Standing Ruined Before God
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 14 viewsNotes
Transcript
Standing Ruined Before God
Standing Ruined Before God
The Situation
Isaiah’s purpose was to dull to minds, deafen the ears and blind the eyes (v. 10) until a “holy seed” remained and was established in Judah.
He was to continue preaching this message until there was a great emptiness in the land. People were driven far away.
Cities were in ruins and without people. Land was desolate and ruined (v.11-12).
A tenth, a remnant would remain in the land, but the land would continue to be ruined and burned.
Judah would only be a stump of itself.
What was Judah’s problem? They abandoned the LORD by Willingly Doing Evil (1:4, 16-17; 3:12-15)
Moral depravity
Political corruption
Social injustice
Spiritual idolatry
For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they have spoken and acted against the Lord, defying His glorious presence.
Judah was a land of (Isaiah 2:6-8)
Sorcery
Foreign ownership
Unlimited wealth
Unlimited means of war
Idol worship
Pride & Ego
Judah’s Judgment (Isaiah 2:19)
People will go into caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the Lord and from His majestic splendor, when He rises to terrify the earth.
Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it.
The LORD of Hosts will destroy His vineyard because He looked for righteousness, but only saw injustice (5:7).
What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?
Who is guilty - Me or My vineyard (5:3)?
Who is guilty of the evil works and the condition of God’s vineyard? Who was given the responsibility of taking care of the garden? Of the vineyard?
Who are the stewards and what is their responsibility?
Parable of the Vineyard Owner (Mt. 21:33-46) Read
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruit. [Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder!]”
Judah rejected the Cornerstone, God Himself. The One who made the vineyard, the One who waters it, the One who protects it, the One who ensures it’s well-being.
Who is responsible for the condition of our Vineyard today? God or man? But God you did this, you did that, you allowed this, you allowed that. You are responsible for the condition of the Vineyard we live in today.
The truth is God gave us everything we needed in the Vineyard and His question still echos today,
What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes?
Our vineyard’s hedge has been removed, it’s wall of protection is being trampled, this vineyard will become a wasteland. Thorns and briers are growing and will continue to grow, without being pruned or weeded, by the LORD. No rain will fall in it’s correct time. It will snow when it should shine. Why? because their is no righteousness in our land! Just injustice, corruption, oppression.
And the LORD of Hosts says, “Woe, woe, woe!”
Humanity is brought low, man is humbled, and haughty eyes are humbled. But the Lord of Hosts is exalted by His justice, and the holy God is distinguished by righteousness.
At their feasts they have lyre, harp, tambourine, flute, and wine. They do not perceive the Lord’s actions, and they do not see the work of His hands. Therefore My people will go into exile because they lack knowledge; her dignitaries are starving, and her masses are parched with thirst.
God is distinguished by His Righteousness! The Vision (v.1-4)
And the expectation is that His people will be as well in how they live, act, think and breath.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, one is made righteous and enabled to live righteously.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
What does it mean to stand ruined before God?
It is to acknowledge how inadequate we truly are before God and His holiness.
It is to cry out “I am undone!”, “Doomed”, “Destroyed”.
It is to embrace our fallen condition of sin and humbly cryout our brokenness, “Woe to me, a sinner! I am runied, done, doomed, destroyed”; to stand at silence before the glory and majesty of our Creator and Soveriegn King, with nothing to say, no excuse, no justification, no nothing!
This is the picture of true repentence, true humility, true sorrow…when one comes to the end of oneself and is able to glorify and serve God.
Has the coal touched your lips? The Vexation (v.5-7)
One unclean like Isaiah, tarnished willingly by ungodly talk, confronted by his own desperate shortcomings, confesses His unrighteousness, “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean! I live amongest a people of unclean lips! Make me whole; I repent and confess! I am ruined!” (v.5)
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said: Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed and your sin is atoned for.
The Seraphim, the “burning ones”, purge the sin, the evil, the wickedness, from Isaiah’s lips, from his heart. For
But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
Forgiveness, reconciliation, a vessel made right, justified before the Righteous One, the LORD of Hosts, God.
To have one’s iniquity, sin, forgiven and paid for all at once, is to believe and receive the burning coal of Jesus Christ. True sorrow and turning away from sin, always, and only, leads to the acknowledgment and gift of the fire of Jesus Christ to and from one’s heart.
“I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how it consumes Me until it is finished!
It was as He reclined at the table with them that He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, but He disappeared from their sight. So they said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts ablaze within us while He was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?”
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out.”
Just as Isaiah’s haert was cleansed by God’s holy fire, ours is cleansed by and through the fire of Christ. O what glory! O what forgiveness! O the perfect blood of Jesus! Woe to me! Praise to Jesus!
Who will go for Us? The Venture (v.8-13)
Has God compelled you to speak the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the evil of the world?
Do you stand ruined before Him? Before His righteousness and holiness?
Has Christ’s sacrifice ruined you? What are you and I doing about Christ’s gift and call?
Just as God’s words to Isaiah “Go! Say to the people” (v.9), we have a responsibility as people of fire, the ‘Burning Ones’, to share the message most hopeful and loving, to those most in need of ruin.
Will the world open their eyes, listen with their ears, understand with their minds, so that they might be healed and turn back to Christ? It is not the Follower of Christ’s duty to determine who, but one’s duty to simply do.
Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
Be the man or woman, who lives with the burning coal on their lips. Be the “holy seed” of the King to Come! Will Jesus find a faithful servant?
That slave whose master finds him working when he comes will be rewarded. I assure you: He will put him in charge of all his possessions.
Zion’s Future Glory is Ours Aswell
On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors. Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy —all in Jerusalem who are destined to live — when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory, and there will be a booth for shade from heat by day, and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.