Well, like Dustin, as a freshman, I thought, oh, man, it would be so cool. Unlike Dustin, I should say. I was like, oh, man, it would be so cool to be up there one day preaching. So here, finally, I am. And I don't know if I'm quite ready. But I am ready, because this is God's message. A lot has happened in the past four years. And this room alone has so many wonderful, some painful, some wonderful moments. And in this room, we prayed for those families that had been affected at different times through a student. We had prayed for Emilio in this room. All the chairs broken apart praying. So there's many good memories. And the message that I'm going to share with you all today from Isaiah chapter 1, It's something that I learned my freshman year. It's a passage that really I didn't know. I mean, before I took a class my second semester freshman year, the only thing that I really knew about the book of Isaiah was Isaiah chapter 6 and Isaiah chapter 53. I didn't realize what a wonderful goldmine of truth that Isaiah had. Some of it you have to dig really, you have to dig and dig and dig and you keep finding nuggets of truth. But Isaiah chapter 1, God keeps bringing back one question to my mind. And we're going to start in verse 10. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of burnt offerings, of rams, and of the fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations, incenses and 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. 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, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this day. Lord, I ask that you would empty myself of myself. And Lord, may I be filled with your Holy Spirit and controlled, that the message that I'm about to share would be one that you had applied to my heart and life even more and to the people that are here. In Jesus' name, amen. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. That is something that we don't often expect to hear God say about his children, the children of Israel, comparing them to Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin. And then the question that I'm going to focus in on, which comes up every semester, every year, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? To what purpose? And we see all the way through verse 15 that Israel is keeping the law. And we see different words that God uses to describe what he thinks about the sacrifices. Abomination is one of them. God says that his sacrifices, that the sacrifices that he instituted in the law, are an abomination to him. Because their heart is far from God. Because their lifestyles are like Sodom and Gomorrah, but they're still fulfilling the law. They're still sacrificing to God. And as a freshman, Casey and I ran everywhere around this campus. We were here, we were there. We rarely saw he and I apart. And we were involved in many, many ministries. And God brought to my attention this verse, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? To what purpose? Because it is so easy for us to be here, and we are in classes, we're reading our Bible, and we're learning about the Bible. We sit in chapel, we go to church, we're involved in ministries on Sunday, and then sometimes Saturday, and then sometimes Friday, all week long. But to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? Israel was obeying the law. Israel was working to gain God's favor. But they were not fulfilling the intent of the law. God's intent for the law, as can be seen in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Go ahead and let's turn to Deuteronomy 6 for a moment this morning. Deuteronomy chapter 6 is the chapter that has what we call the Great Shema. the great commandment, the great here that God gives Israel. In verse 1, we see, now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whether you go to possess it. That you might as fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I commanded thee. Thou and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. The purpose of the law, the statutes, were so that Israel would love God, and they could love God. The statutes weren't there for law keeping. They were there so that they could love God through the laws, through the statutes that God has given them. What we see very clearly in Isaiah chapter 1, that God is full. I am full of 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." God is full with them. He doesn't want them. He doesn't need them. What He's wanting is that He's wanting Israel's attention. He's wanting them to love Him. But all they're giving Him It's sacrifices, empty sacrifices. In verse 12, when you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Who required this? God wasn't requiring them to come before his courts to stand there and to sacrifice vainly. God didn't need it as the idea. What God wanted is that God wanted His people to love Him. God was not interested in all the sacrifices they were making, but in their worship. It is no longer out of pleasure, but requirement of the law. Pride in worship is what God hates, but humility of worship is what God loves and desires. The Israel's pride going, I'm keeping the law while everything else around them says that they hate God because of their sin. But they're still keeping the sacrifices. What God desires and what He loves is for us. to sacrifice out of worship to Him with humility. Bring no more vain oblations. What does oblations mean? Oblations is sacrifices that we give to God. Bring no more vain, worthless oblations. And since it 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." These are all things that God loves, that God instituted, and God is saying, bring no more. In verse 15, we see God's reaction to Israel. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. God will hide his eyes from us because of our sin. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. I know in my own spiritual life that I have hindered my own ministry. because of vain worship, because of pride in doing ministry. I have stifled my own ministry. So many profitable summers, we begin going, hey, this is going to be a wonderful summer. And then halfway through, we start going, hey, I got this. I know how to answer these campers. I know how to give a gospel message in the Philippines. I know what to do." And we stop worshipping God. And that is sad, because God wants us to love Him. God wants us to... He wants to use us. He wants us to worship Him, so that He can bless, so that He can talk with us. But when we have sin in our lives, God cannot have any part with that. And when we're doing all this ministry, and we're doing all this and that, and we're taking pride in what we're doing, but our heart is far from God, God will hide from us, going, hey guys, I'm here, but when are you going to wash yourself? When are you going to deal with your sin so that we can commune? In verse 16, God says, gives a commandment, wash you. It's very clear. And it's not somebody else washing, it's wash you. You deal with your sin. Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Wash you. Make you clean. The idea of wash is not just to merely just wash our hands or wash our face, but the idea of wash is that we spiritually wash ourselves. Make us clean. God sees everything. He knows every intent. God is saying, wash you, make you clean, put away your evil doings. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil, in verse 16. So we're to wash ourselves. When we have seen our problem, that our worship is vain to God, when we're doing it out of pride, And not out of humility, we are to wash ourselves and be humble before God, saying, okay, Lord, I'm dirty. I'm going to put away my evil doings, and Lord, please wash me of my sin. Forgive me of my sin. In verse 17, God gives The second part, learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. That the worship of God and love for God not only affects our upward relationship, but also affects our horizontal relationship. That it will be evident in how we treat others. The sometimes unlovable. the oppressed, the fatherless, the homeless, and for the widow, that it will be seen in different lives. The New Testament gives us a wonderful example in Luke chapter 18, verse 9. It's a parable of the Pharisee and the publican. There's two heart attitudes that are demonstrated here. The heart attitude of pride, of spiritual pride, and then the heart attitude of humility. And it's demonstrated here for us, and it goes very well with Isaiah chapter 1. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. That these Pharisees that were here are being spoken of, they thought that they were good, that they were righteous in themselves. and they despised others. We just saw that in Isaiah chapter 1, that they, the children of Israel, thought that they were righteous, thought that they were good by keeping the laws, by sacrificing to God, but they despised others. They didn't have love for one another. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes for all that I possess, and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but small unto his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The two sides. The Pharisee of pride of going, I am good. I am righteous. And this man, the publican. And the publican, bowing down, going, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. In a ministry, There's two responses. To be prideful about our ministry, going, wow, I've done all this, or I'm good. You know, I don't, I can do this, you know, I'll pray and I'll read my Bible. But is it out of habit or is it out of worship? To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? We must come to God humble, seeing ourselves as God sees us, and worship Him with a clean heart. God is willing to give us forgiveness. Come now, let us reason together. God is asking for a conversation, and for us to do our best thinking, and for Israel to do their best thinking. Come now, let us talk, let us think through this. Though your sins be as scarlet, and this ties back with the hands full of blood. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. That God is willing to change us. Not just, it's a total transformation. Red, the deep red. My mom never let me eat spaghetti with a white shirt. And many times, she would say, we would be having dinner, and she'd be like, Jeremy, do I need to put a mirror in front of you so that you can see how messy of an eater you are? I'm like, no, ma'am. And I mean, oftentimes, I mean, around 10 years old, 11 years old, I'd never had a shirt that didn't have a stain that was from food. And those stains never came out. Mustard, ketchup, they don't come out. They just keep staying there. And then you have this line of mustard streak down your shirt. And people are like, what is that from? Well, I was eating a hot dog four months ago. But God is wanting to do a total transformation. He's wanting to remove your sins. We use this verse. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. We use that in talking about salvation. It's saying God wants to change all of you. He's wanting to do a total transformation of your life. Remember that these are God's people that He's saying this to. that these are people that are keeping the law, that are sacrificing to God. God is saying, hey guys, I want to transform you totally into something new. White as snow. The deep red, the bright red of scarlet to white as snow. In Kansas and New York, where I've seen snow the most, especially in New York, when you see three feet of snow laying across the ground and you see a cardinal looking for food in the snow, that cardinal stands out. bright. That little speck of red, the total transfer me, that the difference between a red cardinal and the white snow is drastic. And a wool, something that is usable and something that is nice and crimson is used for decoration. It's a color and it's a type of material. But wool is useful, it's clean, it's white. God wants to use us, but he cannot use us when we are full of sin. And our sacrifices are out of our own selves. As a senior, I've been taking a look back about my past four years and thinking back to when I was a freshman and thinking through the years. Dustin and I were talking about this the other day. We pretty much wasted our first two years of school. Because, I know for myself, there was no worship to God. I was here, I was doing all of this. I was singing songs, I was working hard in classes, but there was no worship. Humility of worship. There was no Bible reading. There was no life change. And in junior year, I started reading my Bible, and it's been amazing what that has done, reading the Bible on a consistent basis, and seeing myself, and seeing how God sees me more and more. And all the best that we have to give to God is worthless to God. All the best that we have is worthless to God. We can do everything of our best. We can read our Bible the best. We can study the Bible the best. We can do our classes the best. We can work the best. But if our heart is not humble before God, if we're not worshipping God, to what purpose are we doing our best? Our purpose for doing our best is for ourselves. and it's worthless to God. It's worthless to God. Why are we here? Why are you here? so easy to, especially around midterms, around finals week, to just go, okay guys, I'm just, I'm going into survival mode. Just get through the next three weeks. And God doesn't want that. He wants us to worship Him even when life is hard, even when pressures are coming. God wants us to worship Him. Because what we're doing, it's not that we're just trying to just graduate, which is a good goal, but what we're trying to do is prepare ourselves for ministry. And we need to worship Him. Because as graduates of IBC, we shouldn't be just that of, I have a diploma from International Baptist College and Seminary from Chandler, Arizona. But that we should have a passion of loving God and worshiping God. That is what will make an IBC graduate an IBC graduate. God is willing to forgive and change your whole life so that you can worship Him. He will make your life tough. He will add the pressures. He will push you in different areas to bring you to a point of worship. But Israel had been rebelling and rebelling and rebelling about worshiping to God. Earlier in the chapter, Isaiah says that Israel has sores all over them, they are beaten. And yet, they do not know who God is, yet they're sacrificing to God. But they don't know Him. This is something that God keeps bringing back every year to me. bringing my mind back to the question, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this time together. Lord, I do ask that you would work in our lives. May our sacrifices to you not be worthless, but may our sacrifices to you be out of love and of a genuine desire to worship you. That our pride will not get in the way of our worship. That we will be humble before you. Lord, help us not to forget where it ought to be, but where our heart should be. In Jesus' name, amen.