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Transcript 426C — Isaiah 1:10-17 Explained
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum
CALLER: Good evening. Would you speak on Isaiah 1:10-17, please. And I'll listen on the air.
HC: Yes. Isaiah l:l0-17, All right. Let's take a look at that and see what that says. Here we have a. statement where God is faulting Israel because they are not being obedient to God. Oh yes, they are obedient in their outward actions, but their heart is far from God. They are actually going through the motions, but in their hearts they are nor surrendered to God at all. The fact is, they have become so adulterous that God calls them Sodom. Now Sodom of course was a very wicked city that was destroyed by God because of its extreme wickedness. But this is the way He puts it. Now bear in mind that He's addressing Israel, the apple of God's eye, God's own chosen people. And He's saying to them in verse 10, "Hear the Word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats."
Now the sacrifice of these animals was called for by God. But they were only paying lip service to God. They were going through the action, but their heart was far from God.
So He goes on in verse 13, "Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto Me. The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even thc solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth. They are a trouble unto Me. I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers I will not hear you. Your hands are full of blood."
And now the next two verses tells us what the problem is: "Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doing from before Mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Now God is indicating here that the only way they can come into His presence and have their offerings accepted is if they are coming as born again individuals, if it is true that they have been washed of their sins. And they can only be washed of their sins in the coming Messiah. These Jews were coming to God in their good works. They were coming believing that in what they were offering that action was making them worthy before God.
Now this is very pertinent for today. We have all kinds of people in the church, and don't you point the finger at anyone else, just look into your own heart, and make sure that in your own heart this will not be true. And if it is true, then do something about it. But there are all kinds of people today who believe that because they are good Christians, because they faithfully go twice to church, and even teach Sunday School, because they pray, because they're nice to their friends, and so on, that therefore they are living worthy lives, and therefore God ought to save them. They surely must be saved.
Now that is the path toward hell, that is the path toward hell. Under no circumstance are we saved because we are living good lives. Under no circumstance are we saved because we are worthy before God. The path to salvation is to look at ourselves honestly as God looks upon us, that we're sinners, that we're under the wrath of God, that we're destined for hell because of our sins. And we come to God with nothing in our hands. Like the publican of old, we cry out, "Oh God, have mercy on me. I'm a Sinner. I'm a sinner. There's nothing good in me, when I get really honest with myself, when I look upon myself as Thou dost look upon me through my Word." Then we discover that we're not worthy of salvation in any way. And it's only by God's grace that we're saved, only because of the love that if we will abandon ourself to Him and throw ourselves on His mercy that we can know that we are saved.
This is what God asks of us, and this is what is so lacking in many of our lives. In many of our lives we have never known what it means to really repent and really admit our sinfulness. We have never humbled ourselves to the point where we admit that in God's sight we're a hopelessly lost sinner, that there is nothing good within us. Our self-respect, our pride, will not permit this. But unless this happens in our life, unless we see the sad fact in our life that we are sinners, then there is no salvation.
The church today in many ways is very much like Israel of Isaiah 1. The church today, the congregations and denominations . . . I belong to a congregation and I belong to a denomination, and therefore I'm not speaking against the church per se. I'm only saying what the Bible says, that the organized view of the body of Christ, the organized fashion of the body of Christ, as we see it in the congregation, to a very high degree today is paying lip service to the Gospel. We're proud. We think that while we talk about the grace of God and the infallibility of the Word of God, the fact is, where the rubber meets the road, that is where it comes to a specific verse or a specific doctrine or a specific practice, very frequently it's our own idea rather than the Bible's ideas. We're not actually living with the Bible as our final authority. And that is very very serious business. The Bible and it alone must be the authority. It must come out in our lives, it must come out in our congregational practices and doctrines. And if this is not so, then we are walking in the shoes of ancient Israel that came under the curse of God.
Well, thank you for that question.