Let us turn in our Bibles to
Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah chapter one, I'll read
the first 20 verses. 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. Hear,
O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.
But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. A sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are
gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devoured
in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And
the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the
Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, We should
have been a Sodom, and we should have been likened to Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you
rulers of Sodom. Give heir unto the law of our
God, you 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 rams and the fat of fed beasts, 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 oblations. Incense is an abomination unto
me. The new moons and 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. 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. Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do
well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for
the widow. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it. In the New Testament, in the
letter of Hebrews, it begins like this, God, who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. We've just read one of those
sundry times when God spoke unto the fathers by a prophet, the
prophet, of course, Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied through, or
God spoke through Isaiah in time past, as that verse tells us. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers. Time past,
as we've just read, God spoke unto the fathers by Isaiah. He
lived about 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ was born
into this world. God spoke through him to Judah. You notice the scripture says,
for the Lord has spoken. Verse two. Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. God spoke through
Isaiah, through the prophet. His name, the name Isaiah, means
salvation of Jehovah. which is almost identical to
the name Joshua. Jehovah is salvation, which appears,
of course, in the New Testament as Jesus. Jesus, Jehovah is salvation. Isaiah had a long ministry. As
we see, he prophesied during the reigns of four kings. They're
all named here in verse one. And of these four kings, the
king Ahaz was wicked above the others. His obituary as recorded
in Chronicles is, he did not that which was right in the sight
of the Lord. The condition of Judah described
in this chapter that we've just finished reading, most likely
took place during his reign. because we read in 2 Chronicles
chapter 28 that during his reign, God delivered him and the kingdom
of Judah into the hands of the kings of Syria and Judah, who
in one day, in one day killed 120,000 people, carried 200,000
people off as captives. And at the same time, the Philistines,
they invaded the land and they also took, or the Edomites rather,
they invaded the land and they took captives away. And the Philistines,
they invaded the land and they took possession of many of the
cities and villages of Judah. And that's what we see described
in these verses. Well, you know, nations are made
up of individuals. And so as we look at what Isaiah
declared concerning the nation of Judah, we may also see how
it applies to men and women individually. I have three things I want to
bring to us. First of all, the nation's rebellion
against God. Notice that in verse number four. A sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. Their rebellion against God. Heaven is called to witness.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear. Heaven is called to witness the
truth of the word of the Lord. The Lord had nourished them from
the time that he chose and called Abraham and made of him this
great nation. He blessed him. He had guarded
and kept him, the scripture says, as the apple of his eye. God
had kept the nation of Israel. They went into Egypt. There were
70 people. And when they came out, they
were over a million strong. And God had brought them into
the land of Canaan. gave them, dispossessed six nations
to give them this land, a land that was described as one flowing
with milk and honey. What did they do? They rebelled
against God. In their rebellion, they acted
below the beast of the field, because God says, even the ox
knows its owner, and even the ass knows its master's crib. And yet they did not recognize
that it was God who had first of all made them into a nation. God chose Abram, the scripture
says. You know, people today get upset
when they hear the truth about God's sovereign election, but
the Bible is full of it. And if you get upset about election,
you might as well get rid of your Bible, my friends, because
the Bible tells us all the way through that God is sovereign
and he has chosen a people. And Abram, he lived in Ur of
the Chaldees. His parents, we know, worshiped
the moon. He was probably a moon worshiper
himself. And God chose him and called
him and made from him this great nation and bless them exceedingly. The apostle Paul in Romans tells
us what the greatest blessing to the nation of Israel was that
the oracles of God, the word of God was given unto them. God spoke to them. God gave his
law to them at Mount Sinai and sent prophets unto them. The
Lord Jesus Christ, when he came into this world, he said, thank
not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets, I am
come to fulfill them. And so we see this nation blessed
greatly, but yet we read that they had rebelled against God. In the prophecy of Jeremiah,
God puts it like this to this same nation. He said, for my
people have committed two evils. Number one, they have forsaken
me, the fountain of living waters. And number two, they have hewed
them out cisterns that can hold no water. Here's the living guy. who is pictured to us as fountains
of living water. And here are these idols, these
false gods, these false deities that they turned to and worshiped
and served, even we know burning their children in the fire to
one of those false gods. They had hewed out unto themselves
broken cisterns that could hold no water. The nation's rebellion
against God had brought them into this deplorable condition
that is described here in this passage of Scripture. The great
city of Jerusalem, called Zion in verse 8, was like a lodge
in a cucumber field. But my friends, it's one thing
to look at this as history. And it is true history. This
really happened. This isn't just a fairy tale
or make-believe or anything like that. We've got the Word of God,
and all the Word of God is inspired. The Old Testament as well as
the New. People who reject the Old Testament,
who reject Genesis and the account of creation, they are calling
the Lord Jesus Christ a deceiver. because he spoke of the law and
of the prophets. People say, well, I just can't
believe that Old Testament part of the Bible. Well, if you can't
believe the Old Testament part of the Bible, you can't believe
the New Testament part either, because they go together. The
New Testament is in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is in the
New Testament when you study the Word of God. And what we
see here about the nation of Israel is an apt picture of mankind. Every man without exception. Here's a picture of you. You're
looking in the mirror. That's what the word of God is.
It's a mirror. And we're looking in the mirror
when we read this passage of scripture. You say, oh no, that
can't be me. Oh yes, it is. It's every man
by nature. Israel, the nation of Israel,
Judah here, they, the scripture said, rebelled. Look at that
in the last part of verse two. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. All men rebelled
against God in our head, Adam. He forgot his maker and he listened
to the lies that Satan presented to him. Now Adam, the reason
he is so important, the first Adam, the first man, the reason
he is so important is because he's a type of the last Adam
who is Christ, the last man, the second Adam. Now the first
Adam rebelled against God and you were represented by Adam. You were in Adam. I was in Adam. All men were in Adam. And the Bible teaches what is
called the fall. F-A-L-L, the fall. You don't
hear about that in so many places that are supposed to be places
that speak about God. But the Bible teaches That man
fell, there was a fall in the garden. That Adam represented
all of us and we all fell. And if you notice here in verse
six, we see there was no soundness in it at all. From the sole of
the foot even unto the head, there's no soundness in it. Man didn't break his little finger,
my friends. When he fell in the garden, he
didn't break his little finger, he broke his neck. Man became
dead spiritually. And that's the way all of us
come into this world, dead in trespasses and sins. The fall means that what David
confessed in Psalm 51 is true of every man. He confessed, he
said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother
conceive me. You see, you don't come into
this world and then you're kind of on probation for so many years
and to see what you will do. No, my friends, we come into
this world, we are already sinners. We are already under the judgment
of God, the condemnation because of sin, all men, when we come
into this world. were shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did our mothers conceive us. The fall means that what
God told Adam is a reality. God told Adam, in the day that
thou eatest, in the day that you rebel, thou shalt surely
die. And there was no question It
wasn't as if maybe you will rebel. No, God said, in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Didn't take God by
surprise. God told Adam what would happen
in the day that he ate. He listened, he rather listened
to the lies of Satan. You know, he said, you shall
be as gods. And man still believes that lie. He does. Man believes that lie. He believes
that he has a free will. I will. There's only one being
who is able to say, I will. And that's God. He's the only one. I will. And no one can stay his hand. No one can keep him or nothing
can keep him from exercising his will. You and I, we are told
to say, if the Lord wills. If the Lord wills. Only God can
say, I will. Man comes into this world, rebelled
against God, believing Satan's lies, that he will be like God,
and whenever he decides, whenever he makes his decision, he's going
to let God save him. Isn't that one of the most ridiculous
statements that has ever come out of the mouth of a man? He's
going to let God save him. Really? Really? You're going
to let God do something? That would make you more powerful
than God. Stop and think about it, my friends. You're going to let God save
you? Maybe God will save you, maybe
He won't. He said, I'm the potter. Thou art the clay. Does the clay
tell the potter what the potter will do? Of course not. You see, man has believed that
lie of Satan. Religious men believe this lie.
They believe that man has become like God, that he has the ability
to will and it shall come to pass. Only God has a free will. This country, this nation of
Judah, they had rebelled against God. And that brings me to the
second thing, the nation's inability to please God. We're all familiar
with Sodom and Gomorrah and how God destroyed them with fire
and brimstone from heaven. And he did so because of the
wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. And now God addresses the rulers
and the people of Judah as Sodom and Gomorrah. Notice that they
offered their sacrifices. They continued to shed the blood
of beasts, but God asked them, to what purpose? To what purpose? Notice that in verse 11. To what
purpose is this multitude of your sacrifices? To what purpose
is all of this? Is it only to save your conscience
while you continue to live in sin? Is that the purpose? All the outward rituals, even
though they were doing the things that were commanded in the law,
God said, away with. I cannot bear it. Why? Because the scripture says without
faith it is impossible to please God. They were just going through
the farms. It's happening today all over
the world. People are just going through
farms, rituals, whatever their particular denomination prescribes,
going through the farms, having a form of God but denying the
power thereof. All the outward rituals, though
commanded by God, did not have the ability in themselves to
please God. God says, I cannot away with
these things. It is iniquity. You pray, I'm
not going to hear you. Say, is that the God of the Bible?
Yes, that's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
is what he said. The Lord Jesus, when He came
into this world, remember He said to those religious rulers
of that day, He said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside
of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. And then He went on to say, Cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. The Bible teaches us that as
a result of the fall, man's depravity is total. His inability is total. The natural man cannot please
God. You say, well, I'm going to please
God. No, you're not, my friends. You can't do that. You don't
have the ability. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Couldn't be any plainer, could
it? They that are in the flesh, that is the natural man, apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, the natural man, cannot
please God. In the case of this nation of
Judah, their country was desolate. It was desolate. Their cities
were burned with fire. The land was devoured by strangers. It was desolate. Well, people
naturally think, well now, now things are going to change. Now
things are going to change. Now they're going to seek the
Lord. Now they've been smitten. Now God has brought judgment
upon them. Now they're going to seek the
Lord. Doesn't work that way. Doesn't work that way, my friends.
The more they are stricken, what does God say? The more He strikes
them through these invading armies, what happens? The more they go
away from God. Here comes a nation, they invade,
they conquer, and what does the nation say? Well, their God must
be more powerful. Their God, because they've defeated
us now, their God must be more powerful than our God. So let's
take up with that God. The more they are stricken, the
more they are smitten, the farther they go away from God. And that's true of individuals
as well. Why is it that men will not come
to God in Christ? If you're here this morning and
you have never fled to the Lord Jesus Christ, cast yourself upon
his mercy and said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Why is it? Well, over the years, as a pastor,
I hear a lot of reasons. Someone said, well, you know,
when I was a child, my father made me go to church. And once
I got out from underneath his rule, I've never gone back. That's
the reason, huh? I don't like the way the preacher
talks. I don't like the things he says.
He talks to us like we are all sinners. I don't care for that. Men have more reasons as to why
they will not come to Christ. But do you know what our Lord
said? Do you want to know why you have not come to Christ if
you have not come to Christ? And you know why everyone else
has not come to Christ who hasn't come to Christ? Do you know why? The Lord Jesus Christ said it
like this. This is the condemnation, that
light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather
than light. because their deeds were evil. You see, light manifests. Have you ever looked, maybe,
at light, the rays of the sun coming through a window into
a room, and you're looking at just a certain direction, and
that room is just full of dust! It's full of dust! I mean, those
particles are everywhere you could see! The light didn't make the dust,
but the light exposed the dust. And men will not come to Christ
because light. Christ said, I am the light of
the world. Men will not come to him because
light manifests. And it manifests that our deeds
are evil. It's not our environment. Our problem is us. We've met the enemy and it's
us. Our problem is, as the scripture
says, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. All of
us come into this world with that kind of a heart. And what
we need is a new heart. And only God is able to give
a person a new heart, a new nature. The inability of man. People
say, walk down the aisle. Well, you can walk down a thousand
aisles. That doesn't give you a new heart. Repeat a prayer. That doesn't
give you a new heart. Only God is able to give a person
a new heart. And that's one of the promises
of the new covenant. a covenant that the Lord Jesus
Christ ratified with his blood. He said, this is my blood of
the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of
sin. The nation's God, the third thing
I would bring out, the nation's God and his grace is displayed
in election and redemption. If you notice in verse 9, I'm
sure that you maybe picked up on this when we were reading.
Verse 9 says, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very
small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should
have been like unto Gomorrah. The Apostle Paul quotes that
verse in Romans chapter 9 and verse 29. And he quotes it in
showing that the fewness, the very small number of Jews in
his day who were saved, it had already been foretold. Notice,
if it had not been for the small remnant, if it had not been for
the small remnant, we would have been like as Sodom and should
have been like unto Gomorrah. except the Lord of hosts had
left unto us a very small remnant. Except the Lord of hosts, you
know that small remnant is, according to the word of God, according
to the election of grace. A remnant according to the election
of grace. Though small, though small, yet
without it, none would have been saved. Lost men, especially lost religious
men, they rail on the doctrine of election. I say let them do
it if they please. But I tell you folks, I, like
Paul, bless God for his electing grace. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. And I love this,
that we should be holy. That we should be holy. God is
holy. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ. If it had not been for a small
remnant, a remnant according to the election of grace, and
God's gracious provision in giving his son, his only begotten son,
to redeem those whom he chose, He gave him to be the sacrifice
for the sins of his covenant people. And we read here, though
your sins be as scarlet, though they be as scarlet, they
shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Let me ask you, do you ever feel,
do you ever think like your sins are just too many? They're just too great. I've just sinned so much, there's
no hope for me. Not so. Not so. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. God gave his son. gave his son,
and God, in giving his son, opened up a fountain. And that fountain
was opened up for sin and for iniquity. And sinners plunge,
as the hymn writer said, sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose
all their guilty stain. Come now, God says, come now,
let us reason together. You can't save yourself. Let us reason together. You can't
save yourself. You do not deserve salvation. You don't. You do not have any merit. You don't have any righteousness
that God will accept. Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be a scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow." In other words, look away from
self and look to the fountain, that fountain that God has opened. We sing a hymn sometimes, come
to this fountain so rich and sweet, cast thy poor soul at
the Savior's feet. plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His
name. What a picture we have of the
nation of Judah. Couldn't be described in any
more graphic terms, and yet what a picture it is of all men as
we come into this world. And yet, what a display of the
grace of God in giving his son, opening up a fountain in which
sinners plunge, lose all our guilty stain. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to those of us here today.