Why some pastors and people think that worship is to get goodies and never mind sin is beyond me. I don't see how anybody can read the Bible and think that we need to give sin a low profile and just find out what we can get from God.
But not them alone. You have the other liberal movements that say the Bible is not true and they're really not interested in dealing with sin. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 53 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Isaiah 58, calling on God without caring for God because you're scamming him.
You're trying to get something from him and give really nothing in return. Isaiah targeted this practice in the very beginning of his prophecies in Isaiah 1. One of the great passages of Scripture beginning in verse 10 of Isaiah 1. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. He's addressing the chosen people.
Their behavior was so bad at this point, he refers to them as Sodom and Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I have had enough burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand? To trample my courts, bring no more futile sacrifices, incense is an abomination to me. The new moons of Sabbaths and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. I'm reading all of this because it has everything to do with what we're going to cover in chapter 58. He continues, your new moons and your appointed feast, my soul hates.
They are a trouble to me, I am weary of bearing them. And he continues to just lay out what they were doing. They're low views of God. And if you have a low view of God, you're going to think, one of many things, you're going to think that you can fool God. External compliance for selfish gains. This is what they were up to and he was not having any of it again.
So he's dispatching his profit. Today we have many people in pulpits that are doing the same thing and then you have other pulpits that are pointing it out, rightfully so. Just like Isaiah is told to when we get to the first verse, it's very clear. The message from God was, I don't care for insincere faith, get your act together. And churchgoers who suppose the Bible is not relevant in its entirety are the devil's dupe and try to point it out without, not about offending anybody, it's about helping them, repairing the breach.
Those breaks in the walls of faith that have allowed the enemy to penetrate into the city, which is metaphorically the life. Verse one, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. That cry aloud, the full throat literally in the Hebrew prophet is commanded to say it loud, to make it public, to expose their dishonest and their illegal devotion. Such rebukes are always in effect in every age against all who would be guilty of disingenuous religion. But again, here he's singling out, and within his audience, the people of God, the descendants of Jacob. Judah, likely this is during the days of Manasseh, but you cannot be, you can't be dogmatic with that because there's no dates written into it.
We'll get back to that maybe later. Anyway, tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins, that they are religious frauds, provoking me. An audience that was using religion to get goodies. They were bringing the sacrifices, they were fasting, although in both cases it was corrupted.
The fasts were really false, he was going to point that out. And why some pastors and people think that worship is to get goodies and never mind sin is beyond me. I don't see how anybody can read the Bible and think that we need to give sin a low profile and just find out what we can get from God.
Which just defines the entire prosperity movement, but not them alone. You have the other liberal movements that say the Bible is not true and they're really not interested in dealing with sin. So why even claim to be a Christian? Why not just go start another religion up and call yourselves that we don't care about sins or something like that.
The soggy bottom boys, I don't know. But anyway, verse 2, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Well it sounds like they were doing the right thing, but he points out here they're acting like a nation who is righteous, but they're not. And you're going to get to that in verse 3. Outwardly they behaved as though they sided with God, but it was all lip service. They expected to be treated as though they walked amongst the devout. There are many people that die and they expect a heaven just because it's them.
And how do you reach them? How do you tell them that you just can't make up the rules? That there is a creator, there's no way around it, and he has rules and he has made them known to us. And yet it's a popular practice. Since sin is the culprit, it's always spiritual. All of man's problems are spiritual. All the way back to Eden, a lot of people occupy themselves, well what will people think about me when I'm dead? Well who cares? What will God think about you when you die?
That's what matters. What's he going to do with you when you die? They implemented the whole fake religion thing. They were just going down to the temple, bringing their sacrifices, saying praise Yahweh, I have so much in my life. But they were criminal. The entire time it was to get something from God by acting like they were obeying the truth and treating people like dirt.
And no problem. Conscience did not bother them. They hoped to be rewarded for pretending in the face of God. And which is further elaborated, verse 13, but that's the benefit of reading an entire passage of scripture. You can't say chapter because sometimes the chapters aren't enough.
You've got to go into the other chapter a little bit. So the whole passage, the whole subject that's being dealt with, in my devotions I was reading about Dathan and Korah, a Bairam betraying Moses and Aaron, and you know, what made them so bitter? Well it was the spies that came out of the land that God judged. This kind of stuff, you know, so they make the little snide remark, you're going to kill us in the wilderness? And of course God dealt with them severely and rightfully.
We were happy. There's a happy ending on this side of heaven to get rid of those who were causing the people to stumble. The scripture is just so full of lessons. Old Testament ritual ideas appealed to them because it appealed to their sense of worth. See, look what I did. I went to church and I served.
I went down to the temple and I sacrificed. But the meanings of those rituals and the moral applications, they were unappealing to the audience that Isaiah is addressing. And it seems to have been, again, widespread at this point. This is one of the reasons why it seems to be into the reign of King Manasseh, that wicked king who gets saved in the end. But it does seem to be during his time. There were always those that were idolatrous and immoral, all the reigns of all the kings. But there were spikes upward of evil, where evil was exalted more so than at other times in the days of the wicked kings on the throne.
Sort of like the people were glad to be rid of a good king so they could do their dirt and get away with it. And thus the prophets addressed these things. They had no intention of complying with all of what God had said. For instance, God condemning idolatry. They had household shrines.
I mean, who are they kidding? And the way God moves his prophet is he begins to point things out and the prophet just sort of naturally, it's supernatural, but it's taking a natural route. Isaiah's just seeing these things in the people he's dealing with. And it begins to grate on him until finally it forms into a message from the Lord.
It's all the Lord's doing, but he finds in a man like Isaiah the right heart, the right mind. Well, they felt they deserved blessings because they went to church. They came to the temple, they offered sacrifices, they faked their fastings. You know, sort of like, well, I'm going to fast today for two hours. Are you kidding? Why didn't you just say 10 minutes?
I mean, it's not a fast. They were doing hokey things like that and still looking for rewards from God. And so with no intention of heeding God's word, which is what Paul said to the church at Corinth, potent words, examine yourselves as to whether you're in the faith, test yourselves. And as time goes by, as the decades roll past, it's a good exercise to examine yourself again. There are reasons why you may not have the same pep in your step as you did as a new believer, because over the years you've seen so much action, things have caked up on you. Well, you've got to get those barnacles off.
You can't let them stay there, and it takes hard work, and that's part of examining yourself. It's checking what your motives are, because they can become clouded if you're not careful. Well, this next verse exposes this delight to know the Lord. So if we look back again at verse 2 to keep the context, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
Yet they act like they're seeking me. They're acting as though they're righteous, like they're people who haven't forsaken their God, but they have, and that's where we come to verse 3. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and you take no notice? I'm in verse 3, Isaiah 58. In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your laborers. And so they're the prophet of saying, you're not kidding anybody. In your day of your fast, you find pleasure.
In other words, you're finding ways around the whole purpose, the purpose of the fast, which is to afflict the soul. They were offended that God did not fall for their pretended devotion. Why have we gone through all this religion? Why am I sacrificing for Christ and I'm not getting the job that I want?
I'm not getting this and all that. They obligated God to bless them for practicing the religion of the Jews, and there are those who do it in all religions. If all the blessing, this is an old question, I think I ask it every now and then, and it did not originate with me. It's a good question. If all the blessings in your life stopped, would you still serve the Lord Jesus? Job did.
All the blessings stopped in his life, and he continued to be a man of integrity, and he did not become a blasphemer. These people that Isaiah is addressing, many of them, his neighbors, those around the palace and the communities, wherever he would find himself, those related in some way to his family members, his loved ones, they complained that God did not honor their fake offerings. It's like, hey, I've given you a counterfeit $100 bill. Why won't you cash it?
Because I know it's counterfeit. It's illegal. And they complained that he ignored them for ignoring him. It's crazy how these people work. I mean, even into the New Testament, they will heap up for themselves teachers.
How do you do that? How do you say, you know, we're going to shop for a pastor who says what we want to hear, never mind what the Bible says? There's nothing wrong with shopping for a pastor that preaches the word. There's something entirely wrong with shopping for one who doesn't preach the word.
And so why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? They expected a reward for pseudo piety. This complaint reveals that their quest for God lacked care for God. They did not delight in his person.
It was a scam. They wanted something from him. This using a religion as a vehicle for personal gain is ill-advised. They were troubled by supposed powerlessness of their religion. Believers are going to come across seasons in life where their religion seems powerless in the face of opposition. And blessed are those who are not offended because of me. If there wasn't so, then there would be no such thing as a martyr.
And a martyr doesn't have to die to be a martyr, you can just suffer to be a martyr and qualifies. They were supposed by the powerlessness of their religion, not the error of their ways. Well, Isaiah wasn't the only one pointing it out. Psalm 78, they flatter him with their mouth and they lie to him with their tongue.
That's two-faced, speaking with a forked tongue. Of course, Isaiah 29, which Jesus quoted and applied to his generation to let us all know these things, they go without interruption. Jesus quoting Isaiah 29, 13, hears Isaiah saying, Therefore the Lord has said, Inasmuch as these people draw knavery with their mouths and anomone with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men. Men make up other rules, counter rules. They bypass what God has said and they come up with an, I got another creative idea. Formulas criticizing God, calling him indifferent.
They're the frauds, but rather than examine themselves, let's just blame God. Well, he continues here, In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure. Well, it wasn't a true fast. Finding ways around fasting to the Lord while proclaiming a fast.
I'm sorry, I can't eat that right now, it's fast, I don't like that anyway. I mean, I don't know how, it doesn't give us the details, I'm filling in some of the blanks. Bottom line is, they were cheating. They were scamming God and those around them into thinking they were honorable people, but they were doing real dirt in the community and in their culture. It says, and exploit all your laborers. There it is, corruption.
That made them scammers. Some churchgoers ignore un-Christ-like behavior in themselves and in those who they decide they don't want to see condemned because they're one of their buddies or something. Well, here they are in Isaiah's day. Un-Christ-like behavior, but still acting like they're in love with Christ. Now, I mean, we all goof and sometimes we don't reflect the glory of Christ, but we're upset by that.
That's not what we want. These folks didn't care. An intellectual delight in Bible knowledge. They delighted in hearing about my ways as the righteous do, but it wasn't genuine.
Intellectual delight and nothing more. You can't do anything with that, but Satan can do a lot with that. Satan can do a lot with somebody who has just enough Bible knowledge to be dangerous. That's what a cult is all about. That's where these cultic leaders, these Charles Russells and Joseph Smiths come from. They're not interested in the truth. They're motioning with their religion that they're moving toward God.
They have no intention of delighting God. They're going to write new things about him. This is the case with King Saul. Samuel had to live through that junk, but it was enlightening to Samuel.
So enlightening, Samuel felt, you know what, I need to tell everybody about these things. It started off when God finally had it with Saul, and Samuel did too. Saul goes ahead and lies about how he's serving God. It was all hypocrisy.
The evidence was glaring them in the face. It didn't matter to Saul, the quintessential narcissist. But now your kingdom shall not continue, Samuel said to Saul. Yahweh has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what Yahweh commanded you. So he's saying, it's the heart, Saul. It's what's inside the person.
It's spiritual, it's not natural, it's supernatural, and you chose to flunk. Later, when he finally gets in front of the one God, first, of course, David's older elder brother Eliab comes out, and Samuel, the great prophet, said this has got to be the next king of Israel. And the Lord gently corrected him. I've enjoyed that from the pulpit at times. There's a bullet point I have, and I'm going to say it, and then God comes along and says, no, say it this way. Or, no, that's not what I want. And it's pleasant.
It's not a harsh experience. Maybe you're sharing the gospel with somebody, and you're going to let them have it, and God comes along and says, give them some grace. Or maybe it's the other way. It's like, don't give them grace.
Give them the law. But you know, as you're thinking to say something, God comes in, and that's the case with Samuel. And the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him, Eliab, for Yahweh does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart. Samuel says, get me a notepad, quick. I can't forget what just happened here.
And he gets it for us forever. And this is what these people had this story. They were raised with this information about David, and yet they were perpetrators. They weren't alleged perpetrators.
They were criminals. And they had this story about God not looking at the outside, but looking at the inside, yet they were giving God the outside, and withholding the inside, and demanding that he receive them nonetheless. A form of spiritual extortion. And to this day, people demand that God came, demanded you accept my fruit basket. And God says, why are you angry? If you do right, if you do right, then things will go better for you. Well, again, remember they had household shrines and idols, and God saw their heart, verse 4, indeed you fast for strife and debate.
They think they were getting away with this. And you strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high.
I'm not receiving that kind of fast. They quarrel some churchgoers. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate. One of the glorious things about heaven, you won't have to debate anybody.
You won't have to argue a point. Try to convince them or point out that they're wrong. Peter said they twist the scriptures to their own hurt.
You can't fix them when they're that convoluted. It's just they're done. They don't want the truth. The problem now is, are they gobbling up others? Peter said they're going to make merchandise of you.
They're going to exploit you. Because they're greedy and Christless. So the spiritual side had become external with these people. Not internal, where it belonged. All of their religion was on the outside. There was nothing left. The carnal side was internal.
So it's flipped around. Their carnality was deep within their hearts. They did not want to give their lives to God. They wanted to give their lives to religion. And a type of religion that made them feel good about themselves.
Look how articulate I am as I write creatively about heresy and call it truth. Again, God not accepting the sacrifice that is unaccompanied by love for him. And the Jews knew that. His psalms were already published, all of them, by this time.
Because he's long dead, David. So they knew about love for God, devotion for God, integrity and sincerity. Psalm 119, they had this material. Back in Deuteronomy, which they were supposed to review over and over again.
Because that's what it takes. Anytime I've read the book of Deuteronomy, I've been blessed. Seeing it through New Testament eyes, as it was intended, is just quite remarkable. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Jesus quoted this as the commandment.
You shall love the Lord your God with everything you've got. And the flesh objects to that, and that's where the war is. This, the very thing that was missing from their formalism. Other people were taking sacrifices to the temple, but they loved God. Isaiah would take his sacrifices, he loved the Lord. So it wasn't like it was just, you know, them. Others were lined up to sacrifice, but God could see who was who.
He could sort them out, not even having to glance. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We trust that what you've heard today has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. You can also connect with us through YouTube. We hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue spending time reading God's Word and learning together. Make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick again right here on Cross Reference Radio.
