Isaiah the prophet in chapter
1 strongly rebukes Israel for their sin, their neglect of God,
and their coldness and indifference. We'll read in verse 10 through
verse 15 and then switch to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Here's Isaiah's passage. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
rulers of Sodom. and give ear unto the law of
our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of ram, and the fat of fed beast, And I delight not
in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblation. Incense is an abomination unto
me. The new moons and Sabbath, the
calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meeting. Your new moons, your appointed
feasts, my soul hates. They are a trouble unto me. I
am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make
many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood."
Now, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and 1 through 7. This know also that
in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God. Watch verse 5. having a
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such
turn away. For of this sort are they which
creep into houses and lead captive silly women or weak women, laden
with sins, led away with divers lust, ever learning and never
able to come unto the knowledge of the truth. what text we have
today. When we read them and when we
sum up past history, and then we survey the scripture in their
entirety, then we look out and we view the present world, both
secular and religious, that is all about us, and then it decidedly
confirms what God said unto Noah in Genesis chapter 6 and verse
12, God looked upon the earth and behold, all flesh had corrupted
his way upon the earth. When we consider that, then we
ask ourselves the question, what have they not corrupted? What have men kept pure that
God has given unto us? What divine ordinance have they
not perverted, and that intentionally? What truth have they not suppressed
and held under, that it might not affect them? And what counsel
have they not defied, as if shaking their fists in the face of Almighty
God? And what divine law have they
not broken? And I tell you, it is all of
them. when we begin to consider the
irreverence of people, in our day particularly, toward God
and His ordinances, their lack of the fear of Almighty God,
and what sins they run into without blushing and without shame. And
then we realize that we must consider this from two standpoints
or two classes or two groups of people. First of all, there
are the godless, what I call the non-religious people. They're
not religious, they don't claim to be, and they don't go to church. Some of them are even pagan and
idolaters and a few sprinkle atheists mixed in. But then secondly,
there are those who profess to be the people of God. They profess to be worshipers
of God, believers in God, and such like. Now, first of all,
let's look at them, the godless, such as those who do not acknowledge
God in their life. They do not regard his word,
and they do not walk, and they are not interested in his way. Now, this is not necessarily
to classify them as atheists, because there are many in this
class or in this category who would say they believe in God
and would be offended if we should group them with the idolater
and with a pagan. And yet some of this group of
the irreligious and the ungodly have fallen all the way down
into idolatry. Worshipping created objects,
both animate and inanimate, and the giving of themselves over
under vile affection and vile conduct described in Romans chapter
1, which we won't read this morning. Therefore, the second group,
those who profess to be the people of God, and that's where our
emphasis falls this morning. They count themselves the children
of God, and they trust in their own self-righteousness and their
good works or a partial keeping of the law, or following what
they supposed to be the golden rule, do unto others as you'd
have them do unto you. And these are the class that
we're looking at this morning. Then when considering those,
Titus chapter 1 and verse 16, they profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him. With a mouth they say, oh yes,
I believe in God, but in their works they deny Him. Isaiah chapter
29 and verse 13, the complaint is this, This people draw near
me with their mouth, with their lips they do honor me, but they
have removed their heart far from me. Or they talk a good
game, but they do not live it. This is quoted in Matthew chapter
15 and verse 8 and Mark chapter 7 and verse 6 from Isaiah 29
and 13. Now here again, we consider this
conduct from two angles or two categories. A. There were the
Jews under the old economy. And then B. There are those in
the time of the gospel. professing Christianity, church
people they might be, and saying that they are the people of God. Now we're beginning with the
words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 1 from which we read. One of the great major prophets
found in all of the Bible. I read in John Gill this week,
he said that the book of Isaiah is mentioned more often in the
New Testament than any other Old Testament book with the exception
of the Psalm. And here in this chapter, In
verse 1 we read that this vision or this prophecy concerns Judah
and Jerusalem. Judah being put for the nation
and Jerusalem for the chief city and the center of worship. And then notice that the complaint
is made in verse 2. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. How many parents
could make that same complaint? I've raised them to the best
of my ability, and yet they have turned and rebelled. Look at
that deserted little infant in Ezekiel chapter 16, cast out
in the open field, and God passed by, was merciful, gave it life,
brought it to be his wife, and then it turned into great spiritual
whoredom. Now there's another image that
illustrates the same thing, and that is in the Old Testament
of the transplanted vine. You'll find it in Psalm chapter
80, 8 through 16, Isaiah chapter 5, 1 through 7. God brought a
vine out of the land of Egypt. He planted it in a very good
and a rich vineyard, but it brought forth only sour grapes. They were wild, they were worthless,
they were bitter, they were no good for fruit. Remember the
Lord's parable of the fig tree in Matthew chapter 21? This is
significant and a great symbol. This tree was absolutely full
of leaves. It was leafed out like you wouldn't
believe. And then when the Lord went in,
He found absolutely no figs on it whatsoever and he cursed it
and it died. And I take that to be a symbol
of Israel when he came, great flourishing religion but no fruit
under God. I also think we might apply this
to some of the mega churches of our day, flourishing in numbers
but not in doctrine or in truth. Now the point is repeatedly made. Israel was always a rebellious
and disobedient people. Isaiah 65, 1 through 7. A disobedient, gainsaying people. Romans chapter 10 and verse 21. until finally their cup of iniquity
was filled to overflowing in the crucifixion of the Savior,
the Prince of Life. So the prophet does not chastise
them beyond which they are deserving of in this passage of the chapter,
chapter one of Isaiah. I'm going to kind of take us
through it again. For example, let's look at verse
3 and verse 4, if we might. The ox knoweth his owner, the
ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people do not
consider. Ah, sinful nation! A people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoer, children that are corruptors,
they have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger, and they are gone away backward. Then look at verse 5 and verse
6. Methinks that the prophet here
is using the image of leprosy to describe their sinfulness. from the top of the head to the
bottom of their feet, there is no soundness in it. And then
look at verse 7 and verse 8. They're likened to burned-out
cities, and the picture is vivid. Their land ravaged by a stranger,
and a deserted and an overrun cottage taken over by a wild
cucumber vine. Then in verse 9, which is a pivotable
verse, having spoken of their sin and God's judgment, the prophet
marvels that God has left of them a remnant, a small part
of the nation's people, a small number saying, except the Lord,
had left us a small remnant, we should have been as Sodom
and as Gomorrah. That is, destroyed, vanished
away. And Paul quotes this verse in
Romans 9, 29 and 11 and 5. So, coming to our text in verse
10 through verse 15, and the strong rebuke of their sickening
formalism and hypocrisy, which he opens by sarcastically likening
them to Sodom and Gomorrah, which was destroyed, leaving them an
example to those that should afterward live ungodly. 2 Peter
2.8 Jude verse 7. Now here's a point for us to
consider, and that is for all of their sin, all of their rebellion,
and all that God has complained of, and all that the prophet
has chastised them about, something may be surprising when we notice
it. In the second verse, being a
people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are
corruptors, again in verse 4, they still had not abandoned
their religion altogether. They had neither become atheists
nor had they turned wholly unto idolatry, though in some degree
they did both of those in their history. Now, verse 11, let's
note it. In spite of their wickedness,
in spite of all of their corruption, verse 11 tells us that they yet
made sacrifices and yet gave burnt offerings. multitudes of
sacrifices many of them look at verse 12 they still attended
the temple they still tread out the courts of God they still
made appearance at the house of the Lord they came to the
temple not to the groves not to the hilltop and not unto idle
temple and altar then look at verse 13 they still brought oblations
that is They still brought offerings unto God, and they still burned
incense. They called assemblies. They
observed the season of the new moons and the Sabbath. And verse
14 again, they appointed feasts that were still kept. They appointed
feasts, and they celebrated them though in hollowness and in emptiness. And then verse 15, They still
lifted up their hands toward heaven, a sign of lifting up
and looking as if to honor and praise God, and they still made
many prayers unto the God of heaven. And yet, as we scan back
over these verses again, verse 10 through verse 15, We are amazed
at what we read of God's view and reaction under these things. Not once are they commended for
these things. Not once does the prophet say,
it is good that you have done this. God voices no approval,
nor promises them any blessing for admitting that they had done
these things. Instead, notice, He rejects all
these things at their hands. All that they had done, He rejects
them at their hands. That He will accept neither their
services nor hear their prayers. Their services will not be regarded
as spiritual and He will not hear their prayer. So let's hear
what we read again. Go back to verse 11. I am full
of burnt offerings and rams. I delight not in the blood of
beasts. Look at verse 13. Incense is
an abomination unto me, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with,
even the solemn meeting or assembly iniquity and again in verse 14
your new moons and your feast my soul hates they are a trouble
unto me I am weary to bear them and perhaps the worst of all
in the 15th verse again when you spread forth your hand I
will hide my eyes from you as if to shut my eyes not to see
you And when you multiply prayer, I will not hear. You have another one of those
in Proverbs chapter 1. We won't go there. Now, how do
we reconcile these things together? There are some things here that
we need to reconcile together if we can, and I think we can. Number one, the question, did
not God himself institute and ordain these things to be done
as part of their worship? Was it not God himself who ordained
them, part of worship? And he gave these things unto
them through the mediator Moses. Moses brought them down from
the mount and gave them unto the people. God ordained them.
Now the second thing, how then does God rebuke the people for
observing what he has instituted? How is it that he chastised them
so hard for doing what he had instituted as the ordinances
of worship? And then three, and perhaps most
puzzling of all, how is God so critical of his own institutions
and ordinances? Now, I think the answers are
very easy. Here they are, three of them.
Number one, yes, God instituted these things through the instrumentality
of his servant Moses. but he instituted them not as
an end in themselves. They were types and shadows of
good things to come, and the spiritual Israelite understood
that. Number two, he rebukes the people's
formalism and insincerity in their hypocritical use of these
things. And then number three, God's
criticisms are not against the institutions per se. God's criticisms are not directed
per se against the institution, for there is a spiritual truth
in every one of them most leading or pointing unto Christ. The
criticism is not of the institution themselves, but against the people
who perform them in dry formalism and open hypocrisy, with a sinful
heart and with blood on their hand, as we read in verse 15. Without any contrition, without
any repentance, insincerely they come and perform these things
formally. Now this point, and that is that
these things will become clearer when we move into the New Testament
and we consider the acts and the behavior of the Pharisees. Now, some of the Jews' great
failings were they turned the law into a covenant of works. They viewed the ceremonial law
as an end in itself and believed that simple physical descendancy
from Abraham made them children of God. We be Abraham's seed,
they thought, and therefore in favor with God. And these were
fatal errors made by the Jew throughout their history. Now
before we go, consider the New Testament equivalent of this
sickening formalism. Let me lift some points from
men such as Matthew, Henry, John, Gil, and Calvin on Isaiah chapter
1. Such as, As then, so it is now,
there are those who in their heart are strangers and even
enemies to the spirit and the power of religion. They seem
to be zealous for the show and for the shadow of it, the rituals
of it, but not for the reality of it. They did not do such things
out of love. They did not proceed out of their
zeal for God or His law. It came not from their heart. They only would save their consciences. and think that that put God in
their debt and gave them favor. They hold the misguided notion
that if someone called them, quote, their ill contrivances,
unquote, will please God and cause Him to look favorably upon
them. Now, once people have prostituted
the things of God, what will they do in the end? Once they
have prostituted the things of God, they have taken the holy
and turned them into profane, what will they do in the end? Calvin talked about them inventing
new modes of worship, unquote. But in acting as they did, They
lost sight of Christ out of the law, out of the ceremonial law,
and the types and the shadows. And the ordinance is then, and
they suppress the truth of God to their hurt. The passage in
Micah chapter 6, verse 6 through 8 is wonderful. It raises the
question, Wherewith shall I come before God the Lord and bow down
myself before the Most High God? Shall I come with burnt offering?
Shall I come with calves of a year old? Shall I bring a thousand
rams? Shall I bring rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn? Nay. Verse 8 of that chapter,
to do justly and to walk only with God, this is God's command. You see David in Psalm chapter
51 after his great sin with Bathsheba. In verse 16 and 17 of Psalms
chapter 51, David is brought to repentance, his heart is contrite,
and he prays very feelingly there in that chapter. Thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite heart, O Lord,
thou will not despise. There is King Saul again, being
rebuked by the prophet Samuel. in 1st Samuel 15 and 22. He was sent out to destroy the
enemy utterly. He came back with some of the
animal and even the king in his custody. And the prophet Samuel
said to the king Saul, has the Lord a greater desire in offerings
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord to obey
better than sacrifice and a hearken than the fat of ram so now let's
go to Paul's words in 2nd Timothy and chapter 3 and especially
working off of verse 5 having a form of of godliness, but denying
the power thereof." And let's place this in its context as
Paul writes unto Timothy, both before and after the context. Paul was not a preacher. who looked for the conversion
of the whole world. Paul did not talk like some do
of winning the world for Christ and winning all of the world. In fact, he predicted in 1 Timothy
chapter 4, 1 through 3, a departing from the faith. giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of demons or teaching of devil
2nd Timothy chapter 3 1 through 5 we looked at 2nd Timothy 4
1 through 4 the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine and will heap under themselves teachers having itching
ears and Shall be turned into fable see what Paul says in 2nd
Timothy 3 and verse 1 the time will come 2nd Timothy 3 and verse
2, for men shall be, and then he names, I counted them, some
18 vices which will be prevalent, committed by many, and note something
about these, or this list of vices. Paul puts at the head
of the list Self-love, lovers of himself, verse 2. And in verse
4, he speaks of those who are pleasure lovers rather than lovers
of God. But again, the thing to notice
is that even here, and while practicing such things, They
still may not abandon religion altogether. Look at it in verse
5. Having a form of godliness. Having a form of godliness. As we saw, the Jews, for all
of their iniquity in Isaiah's day, still practiced Judaism
as did the Pharisees in the days of our Lord. Let's have a little
short word study here, and it is the word form, having a form
of godliness. I think it is the word morphosis,
having the appearance or the semblance godliness having that
the outward semblance of godliness now the word is used by Paul
back in Romans chapter 2 and verse 20 where Paul is critical
of the Jew for thinking that they were competent teachers
of of the truth for having knowledge, and yet they themselves violated
the very things that they taught. As we say, they did not practice
what they preached. Here they were, teachers of the
Gentiles, considered themselves experts, and yet they did not
do what they bound upon others. Now another form of this word
form is used these times by or of the Lord Jesus Christ. Morphe, I think it is, Mark 16
and 12, Philippians chapter 2, 6 and 7, In the form of God was
our Lord. And then he took the form of
a man. Fully and actually, both of these
forms were existing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in 2 Timothy
3 and 5, the apostle adds two things to that. Having a form
of godliness, number one, but denying the power thereof. Denying it, not so much by words,
but by their action. Having what Calvin calls, quote,
a pretended holiness," unquote. And Gill wrote this, quote, being
strangers to experimental religion and godliness, unquote. Then the second thing that he
writes is, from such turn away. having a form of godliness, denying
the power of it, from such turn away. Avoid them. We have that
same command in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 6, 1 Corinthians
5 and verse 11. Because in 1 Corinthians 15,
And verse 33, from Berry's interlinear, I'm taking this, quote, bad association
corrupt good customs, unquote. Bad communication corrupt good
manners. Bad company corrupts good morals
and not the other way around. So as the people corrupted Judaism,
so there are those who corrupt and pervert Christianity in the
same way. But history and experience and
scripture all teach us this reality, that millions have a form of
godliness while denying the power of it. And so as one said, quote,
they shelter themselves falsely under God's name, end of quote. and they roost like vultures
in the branches of Christendom. Out of one side of their mouth,
they say one thing. Out of the other side of their
mouth, they say another. They're in church on Sunday maybe,
at other places not readily accessible to a Christian at other times. They set aside the Word of God
for the traditions of men and still claim and expect right
unto heaven they make light of sin as they committed and Expect
God to overlook it because maybe they are sincere Paul said In
Galatians 6 and verse 7, be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever a man sowed, that shall he also reap, whether of
corruption or whether of the Spirit. Our best example of sickening
formalism and hypocrisy in the New Testament is the practice
of the Pharisees, and we'll look at them in the closing of our
study today. And it's seen in two things,
I believe, in the life and the practice of the Pharisee. Number one, their many vices. their many sins, their immorality,
their hypocrisy both before men and God, their open animosity
to the Lord Jesus Christ when he appeared among them and finally
They're leading the charge to crucify the Son of God. It was they who said, crucify
him, crucify him. This man ought not to live. Then the second thing, in spite
of their perversion, in spite of their hypocrisy, in spite
of all of their many perversions of the things of God, Yet they
still presented themselves as righteous, as defenders of the
law of Moses and worshippers of the one true God of Israel
and children of Abraham. And yet were they leading figures
of Judaism as well as the leading enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is to these people, the
Pharisees, if you read the gospel, that our Lord heaped his highest
scorn and greatest rebuke upon. He heaped his strongest rebukes
upon them, and you'll generally find them grouped together in
three places. Matthew 6, Matthew 15, and Matthew
chapter 23, particularly the latter two. He rebukes them. He many times called them hypocrites. At least 15 times in Matthew's
Gospel, the Lord called them hypocrite. He called them vipers,
which refers to a poisonous snake. He called them whited supplicars,
that is, painted graves. Graves that outside were painted
and kept clean and decorated, but inside there were dead men's
bones. He called them blind leaders
of the blind, and they both shall fall into the ditch. Now let's
consider that word hypocrite. He called him hypocrite 15 times
in the Gospel of Matthew. One whose actions does not match
their word or their profession. And I admit, there is some hypocrisy
to some degree in all of us and in every Christian. But their actions do not match
their profession. They say one thing, and do another. They profess one way and they
live another. Now some say that the word hypocrite
is an old word and that it comes from a word that means to address
or literally it means a stage actor. It means one who has taken
another name, not his own. He has learned a script and has
given a performance, assuming the role of another with using
feigned words so that they become associated with a character that
they play. In olden times, they would put
on a mask and put on a costume and come out and recite those
feigned words that they had learned so that they actually, instead
of being themselves, had become associated with a person that
they were playing on stage. May you bear with me, I want
to tell you a little humorous incident that actually happened.
A few years ago, several years ago, we were in Colorado on vacation
in the mountains, in the deep mountains, and we went to what's
called a chuckwagon supper. And they feed you barbecue and
baked potato, and they have a little show of some kind, and it's called
a Chuck Wagon Supper. Well, as we were walking down
the trail, going inside to where it was to be, we looked and there
was John Boy Walton leaning on the hood of a car. You know who
John Boy Walton is? John Boy Walton leaning on the
hood of a car. I told my wife, leave him alone.
Leave him alone. Don't mess with him. Don't mess
with him. He's here on vacation. No, she said, I'm going to get his
picture and his autograph. So he did. Now, my point is this. All week, I couldn't think of
that man's real name. John Boy Walton. That's all we
knew him by as he played on that show for years and years and
years. But when the show was ended,
of course they brought John Boy down and gave him a front row
seat. And the show was over and the emcee said, goodnight John
Boy. And that was the end of the show.
But see, he's played this role so long that we look at him as
John Boy Walton. Now, let's look again at what
Paul adds here in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 5. From such turn
away, avoid them, have no dealings with them, have no fellowship
with them whatsoever. And yet today the churches are
filled with a mixed multitude of people, many of them who do
not know Christ at all. So such, I believe, has happened
because of these reasons. Number one, there is such weak
preaching today. So little scripture is used in
preaching today. So little scripture is taught. Number two, I think the invitation
system has a lot to do with it. You can show up as a stranger,
give an invitation, you can join that church. the first time you
ever attend. And thirdly, I think it's because
there is so little church discipline in our day that any and everybody
is welcome in the churches. Now, these are not harmless as
shown in verse 6 to verse 9. For of this sort are they who
do great mischief. They lead captive people. They
go into houses and ingratiate themselves and try to undermine
the gospel and the word of God. Now, the proper attitude of worshiping
God is unfeigned faith. 2 Timothy 1, verse 5. Sincere faith. sincerity and
truth in spirit and in truth they that worship God must worship
him in spirit and in truth for God is spirit John 4 24 not in
a certain place not in a certain building or a mountain but out
of a heart of love craving the truth sincerely God looks upon
the heart. He's no respecter of person. God looks upon the heart. Man
looketh upon the outside. And let me say this in closing. Job said it. The hypocrite's
hope shall perish. What hope he might have or conjure
up, it will in due time perish. So sincerity and in truth is
the rule and guide of our manner and form of worship.