Sermon Title: Guilty of our own Undoneness
Text: Isaiah 1:1-4
Date: July 11, 2003
Context of Scripture:
Many people have heard the statement that history often repeats itself. Many have also perhaps heard that the reason we study our history, is so that we learn from the past and not make the same mistakes over and over and over.
When we view the Holy Scriptures, how is it that we perceive them? We obviously see them as the written Word of God, or at least I would hope we do, but it is also an account of history from the perspective of our relationship or lack of relationship with God.
There was a story that my father often relayed to me after I have suffered bouts of “no common sense”. He tells of the man who sat out in the middle of the street repeatedly striking himself over the head with a hammer. When he was asked what exactly it was that he was doing, replied that he struck himself in the head with a hammer because it felt so good when he stopped.
Israel, repeatedly during its history rose to richness and prominence through faithful following of God, and when their greatness got to a point where it went to their heads, they abandoned God, and as a result they fell from prominence and they fell from prosperity. They would find their way back into the graces of God through the obedience and the leadership of a few, but the cycle continued on and on and on. Did they continue their disobedience to God simply because it felt so good to re-establish a relationship with them? How many of us are looking back at our lives and wondering why we also fit this description so well – you needn’t show your hands – I think many of us know how close to that description we came.
Please join me in the reading of God’s Holy Word.
Scripture Reading:
1 ¶ The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, "Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. 3 "An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand." 4 Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.
Sermon Introduction:
How is it that people perceive us in various situations and in the company of different groups? How are we viewed as a nation? How are we viewed as individuals? How are we viewed as a congregation? The problem with this view that many get is that it may vary under the manner in which we are viewed. We oftentimes react differently in good times and in bad. Does our personality change or does the stress of the moment bring out our true selves as we loose the ability to maintain a phony front?
How about the manner in which we act in the context of our personal relationships? It seems that the closer we become to people the more free we are with what and how we say certain things. You would never dream of telling someone that was a total stranger that they had something stuck between their teeth, well let me rephrase that because there are some that would be so bold. That ability to speak frankly oftentimes also becomes free reign to badger, and bash, and abuse at the whim of a discontented and insincere heart. Brothers and sisters often say the meanest of things to one another. Parents may emotionally scar their children with things that they would never dream of saying in public. How do we respond in the close knit setting in the fellowship of believers. If our comments and discussions are not tempered through honest and earnest times of petition to the Lord, we may scar and discourage and plant the seeds of discontent that might erupt into a full scale congregational battle that could lead to the self-destruction of a wonderful component of a body of Christ.
I made a statement many years ago, that at times there was more honor in a bar-room then in the fellowship of believers, and as I reflect back on things, I can see where Satan can use the misguided acts of an unknowing individual and wreak havoc in an assembly of those that are dedicated to Christ. In military strategy it is often said that one enemy within is always more dangerous than a thousand outside the ranks. It is often times that loyalty is greater in those that are the lowliest.
The effects of all that we do will eventually come after us and bring us down unless we turn loose of the burdens to Christ. If we walk through a muddy field, the mire will build up to the point where we get bogged down, we slow down and eventually get stuck and brought to a standstill. This can be a sad commentary in the life of someone who walks closer with Christ but fails to release the encumbrances that will eventually lead to their spiritual downfall. Let that not happen in this assembly here. Let us shake loose from the mire that threatens to weigh us down.
Prayer for Spiritual Enlightenment:
I. Through the good and the bad.
If we look back politically, we have a variety of national leaders that have a variety of political, social and religious records. We have had good presidents and we have had not so good presidents. Did their records have anything to do with our responsibilities to the Kingdom of God? We blame the backwards direction of this nation on the moral shortcomings of its leaders, and while that may be true to a degree, perhaps if we look at our track records, we might see that we were less than what we ought to have been as well. It is easy to pray for a godly man. It is easy to support an upstanding citizen. When a leader takes his post and is less that what is required of God, instead of grumbling and complaining, we might lift him to the throne of grace and petition on their behalf that the guidance of the Holy Spirit be made evident in the way that they live their lives. Even if it fails to have an effect on a hard hearted soul, it keeps our hearts and our souls and our minds on the kingdom of God. Read the first verse of this evenings text:
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Depending on what research you look at, Isaiah was not from a destitute family. Isaiah was not unfamiliar with the priestly workings of the followers of God. He was given these visions by God, and those visions were maintained throughout the entirety of his ministry. The list of kings that were provided were not only for the purpose of dating Isaiah’s ministry, it was also an indication of the climate in which Isaiah served as a prophet of God. He proclaimed God’s Word faithfully in the times of plenty as well as the time of want. He proclaimed God’s Word faithfully in the times of blessings and the times where God withheld favor. He proclaimed God Word faithfully in the times of good leadership as well as the times of poor. Even though the man at the helm was less then a servant of God, Isaiah was not distracted and sidetracked through times of grumbling he went forward and said “Thus saith the Lord” with even greater intensity.
We have a president at this time that follows God as much as anyone in recent history. He has made mistakes, he is not liked by everyone, but our ability to lift him up in prayer is perhaps almost effortless at times. We look at his predecessor and the loose moral standards and the soiling of the nations highest office, and we more than likely had difficulties in our time of prayer. If we had spent every moment that a complaint was forming in our minds on our knees in earnest prayer, not some of us but all of us, how different perhaps could the outcome of his time in office have been?
II. The closest can hurt the mostest.
Isaiah’s message was meant to bring shame and reform and repentance to a nation that was called, “God’s chosen people.” Read the second verse:
2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, "Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me.
Isaiah proclaims the Word of God that was given to him, in a description that was easy for them to understand and that understanding has passed the test of time, because it means exactly the same thing today. Rebellion by our children hurt us deeply. Delivered from the clutches of Egypt and in spectacular and decisive fashion, they were delivered by the hands of God. Look around us brothers and sisters, we live in a nation where prosperity is great in comparison to most of the world. We live secure lives, even in spite of the terrorism threat in comparison to some of our foreign brothers and sisters. We have a nation that has obviously had the hand of God upon it, we live in a nation that has experienced the hand of God’s protection, we live in a nation that has seen the greatest of God’s blessings, however as the courts dismiss His statutes, as the leadership ignores the Biblical moral standards, as this nations people turn their backs upon the loving God that has brought them to this point, we as a rebellious nation are about to witness the terror, the catastrophe, the calamity, and the misery of a nation that God has moved His hand from. He is about to turn His head and see us no longer.
III. Lower than a beast
Isaiah puts it in terms that the dismissers of God’s blessings understand. You are lower than a snakes belly! Reading on in verse 3, Isaiah proclaims God’s Word further:
3 "An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand."
Now for some these would be fighting words. YOU ARE DUMBER THAN AN OX! YOU ARE MORE STUBBORN THAN A DONKEY! Of all the people who should know of the great things that are attributed to a loving God, it would be the nations of Israel and Judah, but they claim ignorance, they remain unmoved. The Pharisees and the Scribes were in the best of positions to know Jesus and His reason for walking the face of the earth, but they claimed ignorance and remained unmoved. America and all of its opportunities and blessings should recognize its blessed nation status, however it continues with a blind eye and resists any attempt to set it on the righteous path. God must truly be disappointed in America as a nation. Is the hand of God prepared to remove our blessed nation status?
IV. The weight of our evil deeds
The world we live in is mired in the mud of social decay, and moral decomposition. It’s downward spiral is obvious and its point of decline cannot be blamed entirely on those that live to serve today. It has been many generations of national iniquity that have brought us to this point. Look at this evenings final verse:
4 Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.
We are producing a generation of spiritually ignorant people. Where once the Gospel message was proclaimed in some form to virtually every household, this nation has regressed to the point where the Bible and its Words are not even known or recognized. Households are Bibleless, Churches are places for the weak of disposition and character. Biblical morals are for prudes while the prevailing standard is do whatever feels right for you. Godly relationships have been replaced by “GET WHATEVER YOU CAN FROM WHOMEVER YOU CAN HOWEVER YOU CAN AND ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR YOURSELF” as the hand of God slowly slips away from its protective covering of this nation. A nation that wishes to remove God, from “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” and as a result becomes one nation “UNDER”! The mire of social and moral decay is weighing heavily on the boots of a once great nation and the moment of the ultimate bogging will soon be upon us.
Conclusion:
We are at a point where there must be a moral and spiritual awakening in this nation or the life that we have been blessed with will come to an end. We need revival! We need a tremendous movement of the Holy Spirit in this world in the hearts and minds of all men or the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah will befall us as well. However, just in every great movement, there needs to be a point of beginning. It needs to begin in my heart. It needs to begin in your heart. The revival fire needs to burn brightly in each and everyone of us so that the glow of God’s power literally bursts forth from the walls of this sanctuary. It cannot stop there. It needs to burn through this district, it needs to burn through this denomination, it needs to burn through the entirety of the Body of Christ and then it needs to ignite the lost and the complacent of this nation and the world.
We can no longer blame the shallowness of our dedication to the Lord on the problems that are brought on by our leadership. We cannot blame it on our president, we cannot blame it on the congressional leaders, we cannot place the blame on the judges or even on church leadership. In times of plenty and in times of need we must burn brightly as a light to the world that Jesus called us to be. Even when the rest of the world around us caves in to moral and social decay, we must remain true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just the way that it was originally given. We cannot circumvent moral incorrectness in hopes that they might change their ways through our tolerance. We cannot change the Word of God so that it maintains a politically correct manner so as to fit in with the world in which we live. If we are Biblically politically correct in this society we are spiritually dead and we are lost to the cause of Christ.
We must band even closer together as a body of Christ. We must pray harder together. We must study God’s Word harder together. We must go forth in a unified fashion and proclaim God’s Word louder and bolder than ever before. We must do this or we will shrivel and fail. We cannot afford to continue in congregational bickering. We cannot afford to jockey for church position in hopes of looking greater in the eyes of our contemporaries. We cannot allow a divisive spirit to be harbored in these sacred halls and dampen our ability to be set ablaze by the Holy Spirit of God. Satan would like nothing better then to sit back and watch as the various congregations self-destruct from the inside out.
We cannot base our standards on being just a little better then the world around us or the person next to us. We must realign our standards to be based upon God and His Words and commands. We must base our teachings on the Good News of Jesus. We must receive our empowering through the infilling of the Spirit of God. We must raise our sights on the heavenly realm and not focus on the dirt and the grime and the mud and the mire of the fallen creation. We must become the children of God once again and we cannot and will not accomplish that task until we become united with our vision, like Isaiah, through the good as well as the Bad.
The anchor of iniquity has been fastened to the neck of this great nation and it is about to be cast into the sea. It may be likely that we will not be able to turn things around fast enough to avoid the removal of God’s hand of blessing, in fact that is more than likely a certainty, because for many they need to feel the hitting of the hammer upon their heads before they realize the pleasure of its stopping.
As our political system becomes more wicked, we must continue to go forward, ever aware of the presence of the Lord in our lives. As morality declines let us model Biblical standards in all that we do. As a nation turns their backs ever further away from the face of God, let us be ever seeking, let us be ever desiring to draw closer. Let us continue to seek that revival fire in our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters so that those in the dark gaze upon our lives and perhaps at some point exclaim – I SEE THE LIGHT OF JESUS IN THEIR LIVES AND I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE! And even when all is said and done and our time is past upon the face of this earth, we can look forwarad to our meeting with the Lord and hear those words that ever drive us forward, “WELL DONE THOU GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, ENTER INTO THE JOY OF THE LORD.”
Call to Commitment:
It is time for the revival to begin! God desires it, our nation is in need of it, and God’s people are determined to experience it. Let this be the evening that we commit to the higher level. Let this be the evening where we abandon mediocrity and embrace the gift of Holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the shed blood of Jesus on Calvary, and fulfill the desire of God in our lives, the life of this congregation, the standard of conduct of this nation and the light of the righteous life in all the world around us.
Where there was no commitment let there be a relationship with Jesus! Where there was halfhearted allegiance to God let there be total consecration! Where there was but a flicker of hope let it grow into a blaze of revival fire that not even the dousing power of the world around us could dampen its bright light. Let it begin in you and in me today!
