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All right, we're there in Isaiah 58, and verse number one begins with saying, cry aloud, spare not. That's the title of the sermon tonight. Cry aloud and spare not. It says, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. So before we get into the meat of this chapter, we see that God is telling Isaiah how to preach, what method to preach to the wicked, the wickedness of the people of Judah in this point in time. And he says, cry aloud, lift up your voice. Lift it up like a trumpet. Now, I've been criticized for being a loud preacher. I don't know if you believe that or not. I've also been, I've been thanked for being a loud preacher. Because people say, well, I can hear you when you preach. You know, I might have hearing issues. And when you preach, you're loud, you're clear. And I thank you for that. And then others are like, oh, you're too loud. Keep your voice down, pastor. And they mean well, I understand. Especially when you have little babies, and they have sensitive ears, and they come to church, and they hear this crazy pastor lifting up his voice, and they start to weep and cry. I mean, they're to cry aloud, I guess. You know, they're repeating the words there that have been preached. But, you know, we see this instruction given to Isaiah. And, you know, God sometimes in the Bible gives us instructions of how we are to preach. And one thing that is clearly laid out here is that we ought to, if you're going to preach, if you're going to get behind the pulpit, you know, you want to make sure that your voice is clear. It's loud. It's heard. And one of the criticisms that I received, and this is outside of the ministry, is that, oh, you know, you didn't preach like that in your old churches. You know, you didn't lift up your voice like you do now. And, you know, I don't like your current style. But here's the thing. Like, the reason I preach the way I preach in my old churches when I was invited to preach is, you know, certain churches have certain cultures, right? And in one of my previous churches, it's very common for the pastor and other preachers to have their entire sermon just written out in notes. And so they'll just read the notes. And they do their best to be as dynamic as possible, but you're limited when you just preach in few notes and just read in word as you're preaching. So when I preach in that church, yeah, I follow the culture of that day. And I just would have much, I'd have many notes, I'd have like eight pages, like, I have one page of notes, yeah, which is basically just a chapter. But, you know, before I would have like, you know, seven, eight pages of notes, and I would read through my notes. And I did it that way because that was the culture of the church. And so, you know, many times you kind of just, you fit into what you, you know, think that that church setting is expecting. And so you just fit in, especially as a guest preacher, you don't want to like ruffle feathers, you don't want to, you know, turn things in a way that they may not ask for you to preach there again. But the other reason I lift my voice is when I started New Life Baptist Church, we didn't have, and still to this day, we don't have any way to amplify my voice. Like this microphone is only for online listeners, like it doesn't help anyone here in the building, this microphone, it's not coming out of the speaker, whatever amplification is coming from the lungs, okay, and coming from the throat, and coming from down here, the abdomen. All right. And so one thing when I was at New Life is I wasn't used to preaching twice a week, because that's what we're doing. We're doing two services a week. I wasn't used to it. I was used to preaching once a month, maybe twice a month at most. And so he used to hear me preach. And he says, Look, Pastor Kevin, I like that you lift up your voice, but I can hear that you're wearing out your throat. And he goes, Look, you can't wear out your vocals. He goes, Look, I've been a teacher for this many decades. And when you're talking day and day out, you have to take care of your voice. You have to take care of your vocal cords. Otherwise, if you destroy it, you can't fix it. That's what he was telling me. He goes, Look, what I had to learn as a teacher, and what singers need to learn and what public speakers need to learn is how to project their voice, not with their throats, but with their abdomen. Okay. And so he goes, you need to look into this. So you don't, you know, by the end of five years preaching, you haven't destroyed your voice, we can't be used to preach anymore. So I went onto YouTube, and I looked this up, I forget what it's called, the breathing technique. But basically, the power of lifting up your voice is not coming from here, which is wear and tear, but it's coming from down here from the belly. And so I tried to learn the breathing techniques and how to predict my voice. I didn't even know, if you asked me to teach me how to do it, Pastor Kevin, I don't even know how to teach anymore. Like now it's just instinctive. Now I've just learned how to do it. Okay. So I can song lead, I can preach, and then I can go door to the song winning. And then I can preach a second sermon if I had to. And my voice is still okay, because I'm doing it the right way. All right. But one thing that's definitely something that you want to learn if you're a preacher, or you have a heart to one day stand behind this pulpit is to lift up your voice, especially, you know, if we in an area where it's kind of echoes, if we have little children that are making noise, and that's okay, little children make noise, but you got to be able to lift your voice. So that way, it's still clear to the hearer. And so God is asking Isaiah to do this. Now, he's doing this specifically for a reason, though. He says, the reason he's asking to lift up his voice like a trumpet is to show my people their transgression, all right, and the house of Jacob, their sins. So God, look, so, you know, you can take this view and say, well, you know, I'm just going to always lift up my voice when I preach. I'm just going to always heal. No, no, that's not the right thing. You lift up your voice at the right time. And in this particular time, it's to highlight the sins and the transgressions of the people of God. All right. So like, if you're going door to the soul winning, right, you're not there to rebuke them in their sins, right? You're there to teach them the gospel. All right. You want them to acknowledge that they're sinners. You want them to acknowledge that they've sinned against God. All right. But could you imagine if you go door to the soul winning and there you go, look, will you allow me to show you how you can be saved and know that you're going to heaven? They're like, yeah. And you're like, all right, you know, you get to John 3.16, for God so loved the world and he just gave his only begotten son. The guy behind the door is like, what's wrong with you? You're crazy. Calm down. And you're like, no, no, no, Isaiah 58, cry aloud. Spare not, lift up your voice. Obviously, there are times to do that. All right. And obviously, when you're just giving John 3.16 and you're preaching the gospel, you don't want to scare the person behind your door. You'll be neighborly. You're meeting them at their level. But you know, if I'm going to preach against adultery, right, I'm going to preach against the sin of adultery. And I speak about it. Of course, when I speak about it, I want you to know that by lifting up my voice, this is a serious issue. Like, I would hate it if you walk away from church and say, what did Pastor Kevin preach on? He preached against adultery. All right. And it's like, oh, what'd you learn? Oh, well, I don't know. He seemed pretty mellow about it. Right. And he never lifted up his voice. He didn't cry aloud. In fact, I think Pastor Kevin's okay with adultery. Like if you walk away with that, it's like, oh, I haven't preached properly as a preacher. And sometimes lifting up your voice to emphasize what is sinful and what is wrong is necessary. All right. Now, some other passage I want you to turn to, come with me to Micah chapter three, please. Micah chapter three. Keep your finger there in Isaiah. Micah chapter three. And by the way, we're up to Isaiah 58, aren't we? And chapter 58, we're near the end. Okay. Near the end, God is asking him, cry aloud, lift up your voice. This tells me he probably wasn't this very boisterous preacher to begin with for most of his preaching. Okay. But when he gets to Isaiah 58, God, look, you need to make this clear. Lift up your voice at this point in time. Okay. So don't have this attitude. It's just a preacher should just be constantly screaming. If the preacher is just constantly screaming, you're going to lose like the emphasis. When it's time to emphasize things, you lose it. Okay. And so look at Micah three. Micah three in verse eight. Micah three eight. Some other instructions here. But truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. Micah also tells us how a preacher ought to conduct himself when he's preaching against sins and transgressions. He says, I'm truly full of the power by the Spirit of the Lord. And you know, you guys are tired of me saying this, but that's why I'm always, when the Bible is being read, that chapter has been read, I'm praying, and I'm asking God, God, can you fill me with your Spirit? Fill me with the Spirit of the Lord, because if I'm going to get up to preach, Lord, I need to make sure that I'm being controlled, I'm being empowered by your wonderful Holy Spirit. And so that is also important. It says to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. So we want to teach against sin with clarity. Like I said, I don't want you walking away and saying, I don't know, Pastor Kevin seems to be okay with envy or something like this, right? I mean, I don't know. It doesn't seem like it's a problem when he preaches about that topic, whatever it is, right? No, we want to make sure that with the power of the Holy Spirit, we're being clear with what is sinful and what is not sinful. Now that's important. The power of the Holy Spirit is super important. Because if you choose to preach by your own power, you're going to start to emphasize and teach things that are just opinion based. And I'm not against giving opinions. I'm not against it. But you must always separate what is man's opinion with what is transgression and sin. All right? Sometimes I have someone, you know, random people will call me, say, Pastor, there's this situation. Is it a sin? Is it wrong? Or Pastor, I've just rebuked this person because of what they did. And quite often, because I know what they rebuked that person of, or what they're asking, what is a sin? Is this a sin or is that a sin? I know it's not a sin. And I always say this, but I want you to think about this with clarity, with carefulness. The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law. That's what sin is. If you're saying, Pastor Kevin, you're doing wrong, you're committing sin, you're committing iniquity, you're committing transgression, but you can't show me in the Bible where it tells me I'm doing that. I am not committing sin. That is just your opinion. That's why you need the Holy Spirit of God to differentiate. When the Holy Spirit is using the preacher, you're not going to start preaching your opinions as the commandments of God. Okay? It has to be clear. Oh, but it kind of says this in that area. That's just your opinion. Look, if that's how you interpret that, if that's bothering your conscience, then that is a sin to you, but it may not be a sin to me. Okay? Unless you have a clear black and white scripture, you can't condemn it as sin. You might say it's ill-advised. You might say, I wouldn't do that. I don't think that's the best option. But you can't turn around and say, that is a sin. And many times, I'll be honest with you, many times when I've had interactions and people want me to call out something as a sin, it's not a sin. It's just someone's opinion. Okay? It's not what God says. So we need the Spirit of God to teach us and then we can teach others with clarity. And then look at Ezekiel 6, please. Come with me to Ezekiel 6. Some other instructions here. Ezekiel 6 and verse number 11. Ezekiel chapter 6. Ezekiel chapter 6 and verse number 11. Ezekiel 6-11. The Bible says, God wants Ezekiel to make this clear. You know, you're going to be judged. You're going to be destroyed. So it says, look, smite with your hand, right? It goes, look, just bang, right? Stomp with your foot, right? I have nothing. There we go, right? Stomp with your foot, smite with your hand, all right? When he's preaching against the sins of Israel, you know, we can take this for us and say, well, we need to use body language sometimes, right? It's, look, if you want to smite this pulpit, smite this pulpit as hard as you need to, if you're trying to make a point. But, you know, the greater teaching out of all of this is that, you know, it's good to have used your body. Like, this is why my hands do this sometimes, all right? When you use your body to teach it, it helps or helps me sometimes to get words out of my mouth like that. Words out of my mouth. I don't even know I'm doing that. But anyway, it helps me and also makes it more entertaining, makes it more clear when you're using the body language as well as just the words that are coming out of your mouth. So it's fine to smite your hand. It's fine to stamp with your foot. But again, don't do it door to door soul winning, please. I mean, you can knock on the door, I smoke with my hand, knock on the door, but don't just start, you know, breaking all objects around the house. And, you know, you walk past a Virgin Mary idol or something in the house, like, that's it, gonna smite this, I'm gonna stomp on it. No, you're not going to cause them to believe in Christ Jesus like that, okay? There's a proper time and place for such actions. Can you come with me to Jeremiah? Come with me to Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter one. These are all preachers that God used. Jeremiah chapter one and verse number 17. Jeremiah chapter one, verse number 17. God says to Jeremiah, when he gets him ready to preach, he says, Now therefore, gird up thy loins. Kind of like put your belt on, get your pants on, put your belt on, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. And speak unto them all that I command thee. You know, God wants us to preach everything all that is in the word of God. And he tells Jeremiah, gird up your loins. Now the way we would probably, the euphemism we would use probably is like, like roll up your sleeves. Roll up your sleeves, get ready for the hard work, right? Get prepared, you know, put your pants on and get cracking, right? So look, if you're going to teach all things, you need to prepare yourself because God says, look, don't be dismayed at their faces. People aren't going to like what you preach if you preach all the Bible. That's why the churches that are thousands and tens of thousands of people, they barely touch the Bible. Or they just preach the sweet things because they know if they preach it all, people don't want to be there. But the instructions to the preachers, get prepared and preach it all. Come with me to 2 Timothy now in the New Testament. We're going to look at 2 Timothy, which is a pastoral epistle. All right, so these are writings for pastors. And in 2 Timothy 4, you guys are probably more familiar with these verses. 2 Timothy 4, verse number 2. 2 Timothy 4, verse number 2. Preach the word. 2 Timothy 4, 2. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. All right, so we're to teach doctrine, doctrine teachings. And I'm going to show you God's word on certain topic. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Is it this week that it's the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras? Is it this week, brethren? I don't know. I heard somewhere in the news. Last week. That's how, look, when I hear about it, I just don't want to hear about it. So preaching against the homosexuals is out of season. To preach such topics is unpopular today. All right? And if you preach against them and you tell people how the Bible speaks of them as reprobates, deserving hellfire, how God rained fire and brimstone and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the filthiness of homosexuality, people are going to think you're a hateful preacher. You must be full of hate. You must be just this wicked guy. No, we're commanded in season, out of season. It doesn't matter. We need to preach the truth. Husbands are the head of the wives. You know that's controversial? Husbands as the head of their wife because of feminism. It doesn't matter because of feminism, in season, out of season, we must teach the truth. And brethren, I would not want to be a pastor if I could not just preach at all. And I'm just assuming, I could be wrong, but I'm assuming the reason you're in church is to hear it all. You say, pastor, if it offends me, it offends me, but I just want to hear it all. So I want you to be hearers in season and out of season as well. Even if you realize, boy, there are certain things that I believe will do that Pastor Kevin might touch upon and it's going to bother me, but I'm not going to get offended. It's not Pastor Kevin that hates me. It's, in fact, Pastor Kevin who loves me and is trying to teach me all things and doing exactly what God's asked him to do as a preacher. Can you come with me to Titus, Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2, another pastoral epistle, Titus chapter 2 and verse 15. Titus chapter 2, verse 15. Titus 2 15 says, these things speak and exhort and rebuke, look at this, with all authority, let no man despise thee. Okay, so we're to teach and speak the things of God, to exhort, that's to encourage, to rebuke, to call out sins, with all authority. Now what is the authority? That's the question I always want to ask and of course it's the scriptures. This is why if I'm going to preach against sin and I'm going to rebuke a sin, I need to have the authority that tells me black and white it's a sin. Otherwise you're going to start rebuking what you consider to be sins because of your opinions and you're lacking the authority. It's like it's just coming from man's authority. It's like we don't come to church to hear man's authority, at least that's not the reason I go to church, I go to church because I want to hear of God's authority. I want to see Lord what have you clearly laid out for us in the scriptures? And that's one of the biggest challenges for preachers is that I need to make sure when I get behind this pulpit whatever I say, whatever I emphasize, I must have the clear teaching and reading of scriptures. So whatever I say, you know, if someone challenges me I can say well it's just there it is in Isaiah 58 verse number one. That's why I lift up my voice because I've got the authority in Isaiah 58 verse one. Like if we had other passages where God says look preach with a soft voice, a calm voice, a mild voice, don't lift up your voice, don't make it sound like a trumpet and I'm lifting up my voice and I'm like we need to preach like this and you say no pastor it's like by God's authority you're not to preach like that. It's like wait I'm wrong. You see we need to make sure that whatever we build our doctrines on it must be on the authority of God's word. Anybody can turn to it and see it for themselves. You know I've had it said by a well-meaning brother in the Lord when there was a certain doctrine that I just wasn't to this day I'm not I don't see it. There are certain doctrines that people see. I don't know why. Some people like it's usually cryptic passages it's but this is what it means. I'm like I don't think that's what it means. Well I don't know maybe it doesn't mean that. I don't know. I can't with clear conscience ever preach that and I've been said yeah but you know what the Bible says to preach with authority so even if you don't think it's right you should preach it but what if it's wrong? Like I would rather I'll be honest I would rather miss some truth by you know just out of ignorance not on purpose just I don't see it okay and it's let's say it's true something's true and I just can't see it. I would rather just miss it on purpose because I don't have the clear conscience I don't see the authority of God's word and I'd rather just avoid teaching such doctrine then to just teach it this is what God's word said thus saith the Lord and then God turns around says hey you're a liar I never said such things. That's why you've got to have a fear of the Lord when you get up to preach and speak okay and this is why I can lift up my voice I can cry aloud when I need to because I'm making sure I've always got the authority of the scripture that says so. Lots of cryptic passages or well logical you know is Jesus God? Yes. Is the father God? Yes. Is Mary the father sorry is Mary the mother of Jesus? Yes. So Mary is the mother of God. Logic! But it's a false doctrine isn't what it is she's the mother of Jesus okay she was the mother of Jesus when he came as a man but she's not the mother of God and she's definitely not the mother of the father of God the father you know that is heresy but oh but it's logical yeah but I don't go to church and listen to the logic of man I need the authority of scriptures that's what I come to God's house to listen to to hear to pay attention to. Well let's get back to Isaiah 58 because that's the main text right like I said title of the sermon is cry aloud and spare not just want to give some further instructions to our preachers all right take these things on board you know make sure you're preaching from authority you know use your hand movements use body language you know strike of your hand if you have to you know don't be monotone lift up your voices when you need to these things are things that you can work on as you get better and better as you preach the bible. Isaiah 58 verse number two yet so so let me just so God sent Isaiah preach against their sins okay verse number two yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways I want you to think about that okay hold on God they're seeking you daily they delight in your ways but you're asking Isaiah to preach against their sins so which one is it are they good or are they not good right so think about that right we're reading this right it says as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching to God they take a delight in approaching to God it's like what's going on here now look verse number three is going to give the clarity okay which we'll talk about that in a moment but before we go there we're in Isaiah 58 so what is the 58th book of the bible yes brother Hebrews so let's go to Hebrews let's go to Hebrews chapter four please Hebrews chapter four Hebrews chapter four so it said here in Isaiah 58 verse number two they take delight in approaching to God they take delight in approaching to God now what we're reading about here is that when they seek him daily as you keep going you're going to see that they're actually you know they're performing the temple duties they're sacrificing the animals they're keeping like I said earlier it says forsook not the ordinance of their God so they're doing all the old testament practices that are that God asks them to do all right and they take delight in approaching to God well look at Hebrews 4 verse number 15 the bible says for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but we're at all points tempted like as we are yet without sin so they had their priests they had the Levitical priesthood they had the whole ordinance and the temple system okay but we don't have that but even though we don't have all that because we're in the new testament we do have a high priest and that high priest is Jesus Christ and then it says in verse 16 let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need so when we say that they take delight in approaching to God we too in the new testament can approach God their approaches were in the practices of the old testament ordinances our practice is to go in prayer to God to bring a request and supplication before him you know when we close our eyes and I don't know if you all close your eyes when you pray I like to do it to avoid all distractions I close my eyes because I want to think of God all right and I when I pray I just think about that I'm just spiritually before God's throne that's how I think of it you know when I read about God's throne in in the bible and some of these old testament or some of these saints of old you know in the spirit went up to heaven and stood before God's throne I kind of think like that when I get to pray that more you know I'm standing before God's feet right now and but it says to come boldly so I can come as a as a as a son of God a saved person someone that is in the righteousness of Christ I deserve to be there before God you know because I'm saved I'm his son okay he's made me kings and priests but I have sins and I need to come before him confess those things and I need help and I need to ask God for help and and I go to him in prayer like that we're going to continue in Hebrews keep your finger in Hebrews for me but what's interesting is that they are doing the ordinances they are seeking God okay and look at verse number three it gets more clearer wherefore wherefore have we fasted say they so Isaiah is preaching against their sins against their transgressions he's crying aloud he's lifting up his voice like a trumpet and they're like yeah but we're keeping the ordinances Isaiah we're fasting Isaiah why are you preaching like this to us we're doing all the right things Isaiah so look at verse number three wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seeest not wherefore have we afflicted our soul and thou takest no knowledge behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact all your labors so the second part of verse number three is the answer they're like we're keeping the ordinances we're seeking God we're doing all the right things and we're even fast but God says behold in there your fast you find pleasure and exact we're talking about what that pleasure is in a moment and exact all your labors that word exact is to demand so they've been so with their servants and we've made people that owe them money for example they're being demanding or they're being hard taskmasters to others they're treating people poorly essentially if you want to break it down they treat people poorly but then they go oh but we're fasting in fact it reminds me i didn't take this down this passage but reminds me of that pharisee that goes to pray you know that story and he says all right what does he say is i give my i don't know how it goes i give up my arms i fast how often does he fast he fast and goes i'm not like this publican over there so like you treat people horribly you think of people horribly you know but oh but i'm fasting i'm a pharisee i'm doing all the right things apparently that's the problem that we have right now is that they take pleasure and they exact all your labors okay they're taking advantage of other people now you're there in hebrews i want to show you how God used the word pleasure in this chapter so come into hebrews 11 please hebrews 11 hebrews 11 that term pleasure is going to come up again later in isaiah 58 because it'll be more clearer then but in hebrews 11 verse number 25 this is about moses remember moses had a choice i'm the son of pharaoh's daughter i'm part of the egyptian royal family do i identify with the world or am i going to identify with god's people he chose god's people and the bible says in hebrews 4 15 sorry hebrews 11 25 about moses choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season the pleasures of sin for a season so moses had to make this decision you know what am i just going to enjoy sin the pleasures of the world the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh the pride of life boy i mean he's part of the like the wealthiest and most powerful family on the earth whatever moses wants he can have you'd think that right as the son of pharaoh's daughter you can have the greatest education in fact he had a great education you could have all the riches all the power all the prestige he says you know what i want to suffer with the people of god because i can partake of the suffering of christ so he refuses the pleasures of sin for a season see the reason we commit sin brethren is because it's pleasure it's enjoyable that it satisfies the flesh but only for a season because you know sin brings destruction sin corrupts sin hurts other people sin hurts you sin hurts your work and your fellowship with the lord god that pleasure is only for a season and i'm sure there are times that you've been tempted for whatever sin it is and you've done it and almost immediately like why why did i do that why did i just sin against the lord it was pleasurable and now it's not it's gone see this is the problem with juda at this point in time they're committing all manners of sins pleasures they're chasing pleasures oh but we're fasting it's okay we're seeking the lord you can't seek the lord if your life is full of sin i'm going to show you a passage shortly about that come back with me to isaiah 58 isaiah 58 so these guys aren't treating other people properly they're taking advantage of they've been demanding they've been hard task masters against other people look what he says about their fast universal before he says behold you fast for strife and debate and to smite with a fist of wickedness you shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high so they fast for strife and debate so they're out debating they're out arguing they're causing problems arguments oh but we fast it's okay it's like no no i'm righteous because i fasted you know i'm doing the right things i'm going to church i'm reading the bible i'm doing the basic things in life but you're still enjoying the pleasures of sin you're still causing strife and violence to other people i tell you what this sounds like a lot to me when you go door to door soul winning and people say i believe i'm good enough for heaven yeah i've done some bad things right i've done some bad things yeah of course i've committed some sin but i've also done a lot of good and so god should accept me for the good that i've done my good is better than the bad i mean well i can't be that bad because i've done so much good too we know that's the wrong way to approach salvation but you know sometimes even as saved christians we can have the same attitude you know we can commit sin throughout the week and just oh it doesn't bother us i enjoyed it it's pleasurable i've sinned against the lord but lord come on lord i went to church someday all right i went soul winning on on the saturday lord i read my bible oh lord it's like no no you can't cover up your sin with your good right you're supposed to go to god and confess that and humble yourself before god and say god be merciful to me a sinner sometimes we have this attitude oh i just i can just sin i find pleasure in that but i'm pretty good man i'm you know i go to church every week right i do the right things though i'm better than most christians so god just you know in your mind you're kind of like i'm sure god would just overlook all that sin no brethren your sin you need to go before god and you can approach his throne boldly by the way and lower your head bold boldness is not proud being proud being proud for you can be bold and still have a broken contrite heart and say god i'm coming for you i know you're going to forgive me lord but i've done wrong like yeah i i want i want to fast but i want to fast thinking that you know it's taking care of my sins over there i know i know i need to approach you with my sins i need to approach about this and i need to confront you lord and i'd say look i failed again i'm a sinner i'm weak but that's not the attitude these israelites are taking at this point in time let's continue there in verse number five god says to them is it such a fast that i have chosen god says is this the way i want you to fast you cover up all your pleasures you do wrong and then you fast no this is this is what fast is supposed to achieve verse number five a day for a man to afflict his soul is it to bow down his head as a bull rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him will thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the lord is not this the fast that i have chosen to loose the band of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that they'll bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when they'll see us the naked that they'll cover him and that they'll hide not thyself from thine own flesh god says is this the fast that i've chosen you to do where you're just on the outward you put on the sackcloth you look like oh look at me i'm fasting okay and you just walk away and you continue just committing all kinds of sins because no no the reason i've chosen this fast is that you will turn from your wickedness that you will repent from those things you know that you would treat people properly if there's a brother needing bread that you'd go and feed him if there's a brother needing clothing that you know you would you would dress him you would give him your coat you would do good to others see fasting does it's supposed to bring humility but all that outward sackcloth means nothing if it's not happening on the inward on the inside it still afflicts your soul you know when you fast you're going without food and look i don't know how it all works but i know what it's meant to do you're telling your flesh no to flesh no and that's one of the easiest things because we all get hungry at some point of the day even if you have one meal a day you get hungry at some point you're like okay i better eat you're telling your flesh no i'm not giving you what you want you know i'm going to afflict when the bible says afflict your soul you need to remember many times in the bible soul just means your life okay i'm going to afflict myself i'm not going to give what i want physically and in the flesh i'm going to humble myself and when you lower the flesh obviously the spirit can be you can be guided by the holy spirit of god more easily when you don't give your flesh what it wants you hold it back and then when you humble yourself before god and you realize boy i'm a sinner i need to fix things that helps your relationship with other people because everyone and i've said this before hope i don't mean to offend anybody if i spend enough time with you in your life i'm going to find things that i don't approve of and if you spend enough time with your brothers and sisters here or with me you're going to find things in our lives that you did not approve of all right and it's very easy to be critical it's very easy to look down on other people because you see their struggles or you see their weaknesses or you see their sins you see their needs and you think well i'm i'm fine i'm not like them and uh causes maybe you cause divisions and arguments and strife as we saw there earlier but when you humble yourself and you fast and you you see yourself before god and you know you're a sinner and i'm not going to give my flesh what it wants what it's meant to do is to transform your heart it's meant to transform in how you view other people as well you know the reason what makes it easier to serve in the church is when you exalt the others in the church better than yourself you say you know what this is my brother this is my sister in the lord i don't care how long they've been saved i don't care if they're a babe in christ i don't care who they are i'm going to lower myself i'm going to serve them faithfully but the way you do that is to be able to do that with humility if you're full of pride you're not going to be able to serve other people you're going to come to church and think well church is about serving me what am i going to get out of it before you know you're going to be out of church okay because we don't come to serve you we come to serve christ and we serve christ by serving one another you know the attitude to church ought to be how do i serve not not how do i get served and if you struggle with this concept or if you're very critical to what other people you need to fast but you need to choose the fast that god has chosen not just ah look i'm going without food guys by the way i'm having eden for a week guys can you praise me look at me i'm fasting for everybody that's not the fast that god wants god wants a fast that brings results we can serve and love and care for the needs of others so fasting takes down the flesh it causes you to walk in the spirit it causes you to see yourself in the light of god properly it causes you to see others in the proper light as well that we all have needs and we all need to support and help one another but this was the great sin of israel at least in this chapter that they're fasting they're doing the ordinances they're doing all the practices i'm going soul wing i'm going to church i'm reading my bible yeah but you don't care for other people you're demanding you make people feel uncomfortable you criticize you cause strife what's the point of all these ordinances what's the point of you doing all the religious practices if you don't even know how to treat one another the way god wants you to treat one another so it's all about humility fasting all right to take down that ego to take down that pride to be thoughtful to be loving toward people in need verse number eight then so god says if you do the fast properly then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall bring sorry shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee the glory of the lord shall be thy re-reward we've seen this word before re-reward it means it's your regard god's saying i've got your back if you fast properly if you humble yourself properly if you repent from your wickedness if you treat people properly god says you're the blessing that i'm going to give you is i've got your back okay instead of you having to cause strife and contention with people you know that you're against don't worry about it i've got your back i've i'm your regard right i'm marching behind you no one's going to stab you in the back okay god will take care of that for you verse number nine then shut that call and the lord shall answer see the lord was not answering them before then that's our call and the lord shall answer thou shall cry and he shall say here i am if they'll take away from the midst of the the yoke the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity all right so if you take uh sorry let me read that again here i am if they'll take away from the midst of the the yoke so people are putting the yoke on others right being that the hard task must demanding right and so if you take all that away right then and refrain from speaking vanity then the lord will answer now this is a really important teaching that you need to understand as believers okay keep your finger there and come with me to psalm 66 come with me to psalm 66 psalm 66 every now and again not very often every now and again someone says to me pastor i pray i pray but the lord never answers me that's a scary place to be by the way i pray but the lord never answers me now it is possible to pray and for the lord not to answer you you need to understand that's that's a reality okay and god is saying look you know if you do this if you humble yourself properly you know you fast properly you stop the wickedness god will hear you and look at psalm 66 verse 17 the psalmist says i cried unto him with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue if i regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear me you need to get this i mean i don't know how many hindered prayers i may have had in my life where i've gone to god in prayer lord i need your help and it's not happened and it's because i've kept iniquity in my heart you need to keep short accounts with god you sin every day brother oh i never sin you're you're lying you're sinning right now you're a liar you're full of pride you don't even know your sinful condition you don't understand remember the bible says the thought of foolishness is sin just one foolish thought that's it you've sinned and it's people often think oh the sin of commission i've not committed any big sins but there's a sin of omission where you don't do things god wants you to do you don't do the good that god wants you to do and you avoid it that's a sin as well and brethren i i have i i confess my sins to god every day and i confess my sins just before i go up to preach i said lord if i'm going to pray i'm going to preach to you to your people i'm going to i want to be a clean vessel in your hands lord i don't want the words of kevin i want your words to be preached lord but i know i have sin in my heart can you please forgive me lord i'm sorry and you know what i said to god before just before i got to preach today i said god i don't want to be like the jews here in this chapter where they're doing all the right things they're going to church but they've still got the pleasures of sin in their lives it's lord i don't want to do that i get up and i preach and i travel and i go to church and i do i do all the right things i still enjoy the pleasures of sin many times and so i don't want to get up and be like this i don't want to be the sort of you know god's people who aren't right with you who aren't doing things properly on the outward looks good there's pastor kevin turned up again this thursday night to preach for us here but what if my heart's not right what if my heart's far from the lord what if i've got unconfessed sin right now do you think this preacher is going to be effective if i'm just far from the lord do you think the holy spirit can use me if i'm just hiding these sins no i say lord please forgive me and it's i mean i don't know i don't know a better flight salvation is the best thing that can happen to you spiritually but i think the second best thing is just every day just going before god and say lord i'm sorry please forgive me and i know you promised me in your word that you're just to forgive me and i'm back in fellowship with you just like that all it takes is just the humility that's all it takes all right god forgive me and sometimes i say god even the sins that i forgot that i did that i didn't even realize can you forgive them too because i'm that's how stupid i am god i don't even know some of the sins that i do so maybe some of the whining some of the complaining whatever it is lack of faith maybe i mistreated somebody that i should have been a bit more attentive to order maybe there was a brother in need and i ignored their they cry for help or something i don't know so many things that we do that we didn't even realize sometimes so verse 19 if i regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear me now and it says here the lord hears you the lord knows everything he's all knowing but the authority there is that he's not going to answer that prayer okay you're you need to get right with god that's why you know before i even ask god anything like okay lord can you do this for me god first i got to confess my sins i need you to hear me i need you to answer me lord i can't create some i don't want my prayer to just hit the ceiling and come back here i've done my part i prayed yeah but did you hide iniquity in your heart oh man like this is serious like i don't want my prayer to be vanity i don't want it to be empty i want to speak to my lord god in fellowship nothing hindering me in him but first thing i need to do is confess those sins to god it's got nothing to do with salvation you understand that has everything to do with our fellowship with our walk with our closeness confessing those sins with him so i don't know if you have time if you commit sin and so i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna cave into the pleasures of sin this time and you do it i'm just telling you as soon as possible not that you should but i know you will but as soon as possible say god i'm sorry and sometimes i'm not i don't even feel sorry and i'm like god i don't want this to be empty words to you i want to be sorry i want to i'm right now i probably don't right now i enjoy the pleasure of sins but i know it's wrong my heart's not right god can you make it right lord can you forgive me please because i want to be in fellowship more important than the pleasure of sin is i want to be in fellowship with you god how can i pass the free churches and be full of wickedness can't be done it has to be by the power of god let's continue that psalm verse number 19 he says but verily god hath heard me and hath attended to the voice of my prayer so he's saying look i've not regarded iniquity in my heart like i've made sure that's not an issue so sorry god has heard me right at verse 120 blessed be god which have not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me but let's be god which have not turned away my prayer i don't want my prayers to be turned away and i don't want your prayers to be turned away by god so make sure you don't hide iniquity in your heart let's go back to isiah 58 please isiah 58 verse number 10 isiah 58 verse number 10 god says and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noonday so the noonday is when the sun is the highest right when there's supposed to be more light you come out of darkness you're back in the light of christ verse 11 and the lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not so god is saying look yeah all right you've done the fasting but go and do the right things now go and help other people go and satisfy them right go and satisfy the afflicted soul we're going to be careful not to criticize our brethren when they're struggling it's so easy and so common to kick christians while they're down i don't know why i don't know why do we like doing that past not you yes i'm probably sometime in my past i like doing that i don't know why maybe because it makes you feel better maybe when others fail but i i don't you know if that's you i'm saying that was me in the past it's something i've overcome i actually i actually want all my brothers and sisters and lords to do well i really do you know i i want to ordain a man one day and for their church to be 500 member church and outpace me in every single way outpace me in the church numbers outpace me in the church grove outpace me in the preaching style outpace me in the mission trips and i'll just rejoice there will not be envy in me because i know it's for christ jesus his kingdom i want the best for you and i thank you for coming out on thursday i know it's hard it's not easy uh but i want you to be fed god's word you know i want you to consider these things you know the lord knows where we're at you know where you're at with god and maybe there's something in this sermon that you need to work on you know i'll just read to you very quickly matthew 22 37 jesus said it unto him thou shall love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandments and the second is like unto it thou shall love thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets love thy neighbor as thyself that's what essentially god is asking them to do love your neighbors as yourself you know stop mistreating these people that have needs boy if those two if i just love god with all my all my heart and and what is it mine and my soul and and i just love my neighbors that i've got here i'm keeping all the laws like this is that that's if i just do those two things i'm not going to sin against my lord and i'm not going to sin against my brethren and against my neighbors people that i come across in life i want to be able to help them i want to be able to bless them you know when you go door to the soul winning that's your neighbor and you you love them by giving them the gospel attempting to give them the gospel you know we do these two things brethren boy we keep it all and so you know god is essentially telling us in this chapter that that's important right the way we treat our neighbors the way we treat people in need verse number 12 and sorry yeah verse number 12 and they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations and thou shall be called the repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwell in god is saying if you do this i'm going to bless not just you but your generations your family members your children and your grandchildren your great-grandchildren but you need to be a repairer of the breach the restorer of paths to dwell in you know for for them in this time you know it was synonymous with turning away from god that their infrastructure would start breaking down their cities would break down the walls would break down as they would turn away from god okay you know like like running a city you know you drive those potholes after a while right you live in a house and something breaks and you need something to come and fix it there's wear and tear all the time all right but one thing about israel in this time is that if we're not far from god their nation would just begin deteriorating not just spiritually but also just the physical places okay and god is saying look if you just bring yourself back to me and walk in the light rather than darkness that god's going to bless you and bless your family and bless generations to come a repairer of the breach now some of you guys look i thank god i've come from my christian family christian mum and dad so somewhere in that journey maybe my grandparents in fact i believe my grandfather was a roman catholic is that right mum and at some point i think my dad's side as well very similar at some point they heard the gospel he got saved and began this family line of salvation and christian living well if that's my grandfather that's well he was the repairer of the breach he made sure that the generations to come you know my parents would be saved i would be saved my children would get saved you know i hope we can keep going right i hope we can make sure that we've got this lasting generation of now supporters for my from my side at least that love the lord i'm not expecting my kids to be perfect but you know to walk in his lights and to be his to be saved at least and to love the lord there's not much more i can ask for in life i don't care about how rich they are or how powerful they are on this earth i just want my kids to love the lord well some of you guys have come from or maybe are in broken homes you know and you said boy there's been generation after generation of generation of broken homes of divorce and and remarriage and this and alcoholism and abuse and you know what you can be a repairer of that breach you can say not anymore i'm changing it lord we're not just going to pretend to be believers and we're just going to you know what lord my heart's going to be right with you and i'm going to be in your light and i'm going to i'm going to repent from those sins that i that i enjoy the pleasures of lord i'm going to get my house right we're going to love you lord we're going to walk in your paths it's not just going to be outward it's going to be inward lord our heart is going to be right before you and boy you can be a blessing for the generations to come it says in verse number 13 if they turn away thy foot from the sabbath and this is the this is the part of the pleasure from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the sabbath a delight the holy of the lord honorable and shall honor him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words so notice that the pleasures they were seeking is doing their own ways okay finding your own pleasure speaking thine own words that's like me coming to preach before you and i just give you the wisdom of kevin speaking my own words say pastor we don't hear that we want to hear god's word all right that's how it should be well if you do the right things here and look you can apply this to church if you want i know we don't do this you know the sabbaths in christ jesus but you can apply it you know our church is a place where like it says here that we ought to delight i hope you delight coming to church like i was not just a chore it's like you know i like going to church that should be your heart and if it's not your look it wasn't my heart for years and years and years so i know where you are if that's you i'll just be honest like i love the lord and i know he wants me to be in his house but i just didn't enjoy church for most of my life until i got myself into an independent fundamental baptist church to be honest and so i started to learn proper deep and foundational doctrines that will change and affect my life you know in a righteous way you know but you know if we delight and it says here um uh the holy of the lord honorable and shall honor him we come to church to honor him yeah to honor the lord to delight in his house in his presence then look at verse number 14 then shout thou delight thyself in the lord and i will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth to feed thee with the heritage of jacob thy father for the mouth of the lord have spoken it all right so god is saying look if you do this if you honor me if you find the light in the things of the lord then then they're going to ride upon the high places of the earth just poetic language and and feed thee with the heritage of jacob thy father the the heritage to israel of course well for them was that land the promises of that land and the land flowing with milk and honeys and the blessings and the protection from the enemies so god is saying look if you just do it right you can be like we can get back to square one where the promises were made right you don't have to worry about babylon coming and taking you to captivity god's given this like chance right just just get right with me just get out of darkness stop putting on the show that you're doing all the religious activity make sure your heart is right with me keep a short account you know love your neighbors you know if you just do these things simple things then god's going to make sure the blessings that were given to abraham isaac and jacob will continue to flow for generations of judah now at the end of verse number 14 let's just end on that for the mouth of the lord have spoken it so come with me to hebrews one come with me to hebrews one because we saw that hebrews is the 58th book of the bible hebrews one please hebrews one for the mouth of the lord have spoken it i like that confidence that isaiah can have as he preaches and he says for the mouth of the lord have spoken it again i know i've said this but preaches please make sure that what you preach is from the mouth of the lord please the authority the clearness what is sin what is right you know it's found god's word you know don't and i'm not saying anyone does this but don't appeal to your wisdom don't appeal to man's logic it it sends you in crazy directions honestly don't parrot another sermon that you heard from another man make sure you go to god's mouth lord have you spoken it okay and hebrews one one hebrews one one god who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets so yep that's what isaiah just said verse number two hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he have appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds so we understand that when christ came 2 000 years ago he came and he spoke the words of god god used prophets of old until john the baptist john baptus was the last old testament prophet but now in the new testament he's given us jesus christ christ came in and taught us great thing the reason the new testament is so much clearer is because of christ okay and then you interpret the old testament in light of the new testament and god's made it easy for us but i want to notice that the words that were speaking that have come from his son is it says he appointed heir of all things by whom he also made the worlds when we speak the words of god and we speak the words of christ we're speaking the words of the one that made the worlds that's all right part of me says i don't want to preach anymore i can't do this how can this sinful creature this dirt right that's all i am because we are we'd be made from the dirt how can i preach and speak the words of someone that has made the worlds all of creation you didn't just give us the bible and that's what i'm to preach but you're the god that gave me life you're the god that created the nations and every human being and the earth and the stars and the moon and the sun and the planets and i don't even know how far beyond until we get to eternity and the angels and your throne and hell and the hellfire of god and the everything the rain the one that controls the cyclone right now that is the one i'm trying to speak on behalf of as i open god's word and come on a thursday night i just like can someone else be the pastor please it's too scary that's how it ought to be though right i'm just trying to express my heart to you guys it's a fearful thing why do i want to come here and just give you my words of wisdom boy it's going to fail you in life we need to make sure that we preach we preach the words that have come out of the mouth of lord the lord the mouth of jesus christ and uh that's why you know we started with cry aloud and spare not god gives us these clear instructions as preachers and look i'm not saying that if you're not doing this that you should step down saying we need to work toward it right and get better and better and better lord how do you want me to be a preacher how do you want me to apply these these principles that we saw earlier you know to call out the sins that need to be called out you know when zai is preaching he's not preaching against that man or that woman or this and that he's preaching of the sins of the nation okay and so you know if i ever preach and i condemn a sin and it happens to be your sin i'm not having to go you i'm just having to go the sins of the nation okay and if you say oh man pastor is saying these words to me it's the holy spirit saying those words to you and it's understand it's the holy bible speaking to you it's a living book you know it's quick it's powerful you know it's it's speaking to you and so let god's word speak to you tonight cry aloud spare not was the title of sermon tonight let's pray