You can take your copy of God's word and go to Isaiah chapter 1 And we will be Looking at verses 10 all the way through verse number 20 this morning. Thank you, Ethan Now allow me to quickly remind you because I only preached from Isaiah a couple of times a month I Let me remind you what we've considered already out of Isaiah chapter one. We don't want to lose sight of the whole. We don't want to lose sight of the entire chapter. In the first sermon, we were introduced to the man, Isaiah, and to his message to Judah and Jerusalem. And Isaiah, right off the bat, charges, levels charges against Judah and Jerusalem. First of all, he charges them with ingratitude toward God. And then insistent, stubborn rebelliousness toward God. And then he charges them with widespread corruption and degradation. He also charges them with a perversion of justice By their leaders as a matter of fact you find that a lot in the scriptures Warnings against the perversion of justice or the perversion of judgment all right God is very much interested that right be right and wrong be wrong okay, and that you don't reward wrong and punish right. It's a major theme throughout the Word of God. In the second sermon we considered the real scandal behind these charges, the real scandal behind the indictment, and that is that these were God's children. That's the real scandal. This wasn't some heathen nation who knew not God. This wasn't a heathen nation steeped in idolatry. These were God's children. And that makes these charges and this indictment, it makes it a scandal. Not only that, but God had raised up his people to great power and to great greatness. Okay, and they weren't just God's children. They weren't just God's people. They weren't just his chosen nation, but he raised him up to greatness and he raised him up to power. And in fact, he had raised him up above all the nations of the earth. God had raised his people up above all the nations of the earth. And here they are with ingratitude toward God, insistent, stubborn rebelliousness, widespread corruption, and perversion of justice. Now in verse four, the charges are reiterated, only he uses a little different language, a little more specific in verse number four. The same charges, but they're kind of expounded upon. The trouble that we see happening to their nation. And this graphic here is, I think it's from maybe verse 7, their cities burned with fire. The trouble that's happening to their nation is needless. Hear me church, it's needless. They're doing it to themselves. And now they're not setting their own cities on fire. They're not actually themselves destroying their own land. But it's because of them. It's because of their refusal to repent against God. This is the judgment of God upon them. But it's needless. He says, why be stricken anymore? You brought this on yourself. Why are you going to continue to live in such a way that brings the judgment of God upon you? It's needless. In the third sermon, we saw that Isaiah continues to preach. He hopes that Judah will fall under conviction, and he hopes that they might fear the coming judgment. They haven't yet feared this judgment, but he hopes as judgment creeps closer to Jerusalem, precious Jerusalem, their beloved capital city and its inhabitants, he hopes as judgment creeps closer to Jerusalem, he hopes that they'll fear the coming judgment. He warns that bad things are eventually going to reach Jerusalem. Finally in the third sermon we saw a glimmer of God's grace and you always see God's grace in his word always you always see God's grace And I hope as you read the word and you read about judgment and the judgment of God and the anger of God I hope that you I hope the grace of God Is revealed to you. I hope you can see it because the grace of God is always there. It's always there He had kept a remnant of people alive You know, speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, which we're going to do in a second, he offered to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for a remnant. But there was no remnant in Sodom and Gomorrah. There wasn't even ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. And so he destroyed it. But he does have a remnant here. Now in verse, sermons four and five, we took a small, slight detour as we consider the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We did this for two reasons. One is that God likens his people Sodom and Gomorrah he likens them to Sodom and Gomorrah And we're gonna see that as we read the very first verse of our text verse 10. We're gonna see again He likens them to Sodom and Gomorrah and so we need to know why? Why does God call his people Sodom and Gomorrah? And and of course in those two sermons sermons four and five on Sodom and Gomorrah We saw we saw that the Prophet said that Judah was worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Worse. Now that's bad. That's bad. Because Sodom and Gomorrah were bad. And there were two sermons about the bad of Sodom and Gomorrah. A whole list of sins as to why they were destroyed. And Judah is worse. Now we come to verses 10 to 17. And we see God's complete and utter disgust with all of their religious actions. And what we see here, and it dawned on me early in the week, it dawned on me, I'm a little slow sometimes, okay? I really am a little slow sometimes. And at the beginning of the week, it dawned on me that what we're gonna see in this sermon is exactly what we saw in last Sunday's sermon. And it's exactly what we saw two Sundays ago. In fact, anybody that is paying attention would think, oh, he planned that. Because 1 Corinthians 13, their worship and their service is absolutely no good and rejected if they don't have Christian love. And then last Sunday Cain's offering was completely rejected because it was the wrong kind of offering and Cain refused to bring the right offering. And we're going to see the exact same thing here in this chapter. Same message last week and two weeks ago. A rejection of worship Because the heart is not right with God That's the theme That's the unintended theme the last three weeks Rejected worship because the heart is not right with God Now as we read this section Keep this in mind. Okay, keep this in mind and The system of sacrifices that we're going to read about, and the system of feasts, and the system of holy days, and the system of worship, all of these, or at least most of these probably, they have been instituted by God. Now I want you to understand that, alright? Now I know, and I say mostly because I know over time the Jewish leaders added Okay, they added their Commandments of men for the commandments of God they they added things that God didn't tell them to do and by the time we get to the to the New Testament so much of Jewish worship Things that God didn't require at all. Okay. Now that's common. That is common even today men add to religion They add to the Bible they add rules that they have made up and they attach them to the commandments of God That's common even today but what we're gonna read here are Sacrifices and feasts and holy days and worship and that have all been commanded by God. Let's look at verse number 11. Verse 10, let's start in verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. See, there he calls them by their nasty nickname. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Now remember, this is a system of sacrifices that God has instituted, that he has set up. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed beast. 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 or offerings. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feast, 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. God says, I'm sick of your sacrifices. I'm sick of your worship. I'm sick of your prayers. I'm sick of your songs. I'm sick of your meetings. I'm sick of the blood of bulls and goats. I'm sick of you guys treading my courts, traipsing through my house. I'm sick of it all. Let me illustrate it this way. I'm gonna illustrate it in a way that I think you'll get. Okay? I think you'll get this. A husband and wife are out together. Let's say they're at a friend's backyard barbecue, okay? A friend's backyard party. Onlookers see them. They see the wife is loving to her man. She speaks loving to him. She even maybe goes and gets him another sandwich and a drink. She stays by his side, smiling, she holds his hand. Onlookers see a happy, romantic couple. Just enjoying the party and enjoying one another. But it's not that way. It's not that way. It's not real. Maybe one or two people know it, but others don't know it. I mean, it looks so real, it looks so loving, it looks so kind, it looks so romantic. In private, she doesn't speak to him. And if she does, she's yelling at him or she's being condescending to him. At home, she doesn't serve him anything. She doesn't help him at all. They're never in the same room. If they can help it, She never smiles at him, she never looks lovingly at him. They are not happy together. And the husband knows that her public act of smiling and holding his hand and getting him another soda from the cooler, the husband knows that her public act is not real. He knows painfully the reality of their relationship. She may be full in friends, she may even be full in family, but her loving, doting wife act is nauseating to him because she is nothing like she is acting in public. Now I hope that you can't understand that illustration because it's true in your marriage. I hope that you can maybe understand that illustration because you've seen it played out somewhere else. But you know what I'm saying has happened and it happens all the time. At home they, she hates him. She won't be in the same room as him. She won't serve him or help him. She certainly doesn't hold his hand and whisper sweet nothings into his ear. No, by the end public, out comes the acting. And everybody thinks that they're a wonderful, beautiful, romantic couple. Now the illustration is fictional, okay? It's fictional, and yet it's believable. Are you with me church? It's a fictional illustration. I'm not, this is not a secret cry for help to you for my marriage. It's fictional. And yet it is believable. And it illustrates these verses before us this morning. All of these religious holy days that they keep, all of the sacrifices and offerings that they make, All of the prayers and incense and uplifted hands, all of the temple attendance, all of the religious feasts, their loving, doting, worship, their religious services make God nauseated because He knows that is not what they really are. That's not what they really are. He knows very well that they do not love him. He knows that they do not obey him He knows that they do not serve him with love from their heart What's the Bible say They honor me with their lips But their heart is what finish it their heart is far from me God says what is the purpose of What is the point? I'm full of your religious stuff. I'm full of your hymns. I don't delight in your prayers. Stop it. Away with it all. Be done with it. I hate them. They trouble me. I am tired of your church services. I'm shutting my ears and my eyes to all of your religious pretenses. I'm not going to watch and I'm not going to listen because I know you do not love me. This is all fake. Do you know what's better than sacrifices? Do you know what's better than offerings? Better than prayers? Do you know what's better than holy days? Do you know what's better than singing the songs of Zion? Do you know what's better? To obey is better than sacrifice, 1 Samuel 15, 22. To obey is better than sacrifice. The psalmist tells us that what God wants more than he wants these sacrifices, the psalmist in Psalm 51 says that what God wants more, he wants more, he desires more than all this religious stuff, what he desires more is a broken and contrite heart, a broken and contrite spirit. God desires repentance for our sins. That's what he desires first and foremost. And of course, Psalm 51, you know what that is. That's David's psalm of repentance for his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba. And he tells us that's what God wants more than sacrifices, is he wants a broken and contrite heart and spirit. God wants those who worship Him to be humble and to be broken over their sin and to worship with a broken heart and a humble heart and to worship grieving over our sin. That's what God wants. to approach Him with a truly humble heart, to approach Him with a truly thankful heart, to approach Him with a truly holy heart, to approach Him with a truly submissive, obedient heart, to approach Him with a heart that is truly near to Him. But so many people are content with honoring God with their mouth, and their heart being far from them. Brother and sister, I imagine there's far, far more of those people than we can ever imagine, who give God honor with their lips, but their heart is far from him. Solomon, wants to tell us that what God wants more than the sacrifices in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 is to come to the house of God ready to hear the Word of God. Solomon said that's what God wants more than sacrifice. More than sacrifices, God wants you to come to the house of God ready to hear. In other words, you coming in those doors saying, God, I need you. I want you to speak to me today. I need your word in my life. I need conviction of my sins. I need something from your word today. God, would you give it to me today? coming, thirsty, panting after God, desiring the sincere milk of the word, wanting meat to feast on, wanting something for your soul. That's what God loves more than sacrifices, more than offerings. Jeremiah tells the people that because they will not hear and hearken to the words of God, but instead they reject God's law, Jeremiah chapter six, that God will reject their sacrifices. This is a theme throughout all major and minor prophets. Same theme what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 6 you will not hear God's Word. You will not hearken to the Word of God Instead you reject the law of God you reject the commandments of God you reject the Word of God and therefore God rejects your Sacrifices he rejects your worship. He rejects your offerings. He rejects your attendance to church He rejects it all because you reject him in his word. He rejects everything that you do religiously I wonder how many people are wasting their times Wasting their time away in church going through all the motions Because they don't love God they reject his word But it makes them feel good to come it shouldn't make you feel good to come And I hope if that's you today, I hope you don't feel good at all. I hope you're uncomfortable this morning and God wants your heart. He wants your obedience. He wants your humility. He wants your repentance and grief over sin. That's what God wants. Hosea tells us that what God wants more than he wants all of these sacrifices is he wants his people to be merciful and loving. And that goes back to 1 Corinthians 13. He wants his people to be merciful and loving. God speaks a lot about helping the poor, loving the poor, helping the widows, loving the widows, helping the orphans, loving the orphans, being merciful to people, being loving to people, being kind to people, and that's what God wants more than these sacrifices. Hosea says that God wants His people to have a knowledge, Hosea chapter six, to have a knowledge of Him more than He wants your burnt offerings. God would rather you get in this book, learn this book, obey this book, than putting your check in the offering box. God would rather you do this. Amos. I told you all the prophets deal with this. Amos tells us that what God wants more than these sacrifices to him is he wants judgment and righteousness to flow like a mighty stream. And I said that earlier. God is big on justice and judgment. He wants right to be right and be rewarded. He wants wrong to be wrong and to be punished. God wants justice. He wants judgment. He wants fairness. That's what God wants. He wants judgment and righteousness to flow like a mighty stream, and he wants it more than your sacrifices. And also in Amos chapter 5, Amos tells the people, your hymns, your hymns sound like noise to God. Not a sweet melody, but an irritating noise. an irritating noise. Any parent who's raised children is familiar with irritating noises. I mean, not even irritating conversations, not even nonsense conversations, noise. Noises you've never heard before in your entire life. And they just do it over and over and over and over. It's like they've stumbled on some great noise, and it's irritating, and you end up shouting at them. Please be quiet. Amos 5, your hymns are like noise. Now I, When the church sings good, man, it just, my heart soars, my soul soars, and I think you did a pretty good job on Our Great Savior, and I was just, and there are times, or sometimes I stop, and sometimes I stop because I can't hit that note, so I'm leaving it up to you, but there are times that I stop because I wanna listen, and my heart soars as I listen to Our Great Savior, or whatever it is. And yet I am very well aware of the fact that what may bless me may be noise to God. Micah, Micah, the prophets, they keep coming one after another. Micah tells us that God wants more than he wants these sacrifices. He wants his people to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly. He wants us more than a thousand ram sacrifices, Micah says. He wants us to do justly and love mercy and to walk before him humbly. And he wants it more than a thousand sacrifices. And he wants it more than 10,000 rivers of flowing oil. He wants this more. Almost every Old Testament prophet from Isaiah to Malachi repeats this message from God to his people. I hate all of your religious performances. They are empty. They are vain. They are nothing to me. I hate them. I abhor them. I refuse them. The only thing that God accepts is He accepts that which comes from a humble and contrite heart. of one who is trying their best to live obedient to the word of God. And there's no question, no question that the same thing is taking place today, no question. In various so-called Christian denominations, same thing is taking place. Just a form of religion, form of religion denying the power thereof. In various so-called orthodox churches, churches that have their doctrine all right, it happens there. And in various individual worshipers, it happens there. Going through the motions week after week, playing the religious game, making a pretense of being a Christian, attending church, singing hymns, giving offerings, doing religious deeds. but nowhere near God in their heart, soul, and mind. So now what? God said, I hate it all. I hate it all. All of it. You even coming on my property, I hate that. Treading my courts. I hate it. So what? What do we do now? I see, the way I see it, there are three choices. Okay? There are three choices for someone who is involved in vain religion. Pretense. Pretense of religion. Three choices. You can stay with what you're doing. Okay? You can stay with that. Pretending to be religious. Stay with it. Keep doing it. Keep pretending. Knowing that God rejects it all. All right? I've told you that this morning. God rejects it all. If you're pretending at your religion, God rejects it all. But you can continue if you want to continue. Go ahead and continue. But now you know that God rejects it. And you continue at your own peril. Well, there's another possibility for you. You could walk away from it all. You quit playing the game. Take off the costume. Go into all-out heathenism like you really want to be, like is really in your heart. And eventually, reprobation and peril to your soul. So those are the first two possibilities. You can keep playing the game, knowing that God rejects it, but you're fooling some people, so you keep playing it. Or you can say, you know what? I'm done pretending. You're right. I walk away from it. I'm done. I'm done pretending. I'm gonna go live the way that I wanna live what's really in my heart. Or, let's read verses 16 to 20. Here's what I recommend for ya. Oh, hang on, let me get back. The fan's blowin' my pages all over here. Isaiah 1, 16. Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil from 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, sayeth 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, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The best choice for you, and the right choice for you, and the reasonable choice for you, and the only choice for you, is to come to God in true humility, confessing your sins that come out of your dirty heart, your dirty mind, and repent before God in sorrow. That's the best choice. You can either continue living like you're living, playing the game, fooling some people, or you can walk away, both of those a peril to your soul, or you can come to God in humility, confessing your sin, forsaking, repenting, turning to God with a true heart. It's the only right choice. It's the best choice. I think it's the only choice. And let me say this, it's the reasonable choice. Every week, I try to come up with a graphic to be displayed during the sermon. The first thing I do is I look for some graphic on the internet that I'm like, that's it, that's the graphic for my sermon. And then I'll download it and upload it to our software. A lot of times I can't find a graphic that I like. It's just, no, and so I make one. And so when I was looking for the graphic for today's sermon, I typed in, let us reason together. And oh, there's plenty of graphics on the internet. Come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord. There's a ton of them. In the background is a snowy capped mountains. flowery flowing fields Country dirt road and that it says come now let us reason together, and I mean it wasn't liking them. I'm like What is what is that snow-capped mountain? Got to do with it. It's just a pretty picture in the background and all of a sudden it dawned on me That's what's happening Judah Was it verse 7 Their cities have been burned with fire. Listen, listen, listen God says come now and let us reason together and the backdrop is your country's being destroyed The reasonable thing for you would be to confess your sins, cleanse yourself, repent, come humbly before me. That's the reasonable thing to do. And honestly, when that thought came into my mind, this invitation, come now, let us reason together. That is not a snow-capped mountain scene. That is not a pastoral scene of flowers in a field. That is not a dirt road with beautiful fall foliage. No, no, the backdrop to that invitation is burning cities. And that makes this the reasonable choice. Come to God. If you don't come to God, if you keep playing the game, or if you walk away, there's gonna be so much trouble for you and in eternity. Wash yourself before Christ. Be clean. Come to Christ with a true heart's desire and a true intent to turn your back on your sin and embrace Him and His righteousness. That's what repentance is. Repentance is you turning your back on your sin and embracing Christ. That's the essence of repentance. Turning your back on sin and Satan, embracing Christ and His righteousness, learning to do right. You know at the marriage altar, you know almost every couple of promises at the marriage altar? Forsake all others and keep myself only unto you. And that's the heart that God wants. God, I forsake everything else, I forsake all others, I forsake sin, I forsake Satan, I forsake my ungodly lifestyle and I embrace you and I keep myself only unto you. And he will wash you white as snow. Verse 18 has to be one of the most beautiful verses in all of the book. And yet it does not deserve a beautiful backdrop. It deserves an ugly backdrop. But what a beautiful verse. God extends to you an invitation. Your life is a mess. Your life is a disaster. Your life is going nowhere good. Come to me. God wants to reason with the sinner. Is that not what he did with Cain last week? He reasoned with Cain. Cain, listen. Listen. If you do well, it'll be well. If you don't, sin is crouching outside the door to devour you. God reasoned with Cain. Listening to God reason with his people. It's obvious that he has the reasonable choice Quit your sinning wash your hearts and minds Do right be obedient and all this devastation will be reversed It's what he's saying It's what he's saying it's what we just read Your land will be a land of plenty What's that mean? It means all this is gonna be reversed. This is gonna go back to, this is gonna go back to a land of peace and a land of plenty, if you'd come to me. If they refuse and rebel and reject God's offer of grace, then what does he say? The destroyer will continue to devour the land with a sword. Listen, you come to me, you come to me, and we'll reverse this. All of Judah will become once again a land of peace and a land of plenty. I'll bless you if you come to me. But if you don't, this is going to continue and it's going to reach Jerusalem. Your precious Jerusalem, it'll reach Jerusalem. I asked you this morning, are you playing the game? Are you pretending to be religious while your heart is in love with your sin? Unfortunately, a believer still sins, but he doesn't love it. He hates it. The man who loves his sin needs Christ. You have three choices. Only one of them brings peace. Let's pray.