Series:
Isaiah
Title: Old, New, False & True
Text:
Isaiah 57: 5-13
Date:
February 8, 2015
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
God says to the self-confident, Isaiah 57: 10: Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet
saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand;
therefore thou wast not grieved. 11: And of whom hast thou been afraid or
feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to
thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? 12: I
will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. 13: When thou
criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away;
vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the
land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
God’s description of sinners in Isaiah’s day is God’s
description of sinners in our day. Man’s depravity is the same. Satan’s
deceptions are the same. Sin is the same. We make a mistake thinking that
sinners, and their ways, are different in our day. The wise man said, “Is there
any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been
already of old time, which was before us.” (Ecc 1: 10) So as we hear God
describe the way of the majority in Israel, we will compare it with our day and
contrast it with God’s way.
DEAD SINNERS LOVE
THEIR WAY
The first problem sinners have is that dead sinners love
their own way of religion. God says, “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy
way.”
God warns through Solomon, “There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Pr 16:25)
Christ said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Mt 7:13-14)
God
shows us clearly in Isaiah 57 the way that vain religionists love.
THE BROAD WAY OF ZEAL AND VARIETY
The
broad way is the way of zeal, with openness to many gods and many meeting
places, “Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree.” (Is 57: 5)
In
Isaiah’s day, the one true and living God set up one temple with one High
Priest with one mercy seat where God promised to meet with his people. But the
children of Judah added to that by each setting up their places to meet “under
every green tree.” Each imagined God to be how they thought god should be.
These imaginary gods were there “idols.” Each worshipped zealously according to
their traditions “enflaming yourselves.” Yet, all was total ignorance of the
true and living God.
It is
the same in our day. The little town
where I attended high school had one traffic light but over 20 church buildings,
in and around that little town. Would God establish churches under every green
tree in such a small town? How does that happen? The root problem is the
unregenerate heart. Unregenerate sinners are offended by the truth of the
gospel. When they find fault with God’s preacher and God’s people each sets up
their meeting place, each imagines gods like they want and each is zealous for
their traditions.
God
brings his child out of the broad way into the narrow way. He creates a heart which
bows to Christ. God gives discernment to bow to his word. He gives a love for
brethren, making his child keep peace among brethren and hate sowing discord,
even as God hates those who sow discord. (Pro 6: 9)
THE BROAD WAY OF SELF-EXALTATION
God
says, “Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither
wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.” (Isa 57:7) The broad way is the way of self-exaltation.
False
religion was big business then and it is big business in our day, “supposing
that gain is godliness.” (1 Tim 6: 5) The false religionist is in the devil’s
way. Those in false religion are like the devil. God said of the devil, “How
art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou
cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most
High.” (Isa 14:12-14 AV)
Therefore,
false religion seeks the preeminence with the biggest building, the tallest
steeple, the most educated preacher, the most programs, and the most members. All
the while they are making merchandise of men’s souls. God described the false
preachers as “greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds
that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain,
from his quarter.” (Is 56: 11)
God
creates a broken and contrite heart in his people. His church—his people—are a
humble and lowly, remnant. God says, “Better it is to be of an humble
spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” (Pr 16:19)
THE BROAD WAY OF ECUMENICAL PROSTITUTION
God
says they hid the truth of God’s covenant and committed spiritual adultery with
others who worshipped false gods in order to increase their numbers, “Behind
the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou
hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a
covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.” (Isa
57:8)
The law
of God was the covenant God made with the house of Israel. Believers are under
the everlasting covenant of grace. In order to constantly remind them, and
everyone around them, that they had no other God, that they were in the covenant
of marriage to God alone, God commanded they display the law, outwardly, on the
posts of their house and on the posts of their gates for all to see. The
equivalent for the believer, who has the everlasting covenant of grace written
on our hearts rather than the letter of the law on tablets of stone, is to
preach to everyone the gospel of Christ in truth, without compromise.
Instead,
they concealed their remembrance—concealed the law of God—behind the doorpost,
hiding it from view. Then like an unfaithful wife, they discovered themselves
to another than God and went up to them. They enlarged their bed—inviting
others into their bed—and made a covenant with them—breaking their covenant
with God. Also, they loved the bed of others where they saw it—uniting with
them in their bed. (Isa 57:8)
This is
the adulterous sin of compromise: concealing the truth of God in order to unite
with others who hate the truth of God, simply for the sake of gain. God
describes it through the prophet Ezekiel:
Ezekiel
16: 25: Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made
thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed
by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 26: Thou hast also committed fornication with
the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms,
to provoke me to anger…28: Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians,
because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and
yet couldest not be satisfied. 29: Thou hast moreover multiplied thy
fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied
herewith. 30: How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest
all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;” (Eze
16:28-30)
This is as popular in our day as it was then. Churches
set aside the truth in the name of loving one another. But the love which God’s
true children have for each other is in the truth. John wrote, “The elder unto
the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.” (3 Jn 1: 1)
I heard a preacher actually say, “We will not let a minor
issue like the doctrine of particular redemption keep us from receiving our
brethren.” Brethren, we should invite and receive anyone who wants to hear the
gospel of Christ preached. But the
redemption of God’s chosen, particular people, by Christ on the cross—limited
atonement, particular redemption—is not a minor issue; it is the gospel! We
must never compromise the gospel of the victorious Redeemer for any reason! To
do so is not love for God or brethren; it is the deceit of the devil!
So we must not hide behind the door posts the truth which
God has written on our hearts. We declare to everyone the truth of man’s total
depravity, of God’s sovereign free electing grace, of Christ’s particular redemption,
of the necessity of the Holy Spirit regenerating and giving faith to each one
purchased by Christ’s blood, of God’s preserving grace which makes his saints persevere
in faith unto the end. This is the doctrine in which the everlasting covenant
of grace unites us in marriage to Christ! God declares that to compromise the
gospel is to play the harlot!
THE BROAD WAY OF
MAN’S METHODS AND MEANS
The
broad way is the way of man’s methods and means. It is includes using the power
of politics, the power of man, rather than trusting our sovereign King to
accomplish his will, “thou wentest to the king with ointment.” (Is 57: 9) It includes
marketing with new, ever-increasing earthly attractions and sending messengers
with man’s message rather than God’s word, “and didst increase thy perfumes and
didst send thy messengers far off and didst debase thyself even unto
hell.” (Is 57: 9)
All of
these things is mans’ way. God says, “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy
way;” (Is 57: 10)
THERE IS NO HOPE
The second problem with self-made religious sinners is
that they never consider that there is no hope trusting in the works of their
own hands, “yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the
life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.” (Is 57: 10)
In Isaiah’s day, the children of Israel were so convinced
that they were true believers, truly God’s people, they could not even consider
that “there is no hope” in their works. God sent true prophets to them as he is
doing with Isaiah, as he is doing here now. God declared to them, “thou hast
found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.” Still, they
would not say of their own works, “There is no hope.”
The life of your own hand involves no grief. When God
turns his child into his way it is grievous to us at first because God resists
our pride, humbles us and God’s way goes against our flesh. God’s way requires
us to confess our sins, that we are wrong, and that everything about our
religion is wrong. But the flesh, the carnal mind, looks at the grief he will
suffer in God’s way and thinks that is not the way God would have me to go. He
says, “There is no hope in that way. That way is too full of heartache and
sorrow and humility.”
Yet, in his own way, he is not grieved. The way of our
flesh never involves grief. It is the easy way, the smooth way, the path of least
resistance. So the flesh thinks this is God’s way, “There is hope in this way.”
When a man is confident that he has found life by the works of his own hands, while
he is saying that there is hope in his own hands he is saying that there is no
hope in God’s hands. God sent Jeremiah with this word,
Jeremiah
18: 11: Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you,
and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and
make your ways and your doings good. 12: And they said, There is no hope: but
we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of
his evil heart. 13: Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen,
who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible
thing. 14: Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from
the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from
another place be forsaken? 15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have
burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from
the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16: To make
their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth
thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17: I will scatter them as with
an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in
the day of their calamity.
Jeremiah was preaching the word of the Lord, telling them
that God would leave the house of Israel desolate. Next, we hear their response.
Jeremiah
18: 18: Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for
the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the
word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us
not give heed to any of his words.
It is the same in our day. The natural heart is a
religious heart. Men are so hardened in their vain religion, so fixed upon
their vain works, so determined to go on in them, that they are enraged when
they hear God’s preacher declare God’s word to them. That is the doctrine of
depravity personified; the deceitfulness of sin; the hardness of the natural
heart. Such would have been the case with all God’s elect had he left us to
ourselves, under a covenant of works. Thank God, he regenerates his people and
makes Christ to be our Hope.
NO FEAR OF GOD
The third problem with self-made religious sinners is
that they do not fear God, “And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that
thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart?
have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?” (Isa 57:11)
Since
they had no fear of God, they spoke against those Christ made righteous, “Against
whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out
the tongue?” (Is 57: 4) They disagreed with God’s preacher. They whispered to
someone in the congregation about it. They created division and led others
away. They all patted one another on the back for being right, for defending
the glory of God.
But God
says, “No man lays it to heart…Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against
whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?” (Is 57: 4) God says, “Moreover
this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary…” (Eze 23: 38) Christ
says, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Mt 25:40) Here
is the problem, “of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied,
and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart?” (Is 57: 11)
The greatest pressure that comes with being a
pastor is two fold. One, it is knowing that I am speaking on behalf of God and am
accountable to God for what I teach concerning Christ; two, it is knowing I am
speaking to sinners who have an eternity to spend somewhere. It is due to the
fear and reverence of God that God has put in my heart.
I tremble for those who are quick to speak to
others the word of God, especially if they speak not according to God’s
word. And I tremble for those who divide
brethren, who lead men away from the place where God has established the gospel.
They will answer to God for every false word, for every divisive whisper, for
every step in departing and leading others away from the gospel. God says, “of
whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not
remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even
of old, and thou fearest me not?” (Isa 57:11)
It takes God creating a new heart to make a
sinner truly fear and reverence God. When
God writes his everlasting covenant promises on our hearts, making us rest
entirely in Christ alone, he makes us come out from the wicked once and for
all—and it is because he has put the fear of God in our hearts—“Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
(2Co 7:1; Pr 9:10) And when you have the fear of God in your heart, then you
submit to one another rather than sowing discord, “Submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God.” (Eph 5: 21)
UNPROFITABLE
Lastly, the problem with self-made religious sinners is
that they do not know that trusting in their righteousness and works is
unprofitable. God says, “I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for
they shall not profit thee.” (Isa 57:12)
If
you worship your will, if you trust your works, then your religion is vanity
and soon the wind of God’s wrath will take it away! God said, “When thou criest, let thy companies deliver
thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them.”
(Is 57: 13)
The
Righteousness we must have, whose works we must rest in, is Christ Jesus the
Lord, “But he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall
inherit my holy mountain;” (Isa 57:13) Christ is the Way of every true believer
saved by God’s grace and our Way is the way of true greatness. Christ is our
Hope, our hope of righteousness, our hope of glory, our hope of the gospel, our
hope of salvation, our hope of eternal life. Christ is our Life and our life
not the life of our hand but the life of Christ’s hand. Christ is our Wisdom by
whom we have the fear of God in our hearts. Christ is our Righteousness, not by
any righteousness in us, not by any works done by us, but through God-given
faith in him, “he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and
shall inherit my holy mountain.”
I pray that Christ make us hear his word effectually in
our heart and bring this to pass, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is
the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is
the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Mt 7:13-14)
Amen!