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In the Name of Jesus, Dear Fellow Redeemed,
I WANT YOUR HEARTS OR NOTHING AT ALL FROM YOU!
What was the problem with Israel in Isaiah’s day? Had not God commanded all these religious rites and observances? And had they not practiced every external sacrifice and obligation meticulously? God Himself says in v. 11 that the people were “multiplying” their sacrifices to Him. Why does He then compare their spiritual leaders to Sodom, and the people to Gomorrah? What were the chief sins of those evil cities? Pride, sexual lust and perversion, unmerciful behavior toward their neighbor (Ez. 16:49), to name a few. But such pride and wicked behavior was the name of the game in Israel too! Hear how the Lord describes Israel earlier in this chapter: “Alas, sinful nation,” a people lade with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters!” While the spiritual leaders and people were performing the sacrifices and religious observances the Lord had commanded, they were giving their hearts to all kinds of self-service and sin. Their sacrifices were empty, as far as the Lord was concerned, because their hearts were not in them! Because the people were not putting away their sins by heartfelt repentance, the Lord said, “all that you do in worshiping Me is nothing more than a trampling of My courts! You are trespassers! The incense of your sacrifices are not sweet-smelling to Me, but an unholy stench!” The many types of worship services once gladdened the heart of God. But now He says in v. 13: “I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” In other words, “wickedness combined with worship, I will not tolerate!” If God can not have the heart of a person in repentance of sin, then neither will He hear the prayer of that person. “Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear,” He says. “Your hands are full of blood.” (V. 15b) The Lord does not hear the prayers of those whose wicked hearts are turned toward self and sin rather than toward God and their neighbors. The Lord showed that He has had His fill of the empty sacrifices of the hypocrites when he destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. But hypocrisy flourishes in people today! It is promoted by churches and semi-religious organizations that emphasize external worship and works as the way to earn merit and acceptance with God. Thousands of men and women profess their Christian faith with their lips, but their wallets, purses, and hearts are far from God in the pursuit of their own selfish interest and acts of wickedness. How many will be in church on Easter Sunday paying lip-service to Christ, Who commanded us to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and then knowingly file a false income tax return on April 15th? And, are you and I ever quick to point out the faults of others, while being blind to our own far greater personal faults? Do we ever attend the worship service or given an offering because we must, or we feel the need to “act” like Christians. This too is hypocrisy! There is a Japanese fable which tells about a man who went to heaven. To his surprise he found a shelf of human tongues. He was told that the tongues belonged to people who had spoken sweet words, saying what was right, but their hearts and bodies were always willingly doing the opposite. Thus the tongues had come to heaven, but the rest of the body went somewhere else! So much for fables! The truth is that unless God receives the heart of the sinner, He wants nothing from him at all, and no part of him in heaven! The difference between the hypocrite and the true Christian might be stated this way: The hypocrite does not reflect BACK upon his sins in remorse and regret. He simply puts on his mask and looks for some way to fool God and man by an act of worship or sacrifice. The Christian, however, by the working of the Holy Spirit, does not dare look ahead to any act of worship without first looking back upon his sins with regret and the sincere desire to remove the evil of his deeds before the sight of God and his neighbor. This is the meaning of repentance — a looking back in regret, and then a looking forward in faith. During Lent the Christian looks back upon his sins with a feeling of deep regret, knowing that it was his sins that caused Christ’s suffering and death. But repentance — the doctrine of Scripture that all people must look back and remember their sins before they look forward in hope to the cross — is not a popular teaching. Sinful man does not like to look back. Modern psychologists and the prophets of self-esteem advise people to free themselves of feelings of guilt by always looking ahead. The ancient Greeks had a saying: “A wise man should look ahead so that he will not have to look back!” It is no wonder that when the apostle Paul brought the Gospel of Christ to the Greeks, and said, “You must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” the majority of the Greeks considered it foolishness. The very idea of having to look back with regret was a sign of weakness to them! But how foolish the pride of natural man is! For the weak and helpless sinner is to the loving and gracious God what the helpless drowning child is to its mother. As the Mother by her very nature MUST save the child at all costs, so God — even more full of mercy and compassion — must come to the rescue of everyone who repents of his sinful ways and desires to put away evil. “As I live,” the Lord says in Ezekiel (33:11), “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live!” This is the same Lord who promises in v. 18: “come now, let us reason together — let us settle our differences. If you look back on your wicked ways with regret, and truly desire in your hearts to change your behavior, then “even though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow: though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” This is the sweetest gospel! It has been said that “any one can dye his soul with sin, but only God can bleach it.” “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin” (I Jn. 1:7) These people, like us, are guilty and deserve the full anger and judgment of God. But the sentence He passes on them and on us is one of free grace and forgiveness! So, for Christ’s sake, our God in heaven continues to offer guilty sinners like you and me the full forgiveness of all our sins. This message is proclaimed in all the world so that sinners may be brought to believe it and be received by God in heaven. Lord, mercifully root out all hypocrisy in our own hearts and lives, so that we may repent of our sins and worship and serve You with sincerity of heart. Amen. |