Isaiah 43:33

We're going to look this morning at two false religions. Two false religions. Now it might help you, I think it will help you to have that Bible passage that Paul read open in front of you, page 604-605 in the church Bible, Isaiah chapter 43, verse 22.

Isaiah 43:22

What makes a false religion? What makes a religion fail? I guess if you were to ask people around you, people who you work with tomorrow morning, here is one standard answer to that question about what makes a religion false.

People will say a religion fails, or should fail, if that religion causes people harm or starts wars. Now I think we can agree with those answers, can't we? It's very strange indeed to find people who say that they are in touch with God and yet who want to harm and destroy and kill other people. What kind of God is that?

But in the Bible, it is something else that makes a religion false, that makes it fail, and it's this. Religions fail when they do not reach God. Religions are false when they lead people away from God and not towards Him.

Back in the 19th century, John Godfrey Sachs wrote a poem called The Blind Man and the Elephant.

And that poem has become a very famous way of talking about world religions.

There were six blind men who one day all were in a room with an elephant, and all six blind men each touched one different part of the elephant.

One man touched the elephant. One man touched the leg and said, I think this is a tree in front of me.

One touched the elephant's side and said, I think I'm touching a wall.

One touched the trunk and said, I'm holding a mighty serpent.

Each blind man thought they had the truth about the elephant.

And so the story goes, each world religion holds one small part of the truth.

No one religion has a total grasp of the truth.

Hinduism over here has one conception of what God is like.

Islam perceives God to be a bit like this.

You Christians, you say that God is a bit like that, and so on.

And that's all fine.

We are all blind, but touching somehow in some way the truth.

Religions are different paths, all going up the same mountain, different ways of getting to the same point at the top.

The Bible says, not all religions reach God.

Not all religion is true religion.

So what's the difference?

How would we know?

How can we tell what is true religion?

Can you spot it when it's laid out in front of you?

Can you tell the real thing from the fake?

This morning, two tragedies unfold before our eyes.

Two tragedies in the hearts of two very different kinds of worshippers.

And I want this morning simply to show you two tragedies in this passage.

Here's the first one.

Two points for you this morning.

Number one, the tragic folly of man-made gods.

The tragic folly of man-made gods.

I want to take the second half of the passage first of all.

Everything from chapter 44 verse 9 onwards is where I want to start.

Here's the first kind of false religion.

This is idolatry.

Out and out paganism.

And we need to be clear.

I mean, what did you think as Paul read it from verse 9 onwards?

Well, folly is quite a weak word.

This is, the writer saying, the tragic stupidity of man-made gods.

Look how it begins in verse 9.

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit.

It's not just saying that what they make are nothing.

You see that?

Look how strong it is.

Those who make them.

The makers, they themselves, are nothing.

Those who make an idol to worship prove that they really have no sense of meaning or purpose in the world.

The things they delight in.

One commentator says, these things are their little darlings.

They're what they stroke with their hands.

Or stroke in their hearts with their affections.

And yet, you see what he says?

They are profitless.

Worthless.

Isaiah says, now let's take time to look at this.

Let's put an idol.

A statue.

Let's put it in the middle of the room.

Let's gather around and look at it.

Now, can you see?

Can you really see what it is you're looking at?

Look at verse 12.

Here's where sarcasm begins, doesn't it?

You see the blacksmith there in verse 12, covered in sweat and grime, bulging biceps, working away at his idol.

Look what he can make with his hammer and tongs.

He's skillful.

And yet, here's the thing.

You notice he makes something with his diminishing human strength.

At the end of making his God, he's knackered.

Needs a rest.

You're telling me, Isaiah says, that the human being who has grown so tired, now in need of outside sustenance to sustain him,

he's grown tired of making something that he's going to worship?

Making your God, Isaiah says, can be exhausting work.

Why don't you have a rest?

Put your feet up.

Have something to eat.

Is your God going to be able to revive you and sustain you and feed you?

Well, actually, it turns out he can actually sort of feed you.

You can, if you want, carefully plant a seed.

Grow a tree.

Cut it down.

You can burn half of it to keep you warm and cook your food on.

And the other half, you can worship.

Now, it's worth getting inside Isaiah's logic here.

It's so sensible, isn't it?

Surely, look at verse 19.

Surely, Isaiah is saying, surely anybody can see this.

To give divine honors to something I have made.

That cannot be right.

And for a human being to prostrate themselves in worship before something that they have created,

well, Isaiah is saying that is cart before horse.

It's back to front.

Which came first, me or the wood that I'm working with?

Which has more power, me or the wood?

I got tired making this little thing in front of me.

What do I now expect it to do for me?

Isaiah knows that the mere presence of worship,

the fact of adoration,

does not necessarily equal worship.

And we only need to use our brains to see this.

The fact of religion,

the fact of it in the world,

is no guarantee of true religion.

Real religion.

How different Isaiah is from the world in which we live.

Isn't it true?

No one wants to criticize.

No one wants to be rude.

No one wants to put their hand up and say,

I think the emperor has no clothes.

The edifice is beautiful.

The idol is stunning.

The traditions are well established.

The rituals are meaningful.

The culture is precious.

The beliefs are deep-seated.

And Isaiah says it can be all of those things

and be very, very wrong.

Now it's very important to see here

that this is not just a taunt.

This is not just sarcasm.

It's not just mockery.

It's not none of those things for the sake of it.

No, look at verse 17.

The rest of it he makes into a god,

his idol,

and falls down to it and worships it.

He prays to it and says,

deliver me,

for you are my god.

Look at verse 20.

He feeds on ashes a deluded heart

that has led him astray,

and he cannot deliver himself

or say,

is there not a lie in my right hand?

This is not just mockery.

This is an analysis of false religion.

Do you know what the analysis report says

as the prophet sits around the fire

with this man,

watching him cooking and eating and worshipping,

using one end of the tree for fuel

and the other for worship?

Do you know what Isaiah sees?

We need to see this.

Isaiah sees that human beings

long for the divine,

and we use man-made devices

to make us feel secure.

Isn't that what verse 17 is saying?

Deliver me.

Save me.

Rescue me.

Help me.

You are my god.

Let me ask you this morning,

what makes you feel safe?

Just over a week ago,

my wife managed to lose,

well, it actually wasn't my wife's fault in the end.

It turned out to be our two-year-old.

We lost a set of house keys.

Cars, doors, padlocks,

all gone,

in somebody else's hands as far as we knew.

We felt terribly, terribly insecure.

I hope in our hearts,

as we've been reading this,

as Isaiah is mocking idolatry,

I hope that we have not,

in our minds,

been tempted to mock

any other particular religious group

in the world

without seeing that Isaiah is speaking

even here to us.

What makes you feel safe?

Do you feel more safe and secure

when the bank balance is flush with cash

or when you're running low?

Do you feel more safe and secure

when the government party you voted for

comes to power?

When your football team wins the league?

When you have all your ducks in a row

and health is good

and children is fine?

Deep, deep, deep in the human heart

is a longing for someone

or something to save us.

And so often it is what makes us feel safe

and happy and secure

that receives the quiet gratitude of our hearts.

Now if you look at verses 12 and 13,

now of course we would nominate

different craftsmen today, wouldn't we?

I guess some of you may have

called a carpenter recently,

but probably not a blacksmith.

Well they're not in the ascendancy

like they used to be,

but who do we lift the phone and call?

Accountants, managers, builders,

doctors, teachers.

And what we say to them is,

can you make me safe?

Our devotion to what is man-made

knows no limits,

knows no ends,

and it is the story of the human heart

in every age,

in every generation.

And in it all,

here is the tragedy,

here is what is pathetic,

verse 20,

we are trying to save ourselves.

One human being

turning to another human being.

Save me,

help me.

The tragic stupidity

of man-made gods.

But I need to say this,

this morning,

that kind of false religion,

that kind of false religion

is not the worst kind there is.

It's pretty incredible to say that,

isn't it,

given what we've just seen

in those verses,

but there is something worse.

Here's the second thing

I want us to see.

Number two,

the tragic folly

of knowing the true God,

but not knowing him.

The tragic folly

of knowing the true God,

and yet,

not knowing him.

Look back at chapter 43,

verse 22.

Yet you did not call upon me,

O Jacob,

but you have been weary of me,

O Israel.

You have not brought me your sheep

for burnt offerings,

or honoured me with your sacrifices.

There's more than one way to worship.

You can do it.

You can do it in the forest,

round the shrine,

under the stars.

You can do it in the temple,

round an altar,

in the church.

There is something worse,

Isaiah is saying to us.

There is something worse

than a taunt

of religious falsehood.

There is heartbroken rebuke

for religious facade.

That is worse.

If you look at verses 22 and 23,

do you notice,

again and again,

God uses this phrase,

you did not.

You have not.

You have not done this,

nor that.

Actually, in the book of Isaiah,

that is a very strange phrase to use,

because Isaiah has kept saying,

again and again,

all the way through the book,

starting from chapter 1,

that people were doing nothing

but bringing sacrifices to God.

Listen to chapter 1, verse 11.

God says,

the multitude of your sacrifices,

what are they to me?

I have more than enough

of all your burnt offerings.

How can he say here now,

in verse 22,

you did not bring me these things.

Actually,

this is a different way

of making exactly the same point.

In an even stronger way,

the problem wasn't that the people

weren't bringing sacrifices to God.

It was how they were doing it.

The way in which they were doing it.

That was the problem.

Listen to Alec Mateer,

a man who has devoted most of his life

to studying the book of Isaiah.

Put your eyes on verse 22.

And Alec Mateer says that the Hebrew

in that verse is better translated like this.

Not me did you call.

In other words,

you were calling someone down there.

I saw you.

I heard you in the temple courtyard.

But it's not me you were calling.

Verse 23.

Mateer says that the pronouns,

me, me,

are meant to be emphasized in that verse

so that the meaning is this.

Burnt offerings you brought,

but not to me.

Oh, which is worse

here in our passage this morning?

Which is worse?

To never know the true God

and worship an idol?

Or to be brought to know

the true God

and yet lose your way to his house?

And take your sacrifices and offerings

and have God say,

I don't know who you think those are for.

There's an incredible play on words here.

It's actually visible to all of us

in our translation.

Verse 23.

God says,

I have not burdened you

with demands for loads of sacrifices.

That verb,

to burden,

it's the same word

that's used in the book of Exodus

where the Egyptians

burdened the people

by making them their slaves.

That's what the verb means,

to make a slave of someone.

I rescued you,

God is saying,

from one form of slavery

not to lead you

into another form of slavery.

I didn't make you slaves

all over again.

I didn't take the bricks

off your back in Egypt

only to put

sacks of grain

for sacrifices

on your backs

now instead.

I have never stood over you

with a whip

saying,

give me,

give me,

give me.

I have not been

demanding of you.

But look what you have done

to me,

verse 24.

I have not burdened you,

but you have burdened me.

You've made a slave of me.

You see,

here's what's happening.

God gave his people

the sacrificial system

to liberate them,

to set them free

from their sins.

It was a sign

of God's friendship

and love and grace.

I want to be close to you,

God said,

and near to you.

And to come close to you,

your sins need to be wiped out.

I can't come close to you.

You can't come close to me.

Unless you do this,

burnt offerings

and grain offerings.

Do you know what the people did?

That gift of friendship

they took

and turned into

a new form of slavery.

Incessant religious ritual

with no love for God

at its heart.

And God sees it

and knows that they have

lost the heart of it.

He knows that they think

that if they bring a sacrifice,

it's like rubbing the lamp

and out will pop the genie,

God, their slave,

their servant.

These people think

religious ritual

is a technique

for manipulating

divine blessing.

Listen to Alec Mateer.

by making ritual

into the exclusive content

of their religion,

they cut themselves off

from the benefits

the sacrifices

were intended to bring.

Ritual divorced

from spiritual commitment

neither satisfies God

nor blesses his people.

I can see

all your religious fervor

says God.

The problem is

I can see

no religious reality.

There is worship

and services

and meetings

and programs

and events.

Your diary

and calendar

is full.

But here's what

I can also see.

That your heart

is empty.

Your heart

is empty.

I can see

what you're saying

but not me

did you call.

I can see

what you're bringing

but not to me.

These sacrifices

were designed

for relief

and delight

and joy

and homecoming

to God

every single time.

God's people

turned it

into drudgery

and attendance

and box ticking

and rule keeping

and keeping up

appearances.

Look at verse 24.

You have not

brought me

sweet cane

with money

expensive

sweet cane

or satisfied

me with the

fat

of your sacrifices.

You have not

given to me

the very best

that you have.

The point

of true religion

is not that it

satisfies people

but that it

satisfies God.

You have not

lavished

on me

your love

God is saying

in verse 24.

Our worship

is something

we should lavish

on God

and you will know

as well as I do

that what we

do not love

and whom

we do not love

we do not

lavish.

Only if we

love

do we

lavish.

Toll bridge

on the M6

many of you

I know

have had the

joy

of travelling

it.

You reach that

point don't you?

£3.50

the barrier

is down.

£3.50

please

to be allowed

to pass.

What do you

say when you

get to that

barrier?

£3.50

you must be

kidding.

I love

that this

road is here.

Is that

all you want?

£3.50?

I can't believe

how good

you've been

to me.

Let me

give you

more.

£35

I'll move

the decimal

point.

No hang on

I love

this road

so much

£350

I'll pay

you.

You've

been so

good to

me.

Mr.

Osborne

is that

all you

want to

take

from my

salary?

Why not

more?

I love

that you

do this

to me.

No

those

things

are a

tax

aren't

they?

A burden

a weight

we pay

it

and we

would

take

back

every

single

penny

if we

could.

I can

see

several

young

men

here this

morning.

Young

men

just

try

that

same

approach

to your

taxes

when it

comes to

buying an

engagement

ring

for the

woman you

love

or an

anniversary

present.

What

is the

least

I can

get away

with here?

Keep

that up

and let

us know

how it's

going

in ten

years

time.

No

love

real

love

knows

nothing

of

taxes.

Real

love

is

lavish.

It's

glad.

It's

joyful.

It takes

the very

best that

I have

and says

God

this is

for you.

That

is what

pleases

me

says

God.

Is

ritual

the

sum

total

of your

religion

this

morning.

Not

all

religions

reach

God.

And

sometimes

the

very

religion

which

God

himself

has

created

can

end

up

falling

the

most

short.

The

worst

kind of

false

religion

is not

the

idolatry

in the

forest.

The

worst

kind of

false

religion

is when

God

himself

reaches

down

to

us

and

we

take

what

he

gives

and

turn

it

into

a

way

of

rejecting

him.

Not

because

we've

turned

our

back

on

him

but

precisely

because

all we

have

turned

towards

him

is

simply

our

faces

and

nothing

more.

The

tragic

folly

of knowing

the

true

God

and

yet

not

knowing

him.

So

what

do

we

do?

What

do

we

change?

Well

I want

to

finish

with

this.

There

are

three

commands

here

for

us

in

this

passage.

You

probably

missed

them

in

the

size

of

the

reading.

Three

things

God

tells

us

to

do

and

they

are

all

connected

to

him.

Verse

26

of

chapter

43.

Here's

the

first

one.

Remind

him

God.

Put

me

in

remembrance

God

says

verse

26.

Let

us

argue

together.

Set

forth

your

case

that

you

may

be

proved

right.

You

see

what

does

it

mean?

How

do

we

not

fall

into

the

trap

of

verse

23?

Empty

religious

ritual.

How

do

we

stop

it

happening?

Because

here

you

are

in

your

church

family

again

like

you

were

last

week.

Like

you'll

be

next

week.

Like

you were

last

year.

Hopefully

like

you'll

be

next

year.

Here

we are

saying

and doing

the same

things

week in

week out.

You'll

try and

pray and

read your

Bible this

week.

Just like

last week

with all

the same

ups and

downs and

successes and

failures of

doing so.

God

So

what

does

reality

with

God,

an

authentic

relationship

with

God,

what

does

it

look

like?

Well

look at

verse 26.

God

says it

looks like

this.

Get

last

week's

photo

album

out and

let

God

see

it.

Not

what you

posted on

Instagram

but

everything

about

you

out

into

the

open.

The

things in

your

heart

and your

head

that sum

up

what you

are really

like.

The

things you

saw

and said

and did

and thought

that no

one else

knows that

you saw

or said

or did

or thought.

Put

me in

remembrance

God

says.

Just

remind me

what's

been going

on with

you?

How

did

you get

to this

point?

How

did

you get

here?

What's

happened?

It's a

lovely

phrase

isn't

it?

Put

me in

remembrance.

God

hasn't

forgotten

of course.

It's

a lovely

gentle

way of

saying I

don't need

to be

reminded

about the

past

but you

do.

Because

here's

the thing

here is

the hinge

of true

religion.

It is

all about

forgiveness

of sin.

That is

the heart

of true

religion.

That is

the whole

point of

what I

gave you

God

says.

The

lambs,

the grain,

the incense,

the punishment

falling on

someone else

instead of

you.

it's

because my

past,

my guilt

needs to

be dealt

with,

needs to

be forgiven.

Lose that

sense of

need and

you will

very soon

lose your

need of

Jesus.

It's

why you

confess

sins,

why we

confess our

sins together

in our

services week

by week.

It is

the essence

of true

religion.

A review

of the

past which

states things

to God

as they

really are

and comes

to him

with open

hands to

receive his

grace.

If you

look at

verse 26

again,

let me put

it like

this.

For real

religion to

be alive

in your

heart,

come to

church

every single

week to

state the

case for

your innocence.

come to

do that.

Then let

yourself be

found guilty

and then go

home justified.

That is

real religion.

I'm here,

Lord.

Here's what's

happened.

I'm guilty

and because of

you I'm

forgiven.

Secondly,

real religion

also does

this.

Look at

verse 21

of chapter

44.

It

remembers.

It

remembers

God.

Look at

that verse.

Remember

these things,

O Jacob,

and Israel,

for you are

my servant.

I formed

you.

You are

my servant.

O Israel,

you will not

be forgotten

by me.

Short-term

memory loss

is the fast

track to

false religion.

Forgetting

who God

is and

what he's

done.

Lovely

contrast here,

isn't there,

in that verse,

verse 21.

We've just

had the man

making his

idol,

his fuel,

his food,

his worship.

We've had a

human making

the thing that

he worships.

And how does

God follow it?

Straight away

in verse 21.

Never forget,

I made

you.

I made

you,

my child.

But not

just that.

Look at the

contrast between

the start and

the end of

the verse.

Israel,

my servant,

my child,

always remember

that I

never forget.

Don't

forget that

I always

remember.

You see

the principle?

Real religion

is never about

what we do

for God,

but what

he does

for us.

We don't

make things

for him.

He made

us for

him.

We don't

make things

to worship.

He made

us to

worship him.

Alec

Matir,

last time,

he says

this,

there is a

narrow dividing

line between

giving our

all in

devoted service

to Jesus

and

finding our

all in

our devoted

service to

Jesus.

There is a

narrow dividing

line between

giving our

all in

devoted service

to Jesus

and finding

our all

in our

devoted service

to him.

Giving our

all is good,

but finding

our all in

giving is

not good.

Then Alec

Matir says

this,

it is why

many ministers

struggle to

retire.

They have

lost that

which they

were devoted

to.

They become

devoted to

the ministry,

not the

master.

If you're

like me,

you will

know this

morning that

you know

what it is

like to

slowly drift

from the

depths of

God's love

and compassion

and care and

friendship for

you.

Do you

know what

it's like to

lose that?

God's sense

of delight in

you as his

child?

It's so easy

to do,

isn't it?

It happens

slowly.

God's grace

in our hearts

kind of

leaks out

and goes

faint and

runs low.

So we all

need to do

the final thing.

Look at

verse 22,

chapter 44.

I have

blotted out

your transgressions

like a cloud

and your sins

like mist.

Return to

me,

for I have

redeemed you.

Remind God,

remember God,

return to

God.

Confession of

sin every week.

Paul said

this,

didn't he?

It is never

about entering

a world of

morbid

introspection

or self-hideal

gloominess.

How can it

be when our

God is like

this in

verse 22?

Clouds that

roll through

the sky,

everything that's

happened in

your past,

God says,

I just roll

it out of

the way.

That mist

in the morning

that's here

when you first

wake and then

is gone in

no time.

You don't

even notice

it going.

I treat

your sins

like that.

here is a

God who

always,

always leaves

the light

on.

A God who

always puts

water by

the door for

us to wash

in.

A God who

always leaves

food on the

table, bread

and wine.

A God who

always, always

points back to

the cross of

his son and

says, I

have redeemed

you.

Look what I've

done, what

I've given.

So won't you

return and

come back to

me?

Amen.

Let's pray

briefly together.