Isaiah 65 - What's More Important Than Devotion?

Introduction

Let’s open our Bibles together this morning to the 65th chapter of the book of Isaiah.

We will be looking at the first 16 verses of this chapter today.

[READ ISAIAH 65:1-16]

Several years ago, there was a fad driven a lot by those who make merchandise for Christians to buy.

And it centered around an obscure statement in the middle of some genealogies in the Old Testament.

It was called “The Prayer of Jabez”.

1 Chronicles 4:9–10 “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.”

The merchandisers wanted to hold this prayer of this unknown man up as a model prayer, one that we might all pray.

I think, rather, that the Scripture uses this as a negative example, although these two verses are the only thing we know of Jabez and his prayer.

I would suggest to you that the silence of Scripture toward Jabez or anything but his selfish prayer is instructive in itself.

He is mentioned in the part of the genealogy dealing with the line of Judah, but he is not included in the lineages of David nor Jesus Christ.

We can’t even prove he’s Jewish because we aren’t told his father nor his son.

If God made him great, or blessed him mightily, where is the testimony of Scripture to that effect with examples to follow?

And so the testimony that “God granted what he asked” has nothing to do with his petition to God, but all about God’s grace in spite of his selfish prayer.

Even calling him “honorable” is an interpretation;

The word speaks of “heaviness”, and can mean he was honorable or that he was more serious or more dour.

But we do like the idea of someone grave or great being devoted to God.

We like the thought of God bestowing success upon Jabez because he asked God in faith.

Jabez was the first “Christian CEO” - the kind people write articles about today.

And we hear their testimony - “I asked God to bless me, and He did.”

But if your heart is tender before God, if you are seeking HIS glory alone, this selfish prayer just rings hollow.

We should hear the voice of Jesus in Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

For Jabez, “God granted what he asked” becomes a tragic commentary on his foolish prayer.

Jabez didn't pray for life, for God’s glory, for HIS kingdom to come.

Jabez prayed for Himself, seeking what God could do for him.

He was what we might consider devout, but God granted what he asked. There was so much more he could and should have asked.

If that’s not a tragedy, I don’t know what is.

Likewise, the previous chapter of Isaiah, chapter 64, the people of Israel place their prayers before God in a REALLY devout way.

Isaiah 64:1 “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—”

Isaiah 64:2 “ to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!”

There is confession: Isaiah 64:6–7 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”

There is praise of God: Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

And their plea for their city: Isaiah 64:11 “Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.”

What a complete and heartfelt prayer of these people.

Surely, they were devout.

Surely, they called upon the Lord of all the earth.

We read those words today and find instruction on how to approach God in prayer even now.

And yet God rejects that prayer.

Our text today, Isaiah 65, represents God’s answer to the prayer of His people - and the holy God rejects their plea.

Because there’s something more important than devotion - holiness.

Holiness

There was a lot of truth in the previous chapter, even if it flowed from polluted hearts.

God is the Potter; we ARE the clay.

But no matter how beautiful and true their words were, they were unacceptable to God.

God isn’t swayed by your words;

He isn’t charmed by your talents.

He isn’t impressed by your works.

And YOUR glory is NEVER His goal.

The people said all the right things to God so that He would use His great power to bless and deliver them from everything BUT their sin.

They wanted to be blessed without being cleaned.

Wanted to be victorious without being holy.

Hebrews 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

God didn’t save you simply to add you to a heavenly chorus of those who will SING His praises;

He is making you into a holy vessel to serve Him directly.

He isn’t making you into a vessel to be admired,

But one clean enough and holy enough to come into direct contact with His holiness.

God, for the believer, will not be a sight from a distance.

We will ascend the mountain of God, not simply stare at the cloud from the foot of the mountain and hearing the thunder from a distance.

God rejected the prayer of these people because they were “workers of lawlessness”.

They may have made a good show of worshiping God, and they may have even believed they were entirely devoted themselves.

But they were:

Isaiah 65:2 “ a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;”

They want to please God enough to make Him bless them, but not enough to offend those around them or keep them from something they REALLY want.

Is that who you are?

Do you come to church, do the church thing, but then go back to your home or work and make every word you spoke in worship a lie?

Do you love God, but love your sin also?

Are you devoted to God, and still using pornography in any of its hellish forms?

Are you counted among God’s people and gossip about others?

Are you here worshiping today and planning to buy something you really want?

Are you sitting here in this fellowship holding resentment or envy toward a brother or sister?

Do you claim to love God yet refuse to support the work of His church?

Are you part of this body and yet you haven’t prayed for a single other person here this week?

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

That’s what Jesus Christ DIED and ROSE from the dead to make you: a holy nation.

And that which is not glorious in God has no place in the heart or practice of a believer.

The profane, the worldly, are foreign to you, as unwelcome as a tumor to you.

The pollution and filth of this world are foreign to you who was buried with Him by baptism into death.

[READ COLOSSIANS 3:1-10]

This lack of holiness, the arrogance of self-righteousness, God points out in verse 5 of our text today:

Isaiah 65:5 “who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.”

Where Grace Meets Holiness

Maybe you are beginning to excuse yourself, reminding yourself of the grace and mercy obtained by Jesus Christ on our behalf.

But I beg you don’t let yourself off the hook so easily.

There may be someone here thinking, “I’m not perfect, but I’m forgiven” (or something to that effect).

1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And that is absolutely true.

But the lack of holiness in the people in Isaiah’s day or in ours is not the result of a single sin that lies unconfessed;

Holiness doesn’t even MEAN to be free from sin.

If it did, how could the apostle Paul ever call the Corinthian church “holy ones” (saints)?

To be “holy” is to be set apart, separated from the unholy people and things around you, and separated TO God.

It comes from the choice of God, the salvation of God, the sanctification of God, and the preservation by God until the Last Day.

Holiness doesn’t describe perfection, but identification with God in His kingdom.

Put simply, it’s like in sports;

Holiness isn’t about how WELL you play, but the team you play for.

That was these people’s problem in Isaiah’s day:

They were not on God’s team, not living in His kingdom.

Even though they FELT like they were doing all the right things, their hearts were far from Him.

God didn’t kick them out from His people because they had sinned grievously, offending Him deeply;

They did those things BECAUSE they were not His people.

They would be judged for their sins, yes, but because they were not among the people He chose to bring into His grace.

But some, even from among those who were not His people, will be brought into His grace and salvation:

Isaiah 65:8–9 “Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.”

Even though every last stinking one of them deserved His wrath;

Even though every last stinking one of us deserved His wrath,

For His own sake and His own glory, He calls out a remnant to be holy to Himself.

We, who before had sought Him only for what HE can do for US,

We have been brought to HIM, and in that conversion, we seek His glory and not our own.

We live for His glory, by His grace, forgiven by His mercy, by the sacrifice of His Son.

And who are these chosen?

Anyone who calls out to Him and is set apart for Him.

Because we know that no one can call out in repentance and faith EXCEPT he or she be called by God’s Holy Spirit to do just that.

And those He calls, He sets apart, makes holy.

The works of the flesh, the lusts of this world, fade from us as we are transformed more and more by our love for Him.

Because holiness in Christ is the work of our love for Christ, and His love for us.

So as you consider that great sin in your life, ask yourself how you should deal with it in relation to your love of God.

Is THAT sin the way God’s holy vessel is intended to be used?

Is God delighted or grieved by that action or thought?

For the holy vessel He has made you, He has formed you to carry only glorious things;

Things made for His glory alone.

Things flowing from His glory alone.

The mere praise of men is unworthy to be carried in you, you holy vessel of God.

The stuff of earth, far too base to be transported in a vessel made for God’s glory.

And the sin of this world, a pollution of that very work of God.

That’s why repentance and confession of sin is so important for the believer to constantly practice.

We are constantly being tempted to sin, and our hearts must remain in a constant, tender state so we can remove it before it takes hold.

Before it can pollute us and steal our usefulness for God’s service.

It is that very sin that our Lord Jesus Christ came to remove us from.