me thine forever, and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee”.
Our sin dulls our love, sucks the life out of it, and leaves us trapped. We become the people in 42:19-20, “19 Who is as blind as my own people, my servant? Who is as deaf as my messenger? Who is as blind as my chosen people, the servant of the Lord? 20 You see and recognize what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear with your ears, but you don’t really listen.”
But because of Jesus, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Jesus is the one “given in exchange for you, God traded Jesus’ life for ours because we are precious to Him. God says, “You are honored, and I love you.” God offers to cleanse the wounds caused by our sin, open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, and set the captives free. God literally gives us the keys to the prison, and invites us to open the door and let Him come in.
Silence
Confession – personal and corporate
Hymn – Were You There? #181
Bread (instrumental). (covenant meal… God promises to deal with sin, redeem, empower. we promise to repent – which doesn’t mean just confess, it means a promise to live differently now. We re-enact this covenant whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup. It is meant to remind us of the love of God for us, the love of Christ for us, and it is meant to not make us weighed down with guilt or shame but rather to enliven us and feed us and strengthen us with sustenance and overwhelm us with God’s incredible love, which then makes us eager to go out and live for Him.)
Hymn – When I Survey…#185
Wine (instrumental)
Thanksgiving
Hymn – Thine is the Glory #227
Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-13
1But now, O Jacob, listen to the LORD who created you.
O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom;
I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Others were given in exchange for you.
I traded their lives for yours
because you are precious to me.
You are honored, and I love you.
5 “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will gather you and your children from east and west.
6 I will say to the north and south,
‘Bring my sons and daughters back to Israel
from the distant corners of the earth.
7 Bring all who claim me as their God,
for I have made them for my glory.
It was I who created them.’”
8 Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind,
who have ears but are deaf.
9 Gather the nations together!
Assemble the peoples of the world!
Which of their idols has ever foretold such things?
Which can predict what will happen tomorrow?
Where are the witnesses of such predictions?
Who can verify that they spoke the truth?
10 “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the LORD.
“You are my servant.
You have been chosen to know me, believe in me,
and understand that I alone am God.
There is no other God—
there never has been, and there never will be.
11 I, yes I, am the LORD,
and there is no other Savior.
12 First I predicted your rescue,
then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.
No foreign god has ever done this.
You are witnesses that I am the only God,”
says the LORD.
13 “From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done.”
Message Part 2 – Steve
Having dealt with the sin, God moves on. And if there was ever a case for the importance of continuing to read Scripture until the natural breaks, rather than simply the chapter or verse breaks, this is it. If we stopped at 42:28, we are left in despair and fear – that verse ends with God’s people “consumed by fire, but they did not learn their lesson.” We must read on, and find chapter 43 beginning with a pivotal, marvelous word: “but”…
And now the promises flow again. “I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.” Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone pay a ransom for you? Imagine being kidnapped, trapped, held, but them ransomed. Bought back. Valued and loved so much that God would give His only Son, and trade His life for yours. “I have called you by name; you are mine.”
Who wants to remain kidnapped, or stuck in sin, or miserable? And who wants to listen – no condemnation, no guilt, no shame, no rejection, no grudging “well I guess you can come back…”. “I have called you by name; you are mine.”
If that is true, what can stand in the way of God’s Kingdom and God’s people enjoying it? What is more powerful than God calling us by name, and making us His own? Nothing, as the verses that continue proclaim:
Not “deep waters”
Not “rivers of difficulty”
And, as an aside, does it strike you how timely and amusing it is that we read these promises just days after the second flooding of our church basement?
What about “fire of oppression”? Nope. We saw that image of fire as destructive at the end of chapter 42, now here is the promise that the fire will not destroy.
Those are three great promises, three great images, three great messages of hope. But notice the verse says “when”… not “if”. Why are we surprised by trouble? Why do we assume that following God means we will not have tough times, and/or why do we assume when we do have tough times that this is not how it is supposed to be, that there is some problem with us (or more likely we think there is some problem with God…). The promise is not that we won’t go through deep waters/rivers of difficulty/fires of oppression; the promise is that “I will be with you” (vs. 2). And God will protect us, and get us through. That happened this week with our building, and it will happen in our lives as well.
One last point. Remember how we started with God calling us blind and deaf? God does not forget: “Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.” (vs. 8). Verse 10 tells us why: ““But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the LORD. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be.”
So how are you going to live? The Scripture is plain – “chosen” to “know, believe, and understand”. Ransomed by the blood of Jesus. Promised that no matter what challenges we face, God will be with us. Chosen, special, valued, and loved. “I have called you by name, and you are mine.”
Don’t you love God in response? If those truths sink in, if our ears are open to hear and our eyes open to see, then our hearts are full and our hands eager to serve and our spirits longing for more of God, and our love for this God who would cleanse our wounds and forgive our wrongs and set us free from the power that destroys us – our love for this God is eager, excited, passionate, glad, and overflowing.
Let it sink in. Open your eyes, open your ears. “you have been chosen to know God, believe in God, and understand that He alone is God”. And then live out of the joy of being loved by Him, and loving Him in response. And as we do, we see His Kingdom come, His will being done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Closing hymn – We Are God’s People #283
