Precept Upon Precept

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! 2 Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand. 3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot; 4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand. 5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, 6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. 7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. 8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. 9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? 10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” 11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. 13 And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Target Date: Sunday, 11 August 2024

Thoughts on the Passage:

The word “crown” is used three times in this passage, twice of the ephemeral crown of power and adulation in this world, and once of the true crown of glory that is the Lord.

The first two crowns are called “crowns of pride”.

Also compared to a fading flower.

2 – The Lord, in His might and sovereign work, beats down against the fragile flowers of earthly glories.

4 – The proud crown of this world is in constant danger of being poached and swallowed up by covetous people.

Covetousness is not just simply wanting what another has; it is much more often becoming discontent with our lot because of the fortune of others.

Our hearts, from the greatest to the least, are wont to lust after the glory of others.

5 – This is the crown imperishable, the crown of glory, that the Lord promises to those who love Him.

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4:8

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. – James 1:12

On the seashore in John 21, Jesus didn’t ask Peter 3 times “Do you repent?” or “Do you now hate your sin?” He asked him “Do you love Me?”

The secret to true righteousness and authentic repentance is no secret: it is born and incubated in our love for Christ.

Peter was truly repentant, but the question of Christ was much deeper than his mere obedience.

Obedience is crucial, don’t mistake that; but it is crucial as a work that flows FROM faith and love, not one that CAUSES them. Faithfulness is NOT faith; it is the fruit of faith.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. - John 14:15-24

In this passage, keeping the commandments is the result of loving Christ (vv. 15, 23) and the indicator of someone who does (v. 21). We must be careful of the lure of legalism: if I obey all the commandments, then I am loving Christ.

That is like saying “If I bring flowers to my wife every day, I am loving her.” While this is a loving act, it is an action that flows from a heart of love, not an action that manufactures a feeling of love.

If Christ was just proclaiming another holy law, we are just as incapable of keeping a new, expanded law perfectly as we were the original law, whether from the Garden or Sinai. We would STILL need a Savior from our guilt against the new one.

9-13 – This is the picture of sanctification: precept upon precept.

If you are battling the same sin at the same level you always have, are you certain you have truly repented out of love for Jesus Christ?

Have you grown in your love for Jesus Christ such that the lust for the sin has lost some hold on you?

That is what sanctification is – a step-by-step separation of you from the sin of this world.

We come to Christ hopelessly entangled in the sin of our hearts, a giant root ball attached at a million points to the manure of this world.

Have you seen a victory over some great sin: removing pornography from your life, or drunkenness, or gossip?

If you have, are you stuck, thinking there is nothing more to do because all the efforts you have made toward sanctification have revolved around defeating that single sin for such a long time?

Do you think that if you keep that single sin at bay, you are finished with the greatest part of your sanctification?

That is a temptation: to neglect equally-deadly sins in your life, sins equally condemned by God.

Perhaps you don’t want to lose vigilance over the old sin.

Perhaps you are weary from the fight.

Perhaps you see the deeper sins within your heart, and they promise an even greater fight and require even deeper change in you.

Perhaps those sins are more hidden, easier to keep out of the light, so that people will not know of your losses there as easily.

It is not only possible, it is common, to put away some great sin, but to do nothing with greater sins.

Like a thief who vows not to steal again, but looks in envy and covetousness and greed at everything others have that they do not.

Or like a person who has put away pornography, but views others through the lens of “what can they do for me?”

Christians, we will not be finished short of heaven with our battle with sin, and if you think you are “doing pretty good” in obedience, let me suggest you take a step closer to our blessed Savior.

Read new parts of Scripture and lay your heart open to the condemnation of the sin those words discover inside you.

Set your heart to meditate, to ponder, in love for Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross on your behalf. Is His sanctifying work really complete in you?

All of these things are designed not to make you more worthy or even better, but to bring you MORE into dependence upon Jesus Christ and His Spirit for your righteousness and holiness.

Precept-by-precept – that is sanctification’s progress – as one sin is cut off, the love of Christ will apply itself to another.

And as one sin is mortified, put to death, it will reveal even greater depths of sin you never realized you had.

Does that sound exhausting – always fighting sin?

That is a reason to thank God – He has given us weapons that are not fleshly, but powerful in the Spirit through God.

I have an inherent distrust of a preacher who spends his time speaking of the evils of society.

It is an easy way to get “amens” - to talk about how BAD the world is.

But I tell you, there is enough sin in this ROOM to occupy every minute of the pulpit from now on.

There is plenty of sin right here that is unconfessed, unrepented, undealt-with, and even unknown by the person who is doing it.

There are plenty of people right here who have sinned this week and shrugged it off as “just a small thing” or “just the way I am”.

It is a false sense of security and self-righteousness to focus on condemning the sins of the sinners in the world.

Condemn YOUR sins, the ones you carry with you that you think are smaller than those of the world.

Weep for the sins of others, fine;

Preach the salvation of Jesus Christ to them, absolutely;

But don’t allow your own indwelling sin an opportunity to rest and grow while you are wagging your finger at the sin of others.

It would be like a man sinking in the middle of the ocean spending his last thoughts on who will be the next president of the US. Or on the politics of Russia. Or the latest person a Kardashian is sinning with.

You have more pressing problems:

You own sin.

The support of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

That was the message of Christ to a repentant Simon Peter on the shore of the Sea: feed My lambs.

His sin taken care of through his love for Christ, his commission is to tend the sheep of Jesus Christ.

Sermon Text:

[Read Isaiah 28:1-13]

Let me begin by saying this: drunkenness and intoxication is bad, sinful against the Most High.

It is not a joke;

It is not simply a party choice;

It’s not merely a disease, a condition;

It is an offense against God.

But the passage, while calling out the “drunkards of Ephraim”, is not entirely about drunkenness.

We see they were drunk on many other things than wine and strong drink.

There is a refrain in verses 1 and 3.

Verse 1 says literally, “Woe to Pride’s crown, Ephraim’s drunkards”.

Verse 3 uses exactly the same description.

They are not somehow wearing a crown of pride; they themselves, in all their drunkenness and degradation, are the crowning glory of their own pride.

The crown is not something they WEAR; it is who they ARE.

They are not rulers soon to be overthrown by events and mighty nations;

A strong people who would simply be bested on the battlefield by a superior opponent.

They are the pathetic limit of their own abundance and gluttony.

They have become so accustomed to having plenty that they take it for granted and waste themselves in dissipation.

They might even say they are thankful to God for the blessings they are squandering;

But God didn’t lavish His blessings on this nation so they could have day after day of ease and parties.

Entertainments and diversions.

The one thing we can be sure of: these people of Ephraim, leaders and priests and prophets, were so softened by their prosperity that they could not BE mature.

Much less ACT mature. They could not, in themselves, find maturity or the wisdom that comes along with it.

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. 20 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. - Proverbs 23:19-21

What is a drunkard? Someone who is habitually drunk or out of self-control.

And a mature person, a wise person, a person with responsibilities who knows they have responsibilities cannot long remain a drunkard or an addict of any sort without the warnings of Proverbs proving true in his or her life.

A man who has to wake up in the morning to go to work and bring in food and supplies for his family doesn’t have time for the foolishness of drunkenness.

The woman who needs to take care of her household, perhaps even helping earn money for her family, doesn’t squander her time or resources in chasing a buzz.

Drunkenness is the opposite of maturity, a perversion of it.

It mocks the user and weakens him or her.

But it wasn’t just drinking and drunkenness that caused the Lord to pronounce “Woe” on this nation.

Those things were a symptom of their much more serious condition: they had left their God.

And when they did that, no matter how easy their lives became or how much spare time they had to squander those precious minutes of life God had allotted them,

No matter how many opportunities and temptations they had,

Nothing would hold off the day that all their festivities would come to an end.

It was a fading flower that had once been an emblem of God’s glory.

It was a fruit that was ripe to be taken and swallowed up; not treasured, but consumed.

They thought they were safe.

They thought they were protected.

They thought they were beautiful and good.

And they were rotten to the core.

They were Pride’s crown, the great work of their own high opinions.

They were the greatest cheerleaders for their nation’s greatness.

And God tells them they stand as little chance against His sovereign plan as a fragile flower stands against a raging hailstorm or a rampaging flood.

What kind of strength are you relying on today?

What kind of courage will enable you to stand in the day of God’s storm?

Do you trust in your strength, your guts?

Or can you pray with David:

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! … Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. – Psalm 20:1, 7

That is the choice, isn’t it?

Verse 5 tells us that the Lord is another kind of crown entirely:

“Glory’s crown, beauty’s crown”.

Not pride, but glory.

Not a scattered table full of vomit, but beauty.

Not reeling and falling down, but standing strong.

He himself is the great crown imperishable, Glory’s crown, that awaits His people on the Day.

He is the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him (James 1:12).

And it is God, this greatest crown of all glory and beauty, who teaches His people what is really important, what makes for maturity.

Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.

That is God’s great work in His people, isn’t it:

To bring us to maturity in Him.

The theological term for that process that builds and grows precept upon precept, line upon line is sanctification.

It comes from the root sanctus, meaning holy, separated.

It is the work of God to set us apart for Himself and His own glory.

When God makes us alive in Jesus Christ, saves us and declares us forgiven, that is justification.

It is His declaration that He has accepted the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, and has punished all our sins in Him, and placed the righteousness of Christ onto us.

And that moment begins His work of sanctification, maturing us in Him by His law and by His Spirit.

Justification is instantaneous and complete in an instant; sanctification is gradual, sometimes painfully so.

Precept by precept, line by line, here a little, there a little.

A tedious unknotting of the sin that had completely entangled us.

A careful severing of those things that hold our hearts to the things of this earth.

Some may wonder: if God forgave all my sin at the point of justification, why do I NEED sanctification?

First: you sin is no less offensive and odious to God after you are saved than it was before.

Indeed, it is MORE odious to Him.

He is still holy, and He is still concerned for your holiness.

It would be like your child and a kid from down the street were playing in the yard, rolling around, and they both rolled through great piles of dog poop.

The kid down the street’s odor is bad, but he is far away; your kid lives in your house and brings that odor in with him.

And your first impulse is to clean your child up, cleansing all that filth from him.

You won’t disown your child for being filthy, but it doesn’t mean you want to leave him in his filth.

Second: from our passage today, the goal of your salvation IS your sanctification.

That is the REASON you were saved, to set you apart, to make you holy and mature.

The foolish people of Ephraim were too proud to hear it, drunken with their own self-opinion.

V.9 – To whom will He teach knowledge? To whom will He explain the message?

He seeks out His children to do that very thing –

To teach His knowledge.

To proclaim His message.

To bring to maturity His children in a way that those outside, Pride’s crown, will never know or understand.

That is why I have a distrust of preachers who spend their time speaking about the evils of society.

It’s an easy way to get “amens” – to talk about how bad the world is.

But brothers and sisters, I tell you there is enough sin in this ROOM to occupy every minute of every sermon in this pulpit from now on.

There is plenty of sin right here that is unconfessed, unrepented, undealt-with, and in many cases even unknown by the person who is doing it.

And those drunkards outside God’s people will never know or understand or obey His precepts and laws.

He speaks His word for you, for His people. You are being sanctified if you are among those who have been justified.

God doesn’t sanctify the world; he sanctifies His people.

So what is the message of God to the world?

Show them their sin, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that they should try harder or do better.

The message of the gospel is not that we can make the law of God into a national legal code that CAN be followed.

The message of the gospel is that when they have seen a glimpse of the depth of their sinfulness and guilt before the holy God,

They can be saved by repentance from their control of their own life and faith in Jesus Christ to fill them with His Spirit.

The good news is that even though they deserved God’s wrath, He made a way that they could be forgiven in a moment and precept by precept, line by line brought into usefulness to that same holy God.

So how is that sanctification accomplished?

Some would say with more Bible reading and study.

Or more prayer.

Or greater effort.

Or more accountability.

All of those things are good, but there is really one way to sanctification.

Think back to a moment on a seashore, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21).

Jesus is resurrected, and His disciples, after He had risen, had gone fishing.

Simon Peter was all but disqualified from service to Jesus – he had denied he even knew Jesus on the night of His crucifixion.

And everyone on that boat had run when the soldiers showed up in the Garden of Gethsemane.

None of them were worthy to serve the Christ. But Peter was the worst.

But as they are sitting there eating their breakfast, Jesus looked at Peter.

He didn’t ask him “Do you repent from denying Me?”

He didn’t ask him “Do you now hate your sin?”

Three times, He asked him the same question – “Do you love Me?”

Do you love Me?

The secret to true righteousness and authentic repentance is no secret at all: they are born and are incubated in our love for Christ.

And it doesn’t matter what else you do: reading through your Bible, praying for hours on end,

If you don’t love Jesus Christ, they are all just exercises in futility.

John 14:15 says If you love me, you will keep My commandments.

Because our time is short, you may need to trust me now and search the Scriptures later,

But He is not saying that we love Jesus BY keeping His commandments.

He is saying that if we love Him, keeping His commandments will flow from that, like a fruit from a healthy tree.

Yes, yes, I know that John also reverses that to help us examine ourselves – if we are not obeying, do we really love Jesus?

But they are both really saying the same thing:

Love for Christ CAUSES obedience, not the other way around.

Please stay with me because this is important.

So many people search the Scriptures and pray and do all kinds of other things looking for techniques for obedience.

Or they read the Bible and pray because it’s their duty, something God commands them to do, even if their eyes are just scanning over the page taking in every other word.

Have you done that? Just read your Bible because you felt like you OUGHT to?

That is the very heart of Law, not LOVE.

If we are seeking to love our Savior more, we will read the Bible and we will pray,

But not because He blesses us when we hit a quota of time or chapters.

A person in love with Jesus reads the Bible to see how he can please Christ more.

How she can do more things that are holy and fewer things that are sinful.

Prayer is a conversation of love, intimate and entirely dependent on Jesus Christ.

A person who wants to make progress in sanctification will also read the Bible searching for more things God has done to show His love.

To understand more the depth of our sin He overcame to save us.

To know more of His goodness and perfection so that your heart is filled with gratitude and praise.

Believer, do you struggle with a sin that seems to always come back, even when you have REALLY been sorry for it and swore to God you will never do it again?

Hear the waves rolling in the background as Jesus asks you “Do you LOVE Me?”

And consider how to know more ways that capture you with love for Him.

Lay your heart open before the word of God as you read, asking at every opportunity “Am I guilty of that?”

Search for the tender expressions of His love for you, His kindness toward you, His mercy. And let those things indebt you even more to Him, binding you more closely to Him.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is Glory’s crown, Beauty’s crown.