Yet He Waits — E.A. Johnston

Israel’s Cycle of Blessing, Sin, Judgment, and Return

That there was a sin cycle in the people of Israel is clear to see in the pages of my Bible. That the people of God would experience great blessings of deliverance from the hand of God, and great favor of prosperity upon them from God.

Prophetic Warnings and the Call to Repentance

And then the cycle would repeat itself again. They would turn away from God and fall into the most grievous and provoking sins until God would have to intervene and chastise them in judgment, often at the hands of their enemies, bringing them into captivity and feeding them with the bread of adversity and the word of affliction, until they cried out to Him again in desperate prayer and reformation.

God would even send His prophets to His people to warn them and awaken them to break up the fallow ground of their hardened hearts or to circumcise their hearts to God again in a full return to Him through repentance.

Israel’s Sin Cycle in the Modern Church

But my Bible says in Amos, after God had sent His people remedial judgment, upon remedial judgment, God declared,. This sin cycle, friends, found in my Bible with the Jews, is not an uncommon occurrence found today even in the established church.

Look around you, friends, at all the denominations that have fallen into gross sin and idolatry. Look at the sad spiritual declension that grows like gray hairs on the biggest and most powerful of evangelical denominations.

It is a sad picture found in my Bible of wayward people whose hearts are far away from the God they claim to serve. And it is a sad picture today, friends, of many in our churches today who claim the name of Christ with their lips, yet their hearts are far away from God.

God Waits for His People to Return

And God waits today, friends, to be gracious to us. He has sent us a multitude of remedial judgments upon the land. But although we acknowledge Him with our lips by giving Him lip service on Sunday mornings, He still laments from on high, Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord?

The Text: Isaiah 30:18 and the Two Waitings

The title of my message today, friends, is Yet the Lord Waits, and my text can be found in the book of Isaiah. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 30, beginning in verse 18.

It is my prayer that some sleepy-headed pastor will hear this message and rise from his spiritual stupor and turn himself and his people back to the Lord of glory. It is my prayer that some wayward believer who has turned and gone his own way in his sins will return again to the God of glory through heartfelt and earnest repentance.

And it is my prayer, friends, that some unconverted church member will hear this message and realize by the Spirit of God their lost condition and beg God for mercy so they won't be sent to the hell which they deserve.

That true salvation will come to someone today. That their sins can be washed in the blood of the Lamb. And that they can be born from above by God's Spirit through regeneration of the new birth. Here now is the Word of God.

May the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend and quicken His Holy Word to hearts and conscience. This is the Word of God speaking to the people of God. And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious to you.

And therefore will He be exalted that He may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for Him. I will pause here, friends. There are two mentions of the word wait here in our text found in verse 18.

There is a waiting from the divine side in heaven. And there is a waiting from the human side on earth. Why does God wait to be gracious to His people? Why does He wait to pour out His blessings upon them?

Why? It is clear, friends, that God is waiting on His people to turn back to Him with their whole heart. Not a divided heart, but a whole heart. And the stricken Jews under the judgment of God for their backslidings wait to be delivered from their adversity and afflictions.

Two waitings are evidenced here. The divine and the human. God waits to be gracious. Why? So He may be exalted and receive the glory. Allow me to continue with our text. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem.

Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he shall hear it, he will answer thee. Let me pause again, friends. This sin cycle of the Jews, of their backsliding away from God in times of prosperity and God's favor upon them, to where their grievous sins bring God's judgment upon them, to where they can't take it anymore and they cry out to Him for mercy.

Judgment and the Church’s Need to Hear God’s Word

The church in America is not here yet. The church at large still stands with her back toward God going her own and perverse way. More judgments will come upon America until the people of God cry out in anguish for relief.

Let us look at verse 20 and 21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers and thy ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.

I will pause here again, friends. God in His providence, in His sovereignty, gives His wayward people substance to feed upon and judgment upon them. He will feed with the bread and water from on high, the bread of adversity and the water of affliction until the people cry out to Him in true repentance and a turning to Him with the whole heart in their affections.

But will the people return unto Him or will the remedial judgments from the hand of God grow more severe. You see, friends, the Jews had a problem. And their main problem was idolatry. Time and time again, the people of God fell into idolatry.

Idolatry and the Need for Radical Separation from Sin

They made graven images and worshipped them rather than giving their worship to the one true God. And they had a sin cycle of growing weary of their sins of idolatry and the continued judgments falling upon them for their grievous and provoking sins.

And eventually they had to break off completely from their idols. God had to bring them into captivity, into foreign lands and enslave them and abuse them under their enemies before they would fall out with their idols and never be reconciled back to them again.

The Jews to this day don't worship idols. The Jews then would finally break off from their best beloved sin. Look at the next verse, friends, in verse 22. In other words, their sin had to become disgusting and revolting to them as a defiled, dirty, monstrous cloth only to be discarded and never picked up again.

Christ’s Rebuke of Following Satan

Jesus rebuked Peter by saying, Get thee hence, Satan. When the people of God follow the devil in their choices in either gratifying their flesh or glorifying in their flesh then God sees them as a tool of Satan and his enemy.

Get thee hence. In other words, Satan, you go on to the hell which awaits you. This is a very serious matter, friends. I can speak from personal experience that God will not use me if I am away from him and my affections and joined to my idols, whatever they may be.

And God will not use you, friend, so long as you are joined to your idols. Your pet sins will follow you to the judgment for God is a God of judgment, our text declares. You must break off from your idols just like the Jews did break off from their best beloved sin.

They not only viewed them with disgust and literally defaced them but they threw them away in a pious fury like one would throw down a filthy rag never to be picked up again. I've lived a long time. I've witnessed many changes in the church through the years.

Worldliness, Compromise, and Spiritual Decline

We wanted to reach the world so we let the world into the church. Where has that gotten us? It's only corrupted the house of God with worldliness. And we wanted to reach more unconverted people with the gospel so we watered it down to an only-believed gospel.

And all we did was make unconverted church members sit in our congregations hardened under the message until they die in their sins. And for the most part, most if not all, most denominations have turned their backs on the God of the Bible.

Some sit in filthy hog pens and stupors of perverseness. Some sit in human elevated positions of power and pride. But the church at large, friend, sits in a very backslidden position with her heart far from the heart of God.

And there she sits on pillows of conformity and compromise. And God sends loving remedial judgments one after another. He calls His people yet to return unto Him. And all they do is give Him lip service on Sunday morning.

And the rest of their time is spent on loving this world and enjoying themselves. All this while society falls into chaos all around her. Perversion and violence rule the day in our lands at this hour.

Revival Through Wholehearted Repentance

And God waits. He waits to be gracious unto us. What is He waiting for? He is waiting for us. Waiting for us to turn back to Him with our whole hearts and to throw down our idols once and for all. Now, friends, look at the promise of a loving God as seen in verse 23.

Then There will come a time when a backslidden believer, a backslidden church, a backslidden denomination will see themselves for who they are and recognize the bread and water given them as teachers both to instruct and correct them all for the glory of God.

Listen, friends. God wants to send revival to His church. Yet He waits. He is waiting on His people to get to the place where they are willing to turn from their wicked ways and seek Him earnestly in prayer and repentance.

Then He will be very gracious so He may be exalted. Will the institutional church, laden with her buildings and her pride and self-reliance, turn back to Almighty God? Or will she continue just to play church on Sunday morning as usual?

How about you, friend? How is it with you? Let us pray.