Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you, please turn with me to Isaiah 6:8-13.

In our time in the word together today, we are going to being taking a look at chapters 5 & 6.

For now, as we turn our attention to the Word of God, lets read Isaiah 6:8-13 together (READ).

Pray with me please.

In the passage before us this morning, we find the Prophet Isaiah at what is commonly known as his “commissioning”.

Many of the O.T. prophets give an account of their own commissioning.

Isaiah’s commissioning is a bit different though.

When Jeremiah was commissioned, he gives a specific date—> Jeremiah 1:1-3 “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.”

Ezekiel gives a specific date as well —> Ezekiel 1:1-3 “Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

(On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.)”

But Isaiah’s is simply, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death...” This specific king’s death signified much of what the overall life was like in the 8th Century B.C. Kingdom of Judah.

King Uzziah reigned for 52 years.

This provided stability and security.

Much of the population did have another king.

To put it in perspective, there were around 7 kings in the Northern Kingdom while Uzziah was reigning in Judah.

His long reign seemed to indicate that God’s blessing was upon the Southern Kingdom and that He was pleased with them.

They were a military powerhouse. 2 Chronicles 26:11-15.

They had great economic blessing.

2 Chronicles 26:8-10.

His reign would end in a mess of his own making though.

As he gloated about his success, and 2 Chronicles 26:16-19 “But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men.

They opposed Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense.

Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the Lord God.”

But Uzziah, with a censer in his hand for burning incense, was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the altar of incense.”

Rather than recognizing the blessings from the Lord, knowing that it all came from Him, Uzziah rejected the Word of God and sought to take part in the sacrificial system that he was forbidden to.

Which left him a leper the rest of his days.

The death of this king was a keen reminder of the judgment of God upon sin, and that no one, including a king, is outside His reach.

This message of judgment would become the theme of the Prophetic Ministry that Isaiah would have.

Let’s take a short glimpse of what life was like in Isaiah’s time as he was to preach judgment.

As we do, we can see similarities to the difficulties in our own time.

Look over with me at Isaiah 5; in this passage we’ll see a selection of 8 “woes” pointing to the sins of the society of the time.

(Read verse 8, and comment on “woe”—> Oy! Onomatopoetic devise signifying shock, and the a warning of danger.)

vv.

8-10.

We see the gross materialism of taking more and more land to where you are alone and cannot see your neighbor.

This is different from the farms and fields of today, in that these people were purchasing the Birthright land from other Israelites, and not returning it to the families when they were required to on the year of jubilee.

The judgment would be that the fields wouldn’t yield the crop that was expected.

Watching a moment of TV, or even trying to research what is the best baby stuff, will show you that life is about accruing a bunch of things.

the goal of society is not to be wealthy anymore; it is to look wealthy.

vv.

11-12.

We see the pursuit of pleasure above all else.

To the point that they neglect to be a part of and care for the Work of the Lord.

They pursue “what is best for them” apart from recognizing the One True God.

Everything is made for ease nowadays.

How many streaming services are there?

How many grocery delivery services are there?

Bottled water was invented in the 1950’s.

Before then you had to find your own!

One of the most common excuses for lack of church attendance is “I don’t have enough time”.

What is your screen time like on your phone?

Why do we neglect the things of the Lord?

vv.

18-19.

The people were parading about in their sin.

They no longer were ashamed for their sin anymore.

Verse 19 shows us that they were mocking the Lord, essentially saying, “We’ll believe the Lord’s judgment when we see it.”

Romans 1:32 gives us vivid picture of this: they do the same and give hearty approval of that gross immorality.

v. 20.

This is moral relativism or the reversal of morality.

Which in all reality is a rejection of God’s Law, of His Word (look at verse 24).

v. 21.

Rejection of all authority, including God’s, and following after what they think is best.

We’ve begun “living after our own truth”.

v. 22. Bribed verdicts passed down by drunken judges.

This is justice given to the highest bidder, not blind justice as it should be.

(Deut.

1:16-17.)

Justice is no longer about right verses wrong.

Justice now has to have a qualifier: Social Justice, Climate Justice, etc.

If you go against these, you are canceled, doxed, or assaulted in public.

Remember, that Isaiah is speaking of God’s judgment against His Chosen People!

These People haven been given the Oracles of God, and the Promises, as Paul says in Romans 9.

Its easy to blame the godlessness of the age to the tyranny of Satan and the nearness of the end of the age.

It may even be easy to blame the waning influence of Christianity on the immense darkness that has been bred out of modernism & postmodernism.

Even though that is true, it is undeniable that the Universal Church has become preoccupied with worldly things and has wandered off mission.

We too, like Israel, have wandered into gross syncretism, combining worldly things, and even at times pagan spirituality with Christian thought.

We have wandered from the altar of God, into the High Place of Self-worship.

That is seen most evidently in our worship music; which has turned from God-exalting, theologically permeated masterpieces, to repetitious, mind-numbing, self-congratulatory pep talks.

Our message to the world, rather than focusing on the looming judgment of God, and the ONE way to be reconciled to Him, has become how to be fulfilled in this life and how to love yourself and be “self-actualized”.

How, then, do we prepare to minister in this world that rejects the One and Only true God?

How do we prepare to preach judgment in a world that mocks anything Biblical?

We’ll see three things from Isaiah’s commission that we need to remember, as we minister in this age of rejection:

1. Remember The Powerful Sovereignty of the Lord (6:1)

Look at Isaiah 6:1.

(Read).

The king is dead, but the King of kings is still on the throne of the universe, exercising His will in all things.

As Isaiah we in the Temple in the year that the king died, he was caught up into the heavenly Temple, where he saw that the Lord was enthroned.

This is no accident.

This is supposed to be a striking picture that even if all things political are going haywire, God is still on His throne.

This was very similar to Daniel in Daniel 7:9-14.

After he had just received a vision about 4 Beasts, who were 4 empires that would reign over Israel in some capacity, God gives him a vision of both the Ancient of Days on the throne, as well as the Son of Man, being given an everlasting Kingdom.

This is even after Daniel praised God for His divine Sovereignty: Daniel 2:20-21.

Revelation 1:12-20.

The Lord knows.

No matter the times or the Epochs, God is sovereign.

He is not left unaware of what is going on here.

in fact, even as we sit in a country that is ripe for judgment, we can trust that, as Isaiah 5:16 says “But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.”

The response the message that Isaiah was to preach is not up to him, but up to God (Look at Isaiah 6:9-10).

What we see here is what is known as a “Judicial Hardening.”

This is where God renders the hearts of those who reject Him insensitive to the Message that is being preaching.

This is a part of the judgment of God.