Sermon Snippets

1. According to the Bible, our being a rebel depends not on our obedience to the laws of the land and our attempts to be a good person. It depends on our obedience to God's laws and whether or not we love God.
2. Biblically speaking, one of the worst judgments that God could allow in your life is for Him not to convict you of sin and not show you its consequences.
3. You can't go on living in unrepentant sin and think that just because you show up to church, you and God are good. He will not be played like that.
4. Do you think that you can put your hands all over another person, being sexually immoral, and then lift up those same hands to God in prayer and think that he's fine with that? He will not suffer willful hypocrisy in his presence. He is not a fool.
5. That is a perfect picture of what religious hypocrisy is like. You are applying coats of paint to a soul that is rusting away. In the end, when God inspects your life, it will crumble before him.
6. Is forgiveness something you merely talk about with your kids in family devotions but then never put into practice in front of them? What you're teaching your kids is that all you have to do is talk about it and not be about it.
7. True biblical faith in both the Old and New Testaments manifests itself in an actual change in our lives and how we treat one another.
8. Christ was struck down for us. He went outside the camp like the leprous person, and He was broken so that we could be made whole.
9. You do not have to bear the responsibility of keeping God's commandments, because Jesus kept them all for you and he gives you his righteousness. It is yours.
10. As we come to the table, let's recognize how it is a warning to us of the consequences of sin. Christ's body was broken for our sins. But we are also called to repent, knowing that if we do, God is faithful to count our sins as taken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon Study Guide

Observation Questions

1. Isaiah 1:2-4: How does God describe His relationship with the people of Israel? What strong language does He use to characterize their actions and spiritual condition?
2. Isaiah 1:5-6: What graphic physical imagery does Isaiah use to illustrate the nation's spiritual sickness? What does it mean that there is "no soundness" in them?
3. Isaiah 1:11, 13-14: What is God's stated attitude toward the people's multitude of sacrifices, incense, and appointed feasts, all of which He had previously commanded?
4. Isaiah 1:15: When the people spread out their hands in prayer, what two reasons does God give for why He will not listen?
5. Isaiah 1:16-17: After rejecting their empty rituals, what specific positive and negative commands does God give the people as the true path to being clean?
6. Isaiah 1:18: Despite the harsh diagnosis and rebuke in the previous verses, what stunning invitation does God extend to the people? What is the promise He makes regarding their sins?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that rebels don't always look the way we might think. Based on Isaiah 1:11-15, how can a person appear very religious on the outside while still being in a state of deep rebellion against God?
2. The preacher used the image of a leprous person to describe Israel's condition. What does this metaphor teach us about the nature of sin? How does it show that sin is more than just a list of bad actions, but a deep, internal corruption?
3. What is the direct connection between God's statement "your hands are full of blood" (v. 15) and His command to "bring justice to the fatherless" and "plead the widow's cause" (v. 17)? Why is it impossible for God to accept our worship when we ignore the needs of the vulnerable?
4. The sermon used the analogy of "applying coats of paint to a soul that is rusting away." How were the people of Judah doing this? In what ways do people continue to do this today?
5. After such a powerful indictment, why do you think God offers the beautiful promise of Isaiah 1:18 ("though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow")? What does this reveal about the heart of God, even in His judgment?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you felt you were just "going through the motions" in your faith (at church, in prayer, etc.)? What practical step can you take this week to reconnect your heart with the actions?
2. The sermon challenged parents to model repentance for their children. When was the last time you sinned against a family member and asked for their forgiveness? How can you be more intentional about modeling repentance at home?
3. Isaiah 1:17 gives a command to "seek justice" and "correct oppression." What specific injustice in our community or world have you grown numb to? What is one practical, small step you could take to re-engage with that issue in prayer or action?
4. Reflect on the "painting over rust" analogy. What is one area of your life where you are more concerned with managing your outward appearance than with being honest before God about an inward struggle?
5. When you feel the weight of your own sin and hypocrisy, what specific truth from the sermon or Scripture can you preach to yourself to remember that your standing with God depends on Christ's perfect righteousness, not your own performance?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 53:4-6: This passage, quoted in the sermon, prophesies the coming of the Suffering Servant (Jesus) who would take the punishment for our rebellion upon Himself, providing the ultimate cleansing Isaiah calls for.
2. Micah 6:6-8: Much like Isaiah, the prophet Micah cuts through empty religious ritual to explain what the Lord truly requires: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
3. James 1:22-27: This New Testament passage echoes Isaiah’s theme by defining true and undefiled religion as not just hearing the word, but actively caring for the most vulnerable, specifically "orphans and widows in their affliction."
4. 1 John 1:5-10: This text powerfully reinforces the sermon's conclusion by explaining that walking in the light involves honestly confessing our sin, confident that God is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Sermon Main Topics

I. What do rebellious people look like?

II. Rebels need to be warned (Isaiah 1:2-8)

III. Rebels need to stop going through the motions (Isaiah 1:10-17)

IV. Rebels need to repent (Isaiah 1:18-31)

V. The promise of redemption through Christ

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Detailed Sermon Outline

What do rebellious people look like?

What do rebellious people look like? Close your eyes. Picture it. What does that person look like? Did they have a mohawk and Doc Martens on?

Did they have a hoodie and baggy pants?

Did they have tattoos? Be careful of the answer. Your preacher has tattoos. Be careful of your answer. Let me ask you another question.

What do you think this rebellious person that comes to mind whenever you think of what a rebellious person looks like? What do you think this rebellious person would have to do to get right with God? What would he have to do or she have to do to get right with God? I ask because in our study of chapter one this morning in Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah provides us with an answer to that question. A surprising answer at that.

Well, this morning we begin a five week series through the first five chapters of Isaiah, where we're gonna take one chapter and each week over the next five weeks. So I want to go ahead and invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, which is about right in the middle of your Bibles. If you kind of open up in the middle, you're going to be close to it. It's in the Old Testament. You'll find it on pages 566 and 567 of the Pew Bibles.

As you're turning there, let me go ahead and provide some background to our passage this morning. If you open up to Isaiah chapter one, you'll see in verse one, 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. There's three things I want to say real quick about this. First, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos. This is an entry, an introduction to the entire book.

So when it says the vision of Isaiah, he's talking about all 66 chapters, not just chapter one. The vision. Did Isaiah see this? Did he hear it? How did he receive it?

What happened? How did that transaction go? We're not given a whole lot of information about that in the Bible, but what is clear is that what Isaiah is proclaiming is the word of God. It's repeated throughout. The Lord says the Lord declares, we'll see it in our chapter this morning.

Second thing I want to say, he saw it concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Just brief history lesson. We're talking about the nation of Israel, the Israelite people. Isaiah came in the 8th century BC the nation of Israel came into the promised land around 1300 BC roughly. And then you'll remember that the nation of Israel clamored for kings so that they got Saul, who was then disposed of as king.

And then David came up. Then after David, there was Solomon, and then after Solomon, the nation split in two. So you had the northern kingdom of Israel, and its capital was Samaria, and the southern kingdom of Judah, and its capital was Jerusalem. So when it says this vision is concerning Judah and Jerusalem, he's talking about Israelite people who live in the southern kingdom of Judah, and he's talking about the city of Jerusalem, its capital. So in the service this morning or the sermon this morning, you may hear me say, the Israelites or Israel or Judah, talking about the Israelites who lived in Judah that Isaiah is speaking to, just so it doesn't get confusing.

And then you see that this vision encompassed the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. These are prophecies that Isaiah has over the course of four kingships. So it spans about 50 years in the nation of Israel. This book does, and it points forward to much greater things that would come. But you'll see the main message of our Book of Isaiah, all 66 chapters.

I think you can summarize the entire book by saying that at its heart, it's a call to beckon the people of God, to remain faithful to God in the midst of facing pressure to cave into the world around them. And then it talks a lot about God's provision for them when they fail and sin against them. So what I want to do for us as we start out is I want to go ahead and read for us chapter one. So please do open your Bibles. We're going to be looking at this passage a lot, so you'd be helped by having your Bible open in front of you this morning.

This is Isaiah, chapter one, 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 has spoken. Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly.

They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?

The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it but bruises and sores and raw wounds. They are not pressed out or bound up, or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire. In your very presence, foreigners devour your land. It is desolate as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God. You people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat, of well fed beasts.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who is required of you? This trampling of my courts bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good.

Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

How the faithful city has become a whore. She who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her. But now. Murderers. Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. And they do not bring justice to the fatherless. And the widow's cause does not come to them. Therefore the Lord declares the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel.

I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt Away your dross, as with lye, and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness. And the faithful city 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, for they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired. And you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tender, and his work a spark.

And both of them shall burn together with none to quench them.

This is God's word.

How do rebellious people get right with God?

How do rebels like you and me get right with God? Isaiah tells us three things. Rebels need to be warned, rebels need to stop going through the motions, and rebels need to repent.

So how do rebels get right with God? First, rebels must be warned. Where do we see rebels in the passage? Look with me at verse two. Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

And as we continue, we see more evidence of this right. The ox and the donkey are wiser and no better than the children of Israel, the children of God. Then in verse four, we see this devastating description of them. They are a sinful nation. All of the people, the whole nation, is sinful.

They are laden with iniquity. Literally, they are burdened by their sins. Do you all remember the kid in middle school or in high school? He wore the book bag on his back that had way too many books in it, and it was busting at the seams, and he was hunched over, walking through the halls. That is what Israel looks like with their sin on their back.

They are laden with iniquity. They're offspring of evildoers. In verse four. They're children who deal corruptly. This string of descriptions of the children of Israel, the children of God, reaches its pinnacle with God's devastating conclusion about them.

You see there at the end of verse four, they have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. They have become foreigners to God, who was supposed to be their father. If you're wondering what a rebel is, I think Merriam Webster would say a rebel is one who rejects authority.

We just redefine that slightly. A rebel is one who rejects God's authority. The end of verse four is a great description and definition of What a rebel is. Rebels are those who have forsaken and despised God and as a result are estranged from Him. They don't know Him.

And in verses 21 to 23, look over to the other section of the chapter. We see if you're wondering, okay, why is God describing them this way? We see specific actions listed out. Verse 21. The people were spiritual adulterers.

They cheated on God by disobeying his laws. They used to be righteous, but now the city is full of murderers, literally people committing murder, and those who are implicit in the murder because they allow it to go on without speaking up for those who are being oppressed. Verse 23. The rulers of the city are rebels. They take bribes.

They use their power to make their lives better rather than doing what they are supposed to do, which is care for the weakest and needy among them. So for those of you who are here who don't understand yourselves to be following Jesus, I just want to stop real quick and ask you, I want to ask you, does God's description of Judah's rebellion describe you today? Does his description describe you today? My guess is that your answer is no way. No way, Not a chance.

These people are really corrupt, right? I am a fine, upstanding citizen. I don't break the law, try to do good when I can. I in no way look like this people. So, no, this doesn't describe me.

Honestly, I think I can understand why you might say that. But in love. In love, I want to say to you that according to the Bible, you would be wrong on that question. According to the Bible, our being a rebel depends not on our obedience to the laws of the land and our attempts to be a good person. It depends on our obedience to God's laws and whether or not we love God.

If you are not obedient to his laws, if you do not love God, then you, my friend, are a rebel. And there are varying degrees to which that rebellion will work itself out in your life. In Judah, it worked itself out in major ways in your life. It may work itself out in more subversive ways. You struggle with anger, dishonesty, impatience, lust, all types of things like that.

The question you need to answer this morning is, do I love God? Have I submitted my life to his authority? Do I follow Jesus Christ and try to pattern my life after His? If the answer is no, then in God's eyes, you are a rebel. And to rebels, God delivers a warning.

Rebels need to be warned. That's what we see in the passage. Look back with Me. At verse five, notice how God points out to his people that they were destroying themselves by rebelling against him. He warns them of the consequences of their rebellion.

Look at those questions. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel like a loving parent pursuing their child? My son, my daughter, why are you doing this to yourself? Look at what you're doing to yourself.

And then he uses these two powerful illustrations there to describe the consequences of their rebellion in a way that would have been very powerful for them. Right? So in verses 5 and 6, their rebellion made them like a leprous person, a person with leprosy, the skin disorder that would have been common in Isaiah's time, where your body literally fell apart. It rotted from the inside out. Their whole body was corrupt from head to toe.

Then the second illustration you see in verses 7 and 8, their land had become desolate, like it was being invaded by foreigners. God is showing them that their choosing to forsake him has devastating consequences.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, do you recognize this? Sin has consequences. Sin has consequences.

The consequences may be immediate.

They may be delayed. They will always be eternal.

Sin always has consequences. So the consequences may be immediate. We know this intuitively. If we're rude to someone, it damages our relationship with them. If we drink too much the night before we have a hangover.

Sin has immediate consequences. Those are more like physical ones that we kind of. But think about spiritual consequences. Sin can have immediate spiritual consequences. It darkens the soul.

Thomas Watson said, it is a cloud, a thick cloud that spreads itself over the face of the soul and intercepts all the beams of God's love and favor. That's a great description. I don't know if you're anything like me. Whenever I've sinned, that's exactly what I felt. God's favor and love seems to flee from me.

And just thick darkness seems to spread over my soul. And every time that I want to reach out for those beams of love, sin is saying to me, no, no, no. Remember what you just did. It has immediate consequences. When we sin, we trade immediately what we should most love for what we should most hate.

It makes no sense.

But I'm sure that some of you may be thinking that since your life is going along just fine and you don't seem to be experiencing anything like this. That means you're in good shape, right? I want to encourage you to rethink that. Just rethink that. Let's think about the text.

Just because you don't seem to be experiencing Any immediate consequence of sin doesn't mean these illustrations don't describe you. Why do I say that? Turn over with me to chapter two real quick.

All of these fit together. Chapters one through five. It's a preface to the whole book.

I just want to read verses 6 and 7 real quick.

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Now, are they doing poorly? Let's read. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is filled with horses and there is no end to their chariots.

From a human perspective, the people that God describes as a leprous person seem to be thriving. They are wealthy and powerful. Life is good. There is no end to their treasures. There is no end to their chariots.

Chariots are a weapon of war. They are powerful. They are wealthy and powerful. But this is where the people of Judah, the Israelites should have known their Bibles better, right? Though they may have been thriving in the present, the illustrations God chose to describe them weren't random, right?

The illustration of the person with leprosy should have called to mind to them the book of Leviticus, right? Where laws of leprosy and what happens to a leprous person are given. And according to God's laws in Leviticus, what happened when an Israelite got leprosy? That's a question to you. What happened?

They were separated from the camp. They had to be removed from God's presence. God is saying to them, look at what your sins are doing to you. You may be thriving, but soon enough you will be separated from my presence. The consequences may be delayed, but they are coming.

They may be delayed, but they are coming. And that's what the other illustration is communicating to us. These two illustrations together are powerful. The illustration of the leprous person wasn't enough to get their attention. The illustration of the desolate city should have wrested it.

Right? Because just like the image of the leprous person from Leviticus, they should have recognized that the image of a city being desolated and invaded by foreigners comes straight out of the book of Deuteronomy, where God says to them, if you are disobedient to my law, I will call forth a nation who will invade you. They will take all that you have. They will eat all your food, and they will take off everyone as prisoners of war. So that's not presently happening, right?

They're wealthy and powerful. But God is saying to them, hint, hint, your city is being overrun by foreigners. They should have thought about the law. Oh no, we are suffering the curses that God called down upon his people if they were going to be disobedient to him.

So God is saying to them, these curses are coming down on you. Now. You may be thriving in your eyes, but in my eyes you are as good as exiled. Turn from your sin or you will be cast out of my presence for good. Friend, you may not be experiencing the consequences of sin right now.

You may not even experience them in the future life. But you can be certain that the consequences of sin will come eternally. I think biblically speaking, one of the worst judgments that God could allow in your life is the fact that he doesn't convict you of sin and doesn't show you the consequences of it. Just because your life is going well doesn't mean you are in a good relationship with the Lord. And God has the authority to tell us that it's true.

He has the authority to tell us these things. Look at what verse two says about him. Hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth. These are the oldest witnesses in the world. These are the ones that God created in the very beginning.

In the beginning, God created heavens and earth. He has the authority to tell us what is true about ourselves. He is the One who defines the boundaries of heaven and earth. And he is the One who defines the boundaries of a holy life. And he gives us those boundaries for good things so that we flourish inside of them, not so that we try to escape from them.

His boundaries are good boundaries. So how do rebels get right with God? Rebels must be warned. Second. Second, how do rebels get right with God?

Rebels need to stop going through the motions. Where do we see that? Look with me at verses 10 to 15 of chapter one. The people of Judah. The rebels are very religious.

They are very religious or they appear very religious. Look at how carefully they worship God. In verse 11, they bring a multitude of sacrifices to him. In verse 13, they bring offerings and incense to God. Not only do they bring offerings and incense, but continuing 13 and 14, they celebrate all the appointed feasts.

And finally in verse 15, they come before the Lord with hands uplifted in prayer. These people are the picture of perfect obedience to God's requirements for how they should approach Him. This is exactly how he laid out that they should approach him in the book of Leviticus. They are doing everything he said, and yet they are rebels. So I ask you again, what did the person look like that you pictured in your head when I asked you, what does a rebellious person look like according to God's word?

Do rebels sometimes look very religious?

Indeed they do. But apparently something's off, because the very sacrifices and offerings and feasts and prayers that God commanded them to give, he's grown tired of. In fact, he hates their worship of him. Look at what he says about it in verse 11. Let me just paraphrase for us.

Your sacrifices are meaningless to me. Get them away from me. In verse 12, you think you come in obedience to me, but you are trampling all over my house. Verse 13. Your offerings are an abomination to me.

In verse 14, I hate your worship. I am weary of it. In verse 15, I am done with it. I will no longer listen to you. So if the people are perfectly observant in their religious worship, but God hates the worship that they're offering him.

What gives? What gives?

The answer is that this isn't the worship that God commanded because it's not coupled with a life of obedience to God. It's not coupled with a life of obedience to God. Look at the last line in verse 13. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. You sin flagrantly, you sin unrepentantly, and yet you stand before me and assemble yourselves before me.

Then he gets more specific. Why does he hate their worship so much? Look at the last line of verse 15. I think it's the culmination of it. The grand reason your hands are full of blood.

There's a double meaning going on here. They've come to offer sacrifices. Their hands are covered in the blood of their sacrifices, the ones that were supposed to cleanse them. But all God sees is the blood of the people who are being trampled underneath their feet. That's all he sees.

The people live in persistent sin, yet they think they can just show up and go through the motions and that everything will be good.

God's saying to them, no, no, no, sorry, it doesn't work like that. You can't go on living in unrepentant sin and think that just because you show up to church that we're good. I won't be played like that. He's the Sovereign Lord. Just look at two doctrines.

We think about doctrine as dry. Let's show how lively doctrine is. Here's two that you learn about God in this passage. He is omniscient. He knows everything.

He is omnipresent. He sees everything. When you leave church, you don't leave the presence of God, he sees you everywhere you are. He knows what you're doing everywhere that you go. He is omnipresent.

He is at the top of Mount Everest and the bottom of the deepest place in the ocean. He sees all things, knows all things. We cannot lift hands up to him when he knows the state of our heart and think. He doesn't see it, he knows it.

Gosh. Do you think today that you can get away with that? Are you under that impression?

Look, this is a kindness of God to point this out to us, that you can't get away with it, Right? That's so kind of him. But are you under the impression that you can live any way you want during the week and that because you show up here on the weekends that you're on good terms with God? Do you really think that? Do you think that you can spend your week screaming at your spouse and kids and then show up here and think God is pleased with you?

Do you think that you can go out all week and drink and come in here with liquor scented breath and sing praises to God and think he enjoys it? Do you think that you can put your hands all over another person being sexually immoral and then lift up those same hands to God in prayer and think that he's fine with that? It doesn't. That he will not suffer willful hypocrisy in his presence. He is not a fool.

He knows everything and sees everything.

In 1936, the RMS Queen Mary set out on its first journey across the ocean. At the time, it was the largest ship to sail the open ocean and the ship had an illustrious sailing career as a luxury vessel, even including being at one point transformed into a military transport ship during the Second World War. The ship served for 40 years until she was finally retired to be converted into a floating hotel in a museum in Long Beach, California. Well, during the conversion process of going from sailing to becoming a hotel, her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. They were going to be reworked so that they could be put back up.

But when the smokestacks were taken down and brought to the dock, they crumbled. They crumbled. The smokestacks that were once made of 3 quarter inch steel plates had entirely rusted away. All that remained on them was 30 coats of paint that had been applied to the rusting metal over the year. Literally, when the paint was touched, the smokestacks crumbled.

Friends, that is a perfect picture of what religious hypocrisy is like. You are Applying coats of paint to a soul that is rusting away. And in the end, when God inspects your life and it will crumble before him, stop painting over your life. Come before him with a true, repentant heart. Ask him to truly forgive you.

Don't just go through the motions.

Parents, as one who's been convicted by this passage this week, I want to ask you, how are you living out your faith in front of your kids? I trust you are not engaged in willful hypocrisy. That's not why I'm asking you this question. But I just want you to think about how are you living out your faith in front of your kids? More specifically, for instance, is forgiveness something you merely talk about with your kids in family devotions but then never put in practice in front of them?

Either between your relationship with you and God or. Or your relationship with them when you sin against them? Is it just talk? Because I assume you understand it to be heartfelt. But what you're teaching your kids is that all you have to do is talk about it and not be about it.

Don't do that. I'm convicted by that. My kids are really young. I'm already thinking about these things. For the kids in the congregation, for the kids, you will inevitably be tempted to go through the motions because you feel pressure from your family or your friends here at church.

It is inevitable. It's one of those normal things that will happen. But I want to encourage you. Do not do that. Don't do that.

What I want to encourage you to do is if you don't believe in God or if you believe in him, but you have lots of questions and major doubts. Tell people it's totally normal. I still have questions that I need to wrestle through in this life about God, right? I'm supposed to be a pastor, but I have questions. I'm asking God.

I'm asking other people. I want to encourage you guys do the same. Don't just go through the motions. The Lord sees your heart. And the good thing about the Lord is He's merciful and he's gracious and he's patient.

And if you come to him honestly, he will welcome you into his presence. He's also righteous, and he expects his people to live lives that reflect his righteousness. You see, if God calls us to stop going through the motions, then he also needs to tell us what we need to start doing. And that's what he does in verses 16 and 17. So if you look down there with me, instead of calling his people to abandon their religious practices.

He tells them to fuse their religious practices with right living. So if you're one of those people who thinks religion, that's bad, it's all hypocrisy, it's all self righteousness. God doesn't like religion. No. Jesus was the most religious person in the world.

He was the most observant Jewish. And you see here, God is not telling them to abandon religion because when he calls them to wash themselves, he's using a word that exists and happens over 50 times in the book of Leviticus. He's talking about ceremonial cleansing. Here's what you need to do to be right before me. Cleanse yourselves.

The call to be cleansed in verse 16 is a call for them to continue offering the sacrifices required for the cleansing of sin, but to also unite those practices with living in a way that that reflects that they are truly God's people. You see, God is just. He hates oppression. He cares for the weak and the needy. And so in verse 17 he calls his people to be like him.

Because our lives, when we take the name of Christ upon us, will tell the world what God is like. You see, it can be so easy for us to fall into the way of thinking that God will be happy with me if I just go to church regularly, if I just read the Bible, just pray often enough that God will be happy with me, should be happy with me. While those things are very good things. Church attendance, reading the Bible, prayer, things he's even commanded us to do. It's easy for these things to become substitutes for true biblical faith.

True biblical faith in both the Old and New Testaments manifests itself in an actual change in our lives and how we treat one another. We're to be a people who seek justice and correct oppression. And we should do that both inside the church and outside the church. We're not to be unjust within the church body. We don't show fear, favoritism to the wealthy or the powerful.

When we hear about other church members who are suffering abuse or oppression, we should be provoked to action because God is provoked to action over these things. And we're to be concerned for justice and oppression outside the church. Oh, may our hearts never grow hardened to this. It is so easy to grow hardened to the rampant injustices that plague our world and to not care about them anymore. Pray against that.

That God would soften your heart where it has hardened. We should never ever, ever lose our sense of outrage at the murder of unborn children in this world. It is unjust Fundamentally to the core, there is nothing redemptive about it. We should never lose our sense of outrage over it. And if you're one of those people who has sought an abortion and who has had one, let me tell you about the mercy of God.

He forgives those types of sins. He will not keep you at an arm's distance. He will welcome you into his presence if you understand that he regards it as sin. We should never lose our sense of outrage at the unjust treatment of others based on their skin color. We should be passionate in pursuing justice inside the church and outside the church, because God is passionate in pursuing justice.

He doesn't want people who just go through the motions. He wants true biblical faith to work itself out in our lives. He is so passionate about pursuing justice that a day is coming when he will cleanse the entire earth of all injustice. He will bring judgment on all the unjust, on all who have rebelled against Him. That day is coming.

And so if rebels are to get right with God, they need to repent. They need to repent. And that brings me to my third point. How do rebels get right with God? Rebels need to be warned.

Rebels need to stop going through the motions. And finally, rebels need to repent.

Though God patiently and graciously instructs the people of Judah to turn from their rebellion and hypocrisy, he knows at the same time that they will be unwilling. And so God tells them that their persistent rebellion will provoke him to future action. Look with me at verse 24.

After lamenting Judah's widespread rebellion. You see that key word there at the beginning of verse 24. Therefore, because you have rebelled against me in these ways and aren't going to turn back to be faithful to me, let me tell you what I'm going to do. Then he delivers those fearful words at the end of verse 24, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself foes. God promises that He Himself will bring judgment on them.

Yet we do need to notice that if we keep reading, we see that this judgment surprisingly involves restoring and purifying some and bringing judgment on others. Look at verse 25, the the promise of judgment takes an unexpected turn. God promises to turn his hand against his people, which sounds like a promise of judgment. But it turns out that he's going to turn his hand against them, to purify them in verse 25, like when metals are purified in a furnace and all their dross is washed away. Then in verse 26, he promises to restore them to their former glory.

Then he says in verse 27, Zion will be redeemed by justice. Zion is another name for the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be redeemed by justice. And the inhabitants of the city, the rebels of Judah, will be redeemed by repentance. They will repent and be redeemed by righteousness.

God is promising that in the future he's going to restore the city of Jerusalem to its former glory, like it was in the day when King David first found the capital or first came into the capital. This is a promise that the people of Judah would have been long in waiting for. Right? They're looking forward to that next David, that greater David to come and restore Jerusalem to its former glory. But then in verses 28 and following, we see that those who continue to rebel, those who worship false gods, which is what verse 29 is referring to, and we'll talk more about that next week.

To those people who continue to rebel, God will bring total and utter judgment upon them. They will be broken with none to quench them.

You would expect that the response of the people in Judah to the promise of restoration for repentance and the threat of judgment for continued rebellion would have caused them to repent of their rebellion and turn back to God. But sadly, that is not what happens as we see the history of Judah play out. The rest of the Old Testament as we move on from Isaiah, tells the story of the Israelites continued rebellion against God until finally God makes good on his promise of judgment by sending them into a foreign land. He sent them to be exiles among the nations of Assyria and Babylon. Yet at the same time, God also makes good on his promise of restoration.

You see, all throughout the Old Testament, God promised that from the line of David he would one day bring forth a king who was much greater than David. And this king would be responsible for restoring Jerusalem to its former glory and redeeming the inhabitants of Jerusalem who repent. Yet this king, as we learn in the book of Isaiah, would come in a most unlikely way. As Isaiah's prophecy unfolds through all 66 chapters, we find that this king is also a servant. He's also a servant.

In fact, he would be God's perfect servant. Servant one who would come to take the punishment for his people's sins, to offer himself as a sacrifice for their sins, so that they might be cleansed and washed and made new. Listen, don't turn there. Just listen to how Isaiah goes on to describe this servant in Isaiah 53.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we all, we, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep that before it shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.

And as for his generation who consider that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people. Oh, friends, don't you see? When Isaiah makes this prophecy of a restored Jerusalem, a redeemed Zion, where the true King comes and finally reigns on the throne, he's looking forward to the day when the Lord Jesus Christ would come down from heaven as God's beloved son, when he would live the perfect life. See how chapter one of Isaiah points forward to Christ. Look with me.

In verse five, Christ was struck down for us. In verses six and seven, he took the curses of the covenant upon himself. He went outside the camp like the leprous person. He was nailed to the cross because cursed is he who is hung on the tree. In verse 15, Christ stretched out blood stains hands on the cross to God.

And God turned his face away from him. Christ cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me in prayer? And God did not listen to his prayers. In verse 20, he was eaten by the sword so that we could eat the good of God's land. In verse 28, he was broken so that we could be made whole.

Jesus is the only human who has ever lived and has not rebelled against God.

He lived the perfect life in complete obedience to God. And he taught that he came to this world to offer his life as a ransom, that by the shedding of his blood on the cross he would redeem from sin and purify all of us who are like Sodom and Gomorrah, who deserve God's judgment. He came to redeem all of us who would repent. The promises are right there, my friends. They are right there.

Friend, if you are here and you have rebelled against God, you need to repent. If you don't follow the Lord Jesus Christ, see where his mercy and his justice meet on the cross. As Jamie was talking about God is good. So he will judge you for your sin and he will forgive you if you turn to him for forgiveness. He is so good to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I want you to see the heartbeat of grace and mercy that abounds for you in this passage. I want you to see the heartbeat of abounds for you in this passage. As I've spent time studying this chapter this week, the more and more astounded I have been by how God responds to these rebels and these hypocrites, right? You would think that by verse 15 you read verses 1 to 15 as a whole. You must think the very next words that God is going to say to these people is, you are utterly condemned.

I will have nothing to do with you. But what does he say in verse 16? Wash yourselves. He is so patient to a people who will continue and persist in sin. He is so patient.

That is not what he does to his covenant people. He does not immediately judge them for his sins. For their sins. Look at verse 18. Look at verse 18.

The essence of what he says is listen. Listen. If you would faithfully keep the covenant that we've made together, I will wipe away your sins. I am a just and righteous God. I will keep my word.

Oh, how sweet are those words for sinful souls like ours. My brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are feeling condemned today because you feel like a hypocrite before God, because you sinned this week and you came in here and you're thinking, oh my gosh, does that mean now when I lift up my hands to God in prayer, he's not going to hear me? No, no, no. Because if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, consider how much greater the covenant that God made with you is over the one he made with Israel. You do not have to bear the responsibility of keeping God's commandments because Jesus kept them all for you and he gives to you his righteousness.

It is yours. And now, out of the grace and mercy that abound from a heart full of thanks, live lives in obedience to God. Israel's right standing before God was based on their obedience to commit to his commands. Yet our right standing before him is based on on the finished work of our just and righteous Savior, Jesus Christ. And because God showed that he accepted Jesus sacrifice by raising him from the dead.

By raising him from the dead, you can have confidence that he will accept your pleas for mercy when you sin and you act like a hypocrite. Oh, praise be to God. So if you're struggling with sin. Today, God says to you, dear Christian, come now, let's reason together. If you confess your sins, I will forgive them because I am faithful and just.

My son, my beloved son, Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for your sins and I have placed my spirit in you. And I have given you a new heart to empower you. Walk in a manner worthy of the calling that I have called you to. Friends. It's only because of God's work through Christ and his gracious empowering by the Holy Spirit that those of us who follow Christ are able to live a life worthy of God.

Oh. So as we come to the table this morning, let's recognize how the table is a warning to us of the consequences of sin. That Christ's body was broken for us for our sins. That in him we're called to stop going through the motions and to take up our cross and follow him. And that we are called to repent, knowing that if we do, God is faithful to count our sins as taken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise be to God. Pray.

Heavenly Father, there are no words that could adequately describe the thanks and praise that we give to you for washing us of our sins, making our sins that we're like scarlet to be as white as snow. Through the Lord Jesus Christ for giving us his robes of righteousness. O Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would empower us this week to seek justice, to correct oppression, to care for the helpless, to care for the weak and the needy. O Lord, help us to do these things. To the glory of your name, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.