Isaiah 5:18-30 - Woes to the Wicked (2)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, And sin as if with cart ropes; 19 Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near And come to pass, that we may know it!” 20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine And valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right! 24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble And dry grass collapses into the flame, So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust; For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 On this account the anger of the Lord has burned against His people, And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down. And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this His anger is not spent, But His hand is still stretched out. 26 He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation, And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; And behold, it will come with speed swiftly. 27 No one in it is weary or stumbles, None slumbers or sleeps; Nor is the belt at its waist undone, Nor its sandal strap broken. 28 Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent; The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions; It growls as it seizes the prey And carries it off with no one to deliver it. 30 And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress; Even the light is darkened by its clouds.
[PRAYER]
In our passage this evening we see more of those worthless grapes Isaiah sang about earlier in this chapter.
Recall Isaiah 5:1-2…
1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
Last Sunday night we saw two of those worthless grapes: greed and drunkeness.
Tonight we look at two more…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
Worthless Grape #3: Contempt/Cynicism/Scoffing/Mockery (Isaiah 5:18-19)
Worthless Grape #3: Contempt/Cynicism/Scoffing/Mockery (Isaiah 5:18-19)
18 Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, And sin as if with cart ropes; 19 Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near And come to pass, that we may know it!”
[EXP] We might also call the sin of cynicism the sin of contempt, the sin of scoffing, the sin of mockery, the sin of taunting God’s judgment.
[ILLUS] Dalton and I with so many items at the grocery that we needed a cart
[EXP] Here the people of God had so much sin that, spiritually speaking, they could haul it in a cart pulled along with cords of falsehood.
They were proud of their heavily-stacked, sin wagons and constantly added more to the load.
Why not?
What was God going to do?
They mocked Him saying to Him, “Hurry up and do something! We want to see what you can do. Let the Holy One of Israel carry out His plan, for we want to know what it is!” (NLT)
The phrase “Holy One of Israel” was a favorite name for God used by Isaiah. It may well be that these people were speaking that name with a mocking tone, “Let the Holy One of Israel carry out His plan.”
Why did they despise God so much?
Why did they mock His promises and His warnings?
Why did they believe that He didn’t know or wouldn’t call their sins to account?
[ILLUS] The best son in his room reading his book; “How did you know?”
[APP] One day the wicked will stand before God and ask, “How did you know?”
The wicked say…
11 The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”
7 “The Lord isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”
But God’s Word says…
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Brothers and sisters, let us consider our sins.
Have we convinced ourselves that God doesn’t see our pet sins?
Have we convinced ourselves that He doesn’t care about them?
Are we pulling along our pet sins with the lie that God will not call it to account?
I hope that we are not mocking the judgment of God in this way.
I hope that we are not producing the worthless fruit of cynicism.
[TS]…
Worthless Grape #4: Distortion (Isaiah 5:20)
Worthless Grape #4: Distortion (Isaiah 5:20)
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
[EXP] In his commentary on this passage, Pastor Derek Thomas, says…
God Delivers: Isaiah Simply Explained 4. Distortion
The unbeliever, in attempting to justify his ways, stands reality on its head! In the darkness of his heart he has convinced himself that his ways are right.
That’s what was going on among God’s people in Isaiah’s day.
It reminds of Proverbs 14:12, which is repeated verbatim in Proverbs 16:25…
12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
[ILLUS] Guy in documentary claiming to be a wolf; but he wasn’t a wolf no matter what he believed
[APP] Many people in our day are standing reality on its head.
Our culture would like us to affirm when a young man claims to be a wolf or a woman.
Our culture would like us to affirm men when they claim to be pregnant.
Our culture has called evil good and good evil; it has substituted darkness for light and light for darkness; it has substituted bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter…
…and it would like us Christians to play along, and some of us are playing along.
[ILLUS] Back in 2018, Andy Stanley, the megachurch pastor and son of the late Charles Stanley, said that the Christian church needed to unhitch itself from the OT.
More recently he said that Christians need to jettison, as he put it, “clobber verses,” which prohibit homosexuality.
And even more recently he held a conference at his church were among the speakers and presenters were two men who are “married” to other men spoke to attendees about LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church.
[APP] But brothers and sisters, no matter what Andy Stanley does, no matter who else plays along with this culture that has turned reality on its head, we cannot do it.
On every issue, we have to keep calling good, good and evil, evil and light, light and darkness, darkness.
Jesus warned us…
34 “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 “Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.
We must have vision clarified by Scripture.
We must have eyes that see the light.
As Christians, we cannot play along with a culture and even other so-called Christians that distort the truth.
But for these two worthless grapes of cynicism and distortion there will be woe; there will be judgment.
But for these two worthless grapes of cynicism and distortion there will be woe; there will be judgment.
24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble And dry grass collapses into the flame, So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust; For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
[EXP] The cynic or mocker who makes the coming of God’s judgment will one day meet God’s judgement.
The distorter of God’s truth will soon have to face unbending truth as He gives account to God.
They will be consumed like dry grass shriveling in a roaring fire.
From rotten root to withering blossom, they will soon disappear like dust in the scorching wind of God’s wrath.
[ILLUS] John and Jimmy trying to burn off a field in dry weather; out of control before they knew it; had to call volunteer fire department
[APP] When God’s wrath finally falls on Israel in Isaiah’s day, it’s over before they know it. The fury spreads to quickly, and even if they would’ve repented then, there was no more opportunity.
There is, however, opportunity for us.
Instead of continuing to produce the worthless grapes of greed, drunkeness, cynicism, and distortion, we can repent of our sins and follow Jesus.
He never sinned in these ways.
He died for our sins in these ways.
He empowers us to bear good fruit through the power of His resurrection.
He promises that by abiding in Him we can bear much fruit.
But He warns that apart from Him we can do nothing.
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]