Revival and Hypocrisy

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 84

Scripture Reading: James 1:22-25

FCF/Intro: Jesus said in the Sermon on the mount that we should expect people to hate us, revile us, insult us, as a result of being a Christian. and just a look at the world and what they call bible believing Christians shows that he was right. We are hateful because we feel the need to call sin sin. We are judgmental because we think there is a standard of Righteousness for everyone to live up to. We are vile exclusionary “holier-than-thou” jerks because we proclaim that there is only one way to heaven, Jesus is THE way and THE truth and THE life and NO ONE comes to the father except through him. And for the most part none of these insults bother me at all. Because it is not me that they are insulting, it is the standard and words of God. their true problem is with him, not me. But there is one insult that does bother me. That when I am called it it causes me to take a step back and think: maybe they are right.

I don’t like being called a Hypocrite. And of all the things the world can say about me, this is about the only one that is on me. Because if I proclaim that we must live a righteous life it is one thing to say: no we shouldn’t. It is another to look at me and say: but you don’t do that, why should I listen to you? So we should seek to live lives that are not hypocritical. We seek to be a living testimony to the world around us so that they may, as Jesus commanded us to do “Let our light so shine before men that they may see our good deeds and glorify our father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Then that becomes a portion of my testimony, I try not to be a hypocrite, but and thankful for the grace of God that even when I don’t live up to his standards I am still forgiven.

But today we are looking at something far worse then being called a hypocrite by the world around us. What happens when God is the one calling you a hypocrite? That is what happens to God’s people in Isa 58:1-59:13. We have moved into the final portion of Isaiah, all about revival, but what happens when the people that need revival are a bunch of Hypocrites? Isaiah will address this for us today. But before we dive into the text, lets begin with a word of Prayer.

PRAY

Before we go any further however I want to make sure we are working with the proper understanding of Hypocrisy. The Oxford dictioanry definition is: the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense. So when what you say you believe and what you do don’t match. Well the thought in Isaiah is almost the reverse. It is when the things you believe are so wrong that they influence what you do. It is the thought that one’s formal religion or self righteousness can cause the revival in your life, or in the world around you. And what God is quick to say to his people here is that is not the case.

Lets look at verses 1 and 2 really quickly.

Isaiah 58:1–2 ESV

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

Isaiah is told to cry aloud, DO NOT HOLD BACK. don’t sugar coat this message to the people. Speak up, speak out with a loud voice, Make sure they can’t ignore you. Tell them their great sin. Tell them their transgressions. Make sure they understand the wretched state of their heart.

but then verse 2 seems to be a bit weird. Tell them their sins: They seek me daily”.. wait, isn't that a good thing. “they delight to know my ways” what happened to “make their sins known, proclaim their transgressions?” well look carefully at the next line in the ESV and NIV “as if” they were a nation that did righteousness. the KJV NKJV have the same thought, they do these things “as” a nation that is righteous. They themselves are far from that. they are acting like they are a righteous nation, pretending like they are not going against what God has commanded. They are AS IF they did not forsake the judgement of the Lord. When in fact, that is exactly what they did. What we will see take place in the larger scope of our passage is that they have developed their own formal religion that operates in their spheres the way that they want it to, when in reality they are being spiritual hypocrites. claiming to love and follow God when that is not what they really believe, their actions show that to be true. So God gives it to them in a perfect example. He gives them:

The PICTURE of Hypocrisy: Fasting!

He looks to the fasting to make sure that they understand what they are doing is NOT what God asked them to, but something they have done themselves.

READ ISAIAH 58:3-12

it turns out that this is like I said a reverse sort of hypocrisy that ends in the same result. as one of my commentaries says: to look like a nation that does righteousness and to be a nation that does righteousness are two totally different things! It turns out that you can have a case where people look, act, talk right. they seem to delight in the things of God, yet in reality they are far from it. this is shown to us in their fasting.

they were:

FALSE Fasting

So what marks false fasting? It is a fasting that thinks that it can demand Form God anything. Note in verse 3 the heart of the people. WE FASTED AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING! we humbled ourselves God, that means you now HAVE to do this that or the other. It is a fast that thinks: I did this so now God will do that. It seeks to MAKE God do something as if you in your actions have any sort of power over the Sovereign Lord of Heaven. It aint gonna happen. Yet we do this all the time. We consciously and even subconsciously think: If I do this, God will go that. it is a part of our sin nature that we think we can MAKE god do anything. Religious behavior is for the purpose of getting something from God…While this has appeal, this is not biblical religion!

It is SELFISH. verse 3 again, you seek your own pleasure. this is a fast that thinks, OK, i will not eat this day so that god will give me this that or the other thing that I want. So you haven’t done this fast because God commanded it, inn gratitude or service to HIM, you do it so god can serve YOU. you vile selfish faster.

It is Demanding, it is selfish, and it is UNJUST. the next line is that they oppress their workers. The picture here is you go and say: I need to fast today, but you\, no you have to work. I know it is important for me to fast, but you gotta pick up the slack buddy. you don’t get to fast because i need you to work.

So false fasting is selfish, demanding, unjust it is also COUNTER PRODUCTIVE. you are fasting not to live a more Godly life, in reality you are just HANGRY so now verse 4.

It turns out the people have been able to take what God has commanded them to do and flipped it completely on its head. What should have been a glorious service to God, used to make them, and their country more holy has had an opposite affect because they have warped it. Fasting which is a calculated prompt directed at the Lord, a day of self-pleasing to the disadvantage of others and provocative of the worst elements of the human spirit brings no spiritual result because it does not go beyond the formal act; it has no currency in heaven

So God tells them point blank. Its worthless. Is this a fast that I would choose? God asks in verse 5. NO! God will not hear it, will not honor it. In fact, your hypocrisy is not gaining you favor with God, on the contrary, it is gaining you more and more judgement. This mercenary religion is dangerous, lacking integrity, power and the favor of God. So God tells us, instead of this false fasting do some

here is where we see the full extent of the hypocrisy on display, for God will tell his people what they should be doing, it turns out what God wanted wasn’t some demanding self serving self gratifying non-God glorifying fast.

so we can, and should ask: What marks a true fast? What marks a fast God would want?

For starters a fast should increase justice. Isaiah 58:6. What a contrast just three verses before. In the false fast verse 3 “you oppress all your workers” in a fast that God would be pleased with we are breaking every yoke. Some people read this verse as an allusion. God doesn’t mean ACTUALLY break yokes, this is symbolic. I would argue that the context and thought here is that this is more literal than we might want. The issue with the false fast is that it was inwardly focused, it wanted what I could get, It wanted to make God do for me. The signs of a true fast are are you doing for others? A true fast will vindicate itself by showing up in righteous works on behalf of others.

How do I know this? because the call to look after others continues. We fight for justice, and we meet the needs of those around us. verse 7 a-c. Lets just focus on the first one for a second because this is beautiful. What marks a good fast? Is it you NOT eating or the needy around you being able to eat? Is this not a fast I will choose God asks in verse 6 TO SHARE YOUR BREAD WITH THE HUNGRY? verse 7. Thus fasting has an outward focus. It is more important to alleviate the hunger of others than to inflict hunger on one’s self. Here’s the point, when you are engaging in a voluntary fast, when you have decided that “today I will experience hunger” you are supposed to remember that there are people who that was not a decision that was made, but a reality of their life. A true fast, when Done in submission to God and his will and whim is much more about the people hurting and in need around you than it will ever be about you.

OREO'S IN COLLEGE...

but there is a final thought three things a true fast should foster. 1 it should increase justice, 2 it should cause us to meed needs of those around us and 3 it should make sure that we take care of those closest to us. There is a weird little line at the end of verse seven that bears some looking into. READ THE LINE

Any fast that God will choose, honor, approve of will increase how we take care of our family. This is true, I believe on multiple levels. If should increase how we physically take care of our family. What good would it do if I were to spend all sorts of time meeting the needs of all those around me but neglect those CLOSEST to me? that makes no sense. But I think also spiritually a true fast will increase how I pray for and lead and “care for” my family spiritually. Just again to contrast with a false fast that causes fights and quarrels a true fast will increase love. If anyone has the opportunity to know I am hungry and grumpy, it is my family, so I need to extra focus and making sure that my fasts lift THEM up.

Ultimately heres the point of this section: It is hypocritical to do the things God has called us to do in ways that do not honor God. It is hypocritical to seek to take the gifts and tools that God has given us to warp and bend to try and fit our thoughts of What God should do and how my life should be. Yes this applies to fasting, but we need to understand that ANYTHING we do can fall prey to this type of thinking. Coming to church, GIVING to the church, reading your bible, all of these things are r but as soon as your thought becomes: what will I get from this, what will this MAKE god do for me, how can this thing somehow indebted God to ME?!?! well then you have messed it up. James can help us out here.

James 1:27 ESV

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

We can and should note what it is, and what it is NOT.

But now lets suppose you come to me and say Pastor David: should I fast? How should I, knowing all this answer that question? And as I contemplated that this week I realized I CAN’T. if you want to ask me “should I fast” my answer will be “why do you want to?” If it is because you want something, if it is because you think that it will get you something, if you want to fast because you think for YOU… anything, then the answer is probably not. At that point it is a practice in self-discipline more than a service to God. but if you say: I think I want to fast because I see some times in my life, in the world around me, where justice need to be increased. and I would like to fast to set myself in prayer and in actual work against these injustices, then go for it. If you think: I just need to take a day, set aside to pray for, look after and lead my family then PLEASE, fast. If you think: God has given me every blessing and I need to set aside a day rejoicing in the things that God has done for me MORE than I need to be eating then please I would say its not just good to fast, it is great to fast. But we need to remember that we can be hypocritical in all our actions and God weighs the heart.

But if we are truly fasting God will guide, God will lead, God will bless, God will USE us. that's what verse 8-13 were all about. But now we have a conundrum. I've messed up. You've messed up, we have all messed up. We have done a whole host of things thinking that this will MAKE god do something. what is the solution?

The Solution: REPENTANCE

in verses 13 through 14 we have what God is calling for us to do.

READ Isaiah 58:13-14

from fasting to the sabbath but this is a beautiful picture. because when we fast forward to the time of Jesus we see that it was not just fasting that had been warped, but the sabbath. What was the biggest concern that the pharisees had with Jesus? well LOOK AT WHAT HE DID ON THE SABBATH

so this become the point, if you have stopped doing what god has called you to because of love and service to God, be it fasting, be it the sabbath, be it whatever, then here’s the fix: turn back your foot, stop doing these things for selfish reasons. and realize these things are a DELIGHT.

We delight in the Lord, we delight in his commands, we delight in doing what he loves, and we delight in serving him. We repent of our joyless false legalism and instead rejoice in the Lord.

the Lord, it turns out, is more interested in our enjoyment of him and HIS blessings that come from obedience than he is on our self imposed deprivations. this is what one commentator calls “the intersection between personal religion and ethical religion”. I delight in the Lord, and therefore I delight in what he has called mew to do. I delight in following his commands, i delight in pleasing him, I delight in serving him. When these things are true then My fasting, My sabbath observances, my whatever I do for God will be pleasing to him.

So how do we repent? how can we turn our foot back? how can we please God:

In three Steps:

Isaiah will take us through in 59:1-13 three steps. Today I would like to quickly look at them one at a time. And I usually don’t get too into grammar, you all come for a sermon, not a grammar lesson, but here it is extraordinarily helpful and so I can’t NOT do this. I believe it will help us understand God’s words better.

the key to understanding this next section is to LOOK AT THE PRONOUNS. the first is marked by “YOU” pronouns verse 1-2 where the fist step to true repentance is to see...

Sin CONFRONTED

Isaiah 59:1–3 ESV

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.

The Lord CAN save BUT. this is a reversal of all the verse that I usually say are my favorites, the powerful BUT GOD passages in Ephesians and places like that. Here its god can save but YOUR SIN is a Real problem. again note the pronouns it is YOUR sins have hidden God’s face from you YOUR iniquities have made the separation it is YOUR SIN, here specifically the sin of hypocritical fasting and profaning of the sabbath but we can generalize. your sins of idolatry, your sins of selfishness your sins of not trusting God, your sins of not loving God, your sins of not following the commands of God, we could go on and on and on

To impress your friends you might call verse 3 a parallel construction of arguments from the greater to the lessor. To rightly understand this passage you would just say: wow, God uses two pictures that are similar to get the point across that my sins are all consuming and vile.

Hands to fingers means all that you do is defiled with blood (injustice) and iniquity. Lips to tongue means that ALL that you say is wicked lies. Sin MUST be confronted. we need to hear the harsh truths that we are sinners, that we need to repent. If we do not confront sin then we will not see our need TO repent.

but then we move form “YOU” pronouns to “they pronouns as

Sin DESCRIBED

from verses 4-8 God tells us of the nature of sins. It is injustice it is wickedness but we get more detail. So we have been condemned, but it is usually easier to see externally, so the focus is on sinners (you are not off the hook, all have sined), and we ask: what does their sin look like.

Isaiah 59:4–8 ESV

No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.

Two thoughts, one on verse 4 there is injustice in the courts, the one place that we would long most for justice to rule, and we have a beautiful picture of the corrupting power of sins with the thought that “they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. this is what John Calvin calls an “elegant metaphor”. this is what he says: the whole picture sets the normal directly on it’s head. what is the normal result of conception? Life. But here the result is trouble with all the things that trouble connotes. What is normally born? an innocent child. But here what is born is twistedness and guilt. Instead of the normal process of life and regeneration, a society such as this gives its energies to the production of shame and sorrow.

the second thought is this picture of the eggs of an adder and the web of a spider. the thought here is that whatever they put their hands to it is always worse. what is worse than an adder? a baby adder, that is more violent more venomous and more deadly than any other. so you try and eat their egg, crush it so It will not harm you and you end up more poisoned. The we b of a spider will not serve as clothing yet once it is on you it is there, you can’t get it off, you end up ore and more tangled in it. so too with sin. the sinners best effort will always leave him more poisoned, more entangled, more helpless, more lost. Sin is an all consuming problem. So what do we do, well we move to our last pronoun. Form being confronted with YOU to describing sin with THEY we move to

Sin CONFESSED

here we have WE/US. there has finally ben an acknowledgement that yes we have sinned.

Isaiah 59:9–13 ESV

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

We confess, we have sinned. we are far from God we have transgressed him. Gone is any sort of self-righteous defensiveness. Any thought of “But i tried” any thought of “well I was better than...” here it is laid bare. We have sinned.

and when this awareness dawns there is hope indeed.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

every sinner knows how hard it can be to reject certain sins, but every saint knows that victory is possible through God’s Grace!