Isaiah 1:1-20
December 26, 2021
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“If praise is celebrating God’s awesome glory, then complaint is antipraise.”

~Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

“The great march of mental destruction will go on. Everything will be denied. Everything will become a creed. It is a reasonable position to deny the stones in the street; it will be a religious dogma to assert them. It is a rational thesis that we are all in a dream; it will be a mystical sanity to say that we are all awake. Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer…We shall be of those who have seen and yet have believed.”

~G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

~C.S. Lewis, “God in the Dock”

“Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy.”

~William Tyndale (1494-1536), English scholar and Bible translator

Sermon Passage

Isaiah 1:1-20 (ESV)

¹ The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
³ The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
⁴ Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.
⁵ Why will you still be struck down?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores and raw wounds;
they are not pressed out or bound up
or softened with oil.
⁷ Your country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence
foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
⁸ And the daughter of Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
⁹ If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors
we should have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.
¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹ “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
¹² “When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates; they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
¹⁷ learn to do good; seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”