Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Spiritually sick and unsightly. Just as the devil would have it. Just what he wants. Maybe that's a good way to get your bearings.
Is this wrong? Well, what would Satan do? Instead of saying what would Jesus do? Because I can't do what Jesus can do. But I can know what Satan wants to do.
That's pretty easy, believe it or not. It's like an actor. You know, any actor can play a villain.
Have you noticed that? Like, man, he's a good villain. They're all good at being villains. The ox knows its owner, the donkey, its master's crib. An ox intuitively knows who it serves.
A donkey knows who cares for it. And yet here you have human beings unable to come to a basic conclusion. To connect the dots.
When I say connect the dots, I mean you come to a conclusion, to a point. That's what our doctrine is. Our doctrine is we've taken what we've learned from Scripture and we put it together in such a way we've connected the dots, we can see what it says.
We can see the image. We've arrived at a valuable meaning that is supported from Scripture. These folks could care less. He says, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. The people called to be the people of God did not know their place in the universe spiritually dumber than animals. That's what the prophet is saying.
It is exactly how it would have been received. In those days, there were oxen walking around and donkeys, you know, more than you would see in a city. And in fact, in all the years I lived in New York, I never saw an ox walking down the city once walking down the street. Hey, that's an ox.
I can tell by the hat. Anyway, even farm animals were smarter than people who turned their backs on God. Psalm 32, do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with a bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. And so the psalmist saying, don't be like a dumb animal and let God have to force you to do things. Well, the horse can want to run ahead impetuously.
Mule can be stubborn. But God's people or any people exposed to what God has to say. You tell me if this applies to the world or not. I was talking with someone last Sunday. Well, it was last Sunday I was here. Last Sunday I slept in.
I did, but not on purpose. Anyway, they were talking about witnessing somebody and I so longed for those days. I missed those days being in the workplace, zapping the stupidity of unbelievers about Christ.
I so missed it. You know, miss it, you know, to sell somebody. Why do you say things about the Bible and you really don't know what you're talking about? Do you know what the word sacredness means? Is there anything in your life that is sacred?
If you took for a human being to live without having something sacred in their life is to be a human being that is spiritually dumb. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, though I'm not extracting the sarcasm either. But it is true. Some things should be, you know what? This is something that belongs to someone greater than me, purer than I.
And I need to keep my humor away from it and my flippant behavior. It is sacred. It is good for us to have things that are in our heart. Now, someone else can trample something that's sacred to us and it doesn't take away from it. I mean, if someone wants to take my Bible and throw it into a fire, it's still sacred to me and I'm not going to put my hand in it to get it. It's sacred in my heart. This was the case with Isaiah, Jeremiah's scroll that King Jehoiachim cut up and threw in the fire and he said, I got another one.
So anyway, but it was a sacred deal nonetheless. So verse four, alas sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters, they have forsaken Yahweh. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.
They have turned away backwards. Yahweh was sacred to Isaiah, but not to the target audience. There was supposed to be a good relationship between God the Creator and man created. And so their guilt, he projects in living color right before them.
Just like, you know, he's just like, here's a movie of your corruption and it's in color with surround sound. Each description set in contrast to what God designed man to be. God did not want men to be laden with iniquity and a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters. This is not what God had in mind.
It's blasphemous to charge him with it. He says, alas sinful nation. So whole nations can stampede against God. Well, we saw that with Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany. We've seen this in human history. In Exodus 19, God said, you shall be to me, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
Well, they weren't. He says, a people laden with iniquity. Picture a donkey overloaded. Picture a pickup truck so overloaded the front wheels come off the ground. This is the people with sin.
They were pickup trucks so overloaded with iniquity they couldn't even move. They're useless to God. Psalm 36 four. He devises wickedness on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor evil.
Paul writes to the church in Rome. He says, abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. These chaps, they were just an abandon to evil. It's still thrown in the name of Yahweh around though. Brood of evildoers. This is the sermon, man. This is a sermon that you better make sure your audience is guilty of it.
You don't preach this to a saved congregation. So, a brood of evildoers. God called them to be Abraham's seed, Genesis 21.
In Isaac, your seed shall be called. And of course, they just walked away from this. Children who are corruptors, they ruin everything. It's so pointless. It's such a disappointing thing about crime. It's so pointless, not to the criminals, not to the selfish ones, but to the victims.
It's just so pointless. Deuteronomy 14 verse 2. And I would hope you're into this.
I hope I'm boring you. It's too late now though for you if you are. You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourself from a shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God.
And Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And you blew it. And it was not every single one of them, of course. Sobering.
And you just hear it come off the pages. You shall not do certain things because there's such a thing as there are things that are to be sacred to you because God has called them. He has claimed them as his own. And he is pure and holy. And the New Testament comes along and says, be you perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. And you can shrug your shoulders and say, I got no shot at that. I'm not even going to try. That would be the way of the fool.
Or you can say, well, let me see what I can squeeze out of it. I sometimes think the pulpit should be made out of sponge because they try to squeeze every piece of insight from scripture from it that will be useful to people in their lives to help us be useful to God. They have forsaken Yahweh. Well, that's the opposite of following him. And this led to behavior that provoked God because they defied him. I love this quote from Job.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. What an understatement. We just sang the understatement song, God, I need you. What an understatement, right?
Job said more than oxygen. Well, anyway, and that's not to put down the song. That's to just exalt the Lord. He says God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered? It used to be a play. It used to be on Broadway years ago. Your arms are too short to box with God.
It's just like, yeah, your reach is, man, he's just going to knock you around. Anyway, people live like that. So they just resisted God, and it was their fault.
They wouldn't have that change of heart. Jeremiah 2, and this is the, if anything in a sermon, if you say, you know what, the sermon's kind of boring. Okay, that might be true with most men, but when you get to the verses, the verses aren't boring. That's why I put like 30 of them in each sermon, and I'm not kidding you.
I count them, and I try to get to all of them, but I don't know that I've ever been up here, and there have been less than 20 cross references, especially on a Sunday morning. Anyhow, Jeremiah 2, your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and the fear of me is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
Man, tell us what language that is. It's just, you know, it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the Lord, and the fear of God is not in you. The Holy One, it says here of Israel in verse 4. Holiness is the voice of God's heart. It's purity, and it comes to us, and the standard never lowers, but the mercy endures forever, and that is, of course, our escape hatch without which we would be doomed. If you should mark iniquity, the psalmist said, who would prevail?
You can't. If God marked every sin, we'd be all toast. Just one drive out the parking lot, you'd be done, if you're like me.
I can't wait to get on the road and there's nobody else there. It's like, whoo, not going to sin today. Okay, that's a little hyperbole, but there's some truth in it. Anyway, coming back to where we are, holiness of God stands in contrast to the purity of man, and this is a phrase that's used 30 times, 25 times by Isaiah, 30 times in Scripture, so he's the one that really uses, they have turned away backward, and so here you see all these people walking backwards from God.
That's not true to the statement they've turned and walked away, but let's have them walk backwards. Verse 5, why should you be stricken again? Will you revolt more and more?
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. God gives man, he reasons, he calls, you know, what did God say to Cain? If you do good, will you not go well with you? But if not, sin lies at the door. He's reasoning with Cain.
It was wasted on Cain. When he says, come, let's reason, God treats human beings with respect. Regardless of how they treat him, he still offers this, extends this respect, and we look at this generation today that is so mixed up with sin. They think they're woke, but they're dead. They're dead in trespasses and sin. They're not awake.
They're the opposite, but Satan has told them they are, and after all, they don't believe in Satan, and they are lost, and yet God still treats them with respect by saying, come, let's reason this through. You know, well, anyway, verse 5, why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. You are a train wreck. The nation suffered because of sin. You will revolt more and more, incorrigible.
You couldn't change them. This is what Paul said to the Corinthians. There was an element there, just a heartbreaking element of churchgoers, and Paul says, and I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. It is never fun to be not loved. It is never a joy to pour yourself, invest yourself into someone, and they, eh, they don't, you know, and that's what God was saying about the children, the corrupters, and so we have to have a response to that. We don't just read this and go, oh, man, this is terrible.
This is my life. You can't stop there. You've got to find. If I'm going out, I'm taking a bunch of devils with me. It's got to be that kind of attitude. Would you say, would you disagree?
Don't do it now, because then you'll be recorded being wrong. But, I mean, what should our response be? And I do this in my life. It's like, you know, Lord, I feel like Solomon sometimes.
Vanity, it's all vanity. It was a waste, and I can feel the Lord saying, ah, don't go there, because you know you're wrong. I know I'm wrong, but it feels good sometimes to be wrong, does it not? No, no, you guys just never get in the flesh.
It just never, yeah, I'm just going to follow you home and see. Anyway, coming back to this, verse 6, we've got to hurry up here. For the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises, putrefying sores, they have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. Well, that's a pretty, that's just a perfect environment for gangrene. This is terrible. And fortunately, not the whole message of the prophet.
It's so much good coming. But he's saying, you know, we've got to get the business first about you people. I tell you, sometimes I want to spend the whole day on my knees praying. I can't, and I don't know that God has ever called me to that. But you just sometimes think about what's happening to Christianity. If I go on the Internet and read something and watch what they're doing next, I don't walk away encouraged. The encouragements to me, some of them are just their false encouragements.
They all whip you up, but it's not true. And they come and they go. And you look back and say, five years ago when they were doing this thing, where are they now? Where are the 40-day?
You remember that 40-day thing? They were supposed to change your life? The only thing that's changed my life is the Bible. And that has met a lot of resistance, too. That hasn't been a smooth fit.
It's been a rocky road. So you learn after a while, you know, the things that, again, what matters is thus says the Lord and what I do with that. That is really the pleasant part of maturing in Christ. And, you know, in Christ you watch how he rolled through Israel and you just, man, what poise, what maturity. He never was off balance.
He never got whipped up into something. You know, Lazarus is sleeping. Well, he's dead, but he doesn't get emotional about that. He has to tell them he's dead.
But we are going to go there anyway. And he doesn't tell anybody what he's going to do. And he says, roll away the stone.
Well, no, there's a stench by now. Roll away the stone. And then what does he do?
Boom! And you just say, I want that. I want to be like Paul and Peter, who don't seem carried away by, well, Peter did for a long time. But once he's older, he's not carried away anymore.
He's, you know, he's got that poise. And I think we should be shooting for that as Christians. Anyway, I believe in the local church.
I really do. And anything that messes with the role of the local church is, to me, an opponent of what Christ is about. He died for the church.
He bought it with his blood. And I fear that we are becoming more a remnant than ever. And I remember in my early days coming in touch with Calvary Chapel, it was just such a blessing.
It was just so many solid Calvaries out there and so many great fellowships. And it doesn't seem that way anymore. It could be, you know, me, I thought, but no, that couldn't be. So, you know, you've got to figure it out. But anyhow, coming back to this, he says, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, spiritually sick and unsightly, just as the devil would have it. Just what he wants. Maybe that's a good way to get your bearings.
Is this wrong? Well, what would Satan do? Instead of saying, what would Jesus do? Because I can't do what Jesus can do. But I can know what Satan wants to do.
That's pretty easy. Believe it or not, it's like an actor. You know, any actor can play a villain.
Have you noticed that? Like, man, he's a good villain. They're all good at being villains.
And I think it's because the heart is dark. And it comes easy. And, you know, you want to have someone play a good boy. And it doesn't always... I mean, there are some actors that just can't be good people in character.
All right, coming back to this. The people that he dealt with, they didn't care too much because they were doing pretty good. They were prospering. They have...
He continues here in verse 6. They have not been closed up or bound. Secondary complications. Damage due to neglect or soothed with oil. There was no one caring for them. Or there was no care taking place. Even though, as the prophet is implying, care was at their fingertips. Just like many churchgoers, the Bible is at their fingertips.
They will not use it. Verse 7. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence.
And it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. If these people came to church to hear the preachers say what they wanted to say, it was all wasted. But if they came listening for what God might want to say to them, they would do well. And that's true to this day. People go to church, they're expecting the pastor to say this, that, and the other. And I think those are the ones cheating themselves. I think when you go to the church, you're to go for a sermon as an empty vessel and just let the Lord fill you. And I think we would all be better. I approach my study that way. I don't approach the studies of Isaiah. I'm very familiar with this book.
Why bother studying? I dig right back into it. And I love it. Verse 7. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence. And it is desolate as overthrown by strangers.
Well, nobody wants strangers to overthrow them. The Assyrians, of course, had already marched through 2 Kings 18. In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. So these are the people that he's preaching to. Why did they lose the cities? Because they turned their back on the Lord. Strangers devour your land and your presence. And it is desolate.
Yeah, but the Assyrians are in their cities, looting. It is as though God is saying to the Jews, just look at you. You weren't called to do this. Can God say that to some churches? Look at you.
What are you doing? You call yourself a church. You've got the cross on the outside.
But I am nowhere inside. And thus they are to see you. Well, verse 8. So the daughter of Zion is left in a booth in a vineyard, as in a hut, in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
I mean, every time I read that cucumber thing, I want cucumbers. Personification of Jerusalem. God is saying, you're my delicate child.
And again, it's like you're an underachiever because you chose that route. You're isolated. You're flimsy.
Unless you don't want me, and therefore you're not a castle. Verse 9. Unless Yahweh of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom.
We would have been made like Gomorrah. Well, that small remnant, it's a minority that's left over after the majority has been used or destroyed. And it is a doctrine taught by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Haggai.
They all talk about the remnant. Because without it, there would be no more Israel. Israel repeatedly came that close to being no more.
To this day, they have encountered such things in their history. Anyway, these did not survive because they were a minority, but in spite of being a minority, the hand of God protected them. We would have become like Sodom.
We would have been like Gomorrah. Decadent cities of antiquity. The scoffers today despise this proverbial expression for depravity from antiquity. As I mentioned, they try to laugh at those who do not laugh at sin. God will have the last laugh, but it won't be funny.
Psalm 2, He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. Yahweh shall hold them in derision. And Sodom is forever marked as a city with the wrong lifestyle. And there are those with that identical lifestyle today, they hate being reminded of it.
But they can't undo the history. So I said I'd close with Ecclesiastes, and here in the eighth chapter, and again, I think Solomon just has a really boiled down approach to life at this point. He says, Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him.
But it will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow because he does not fear before God. And so there he inserts the importance of just being rightly related to God. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website CrossReferenceRadio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at CrossReferenceRadio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
