ISAIAH 58 INVITE GOD TO WORK IN YOUR LIFE2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 58 Invite God To Work In Your Life

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

This morning as we begin to look at Isaiah chapter 58, I wonder if you've ever seen the show Restaurant Impossible. Have you ever seen that show? There's a few of those kinds of shows where a restaurant is in trouble. They're about to close. They're in the last, you know, days of its life. And so they reach out to some celebrity chef to come in and fix

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The basic idea of the show is this restaurant is not doing well. Customers are not returning. And so they're going to have to close the doors. And so they reach out to someone who can help. And this guy comes in. And I forget the name of the guy on Restaurant Impossible. But he comes in and has these ideas. He evaluates the problem. He looks at what's going on. And if you see those episodes, it kind of makes you wonder about the places that you visit to eat dinner, right? Because sometimes,

Sometimes they've just given up on cleaning altogether, right? There's just dirt everywhere. There's bugs everywhere. There's grime and just gross stuff. And it makes you think twice about going somewhere to eat sometimes because it's like, wow, they just stopped caring a long time ago and haven't cleaned up for a really long time. And sometimes you'll see one of the problems that's diagnosed is they've stopped caring about the cooking.

And it's just stuff packed in the freezer that they microwave and then bring out to you, you know, for $13 a plate or whatever. And then you wonder why customers don't come back because, well, they can have microwave food at home. You know, they don't have to go to a restaurant and pay more money for that. And so, you know, they go through this process and

And as you see that, like the areas where it's just like they've just given up and, you know, just don't really care that much anymore, although they profess to care, you know, it's clear by their actions that they don't, that they've given up or that they've lost hope and just, you know, don't know what to do at this point. Now, sometimes it's not that at all.

But it's that they're so stuck in the way they've always done it. And so it's interesting to see those kinds of battles as well as, you know, the suggestions are being made and the restaurant owners are like, no way, we'll never do that. No, we're not going to cook our lasagna properly. We want to do it frozen. That's the way it's supposed to be because that's the way we've always done it. We're not going to do what you want us to do. Well, we need to do this and change this. Oh, no, no, no. We don't want to do that. There's this resistance there.

And I always think it's a little bit interesting, a little bit humorous. Again, probably all fake, but still represents reality in a lot of ways, I think. And so that there's this resistance, like, please come help me. And then the help is offered. No, no, no, thank you. I don't want help.

And it doesn't make sense. It's not rational. And yet that is often what takes place. And as you think about this whole concept of this restaurant being in need and reaching out and asking for help, but then not changing, not wanting the help and that revealing of the areas that have been given up. I think this relates a lot to God's people here in Isaiah chapter 58 and many times our own lives as heart and hearts as well.

That there are areas in our lives where we have just given up, where we've stopped cleaning up, where we just kind of like living with the dirt and the grime and the junk in our lives and we just continue on. There's grace, you know, and we feel like there's nothing we can do. And so we just stop working on those areas of our lives and allow them to just persist. That instead of working on cooking and being fresh and vibrant and, you know,

Moving forward and growing in our lives, we just kind of settle in and just kind of microwave our spiritual meals and just kind of barely make do. And there needs to be help. There's going to be a problem, a crisis. The place is going to shut down. And God this morning in Isaiah chapter 58 is going to be offering some help. But what I want to encourage you in is that as he offers this help, that you would be receptive to it.

I think generally speaking, we would all say we want God to work in our lives.

And if you would have asked the people of Judah, where Isaiah was ministering, they would have said, yes, we want God to work in our lives. In fact, they were fasting. They were praying. They were asking for God to help because they were in trouble. There was great affliction that was happening to them. And the nation of Assyria was attacking them. And they were in trouble. And not only are they in trouble and calling out to God, but the people are really confused.

about why God does not seem to be responding to their cries. They're fasting, they're calling out to him. They would say, we're fasting and we're praying. How come God is not responding to our situation? Well, God reveals why he's not responding here in chapter 58, but he sums it up a little bit more succinctly in chapter 59, verse 1 and 2. And so let me read that to you real quickly. Isaiah chapter 59, verse 1 says this,

behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. Here's the problem. Short, sweet, very clear to the point. The problem is not God's hand is too short. He can't save you. Just like, I can't reach. Remember in

Never mind, it's a dumb movie, Hook. You guys remember when the dad was trying to reach out to the kids and he wouldn't have to fight Captain Hook if he reached him. Anyways, so God's hand isn't too short that he can't reach. That's not the problem. But the problem is your iniquities have separated you from your God. The people of Judah are fasting, they're praying, they're crying out to God. Why is God not responding? And God is in chapter 58 and here in chapter 59 is gonna be dealing with, well, because of the sin in your life. So we're gonna be talking about

Sin and how it separates us from God this morning. And if you want to invite God to work in your life, you're going to have to deal with sin and

in your life. Now, as I talk about this, I always like to give the disclaimer. I think it's important that we don't make the mistake of Job's friends, because if you look at the example of Job, you can see that not every difficulty that happens is a direct result of God dealing with sin in your life. Job was a righteous man who experienced severe trial and affliction, and it was not because of any sin.

Now his friends were convinced that there must be some hidden sin because of all the affliction and trouble in his life. But God says that's not the case. Job was righteous. And so we can't come to the conclusion that all difficulty and trials and afflictions are God's judgment for sin in our lives. That being said, it's also just as true that sometimes it is.

Sometimes the affliction, the trial, the difficulty that we go through is directly resulting from sin that is taking place in our hearts. Sin that is going on in our lives and God allows the affliction and the trouble and the difficulty because he wants to deal with it. That was the condition of the nation of Judah and that is the place that we also can find ourselves in.

The nation of Judah was inviting God to work, but not in a way that allowed him to work. They were calling out to him, but it was really for show. It was really pretending to seek God, not an actual seeking of God. How many Christians are pretending in their calling out to God?

I pray that's not you, and I pray that's not me. We need to invite God to work in our lives in such a way that it's real, that it's genuine, that allows him to do the work that he desires to do. And so there's three points that we'll look at as we work our way through Isaiah chapter 58 this morning to help us know what that looks like, to allow God to work as we invite him to work in us. The first thing we'll find is in verses one through four, and that is acknowledge your sin.

First things first, if we want God to work in our lives, if we're going to invite him and say, God, I want you to work in my life. I need help in these situations. The first thing that God would require is an acknowledgement of our sin. He wants us to confess our sin. Check out verse one. He says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and

Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. Here in verse one, we have God giving Isaiah instruction. He's sending him with a message to the nation, but he doesn't just give him the message. He tells him how to share it. He's going to be talking about their transgression, their sin. And the way that he's supposed to share this message is loudly. He says, cry aloud, shout it out. Let it be open, public.

Let it be well known. And he says, spare not. Don't hold back, Isaiah. Spare not. But bring forth the message with clarity, with boldness, not beating around the bush. You know, sometimes we are not very direct in our communication because we're trying to spare somebody. That it's too direct.

Brutal. It's too forceful if we're very clear. But God tells Isaiah, be very clear. Don't spare them. Be very direct in dealing and revealing their sin. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. God wants his people to come face to face with their sin. He wants them to have direct contact, direct confrontation with

So that it's right in front of their face. This is the problem. This is what's going on. This is the sin that is there. I was thinking back to many years ago. My first job was working for Walmart. And as I was working at Walmart one day, there was an announcement over the PA system. Demanded, required all male employees to the electronic section immediately. There was an emergency situation.

I actually was there when it went down. And what happened was, well, there was this guy who worked in the electronics section, and he was in a physical fight with some other guy who had come into the store. And so they bring all the male employees, they get security involved, and they separate these guys. Now, this guy who came in and started this fight, we knew who he was. He was married to another lady who worked at Walmart.

It was our husband. So we knew him. He'd been in from time to time. We'd seen him around. We'd talked to him before. And obviously the guy who worked at Walmart, we knew him as well. So we knew immediately what this fight was about. But as we're separating them and security is kind of pulling him off and it's not going easy, he's being kind of forcibly dragged away from the situation. He's shouting out there in the electronic section at Walmart from the top of his lungs, he is sleeping with my wife.

He was really upset because, well, he found out his wife and this other guy who worked at Walmart were having an affair. And so he decided, let's go to Walmart right now and deal with that situation. A physical fight took place. Now, here's what's interesting about that to me. All of us who worked there, we heard that man shouting those things. We already knew that.

We knew they were having an affair because we worked with them. We saw how they interacted. We knew what was going on. In fact, the husband had been in from time to time and we interacted with the husband and we knew that there was this affair going on, but none of the Walmart employees decided, you know, we need to tell this guy about what's happening. We spared him. We didn't address the situation direct on. We didn't address it

directly in the way that God is calling Isaiah to address it. Now, after he shouted it out, everybody knows, and everybody knows that everybody knows, and it was more freely talked about. But until then, it was everybody knew, but nobody talked about it because, well, it wasn't proper. As God sends Isaiah to the nation of Judah, he says, look, I don't want you to spare them. Don't beat around the bush. Don't hide things. Let's be direct, and let's deal with

with what's really going on. He says in verse 1, tell my people their transgression. Now, what if it was your sin that was being shouted out this morning? I'm not going to do that. Well, maybe on accident, but not intentionally. God hasn't shown me what your sins are. But God did give Isaiah some specific things to address because sin is not hidden from God.

And so God is able to say, here's exactly what's going on, Isaiah. This is what you need to address. Your sin is not hidden from God. Now, I would also add, most of the time, much of the time, your sin is also not hidden from people. Sometimes we're so convinced how clever we are in keeping our sins a secret. But I would suggest that many times people are just too polite to bring it up, not bold enough to deal with it directly.

to spare one another. We don't always address everything that we see, but so many times it's right there in front of us. Remember how Jesus talked about why are you worried about the brother with the speck in his eye when you have a plank in your own eye? Setting aside the plank in your own eye for a moment, the point of it is it's so easy to see the speck in somebody else's eye, right? It's so true. Many times we're convinced we're clever and things are hidden and nobody knows. I would suggest people know.

They might not deal with it directly with you, but it's not hidden. Your sin is not hidden. And so God deals with their sins. Now, the specific sins of their day, there's a few mentioned here in chapter 58, uh,

fake fasting, we'll talk about that, exploiting people, putting yokes and bonds upon the people that were working for them, neglecting people who were in need, profaning the Sabbath. As you look at the chapters surrounding this, you can also see they were involved in idolatry, worshiping these false gods and immorality. There was a lot of things that were going on in the hearts of these people. And yet notice what it says in verse two. He says, "'Yet they seek me daily.'"

God is highlighting here a disconnect. Something doesn't make sense. This doesn't line up. This isn't right. These people, Isaiah, you need to tell them their sins and don't spare them. It needs to be addressed.

They're involved in sin, and yet they seek me daily. They disregard my word. They disregard what I have commanded and instructed. They disregard what they're called to do, and yet they seek me daily. And notice he says, as a nation that did righteousness. They're behaving, they're trying to relate to me as if they were a righteous nation, but they're not. It doesn't work.

And God is not okay with this. He is going to address it. Now, I mentioned some of the specific sins that they were dealing with in those days. But what about today with us? God revealed specific sins for Isaiah to proclaim. And I believe God's put some specific things on my heart as well. Not attached to an individual. So try to calm your heart rate a little bit. I'm not going to call anybody out by name. But

I do believe God wants us to talk about some things. If you would, please turn with me to Galatians chapter 5. We'll be back to Isaiah chapter 58 in a few moments. But here in Galatians chapter 5, Paul the Apostle is listing some of the things that are titled the works of the flesh. And these are things that

Well, we need to talk about it and we need to deal with. Now, we might think, hey, we're all in church. You know, we don't need to talk about these things. We're fine. That's what the nation of Judah would have said. But as I was up at Calvary Watsonville last Sunday, Pastor Dylan was sharing out of Revelation chapter 2. And you know those seven letters that Jesus wrote to seven churches there in Revelation chapter 2 and 3?

He was talking about the first one, the letter to Ephesus. And it reminded me, as I was thinking about it, I was listening to the message, I was thinking about and reflecting that as you look at each of those seven churches and how those letters are not just those specific churches that were there. That's not the only purpose of Jesus writing those letters. But he says, let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches. That is, those are letters written to every believer. And it's interesting to consider that.

As you look at those seven churches, five out of the seven are commanded to repent. Five out of the seven have sin going on in their midst that needs to be repented of, that needs to be changed, that needs to be addressed. Five out of seven. It's a good percentage. We might typically think, well, those who need to repent are the people outside of the church. But Jesus writes to the church and he says, you need to repent.

There's sin that is going on and it needs to be dealt with. And so let's consider these things that are written here in Galatians chapter 5. Starting in verse 19, here's what Paul says. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Here, Paul the Apostle, talking to the churches of Galatia, says, hey guys, let me remind you about some things I already told you about. The works of the flesh. Sin. It's evident, and it's not good. God does not look upon these things favorably. In fact, so much so, he says, those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

He lists these various things and says, if you practice these things, you don't inherit the kingdom of God. I just want to walk through these fairly briefly, but enough to just not spare anybody. Listen, if these sins, one, many, several, if these are going on in your life, you're in jeopardy, you're in danger, like the nation of Judah.

And especially so if you are like the nation of Judah, practicing these things, but continuing to quote unquote, seek God daily. That's not a good place to be. And God wants to shake you up and bring you face to face and say, hey, this is wrong and it needs to change. There needs to be an acknowledgement of the sinfulness of our behavior. Adultery is sin. Any kind of sex outside of marriage is

is sinful. It is absolutely wrong. And yet there are those who would come to church who are involved in adultery, seeking him daily, delighting to know the ways of God. If that's you, you need to know that God knows exactly what's going on. And you need to acknowledge it is sin to not put up with it. And it's not just the physical act of

that is adultery. Jesus said, if you look at a woman to lust after her in your heart, you've already committed adultery in your heart. And so not just the physical act, but pornography, for example. I mean, that's a big thing in our society that we don't often talk about. We spare one another. We don't address it. We don't deal with it. We don't bring it out into the open, but it's a big deal. And it's a serious issue. It's a serious sin. And so,

And God says, you need to acknowledge this. You need to turn from that sin. You need to not continue to practice that and then call out to me for help. That's not okay. It doesn't work. If you go by the statistics, there is absolutely guaranteed, definitely men and women in here who are involved in pornography on a regular basis. Absolutely. I don't doubt it. And here's what I'm saying. Come face to face with the reality. It's sin. God sees it. He's not pleased with it.

It needs to be addressed. Don't convince yourself. Don't deceive yourself and think everything's okay. God, you know, overlooks it. He understands. God sees it. He calls it sin and he calls you to change. We'll deal with that in the next passage in just a few moments. But the next thing on the list is fornication.

This is sex before marriage. So adultery is sex outside of marriage, maybe a married party having an affair with somebody else. But fornication is sex before marriage. That's single people having sex. And here's what you need to know, because our society says something completely different. If you're single, having sex, any kind of sexual experience is sin. It's wrong. God is not pleased with it. Now, our society says you have to.

It's kind of expected. You got to, you know, try things out. Make sure you're compatible before you finally get married to each other. That's not the way that God works. That's not the way that God has declared that we work. Even if you're single, even if you love each other, even if you plan to get married, sex outside of marriage is sin. And yet there are those who engage in fornication and then seek God daily like the nation of Judah and delight to know his ways as if they were righteous.

And God says that doesn't work. And he's dealing with his people because of this hypocrisy, because of this disconnect. He goes on to list uncleanness and lewdness. These are additional variations of sexual sins that I won't get into, but all kinds of immorality, of course, is sin. Idolatry. Now that's, of course, the worshiping of statues, but

It's more than that. It's what is represented. And so idolatry, you could summarize it this way. It's trusting in anything more than you trust God. It's being passionate about anything more than you're passionate about God. It's about relying upon anything more than you rely upon God. It's giving anything else the place of God in your life. And the people of Judah were engaged in idolatry.

and yet seeking God daily. They still went to the temple. They still offered the sacrifices, even though they worshiped these other gods. And today, we're just the same. We still trust in other things. We rely upon other things. We pursue other things. We let other things consume us, but then we show up for church, and God says it's not okay. It needs to be dealt with. It needs to be addressed. He also lists sorcery.

The Greek word for sorcery is pharmakia, and so often that connection is made between pharmakia, sorcery, and pharmacy, the drugs that can alter states of consciousness. Those drugs were used in their sorcery to accomplish those things and pursue that alternate state of consciousness. And so there's a connection here, drug use,

Now, I think some drug use could also be falling into the drunkenness category. It's a kind of different levels of different types of drugs. And so sorcery might be a more severe type of drug. I don't know much about drugs. So you can talk to Dave if you want more information about that later on. But the point is these things that control you, that change your state, that change your mind, it's sin, right?

It's not okay. It's not just something that is kind of like, oh, well, it's just part of society. Or, you know, one of the big questions is, well, what if, you know, marijuana is legalized? Again, I think that goes down into the drunkenness category. It's still drunkenness. It's still that altered state, and it's sin. And God is not pleased with it. He cannot allow that. And to continue to seek him...

daily to try to, you know, as if you were righteous, but practicing that and engaging in that, God is not pleased with that. You need to acknowledge your sin. Deal with it. Don't pretend like it's not there. Hatred is the next one that he lists. Is there anybody that you hate right now? I'm not excluding political candidates, by the way. Is there anybody that you hate right now? Anyone that you wish was hurt or harmed? Anyone that you would be trying to hurt? That's sin. That's

And yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness. Contentions, jealousies, wrath, these all kind of go along with that. The fights that go on between us. Are you fighting with anybody? Is there some contentions that are going on between you and other people that are not just other people attacking you and you're righteous, but that you're involved in the attacks and stirring up the contention? That's sin. Sin.

I know we like the drama, you know, the reality TV and all the stir in the pot and everything, but that's not godly. It's not what God has for us. It is sin. And we need to acknowledge that and not just accept it and just think, well, that's just part of society. It's part of who we are. Some of our interactions, not just in person, but online, need to be re-evaluated and reclassified and recognized. It's sin many times that we're engaging in.

Selfish ambitions, the idea of making decisions for your own benefit, pursuing your own agenda, your needs first, that's sin. You need to acknowledge that. Dissensions, it's very similar to the contentions that we were talking about, but it's specifically in regard to authorities, rebelling against authority in your home, in your workplace, in your nation, in your church. It's sin to rebel against authorities that God has established.

And yet people rebel against authorities and God says they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that was righteous. Heresies, that's the teaching of false doctrine. Envy and murders. But notice, murders and then the next one is drunkenness. Now, I could probably say with some certainty, probably you're not dealing with some struggles with murder. I hope not. But, you know, we know each other pretty well.

Of course, people who knew murderers would all say that they knew each other pretty well, huh? So maybe I shouldn't speak so confidently, but what's interesting to me is we would classify these differently, right? Murder, that's pretty serious. Drunkenness, okay, I mean, that's not bad. You shouldn't drive, but drunkenness, it's not that bad. But God puts them in the same list and he says, look, this is sin. And you might gloss over it. You might try to talk and say, hey, it's not that big of a deal. It's not that bad. It's just a little buzz, whatever. God says, it's in the same list, right?

It's the work of the flesh. It's evident. And those who practice these things don't inherit the kingdom of God. This is serious. You need to acknowledge that drunkenness is sin. It's not a little thing. It's not nothing. It is something. God has declared it to be something. It is harmful and destructive. And you need to acknowledge the sinfulness and not just allow it and accept it as what's normal.

Revelries goes along with drunkenness. That's the grouping together and partying that goes along with the drunkenness. They would parade through the streets in drunkenness in those days, and that's what it's referring to. And then notice he says at the end there, and the like. So this isn't an exhaustive, complete, every item on the list type of thing.

This is a general idea. It gets you going in the right direction. Help you understand, look, there's a lot of things that we would accept as normal. There's a lot of things that are the works of the flesh that we need to pay attention to and recognize that it's sin and we cannot practice those things. Those who practice those things do not inherit the kingdom of God. That's what the nation of Judah was doing. They were engaged in sin like this. And God sends Isaiah to address it. He says, don't

spare them, deal with these things, talk about these things. These are real issues because they're engaged in these things. But then now going back to Isaiah chapter 58, again, verse two, he says, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Here's the nation of Judah. Judah,

living in sin, disobeying God, disregarding God's word, but still showing up for church. And God says there's a big problem here. There's a big disconnect. And there are those who would call themselves Christians who show up for church while practicing these kinds of things. It's not okay. And we need to stop excusing ourselves and justifying ourselves. We need to acknowledge that it's sin. There are people who practice these things, but they're proud of how much they can quote the

I've known people. I know people. I know myself. I could be there in an instant. We need to acknowledge that there's sin. There's people involved in sin who show up for service and they're raising their hands in worship. And we wouldn't know any different except for we do many times. But we are the ones raising our hands and we're thinking, we're fine. We're good. And God says, no,

You're behaving as one who seeks me daily and delights to know my ways. You're behaving as if you're righteous, but you're not. You're not. Warren Wiersbe comments about this. He says, the people enjoyed learning the word and even participating in fasts. But when the services were over, the worshipers went back to exploiting people and pleasing themselves. We can fall into that same pattern of

engaging in the service, and oh, it was a wonderful service, and then we go back to the sin that we're living in, the sin that we're practicing, and God is addressing that. That's the reason why they're experiencing the affliction that they're experiencing. It's God's judgment for their sin, and yet they're showing up for church and pretending like they're seeking God. Meanwhile, they're confused about why God is not working. Check out verse three. Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we not seen?

Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? In fact, the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all your labors. Indeed, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. The people are asking, hey, we're fasting. How come God is not hearing? We're calling out to him about this affliction. How come God's not responding? We're doing our part. We're fasting. And God says, you're confused.

You've replaced actually following me with these outward expressions of following me. And it doesn't work. It's not okay. That's why you're experiencing judgment. And you need to acknowledge your sin. That's the first thing. If you want to invite God to work in your life, acknowledge your sin.

recognize it for what it is. Stop calling it other things. Stop blaming it on everything else. Stop excusing it and acknowledge your sin. Now, God gives us provision for sin. He sent his only begotten son to die upon the cross that we could be forgiven of sin. So it's not that we have to pretend that we don't sin. He says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to cleanse us

That's the acknowledgement. We have to come to grips and come to God honestly and recognize sin for sin and deal with it as sin and not allow it to continue. And that brings me to point number two. As we move forward in verses five through eight, point number two is turn from your sin. So first of all, don't just acknowledge it and then sit there in your sin. Yeah, I know it's sin and I'm a miserable person and so I'm just going to sit here. Don't give up and just stay in sin. Turn from

from your sin. Some people just give up. They don't deal with it. It's too hard, too difficult, or too enjoyable. Others, they acknowledge it's sin, okay, and then they try to compensate for that sin, try to make up for that sin. That's what the nation of Judah was doing. We'll fast, and that'll make up for our sinfulness. But what God wants is not more religious rituals. What God wants is for you to turn and

from sin. Check out verse 5. He says, So God challenges their thought. They're challenging God, hey, we're fasting. How come you're not hearing? And God asks a question. Did I choose a fast? Is that what I commanded? Is that what I required?

A day to afflict your soul, to bow down your head like a bulrush. A bulrush is a reed. You know those reeds that are by creeks and rivers and stuff? And they just fold over. Any wind, any step, any water, it just folds over and bows down. That's the idea. Is that what I commanded? Just bow down. Everybody bow down. Just fall down easily. Bow down any moment, every chance you get. Spread out sackcloth and ashes. Is this what I commanded? Do you think God wants you to afflict your soul and

Be beating yourself up and thinking about how terrible you are. God says, would you call this a fast and acceptable day to the Lord? It's interesting to think about the instruction that God gave to the nation of Israel. He gave them specific days in their calendar that they were to observe certain things. What I think is interesting about that is, well, several times a year they were commanded to feast. I don't know that I need a command to feast, but they were commanded to feast.

The feasts that they were commanded to partake in lasted days, sometimes a couple weeks. God says, I want you guys to feast several times a year. Now, the feasts had memories, you know, memorials attached to them. They were to remember works that God did. They were celebrations of what God had done, that they would feast together and gather together and celebrate. And then there was one day a year that they were commanded to fast. Think about that contrast.

They were commanded to feast several weeks a year, but one day a year they were commanded to fast. It was the day of atonement. God gives them instruction about that in Leviticus chapter 16, verse 29. He says, So God did command a fast.

It was for one day each year. And they were to afflict their souls. They were to think about the gravity of their sin on that one day. But at this time, the nation of Judah is not just fasting on that one day. There's different opinions by different scholars about how much they were fasting, but they were experiencing affliction. And so in response to that affliction, they were fasting and asking God to deliver them

So they were in this process of ongoing regular fasting and frustrated that it was not working. And God's saying, that's not what I've prescribed. I haven't instructed you to do that. There is one day that I've instructed you to fast, but even that you're not following. Look at this in Leviticus 16, 29. He says, okay, this day you're going to afflict your souls and do no work at all. And then notice what he says after that, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you.

Now back up here in Isaiah 58 to verse three for a moment. It says, why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? And then here God responds. In fact, the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploits all your laborers. What are they doing? They're forcing their laborers to work. The one thing God specifically said, don't do that on this day. When you fast, you're not to do that. You see, the point is they're keeping the outward form

but they're disregarding the word of God. They're not accepting God's word and following it. They're rebelling against it. They were not seeking to honor God or obey him or please him. They were fasting to try to get something from God. They were fasting to try to compensate for the sin that they were involved in. And God says, that's not fasting. No religious ritual can make up for your sin.

The way to deal with sin is confession. Acknowledge your sin to God and then turn from it. That's called repentance. Turn from your sin. Check out verse six. Is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh or your own brethren. God said, isn't this the fast that I've chosen? What is the fast? Loose the bonds of wickedness. In other words, turn from sin. Repentance is not just

letting go of a sinful activity but it's replacing that activity with a godly activity one of the sins that they were dealing with specifically was oppressing their brethren their employees their people and so god highlights for them well here's what you need to do stop oppressing them but that's not it now reach out to them let them go free break those yokes give them freedom don't just suppress them but give them freedom

And not just giving them freedom, but share your bread when they're hungry. Clothe them. Give to them. Don't just take, take, take and oppress from them. That's the oppression that they were doing. And don't just stop doing that. But now turn and give. God says, here's a fast. Share your food. Don't just not eat. Give the food that you would have eaten to those who need it. Share your clothes. Again, turn from sin. Do the direct opposite thing.

of the sin that you're engaged in, and follow the Lord in the way that he's called you to. God is not looking for some religious ritual that he wants you to accomplish. He's looking for you to change. Going back to that Galatians 5 list, if there's things that God's highlighting on that for you, you need to stop. You need to turn from that sin, and it's not just stop that practice, but replace it

with things that God is pleased with, with things that are in line with God's instruction. Stop abusing people. Stop ignoring people. Stop practicing sin, he tells the people of Judah. Now, as Christians, we, again, can find ourselves in a very similar spot as the nation of Judah. And sometimes we get out of balance. And we can, in regards to sin in our lives, live with indifference, not take it that seriously. And we know there's sin there, but it's just...

Well, you know, that's how I am. That's how my mom was too. And so that's why I'm that way too. And yeah, it's just, it's always going to be that way. God says, no, that's not okay. You can't just excuse yourself and just, well, it's my personality. When we were up with my parents this past week, we got to spend a couple nights with them too.

And they're taking their employees through these, you know, personality profiles and tests and stuff to help, you know, reshape whatever the company's doing and such. And so we had some interesting discussions about, you know, this kind of person and that kind of person and, you know, what letter, what category you are, all those kinds of things. And those things are fun and informative. But sometimes, you know, they're just an excuse to live in sin. And that's not okay. God wants us to deal with sin and not just excuse and say, well, this is my personality. So, you know, that's how I'm always going to be.

That may explain why you struggle with what you struggle with, but that does not excuse you to stay that way for the rest of your life. We need to turn from sin and not be indifferent about it. Now, others kind of take it to the other extreme and say, well, there's grace in the Lord, and so I can live it up. I can do what I want because there's grace. Thank you, Jesus. And that's not what God desires either, and he's going to deal with both of those things.

We need to acknowledge our sin and then not just live with it, not just live it up, but to turn from sin. Now, God's not requiring perfection here. He knows better than that. He knows us. We're not going to be perfect. And so I would ask you to think about this like a traffic light. I hope that you've never had an occasion where you come to an intersection and there's a traffic light. The light is red and you say, you know, I stopped at this intersection once before, so I don't need to do it ever again. It doesn't work that way, right?

Every time you go to the intersection and the light's red, you got to stop. That's the way it works. It's the same with sin in our lives. You know, there are some intersections that you encounter every day. And every time the light is red, you have to stop at that intersection, even if you have to stop there every day. And that can be quite frustrating sometimes. With sin in our lives, you know, there are some things that you're going to encounter every day. And that can be frustrating. It can be discouraging. And so some people just give up.

Because I have to deal with that every day. I keep turning from sin. I keep trying to repent, but I keep hitting that intersection every day. There's this idea that repentance means you never deal with that again or you never do that again. Although I appreciate that, it's not that accurate. Repentance doesn't mean that you never do that thing again. Repentance means that you keep turning from it every time it happens.

Every time you encounter the intersection and the light's red, you stop. Every time you enter into that situation, the light's revealed, it shows that there's sin, you turn from that, you acknowledge it, you confess it to the Lord, and you ask him for help to change. And you replace those behaviors with the behaviors that God has commanded and approved. Every time the light goes on and you find yourself in sin, you are expected to turn from it.

To deal with it. Not put up with it. Not excuse it. Not just allow it. Just figure, well, that's how I am. But deal with it. Turn from sin. Take it seriously. And God gives some pretty cool promises, if you will. Verse 8. Then your light shall break forth like the morning. Here the people are saying, we're living in darkness. You've been praying for light. You've been fasting and asking God to work. You haven't seen it happen. But if you will turn from your sin...

He says, Now again,

Not every healing, not every disease, not every situation is a result directly of sin. So repentance doesn't necessarily always result in healing. But you know, there are some occasions where sickness and disease is a result of sin, God dealing with sin and calling us to repentance. And he tells them as a nation, you're sick. You've been praying for healing. If you will turn from your sin, I will heal you speedily. I'll do a work if you turn from sin.

Your righteousness will go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. You're going to be completely covered, protected. You've been vulnerable and attacked by the nation of Assyria, but you'll be protected and cared for if you turn from your sin. Great promises that God gives, but it comes with a cost. There has to be a dealing with sin. Again, let me remind you, five out of the seven churches in Revelation, Jesus tells them, you need to repent.

There are people here today who need to repent. There's people living in sin. God hasn't told me who you are. Otherwise, I would point you out and not spare you. I'm just kidding. Maybe I'm not. But you know, God's speaking to your heart. It's time to stop putting up with those things. It's time to stop running, trying to fake it. It's time to stop and to really turn from sin. Don't live with indifference. Oh, well, that's just how I am. Don't just try to

Take the grace of God for granted and live it up. God's going to deal with that. Don't also live with condemnation, beating yourself up with guilt. Hey, there's forgiveness. It's paid for at the cross. God's not surprised by your sinfulness. And you don't have to pay him back for it. You got to accept the forgiveness that he offers by faith in Jesus Christ. And sometimes like a traffic light, you have to do that every single day. And that's okay.

The important thing is every single day as you encounter that situation, as you encounter that sin, that you call out to God, that you acknowledge that sin, confess it to the Lord, and ask for help to do the opposite. We really can't change on our own, but as we see these things, as these sins come to light, we need to call out to God and ask him to change us. Don't give up. Show your zeal for the Lord and

by seeking to turn from sin over and over and over again. Well, I'll finish it up with point number three. That's in verses nine through 14. Genuinely seek God. And before you have a panic attack, I'm not gonna try to read you every verse or go through every detail of the verses, but just to give you a little bit of a summary. God goes on in these verses to say, look, if you turn from your sin,

There's some great promises I have for you. There's some great things that I have in store for you. If you will genuinely seek me. Verse 9, he says, then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as noonday.

There's a great promise here. There's a lot of great promises here, actually. And God, as he gives these promises, he also gives the conditions. They're not unconditional promises. They're conditional promises. And the condition is repentance. The condition is a genuine turning to God and seeking God and desiring his will, seeking to please him and honor him in your life. And what are these promises? Well, just to highlight a few of them briefly. In verse 9, he says, I will answer when you call. That's a great promise.

You want God to answer the phone when you call to him? Remember at the beginning, they're complaining, we're crying out to God and he's not answering. Why not? God says, you want me to answer? Turn from your sin. And then when you call, I will answer. Again, in the next chapter, he says, your sins have separated you from God. It's not that God's not there. He's right there. But your sins separate you from God. Turn from your sin and God answers when you call. That's a promise.

He says, you shall cry and he shall say, here I am. We always look at Samuel, right? He responded to God, here I am, Lord. Speak, Lord, your servant listens. God says, look, I will say, here I am, when you cry out to me, if you turn from your sin. If you'll deal with it and acknowledge what's really going on there, if you turn from sin. In verse 10, he gives the great promise, your light will shine in the darkness. Your light will shine in the darkness. Sometimes we wonder,

why we're not so effective as witnesses for Jesus. Your light will shine in the darkness. Sometimes we wonder why there's darkness and obscurity and confusion in our lives. Your light will shine in the darkness. He says that your darkness shall be as the noon day. Think about the contrast between midnight and noon. He says your midnight is gonna be like when the sun's fully, no, heat of the day. There's gonna be so much light in your life. Great promise. Your light will shine in the darkness.

In verse 11, he gives a few more great promises. One is the Lord will guide you. God's going to lead you. He's going to guide you continually. He's going to show you ways to go, steps to take, things that need to happen. He also goes on to say that the Lord will satisfy you. That emptiness, that ache, that desire, that yearning within the soul, he will fulfill that. Like Lena was sharing earlier, he will meet that need as you genuinely seek him.

And he goes on to say, the Lord will strengthen your bones. He will strengthen you. We go through a lot of difficult things in life. We need the strength of God. And God says, when you seek me, I will strengthen you and I will give you everything that you need to face the situations that you face. Another promise he gives in verse 12 is restoration. The Lord will restore the things that have been destroyed, the things that have been torn down. They will be repaired. They'll be restored. Those things that have been lost, God says, I can help you recover them.

You think that relationship is too far gone? Hey, you genuinely seek me? Turn from your sin? I can do a work. Restoration and recovery will take place. And then verse 13 and 14, he talks about the Sabbath. Much like fasting, they were approaching the Sabbath in a way that wasn't honoring God, keeping the outward, but not setting it apart as a holy day unto the Lord.

And so God says, if you honor the Sabbath, if you'll do what I've asked you to do, then he gives the promise in verse 14, I'll bless you. There's going to be a great blessing if you will honor the Sabbath. I'll give you the heritage of Jacob, your father. All the blessings that I promised to them, all the things that I gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I'll give them to you, he says to the people of Judah. At this time, they were just a tiny little gathering of people compared to the nation that they once were.

God says, it's not too late. I could still do a great work if you'll genuinely seek me. And the same is true of us. God looks at us and he says, look, if you'll be sincere, if you'll really put me first and desire to know me, to honor me, to represent me, there's great promises that God has for us, great things he desires to do. Do you want God to work in your life in that way? There's an invitation that we give to God

come work in my life. It comes as we acknowledge our sin and stop trying to excuse it or pretend it's not there or blame it on other people. When we come face to face with it and we realize, we declare, we agree with God, this is sin and I need to stop. The invitation for God to work in our life comes as we then go on to turn from sin.

Not perfectly, not without fail, but that we turn, that we replace those behaviors with the behaviors that God has instructed us, that we call out to him for help in turning from our sin, that we confess and receive the forgiveness and the grace that's offered to us through faith in Jesus Christ. If you want to see God work in your life, turn from sin, deal with it ruthlessly, and then genuinely seek God. Really look to honor him. Really seek to please God.

Really look to accomplish God's will for your life. And that is an invitation that God cannot refuse. He will work tremendously and do great things. If you'll acknowledge your sin, turn from your sin, and genuinely seek him. Let's pray. God, I pray for each of our hearts. And Lord, until we're in your presence for eternity, there's going to be issues of sin in our lives. Just like

The traffic lights, Lord, that we hit, whenever they happen in our lives, we need to respond and deal with them in the way that you've called us to. And so I pray for each of us. Lord, the things that you're highlighting that, Lord, perhaps there are those who are engaged in right now, their life, Lord, is devoted to some of these things. Their life is filled with some of these things that you've highlighted today. And God, I pray that you would help them

to not run from you, to not excuse their behavior, but Lord, to acknowledge it, to cry out to you and to turn from sin, Lord, to repent of those things. God, I pray for us as we continue to walk with you. Lord, there will be things that pop up. There will be issues that are revealed in our hearts. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to remember these things and to deal with those things appropriately. And even if it's daily, Lord, that we would run to the cross with the sin of

that is revealed in our hearts, to allow you to forgive us, but Lord, also to pursue a life that honors you. I pray that you would enable us by your spirit to turn from sin and to represent you well, to glorify your name to the world around us. So give us strength, God, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.