Oct. 22, 2017 PM Service: Dead Religion by Conley Owens Deacon

Isaiah’s Call to Repentance Before Acceptable Worship

Verses 10 through 17 of the preaching text this morning, that can be found on 566 of the Black Pew Bible. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, of the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

When you come to appear before me, who is required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless.

Plead the widow's cause.". I'll pray for us real quickly before we begin. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that we would be able to understand this passage, that we would feel its weight, that we would understand the importance of worship and what right worship looks like, and I pray that you would find our worship of you today pleasing in both the preaching and the hearing of the word.

In Jesus' name, amen. As Josh mentioned this morning, there were many, there were many different issues that were at stake in the Protestant Reformation. As he mentioned this morning, this month marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

External Religion Cannot Solve the Problem of Sin

Now of those issues, one of them was whether or not external religion could do anything to solve the problem of sin in a person's life. So the Roman Catholic Church had indulgences. You could pay money, have sin taken away from you.

You could do penance, have your sin dealt with. You had the sacraments that you could participate in, and they thought that all these different external means of religion could be effective to take away sin out of your life.

Now that's problematic, and Martin Luther addressed that. But before that, that was still an issue. Think about Jesus' time. You had the Pharisees who thought that external religion made them right with God.

They had public fasting, they had public prayers, public giving, all these show, all this show and pomp that they thought would deal with their issue of sin and would make them right with God. But Jesus gave the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and who was it that was right with God?

It wasn't the Pharisee with his prayer where he stood up and prayed to God loudly so that others could hear him. It was the tax collector who had a humble heart. Even though he didn't have all the externals of religion, those were not what made him right with God.

What made him right with God was the condition of his heart. And this wasn't just a problem in Jesus' time either. All the way back in Isaiah's time, it was still a problem. Still, these people in Judah had the externals of religion.

They had all the externals of religion, they did all the right worship ceremonies, they did all the right sacrifices, thinking that these would take care of their sin. But God was not pleased with that.

They were in need of reformation. So Isaiah is going to address this in this passage, and we're going to see what it is that inhibits acceptable worship before God, and what it is that we can do in order that our worship might be acceptable before God.

Verse 10 says, "'Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah.'". This is a transition from the previous verse. In the previous verse, he said, "'If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.'".

So he's already told the people that your sin is so bad that you should have been destroyed with fire just as Sodom and Gomorrah. But the point right now is not to tell them of their sin. They've already heard about their sin.

Isaiah has already told them the punishment that they're under because of their sin. Now, he transitions to make a call to repentance. And if you would think about this and consider yourself, you might say, well, Judah, they've got all these things going on.

They're not giving justice to the fatherless and to the widow. They're taking bribes. They have all kinds of issues. And so, you know, I'm better off than Judah. Well, think about how Judah felt compared to Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know, they're not going around sexually harassing house guests that come into the village. They would think that they're much better off than Sodom and Gomorrah. So if you feel in your own heart that, well, I'm a lot better off than Judah was, and God found this a fair comparison to make, that's not how it works.

You are Sodom. You are Gomorrah. This is a call to you to hear the word of the Lord. He says, So the rulers are being implicated, and so are the people. The rulers have done what is wrong, what is unjust, and the people are along with them.

And if the people think to themselves, well, I can compare myself to my rulers and to all the religious leaders and how I compare to them. Well, if the rulers are no good, then that's not an acceptable way to compare yourself either, because if the rulers are no good, how could you compare yourself by them?

You must compare yourself to the word of God. He says in the next verse, So what do the people do in order to correct their problem of sin? Are they repenting as God requires? No, they're making sacrifices and participating in worship.

They have all the external requirements of worship. Now, if you are under the impression that in the Old Testament, the blood of bulls and goats could actually take away sins, that's not the case. Hebrews 10 .4 says the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.

They can only remind of sins. So all these various things that these people were participating in, they couldn't actually deal with the problem of sin. And God found their worship to be no good. He didn't accept it.

Now, you may think, well, of course he's not going to accept it. The worship itself is no good. They're trampling his courts. They've got, you know, incense. That sounds pagan. They've got new moons going on.

That sounds like, you know, Mother Earth worshiping pagan solstice kind of things. You're missing it. This is actually all stuff that was commanded by God. God commanded new moon observances. These were special Sabbaths.

He mentions this in Numbers 29. He commanded incense. This is mentioned in Exodus 30. All these things that are listed here are things that God commanded. Trampling, of course, is not commanded, but the idea isn't that they actually came in and destroyed the temple.

The idea is that their presence there with iniquity is effectively a trampling of God's house. None of these things to God find any good. And they were ineffective. They didn't bring about the effect they are supposed to.

The incense is supposed to be a sweet aroma to God, but he finds it an abomination. You know, he says later on in verse 15, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood. You know, this reminds me a lot of the beginning of Proverbs. So in Proverbs 1, it says, verse 24, because I have called and you refuse to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently, but will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof. So wisdom is saying to the people that when they plead to wisdom, wisdom won't hear them, because they never heard wisdom in the first place.

It's a lot of the same language that's being used here, that God, when they lift up their hands and they pray out to him, he's not going to hear them. You know, God is omniscient. He hears all things, but he will not find prayers acceptable if they are offered with the wrong heart.

The Bible very often talks about prayers not being heard, talks about people whose prayers aren't heard, and the issue always at stake is iniquity. When someone has sin in their heart they have not repented of, God does not hear their prayers.

It has no effect. You know, your prayers are invisible. They come out your mouth, and you don't know what God does with them. How do you know they get through the ceiling? You know, do they reach to the heavens?

Do they get to God? Or do they bounce off the ceiling? If you have a heart that is repentant, they reach God. If you do not, if you regard iniquity in your heart, they do not reach God. But it's not just that this worship is no good.

It is positively bad. Look at verse 12. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. You see, he calls these things trampling, calls it an abomination.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood. Now, why is it that when people worship poorly, God doesn't just consider that, you know, something neutral? You know, it's not good worship. I don't accept it. But why does he find it to be positively bad?

Well, I can think of this from two angles. One is that, well, consider this. Have you ever seen any of those videos of someone who's supposed to sing the national anthem, but they don't know the words?

So it's very cringeworthy. If you want to cringe, go watch one of these videos. They're at some event. They're supposed to honor their country by singing the national anthem. They know, oh say, and nothing else.

And so they say, oh say, and then they just start mumbling various things that sort of sound like the right tune. And it's painful. And if you're a patriot, you're going to be very offended by this because this makes a mockery out of something that's supposed to honor the country.

That's what's going on when you don't worship God with a repentant heart, when you worship him regarding iniquity in your heart. You're making a mockery of something that he has set apart as holy. He created worship for us.

He created the preaching of the word and singing and all these things that he requires us to do. And when you take that and you do it wrongly, you do it with the wrong attitude, and you do it without repentance, you are making a mockery of what he has set up to honor him.

There's another angle to this. Romans 14 .23 says that whatever is done without faith is sin. Anything that does not proceed from faith is sin. A heart that has faith recognizes the need for repentance and repents.

Okay? And a heart that does not have faith does not repent. And so what is worship that's not coming from a repentant heart? It's worship that's not coming from faith. It is therefore, according to Romans 14 .23, it is sin.

So if you're trying to correct the problem of sin by doing sacrifices, engaging in worship, doing good deeds, you're adding sin to sin. You aren't actually fixing the problem of sin. You're making it worse.

Now you might say to yourself, well, then if that's the case, then maybe I should just stay at home. Maybe that's better for me. Well, what does a heart that has faith do? A heart that has faith does what God commands, which is worship.

So if you are disobeying him another way, maybe you're being less hypocritical, but that action does not proceed from faith. It also would be sin. You have no way out of this. To honor God, you must have repentance.

Repentance in Worship, Not Mere Religious Performance

So consider the various things that we engage in here as we worship God. You know, Pastor, the first thing he does is he gives a call to worship. Now, do you listen attentively? Does it actually perk up your ears and get you ready for worship?

Do you have a right repentant heart that's ready to worship God? When you sing, are you thinking about the things that you sing? Are you singing joyfully? Are you singing the way that God requires you to sing?

When you hear the sermon, are you paying attention attentively? Are you eager to hear what God has to tell you? When you take communion, do you do so really contemplating what is going on and examining yourself as you're required?

And when you give, giving is also an act of worship. Do you give joyfully? Willingly? Eager to see what God will do with the funds that you provide? If you do not do these things with a right heart, with a repentant heart, you are adding sin to sin.

You know, it talked about those prayers, the incense being an abomination, this sweet smell that actually stinks to God. You're adding stench to stench. My grandparents used to keep this aerosol air freshener that smelled sickly sweet.

It smelled terrible. They used to keep this in their bathroom, and they would spray it around, and it wouldn't really get rid of the smell problem. It would just add a second smell to the first smell, and it would just make it smell worse.

This is what's happening when you add sin to sin. You just add stench to stench. The incense becomes an abomination to God. Your prayer is an abomination added to the original abomination of your heart.

These things can't correct. They can only make the problem worse. He says in verse 16, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. This is the avenue toward having right worship before God.

This is a picture of repentance, ceasing to do evil, turning from sin, beginning to do good. He talks about judging the fatherless, bring justice to the fatherless, and pleading the widow's cause. You know, these are pictures of caring for those who have no one to care for them, loving your neighbor, that core aspect of the law that God gives.

You might have heard people say, because of passages like Isaiah, that religion is bad. Like, Christians say this. I hear Christians say this, that religion is bad. And you might have heard phrases like, it's not about religion, it's about relationship.

And that's sort of true, but some people take it so far to say that religion itself is bad. James 1 .27 quotes this verse, or not quotes, but alludes to this verse. And it says that religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

So it's not that religion is bad. It's not that these things that God commanded, to hear the preaching, to sing, none of these things are bad. What is bad is the heart that doesn't do them with a love for one's neighbor and with a love for God, with repentance.

Pure and undefiled religion is religion that comes with repentance. It's singing the songs with repentance. It's hearing the word with repentance. It's giving with repentance. The fact that he says, wash yourselves, what does that imply?

That implies that you're dirty. Now when you think of—now maybe you're, and all of us are, numb to some of your smaller sins, but when you look back on your life and you think of some of your graver sins, some of the worst things that you've done, how do you feel?

You feel filthy. And this isn't just something that's true among church people. This is true in the whole world. This is how everyone feels when they think back on their great sins. And that's why you have, even in secular environments, people dedicated to the problem of ridding themselves of that feeling of being filthy.

You know, they try to sell you on different positive images. If you surround yourself with positive people, and you say enough positive things about yourself, and you think enough positive thoughts, well then you'll stop feeling filthy.

The problem is, even if you manage to stop feeling filthy, you're still filthy. You can't get rid of it just by ignoring this truth. There's more to it. But yet, how does one wash themselves and make themselves clean?

The sins that you've committed, you've already committed. They're in your past. You can't—you don't have a time machine to go back and change history. And even if you did have a time machine, how do you take care of your future sins?

You know, these sins that you commit, it's not like, you know, you're—we're talking about, you know, people who are filthy. We're talking about a heart condition. If you commit sin, it's not because you're a good person who occasionally stumbles into sin.

It's because you have a heart that commits sin, and that just is the nature of your heart. How do you change that? Jeremiah 13 23 says, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?

And so can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. A leopard can't change his own spots. A leopard can't wash and remove the color of his hair. That's the color of his hair. You cannot just will yourself to be a better person.

It's undoable. You don't have a time machine. You don't have a scrub for the human heart. You don't have a cure for human nature. What do you have? Are you all ready to close in prayer? I'm just kidding.

Christ the Substance Behind the Shadows of Sacrifice and Festival

There's good news. You do have something. You have Jesus Christ. You see, all these things, these new moons, and these Sabbaths, and these sacrifices, they were not supposed to be a means in of themselves.

They did not get rid of the problem of sin, but they point to one who does get rid of the problem of sin. Let me read Colossians 2 to you, if I can flip to it. It's somewhere around here. All right. Verse 16.

"'Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.'". So he's talking to people who might be judged by Jews that they're not participating in these new moon Sabbaths, and they're not participating in all the Jewish rituals that God gave.

He said, "'These things are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.'". Okay, so what is a shadow? A shadow is something that you can see but can't actually touch anything.

You know, if a shadow passes over this table, you know, it's not going to rustle any of the napkins on it. A shadow can't touch anything, but the substance belongs to Christ. That means that they point to one who does, who is able to touch things, who is able to fix the problem of sin.

These new moons and these Sabbaths, they point forward to the real rest, not just some temporary feast day, the real rest that we have in Christ. And the sacrifices, they're just a shadow too. The same word is used to describe—excuse me, lost my spot again.

The same word is used to describe the sacrifices. In Hebrews 10, it says, "'For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities.'". Okay, once again, you've got the shadow that can't do anything, the true form that can.

"'It can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

And burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.'. Then I said, "'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'". And then it goes on to explain that what Jesus has done is he has fulfilled the role of the sacrifices.

He is offered on the altar of the cross. His blood, unlike the blood of bulls and goats, does wash away sin. It does make you clean. It solves your problem of filth. Something else to consider here is in washing.

Jesus sent us when he died, he sent those who believe in him, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is frequently equated to water because it is through the Holy Spirit that we are washed, that we are given a new heart that repents.

It's through the Holy Spirit that these things happen. Now think about this for a second. And Josh was talking earlier about how in the Garden of Eden, Adam communed with God. You know, Adam didn't have to worry about his prayers bouncing off the ceiling because God was right there with him.

And he spoke to God. But then when sin came in the world, a huge barrier was erected between God and man. To fix that problem of worship, God created the temple so that there would be a special place where man and God could dwell together and worship would be acceptable to God.

Now, this was not sufficient because the temple got destroyed twice, it was made desolate another time, and even here, even though they have the temple, it's not enough to make worship acceptable to God.

But the New Testament says that when God sends us the Holy Spirit, he makes us temples, places where worship becomes acceptable. He makes us holy so that our worship can be acceptable before him. That is a beautiful truth.

Now you might think to yourself, well, you know, maybe the Holy Spirit dwells in me, but I still sin. I still have corruption. I know I don't sit in that pew and sing with perfect joy, hear with perfect repentance, respond perfectly as I ought.

How can it be that my imperfect worship is accepted before God if it still has all the problems that we've been talking about? The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is holy. It's in his name. Now that does not mean that because you're sinful you violate him.

Instead, it means that he makes holy that which he touches. He makes you holy, he grows you in holiness, and he makes your worship holy. Your worship that is imperfect, that is tainted, is anointed by the Holy Spirit and made holy, made pleasing and acceptable to God.

So even though otherwise it would be no good and he would find it a stench, he finds it pleasing because your imperfect worship is made holy before a holy God. This is a wonderful truth that even though your worship is otherwise worthless, otherwise abominable, it is acceptable and pleasing to God.

The Holy Spirit Makes Imperfect Worship Acceptable

Now this is—the right response to this on one hand is joy. On another hand, it should encourage us to pursue even more holiness because then it becomes even more pleasing to God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can pursue holiness so that our worship may be even more pleasing to God.

And this isn't just something that you should pursue individually. You know, given the way we've been talking about the Holy Spirit coming and living inside you, you might be thinking very individually right now, this is about me, my worship, but it's also about our worship as a body.

The same book, 1 Corinthians, it talks about the Holy Spirit coming and dwelling inside the individual, making the individual a temple. Also talks about the Holy Spirit dwelling in the local church, making the church a temple.

So our worship, while in one sense it's individual, in another sense, when we gather here, it's a team effort. We worship together. Our worship goes up to God together. Think about what happened at the Lord's table in Corinth.

Because some weren't partaking rightly, it was spoiling the worship of the whole group, and so God had to remove those through death who were spoiling that worship. This is a team effort. So when you see a brother who has a problem with sin, encourage him.

When you see a sister who has all the externals of worship, but you hear the way she talks, and you know that there might be something wrong with her heart, talk to her. Now I don't say this to discourage you and make you worried that your worship might not be acceptable because the person next to you's worship might not be acceptable, and I don't say this so that you'll breathe down each other's necks.

I say this to encourage you, and because this is a good goal that we can rally around. What could be more unifying than a single goal that we can build around the pursuit of holiness so that our worship may be ever more acceptable to God?

That is a truth that we can take joy in individually, and take joy in as a group, and we can grow together united in our pursuit of that goal. So if you are here today and you have not repented of your sins, your worship here is not accepted.

And I don't say that as one who calls the shots. I'm the cashier at the checkout register, you know, swiping your card. I'm just telling you what the bank says. Your worship is not accepted if you have not repented before God.

However, if you but believe in Jesus Christ and the power of his blood to wash you from your sins, and the power of his Holy Spirit to make you clean, your worship can be acceptable before God. Now if you already do trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you already have been washed clean, then take joy that your worship, no matter how imperfect it is, no matter how feeble it is, and how tired you might be on a Sunday, and how poor of an effort you might be putting in, take joy that it is still accepted by God, that he has declared it holy, and also respond further desiring holiness and pursue that together with all of us.

This is a wonderful thing. And do not think for a moment, do not think for a moment that these externals of religion can do anything to solve the inward problem of sin. A heart surgeon doesn't use a topical cream.

That's not going to solve any problems. So Reformation, you know, while many in Isaiah's time eventually turned to the Lord, Reformation was not finished in Isaiah's time. And in Jesus' time, many turned to the Lord, but Reformation was not finished then.

In Martin Luther's time, many turned to the Lord, but Reformation was not finished then, and it's not finished now. But take heart, because one day Jesus will return, and he will entirely reform the world, and Reformation will be complete.

The victory has already been given to us. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that we would worship you with clean hearts, and I thank you that you have given us everything we need to have a clean heart.

You have given us Jesus Christ, and you have given us the Holy Spirit. I pray that we would worship you sincerely and repentantly, and that we would take joy in what you've given us. In Jesus' name, Amen.