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We are in the book of Isaiah chapter number one and the Bible reads know my people does not consider all sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evildoers children that are corruptors that forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel on to anger they are gone away backward why should he be stricken anymore he will revolt more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even onto 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 your country is desolate your cities are burned with fire your land strangers devoured 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 except the Lord of hosts had left onto us a very small remnant we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like onto Gomorrah hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear unto the Lord of our God law of our God you people of Gomorrah to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices onto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and of the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats when he 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 onto me the new moons and Sabbath Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hateth there are trouble onto me and we are weary to bear them and when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yeah when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judge seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow come now and let his reason together saith 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 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 hath spoken it how is it the faithful city become in harlot it was full of judgment righteousness lodged in it but now murderers thy silver has become dross thy wine is mixed with water thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves everyone love the gifts and followers at the rewards they judge not the fatherless neither does the cause of the widow come on to them 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 purged away the dross and take away all thy tin and I will restore thy judgment as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the city of the right city of righteousness the faithful city Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and a converse with righteousness and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be shall be together and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed for they shall be ashamed of the Oaks which they have desired and he shall be confounded for the gardens that he have chosen for he shall be as an oak whose leaf faded and as a garden that hath no water and the strong shall be as toe and make of it as spark and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them let's pray we thank you Heavenly Father for the book of Isaiah you have given us your God we thank you for your preserved word we thank you for this church the Lord we thank you for our pastor please bless him as he preaches out of your word tonight in Jesus name we pray Amen okay we are studying we're gonna study the book of Isaiah tonight and for the next 66 plus weeks so my challenge to you is that you make it through all 66 weeks and then some because obviously you know I might be out of town I could be sick so obviously for many reasons why we might be skipping a couple weeks here and there but in general if you skipped a couple weeks if you're not here for whatever reason I want to encourage you to listen to the sermons online so you can stay up to date on the book of Isaiah this is a Thursday night Bible study and so the main purpose of the Thursday evening service is to go verse by verse through each book of the Bible and essentially extrapolate some principles learn some doctrine some historical facts regarding what the Bible is saying here and so looking forward to this we'll be done with this next sometime next year hopefully before I'm 40 though okay so hopefully I won't take that long teaching through the book of Isaiah now let me give some introductory statements before I get into the actual chapter itself regarding the book of Isaiah the first being that the book of Isaiah is often referred to as the miniature Bible and for obvious reasons of course you have the Bible that has 66 books and of course the book of Isaiah is filled with 66 chapters but not only that you can actually break up the book of Isaiah into two sections the first section actually covering chapters 1 through 39 and then the second half of course 30 40 through 66 and in fact if you look at the overall theme of both of those sections you'll notice that chapters 1 through 39 has a really major focus on God's judgment God's laws being promoted and God's judgment upon the land whereas the second half chapter 40 all the way to chapter 66 deals a lot with hope and comfort and restoration and and so that's kind of like the way the Bible is written in a sense you have Old Testament New Testament and obviously you know we know that the chapters in the verses of the Bible they're not divinely inspired it's not as though God wanted them to be there per se they're placed there for study purposes for referencing however when you think about the first book of the New Testament which is the book of Matthew it actually begins with essentially the ministry of John the Baptist right making straight the ways of the Lord and what's interesting ironically or coincidentally should I say is the fact that the second half of the book of Isaiah started in chapter 40 actually begins with that same prophecy as well of John the Baptist proclaiming the ways of the Lord making his path straight that's very interesting and so we see obviously there's a lot of similarities there people can extrapolate different things people often say that you can go through the Bible and essentially see those same themes in chronological order in the book of Isaiah that's speculation but I'm sure you can take some something out of that as well another thing that I want to mention is the fact that the book of Isaiah is actually the most prophetic book of in the Old Testament aside from the book of Psalms when it comes to Jesus Christ okay has a lot of details a lot of prophetic statements regarding Jesus one of the most famous being of course Isaiah 53 and so this is one of the reasons why it's often referred to as the fifth gospel just because it talks a lot about Jesus Christ and his birth and much of what's going to take place in his ministry and so that's why it's referred to as the miniature Bible now when does the one when do the events of the book of Isaiah actually take place well it actually takes place after the Assyrian captivity okay and if you've read through first second Chronicles you'll see the stories of how the Assyrian army actually dispossessed the children of Israel by Paul the king of Assyria and by Shalmaneser both instances and they ended up taking them and exiling them to Assyria and then of course later Assyria began to populate Israel with Assyrians and this is one of the reasons why you have later on in the New Testament a lot of the northern kingdom inhabitants being referred to as the Samaritans because Samaritans is essentially a mixture of those ten tribes with the Assyrians that's why it's referred to as the Samaritans there now you have those two instances when the captivity took place under Paul and under Shalmaneser but then later you actually have another attempt by Assyria to conquer Judah so obviously they took out Israel which is the northern kingdom and they conquered Samaria which is the capital of the northern kingdom but then they attempted to go far south to Judah and to Jerusalem to take them captive through Sennacherib and Rav Sheikah this is the this is that famous story where Rav Sheikah basically says that he'll make them eat their own dung and drink their own piss that's that famous story there and it was during Hezekiah's reign right and of course they were not able to subdue them due to God's intervention and we'll read about that story actually in the book of Isaiah and so this is taking place after the Assyrian captivity and this is why the book of Isaiah is actually addressing both Israel and Judah but primarily Judah why well because Israel is already done with okay they're already taken captive they're in Assyria whereas Judah is still in the land okay they have not yet been taken over and God is calling them to repentance because they're not far away from how bad Assyria has gotten okay and so that's where we find ourselves in the book of Isaiah and I do want to mention that when you read the book of Isaiah aside from all the prophetic statements about Jesus Christ aside for all the judgments and the preaching that we see by Isaiah we also see that there's a lot of future events that he talks about too right I mean a large portion of the latter end of the book of Isaiah focuses on the millennial reign it talks about the new heaven and the new earth and so when you read the book of Isaiah just like any other book of the Old Testament you'll see that God is dealing with Israel but really Israel is kind of like a microcosm of the world right because at the end of the day though he's dealing with Israel he makes application to the rest of the world which is why he talks about the millennial reign the new heaven and the new earth and so that's pretty interesting now this particular chapter actually highlights a series of accusations from God to Judah as to why he wants to judge them he's going to judge them but he's calling them to repentance he wants them to be restored he wants to redeem them of course because he's long-suffering now when I think of Israel and Judah because you got to take into consideration these are two separate kingdoms okay with different kings throughout their history you have Israel that has Samaria as its capital you have Judah has Jerusalem as its capital and although both of them are pretty bad one is just worse than the other okay and that's not to say that Judah is not bad Israel is just really bad but Judah is just like not very far behind and if you're like what do you mean well here's a good way to kind of illustrate it it's like Canada in America right isn't that a good comparison because Canada is pretty bad or should I say you know America is pretty bad but it's not as bad as Canada it's one of those things but it's still pretty bad though right and so you know you when you compare it sorry Adam you know sorry but not sorry but you know when you look at Canada it's just like oh yeah that's like Israel you know they're so wicked they got so many wicked leaders and stuff but then when you look at Judah's a gas pretty bad but at least the president put out a Bible the King James Version of the it's one of those things okay just a comparison here so just you know because obviously what we see here is that God is not allowing Judah to be judged as of yet but he's telling them like I want to judge you though and he's not letting them off scot-free because of the fact that you know they've committed some pretty horrible crimes they've done some really wicked things and even some of their leaders some of their kings have been really wicked and really evil really bad but he's given them giving them an opportunity obviously and of course we know that because of times past he's doing it for for David for David's sake and more specifically because that's where Jesus Christ would stem from right and so this is what we have here so the majority of what Isaiah is referring to here he's addressing I was gonna say America he's addressing Judah okay and so and of course we could apply that to America and we are gonna apply that in many ways and so he gives them a series of accusations three of which are regarding their rebellion their glib manner of worship and then they're they're just murderers and thieves okay we're gonna see that in this chapter so look at verse number one here let's look at the look at the vision of Isaiah and the kings that reign during his ministry it says the vision of Isaiah the son of Amos which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah so the ministry of Isaiah spanned over these four kings here starting off with Uzziah and when you look at these kings you know some of them were good but out of all of them one of them was really bad you think of Uzziah for example he started off really good he was a man who followed the Lord he loved the Lord but then later on in his life became prideful and arrogant and then the person who took after him was Jotham and Jotham the Bible says that he basically did that which is right in the sight of the Lord as his father did before him but the difference is is that he didn't go into the temple of the Lord okay and it says that the people still did very wickedly in the land so even though he was a man who you know essentially would be considered a believer and he was raised in a believers home so to speak you know he didn't put church first okay he didn't go into the temple of the Lord so he's kind of half in half out all right now what happens after Jotham well after Jotham you have Ahaz and Ahaz is the result of having an apathetic father because Ahaz was super wicked you know what you do in moderation your followers and your children will do in excess so yeah you know you have Jotham who isn't going to the house of the Lord but he's not doing wickedly well his descendant Ahaz is doing wickedly in fact he's even participating in religious infanticide he's participating in all types of abominations I mean he's just really wicked and it was a very tumultuous time in the history of Israel under his reign because he was so evil and wicked but then after him you have Hezekiah and Hezekiah is just an awesome dude you know obviously no one's perfect but he did a lot of great things he had a lot of faith and I believe this is one of the reasons that four entire chapters in the book of Isaiah are dedicated to Hezekiah and in fact it's a repetition of what we see in the historical books okay and obviously more details are given in each story but through Hezekiah's reign you have reformation you have a lot of great things taking place people are being turned into the Lord and so a lot of great things are taking place under his rule and he's actually the king that was opposed by the Assyrian army to try to take over Judah and if you remember Hezekiah is the one who spread the threats the letter of threats and read them before the Lord and basically God intervened on his behalf because of it so we see here that Isaiah was in the ministry here throughout the span of these four kings and one of them being extremely wicked now let's look at some of the preaching that he mentions here verse number two we're gonna see the first accusation which is the fact that you know they're a rebellious nation a nation a sinful nation estranged from their God it says a verse to hero heaven heavens and give your old earth for the Lord had spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me the ox knoweth his owner and the ass is master's crib but Israel does not know my people does not consider a sinful nation of 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 to anger they are gone away backwards so the first thing he mentions is you know what you guys are just a bunch of rebels you're rebellious you don't know who your God is and he's making this comparison that even animals know who the master is you know you have ox you have a beast of burden that knows in charge yet God's people from which salvation comes from the God of Israel is the God of this nation they don't know him you know they don't they don't follow him they don't know him they don't know what the Bible says so there's more devotion from the beast to the owner than there is from Israel to their God I mean that's a shameful statement right and you know this could be the equivalent of modern day people calling themselves Christian right believers but yet they know little to nothing about Jesus or the Bible and we live in a nation like that where you know we're considered a what a Christian nation you know even on our on our money it says in God we trust I mean that is a pretty bold statement there right to put it on our currency to say to God we trust and make ourselves out to be a Christian nation you know you have an entire region in America and the south called the Bible belt you know wherever you knock on doors and everyone say but they're not saved you have all these people ascribing to the religion of Christianity yet they're so far removed from God they're so far removed from the Bible from God from doctrine you said well how do you know well just bring up the Bible to one of them and you'll see based upon the reaction how far removed they are you know just bring up doctrine and how offended they get at doctrine you'll see that this is a people laden with iniquity they're estranged from their God they're not like the axe or excuse me not like the ass or the ox that knows the owner they're like people who just don't even know who God is you know you claim to be a Christian you claim to believe in the Bible yet you don't read it you claim to be a Christian you claim to believe in the Bible you claim to believe in Jesus yet you reject them as your Savior because you're placing your faith in your works or whatever you know it's almost as if America has a Christian culture outside of the Bible or something and part of that culture is you don't read the Bible you don't bring up doctrine because it divides or whatever you know but this is the equivalent and so he's telling them you know this is the nation from which the Bible comes from the Word of God God has used this nation in a great way yet the inhabitants the residents of this land don't know who God is isn't that a shameful thing so he's telling them there you guys are rebellious you're gone away backwards another way of saying that is you're backslidden you are far away from God he says in verse number five why should he be stricken anymore will you revolt more and more the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint what is he talking about well he's referring to the fact that obviously in the history of Israel and when I say Israel I'm collectively referring to the northern and southern kingdom right because in general that's that could be referred to as Israel but in general their history is just filled with a lot of chastisement from the Lord God has stricken them he's allowed the Assyrians to come I mean Judah should wake up after the fact that her sister Israel the northern kingdom has been taken into exile by the Assyrians and learn from that mistake right and just say you know what maybe we should get back to serving God because the northern kingdom is looking pretty bad that was ten tribes here we are only two how are we going to stand up to God's hand of chastisement it's impossible to but what he's saying here is that you guys have been beaten you guys have been stricken you guys have been whooped you guys have been punished and he says and you will you revolt more and more like are you going to continue to be rebellious he said the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint what is he saying you're basically from head to toe just destroyed okay your head is sick your heart isn't right with God and it reminds me of a couple verses here because basically what he's saying is that you know if they don't get right with God they're going to be destroyed without remedy that's what he's saying and it reminds me of this verse in Proverbs 29 you don't have to turn there it says he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy and of course in the individual sense it's referring to the fact that you know someone who's just constantly being chastised by God God's just constantly dealing with him constantly punishing him constantly trying to correct him and he just does not want to change his ways he does not want to get right with God well it seems that the only thing that's going to get his attention is destruction without remedy what is remedy without solution basically God's gonna have to do something to you where he he just creates irreparable damage to your life and that'll get your attention now that's scary I'm gonna read to you from Proverbs 6 verse 12 says a naughty person a wicked man walketh with the forward mouth he winketh with his eyes speaketh with his feet he teaches with his fingers forwardness is in his heart he deviseth mischief continually he soweth discord therefore shall his calamity come suddenly suddenly shall he be broken without remedy again you see that phrase there they're they're gonna be destroyed without there being any solution any ointment to help any type of reconstruction he's like you're done and God has done this to many nations where he decimates them and they just no longer exist and he's just he's threatening Judah with this he's saying look you've been chastised over the years you have a history of just being rebellious worshipping false gods behaving in an unrighteous manner and it seems as though you know none of this is working now here's the thing is that obviously it does work right because we've seen that when God chastises you know his people eventually some of them come around okay and we never want to think that you know hey just you know you're spanking your child for example and you might have that one child that is just it's like man it's like Judah you guys just aren't getting it you know what I mean and moms can feel that way sometimes where it's just like I feel like I've done everything I could and they just they just they're like the ox that doesn't know who's in charge or actually the ox doesn't know who's in charge but they're like the person who just doesn't know who's in charge they keep rebelling but you know at that case you just have to keep having faith that the chastisement works because you know I'm giving you a practical application here because even though God is saying this he's we're gonna see later on he says my hand is stretched out still in other words he's gonna continue to chastise them okay because he knows that it works and you know in like manner you're gonna have instances and I know not a lot of people have a whole lot of kids but you know you will or you currently do or you're not you haven't found yourself in this situation but you will one day where you have all of these angels they just obey on the first command but then God's gonna throw in a Judah and it's just like man and it's just the the kid just won't listen you know and you just have to have faith in the fact that it does work the chastisement does work now obviously you know even with some nations you know it didn't work because they ended up becoming a reprobate nation okay to the point where just nothing worked it they were burned beyond recognition but obviously that's a different case that's reprobation but in general it does work look at verse number six it says from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores they have not been clothed excuse me closed neither bound up neither mollified with ointment what is he saying he said you're like a person who just got beat up and I'm about to beat you up again the problem is is that you haven't even healed from the previous beatings right because he's saying like you have wounds bruises putrefying sores and they have not been closed closed in other words you know you don't have any scabs yet like the scabs haven't even closed up the wounds that I gave you from years past you haven't corrected some of your ways you have important ointment about the word of God and yet you think you're gonna be able to handle another chastisement from the Lord so previous wounds had not been healed and obviously he's referring to other times where he chastised the children of Israel by taking them captive or allowing a foreign army to come and destroy them and they're supposed to learn from that right they're supposed to learn from them and say you know what let's just excommunicate and put to death all false prophets tear down all the altars get all this paganism out of the land and let's worship the Lord our God right let's worship the Lord let's make sure that we're right with God so this doesn't happen again let the wounds heal let's pour in some ointment so we can move on with the healing process and you know what this is like America America's been judged multiple times in times past 9-11 is one of them like it's an inside job yeah yeah that's still judgment and I remember when 9-11 happened some of you weren't even born I think right who how many of you remember 9-11 okay we got a good amount you know I remember going to school and it was all over the news and and I remember like coming home from school and you know the thing that we did as latchkey kids is you just turn on the television even if you're not gonna watch it you just want like background noise and I remember like for hours and days on end it was just you know people talking about what happened uh that day and also a call to prayer they're just like let's pray let's all pray together you know and lifting up their voices unto the Lord and praying that God would bless America and all these things but yet here we are you know in 2024 more wicked than ever have you not learned from previous mistakes you know you obviously realize that God breached the walls of America and punished America because they're crying out to God for it you know you should have stayed right with God but instead of course America became worse and what I see now is that there's wounds bruises putrefying sores they have not been closed closed neither bound up neither mollified with ointment and in fact the wounds are just being made bigger in fact it's rotting flesh in fact infection has taken place Kyla have a seat right now sit down getting up too much sister you know they have not been the there's no scabs there's not even a scar left you know we would appreciate a scar but there's no scars it's just it's still bleeding it's oozing there's pus still there's all types of infections and diseases there's sodomites in the land think about it and it's like God has chest eyes and chest eyes and has done multiple things throughout the years and yet you know I'm by the way how about COVID well regardless of what you think about COVID a bunch of people died you would think that that would call people back to the Lord and get people right with God didn't do that now did it it's made people even more wicked just drove people further away from God in certain instances not because it's God's fault but because it's the nation's response right and so previous wounds have not been healed and that's what he's telling him he's just like you are just a walking infection Judah there's no soundness in your body you got athlete's foot this is the soul of your foot you got gangrene you got you know what's that foot disease called what's a foot disease out there what fungus you got diabetes diabetus they're about to chop off your foot I mean the obviously what's being portrayed here is that the body known as Judah is just completely corrupt it's become corrupted okay and obviously one of the takeaways that we can get from this verse when he says the soul of the feet even to the head he's referring to the fact that the leaders you know the head would be the leaders the soul of the foot would be like the regular people everyday people of that nation he's saying both of them are really bad so it's just like the politicians are really bad but so are the people in the cities and in the land they're both bad let me read you from Jeremiah chapter 6 it reminds me of this verse in verse 13 it says for from the least of them even into the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness and from the prophet even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely he's saying you know you got your unchurched people and you got your priests and your prophets and they're both just really bad well if you're to look at America that's that's kind of like the same thing right you're the most famous preacher out there it's probably some wicked piece of trash he's preaching a false gospel false doctrine you know he's greedy a filthy lucre i mean let's have joel's team would be a perfect example of that even though he's in the promised land you know what i mean some of the biggest false prophets in this nation are in texas and they're the ones who have the most influence over quote-unquote christianity so to speak and so you know you look at the politicians biden camala harris you know all of these uh presidents and politicians you go from them and you go to the priests and the prophets like joel osteen t.d jakes they're wicked all of them are given over to covetousness so what can we say we say when it comes to america from the sole of the foot all the way to the head it's all corrupt and what is god trying to get across here he's trying to get across like there's only so much i can do with this nation there's so many wounds so many infections and it's almost like what do you think i should do to you look at verse seven 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 daughters uh daughter of zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard as a lodge and a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city now i do think that he's actually talking about israel because even though they're separate kingdoms you know they're essentially neighbors right and they came from one nation at one point and he's he's kind of using the example of israel and he's saying like look at israel you know it's completely burned with fire and he gives an indicator of how they're to know that god is judging them he's saying strangers devour it in your presence we should talk about immigrants talking about foreigners because he's talking about the asyrians who don't belong in israel or judah and so part of the punishment that israel and judah are getting is that you have strangers foreigners coming devouring the land of their presence overthrown by strangers they're making it desolate it says as the daughter of zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers and as a besieged city now this is very much applicable to america too because now you know yes america is a land of immigrants land of the free but now it's almost as if the worst kind are coming here you know if you wanted people to come here who actually wanted the truth and they want to make an honest living which of course i'm sure that there are people who are coming over like that people have been coming over like that throughout uh the decades okay and bad people have been coming over for many years too it's just that now they're coming over even more and you say oh it's because you know of this uh president no it's because of god if you want to blame someone don't blame the president blame god god's actually the one who's allowing that because if he could he wanted if he wanted to you could just stop it but we see according to the bible foreigners overthrowing a nation and devouring it in the presence of the people who are part of that nation is part of god's judgment let me read to you from deuteronomy 28 you could turn there if you'd like if you're quick enough deuteronomy 28 verse 43 says the stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high and thou shall come down very low now i'm a little too late for this but this is a perfect example of that would be barack obama because he was a foreigner he wasn't born here yet he got up very high he became the president that's an indicator of god's judgment i mean that's a mockery right that someone who's not born in the united states of america would be the president of the united states of america that's part of god's judgment because only those who are born here should have the opportunity to become a president right i mean i was like that's like a big thing growing up is my mom would tell me like you know no no you're born here hey you could be the president you know i remember she told me that as a kid like you could you can if you want to be a president because you're born here well i have more right to be a president than barack obama it says in verse 44 he shall lend to thee and thou shall not lend to him he shall be thy head and thou shall be the tail moreover all these curses curses it says shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed because thou harkenest not into the voice of the lord thy god to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee so notice that the solution is not policies and voting in the right person to stop immigration and building the wall what's the solution get right with god that's what's actually going to solve the problem because he says these curses are coming upon thee and then he says because thou harkenest not into the voice of the lord thy god it doesn't say because you didn't vote in the right guy with the right policies it says because you didn't it you didn't listen to god okay chapter 29 verse 22 says actually i'm gonna now read it it says so that generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from a far land shall say when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the lord hath laid upon it and that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning that it is not so nor beareth nor any grass growth therein like the overthrow of sodom and gomorrah adma and zeboim which the lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath even all nations shall say wherefore hath the lord done thus unto this land what meaneth the heat of this great anger then men shall say because they have forsaken the covenant of the lord god of their fathers which he made with them when he brought them out forth out of the land of egypt for they went and serve other gods and so on and so forth so we see actually this being fulfilled in judah in isaiah's day because he's talking about like the fact that you know oh you're going to be overthrown like sodom and gomorrah and that's actually the terminology that's used in chapter one of isaiah and so what's what do we see here we see that god's saying i'm gonna i'm gonna make such a destruction out of you and destroy you in such a way that even the four nations will say like what do they do to piss off god so much man like god overthrew them harshly like what did they do and what they did was is that they forsook god and served other gods and so uh we see that there now look at verse number 10 or nine excuse me it says except the lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been at sodom and we should have been like into gomorrah so this is kind of showing you how close in proximity they were to that type of destruction he's like you're lucky there's like safe people there he's like you're lucky there's a people of god in in judah during this time because if there wasn't you're like sodom and gomorrah part two you're the sequel to sodom and gomorrah because you're just as wicked as sodom and gomorrah the only difference is you know you have multiple lots right there's actually a remnant there and in fact is better than lot because lot was just a really bad witness he was really backslidden but apparently there's a remnant and what is a remnant it means a small group of people who are actually serving god they're obeying the lord they love the lord their god and it's a remnant and it doesn't mean that it's like like a large it's not referring to joe osteen's church and here's the thing you know america has become like sodom and gomorrah in a lot of ways but one of the reasons fire and brimstone has not yet rained down upon america is because we as christians are here and i said christians by the way like legitimate christians like save people like not catholics like not orthodox like not joe's witnesses not mormons or any other pseudo-christian group out there it claims to be christian we're talking about people who actually believe the bible people were actually saved through faith in jesus christ only you know people who don't come to church with men who don't come to church to preach in dresses like oh no it's all it's all collectively getting together and no just shut up sit down let us do the work you know the churches of god are the ones stay in the hand of god's judgment from america and it's not because we're special it's because we're trying to obey the lord by preaching the gospel every week getting people saved proclaiming the name of the lord out there to a lost and dying world preaching the word of god to our congregations trying to spread righteousness rebuking and reproving the evil works of darkness i mean we're just doing all this so that god won't judge america the same america that wants us to be judged you know because this is the same america that doesn't like us as christians but you know what there's plenty of people out there that want the truth they want to get saved and so it's important to keep the remnant amen now one day america will be totally just destroyed and i'm okay with that because of the fact that you know at the end of the day it's all gonna burn this world deserves god's judgment you know it just needs to be cleansed you know and i would take you to revelation 16 but we don't have time where the angels are just like they see all the blood and they're like yeah amen hallelujah you know because that's what they deserve like they rejoice in god's judgment and that's how i feel sometimes but you know what there are plenty of people out there who want the truth who want to get saved there's people in mexico that we're going to get saved there's people this weekend that are going to get saved there's people next week that are going to get saved there's people that are going to get saved tomorrow and saturday and sunday and so we just need to keep doing the work to remain as the remnant to stay that god's hand of judgment from america and this is why he's telling them you know god left a very small remnant there and you know what by the way this should be encouraging to you and to me that all you need is a small remnant you know because sometimes it gets discouraging it's like why isn't there more of us out there but here's the thing it's it's god has always uh worked well and uh has done well with the small group of people because then god gets all the glory okay so he says in verse 10 here the word of the lord he rulers of sodom give ear into the law of our god he people of gomorrah now he's i want he's talking to judah but he's just like kind of throwing that in their face hey you faggoty king basically what he's saying because it's not like he's just like he's not just calling out some random city and no one knows what's what's being say it was being stated like everyone knows what sodom is associated with in the bible okay regardless of what some theologian out there on instagram says oh you know it's not really sodomy it's not homosexuality it's just violation shut up you faggot stop defending faggotry he's like listen you rulers of sodom listen biden listen p diddy because he's a homo too he's like give ear into the law of our god he people of gomorrah and this reminds me of revelation 11 8 because you know like we see this here in isaiah but you know israel never really shook that though because in revelation 11 verse 8 it says their dead bodies referring to the two witnesses shall lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called sodom and egypt where also our lord was crucified so he's obviously referring to israel and he's saying spiritually in the eyes of god it's called sodom so sodom has relocated locations to israel and it's i mean it's like that in revelation 11 8 but it's like that today too because tel Aviv is filled with sodomites so he's rebuking them here and he's telling them you know and obviously the reason he's calling them sodom and gomorrah is because they're probably guilty of the abominations of sodom and gomorrah they're probably committing sodomy rape all the evil wicked things that all the the sodomites do in revelation and romans chapter one they're guilty of and he's telling them listen to the word of god this is the preaching that you're going to get look at verse 11 here's the uh second accusation and that is that they're guilty of insincere worship he says in verse 11 to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me sayeth 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 and of lambs or of lambs or of he goats when he come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts and what i believe he's talking about here is the fact that they're very being excuse me being very glib about their service to god because you know a lot of these accusations that he's giving that he's talking about are really evil like stuff that they're doing they're worshiping false gods they're guilty of sodomy later on we'll see that they're guilty of murder and stealing but yet they're still offering animal sacrifices so they're still participating in the rituals of the old testament they're offering burnt offerings of rams fat of fed beasts and they're doing all of these religious activities so to speak but they don't really believe it it's all insincere it's not from the heart and when i think of this particular passage i think of modern day liberal churches which i think are the embodiment of insincere worship because it's a service i've never been to one but you know i've seen them like online and through the witnesses of others that what you have is that you have these people who basically you know have a church service they'll talk about god and jesus and the bible and they'll go through all of the motions of having church and sing songs but it's all insincere because they don't really believe it they don't believe any of it because if you're legitimately put a man of god behind the pulpit to preach just the most watered down doctrine of the bible they probably would still get offended you can preach the most you can preach about the love of god and they probably get offended or something like the love of god from the bible's perspective and they would be offended at that if you get up and say catholics are not saved they would be severely offended at that why because of the fact that the vast majority of churches in america are filled with insincere worship oh but they're going to church they get up in the morning to get ready for church they're on the worship team they bring out a bible what they claim to be a bible they claim to pray you know in uh with their lips they do worship him but their heart is far from them far from god excuse me and so god is not interested in vain religious activity and you know the liberal churches are not the only ones guilty of this roman catholics are guilty of this too i mean their entire service mass is all about religious activity and god is nowhere near that temple of satan have you guys ever been to mass i mean just a dude in the dress and it's just really sad in there it's it's it's really dark and it's probably like this with the orthodox church as well the difference being they have icons but it's the same thing they're idols we got a dude in a dress everything there's there's a corpse red dead smack in the middle there's a carved corpse in the middle of the service they call jesus you guys know that like if you ever go to a catholic church in the mass like there's like a dead body there on a crucifix and it's very detailed he's just like you know it just looks morbid it's dark you know the the uh the kneeling things hurt you know like you put the kneeling things to like you have to get up and get down to prayer on your knees and you do this vain repetition and you know what they're not worshiping god they are devoted to their religion but they're not devoted to god though because they're not even saved and when you look at you know some of the things that jude is doing i mean they're good things offering sacrifices that's what's prescribed in the old testament law but you know what the bible says it tells us that you know god is more interested in obedience than sacrifice to obey is better than sacrifice right right but they're not obeying because obviously when they leave the temple they're murdering someone they're stealing they're taking bribes they're worshiping a false god in their own home i mean it's it's crazy so they're full of vain religious activity and you know what the funny thing is that people would look at us and be like oh you know you guys are so religious but god's more interested in the heart though he wants to talk but it's the same people it's just like yeah but you have no heart for god though your heart is as fat as greece i delight in the law of god but your heart is as fat as greece i hate every false way because i love the lord and you know you can say oh you're so reli look at all this church with all these suits and ties and how people dress and everything just all religious yeah but in our hearts we also love the lord though and the proof of it is the fact that we actually preach from the bible we actually go soul winning we preach the gospel we're leading people to righteousness oh but all these rules oh you mean god's rules so you have something against god's rules so apparently you have the heart issue not us because we love god's rules and in fact his commandments are not grievous they're grievous to you because obviously you don't like the bible look at verse 13 he says bring no more vain ablations again talk about the insincere glib worship incense is an abomination unto me the new moons and sabbaths the calling of assemblies i cannot away with it it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hateth there are a trouble unto me i am weary to bear them he's like stop with all this purple lights and smoke and repetitious songs and when you spread forth your hands i don't know how you how do you do it cody show me you know you're just yeah see i knew he still you still got it when you spread forth your hands look what it says i will hide mine eyes from you so you know you got these guys i mean i guess not just guys but you know women in in in these churches and they're just lifting up holy hands and you know they got all this just outward appearance of just religious activity and you know what god is doing like wow wow he's like i will hide mine eyes from you so this is what i picture just like damn stop i mean i want to do the same thing though like you know this hasn't happened a long time but if i ever had you ever had people like come and they're maybe they're visitors or something they're part they they they've been to like a church like that and that's what they're used to they'll lift up like their holy hands sometimes i'm just like oh man it's almost like embarrassing yeah you kind of want to just put their hands down like stop but god is saying like you're embarrassing you're like shaming okay you know but you know why he's embarrassed is because they don't actually believe it in their heart so how gay is that the fact that you don't believe it in your heart and you're still doing that where's that coming from you're doing it to be you know you just want to like show everyone how religious you are so you know there's one thing if someone's doing it and they actually love the lord it's still kind of embarrassing but you know whatever but what what if you just don't even love the bible what if you're not even saved what if you're not even doing that of a love for god that's even more weird so god's like yeah this is like it's unbearable i can't away with it he said he says yay when you make many prayers catholics i will not hear your hands are full of blood you know the crusades oh you can make all these hail mary's and all these prayers and repetitious vain repetition you can say it 20 times 50 times as much as you want god's not listening he's putting like the the mute button on that thing why because their hands are filled with blood and i always find it funny how catholics want to call themselves christians and just want to sweep away the inquisition like well nothing to see here so you ask them about it and it's just like oh no we just burned heretics we gave you the bible no you you killed people for translating the bible your hands are full of blood so you can spread forth your hands bunch of liberals you can make many prayers orthodox and catholics i will not hear i will hide my eyes from it that's what the bible says so the spirit of this glib at religious activity stems all the way back from israel first samuel 15 22 says and samuel said hath the lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken in the fat of the rams how about these um you know these heber roots movement type types right they want to observe the new moon they want to observe the sabbaths as if they're pleasing god god god's like stop this is done that's done away with you're making a mockery of christianity look at verse 16 here he calls them for repentance he says wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow come now let us reason together saith the lord though your sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson it shall be as wool now this really shows you the heart of god's mercy and grace right because he's just like you guys are just wicked but then he's just like just get right though and it it shows you that you know god is is a major judge he's very just but then he's very lovingly kind as well he's very patient and he's he's trying to reason with them i mean god doesn't have to reason with people but he's just like let us reason together and obviously the the the takeaway that we can get from this as a nation is you know what tomorrow if america just decided to turn back to god turn back to god and you know actually began to preach the gospel actually began to preach the bible you know the leaders of the land instead of just putting out a king james bible although that's great would actually institute the laws that are in that bible god will take us back with open arms he would be even though you know you know america's done very wickedly he would probably prolong that judgment even further and he would begin to bless our nation even that much the more well this policy should really help though he's not looking for policies he's looking for precepts to be obeyed he doesn't care about your policies but it's really close to just obeying the bible that's not into politics he's into obedience to his word what he's into and so if obviously in the bible obviously tells us that if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray you know and seek my face that he would heal the land so obviously he's dependent upon christians but at the end of the day if the nation as a whole just got right with god god will take us back with open arms why because god that's what god wants at the end of the day and you know what when it comes to individuals that's what he wants from you as well you know because sometimes christians can get this attitude that because they're backslidden they've gone too far that you know it's just too late for them but you know what it's not too late if you have that thought in your mind that it's too late then here's your reminder that it's not too late because god is very long suffering as high as the heavens are from the earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him the bible says and you can't measure the heavens from the earth so that's how great his mercy is towards you if you fear him and are willing to get right with him come now let us reason together i mean what a phrase what a statement that the god of the bible would would would say something like that and he's saying it through the prophet and you would think that the children of israel would say you know what let's not go any further let's just get right right now but you know what this is chapter one though unfortunately it's just chapter one he says in verse 19 he gives him the ultimatum he says if you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land if you be willing and obedient but if you refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the lord hath spoken it uh i'll take one please a option one i'll take the first one please i'll take door number one i mean it's not hard it's not like he gives them like a bunch of options he's like look if you obey me then i'll bless you if you don't i'll kill you pestle or pluma you guys know what you guys don't know what that is you know escobar back in the day would say you know either you take the lead or you take the money you know most of them took the money and to a certain extent that's what god is saying you either take the blessing or i kill you with the sword which one would you like this is like it's not a hard choice and i love how simplistic god is when it comes to his commands you know with adam and eve he's just like eat anything you want except for that one right there choose life it's not very hard at all but the crazy thing is everyone always goes for b everyone always gets the second option why he says in verse 21 and here is the last accusation and really is just a lamentation contrasting between the past and the present he says how is the faithful city become a harlot it is it was full of judgment righteousness lodged in it but now murderers he's lamenting he's just like man this used to be a place where people could just judge everyone you know churches in america used to be a place where you just judge sin and no one was bad and i had it because that's what you do but now it's just full of harlots whores and harlots now murderers are abiding in there he says look at verse uh 22 this is very powerful he says thy silver has become dross in other words you're impure you're defiled but i want you to notice this next phrase thy wine mixed with water now what does that mean what is that what is that referring to well if you have wine and it's a little too strong for you you know the juice is just a little too sweet you throw in a little water to do what to water it down to dilute it and what is he telling them you guys are watered down your silver's become dross and you're watered down he's calling them a bunch of compromises what he's doing reminds me of the church at laodicea they were neither cold nor hot right they were lukewarm and you know what this for sure describes a lot of churches today a lot of christians that they're essentially wine mixed with water they're just diluted they're watered down the preaching is watered down the churches are watered down the teachings are watered down you can't say anything controversial you can't preach the bible anymore now i can but i'm talking about these other pastors out there other churches they won't do it why because they're watered down give me the full glass of wine you know that that wine that uh that brother vitor gives us and i'm talking about juice here that wine that vitor gives is just like pure grape juice sweet you know sometimes my wife waters it down but i'm just like you know i i like it sweet you guys don't agree with that all right a bunch of compromises here you're watered down god doesn't want us to be watered down he wants us to be potent he wants his churches to have the full effect 100 grape juice not water down with a bunch of compromising ideologies that you got from your favorite talk radio or podcast or whatever be wine without the mixture of water he says in verse 23 thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither that the cause of the widow come unto them it's basically saying you know a lot of these people just become covetous they're covetous they're taking bribes very unjust people there and then finally he gives them the verdict in verses 24 to 31 and i'm going to skip some of this here but let's read a couple verses it says therefore saith the lord the lord of hosts the mighty one of israel ah i will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies so he's calling jew to his adversary and his enemy and i will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy ten and i will restore thy judges as at the first thy counselors as at the beginning afterward thou shall be called the city of righteousness the faithful city zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness now this is obviously something that's going to take place uh in their near future but it's obviously a foreshadowing of an ultimate restoration known as the millennial reign you say how do you know because it says in verse 27 zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness and literally we're we are the converts of israel you know some desert jews who are just obeying the word of the lord going out preaching the gospel god gentile saved and it got to us he says and the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together and they that forsake the lord shall be consumed referring to the lake of fire for they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired and ye shall be confounded with the gardens that ye have chosen referring to their false gods for ye have for ye shall be as an oak whose leaf faded and as a garden that hath no water and the strong shall be as toe referring to the refuse of the tree bark and the maker excuse me and the marker of it as a spark and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them what is he talking about he's talking about the separation from the sheep and the goats and what this is ultimately saying here at the end of the chapter is that god's going to restore that physical land in their near future but a total restoration will come at the great white throne judgment okay because ultimately we know that israel once they got right with god they got unright with god again you understand what i'm saying so it's like that cycle continued so he's just telling them like one day it's not going to be like this one day i'm going to restore you to just full capacity and your converts with righteousness and i'm going to burn everyone else you know those who don't who rejected the lord jesus christ are are going to suffer the consequences of that so chapter one is a very powerful chapter and it's it really shows you the heart of god in the sense that he's obviously very angry god gets very angry becomes very wrathful but then you also see that he has the perfect balance of of mercy as well where he's like come on let us reason together get right with me because if not i'm going to devour you with the sword and unfortunately we're going to see a lot of preaching not unfortunate but for them over the next like 30 plus chapters this is a lot of the message that we see in the book of israel and so let's pray father we thank you so much for chapter one lord and all the principles thereof lord help us as your people um to never become vain in our worship lord may we do it from the heart as we walk with you as we pray as we win souls as we obey you lord and i pray that you'd stay the hand of judgment from america as wicked as it's become there's plenty of churches here lord there's a remnant that you've left who are preaching the gospel getting people saved lord and i pray that you'd help us and give us more time to get more people saved lord and i pray lord that you'd continue to bless us as a church and bless us as we go on our way give us a great weekend to follow in jesus name amen