Isaiah 58 - Renewal Brings Repentance

The book of Isaiah, chapter 58.

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention

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Isaiah 58.

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Isaiah 58, we'll be reading this entire chapter and looking at this chapter this morning as we continue on through the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 58, 1 through 14.

This is God's word.

Cry out loudly, don't hold back.

Raise your voice like a ram's horn.

Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.

They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God.

They ask me for righteous judgments.

They delight in the nearness of God.

Why have we fasted, but you have not seen?

We have denied ourselves, but you haven't noticed.

Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers.

You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist.

You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high?

Will the fast I choose be like this?

A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Isn't this the fast I choose?

To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly.

Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rear guard.

At that time when you call, the Lord will answer.

When you cry out, he will say, Here I am.

If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger pointing, the malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones.

You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry.

Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins.

You will restore the foundations laid long ago.

You will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.

If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own way, seeking your own pleasure or taking business, then you will delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride over the heights of the land, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Just go again to prayer.

We need you speaking to us.

If we just have mere human words, we have we have truly all that we need.

So work today again, we ask, for your name's sake.

Amen.

Appearances are not always what they seem.

Does the name Bernie Madoff ring a bell to you?

He was once the chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

He had an investment firm thought to be worth billions of dollars until he was arrested in 2008, until it was revealed that he was running the largest Ponzi scheme in human history.

Appearances are not always what they seem.

In our chapter today, the nation of Israel has a certain appearance of godliness.

All is well.

Look at verse 2.

They seek me day after day, they delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and doesn't abandon the justice of God.

Sounds great, only it's not.

In the very first verse of this chapter, God says that Isaiah needs to raise his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel their sin.

And the word here for trumpet is the word shofar.

Have you ever seen one of those?

This is no piccolo trumpet.

Those things can blast sounds.

This sin is a big deal.

God calls Israel to repent in this chapter.

And that call for repentance is a call to us as well.

And you might say, well, hold on a second here.

I mean, I'm I'm no hypocrite like Bernie made off.

Maybe not, but all of us face the temptation to be content with a good appearance.

Some of you don't actually know the Lord, but you're content to let other people think you're a you're a good Christian.

Others among us are genuine followers of Christ, but it's just so easy to start going through the motions.

In Martin Luther's famous 95 Theses, this was the very first one.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.

That's the path we walk.

It's not just a one-time event.

And God is so merciful in this passage.

We know he's called us a repentance.

We know we need to repent.

That alone should be motivation enough, but he gives us more.

He offers so much hope for what happens when we do repent.

And we'll get there.

But first we need to look at what the nature of repentance is from this chapter.

So we've got a very simple three-part structure for the sermon today.

If you happen to be taking notes, what repentance isn't, what repentance is, and then what repentance brings.

So we'll start first.

What repentance isn't?

Repentance isn't merely acknowledging God.

As we read this chapter, Israel is not out there like shaking their fist at God.

They're in some sense acknowledging him.

Verse 2, in some sense, they're asking for his righteous judgments.

They draw near to God in some way, but apparently it's really more of a show than a reality.

They acknowledge God, but they don't adore God.

They recognize God, but they don't respond to God.

They profess God, but they don't actually possess God.

Even in our own day, there's some public figures who acknowledge God in certain ways when they didn't used to acknowledge God.

We can be thankful for that on some level.

You know, I'd rather have someone acknowledge God than to champion the gods of Baal.

But we also must say that merely acknowledging God is not true repentance.

What about you?

Parents, are you content for other parents to hear you acknowledging God before your children?

Or would your children say in the home, God is fully present?

Or maybe children who are here.

Are you content to let your Sunday school teacher think, you know, you've got the right answer?

You're acknowledging the right things, even if your heart is far from the Lord.

Repentance isn't merely acknowledging God.

Repentance isn't empty rituals.

We see that so clearly.

Verse number three.

We've denied ourselves, but you haven't noticed.

Israel's very proud of its fasting, but God isn't impressed, because for them it had just become an empty ritual.

I'll give you one example of that: Matthew 9, 15.

Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them?

The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Christ has been taken from us.

We're longing for his return.

It's appropriate at times to go without food, to remind ourselves of our passion for his return, our love for him, our focus on who he is.

It's not wrong to fast.

And even for those that were at prayer meeting recently, or you get the updates from the Kunis and the Wisis, those are missionaries we have serving in Indonesia.

They invited us to join them for some specific needs there in this season of difficulty right now on the island through prayer and fasting.

Were they asking us to do something that God hates?

No, no, not at all.

They weren't asking for empty rituals.

They were asking for earnest prayer.

And perhaps you take one meal a week, and instead of eating, just let that hunger fuel you to be praying for God's glory there in Indonesia.

So fasting's not wrong, but we do see from our passage that it can become an empty ritual.

Think about the Pharisees.

They fasted, but their hearts were far from the Lord.

Do you ever notice how sometimes people seem eager to slip into a conversation that they were fasting?

Like we really wanted the Lord's will to be done.

So we sought the Lord through prayer and fasting.

Just be careful of your heart.

It's one thing to invite someone to a public cause and a public fast, but Jesus does say, wash your face.

Don't put on gloomy attire when you fast.

It's before God that you do that.

And then just one other side comment about fasting.

If fasting makes you kind of sleepy and irritable, don't do it on Sunday.

You know?

Well, I'm on an intermittent fasting plan for my health.

Well, that's great, but you're sleeping through the sermon.

So, you know, get up Sunday morning, have an omelet or a muffin or a banana or something so that you can come ready to engage and you can lose that half a pound on Monday and Tuesday.

That's just practical advice.

Paul warns us of the danger of ritualism in Colossians.

And this is very similar to Isaiah as well.

Paul says, Don't let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink.

These are a shadow of what's to come.

The substance is Christ.

Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels.

If you died to Christ, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?

Why do you submit to regulations?

Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch.

All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up.

They're not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.

What does empty ritualism look like today?

Well, it probably doesn't look like worshiping angels for most of you.

It could look like, in some cases, worshiping saints.

It could look like saying the same prayer thoughtlessly over and over again and thinking, oh, this is just what repentance is.

If I say these words enough, then God will really hear me.

That's not what repentance is.

Going to church could even become an empty ritual.

Now, if you're worshiping saints, don't do that, worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you're going to church, don't stop going to church.

God does command that.

But don't just put on Sunday shoes and sit in the pew and think that all is well if your heart is not right before the Lord.

If it's become an empty ritual, seek him.

Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.

So repentance isn't simply acknowledging God.

Repentance isn't empty rituals.

What is repentance?

In the first place, repentance is agreeing with God.

Not just acknowledging God, but agreeing with God.

This chapter here in Isaiah contains a kind of dialogue between God and the people.

So in verse 3, which we read, they're complaining that God hasn't taken notice of their fasting.

And then in the rest of the chapter, God answers them.

Are they going to agree with God's assessment?

Or are they going to remain entrenched in their own ideas about what brings approval from God?

Verse 1, the verdict's already come in.

House of Jacob, people of Israel, you are in sin.

Are they going to listen and agree with God's assessment?

Or are they going to object and make excuses?

We have to agree with God about our sin.

And how do we know what that is?

How do we know what's right and wrong?

Well, once again, we've got to go back to God.

He's the one who made us, who designed us.

He's the one who has to be able to tell us what's right and what's wrong.

It's no praise to be on the right side of history if you're on the wrong side of God.

So we need to listen to what God says here in His Word.

But true repentance is more than just agreeing with God about our sin.

It begins there.

Repentance is also a heart change toward God.

Repentance is a heart change toward God.

Look down to verse 13.

If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable.

We're going to get to behavior in a minute, but God's not looking for mere behavior.

He's looking for behavior that flows from a certain kind of heart.

If you call the Sabbath a delight, you will eat these lima beans and you will like them.

Okay.

I'll eat the lima beans and I'll like them.

I know it's good for me.

I'm going to lose that half a pound.

The Lord doesn't want the Sabbath to be this burden that the people are taking on merely out of obligation.

He wants it to flow from a heart that is so in love with him and who he is.

It's called in this verse, the holy day of the Lord.

If people don't delight in the holy day of the Lord, what does that say about the love they have for the Lord?

Do you hear the heart there that the Lord is going for?

They needed a heart change.

Jesus himself reminds us of the need for a heart change.

Matthew 15.

Hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines, human commands.

And you can ask God for a change of heart.

If God and his righteousness always seems to taste like lima beans, and sin always seems to taste like that homemade lasagna, ask for a heart change.

Do it.

He loves to grant that humble request.

Repentance is agreeing with God.

Repentance is a heart change toward God.

And then also from our passage, repentance, true repentance, is turning with a new desire to obey God.

It's turning to obey God.

The people say, hey, we're fasting, and God says, yes, but it's an empty ritual.

And then God goes on to point out, look at all the things that you're not doing that I've commanded.

If you really had a heart in you to keep my ways, why wouldn't you be doing the weightier matters of the law?

And he's going to outline what some of those things are.

Verse number three.

God says, Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers.

Verse 4 continues, you fast with contention and strife, to strike viciously with your fist.

Verses six and seven, isn't this the fast I choose?

To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to tear off every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him?

Not to ignore your own flesh and blood?

Yet fasting, but what about loving justice and walking humbly with your God and these greater, weightier matters of mercy that I've said to do these things, Israel, you're not obeying from your heart all those things.

Why does God here compare these good deeds, this love of neighbor that the people have left off?

He compares it to a fast.

Yeah, you've got that ritual.

I've got another kind of fast.

He's not only saying that it's it's a substitute behavior for the wrong behavior they're engaged in.

When you fast, think about what you're doing.

You're giving up something that brings you some measure of comfort and joy.

You're making a sacrifice, you're going without for some other purpose.

In the good sense of a fast, you're going without to be spurred on towards prayer and the supreme.

Value that we have to Jesus Christ, even more than food.

Loving your neighbor is hard.

It takes sacrifice.

It takes self-denial.

You've got to be willing to give up some things that might be comfortable to you, customary to you, in order to serve your neighbor.

So it's a certain kind of fast, it's a different kind of fast.

Mothers, why are you so willing to give up sleep for your baby?

That's costly.

Because they have a need, and you're willing to sacrifice so that that need could be met.

That's the kind of thing that God is calling for here in this passage.

So how can we apply this to our lives?

Uh, you might say, well, this passage talks about breaking the chains.

I don't really have anyone chained up, you know, in my garage, so that's good.

Uh clothing the naked.

I haven't seen anyone wandered through New Hyde Park naked, they could use an extra shirt or two.

How do we apply this?

Well, some people really want to turn Isaiah into a comprehensive public policy maker.

There's there's touch points here in our passage for governments, but Isaiah's main point is not that God is instructing us exactly what the effective tax rate should be in New York City or Tokyo or London in 2025.

God's after the heart.

So let's think about the heart.

Let's start in the workplace.

Verse three speaks about oppressing your workers.

Maybe you own a business, maybe you're a supervisor.

Say, hey, I've never once physically assaulted someone here, like the striking of the fist.

Praise God for that self-restraint.

And I mean that sincerely.

That does still happen today.

But are you willing to make sacrifices so that those under you can have it better?

That's the heart of the kind of fast that Jesus speaks about here.

Or are you just quick to say, Well, I worked my way up and I've earned my place and my salary, and they and they What about hospitality?

Verse seven speaks very directly to that issue.

Well, Micah, the Bible also says if people don't work, they shouldn't eat.

It does say that.

What about people that you know are very willing to work, but they're between jobs and they're looking and they're hurting.

Unexpected expenses come up.

Are you willing to sacrifice to help out?

If you want to hear more about hospitality, a few Sunday nights ago, our brother Mark Wiesner preached an excellent message from 3 John dealing with that theme.

You can go back and listen to that more.

But start where you can, start in small ways.

I know some of you, you wouldn't even hardly dream of doing what verse 7 says, bringing someone else into your house that's in need for a month or three months or six months.

Oh, Micah, but our culture is so much different than the Old Testament culture.

That's right.

In our culture, selfishness and hospitality is much more acceptable.

That is a big difference.

You're right.

How about how you treat the Lord's day?

Yes, I understand that under the old covenant, Israel had, as a nation, more of an exact blueprint for their behavior on God's Sabbath day.

The new covenant has come.

Christ has fulfilled it.

He is our Sabbath.

We don't have this exact blueprint as they did in the old covenant for all of Lord's Day activities.

And yet the Bible still says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

It still says in Acts chapter 2 that the early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to prayer, to breaking bread, to fellowship.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Making Sunday a priority probably is going to involve some sacrifice.

And that's the kind of fast that God loves from a heart that's in love with Him.

I was listening to an interview this week where somebody said, Boy, when I go to church every Sunday, it feels like I get saved every Sunday.

Not precise theology, but the sentiment is good there, right?

We think we can understand that if we know the Lord.

So we've looked at what repentance is not.

It's not merely acknowledging God, it's not empty rituals.

What is it?

Well, it's agreeing with God, it's a heart change toward God, and it's a turning to obey God.

But before we get into the final heading today, I do want to say that God doesn't just say you need to repent, He holds out this amazing reward for repentance.

And I just have to commend you.

Yes, in this passage, Isaiah really, through inspiration from God, he puts the finger on some of the soft spots in Israel's life.

And we have to do that with one another.

But I also want to commend you, I see so much evidence of heart change and a walking with the Lord in this body.

I am just so grateful.

And the Thanksgiving offering we recently had, we brought in close to $15,000 thanks to your generosity for people that are in need.

We have people in our church who are amazingly hospitable.

So many of you do your work with great integrity, and you're trying to help those that are under you.

There are people that are here every single week.

You could be out trying to make money or just sleeping in, and you you love the Lord's Day.

Not because it's lima beans, because this is your homemade lasagna, and you're grateful to be here.

And so I want to commend you in all of that and say, keep on keeping on.

It's an encouragement to me as well.

But finally, for today, last heading, what does repentance bring?

Repentance brings renewal.

If you looked at the sermon title in advance, you knew where I was going because that's the title, Repentance Brings Renewal.

I hope that doesn't sound bland.

Once you get into it, it's not bland at all.

When you see how it actually plays out here in the text, look at verses eight and nine.

Then your light will appear like the dawn, your recovery will come quickly, your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord's glory will be your rear guard.

At that time when you call, the Lord will answer.

When you cry out, he will say, Here I am.

Look in the middle of verse 10, picking up there.

Then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night like the noonday, the Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, strengthen your bones, you will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry.

Who wouldn't want those things?

And the most fundamental kind of renewal that God gives us here in this passage is the personal presence of God in our lives.

That's what all true Christians should crave more than anything else.

Repentance brings renewal.

And let me start with those of you that may not truly know the Lord.

You need a whole new renewal.

It's a renovation of your life.

You need, as Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again.

You don't want to be among those who at the last day before Christ say, Well, look at all the fasting I did.

Look at all the all the words that I repeated.

And he says, Depart from me, I never knew you.

You want to be those, like in verse 10 here, where the Lord says, Here I am.

Welcome home.

And you can have that relationship with the true and living God.

The only person who ever lived a life completely free of all hypocrisy was our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, if anyone ever lived a life where all of their words and their behavior perfectly matched their heart, he never had to put on a show for anyone because all that he did, I do always those things that please him.

And he wasn't lying when he said that.

And you know, he lived that life of perfect righteousness for sinners, so that that life could be credited to us, and God could see his perfection as our perfection.

He died as a sacrifice for our sins, the sins of appearance and people pleasing and all these minor hypocrisies and major hypocrisies.

He died and suffered the very wrath of God that we might have life through him.

If you haven't embraced that hope, embrace it today.

Now, what about those of us this morning who we know the Lord's saving work in our lives, but maybe you find yourself like David.

All your bones are wasting away because of your sin.

Or like Peter.

You started off well, but you've been drifting towards a life of denial.

There's hope.

It's the same hope for those that don't know the Lord, it's a return to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's his life in us, working through us, and recovery can come.

Verse 8 tells us that.

It's a beautiful description here.

What seems so dark can be transformed to light.

The Lord look at verse 8.

The Lord's glory will be your rear guard.

You can walk through life wherever you are right now, you can walk through life.

And when you look back, you don't have to see sin and failure.

It's there, but you don't have to see that.

The Lord's glory can overshadow all of our sin and failure.

And Yahweh Himself and His brilliance can push us forward for the rest of our lives.

There's some ways in our passage that there's some specific descriptions for the nation of Israel and its history.

Verse number 12 envisions a time when they return from captivity.

So they're going to be in Babylon in captivity.

They're going to return and get to rebuild aspects of Jerusalem and the temple.

And you can see that there in verse 12.

And yet the heart of the matter is still the presence and blessing of God.

That's what they needed even more foundationally than a new temple or new streets.

They needed sin to be dealt with.

They needed God's presence in their lives.

And it is more blessed to give than receive.

God has given to us greatly in Christ.

And you know, this passage, this is a great passage to go to if you're talking to someone.

And sometimes people, their idea of renewal is all about kind of prosperity in the here and now.

Yes, it is true that under the old covenant, God worked with the nation of Israel, and he did tie part of his blessings and his cursing to their economic prosperity or their health as a nation.

But this is a passage that reminds us he was doing that to teach a lesson about what their sin sick souls really needed.

And it's what all of our sin-sick souls really need: the forgiveness and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's not just aiming to be a distant father who showers people with gifts.

Verse 13 talks about this real renewal.

So you call the Sabbath a delight.

And then look at verse 14 how it begins.

Then you will delight in the Lord.

There it is.

Do you see the connection?

It's not take off of work on Sunday, and God will make sure you get triple the sales on Monday.

It's love the things that I love and share in the heart that I have, and you'll get to have your reward and portion more of me.

That's the greatest reward.

That's the value that God is placing on Himself and how we can know and enjoy the person that we were most designed to know and enjoy and relate to.

This is from a book of wonderful prayers called The Valley of Vision.

Some of you have that book.

And the title helps us see and express this truth.

Repentance brings renewal.

It doesn't bring only forgiveness, it brings wholeness in the best kind of sense that we've been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

So I'm going to read this prayer in conclusion, and I invite you to bow and pray with me in your hearts.

Oh Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, you have brought us to the valley of vision where we we live in the depths and yet we see you in the heights.

We want to see your glory.

Help us, Lord, to learn by a paradox that the way down is the way up, that to below, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul.

Yes, Lord, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime, stars can be seen from the deepest wells, and the deeper the wells, the brighter those stars shine.

Help us to find light in our darkness, that your life would be in our death, your joy in our sorrow, your grace in our sin, your riches in our poverty, your glory in our valley.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.