“AND NO MAN TAKES IT TO HEART”—Isaiah 57:1-2
Attention:
Have you ever bought something from the grocery store, only to discover later, that there is something missing from your purchase? You know you had it in the grocery cart, but it’s not there after you got home! You notice immediately that the item you wanted is not there! You would immediately head back to the store in order to get the items you purchased!
•NOW, IMAGINE that you bought & paid for a new $500,000 home. But circumstances being what they may, the house somehow didn’t end up in your possession.
•Now IMAGINE that you really don’t care that you didn’t get the house, even though you lost $500,000+ to the process, So that you & your family are living in a tent on rented land!
*Nonsensically, THAT is what secular society does with the treasure that is the Church!
Need:
God has graced us with something precious in our society... That something or rather somethings are those who are ‘faithful’ to Him. They are not faithful to fleshly drives, or self-help, or vacant spirituality, but are truly faithful to Almighty God, the great ‘I Am’!
God has blessed our country(& every country) with the presence of those who love Him & serve Him. But in America, it seems that little-by-little the truly faithful are being sidelined &/or their influence is being ‘removed.’....
And the bad news is...
“And No Man Takes It To Heart”
The prophet Isaiah noted an environment in Israel, where an absence of God’s righteous people went unnoticed.
The absence of God’s righteous people can go unnoticed by secular society.
An absence of the righteous can go unnoticed.
When/Why/How does an absence of God’s righteous go unnoticed?
1—An absence of 'the righteous' goes unnoticed because...
SECULAR SOCIETY WANTS & ALLOWS IT(:1)
Explanation:(:1)
57:1—“The righteous perishes, And no man takes it to heart; Merciful men are taken away, While no one considers That the righteous is taken away from evil.”
“The righteous”
“The righteous” are simply Those people who have chosen to live by The Eternally Living God’s standards of ‘right & ‘wrong.’
• “The Righteous” live ‘rightly’, by God’s determination of what is ‘right’!
“Righteous”2X—qydu tsad-deeyk’—Adj. Masc. Sing. Absolute—1) Just[morally correct], lawful, righteous—1a) Just, righteous(in government), 1b) Just, right(in one's cause), 1c) Just, righteous(in conduct & character), 1d) Righteous(as justified & vindicated by God), 1e) Right, correct, lawful. Strong—Just.?From—qdu tsaw-dak’—To be(causatively--Make) right(in a moral or forensic sense); a primitive root.
“The righteous perishes”
*In verses 1-2 the reader is not directly told by what means “the righteous” indeed “perish.”
•However, the following verses make it very plain that the fruit of self-service & ‘adulterous false religion’ is the culprit &/or the enabling backdrop for it.
In some undescribed/unrevealed way, “the righteous” are ‘removed’ from society. The removal of “the righteous” ensures that they will no longer be present to accost, influence, or challenge the ever-changing moral codes of secular society.
Perhaps God Himself removes them, because such “righteous” people “shall enter into peace”, “rest in their beds” & “walk in their uprightness.”(:2)
•Ps. 116:15—“Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.”
•Rev. 14:12-13—“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God & the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, & their works follow them.”
“Perishes”—dba aw-bad’—Qal Perfect 3rd Masc. Sing.—1) Perish, vanish, go astray, be destroyed—1a) (Qal)--1a1) Perish, die, be exterminated, 1a2) Perish, vanish(figuratively), 1a3) Be lost, strayed. Strong—properly--To wander away, i.e. Lose oneself; by implication--To perish(causative--Destroy); a primitive root.
“And no man takes it to heart;”
“No” one(“man”) notices or cares that “the righteous” is gone from their midst.
•In the secular & godless mind, it is as if “the righteous” never mattered. God’s people, who lived-out their belief, go unnoticed by secular society because that society sidelined & victimized them.
Unrepentant secular society sees NO connection to & NO purpose for anyone to live by God’s standard(s)—In their mind, such other-worldly standards are merely 'antiquated’ ‘neanderthal-like’ standards that were birthed early in man’s ‘evolutionary’ development, & so they do not accept Christian beliefs as valid today! Secular society sees Christians as holding to an outdated past.
•Secular society itself, wants to play God & ‘set the standard’, either directly or indirectly in defiance of their Creator. Simply because God’s standard(s) is/are not palatable to them.
*A reasoning/thinking SECULAR society sees NO NEED for “the righteous”...Because “the righteous” honor a God whom secular society is unwilling to accept at large!
•Increasingly, quite a few ‘media outlets’ openly & brazenly, question ‘the value’ of belief in God, or they have the audacity to literally ‘poke fun’ at belief in God.
*Secular society thinks itself/themselves beyond a God whom they cannot see with their eyes, touch with their fingers, & hear with their ears. So they dismiss ‘belief in God’ to the camp of pitifully gullible simpletons. Secular society supposes that ‘foolish’ Christians, only attempt to ‘make God viable’ because they are mentally challenged.
“Merciful men are taken away,”
“The righteous” are God’s “righteous” so that the result or consequence of their BEING “righteous” is that they are “MERCIFUL” among their population.
And since “the righteous perishes”, so too are “merciful men” “taken away.”
“Mercy”—Is NOT giving you or subjecting you, to some punishment that you DO deserve, or that is about to come upon you—even as a consequence of your own actions/decisions.
•“Merciful men” are those people who are compassionate, & forgiving of wrongs done.
“Mercy” is to be shown ‘with cheerfulness’, to our brothers & sisters in Christ, to the poor, to the aged, to those in distress, to animals, to aliens(immigrants), orphans, & widows, etc.
•Js. 2:13—“For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
In that society, in that day(~700yrs. before Christ), “merciful men are taken away.”
•AGAIN(as with the “perishing” of “the righteous”)—We are NOT told exactly ‘HOW’ they are “taken away.”
*Despite the ‘how’, the WITNESS of God to mankind was damaged & broken in Israel because “the righteous” & “merciful people” are removed!
*And WHEN we do the same thing in our society—“take away” “the righteous” & “merciful people”—either thru laws that LIMIT a nation’s compassion & forgiveness to ONLY specific privileged people, & making “right” & “mercy” criminal, offenses, OR whether God sees fit to remove them(cf.-Jer. 7:16; 14:11)...
Jer. 7:16; 14:11—“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.”.....“Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good.”
...THEN our society misses a vital element of life that God intends as a guide for all people of that society towards true righteousness.
“Merciful/Devout”—dox kheh’-sed—Noun Common Masc. Sing. Absolute—1) Goodness, kindness, faithfulness; 2) A reproach, shame. Strong—Kindness; by implication(towards God)--Piety: rarely(by opposition)--Reproof, or subjectively--Beauty. Greek—Bhyesda.
“Taken Away”2X(See below)—Poa aw-saf’—Niphal(passive/reflexive) Participle Active Masc. Plural Absolute—1) To gather, receive, remove, gather in—1a) (Qal)--1a1) To gather, collect, 1a2) To gather(an individual into company of others), 1a3) To bring up the rear, 1a4) To gather & take away, remove, withdraw; 1b) (Niphal)--1b1) To assemble, be gathered, 1b2) (passive of Qal 1a2)—1b2a) To be gathered to one's fathers, 1b2b) To be brought in or into(association with others), 1b3) (passive of Qal 1a4)—1b3a) To be taken away, removed, perish. Strong—To gather for any purpose; hence--To receive, take away, i.e. Remove(destroy, leave behind, put up, restore, etc.); a primitive root.
“While no one considers That the righteous is taken away from evil.”
Those who have surrendered to secular society rather than to God, give “no consideration” to the FACT that those who live by God’s “righteousness”, are actually “taken away” from the face of “evil” that surrounds them! They are “taken away” BUT, they are “taken away” into the presence of God!
So the “taking away” is a “mercy” of God, YET the “taking away” is a detriment to society as a whole! Because.....
*Secular society assumes that ‘wisdom’ flows solely from fleshly mankind. BUT secular society is mostly oblivious to the weaknesses that characterize the flesh!
1Cor. 1:20-25—“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
The ‘godly righteousness’ of “the righteous” in Christ, disagrees with, & dishonors, & offends ‘popular’ societal theories.
*All branches of government(Legislative/Judicial/Executive) can easily fall victim to a disdain for God’s direction. Why?—Because they are composed of largely lost people—Who by-&-large, reject the One True, God-ordered, ‘spiritual compass’ of Christ Jesus!
Application:
?Is an absence of the RIGHTEOUS & MERCIFUL Unnoticed by YOU?
?Can YOU live with ‘em or without ‘em?
?Do YOU WANT & ALLOW their passing?
?Do YOU ‘TAKE THESE THINGS TO HEART’?
?Do YOU ‘CONSIDER’ that “the righteous is taken away from evil?”?
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
The $500,000(absent house) loss, you have no intention of recouping!
Action:
An absence of the righteous goes unnoticed because...
1. SECULAR SOCIETY WANTS & ALLOWS IT(:1)
Presented 07/23/2023am to:
Salem Baptist Church
1618 Salem Rd.
Bennettsville, SC 29512
