(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, so we're starting a brand new book of the Bible, starting the book of Isaiah, and there is so much content in the book of Isaiah in general, it's going to be easy to preach through, I think, most of these passages, just because it's just so deep, so packed with doctrine, especially chapter one, so I'm going to do my best to get through this. We're not going to spend nearly as much time as I want to on a lot of different subjects. I mean, there's verses in here that you could preach entire sermons out of, just how dense the verses are, how full of truth and wisdom they are. But before we even really dig into Isaiah, I want to give an overview of the book of Isaiah here, because verse number one says this, the Bible says, So, you know, I believe it's very important for every believer, for every Christian to read their Bible, right, and to read your Bible every day. And when you first read your Bible, you know, you should be reading cover to cover. However you go about doing that, you know, I'm not even going to get into that, it doesn't really matter. You know, if you're consuming the Word of God, reading the Bible, you know, the first few times you read the Bible cover to cover, you just need to get through it and start to familiarize yourself with all the various stories, with everything that's going on in the Word of God, right? But the more times you read it, you're going to become more and more familiar with things, you're going to be able to draw more conclusions and connect more dots, right? You're going to see more truths, it's going to make more sense, you're going to get a better grip on the Bible. And with Isaiah, if you are at the point where you're doing Bible studies on your own, which I encourage you to do, right? First and foremost, you should always just be reading your Bible. I think that you should always read your Bible, never forsake the reading of your Bible, and don't replace reading your Bible with study. Add study of the Bible to your reading, okay? And that is important, that's just a, you know, just a wise thing to do. You know, if you're going to choose to study your Bible, well, do that in addition to just doing normal Bible reading. Because it could get too easy to start studying your Bible on things that you're interested in. And if you forsake the reading, you could end up becoming off balance, and only looking at certain things in the Bible, and not maintaining that refreshing of all of the Word of God, right? So you don't want to get too far off in any direction, right? Study what you like to study, but always make sure you're keeping Word of God. Anyway, all that said, to say when you start studying the Bible, you'll start to put the books, and this is, you know, a few weeks ago I did an overview of the whole Bible, right? To help so that when you're reading, you can get a better understanding of how everything fits together. And these prophets, when you look at all the major prophets and the minor prophets, it's really interesting to know what time periods they take place in, because you could kind of learn more things and get a higher level understanding of what was going on in the kingdom, in the kingdom of Judah or Israel, during the time of these preachers. Because as you read this entire book of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is this prophet, and he's preaching the Word of God, and primarily he's just preaching to the children of Israel, right? To the children of Judah, right? To the Jews. He's preaching the Word of God, and a lot of this is going to be very negative through the book of Isaiah, at least for the first half. You're going to see a lot of judgment coming against the children of Israel, and what's interesting is that it tells us specifically, okay, this is when he was preaching. He's preaching during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So you could turn there if you'd like, but I'm just going to give you the references from Second Chronicles, starting in Second Chronicles 26, because obviously they reign back to back, and they have kind of long kingdoms, but one of the things that I found interesting is that during the book of Isaiah, while he's preaching everything that we're going to be going through verse by verse, three out of the four kings are noted as, they did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. And when you consider that, one of the things that you could think of is to say, wow, that's interesting. And it makes you wonder, did Isaiah have the influence on the kings to do right in the eyes of the Lord, or not? Maybe, maybe not, but one of the things I found even more interesting is the fact that when you start looking at all the judgment, and especially as we read in chapter one, there's a lot of judgment, like talk against Judah, against Jerusalem, which is what we'll get there in a minute. It's like, just because you even have a ruler that does right in the eyes of the Lord, doesn't mean that the people are righteous. So you have these kings that are of the house and lineage of David in Judah, and that's where these kings are from, and in general we seem to see a pretty good line of people who are doing right by God. You always have someone doing evil at various times as a ruler, but especially compared to the nation of Israel after the split, the nation of Israel has a lot of kings that are just doing wickedly, starting with Jeroboam, he got him into idolatry, and they just keep on going down that path of just kind of turning back on the Lord and not serving the Lord and everything else. So you have a lot more wicked kings in that succession of kings. But in Judah, you have a lot of kings who are still considered to be, they did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet we see some of the hardest preaching coming against the children of Israel, or the children of Judah, against the Jews, against God's people, during these times when generally speaking you have a lot of righteous kings. So what that tells me, and one of the things I learned from that, is that your leadership is not the answer, like your political leadership, right? Who is the king, or who is the president? That's not always going to tell you how good the people are doing. And the nation as a whole, God's going to judge a nation as a whole. Now what also is very interesting is how God can use one person, whether that be a king or whether it be someone else who's willing to be used of God, to make a lot of change and to make a difference, and even to stay off some of the judgment of God, right? God will hearken to and listen to people who are really willing to do a lot for the Lord. And amen for that too, right? So even when you're vastly outnumbered, God still wants to be able to use people and can hold off for a while and show a lot of long suffering as long as there's people willing to go to work for Him and be used of Him. And we see that a lot. But at the same time, God definitely doesn't respect persons, and we're going to see that just because they might have these good rulers, He still considers the state of the nation to be in a very, very, very bad state because the people just simply aren't that righteous and aren't that holy. I'm going to start, like I said, in Second Chronicles 26, just to give a little bit of reference, a time reference. We don't know exactly how far into the reign of Uzziah he started preaching or how far into the reign of Hezekiah it was before he stopped preaching because this is longer than his lifespan. Just to start with Second Chronicles 26, verse 1, the Bible says, then all the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it to Judah. After that, the king slept with his fathers. Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned 50 and two years in Jerusalem. So Uzziah reigned 52 years. We know that Isaiah is not starting to preach at the start of the reign of Uzziah because after that, keep reading here, it says his mother's name also was Jeckeliah of Jerusalem, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah did. So for 52 years in general, here's someone who reigned a really long time and did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and we're starting off in chapter 1, and generally speaking, we're going to be going through this like most of the Bible is, chronologically. So as we get through here, you're going to see, okay, we're starting off with the reign of Uzziah when he's preaching here, and we're getting some of this, and there's going to be some time gaps and things, but as we continue on, we're going to see this is the entire ministry of Isaiah that he's preaching during this time frame, and even during this 52 year reign, whatever time he pops in the middle somewhere of bringing the word of the Lord, Uzziah is doing right in the eyes of the Lord, yet the people still need to hear a very, very negative message of one where God's disgusted with their land and how unrighteous they are as his people, and this can answer the naysayers who always say, oh, you preach your fire and brimstone and everything's always negative with you guys, can't you? We're in a Christian nation, and we're better than all the other countries, all this other stuff. It's like, look, it doesn't matter what the legacy is, it doesn't matter even necessarily who's in the White House or who's in power. Now we have wicked people in power all over the place, so you can't use that with me, but even when you had someone who did right in the eyes of the Lord, and don't tell me Joe Biden's doing right in the eyes of the Lord, right, or any of these people, right, not just the president, but I mean, come on, the senators, the representatives, you've got all these crooks in office, they're not doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord. They're not ending the baby murders. I mean, on and on and on, I'm not going to get into all that and derail the sermon, but even when you have someone who's doing right, we're still seeing these scathing remarks on the state of the nation. Fifty-two years, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Chapter 27, verse number one, the Bible says Jotham, so this is the next king, was 25 years old when he began reigning. He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did, howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord, and the people did yet, corruptly. And the reason why it says that he entered not into the temple of the Lord is because Uzziah sinned, he thought that he was going to be able to burn the incense and stuff, and God punished him for that, and he became a leper and died, but overall, the 52 years, he still recognizes doing that, which is real. All of these people obviously have their sins and have their problems. David had his sins and his problems, but he still is recognized as someone who did right in the eyes of the Lord. So Jotham, even though he does that which is right, the Bible says, and the people did yet, corruptly. So the people are still corrupting themselves, even with a righteous leader. Chapter 28, verse one, Ahaz, the Bible says Ahaz was 20 years old when he began reigning. He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Balaam. Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So this is a really wicked guy, right? He brings in all kinds of idolatry and the child sacrifice, all this other abomination, and he reigned for 16 years, and then Hezekiah, of course, Hezekiah is a more popular name. He was a very well-recognized king that did well in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible says in chapter 29, verse one, Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old, and he reigned nine and 20 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. So three out of the four kings had done right. But if you look at the time span, 52 years, 16, 16, and 29, right? That's, what, 32 plus 52, 84, plus another 29, I mean, that's 111 years, like, Isaiah's not preaching for 111, you know, so he's not doing, you know, the full term, right? But somewhere in between, obviously, there's these 32 years where he's got his ministry going on with these two in the middle, and then however much he goes into the other kings. But doing your Bible study, it's interesting, then you could go back and read all of these chapters, right? Read through the kings and the chronicles and see, okay, what are the events happening? And then you can start applying those events also to the book of Isaiah, and you can see more where is God coming from and what more information can we get? And you could look at some of the other prophets and see when they were preaching, too, because sometimes they're going to overlap, and they'll be preaching around the same times. So you've got the major prophets, and you can see when they're in the minor prophets. Now, it's still mostly chronological, so you don't always have a lot of overlap, but sometimes you'll find where you do have some overlap. So that's all kind of introduction into the book of Isaiah, so just keep that in mind. I may or may not be flipping back to these other passages to help give the insight, because, as I said before, I mean, there's so much to these passages anyways that I may not have time to go back and add any of the extra insight from these other passages. So that's something that you can do on your own, and I encourage you to do with all the books of the Bible, right, and see where you have these chronological books where you can go back and get some more information on it. Let's keep reading here in Isaiah chapter 1. Verse number 2, the Bible reads, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider. We start off just getting God's perspective, right? But he's saying, look, I have nourished and brought up children, and they rebelled against me. And just think about how wicked that is, right? Someone who's nourishing, feeding, raising, bringing up, and this is why the Bible has the laws it has about children who curse their parents and smite their parents, because if you have a parent who's working and sweating and toiling and doing everything for their children and for them just to become wicked and reject and rebel against their parents, that's a wicked thing. And oftentimes, especially when it's easier to see in a physical family, people don't realize when they're doing that to the Heavenly Father, to the Lord in heaven, right? But think about it. When you rebel against the Word of God, the laws, the things that you don't like about the Bible, and you're in rebellion to God's Word, you're in rebellion to the Lord. And the Bible says that every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights, right? He gives unto us abundantly. Our life, our sustenance, all that we have can be attributed ultimately unto the Lord. He provides for us. He provides for you. So when you turn around and just decide, well, I'm going to do whatever I want to do because I don't like what this says or whatever, whatever your rebellious heart wants to think, you're rebelling against the Lord that's caring for you and nourishing and bringing you up. And he says, you know, the ox knows his owner, you know, these animals know their place. The ass knows his master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people does not consider. Verse 4, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They are gone away backward. This is the state of the children of Israel during this time that Isaiah is preaching and this is chapter number one. Verse five, why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. He's basically saying, why should you continue to be stricken like, you know, the disciplining isn't working. You're going to just continue to revolt more and more and more. And the problem when people get to that point is that there is no more remedy, there is no more hope. And then what's left on God's agenda is destruction. Because what he's going to do is he wants to chasten you. He wants to chasten his children, he wants to discipline and say, okay, you know, you're getting out of line, you're getting out of line. But when people have just gone too, you know, just, just, nope, they're not, they're not heeding the warnings, they're not heeding the chastisement, then it becomes, hey, the whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. I mean, you're not listening, you just keep revolting more and more and more. The Bible says, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. So he's describing the state of the country by describing someone who is extremely sick and wounded, right? This says, you know, from head to toe, there's no soundness means like, you know, if your body were sound, you'd be fully healthy, right? Things are working and functioning properly if you're sound, because there is no soundness in it. You have wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. Think about just the worst infected sores, open wounds, festering, stinking, right? From head to toe. This is the description. It's a, you know, if someone were to see this, it'd be like, oh, man, there's something majorly wrong here. You're in a horrible state of disrepair. You need a lot of help. You're about ready to die. And he says on top of that, they're not even being treated at all, right? So it's like someone who just got, you know, attacked and has all these problems, they've been laying in the gutter, and that's the state that they're in, and not even a Band-Aid. Not even, you know, no ointment, nothing to help try to recover, just in the worst state that you can be in and still be alive, ultimately, is kind of the description that God is giving to us here. And you say, that's really how you know he's talking about the country, because verse 7 says, your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge, in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Look at verse number 9, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. And turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter 9, because this is quoted in Romans chapter 9. But let that sink in, and this goes back to the point I was making earlier about God using a small number of people, even sometimes one person, if they're willing to stand up for the Lord, to withhold destruction and devastation, because there's people there doing his work and doing his will. And what they're likening this to is in Genesis 19, when we see the angels going down to destroy Sodom, you've got basically one guy there that's saved. You've got one person who's just, and that's Lot. And Lot's not the shining example of a believer by any means, okay? But he's the one person that God's going to deliver out, because there's nobody there doing any works. There's nobody being righteous, there's nobody there to stand in the gap. The whole place has just completely gone over to filth and abomination, so that it's at the point where God's just going, okay, well, there's no option left now, but just utter destruction. And you say, thankfully, at least there's a remnant, at least there's a small group, at least there's some people that are still following the Lord, so that we're not going to end up like Sodom and Gomorrah yet. And this is being preached during the reigns of a king that did that which is right in the lives of the Lord. And I mean, that's pretty bad to be being compared to Sodom. Part of the title of my sermon this evening, because I like to add extra titles to the Bible studies, Isaiah 1, I put, is an image of the United States. The United States is a great example of a country that, historically, the God of this country was the Lord. Now I know that not everyone's saved, and I'm not going to get into all the founding fathers. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the people of this land. The people who fled from religious persecution were Christians. It wasn't founded by Muslims fleeing religious persecution. It wasn't founded by Jews fleeing religious persecution. It was founded by believers fleeing persecution. Persecution from the Catholic Church, you know, because they were preaching heresy. Persecution just in general against the kings of the east or, you know, from over the sea. Getting here and starting a new life with freedom and on and on. But the reason why I don't, you know, I don't have to even rely on, you know, history books per se on understanding the righteousness of the nation, even the laws show, they demonstrate that the people of this land had regard for the Bible and for the Lord. Because the laws were modeled after the Bible, vastly modeled after the Bible, after biblical laws. And, of course, we know about all the good works that have come forth out of this country and all the evangelism, and, you know, it's been no shock that, you know, with the Ten Commandments and other biblical references, you look at all, you know, and nowadays people are trying to erase history, you know, all the monuments that are coming down. Ultimately, they're all going to come down, but, hey, at least they gave lip service. Even if they weren't righteous, they gave a lot of lip service. I mean, you read the inscriptions from, you know, the Abraham Lincolns and all these other people, you know, you're going to find a lot of scripture. You're going to find a lot of scripture. You listen to their addresses, to the people, and, again, I'm not even saying that Abraham Lincoln was a righteous person, but here's the thing. If they're being a politician and they're speaking to all their constituents and they're, you know, at least that should tell you that the people are expecting him, at the very least, to be quoting Bible and to be using that as his source, whether or not they themselves believe it, you can see throughout history how many of those presidents were all quoting Bible and using that in their speeches. So, yes, this country has a great Christian heritage, but the state that we're in now is like a person who's wounded and bruised and has putrefying sores, and it just stinks immensely of the rotten wickedness and abominations that are going on in our country right now. So we need to take heed to the preaching of Isaiah, because it's very relevant for us today, and I think the only reason why God hasn't poured out fire and brimstone on the United States of America is because there still is a remnant. Because if there wasn't a remnant, we'd be like Sodom and we'd be made like unto Gomorrah, because that's what the, you know, the God haters are trying to push and are becoming more and more powerful anyways with their agenda and cramming it down people's throats to the point where people are accepting this stuff, this slow progression of people that you'd never even think would ever succumb to the madness of this extreme liberal garbage abomination that they spew forth, but this is what's going on. It would be interesting to actually witness or see what the state was like in Judah during the time, just to physically be there for like a month and just walk around and get to see how were people behaving, what were people talking about, you know, to get even more insight than we can see here and have that relative to today. Be interesting to know because I'd be, I'm almost tempted to think that the condition that we're in right now is even worse than they were in then, and we're still seeing the scathing description of their state at the time. Now I don't know that, that's conjecture, I'm just, that's just the way I feel, that's the way it seems like to me based on, at least on a lot of the leadership that we see here and the laws that they make and the things that they're doing. But let's look at Romans 9 because this passage is quoted about except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been in Sodom and we should have been made like on the Gomorrah. Verse 27 of Romans 9, the Bible reads, as I also cry concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say then that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith? But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And I think what we're seeing here is that the remnant is the remnant of believers. In the New Testament, you have this Jew-Gentile kind of comparison, but even the Jews, the vast majority of them were these Pharisaical Jews, and they were trusting in the works of the law. And then you add in the Gentiles, it says, that followed not after righteousness, but they have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith. And just as it was back then, it was the same then. And he's comparing the time then where the people of the time were not seeking the Lord by faith. There was a remnant. There was just a small amount. And that's the same state they ended up in, a small amount of Jews that were believers that were this remnant, and they were bringing to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles were receiving it by faith. And then, of course, it segues into Romans chapter 9, but he's using this passage to describe and applying it to their current state with the children of Israel being, even though it says the children of Israel will be in the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, and on and on. So you can see how that applies. He's applying that passage from Isaiah to the present day, and I think we could do the same thing also today. I think it's also applicable, just as it was among the Jews during the time of Jesus Christ with just a remnant of the Jews being saved, that it's the same way amongst a new nation that has picked up the torch to make the Lord their God, and that this is very applicable today as well. Let's go back to Isaiah, verse number 10, chapter 1, Bob reads, Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. So he's referring to him as Sodom, basically, so you're just like Sodom and Gomorrah. Ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Now, all of these things that he's mentioning are actually things in the law. The blood of the bulls and the lambs, the goats, the going to the courts before the Lord, the oblations, the incense, the new moons, the sabbaths, these are all things that are established in the law of the Lord. All of them. But notice how he's preaching this unto the people, saying, what's the purpose? Why are you bringing me these sacrifices? Well, I'm not delighting in the blood of the bulls and goats. Why do you come to appear before me like this? To tread my courts. Who invited you here? Bring no more vain oblations. It's meaningless, vain, right? The incense, it's an abomination. So their act of trying to follow the law of God is actually an offense to the Lord. He says it's an abomination unto me, and he says it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. He says, I hate it when you try to observe the new moons and the feasts. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. This is timeless. This truth is timeless because this goes to God's attitude towards the people who think that they're worshiping the Lord and they're so good and they're so spiritual because they're following these traditions and because they're going to church and they're checking this off and they're doing this, but really they're just full of wickedness. And this couldn't fit more perfect with the time that we're in right now because every year at this time, what are people, suppose a Christian is recognizing Lent, right? And what happens during Lent? Oh, I'm going to make this sacrifice, and I'm not going to do this for the whole time of Lent, and I'm going to give up that, and I'm just going to make this big sacrifice. And you know what? God's up in heaven going, I hate your sacrifices. I hate, my soul loathes. I'm troubled that you even think that this is what I want from you because the same people that are offering these great sacrifices and bringing in the blood of bullocks are extremely wicked and have these putrefying sores with their wickedness that they don't even realize they have, which is why they're not even trying to bandage them up because they're living in sin and idolatry and wickedness and they're not taking care of those big matters in their life and they think that they're going to come and offer their offerings and sing praise and worship and that God's just going to love them because of that, because of that great sacrifice they're making. Instead of accepting the sacrifice that God made for you, you think you're going to make this great sacrifice for Him and that's going to be well pleasing unto Him. Think again. The Bible says over and over again it teaches the same theme to obey is better than sacrifice. You're out living like the devil during the week. Don't think that you come in and you pay your penance and you make your little appearance before the Lord and you tread His courts when you come to church and you bring in your sacrifice or you throw money in the plate and that's just going to absolve you and that's going to make God happy with you. When you're out being a drunk and a fornicator during the week and you're just going to come in and have that type of an attitude, God hates that. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, 9, He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. But God hears everyone. No, God doesn't hear everyone. Read your Bible from time to time. Or read verse 15 again, and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. When you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. That's why He's not going to hear. You guys are wicked. That's what He's saying. You're wicked, your hands are full of blood, and you think that you're going to lift up your bloody hands to me and be all spiritual and holy? Turning forward to Jeremiah chapter 7, it's interesting because this is the same exact type of message from Jeremiah and during this time in Jeremiah, this is during the reign of Josiah. If you remember King Josiah, King Josiah was one of my favorite Bible characters. King Josiah started off with a heart to want to serve the Lord already, but then they find the book of the law. He's trying to repair the house of the Lord, and he's trying to do what's right. They read the Bible unto him, and he's like, oh man, our fathers have really screwed up big time, and we have transgressed horribly against the Lord, and he went back to the Bible, and he gets on his knees, and he humbles himself, and he's just like, basically, what can we do? We're sorry, and then he gets zealous and on fire for the Lord, and saying, oh, we're going to serve the Lord with our whole heart, and he drives the sodomites out, and he tries to repair everything, and says, we're going to hold the Passover, and we're going to do all this stuff, and we're going to go back to the word of God, and we're going to go back to the old past, and we're going to serve the Lord with all of our hearts. It's exciting. It's real zealous. But even during those days, with a really zealous leader, with someone who's really trying to get the country back on path, look at what Jeremiah says, because he was a preacher during that time. Right? Josiah was just a king. Jeremiah was the preacher. Chapter 7, verse number 1, the Bible says, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, hear the word of the Lord, all ye Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. First ye not in lying words, saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not, therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. He starts off saying, you know what, if you're doing righteously, if you're judging the fatherless and the widows, if you're doing what's right, if you're obeying, you know what, I'm going to allow you to stay here, and you're going to be able to live here, and everything's going to go great. He says, but that's not what's happening. You're bringing your idols into the house of God, you've got bloody hands, you're full of abomination, you're adulterers, you're murderers, and all this stuff, and he's saying, you're going to bring this stuff before my eyes? You're making my house a den of robbers, and you think you're righteous? And that's why he ends up saying, you know what? Don't pray for this people, don't lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. When people get to a point, you know, when God's saying, don't pray for them, that's really bad. You know what that's called? Reprobate. Like the Bible says in Jeremiah, reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord has rejected them. That's a group of people being rejected. Flip over to chapter 11 in Jeremiah. Even though this is during different time periods in the history of Israel, right, because Jeremiah preaches during Josiah and then through their captivity, it's still very similar condition of the people, and probably even a little bit worse during Jeremiah. Chapter 11, verse 11, the Bible reads, therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense, but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars of burnt incense unto Baal. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. This is God's attitude towards the people who want to serve other gods. You want to go up and make your own god, and make up a god in your own image? And you want to make your own Bible that's queer friendly, LGBTQ friendly, and you don't like all the judgment, and you just want to make up your own god, and yeah, you might still try to call him Jesus Christ, you might still try to call him the Lord, you might still want to say you're a Christian, but you know what you've done? You've set up an idol, and you're worshiping a false Jesus, you're worshiping a false god, and you've got a false Bible, and you know what God's going to say? You know what? Pray for these people, because they're rejecting me. They're setting up their own spirituality. They're setting up their own gods. You know what? Let your own god save you. Let your queer loving Jesus save you. Go ahead, pray to him. Pray for him, pray for him, pray for him, pray for him, pray for him, pray for him, pray for him. I allowed it to be built, but I don't need a house made with hands, and if you're going to get to that point, and you're going to start just defiling the place that's supposed to be a sanctuary, that's supposed to be a place of worship of the Lord, and you're going to defile it with all these abominations, and bring in your bloody hands, and bring in your idols, then guess what? I'm going to judge it, and I'm going to judge you, and I don't even want anyone praying for you. And don't get a soft spot for these people that are extremely wicked, and they set up their own gods. Let them save them at that point. He's pleading with the people, though, in Isaiah. Go back to Isaiah. It doesn't matter how many of the ritualistic laws they were following. The blood of the bulls and goats didn't save them. The keeping of the Sabbath didn't save them. The new moons, the set feasts, it doesn't matter that they were doing all of those things. Look what he says in verse 16, he still says, wash you and make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil. That's what I really want you to do. It doesn't mean that those other things weren't important to do, but you're substituting the imagery for what he really wants is your heart. What he really wants is you doing right. People just get it so backwards all the time. Love the Lord. Follow his ways. Follow what he says. The rest of this stuff, hey, it's still in the law and you still should be doing it. We don't want to take this whole opposite extreme where people are just like, well, I don't care. I don't need to go to church. I don't need to do anything else because I just have my own relationship with the Lord. Well, look, the relationship with the Lord is the most important thing. Getting yourself right with God and following him, but you know what? The rest of this stuff wasn't in here for nothing. The new moons, the set feasts, all this stuff, it wasn't just in the law of the Lord for nothing. He still had a very good purpose for it, but if that's all you're doing and you're completely ignoring the righteous judgment of the Lord and you're just living wickedly, then at that point those things are nothing and, in fact, it makes God even more angry that you're trying to be spiritual in those superficial ways instead of getting your heart right. He says, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine. Recease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. And if he's telling them to do these things, the reason why is because they weren't doing these things. That's why he's getting so angry with them is because they're giving this lip service to the Lord and pretending like they're following the Lord and they're not doing some of the most basic things. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. That's what you should be doing. Verse 18. Come now and let us reason together, said the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Amen. What a great picture of salvation there, imagery, right? That yeah, you know what? Our sins are horribly bad and wrong and they can make you just crimson, right? Like you could just be just full covered. You've got blood on your hands. You got blood all over yourself. But you know what? If you get cleansed through salvation of the Lord, he cleans you 100%. Every wit is whole. Every part of you can be white as snow. And God's not, you know, this isn't a racist thing, right? These days, everything's about race. Everyone's trying to make everything about race. I just heard that the other thing. I just got an email that went to my junk mail, thankfully, because they identified it as such, you know, against this, now it's like this fighting against Asian hate. And it's fighting against black hate. It's not that I'm like, I hate Asian people, that's not what I'm calling it, junk. It's just junk because everything's just turning about race. And it's not about race, it's about wicked people. Whether the people being murdered or whatever, I'm not buying into this whole racial division thing. I'm not. It's propaganda, it's being used, it's being blown out of proportion. There's racist people everywhere, everywhere, but they're only picking and choosing certain people and certain crimes and certain things to highlight because they want to manipulate you. They want to get you in fear and they want you to pity you against people. You think that there's not Asian people that hate white people or Asian people that hate black people or Asian hate, you know, or, you know, pick any group you think there's not white people that hate, you know, of course there are. Every group, you're going to find people who hate everyone, you know, any other person and any other skin color or whatever because there's a lot of ignorant people out there. But I also don't think that this is just some overwhelming epidemic in the society of this racism. It's manufactured. It's ridiculous. So when God's talking about your sins being a scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. This shows you how bad, like, unsaved people just can't understand the word of God at all. That's what the Mormons think. You know that the Mormon religion teaches that the whiter you are, like, the more godly or more holy you are, like, in God's eyes. It's insane because they're the type of people, and, you know, they're not the only ones that think this, that when God put his mark upon Cain, that that's why there's black people because that was his mark. And they're like, what are you talking about? His mark isn't a skin color. It's like, people come up with all these weird things, weird doctrines, but it's because they're unsaved. You've got these cults, and Mormons think that, and I couldn't believe it, and this will totally not have to do with this sermon at all, but going out soul-winning in Arizona because there's a lot of Mormons out there, especially in Mesa where I lived, I go in a neighborhood. I ran into a guy who's a black guy who's a Mormon, and I'm just going, like, and he's a convert. Of course he's a convert, right? Like, do you even know what they teach? Like, do you have any idea what, like, what you're, the church you're going to? Do you know what Joseph Smith taught, and Brigham Young, I mean, do you know how literally racist these guys were? That they believed, you were like, like, practically children of the devil just because of your skin color. Like, you're cursed of God. That's what they believe. It's crazy. Crazy town. Enough about that. We're going to read another sermon about that. There's a lot to cover in Isaiah, so I'm going to try not to get, oh, man. I just looked down at the time. What a great picture of salvation, though, right? The total change from just, you know, imagining your skin just being, just bloodying you, right? And just getting completely washed clean, right? It's a picture of something just being doused and covered to just being white like wool. White as snow, just completely 100% washed away, clean, pure, and that's what God does for you. You know what? That's what God wants. He wants people who are going to put all their faith in Him, put all their faith in the Savior, and only Jesus can wash you from your sins. No amount of the blood and bulls and goats, no amount of treading the courts of the Lord and observing Sabbaths and new moons or anything else is going to do that for you. Jesus Christ is the only one that can do that for you, and the only way that you can receive that is by putting all your faith in Him. Verse number 19, the Bible says, if you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. And you know, God is always giving the choice. Hey, it's up to you. Do you want to be willing and obedient? I'll bless you. I'll take care of you. Or do you just want to refuse and rebel? You know, the world makes rebellion out to be so cool, right? The culture, the music culture, oh man, it's so cool, rebel against authority, rebel against your parents, rebel against it. Do a study on rebellion in the Bible and see what God thinks about that. If you refuse and rebel, you should be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Verse 21, how has the faithful city become in harlot? This is the verse that just stands out to me in comparison with United States of America. The once faithful place, not even that long ago. And look, I'm not saying, I'm not even the only people who think that the United States of America was perfect ever, never perfect. But the values of your average family has degraded so far into the mire. I cannot believe how quickly that has happened. It's insane how the faithful nation has become in harlot. I mean, you go from being faithful, upright, good values to slumming it and selling your body and having no decency, no morality, and no respect at all. Just taking that which is most holy to you and just making it publicly available. That's what a harlot does. You got nothing left. It was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water. So you're talking about the silver becoming dross, the dross is the stuff that you take out of the silver. Because the silver is the pure stuff. The silver is the good metal. The silver is what's valuable. And he's saying, instead of that silver now, it's just become the dross. And thy wine, I'm saying the wine mixed with water, again, this isn't talking about booze, this is just talking about just the purity, right? Like when you have, if you squeeze fresh juice, man, that's rich, man, that's good stuff there. But now you start trimming it down and just adding water to it, you're watering it down, right? It's not quite as valuable as it was, just like the silver, it's not, that value is gone. The preciousness is gone. Verse 23, thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Princes are your rulers. I think we've got a lot of rulers that are companions of thieves that are stealing from the people. Everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards. This is your bribery. This is the corruption in politics. This is the corruption of the people who are just willing to pass laws and sell you and me down the river and make everything a lot harder for you because they're getting some kickback from some large company, some large corporation, some greedy, filthy, evil person or evil people that are just willing to steal from people, ultimately is what they're doing. And I don't have time to get into all that. They judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. You can turn to Proverbs real quick if you want, Proverbs 17, Bible just talks a couple verses just about the people who are taking bribes or taking rewards or taking gifts. And you know, watch out for this, even in your personal life, because accepting of gifts, now on the one hand, and you have to balance this, right? On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with just accepting a gift from someone that loves you, right? And they're trying to bless you and they care about you and they're trying to do something nice for you. There's nothing wrong with that and it could be insulting to refuse a gift, right? I mean, the gift of God is eternal life. That's a gift that God wants you to accept. He doesn't want you to refuse it and be like, no, no, no, I'm going to earn it on my own. Okay? When people want to do something nice for you and give you a gift because they care about you, there's nothing wrong with accepting those gifts, okay? I love you. But the difference is when people are trying to manipulate you and give you gifts because you're in a position where you can do something for them or they could use you somehow. That's where you want to be careful in accepting gifts. And that's why, you know, honestly, that's why there's laws against this stuff, even our country to this day, there's still some things about that. And I didn't even, I wasn't even aware of some of the laws, but, you know, I was told by the executive staff where I work about the gift giving and, you know, if you're in a position where you can make decisions about like doing business with other people, and I knew that there's certain things against the law, but I didn't know what the, you know, there's a certain dollar amount, right? Like if someone gives you marketing material and they give you a free pen or something, that's not going to sway your decision, right, on whether or not you're going to do business with somebody. But, you know, people still do it to this day where they take people out and give you all these luxurious trips or, you know, Super Bowl tickets or like all this other stuff, you know, that's bribery because they want to keep doing business with you so they're buttering you up and they're trying to make, you know, trying to affect your influence, your decisions to do business with them, and you can't do that. And it's not just because it's against the law, it's morally, it's not right, I mean, you need to, and, you know, those laws, thankfully, they come from the wisdom of the Bible. The Bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 23, a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. That's the bribe. That's the, well, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to take this bribe in order to meet someone else's agenda and I'm going to pervert, you know, instead of just doing what I would normally do and the judgment I would pronounce based off of the truthfulness, just the truth and what's right and the righteousness, now I'm going to go in this way or this favor because this person gave me a gift and I'm going to give them preferential treatment. That's wicked. Okay, and that's wrong. In Proverbs 29 verse 4, the Bible reads, the king by judgment establishes the land, but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. So the king that's doing, you know, basically having good judgment and being righteous, that establishes the land. That's going to help the land continue on, right? That's going to help the people of the land continue on because they're ruling properly, but he that receiveth gifts, that's going to overthrow the land. That corruption is enough to destroy the land. And then verse number 7, the Bible says, the righteous considerth the cause of the poor, but the wicked regardeth not to know it. And that's exactly what was brought up in Isaiah 123 when it says, they judge not the fatherless, neither did the cause of the widow come unto them. You know, wicked people don't care about the poor. They don't care about the father. They don't care about those people. They don't matter to them because they can't benefit them at all. Let's finish up Isaiah here, chapter 1, verse number 24, the Bible says, therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin. So he's basically saying, when he says, I'm going to ease me of mine adversaries, he's going to destroy his adversaries. I'm going to get them out of the way. I don't want them to be a burden to me anymore, so I was going to do it. He's going to purge them. He said, I'm going to turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross. So I'm going to make an end. And what we get into here kind of near the end is prophetic. And we're going to see a lot more prophecy in chapter number 2. It really goes into a lot more, we'll get into that next week, but we see it starting to turn that way right here in Isaiah chapter 1, verse number 26 says, and I will restore thy judges as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning, afterward, thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. So you're saying, hey, my people are going to be here, the city of righteousness now, it's going to be a faithful city, it's going to be a beacon, it's going to be a light set up where the transgressors of the sinners are going to be destroyed, right? Those that forsake the Lord are going to be consumed, I'm going to get rid of all the God haters and you're going to be left with a righteous city. Isaiah says, verse 29, for they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. Now, the oaks that you've desired, he's referring to idolatry, right? Because they use the trees to create the idols and they cover it with the gold and silver. So when he's saying the oaks you've desired, he's talking about the idols and when he's talking about the gardens that you have chosen, he's talking about the groves. So when they would worship the false gods and the groves, the oaks in the gardens are referring to the idolatry and the worship of false gods. And he's saying that they're going to be ashamed of those things. Verse 30, for ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth and is a garden that hath no water and the strong shall be as toe and the maker of it as a spark and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them. That is obviously talking about judgment, I would say hellfire judgment, saying you follow after the idolatry, you're going to end up being ashamed because it cannot save you. And you're going to end up being like the oak whose leaf fadeth that's just going to wither and die and the garden that has no water and then the strong shall be as toe and the maker of it, those who create the idolatry and those who participate of it, there's going to be a toe and a spark, right? So you've got the fuel and you've got the spark. They shall both burn together and none shall quench them. Not a very uplifting message for the children of Judah and Jerusalem that had a king who was following the Lord, that did right in the eyes of the Lord. Not a very positive message. You're going to find most of the Bible is not positive messages. And that's what you're going to find here too because we need to hear the warnings more than the praises. We need edification, we need the praises. It's definitely part of the Bible and we're going to get to that, but you know what? Just keep in mind, week after week after week when we read this stuff, this is what God wanted to emphasize and this was the message for that nation and as we continue to go through this, we can easily apply this to our nation and we ought to and people need to take the word of God seriously today just as much as ever. Spout our eyes, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your word, the timelessness of your word, just the eternal nature of it dear Lord. People don't really change and as much as maybe our environment or things around us change, Lord, people are still the same and we need to take heed to your words. I pray that you please help our remnant to grow. I pray that you would please show mercy upon us and help us to stand in the gap and to just preach boldly and be able to thunder forth your words, Lord. We want to be able to bring a revival, Lord, if you would use us, we're here and help us to reach this dark and increasingly dark world, Lord. Help us to stand fast as lights to shine and that you would guide us and lead us, Lord, and keep us from evil. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.