the book of Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1, the
vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz which he saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah. This morning, I want to make
four observations from this chapter. Four observations from Isaiah
chapter one. And my first observation is no
one chooses the time of their sojourning here in this world. That's my first observation.
No one chooses the time of their sojourning here in this world. And I looked up that word sojourner
and the definition is a temporary resident. And that's what we
all are. That's what you are today. That's
what I am. We are temporary residents here
in this world. Temporary. No man, no woman chooses
the time of their sojourning here in this world. We do not choose the time when
we come into this world, when we begin our sojourning here.
And we do not choose the time when we depart, when we shall
no longer sojourn in this world. Isaiah, this man, this prophet
of God, we read that he sojourned during the reigns of these four
kings, which tells us that as men consider a long life, Isaiah
probably lived a rather long life. The first king that is
mentioned, Uzziah, he reigned for 52 years. Now we're not told
that Isaiah prophesied during all the reign of Uzziah. In fact,
in the sixth chapter, we know that Isaiah wrote, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. Now, that may have been the beginning
of his prophecy. I'm not sure when Uzziah died. But the other kings lived and
reigned for several years. The last king, Hezekiah, that's
mentioned here, of these four kings, he reigned for 29 years. So as we would say, I believe,
as we would say, this man, this prophet Isaiah, he lived what
men call a long life. But as I said, no one chooses,
no man chooses when we begin our sojourning here in this world,
and we do not choose when we shall end our sojourning here. You know, Moses, the prophet
Moses, he wrote the 90th Psalm. Most people think that all the
Psalms were written by David, but they weren't, the majority,
yes. but there were a few which were
written rather by other men. And in the 90th Psalm that Moses
wrote, and remember, he was writing during a time when everyone that
was 20 years of age when they came out of Egypt would die within
the next 40 years. That whole generation. that was
above 20 years of age when they came out of Egypt, they would
all die in the wilderness. And they all died because of
unbelief. They didn't believe God. And
they charged God with bringing them out into the wilderness
to destroy them and to destroy their children. And so God judged
that generation and told them You say your children are going
to die in the wilderness? Your children are going to inherit
the land of Canaan, but you're not. All of that generation above
20, they all died. But the point I'm making that
Moses, when he wrote this psalm, he said three score and 10. In
other words, 70 years. He said some go over it to 80,
but with much work. But people have taken that statement
out of Psalm 90 and they assume, wrongfully, assume that's a promise
that God has promised everyone 70 years of life. That's not
so. That's not a promise. Not at
all. But I believe it does explain
to us some other scriptures. For instance, if you would look
with me in Psalm Keep your place here in Isaiah,
but in Psalm 55 we read in verse 23 this statement. Psalm 55 in verse 23. But thou, O God, shalt bring
them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall
not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee. And
some people, they extract those words there from that verse in
the Psalms and they say, see there, you can die before your
time. You're not going to die before
the time that God has ordained for you to die. Taking a person
generally living to be 70, yes, many people do not live out half
those days. Some don't even live a quarter
of those days. We know that. What we do know,
turn back to Job chapter 14. Just the book before Psalms,
Job chapter 14. Man that is born of a woman is
a few days. That's true of all men, a few
days. In that same Psalm, Psalm 90,
we're going to read some more here in Job, but let me say this,
in that same Psalm, Psalm 90 that Moses wrote when he said
three score and 10, he also said, Lord, teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Have you ever numbered
your days? Most of you, like me, we number
our years. And we can say, some of you here
this morning, I'm 18 years old, or I'm 20 years old, or I'm 50
years old, or some of us more than that. But have you ever
taken the time just to count up how many days you've lived? And you will say, it's just a
few days. Teach us to number our days. We like to think in
terms of years, but our life is in times of days, of hours,
of minutes, of seconds. And every breath, every time
we inhale and exhale, God gives us that strength. God keeps us
alive. We live, we move, we have our
being in Him. God. Man that is born of a woman
is a few days and full of trouble. Some of us, we can look back
over life and we can see how we got into this trouble and
the Lord delivered us from that trouble and before long we were
in another trouble and God delivered us from that and just trouble
after trouble after trouble. Doesn't mean there hasn't been
blessings and happiness and all of that as well. Yes, but trouble. Trouble in this world. No one is accepted. Man that
is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He
cometh forth like a flower. There's a beautiful flower that
comes up and you see it bloom and it's so beautiful, but it
doesn't take very many days. That bloom is gone and you have
to clip the flower. That's the way our life is. It
cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth also as
a shadow and continueth not. How many different ways does
God in the scripture picture our life here in this world,
our sojourn here in this world? Here like a shadow, like a shadow,
like a vapor. Like the man that brings the
mail, the postman. I mean, here and gone. Like a ship, you can see it's
sailing on the horizon and it's gone. So is our life here in
this world. God uses so many different ways
to impress upon us the brevity of life. Someone, I read this just recently,
one of the preachers that has since gone to glory, but he made
this statement one time. He said, people spend more time
preparing for their so-called retirement, which isn't going
to be very long, than they ever spend preparing for eternity,
which has no end. And thus I open thine eyes upon
such an one. This is Job speaking to God.
Lord, man's life is like a flower, and do you open your eyes upon
someone like me and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. The psalmist said I was, conceived
in iniquity, shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin. Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Our parents were fallen men and
women, so their offspring is going to
be fallen men and women, right? You and I. Who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seen his days. are determined, here it is. His
days are determined. The number of his months are
with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass. Just like God, when he created
the world, he appointed a bound for the sea. The seas cannot
go but just so far. just as far as God ordained,
and the same thing is true of our lives in this world. Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds that he cannot pass. Turn from him that he may rest
till he shall accomplish as in hireling his day. So that's my first observation.
No one chooses the time of our sojourning here in this world.
Isaiah didn't. He lived during the times of
the reigning of these four kings. My second observation is the
days in which Isaiah sojourned in this world were evil days. They were evil days. I want you
to, I hope you've turned back here to Isaiah chapter one again.
I want to read a few verses here in this chapter. The days in which Isaiah sojourned
in this world were evil days. You know, when you read through
first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles, and they
list the various Kings, the Kings of Judah and the Kings of Israel,
Usually at the very beginning of their reign, it will say,
this king did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. This king did that which was
evil in the sight of the Lord. And of these four kings that
are mentioned here, three of them, the scripture says, they
did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. But not all
of them, not that third one. No, not Ahaz. He did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord. But the days in which Isaiah
sojourned in this world, they were evil days. Look at verse four. And this
is Isaiah speaking as a mouth for God. Ah, sinful nation, a
people laden with iniquity. A seed of evildoers. Children
that are corruptors. They have spoken the Lord. They
have provoked, forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel under anger. They're gone away backward. Evil
days. God addresses them as a sinful
nation. You say, well, what does that
mean? Well, it just simply means that they were continually sinning. You say, what is sin? What is sin? Some people say, well, that's
doing this or doing that. What is sin according to the
word of God? If we look at the word itself,
it means that we missed the mark. You go out to the range and you
fire, and you're aiming at that bullseye, that bullseye right
in the center. That's what you're aiming at. But you don't always hit the
bullseye, do you? Well, the bullseye, if you please,
we missed the mark. to love God with all our heart,
all our soul, all our mind, all our being, and we come short,
for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Oh, a sinful nation. Sinful, a people laden, the scripture
says, a people laden, just loaded down with iniquity. Look down in verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord you
rulers of Sodom. Now he's not talking to Sodom,
the town or the city of Sodom. Sodom had been destroyed years
and years before this. He's addressing the nation of
Israel as Sodom because of their wickedness, as Sodom was a wicked
There wasn't 10 righteous people found in Sodom and Gomorrah,
a wicked, wicked nation. He addresses them as Sodom. Now you say, well, they weren't
religious. Oh, no. Don't, don't read that
here because that's not the case. They were very religious. Absolutely. Look here, if you will, in verse
11. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me? They were going through the motions.
They had the law of Moses. They knew to bring the sacrifices,
the bullocks, the lambs, and they had their priest who were
doing all of their service. But God says, What? To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I'm full. I'm full. I've had it up to here
with your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of the fed beast. Remember, the fat was always
burned on the altar. All the fat had to be burned.
That was God's portion. God said, I'm full of the burnt
offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not
in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats that bring
their sacrifices to the priest and to the altar and pour out
the blood at the base of the great altar. God said, I'm full
of it. I've had it up to here. I'm paraphrasing
here, right? But that's exactly what God is
saying here. Oh, they were religious. No doubt
about that. When you come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations. Incense, which is prayer, is
an abomination unto me. The new moons, every month there was a new moon,
that was a special day of service. The Sabbaths, the calling of
assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn
meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hateth. You say, why would God say that?
Many of these things, no doubt, they were doing things which
God in His law had required them to do because their heart was
not in it. Because they could go through
the motions, but their religion, if I can call it that, it didn't
affect the way they lived. It didn't affect the way they
walked in this world. They were still covetous. They were still taking advantage
of the widows and of the orphans and all of the things that they're
charged with, the nation of Israel. And I bring this out to us. Look
at verse 15. When you spread forth your hands,
in other words, when you lift up your hands in prayer, I will
hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers,
I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood,
blood, murder, treachery, people laden with iniquity. Now bring this to us for this
reason, actually two reasons. Most of us, we have the idea
that it would somehow have been easier to serve God in a previous
time. If we'd just been born during
the days of the Puritans, if we'd just been born when the
Lord Jesus Christ was here upon the earth, somehow we get the
idea that this world at one point, at least, was a friend of grace,
never has been, and never shall be. Never. We get that crazy
idea that somehow if we'd only lived in a different age, at
a different time, then we, surely we could have served God as we
should, as we know we should. We forget what our Lord said.
No man can serve two masters. You can try it. But you cannot
do it, because either you will love the one and hate the other,
hate the one and love the other. You cannot serve God and this
world. Not a believer, not a child of
God. And the second thing is, we get
the idea that the days in which we live, surely these are the
most evil days that have ever been on the face of God's earth.
That's not so. Let me read you what God says
about the generation who were alive when he destroyed the world
with a flood. Genesis chapter six and verse
five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. Now listen, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We live in an evil day. There's
no question about that. But we're not to get the idea
that somehow these days are more evil than any days that have
ever been on the face of God's earth, because that's just not
so. My third observation is the apostle Paul quotes from
this chapter in Romans chapter 9. And I want you to hold your
place here in Isaiah 1, but go in the New Testament to Romans
chapter 9. And hold your place there, Romans
chapter 9. Here in Isaiah chapter one and
verse nine, we read, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us
a very small remnant, we should have been a Sodom, and we should
have been like unto Gomorrah. Now, in Romans chapter nine and
verse 29, Paul quotes this verse. Romans 9 and verse 29. And as Esaias said before, that's
Isaiah, as he said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left
us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. Now you say, well, there's a
difference there. Yes. In Isaiah we read, except
the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant here
in Romans, Paul. And remember this, and I think
this is the reason for the difference. He says in verse 29, except the
Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed. You say, well, a small remnant,
a seed. I think the difference is the
apostles, for the most part, when they quoted from the Old
Testament, they quoted from the Septuagint translation of the
Old Testament, which was a Greek translation. And so there's a
difference here. But it comes to the same thing,
a seed or a small remnant. In fact, in chapter 11 of Romans,
Paul says, concerning the Jews, whom God saved as a remnant according
to the election of grace. And that's what Paul is declaring
here in Romans 9. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? Paul uses this verse of scripture
saying, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been
as Sodom and Gomorrah. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?
Destroyed. Destroyed. God rained fire and
brimstone out of heaven. and destroyed the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Paul said, except, except, the same thing would have been
true of us. Now he's talking about the Jews
in particular in the day in which he lived, but the same is true
of all men. If there were not an election
of grace, then we should all have been
like Sodom and Gomorrah. You say, what does that mean
to be like Sodom and Gomorrah? It means two things. Except for
the grace of God, we would be as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah. You say, oh, I could never be
that wicked. Yes, you could. Anything anyone
else has done, we're capable of doing, apart from the grace
of God. Accept. We would have, except there be
an election of grace, we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. We
would be just as wicked as they were wicked, but by the grace
of God. Or we would be completely destroyed,
as Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. Now, it's easy for people and
men who do not believe what the scriptures teach about God's
sovereign election. to build a straw man. And they
build a straw man that they can very easily knock down. And they
present us as teaching that men and women want to be saved, desire
to be saved, but God will not save them because they're not
of God's elect. Now I would say this, to all that God's election has
never kept anyone from being saved. It never has, and it never
will. If you're not saved, you cannot
blame it on God's sovereign election. The problem is your sin. Your
sin, you will not bow to Christ. No. It's just the opposite. As Isaiah and Paul both proclaim
here, it's only because of God's election that there's anyone
saved. Do you realize that? It's only
because of God's grace, his goodness, his sovereign election that anyone
is ever saved. Someone said, don't ever think
of it as a wall that God puts up to keep you from him. No,
no. That's not so. Without God's
sovereign election, we would all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd be destroyed. Scripture says, but we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Now listen to me now. I'm almost
finished, but listen. No one, and I hope no one here,
would ever say this. Well, if I knew that I was elected,
I would believe. If I knew I was one of God's
elect, then I would believe. If you ever say that and you
mean that, then you will never believe. You're not going to know your
election before you believe. The very method of knowing a
person's election is that we do believe. We do believe the
gospel comes to us in power and gives us faith and repentance
to believe the gospel. Believe the gospel. Make your
calling, Peter said, make your calling and election sure. And don't ever try to reverse
that. I'm going to make my election sure and then I'm going to make
my calling sure. No. I would believe if I knew I were
one of God's elect. You'll never believe if you think
like that. You just won't do it because
you're never going to know your election of God until and unless
you believe. Every believer here this morning,
you know your election of God. You give all the glory, all the
praise. for your salvation to God. He's
the one who made the difference. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou
hast not received? That's what Paul said, isn't
it, in 1 Corinthians? I know this, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, no man can come to me. Except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him. And he that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. If you come to Christ, it's because
the Father draws you. That word actually means to drag. But men are not brought to Christ
kicking and screaming against coming to Christ, no. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power." Here's a man, stout-hearted,
stubborn, rebellious. I will not have this man to reign
over me. I'm my own man. I make my own
choices. I make my own decisions. I am
what I am, and no one's going to tell me what to do. God may let you just continue
like that and continue to hell, but oh, he might, in grace and
mercy, make you willing to come as a beggar to the feet of Jesus
and cry out for mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Amen? All right, here's my last
observation back in Isaiah chapter one. There are three future I wills
of God here that I wanted to just mention. Isaiah chapter
one. Down in verse 24. And I will turn my hand upon
thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin. There's God's promise that in
spite of all their wickedness and all their evil, God says
that he will avenge, first of all in verse 24, he will avenge himself of his enemies. And then
in verse 25 it is, he will turn his hand, I will. And then in
verse 26, I will also restore judges as at the first. God says, I will. And you know,
when God says, I will, it happens. It happens. Who's going to stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? I will. And he did in AD 70. He did avenge
himself. The city of Jerusalem, the temple
destroyed. He avenged himself. Those that
he calls here his enemies. He turned his hand on the day
of Pentecost. He saved 3,000 of the nation
of Israel. This nation that he said, ah,
sinful nation. You see, where sin abounded,
grace does much more abound. A few days after Pentecost, when
3,000 were saved, there were 5,000 saved. God turned his hand. God worked a work of grace. As far as restoring the judges,
you remember what our Lord told his apostles? He said, Verily
I say unto you, that you have followed me in the regeneration
when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you
also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. You say, how did the apostles
judge? They judged The same way preachers
today judge by preaching the gospel. And whosoever believeth,
whosoever believeth the gospel, then we may say unto them, your
sins are forgiven you for Christ's sake. We don't forgive sins. He forgives sins. But we make
this judgment. You believe? You're forgiven,
as the scripture says, as he said. I trust the Lord to bless
this message to all of us here this morning.