Again, we shall read the first twenty verses of Isaiah chapter one. They really form an introduction to the book, and it's a call to repentance. And if there is anything that God is very serious about, it is repentance. And God continuously calls his people to repentance. And here in Isaiah chapter one, I believe there are lessons that we can take to heart in a very real way. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and he hath his master's crib. But Israel doth not know. My people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nations. A people laden with iniquity. A seed of evil doers. Children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backwards. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the soul of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. Your land, the strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we would have been like unto Gomorrah. 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, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and of the fat of fed beasts. And I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of egos. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts, bring no more vain oblations. Incense 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. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hath. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye 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 and let us reason together, say it, 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 ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But, if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with a sword. for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his words. Let's pray together. Our Father, we bow before thee in thy holy presence, and we acknowledge that thou art God. Beside thee there is none else. You have revealed yourself to man in creation. You have revealed yourself so that we can say the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Thine eternal power and Godhead is manifested in the universe about us. But you have given to us not only general revelation, but you have given unto us special revelation thy holy word. For the more you have given to us the witness of your dealing with Israel as a nation, and that is before us tonight. And finally, you have given us that very special revelation of thy dear Son. We thank thee, our Father, that we behold thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And with unveiled face, beholding in the mirror of thy word by faith, we are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. As we bow in thy presence tonight, we ask for the special needs that are on our hearts. There are those from our meeting who have been without work now for some time. They send out resumes and they're looking for gainful employment. And we ask on their behalf. We ask you to show yourself strong unto them. And may their lips praise you because of what you do and not themselves because of their own abilities. Oh, God of our praise, we ask you also for those who are laid aside. We think of Mrs. Petrie, and we think of Mr. Cooper, and we thank you that Brother Sutton is so much improved. How we rejoice in thy goodness, O God. And it is the goodness of the Lord, thy word declares, that leads to repentance. We think of Paul Wilkerson, and we think of this Mrs. Peltz, who has this miserable disease that lasts a long time. We just commend these dear ones to you and ask you to graciously undertake. We think of Winona Hope's husband who has a stroke in Duke Hospital, and we commend him to you. We ask you to work in our midst. Deliver us, our Father, from merely being like Israel in this day, of a sin-laden society, of just barely going through the motions of loving you and appearing before you. May we come with a heart that pants for fellowship with ourselves and rejoices in bowing before thee and expressing our gratitude and praise. Meet with us tonight. And we ask in an abundant way for our brother David Morris as he's recovering from surgery. And we ask you to graciously work in his life and give him wisdom to know what to do and not to overdo it. So, our Father, we thank you for the privilege of expressing our needs in our presence. We pray for our missionary family. There are definite needs there. and we ask you to graciously meet them. And then our Father, we ask for our Sunday school. When we see these children next door to the parking lot, we pray that we may see them come into the Sunday school, that they may be saved early in life, and that their parents may become interested in the gospel as well. Grant our God that thy name might be glorified in us and through us. Now we ask for thy word. Speak to us through this word tonight. For we pray giving thanks for the privilege of asking. And we're asking for the honor and glory of thy dear son. In his worthy name. Amen. We basically went through the first four verses last week of Isaiah chapter one. And in Isaiah chapter one we have the witness of creation against Judah in particular. For Isaiah you'll notice according to verse one he prophesied during the days of these kings in Judah. And the witness of creation and we looked at the prophecy that was made by Moses. in Deuteronomy chapter four and Deuteronomy chapter thirty, how that he brought heaven and earth to witness against Israel in the day that God made the covenant with them as they entered into the land of Canaan. And then we notice also in verse three that God calls upon the dumbest of these creatures, the ox, and the most stubborn of these creatures, the donkey and shows that they have more sense than his people who are going their own way now the great indictment that God has for the nation of Israel is found in the end of verse two where God says I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me Israel as a nation was chosen to act like a nation, has chosen to act like a nation now that did not know God. Now nations are made up of individuals. And what was and is true of nations is many times true of individuals in that nation. And it's an amazing thing, and it was just tonight that I was listening to the news. This came home with force. For in verse four he says, Ah, sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children of our corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backwards. And then he describes their condition, that from the soul of the foot to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in it. but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And I've listened to the news tonight, and the news commentator mentioned that there are those who are rebelling against the law that is about to be enacted, the law against discrimination of those who have AIDS. But do you want people with AIDS handling your food in a restaurant? We have a nation here that is sinful. Israel is a nation. And it seems they go together. A departure from the Lord. And a breaking down. Because of iniquity. Now. In verse four he says. Our sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity. Here is a picture of an animal. That has a tremendous burden on its back. And it is. suffering under that burden. And here the nation of Israel is pictured as a people who are burdened under the guilt of their sin. And the guilt of sin many times manifests itself in diseases of the body. For the body breaks down under the stress of the guilt that is upon the mind and upon the heart. And this is what we see in this passage. And this is how Israel as a nation is described. And when I think of our own country, the way in which we are going, I listened to our brother from Illinois on Sunday morning as I was driving to Raleigh, and he asked the question, when did we become so intelligent in this country? that we can brush aside all the restraints that our parents and our grandparents knew that made this country strong. And in the last thirty years the restraints upon society have been brushed aside and the restraints of godliness are very weak. And we are a people of whom doctors say that in a few years every bed in our hospitals will be occupied by an aged patient. And we need to be concerned. Paul Wilkerson, who he's laid aside at the present time, told me six months ago when his wife was in the hospital with her heart condition, he said he was building a an addition to a home for a nurse from Hualum, New York. And he mentioned the hospital. And she can't take it anymore. She was a head nurse in pediatric departments. And what bothered her the most is every tenth child is born with AIDS. And she moved to North Carolina. to get away from New York City. And we cry out, here we have a picture of a nation who knew God, Judah. Israel is already in captivity. Israel, the Ten Tribes to the north, are in Assyria in captivity. But Judah is now to the south, and there's a godly remnant in Judah. But as a whole, the nation is given over. to rebellion against God. Notice the work of corruptors in verses four through nine. We have a description of the people themselves in verse four. They are a sinful nation, a people laden with inequity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corruptors, they are forsaken the Lord, they are provoked, the Holy One of Israel, and to anger, and they are gone away backwards. And We are living in an age when it is not any different than it was in Isaiah's time. Then we have the condition of the people in verses five and six. And we see that the whole body, the physical body of the people, the nation is likened to a physical body. And God has forsaken the nation. Apart from repentance, and apart from being shut up the grace, which we shall see in a moment. But the nation and the physical condition of the people is alike. And then in verses seven and eight we have the condition of the nation. The people are described in verses five and six, but the nation is described. He says your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. your land strangers devoured in your presence and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers what a condition in other words the cities round about Israel were burned and we have an account of it how it took place even in Isaiah chapter is thirty seven thirty eight and thirty nine for in those chapters we have the account of the king of Assyria sending his general in the armies. They had taken Israel into captivity and they were sacking the cities of Judah. But in verse nine we have a great verse. He says, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant. We should have been a Sodom and we would have been like unto Gomorrah. In other words, God always shuts a people up to grace. As we read in Romans chapter eleven, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And they who don't like the doctrine of election, and they who do not, they should be on their knees thanking God for such a thing. For had God not elected some, all would have perished. And so it was with us. Had God not in sovereign grace elected some to be saved, no one would be saved. And instead of hating the doctrine of election, men should be on their knees, thanking God for his sovereign choice and grace. For had he not left the remnant, none would be saved. None, for there is none that seeketh after God. And God has shut men up to grace. And grace reigns through faith. and therefore we proclaim the gospel to men and cry out to men to repent and to believe the gospel in describing the nation that he shut up the grace he tells them in verse eight that the daughter of Zion is like a cottage in the vineyard in other words a cottage here and the word for cottage is the word booth suck up it is the word that describes Israel And the Feast of Tabernacles where they made a booth that they could dwell under. As they commemorated, they're coming up out of the land of Egypt. And for seven days they dwelt in booths, you see. And he likens Israel and Jerusalem that was a walled city. And beautiful for situation as we read in the Psalms. But he says you're left. as a booth in the wilderness. And a booth doesn't give you much protection when the storm breaks. I remember a friend of mine was traveling through North Carolina, spending their vacation looking over the battlefields that are found in various places in North Carolina. He was a close friend of mine. He was pastor of a church in Lebanon. One of my closest friends when he lived there. And we spent many hours together sharpening each other, challenging each other's mind. And he wanted to camp in our backyard. And when he came, he had his tents and everything. I said, Dan, you're not camping in our backyard tonight. Because it was a night like tonight when severe thunderstorms, warnings and watches were... in various areas and we have a tremendous downpour. I think you're going to camp in our basement tonight. Don't even bother to put your tents up because you're in trouble tonight if you do. And you will be in our backyard. You see a booth or even a little tent is not much protection when the water runs over the yard in a thunderstorm because of the slant as it goes down the hill. As the water runs over the yard, in a thunderstorm a few inches deep. That wouldn't have been too nice to be lying in the floor of a tent on the sleeping bag, I'll tell you. And God likened the nation of Israel, no protection. And then he adds that they were like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers or as a besieged city. What a terrible description he gives of the people. But then in verses ten through verse seventeen, their worship was a worship of deceit. For God cries out to them, Hear the words of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. He likened Israel or Judah, the kingdom of Judah, to Sodom and Gomorrah. Ezekiel does the same thing in chapter sixteen. I wonder if God were giving special revelation today to America and the condition we're in, what He would liken us to. I believe He would liken America to Sodom and Gomorrah in spite of all that this nation does in relation to spreading the gospel around the world. In verse eleven he says, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Now, Judah, in spite of their awful condition, they were still going through the motions of religion. It is easy, basically, to go through the motions. They carried on religiously, but God was not in their thoughts, and God would not receive their offerings. their works were rejected by the Almighty. And even after they came back from captivity, when you read the prophecy of Zechariah, which was a book written after the Babylonian captivity, when Zechariah approached God and said, because a nation had asked, should we wear sackcloth? And should we appear before you in the second month and in the eighth month as we've done? And God said, when you did it, did I ask you to do it? Were your thoughts really of me or were they of yourself? This is how God spoke to Zechariah. And we need to examine ourselves when we appear before God. For God says in verse thirteen here, don't bring vain oblation. That means don't just go through the ceremony. Just don't go through the motions, rain ablations. He said in verse fourteen, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. But the worst part is in verse fifteen. When he says, when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. And the spreading forth of the hands has reference to prayer. You see, in the Psalms we read, Let my prayer come before thee as incense, and the lifting up my hands as the evening sacrifice. And the spreading forth of the hands. For that's why in the twenty-fourth Psalm, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands. the hands that are spread forth before God in prayer and a pure heart. A heart that speaks to God in genuine repentance. So in the midst of all this we find that the works of these people are rejected by the Lord. But in verse eighteen we have a word of invitation. Come. This is an imperative word from the Lord. It is a command. It is a command from the Lord to deal with Him. God says, come now and let us reason together. In other words, God says, reason with me. I have been reasoning with you. I have given you my verdict. Will you accept it? And basically, here we have a picture of genuine salvation. Really. It is when the sinner sees himself as he really is. When the nation sees themselves as they really are, it is then that they are ready to reason with God. When the sinner sees himself as he really is, it is then that he is willing to accept God's terms and come to God on his terms and not before then. Reason together. God says, accept my verdict. I'll never forget a man that I got most of his library. He had ten children. And he had a tremendous library. And when he died, none of the children wanted any of his books. His oldest daughter was a believer. But his other children didn't want his books. And his wife said, Philip, will you take them? I said, I certainly will. When he was saved, he was so under conviction, a friend of mine went to see him, and he was mixing a cup of bone-set tea. Anybody who knows anything about bone-set tea, the Pennsylvania Dutch give it to you as a remedy for a cold. And you know you're drinking medicine when you take it. He said, oh, Joe, he said, I'm about to die. God can't do anything for a sinner like me. And he said, I hope I get a little relief out of the bone set teeth. And I think old Joe said to him, I don't think you will. You only get relief when you accept God's verdict and come to God on his terms. All we can seek for relief in the ways of man, but they will not be found. You see, when you read these verses, this is not a Sunday school picnic that God is describing. You see, man has sinned against the Lord, and heaven and earth are witnesses to it. And when we look at it, at the heaven and earth, as we know it today, the air is polluted, the ground is polluted, the water is polluted, there's pollution all about us. Why? Because of the sinfulness of man, and we brought it all on ourselves. We have brought it all on ourselves. And heaven and earth is witness against us the same as it would a witness against Israel. Friends, when God here says, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. This is not signing a decision card. This is owning our wretched condition in the presence of a holy God. God says, Though your sins are scarlet, though their blood red, they can be forgiven. They can become white as snow. If they're red like crimson, they can be white like wool. But there's a warning. In verses nineteen and twenty, he said, If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. To Israel as a nation, God says, If you repent and return to me, I'll bless you and I'll bless you abundantly. For eating the good of the land in the Old Testament is likened to the blessing of God upon a nation, upon the nation of Israel. He shall eat the good of the land. What he says in verse twenty, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with a sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. What a lesson. Really, when you take these verses into consideration, They are telling us, repent or perish. There isn't any other choice. And for our nation, there isn't any other choice. We can listen to the news commentators, and we can listen to those who may chain themselves. But we're paying the price. Just a few years ago to have a crown put on a tooth, it was two hundred dollars. Now it's well over three. Why? Well, the dentist has to buy gloves now. The dentist has to take this kind of precaution and that kind of precaution. Why? Because of people with AIDS and you and I are not allowed to say a word. God cries out to man, and this is a message, I believe, that needs to be heralded from the housetops today. This is a sinful nation. And you and I, who have experienced the election of grace, we have experienced coming to God through Christ, we have the only message of deliverance. As John MacArthur said, we must cry aloud to man. There will be no deliverance where there is no acknowledgement of the disease. And until men in this country are willing to admit where the disease comes from, there will be no remedy of the situation. God says, if you obey, you'll eat the fat of the land. If you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword. What will it be? Tonight, I again thank God for the election of grace. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not ashamed of it. When you come to the New Testament, Romans, verse five, at the present time, at the present time, There is a remnant according to the election of grace. It was when Paul wrote the letter to the Romans and he has reference to a remnant of Israel who saved by the grace of God among while most who were being saved were Gentiles. There was a remnant. Today there is a remnant who believe out of Israel according to the election of grace. And there's a remnant of Gentiles. in the midst of our multitude of churches who are saved because of the election of grace. Oh, that we may lay hold of the truth and may God enable us to know genuine fellowship with himself.