Isaiah 5:8-30, Woes and Therefores

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Isaiah 5:8-30 Woes and Therefores

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We're in Isaiah chapter 5 be starting with verse 8 to the end of the chapter Hear the word of the
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Lord woe to those who join house -to -house who add field to field until there is no more room and You are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
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The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing Surely many houses shall be desolate large and beautiful houses without inhabitant
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For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah
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What are those who rise early in the morning? That they may run after strong drink who tarry late into the evening as wine and flames them
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They have lyre and harp tambourine and flute and wine at their feast
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But they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the work of his hands Therefore my people shall go into exile for lack of knowledge
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Their honored men go hungry and their multitude is parched with thirst therefore she all has enlarged his appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure and The nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude shall go down her revelers and he who exalts in her
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Man is humbled and each one is brought low and the eyes of the haughty are brought low But the
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Lord of hosts is exalted in justice and the Holy God shows himself. Holy in righteousness
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Then shall the lambs Graze as in their pasture and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood who draw sin as with cart ropes who say
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Let him be quick Let him speed his work that we may see it that the Council of the Holy One of Israel draw near and let it come
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That we may know it Woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness
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Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight
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Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink
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Who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right? Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble and as dry grass sinks down in the flame
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So their root will be as rottenness and their blossom go up like dust For they have rejected the law of the
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Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel therefore the anger of the
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Lord has kindled against his people and he Stretched out his hand against them and struck them and the mountains quaked and their corpses were his refuge in the midst of the streets
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For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still
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He will raise a signal for nations far away and whistle for them from the ends of the earth and behold quickly
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Speedily they come none is weary none stumbles none slumbers or sleeps Not a waistband is loose not a sandal strap broken
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Their arrows are sharp all their bows bent their horses hooves seem like flint and their wheels like the whirlwind
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They're roaring as like a lion. They're young lions like young lions. They roar they growl and seize their prey
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They carry it off and none can rescue They will growl over it on that day like the growling of the sea and if one looks to the land behold
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Darkness and distress and the light is darkened by its clouds May the
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Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, I've had a problem with our songs today
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Pick a Luther song that helps but being that time of year But I obviously try to choose songs that are relevant to the passage
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So it all kind of integrates and the problem is the passage today as we just read is about judgment a
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Very harsh judgment. It's hard to find songs on judgment. Just think of all the songs, you know, what songs do you know one?
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Judgment for example, here is a hymnal this hymnal here That we often use for our psalms our rendition of Psalm 86 today comes from this is the
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Psalter hymnal It's produced by the Christian Reformed Church denomination the first 150 hymns and call them hymns or songs and it first 150 of them are
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Psalms, you know what one hymn or paraphrase for one psalm 150 at a time
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And this hymnal and then after that comes a section on Bible songs with other scriptures
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Set to music and then after that it's kind of your traditional hymnal with Songs that people have written from time to time at the end like most hymnals.
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It has a topical index. There's the topical index Okay can look up song look up song, you know, like if I'm doing a passage like today from judgment
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I look for under judgment. Okay, what Psalms what hymns fit? Well, here's that section on judgment and there are
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Well first it has first it has joy Okay, and obviously the alphabetical order then judge
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God and Christ as judge and there are 15 songs in that section
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God is judge nine of which are the 15 songs nine of them are Psalms from those first 150
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Psalms two of them are Bible songs Those sections of Scripture set to music which leaves only four if I'm doing my math, right there are from the other hymns
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The traditional hymns and then in the next section on this Psalter hymnal is the section on judgment and in that section there are 29 songs 29 songs and judgments you're thinking what you have such a hard time for there's so many
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Well 20 of the 29 only 27 or I should say
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Not only 27 27 of them are from the Psalms Got it 29 on judgment 27 of them are from that first 150
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Renditions of the Psalms in other words according to this hymnal 27 out of 150
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Psalms are about judgment so about 15 % of Psalms are judgment
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We also have this hymnal. Yeah, just you may be familiar with this. We can sometimes we call it the green hymnal
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Well, we use it on Wednesday nights The tradition is the Baptist hymnal it fairly
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I think it fairly it's a I think it's a good hymnal it fairly represents the kinds of hymns and songs that Evangelical Christians have been singing over like the past century and if you turn to the you know,
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I'm no you don't have one You know, we'll have pews with one in the back. Sorry. Sorry, you can't do that. But there has a topical index two in the back
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It page 761 and they're just like alphabetical order, right? There's a section on joy
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This one had enjoy there's a lot of songs in joy, man A lot of songs of joy next comes judgment.
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Remember this one doesn't have a bunch of Psalms in it like this one does Next on judgment. Oh, it's just a one little note there and parentheses says see eternal life
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Jesus Christ return Means it has no sign if you turn there.
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It's just songs about second coming There's no songs in this on judgment zero
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Absolutely, none Now I'm not putting it down What I what
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I mean is to show us Something about our modern spirituality something we just take for granted Think about it
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If we are only saying as some reformed churches do but if we only sang From God's inspired song book from the book of Psalms.
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Otherwise, we spend all our time in the first 150 hymns here We only sang that we would be singing about God's judgment about once out of every six songs.
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And so that means since we sing five songs per service You we would be singing about God's judgment two out of the three two out of every three services at least
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Sometimes maybe we get five in a row. We do all judgment songs But if we only followed the product of the last 100 years or so We will never sing about God's judgment
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Now something a little off kilter here something a little out of balance. What does this say about us?
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Well people today like positive affirming messages there's even a radio station always advertises itself positive and affirming someone is
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Positive encouraging and nothing uplifting. That's that's just what we're that's almost like that spirituality.
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That's maturity That's what you need. That's that's good all the time The idea has gotten deep in our culture that if you want people to do well
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You flatter them you just tell them how good they are You tell your kid how smart he is or how talented he or she is and the idea is that if you're praised
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You're so smart you're so talented you you're so good We will rise to achieve the level of our praise
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Right, we will stuff our minds with how great we are and we will achieve to the level of how great we think we are the reality though is
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Is often the opposite? If we think we're smart are talented, but then success doesn't come right away.
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We don't get good grades We're cut from the team We lose the game.
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We don't get the job flattered people Tend to give up and then blame someone else, you know,
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I didn't get good grades. I'm smart. I've been told all my life I don't get good grades must be the teachers problem.
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Not my problem. I'm smart. That's what they told me Right, it goes on like that. I must be very talented basketball player
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Even if they cut me from the team, they must have something against me It's the coaches problem and it goes on like that they expect success to be handed to them soft words create hard people
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They're hardened by the idea that they deserve whatever they want and if they don't get it
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Someone has something against them. Someone is cheating them. Whatever. I Think Nick Saban the coach of the
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Alabama football team seems to understand this. He recently told the sports media That all their praise about how good his football team is he said it's poison
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He complained to the sports media. You're poisoning my team By saying how good they are always they are he didn't want him.
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He didn't want him to hear that about how good they are Right hard words on the other hand soft words create hard people hard words create soft people people who are
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Willful and stubborn who don't think they're so great that they just deserve everything handed to them And so they won't rebel and get offended at correction they know they need correction because they've got a lot of hard words telling them how much they need it people who will repent and work hard to change so just so God doesn't flatter or coddle
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Does he he disciplines every child he receives we're told here we see in Isaiah chapter 5.
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We just heard The kind of message the Holy Spirit inspires Some hard words there, isn't it soft words create hard people hard words create soft people
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What kind of people do you think we're creating with all our soft words our constant encouraging our skipping?
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over God's hard words of judgment Well in this passage, there are some very hard words particularly around six woes six times there's the statement you notice that whoa and Then a description of the sins that bring the woe woe to those who are like this now
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Whoa, it's something often said at a funeral It's a word of mourning or grief or over some expressing just kind of amazement at what people are
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Currently suffering or maybe are soon going to suffer for the condition. They're in something dreadful.
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It's coming. Whoa So the Prophet is in a way mourning over these people. He's mourning because it's it's so sad
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What they've come to and then there are two there's the woes and then there's two therefore sections
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Actually one of the therefore repeated twice therefore means because of that Because you are like that You're doing these woes
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Therefore the following will be done to you. Therefore Here's the consequences because of this woe
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Therefore you're getting this six woes to their force
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The first therefore section comes in verses 13 to 17 It comes after the first two woes and then there are four more woes in verses 18 to 23
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Followed by the final kind of longer Therefore section takes us into the end of the chapter.
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It's the description of what God will bring on his people because Of their woes because they won't repent first in verse 8.
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The Lord says woe to those Who join house to house?
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It sounds odd doesn't what what's wrong with expanding your house? What's wrong with growing your estate?
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Well, these people only wanted to More property they wanted a bigger house a bigger estate no matter what if it deprived the poor of Fields to grow the poor need fields to grow their crops in so they can eat they don't care
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They want bigger estates and the more they have the more power they have It's all about their own their their own
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Impressiveness how much How much they possess? These are materialist these are consumerist they're individualist
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They only care about themselves and don't care about the impact of their life on other people around them They're laying up their treasures on life on earth woe to those who live as if their life only consisted in what they own and and it didn't have any care for On the impact of their life on others around them now certainly this problem is with us today as much as ever
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We may have advanced in technology, but we haven't advanced in morality and spirituality
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In fact, we often use our technology just to produce more things That we feel we simply have to have in order to be to be happy.
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I need an Apple 10 Whoa, whoa So we say wow, but we got to have that new thing
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We should mourn like at a funeral if we've just been living for stuff Because it's very sad for a human being to live as if it's just just money.
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That's all that matters I don't care about hearing the Word of God. I got to just have to run the business all the time
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They got to make more money so I can get a bigger house You know, I don't care if I do Keep people out of church.
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That's that just drives them People were created though for so much more
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So what do we say about people who are just living for things about? Getting more money keeping the business going all the time work work work because that's all that life is about they think
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We say whoa They're living so far below what they were intended for There's nothing wrong with working.
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Nothing wrong with running a successful business. Nothing wrong with wanting to Do advance in life give your children more but woe to you if that's all that matters
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And that goes for the party animals to Woe to them in verses 11 and 12 notice that these people to party all the time
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There's not just a little recreation on the on the weekend after a hard week's work These people are gonna rise up early in the morning
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Should chase after liquor they have beer for breakfast. I guess poured on their poured over their their their cornflakes
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They stay up late getting drunk hanging out in the bars and they're always got to have They always got to have their tunes case.
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We think that's a new thing You know, he's always everybody's got the earphones on now those days, but they didn't have earphones
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But they could have the band the band's got to always be playing in verse 12. Notice that They got to listen to their music
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They always got to be listening to that just like people today. I always got to be listening to something But I don't care about listening to God They'll spend hour after hour partying but they cannot spare time to consider
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God's ways Even if they come to church if the service goes past noon, they'll get agitated. That's what's going on The pregame show is about to begin
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I want to get go see it even that plenty of time for sports for recreation plenty of patience for their music for their pastimes for their fun and games, but As it says at the end of verse 12, they do not regard.
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In other words, they don't even think about it It's not something they they spend any time considering you're talking about The deeds of the
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Lord or the work of his hands Didn't spend any time with that. They don't care I'm interested They party all the time, but they cannot spare the time to consider
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God's ways hear his word And there are really two issues there First is the excesses of those chasing after a good time and there's nothing wrong with a little recreation
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I mean he mentions musical instruments the liars the tambourines and it's not as though but that's those are sinful in the book of Psalms We're told to praise
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God with those things There's nothing wrong with a little recreation, but these people have no self -control no restraints on their appetite
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But the second problem, this is the and there's really the cause of that first problem the cause of their excesses
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They're look spending their life You know for the for the for the beer for the liquor.
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The second problem is more serious and that is what they lack They lack an appetite for God They are not hungering and thirsting the reason why they're always after the best restaurant the more the best food the best liquor is because they
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They don't have an appetite For the Lord, they're not hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
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There's nothing in them To keep them from from living for what their bodies hunger and thirst for and this is sad because this should cause us to mourn
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For them say whoa You're living like an animal. That's you know is
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Paul talks about in Philippians. Their God is their belly It's always about what you can eat the newest delicacy
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Or maybe what you can drink they're living so far below what they were intended for now we church people assume well This isn't apply to us
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After all here we are We're not in a bar right now We're not just now rolling out of bed
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You know with a heavy hangover Going to the fridge to indulge ourselves as we plan to spend the rest of the day in front of the
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TV Perhaps none of us right at this moment fall into that first problem
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The the excesses the intemperance of living for physical desires But we can still be sitting here looking respectable and still be falling prey to the second problem
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Really the root problem of not having an appetite Not having a craving for the
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Lord for God For every for every word that comes from the mouth of the
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Lord that Jesus said we should man should live by You know we set up a booth for years now at the
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Yanceyville hoedown probably about nine or ten years now and we'll And we used to have this they used to have a spring fling here and on other occasions
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Set up a table and we offer Christian materials and what strikes me about now It's just so obvious now is how few people are really interested in the things of God I mean just very rarely as anyone come up just interested in what we're offering
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Total this no no desire for it I bet if we all had materials there books
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DVDs on Duke or Tar Heels basketball, I have to that stuff would get snapped up man, you know and of course the
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Wolfpack to this last Just last Tuesday. We were in Main Street and Danville giving out
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We gave out probably over five six hundred little packets with a card in it It was about the gospel and and some and in the bag, of course got to have candy to go along with it 500 600 of those went out
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We're just hand them out took it took us about less than an hour to give them about about five to six hundred out
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So you imagine how many we're just constantly handing them out now I bet if we only gave out information about the
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Reformation about the gospel with no candy in it I bet you we could hardly get anybody to take that.
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He wouldn't even care No candy. I don't want a card about the Reformation. There's an appetite for candy
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Basketball, but not for God and some people criticize the church, you know, really isn't any different Maybe we'll go through the motions with a short sermon a few songs that we're interested in the things of God But really what's all about it being a social club and you can tell what we're really interested in by what we talked about before After the services and we don't often don't talk about the
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Lord. Do we do we? About the sermon about anything edifying Instead we talk about our teams
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Maybe about what's for lunch next? Even from the pulpit in many places. They talk more about politics that they do the
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Bible that really gets people Energized we stopped part start talking politics But let's drive here to be a church where we're so consumed with a passion to regard
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Think about consider the deeds of the Lord to see the work of his hands that people people see our
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Hunger and thirst for him and hear it from us Woe to us if we do not
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But if we do not Will not just be left to ourselves left up left to our woes because Because we call ourselves by his name
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We call ourselves Christians We claim to be his people God will not just leave us to kind of suffer the bad consequences of our of our bad choices
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He will take action against us. He will discipline us. He says so right here in these hard words
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We read this is what the therefore section tells us therefore
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He says it in verse 13 whoa Because you only care about Your house your property your success your money your bank account growing your business.
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That's all you care about Whoa, whoa also because you only care about your recreation your party your liquor your delicacies
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You're drinking. Whoa to use therefore in verse 13 My people are exiled.
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He says Exiled mean to be taken away by the enemy They're so materialistic.
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All they care about was land grabbing real estate So God brings foreign forces to drag them away from the land that they grabbed
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They'll be taken away in exile. They won't have any more property to live for because they won't have any more property period
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Why he says it in verse 13. He says for lack of knowledge Hence we see that the source of all our calamities is that we do not allow ourselves to be taught the
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Word of God We don't really care about it because we don't care about it. We don't learn it We don't learn it We have lack of knowledge and the results in exile when we do not live by every word that comes from the mouth of God We are taken into exile
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The Word of God doesn't transform our thinking That means then we are conformed to the world
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We become just like the world our children then start living just like the world For for money for relations.
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It's not good enough just to be conservative where they're not rooted in They don't we're not rooted in the Word of God. We don't care. We have lack of knowledge
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That communicates to our children. They're taken away by the world They start living for the money for the relationships for the vacations and they start living in sex out of marriage and we're taken away all the things that we replaced
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God with Things that often are not bad in themselves, but we replace God with them.
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Those things are taken away from us After we've allowed them to Take us away from God So amazingly
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God judges He disciplines And we can cut all the judgment out of our all hymnals, but it's he's still gonna do it
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God sees our sin. He says whoa, and then therefore therefore because of the sin, here's the consequences
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We live for land We get dragged off the land we live for food We go hungry we live for drink
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We go thirsty We live for money We go bankrupt We live for the relationship
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We get divorced All because we wouldn't listen to God because we had no appetite for him
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But God says in verse 14 that death itself will enlarge its appetite.
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It's gonna grow More and more hungry and consume more of you and his appetite for us that's what happened to Judah when the first in the
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Assyrians and later the Babylonians came in and and Killed and destroyed and took them literally into exile and it can happen to us today
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So he humbles his people, especially the haughty the self -righteous. They're so sure they did the religious works
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They're so sure they're they're more they think they are moral people who wouldn't seek correction from his word In the end
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God he says here. He will be glorified and He'll be glorified in justice right and If we if we should be glorified in our doing justice
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But if that doesn't happen and we don't do justice and seek righteousness He will be glorified it in him doing justice to us
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We either glorify him by living his way righteously for justice not just for us
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For my money for what I can get out of it because but the poor He will either be glorified
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That way as we live righteously for justice, or he will glorify himself. He will glorify himself he says in verse 16 by displaying his justice, so If we will not glorify him by living righteousness
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Lee he will glorify himself by treating us righteously as we deserve
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Last July our family got to go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and there we saw the field
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There's this woods on one side a ridge on another and about a mile between there's this open field and the southern forces fighting for Care what they say they're fighting for slavery
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Injustice thought they could march across that field and and win the war
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They got slaughtered God was glorified in Doing justice to those who would be unjust
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Then there is another set of woes starting in verse 18 Isaiah their pictures the people
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He says they're harnessed sin like horses are are harnessed to a buggy in other words, they're
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There they are and they're dragging sin behind them and what ties them to their sin is lies falsehoods
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Now people always lied to justify their sin. They pull sin behind them with ropes of Lies and you can just go through and think of any sin and people the way people lie to themselves to justify
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Continuing in this sin One way you can tell that they are harnessed to sin as they're scoffing and that they scoff that they are warned
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They scoff when they are warned that God will judge them They are they are derisive here and even sarcastic daring God to do what he said
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You're kind of like a spoiled child never really been disciplined and then he's threatened and he just yeah
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Yeah, it's not gonna happen. He knows better. What's substitute teaching? I remember some some girl just being disruptive and talking too much.
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I said, okay off the only I'm a substitute teacher not much I can do but Wrote a note the office off you go go to the office and she said kind of start taking what they won't do anything
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They'll just send me back and sure enough about five minutes later. She comes back. What am I supposed to do? But that's the way
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In this culture with hardly any discipline and that's the way people are they get Derisive they think you know what that'll never happen to us.
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What are you talking about? We're too smart We're too good. We're too blessed. There's not any real judgment coming They cut out all the judgment hymns from their hymnal soft words make them hard people
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So they scoff at it and so they dare God in verse 19. This is the way
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I interpret these words They're they're they're daring sarcastically God. Let him be quick. Oh, you say he's coming to judge us
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Okay, let him do it now speed it up Then we may see it the counsel of the Holy One of Israel.
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Let it draw near sure when you say Isaiah There's judgments coming. Let's see it enough talk do it and we may know they're teasing
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God They've heard it all before so many times before And they didn't repent and nothing seemed to happen.
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So they just can they just scoff now. We don't care They don't believe it, but we know that the warnings did come true
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We know God made good on them They were dragged off into exile their dead bodies were strewn on the ground
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Like just like you look by the highways and see litter imagine the dead bodies there instead that that's what it was like And so we have no excuse
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Do we for them? Maybe you're gonna understand and seen it happen yet. We know it's happened in the past.
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God has done it How much so how much more seriously are we to take these warnings?
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Think of that when we come to the Lord's Supper the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that because Some of them came to the
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Lord's Supper kind of a self -indulgent they would come and they would you know they had wine for the for their
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Instead of juice that for the represent the blood and they would just drink a lot of it so much they could get drunk on it
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Self indulgent. They're inconsiderate. They're not thinking about others They just consume it and some some of the
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Corinthians and church members were Slaves and they couldn't get off work in time to get there, but they didn't care.
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They would eat it all Only about me myself divisive in a divisive way not thinking about the body of Christ not thinking of the church
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Paul said, you know, some of you are sick God's judging you and some of you have even died as a result of God's judgment
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So Paul said you better take it seriously And we had better take it seriously. We certainly we had certainly better not scoff at his warnings
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We know that he could be very patient But there comes a time and sometimes it comes
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Quickly look like he's doing nothing and then all of a sudden And when he is a time when he makes good on his warnings
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And so when we come to the Lord's table in a little while we need to ask ourselves whether we have promoted breaches in our community whether we have been materialistic like like these people here in Isaiah 5
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Or self -indulgent or an uncaring about justice We use the we often use the
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Church Covenant as a way to summarize a lot of biblical teaching about how to live together as A church for that very purpose
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So we wouldn't just rush into it with no thought about our how we've been living But really anything from Scripture even
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Isaiah 5 Can convict us can get us to say whoa about ourselves and Paul says that if we first judge ourselves
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Say whoa for ourself first Then we will not come under judgment And that's good news
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Then in verse 20 another woe is moaned out for those who take morality who make morality
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Relative here's a woe for the moral relativist. They call what is really bitter sweet and They think that just because they call it that it makes it so the new morality
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It's not so new after all is it Isaiah's time they call what is really evil a legitimate lifestyle choice biblical convictions
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They call hate or intolerance Bigotry people love to justify themselves.
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And so instead of submitting themselves to God's standard, they'll take the way they are
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Or what they feel what they do and they'll make that the standard
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And if God's standards go against it and what God's standards must be wrong in the world They'll take morality and call it love immorality.
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You should say and call it love truth No matter how gently you say it
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Is now called hate speech if it dares criticize one of the celebrated sins
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But even in the church, you know said well, that's the world. We're better often. We live in a conservative area We're better off than that.
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But even in the church, they may call their divisiveness having independent convictions Their rebelliousness is the the priesthood of all believers
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What are their refusal to commit? Oh, that's just Christian freedom Whatever, you know, this is especially so for for those in the next woe in verse 21.
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It's the self -righteous Woe to the self -righteous Who think they have the
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Christian life figured out? You can't tell them anything because they're too self -important no teaching can penetrate them
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There no wise counsel no sound arguments. No good reasoning. No Biblical explanation, you know good interpretation of Scripture biblical commands can't get through to them
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Church exists they think so they can feel affirmed So that what they already believe and what they already think that that is listened to and They're made to feel good for it.
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So they can sit through Sunday school lessons for years on end Here's sermon after sermon, but it is no good because they are so wise in their own eyes whoa to them he says
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Then woe to thee. I don't know what else to call it. I call him. I'll call him the upside -down and the next woe in verse 22
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They think it's heroic to win drinking games are valiant to get drunk.
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Woe to those who are so courageous they drink themselves into Unconsciousness what the world?
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How's that courageous? Well, it's upside down There's nothing heroic about surrendering to your weaknesses a few years ago
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ESPN awarded its award for heroism or something like that to a University of Missouri football player for being homosexual as Those succumbing to that temptation is a a great moral achievement to be celebrated
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Wow How bizarre Oh upside down With justice the same upside -down people don't give people what they deserve
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You know, it's winning if you can win. That's all that matters you get away with it. That's all that matters even if you cheat the poor you can bribe a judge get your way or get him to quit you because They're of your same race or however, you however you deprive justices you're smart
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You got away with it as long as you win You're a hero If you can get away with a scam
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More power to you. You're a champ Either they acquit the guilty They let them off the hook of the punishment that they should get or they deny justice to the innocent
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In America today, you know, we usually understand that it's unjust to punish the innocent
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Except for when it comes to abortion. We forget that we just the people being killed We don't even call them people so we can ignore that but besides that we usually
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Understand it's unjust to punish the innocent, but we seem to forget that it's also unjust not to punish the guilty
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To let people off the hook of the punishment they deserve Because they could afford a slick lawyer
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That's not right that's wrong Whoa to us when we do that Americans often do the same thing when it comes when we lower our moral standards when we refuse to criticize bad behavior
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We're acquitting the guilty when we join in to make excuses for immorality and And just like the one who who takes a bribe, you know, we do that probably most of the time
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You know the reason I think the motivation for those don't want to say that that's immoral that's wrong
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The reason most of the time is is because they in the back of their minds they think you know
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I don't want to criticize that sin because maybe one day I want to do another sin and when that happens
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I don't want someone criticizing me We don't say someone else's adultery or sexual deviance is wrong because we might want to follow our
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Lust to one day when we get the opportunity So we acquit the guilty and we say it's all a matter of lifestyle choices.
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Whatever floats your boat You know, enjoy yourself. It's up to you. It's okay God says whoa
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And then he says therefore Again, he doesn't just say, you know, I'm gonna leave you suffer the bad consequences of your bad choices
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He does do that, but he doesn't just do that. He actively intervenes
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That's what the therefore is therefore Therefore he says the anger of the
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Lord is kindled other words. It's ignited. It's on fire now and kindled He says in verse 25 not against the outsiders who knew no better But against his own people those who call themselves as people who've heard the word, but who won't live it
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And so he stretches out his hand Probably a signal like charge to an army
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It stretches out his hand and strikes them down and When their corpses are strewn all over the ground like litter has
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God finally had enough enough judgment Is he finally satisfied and so many of our dead city is destroyed burned down has he exhausted his anger?
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It's his justice now after so much destruction So much punishment so much death is it now finally is it finally paid for Is he so really is he released his his anger now, he's he's gotten it out and he's over it
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No It says for all this His anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still still more judgment more punishment still
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In verse 26, it says God raises a signal To bring in people to ravage the land
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Come here Assyrians. Come here Babylonians. Come here whatever disease divorce
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Whatever judgment punishment terrorism come here he whistles for them and they come and They they come like a vicious attack dog a well -trained
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Going after his victim then in the last four verses these vicious people that the Lord is bringing in are described in detail
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They are ferocious They're an irresistible predator like a growling lion
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Devouring his prey therefore God says I'll bring all this on you and the root cause of all the woes
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That brought on all this punishment the root cause he says at the end of verse 24
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They have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the
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Holy One of Israel All the other things their greed their intoxication their scoffing their moral relativism all those things
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Just symptoms really the real cause the real disease was their rejection of God's Word That they couldn't take, you know, they could take time for everything else
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But they would get up early to drink but they could never spare time to feed on God's Word that could never get their attention
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For ourselves We might not have we not mean we may not be the kind that gets up early to have a beer for breakfast
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But unless we are praying With a holy hunger
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Unless we're praying that prayer we sang earlier We saw earlier from Psalm 86 teach me your way.
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Oh Lord that I may walk in your truth If we're not hungrily praying that Then we may get the same woes and the same their force
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There are six woes here in this chapter And a group like this we might have avoided the the outward kind of ostentatious display of the most shameful of these woes
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But but are we scoffing? Do we often acquit ourselves?
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When we're guilty Are we wise in our own eyes? We know better than that silly judgment stuff
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Are we hungry for the Word of God? There's six woes in this chapter
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Seems kind of incomplete doesn't it six? It's kind of incomplete like it's not done.
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Where's the seventh? Well Where is that? in the next chapter
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Isaiah 6 Isaiah pronounces the seventh the final the complete woe
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And he says it not for someone else Not woe to them but for himself
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He sees the Lord in all his splendor He sees the angels surrounding him.
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He hears them chanting. Holy Holy Holy and he immediately declares
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Woe is me You See the more powerfully where and under the influence of the
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Holy Spirit the more that we feel the presence of God Then the more we are aware of our own sinfulness
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The more impressed we are of the seriousness of his judgment
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Our culture may deny it You might think Martin Luther was just insane for being so burdened in Conscience about his sins that he spent hours confessing them trembling at the presence of God You may think there's something weird about thinking woe is me our heads have been stuffed with soft words
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The world might think it normal that we have no songs about judgment left in our hymnals But when we get when we really get a glimpse of the holiness of God Then we know
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That it therefore is coming it's coming for us and We know that we deserve that therefore
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We know that for all the judgment that God could pour out on us For all his righteous anger his justice that will not acquit the guilty
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That that will not be abated That no matter how many centuries how many years whether thousands or millions or billions
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That God could rightly punish us He could still say after them all for all this his anger has not turned away
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And his hand is stretched out still so we say Whoa It's me, but the good news of the gospel shocks us with a different therefore
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Therefore There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus The woes the exposure of our sins are still there for us but in the gospel
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There's a new therefore for all who by faith cling to the Lord Jesus Christ the father sent his son to take our woes and especially our their force
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He took all the judgment that we deserved He bore it himself So that we could have a different therefore the therefore of life in the gospel to get that therefore