TO RESCUE AND REDEEM December 3, 2023
Text: Isaiah 64:1 - 9
Isaiah 64:1-9 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! (2) As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! (3) For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. (4) Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. (5) You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? (6) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (7) No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. (8) Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (9) Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people (NIV).
The origin of "advent" is from the Latin word adventus, which simply translates as "coming" or "arrival." Not only is the Christian meaning for preparing and celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ, his birth at Christmas, but also to celebrate the new life when someone accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior, and lastly, the anticipation of Jesus returning again. https://www.crosswalk.com/special-coverage/christmas-and-advent/the-beautiful-meaning-and-purpose-of-advent.HTML
Today’s text presents us with a hungry people. They are ripe for change. They want to be to be pampered by God and yet they have given God the “spare-tire treatment”. That is why today’s text is a great fit for the theme of Advent.
Have you ever felt like God hid Himself from you? In verse 5, there is a hint of anticipation, expectation as well as anxiety about salvation. Verses 1 - 4 exclaims power to make the nations quake and the mountains tremble; helping the faithful and admonishing and disciplining the disobedient. Back to the question of verse 5, “How can we be saved?” Isaiah describes our ancestors (as well as us) as filthy (Isaiah 64:6) and wandering sheep (Isaiah 53:6) who are under God’s judgment as the seventh verse says “You have hidden Your face from us and given us over to our sins”.
If we are given over to our sins and we know that the wages of sin are death, then how can we be saved?
In today's text, we see God’s chosen people and their hunger for salvation and how God is always in the picture. .
POSTER NATION
Have you ever heard of a poster child?
We have all heard of the poster child, the model child or person who sets the example ----the standard of what it means to be the best of the best as a role model.
1) Poster nation: Israel was was God’s chosen nation who would be God’s poster nation---the role model nation for the to emulate. The world in that day was full of people who worshiped others gods rather the God who created them. He chose the nation of Israel to be a light---the poster nation---the role model to all of the others nations of the world. God chose Israel to be a light to he nations (Isaiah 60:3).
2) A city on a hill: Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
God chose Israel, but America had whom we call our forefathers who chose to make a new start as they chose God to be the cornerstone. God chose Israel but America chose God who has blessed both nations through their covenant relationship with God.
3) Counterfeit gods: Paraphrasing Jonathon Cahn, there are pagan gods of the Old Testament who are making their return in our world today. What’s the results? When you have more than one god, you have more than one truth which distorts God’s truth and disrupts, divides, deceives and destroys God’s people. (Jonathon Cahn. Return of the Gods.) That is why we need Jesus who is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6).
How can we claim to be with God and yet rebel against His love?
1) Position of honor: In choosing Israel, God gave the position of honor. Think about how wonderful it is that God chose the nation of Israel. Think also about how wonderful it is that “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 NRSV).
>>>>>>> We are the people of the new covenant whom God has called to live out that love and yet we, just like our our Old Testament ancestors, have rebelled against God’s love!
Mark Twain once said, “It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. We certainly do not deserve the honors that God has bestowed upon us! Thanks be to God for the gift of His grace!
2) Spare tire treatment: Did our Old Testament ancestors give God the spare tire treatment? How many times have you acted like you didn’t need God until you had a flat tire moment in your spiritual life? How can we love God with all of our hearts soul and strength if we are self-centered?
3) Godliness without its power: Can we have a form of godliness and deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5)? Is that not the same thing as contempt? Do we ever do that ---possess a form of godliness and reject God’s power in our lives? Is that not the same thing as contempt?
4) Apostasy: Doesn’t our contempt lead to apostasy?
GOD’S PRESENCE
Does God hide Himself from us?
1) God’s Presence: There are at least four significant places in God’s Word where God’s presence is mentioned.
A) The Bible tells us that we can never be separated from His love (Romans 8:35 -38).
B) The Bible also tells us that we can never be separated from God’s presence: Psalm 139:7-8 asks “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? (8) If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there”(KJV).
C) The story of the first Advent tells us that Jesus is our Emmanuel, our God with us (Matthew 1:23).
D) Before His crucifixion Jesus said I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18) .
E) In Matthew 28:20 Jesus teaches them about obedience and doing what He commanded you reminding us always that the He is with us to the end of the age.
2) Our sin: Sin puts distance between us and God. As someone has put it, “God is never really “in hiding,” but He does obscure His presence because of human sin (Isa_1:15)”. (Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary). We all know that sin’s wages are death. Our archenemy, the devil is busy always busy getting you to believe that can be self-sufficient without God. We cannot be saved apart from God’s help!
Are we aloof to sin and its consequences?
1) Deceptive factors: Entangled and embedded into the devil’s deceptions are our pride, arrogance and lack of humility!
We might hear something in a sermon and think that we are exempt when it comes to a sin or certain sins.
Recalling the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, we have to admit that we all resemble more of the proud Pharisee and less of the humble and repentant Tax Collector than we want to realize.
We are all guilty of not fully realizing the depth of our sin and the mercy of God’s grace! But, the harsh truth is that we need to remember that we are all sinners who need to not only repent but to live lives in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).
2) Intercessors: When you you look at all the texts in the lectionary today you can see that both the prophet Isaiah and the writer of Psalm 80 (see Psalm 80:3) are acting on the behalf of the people as intercessors for a people who do not even know that they are lost. (Tanya Lynn BEnnett, ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2020. Christopher Heckert. “First Sunday of Advent”. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2019, p. 137). The text in Matthew 13: 24 -27 speaks of when Jesus will come in the second Advent when He will come back. The text in 1 Corinthians 3:1- 9 reminds that we all need to plant seeds of the Gospel and water the seeds of the Gospel planted by others. How many people are lost and don’t know it?
Telemarketer
A telemarketer called a home one day, and a small voice whispered, “Hello?”
“Hello! What’s your name?”
Still whispering, the voice said, “Jimmy.”
“How old are you, Jimmy?”
“I’m four.”
“Good, Is your mother home?”
“Yes, but she’s busy.”
“Okay, is your father home?”
“He’s busy too.”
“I see, who else is there?”
“The police.”
“The police? May I speak with one of them?”
“They’re busy.”
“Any other grown-ups there?”
“The firemen.”
“May I speak with a fireman, please?”
“They’re all busy.”
“Jimmy, all those people in your house, and I can’t talk with any of them? What are they doing?”
“Looking for me,” whispered Jimmy.
Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [The Jokesmith, quoted in Bits & Pieces, April 1, 1993, pp. 3].
That’s why we are reminded that Jesus came to seek and save, rescue and redeem the lost especially those who do not know that they are lost!
