The Solution(s) to Rebellion

The book of Isaiah this Morning, and Isaiah the prophet

preached to and his writings were distributed to originally people

who claimed God, who named the name of God, but

many of them were far from Him in heart and

in life.

This was pervasive amongst.

Them, like a bunch of rebellious children. That's actually the

metaphor that God uses at the very start of the

book that these these have become like so many of

them have become like rebellious children. And I don't mean

like snotty toddlers. I mean like insolent, hardened, duplicitous kids who,

no matter what it looked like on the outside.

Actually.

By heart and life they showed they despised, they despised

their Father. And God's saying in Isaiah, the time has

come for a solution. And if you think of the

church in America, our circumstances aren't that different. There are

a lot of people who claim God, who name the name,

who call themselves Christians, who are church goers, even leaders

in churches or ministries, whose hearts and lives are more

like rebellious children. And God says this is a problem.

And Isaiah chapter one explores the solutions. There's the first solution,

it's the solution God hates. It's no real solution at all.

Then there's the second solution, it's the solution God offers.

And when that isn't.

Taken, we finished the chapter with the solution God pronounces.

And this is going to be the snapshot. This is

the the cinematic sequence that actually opens and in many

ways summarizes the thrust of the entire book. So that

will be our structure this morning. The problem, the solution

God hates, this solution God offers, and then the solution

God pronounces. Let's look at the problem. Start with the problem.

In verses two through nine, God and the prophet Isaiah

together discuss and proclaim that the problem is a lot

of people who call themselves the lords, act more like

rebellious kids in heart and life, rather than children who

are actually devoted to their father in heart and life.

That's the problem, he says. In verse two and three.

The Lord says, you're supposed to be my children. These

are supposed to be my children, But in heart and

in life they have rebelled.

Even donkeys know.

How to come back for food, back to the crib,

back to the manger, but these people are far from me,

and Isaiah in chapter four he picks up that same thing,

and he's say, you are so right, so much sin.

Verse four.

They were supposed to be this holy nation and they are.

A sinful nation.

They were supposed to be this people who carried truth

to the world, and instead they're loaded down with iniquity.

These are supposed to be those who call themselves the

children of God, but they are the offspring of evildoers.

They have forsaken the Lord. And in fact, the root

of all of this is, in fact, that distance from God.

They are estranged. In fact, verses five through six, the

prophet says this is so pervasive. He says, it's from

the soul of the foot to the head of these people.

This collective is shot through and through with estrangement and rebellion,

soul of the foot to the top of the head.

And we have to ask, has it become that bad

today among those who call themselves the people of God?

I mean, because we need we need to take this

word and.

Understand it.

How it then does correspond and in some ways might

not correspond to our own spiritual situation. As the people

who call themselves the children of God, the people of God.

Let's consider you probably have some sense, some sense of

the prevalence of sexual sin in the church in America.

You've got some sense of that. I would be mortified

to make your sense more accurate. It's bad.

We have.

Verbal and physical abuse in households that call themselves Christian.

We have money scandals and churches and ministry. We have

enormous churches that are just temples to false teaching.

We have.

Denominations, whole denominations that actively condone sexual perversion and install

leaders who practice perversion publicly. Statistically, the divorce rate now

amongst people who call themselves Christians, it's statistically undistinguishable from

the world.

More or less, there is a.

Profound lack of care for those in need. In many cases,

those who are in need and are less able to

provide for themselves get walked right past.

In the halls of their own churches.

Soul of the foot to the top of the head.

And Isaiah says in verse seven, We're starting to experience

the consequences of this spiritual rebellion, this distance from God

and heart and life. The desolation is creeping in. We're

being overthrown by foreigners. This is just like what God

said would happen in Deuteronomy if we were estranged from

him instead, it says, In fact, it says in verses

eight and nine, if God hadn't left us a few,

preserved us a few, we would be like Sodom and Gomorro,

which were cities in the Old Testament that were completely obliterated.

Because of their sin.

And Isaiah's like, we've been We've been whittled down to

a booth in a vineyard, a lodge in a cucumber field.

That image makes me think of two things. The first

one is the duck blind at the Warren Ranch. My

brother West Warren. He's got this duck blind out by

this pond. It is, and we've talked about this. He

knows I asked permission. He's like, yeah, you can pants

me in front of everybody. It is a flimsy, flimsy structure.

It's held up by a few two by fours. It's

covered up by dry mesquite branches. If the wind gets

too strong, you lose half your duck blind. Matt he says,

he wants you to go out there and help him.

You can squeeze like three or four guys The other

thing it makes me think of is so many churches

we drive by, board it up, run down, at least

half empty, not only around this town, but certainly as

you drive through smaller towns.

As you know, in this.

Country, approximately one hundred churches a week closed their doors forever.

Creeping desolation. That's more like galloping desolation. Creeping desolation, though

as ugly as it is, is not the problem. Just

like in Isaiah's day, the desolation is the result.

Of the problem. The problem is a lot.

Of people who call themselves the lords, who in heart

and life act more like rebellious kids. That's the problem.

So what's the solution. Well, the first solution that comes

up is really no solution at all. The first solution

that comes up to this problem we could call the

solution that God hates.

We could call it fruitless.

Religion, the solution God hates fruitless religion.

In fact, Verse thirteen.

Describes it this way, vain offerings. God says, you keep

going through these religious motions. They're useless. In fact, they're

worse than useless. I can't endure them, says my soul

hates them like literally means like I hate this from

the bottom of my heart.

What you're doing.

It's an abomination. I'm so tired of it. I am

so tired of it. I hide my eyes from you.

Why.

It's not because they're not doing enough religious things. I mean,

there's a multitude of sacrifices.

Enough. God's like enough.

Man, you show up so much as a trampling of

my courts.

You guys are some church going people.

No more, and I'll tell you our problem, the problem

of the American Church, will not be solved by more

worship services, or more different styles of music, or like

taking the Lord's Supper more often. You got new moons, festivals,

you got sabbaths, You've got convocations, you got appointed feasts,

you got plenty of religious observatances. But here's what God says.

He hates seeming to honor God and appeal to him

while at the same time dishonoring Him in your internal

and moral life. He says, verse thirteen, I cannot endure

iniquity and solemn assembly. These things don't go together. It's

not this solemn assembly is the issue.

It's the mix.

It's the combination of this ongoing, pervasive moral transgression with

all this religious observance. It disgusts your God, as it

says in Titus about similar people in the New Testament church.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by

their works. They are detestable. There's some New Testament language

for you. And God uses this word picture in verse

fifteen here saying you spread out your hands in prayer,

but they're nasty, they're covered in blood, they're guilty.

I don't want to look at your hands. Don't pray

to me with those hands.

Don't come in here and gaze at heaven while worship

songs are playing.

With these eyes that have been gazing at.

Pornography all week long, you open up your mouth to

sing my songs. These mouths that have been running people

down and gossiping about them.

Say, let's gather, let's listen to the truth. Let's have

the truth. Let's have the truth.

Is so easy to lie to your employer and your

spouse and your parents. Coming to church as a substitute

for religion, as it like a substitute religion, like a

substitute for righteousness, It's worse than useless. Reading your Bible

as a substitute for righteousness is worse than useless worship

songs and the Lord's Supper and prayer as a substitute

to righteousness is worse than useless. I mean for the heart,

for a heart that is close to the Lord and

willing and obedient. These are wonderful things. These are devotional things.

They're exactly what God has given us to help us

move towards more closeness and more obedience.

The willing, obedient heart.

Hears in those things a call to worship and repentance

and humility and care for others, and answers that call

to come close. But the rebellious heart sees in those

religious things a substitute for a devotionally and morally true

life and hides behind them. It's fruitless religion. And God

says he hates it. That's the first solution. It's no solution.

It's no solution. But God offers a second solution. Here's

the solution that God offers. We could call it full return.

Full return. In fact, he speaks about it this way

in verse eighteen. He says, come now, let us reason together.

It's a winsome and vigorous offer.

He's like, come on, let's talk about this.

Let's really hash this out. What's the offer full return?

What does it look like? Full return?

This offer that God extends to the people who claim

his name, who've been living at hearts, living with hearts,

and lives that have been rebellious. His offer of full

return has two pieces to it. The first one full repentance.

That's the first piece of return. Verse sixteen says it

this way, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, Remove the evil

of your deeds.

From before my eyes.

Cease to do evil, Take real moral action to eliminate

ungodliness from your life. And verse seventeen, learn to do good,

seek justice, correct depression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead

the widow's cause. Be an agent of God's goodness. Act

to see that the people around you are treated with

dignity and fairness. Care for those who have needs that

have are less able. Full repentance is what's called for

in a full return. The term repentance has fallen way

out of favor in religious discussions, makes sense, and that

has rebellious children. The American Church would somehow lose the

language and the theological weight of repentance. But this is

the call not just of Isaiah, this is the call of.

The New Testament.

Right out of the gate, Jesus shows up on the

scene Mark chapter one. Here's his message. Repent and believe

the Gospel, Peter preaches in Acts chapter three. Repent and

turn to God so that your sins will be wiped out.

Paul preaches in Acts chapter seventeen. God now commands all

people everywhere to.

Repent.

Full return involves full repentance, but it also involves this

second piece.

Full renewal.

Full renewal, God says in verse eighteen. Come now, let

us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are

like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they

are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. God

wipes away the sin of those who really make a

full return, and the beauty of coming to God in repentance,

knowing you can trust Him to make your sins like snow.

And you say, well, I see this offer here in

Isaiah to those people. Does God really have that offer

for me? Can we really just pick this up and

put this down right here? Well, yeah, that's actually what

Romans and eleven are all about.

The apostle Paul.

In fact, the Apostle Paul quotes from this exact chapter

in Isaiah. They're in that passage in Romans, and he

says that the people here who did not take this

offer of a full return, they were broken off like

branches of a tree. I mean, they called themselves God's people.

But those that persisted as rebellious children, God just broke

them off of the tree of people who call themselves

the lords. And they said, no, you're not, No, you're not.

And Paul says that in Jesus, God has expanded the offer.

In fact, in that passage in Romans, he says, everyone

everyone for the same Lord, as Lord of all.

So this tree of people who call.

Themselves the people of God now has where branches were

broken off, now has other branches, foreign branches grafted in

from Ephesus in the first century all the way to

San Antonio in the twenty first century. And Ephesians III says,

this is the mystery that we are also fellow heirs,

partakers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Come,

now let us reason together. So this offer of forgiveness

and closeness and blessing, it comes to us in the

words of the Lord through Isaiah. But now it is

addressed to you, and it is amplified to you through

the work of Christ, because it says in Titus, Christ

gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness

and to purify for himself a people for his own

possession who are zealous for good works. He's come to

make a pure people. And the offer of full return

it comes to you, not just on the page of Isaiah.

It comes to you from the person of Christ himself.

That offer is being conveyed to you right now by

the Living Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

To your heart.

Repent, remove the evil of your deeds, and believe me

for forgiveness like snow.

Repent and believe. Now, understand, repenting and believing is not it.

It doesn't look like like some type of perfection and flawlessness,

some weird obsession with like a flawless external look like.

In fact, verse nineteen puts it this way, this is

what it looks like. This is what it looks like.

Willing and obedient, just willing and obedient. In fact, to

be willing and obedient means to look at those flaws

and those imperfections as you go with ongoing repentance, leaving

to the word of God and the spirit of God

as you step out in faith, the work of God

keeping you close to Him, stepping ont of faith, clinging

to Him in heart and life. That's the picture of

the full return. That's the solution God offers. That's the

solution God offered to them, And that's the solution God

offers to the people who call themselves His. Now, now

do the people take this solution? Isaiah gives us the

answer in verses twenty one through twenty three. He says,

how the faithful city has become a whore. In other words,

these were the people who were supposed to show the

whole world what it looks like to be faithfully devoted spiritually,

and instead, what they're putting on display is what spiritual

infidelity looks like.

Their silver has become dross.

They're they're purity, right, Pure silver has become impurity dross.

That's what dross is. It's impurity in a metal and

a precious metal. Their princes have become rebels, right, the

people who were supposed to uphold the law, they've become

the lawbreakers. Everyone loves a bribe, runs after gifts and

bring justice to the fatherless.

The widow's cause doesn't come to them.

They're completely focused on self and self interests and their

own gain and the unconcerned with those that have less ability.

In other words, no, they do not take God up

on his offer of a solution, and as a result,

they get the solution God pronounces. So, just so that

we can keep track here, we've got the problem. The

problem there's a lot of people.

Who claim.

God whose heart and life are actually a lot more

like rebellious kids. That's the problem. And then you got

the solution God hates. It's no solution at all, it's

fruitless religion. Then you got the solution God offers, it's

full return. But not taking him up on that, you

get the solution God pronounces. And we could call that.

Fiery renovation. Fiery renovation.

In fact, the images that God uses for this solution

are like smelting and fire. In fact, fire comes up

a lot in Isaiah.

The idea is refinement.

You have this whole group of people who call themselves God,

claim to be children of God. All right, well, now,

if you won't take me up on full return, I'm

going to put you in a crucible and I'm gonna

fire this thing up, and we're gonna burn down to

the purity, the impurities go, the pure stays. We're going

to refine you. We're gonna smell you. Okay, we got

this tree, call themselves the children of God. We're gonna

prune it drastically. In other words, God takes hard and

serious action. He even says, I'm gonna get relief from

my foes.

He's talking about the people who.

Call themselves his, and my hand has turned against you.

Anyway. I think, well, man, that's just that's just old

Tessament stuff as old Testament. We're new Testament people.

Now, God doesn't take hard, serious action against us, now right,

I mean, what about you know, salvation and stuff. Actually,

Hebrews two says that if these messages proved to be reliable,

and ignoring them received hard and serious action, how will

we escape if we neglect so great a salvation as

that Jesus Christ died to pay for it, if we

neglect a full return? And the same passage in Romans

that says God's offer of a full return hern is

extended to us as branches grafted in where some of

the branches were broken off. Well, Paul goes on to

say this same passage Romans eleven, verses twenty one through

twenty two. I'll just read them to you. If God

did not spare the natural branches, these folks that originally

receive this in Isaiah, neither will he spare you. Note then,

the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward.

Those who have fallen.

But God's kindness toward you provided you continue in his kindness.

Otherwise you two will be cut off.

And these warnings.

They don't just come to us on the page in

Isaiah or on the page in Romans. They are addressed

to you and amplified to you by Christ. The living

Christ himself speaks this warning to you. I have paid

for your full return in my own blood.

What else are you waiting for?

Will you continue as a rebellious child and be removed?

But you, I say, I thought Christ saved us from judgment. Well, yeah,

that's what a full return is. His grace isn't just

something for you far off in your rebellion, for you

to look at her, hide behind, or claim or or

hold on to like a necklace that you think is

some good luck charm.

His grace is with him.

The question is is that the manner of your heart

and life with him, is it with him? Because first

John says, everyone who hopes in him purifies himself. As

he is pure, he will have a peer people. He

will have a peer people. The thing is that there

are many who call themselves a part of the people

of God who will prove by their hearts and their lives.

That they aren't.

And we've been talking about the church as as a collective,

But of course this collective is made up of individuals,

just like it.

Was in Isaiah's day.

And he speaks to that in verses twenty seven and

twenty eight. Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those

in her who repent by righteousness, but rebels and sinners

shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord

shall be consumed.

The question is.

From among all who call themselves people of God, will

you be shown to be redeemed by justice and righteousness?

Or will your heart and life show you to be

a rebel even though you do religious things. As Hebrews

says to this New Testament, people strive for the holiness,

without which no one will see the Lord.

Because what God.

Says about those who remain far from him is this.

I'll take those things that they cling to in that

of me, those things they love more than me, and

I will turn them into the very fire that consumes them.

That's what he's getting at with his oaks and gardens

stuff in Verses twenty nine through thirty one. Oaks and gardens.

These would be the places where people actually gathered to

celebrate their devotion to gods that weren't God. They would

gather under these oaks, so they would plant these gardens,

and they would love to gather in these gardens and

under these oaks and be devoted to things that were

not the Lord, cling to that luxury.

And that idolatry.

And God says, I'm gonna take those things that you

cling to instead of Me, and I'm gonna dry them up,

and I'm gonna wither them up, and they will be

the very fire you burn in. And we see it,

we see it. We see it. The sexual sin that

people cling to that ends up burning their whole family down,

the pride that they cling to that ends up burning

down all the relationships and all their opportunity, The complacency

that a person clings to and burns down a whole

career or a whole ministry. But God's goal is not obliteration,

It's restoration. It's restoration, he says in verse twenty six.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the

faithful city. The goal of smelting is purity. The goal

of pruning, however, extreme, is vitality and fruitfulness. The people

who name the name of God will be pure, or

they will be purified. The questions are, how will we

get there? And what part will you play? We sure

won't get to purity as the Church of God in

this world. We sure won't get to purity through fruitless religion.

Are we going to get to purity through fiery renovation?

Continue to be withered up and dried out by sexual

sin and abuse and disregard for the needs of the

less able until God lights up and burns down those

things we've clung to more than Him or or And

this is still a possibility for us in this time,

in this generation, this is still a possibility. Will the

church make a full return, humbling ourselves in repentance, enjoying

full renewal, forgiveness, closeness, blessing, And what part will you play?

I'm asking about your heart and life. Will you have

a heart and a life of full repentance and full renewal.

Will you be willing and obedient or will you be

those who are broken and consumed? Because those who name

his name will be pure, or they will be purified.

Would you stand with me and pray? Oh Lord God,

would you take this message from your word and send

it home? Would you feed us with it? Would you

open our eyes to it? Would you unstop our ears?

We know how.

The people whom Isaiah.

Preached to received this word hearing they couldn't hear, seeing

they couldn't see, Their hearts remained dull. But Lord, let

that not be us. Let that not be the church

of this generation. Let that not be the church of

this country. Let that not be the church right here? Lord,

Would we be a faithful city, a righteous city, a

demonstration of what real children of God look like, as

devoted in heart and life.

Lord, And would you use your word?

Would you use your word to call us to you that.

For every heart that.

Receives this message right now, would you use your word,

by the power of your spirit conveyed to us, to

call us to a full return in repentance, and renewal.

Would you have us by your side in Jesus' name. Amen,

let's sing