God Saves Sinners

This sermon, according to the number on the top of your bulletin is the 57th in this series, but that is a little wrong, we broke one of them into two, so really this is the 58th sermon in this series. SO we have been in the book of Isaiah for over a year, plus a few weeks here and there, and an advent series, so it has really been a long wile since we started this book. And so I thought it would be good as we close out this series on Isaiah, and before we dive into a series through Matthew (in case you hadn’t heard, that's where we are going next) that we ask a fairly simple question: what have we learned? What has been told to us over the past year? In some sense we can and should ask this corporately, we as a church have together been going through this book spending a lot of time looking at and studying both on Sunday mornings, and on Thursday nights, so what have we learned? But individually we can ask the same question: what have I learned? You can and should ask: what good has been done in my soul by going through the book of Isaiah? as I continue life now, how might I be changed by the study of Isaiah? Even more to the point, if anyone asks you: what is Isaiah all about? having spent a year plus in this book what would you answer?

So today a little differently than normal, we don’t have a passage, I have cheated and said the passage is all of Isaiah, I would like to look at four lessons that I look at as the major thoughts and major themes that tie together this whole book.

Lessons we should take from Isaiah:

These four are not an exhaustive list, and in all honesty if you were to sit down and think: what have I learned, what will I take form Isiah, you might come up with a different list, and that is OK. But I would like to look today at four things, four principles, a question even, but four things that we can put down and say: this is what God has said in this book. This is not meant to be a complete and concise summary, but more of a retrospective, a reflection on the book in general. these are not the only four lessons to learn, but just ones I think are very important, and the list that I have been developing as we have gone through this book.

The first I have called THE PEOPLE OF GOD

PEOPLE OF GOD

What do I mean by this? Isaiah has been asking and wondering: Who are the people of God? What benefit, in some sense, is there in being the people of God when the people of God are in exile and being taken over. Who are the people of God when the ones who are supposed to be that are rebelling. Who are the people of God when God seems to be using people that are sure not the people of God, but if God is using them can that make them the people of God? many of the questions, and much of the conflict in this book revolved around these types of questions.

And the main thing that we have been seeing when looking at the people of God is what we would call remnant theology. For a reminder, if we look all the way back to Isaiah 5 (and just so you know, we will be flipping alot, you can flip with me, you can write them down) but in Isiah 5 we have a beautiful and terrible picture of the people of God, here as the vineyard of the Lord. It is an allusion that will be taken thoughout the whole book and it basically is that God has tended, loved and cared for his vineyard, and yet it is fairly worthless.

Isaiah 5:1–2 ESV

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

and we are told, and often we are not told all the time what theses pictures directly mean, but here we are told directly what this is a picture of

Isaiah 5:7 ESV

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

and so Isaiah really opens with the people of God in rebellion, injustice, bloodshed, they are not doing what they should. and so one of the thoughts over and over again In Isaiah has been that there will be consequences, there will be judgement, there will be justice and recompense for your sin. there will be a price to pay for your sins. But on the flip side, throughout Isaiah, there has been a true people of God. a people he will keep a people he will redeem, a people we would call the remnant. The people of god are shone in some sense in Isaiah as a rebellious people, but what he will draw out is that there is a faithful few, and God sees and knows and loves those people. Paul would later say: not all Isreal is Isreal, and that is the thought here in Isaiah. Just because these people claim the name and title does not make it true. But those that fear the Lord, who serve him, who come to him for healing in repentance, THOSE are the true people of God. And they do these things not as just some hollow thing in their hearts, but they will be truly devoted To go, they will fear God and Love him. They will repent, they will return they will, this was the last whole section of Isaiah, experience revival. They are the ones that the servant comes to save and the Conqueror comes to fight for.

The people of God are a people known by God, loved by God, saved by God. When we look to Isaiah there is a beautiful picture of God’s justice and working, but also his saving a people, calling a people, being with a remnant people that he loves and cherishes that he shelters and SO thought we started with the picture of the rebellious, unjust vineyard, we ended with the picture of the blessed vineyard.

Isaiah 65:8 ESV

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.

The people of God will be saved and will be delivered. and this leads us to the next lesson In Isaiah, it is actually a question, one we asked over and over and over again, There was a stretch there where I felt a bit like a broken record it is the main QUESTION of Isaiah, if you have been here this whole series you could probably say it with me: WILL YOU TRUST GOD?

WILL YOU TRUST GOD?

After Isaiah received his call to ministry, he looks up and sees the the train of the Lord filling the temple, he sees some crazy stuff and god gives him a call not the least portion of it was to go to a people that will not listen. Immediately after that We opened with Isiah going to king Ahaz in chapter 7, and King Ahaz is really really concerned. there are armies all around things look bad. even the people that were supposed to be on our side are trying to take us over so they can make us fight the Assyrians with them, things look really really rough. and Ahaz begins to have thoughts like: I know what I can do, i will scheme, i will plan I can figure this out, and so from the very beginning the thought that Isaiah has is will you trust God or will you trust your own strength, you own might? Will you trust in Egypt, or the Syrians or some other place. or will you fear the Lord, will you wait for him, will you look to God to save to deliver, will you trust God? And Ahaz fails miserably and after talking to Ahaz we moved to an extended section with judgement upon the nations. And though there we particular sins and things going on in each one the heart issue for all of them was the same: they will not trust God, they are not God's people (last point) they are not people interested in loving and serving God and so they face sure destruction and judgment. So will you trust in, we could go through the list of nation, Egypt, that will be destroyed, Cush, that will be destroyed, damascus that will be destroyed, or will you trust God?

and then we entered into the sort of middle section here we had king Hezekiah, who at first trusted God, he showed this when he rightly cred out to God when he was sick he trusted God’s saving delivering power, and the question was the same: will you trust God, and then we moved to in the final last portion the comfort section: will you trust the servant? the one called by God the one who will save deliver, who will, bear our iniquities. the question through Isaiah has been will you trust God? whenever things are difficult, even IF we are sent to exile even when, we had a whole sermon on this: will you trust God when the things that feel bad come at his hand? will you still trust God? Even when the nations rage and things seem dire the question still remains is: will you trust God.

The promise that we find in Isaiah is that it is infinitely better to trust in him! The answer that we have in Isaiah is that either you will not trust God, you will trust your own thoughts and devices and you will find ruin or you will trust God and he will bless he will keep he will save and he will deliver for his glory and for our good. SO the second thought to take from Isaiah is to wrestle with the answer to this question: will you trust God?

The next thought hat we can take form Isaiah is to know where our hope lies

WHERE OUR HOPE LIES!

this thought goes hand in hand with the question of will you trust God, but has a more pointed and direct thought to it, in this way., and how do I want to say this:

We can look for hope in a lot of places, but we will find in in very few. throughout Isaiah we found people who looked for hope in a lot of places, strength and might and schemes. The power of the nations around, who hoped in wisdom, even as we got to the end there were people who hoped in a sort of hollow religiosity where they would do the “right” things but they were hoping in the things, not the God. this was a legalistic and moralistic religion, that's what they hoped in but that is NOT where Isaiah has ever told us to look for hope, because all of these things will fail. Instead over and over again Isaiah has commanded us to hope in the lord, to hope in his strength his might. He has told us to trust in him no matter what. even when the world is raging all around, and even when it seems like (because it is true that…) the things that are happening are from his hand. when we face exile at the hand of God will we still trust him and will we know that only from him do we have any hope!

In a general sense our hope is in him but then as we moved to the second half of Isaiah our hope lied in very specific places. Our hope resided in the servant, sung of in the four servant songs he is the one who: will bear our iniquities, he is the one who will save, who will deliverer, he is the one called by the Lord he is the only savior of Isreal, he is the one who will be our savior. We have some of the most powerful statements of the salvation of God here in Isiah. Isaiah 53.4-5

Isaiah 53:4–5 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

that is where our hope lies. Not in strength might, not even in wisdom or intellect, our hope does not lie in some thought or fleeing notion, our hope lies squarely and securely on the servant who we know to be Jesus Christ our Lord, our hope lies o the Cross our hope lies in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his life death, burial and Resurrection. That is where our hope lies and that is where Isaiah calls us to look. More clearly than any other prophet he points us to Jesus Christ, not JUST as the suffering servant but also as, this was the last major section of the book, as the servant but also as the anointed conqueror. Our hope lie in knowing that the servant will return, but this time He will come in power and authority, Wielding the sword, crushing his enemies treading our the vine press of the wrath of God almighty, so much so that we will look upon his cloths and wonder: why are they so stained red: his response: this is the blood of my enemies!

Those who trust in him will be saved, will be redeemed, we will glory in him forever, THAT is where our hope lies. it lies in both he first and the second coming of Jesus christ our lord, and Isaiah callus to look upon both. Look to the savior, look to his work, and look tot he day when he will return! That is where our hope lies.

And the final thought is one that should sound familiar. you have seen this thought before each and ever sermon In Isaiah, it is the subtitle for this series and I would say it is the theme of the whole book of Isiah: God Saves sinners

GOD SAVES SINNERS!

God saves rebellious wayward sinners. God saves idolatrous selfish sinners. God saves stubborn stiffnecked sinners. God saves dejected outcast less than sinners. God saves them all according to his straighten his power his might for his glory for their good this is what God does. Paul tells us clearly that no one is righteous no not one, and Isaiah tells us the same thing: it has not been a picture of god saving the perfect put together people. It has been a picture of him saving the wretch, the broken the exile who comes in humble repentance. He is good to those who come to him. He saves those who: chapter 65 and wayward, and even not presently looking for him.

Isaiah 65:1 ESV

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name.

God will save! and it is the sinner that he saves. This is, I would argue not just the important thought in Isaiah, but possibly the most important thought in all of Scripture.

Jesus might say it this way: in fact I know that Jesus would say it this way, because he did… he did not come for the healthy but for the sick. So the realization that should come in Isiah should not be a high and mighty looking down upon because we think we are somehow better.

We read about these people who were called to be the people of God and yet failed over and over gain, please don't read this as a time to gloat because you do it so much better.

When we hear the question: will you trust God and see example after example of people failing we should not think: Well I am glad I got it all together

when we see people looking for hope in wrong place after wrong place the correct response is not to look down upon them because we do it perfectly.

instead when we read these things we should be moved to praise God because he saves people who fail in all these other points, like you and like Me.

can we be frank and honest for just a moment. Even we are called to live as the people of God: do we do that like we should? do we rely on him the way we should. DO we truly stand the way we should in the work and power of God or do we seek to work this out on our own. How are we doing at being the people of God? if we are honest the answer is probably we should be doing better. How have we been doing at trusting God? Lets be frank and honest, especially recently, when it seems the world is magnifying and preying on fear. when we look at all of the things going on around us including and especially covid here is the question: who do you trust more? God or the CDC? who do you trust more? do we trust God the way we should. hear me on this I am not saying DON’T trust the CDC, I am saying that we must trust God more. I am not saying DON'T trust a vaccines or whatever i am saying if that is what you trust instead of sovereign God you have missed the mark completely. As we look to our hope, are we looking for hope in anything other than Jesus christ our Lord? if so you are not just wrong you are, in fact, hopeless.

but here is the message of Isaiah: God saves sinners. Broken people who have missed the mark. Broken people who are not as perfect as we ought be. God saves them. And now being saved by God we are empowered and equipped to live more righteous and more holy lives. Because we are the people of God saved and sealed by the power of God by the Son and the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to be the people of God. Because we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in us we can trust him better we can serve him more God can sanctify and make us holy we will trust him better. Because he saves us and works in us we have a renews sense of hope we look to our savior more and more each and every day! knowing that God saves is how we take and apply the lessons from the first three points.

There is a worksheet that I go through each and every week, it is how I prepare the “word” part of the sermon, I outline the passage do context work, etc. and one question that is asked, for those guys that I have gone through the worksheet with it is dreaded question 3: what is the authors main idea or aim, answer this in one concise sentence. And when I go thorough this with other guys this is the question that is most difficult, but I often argue most important. Because do you really know what someone is saying if you can’t give a answer to this. What is the main idea. I mean sure there are tangential extra stuff, there are side points there are illustrations there is other things sure, but the main idea, can you answer this in one sentence. whats the heart , can you say it in one sentence. I find this helpful because it forces you to ask: what is the heartbeat, of any particular passage. And if we were to do that with the entire book of Isiah could we do this in better than one sentence, but I would argue with these three words: God saves sinners. If we wanted to expand it a little We could say it is God saves sinners, just like me. This is the most important lesson we can take from Isaiah. Lets pray!

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