Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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A Call to Repentance

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

This is Communion Sunday. So on Communion Sunday, if you remember, we keep the kids in. So no catechism classes today. We think it’s good for them once a month to worship with the entire service as a family. Let’s pray. Father, bless the preaching of your word today. Open up our hearts to hear what you have to say to us. We thank you God for your word. I’m going out the last two nights at the Peter Pan play. I pray Many seeds would have been planted. Thanks for the hard work of the Wilsons and faith notes and many, many, many people, God, that made that happen.

We thank you for anointing it, for being with the young students, God, as they performed, Lord, to your glory. I pray that you would continue to inhabit the praises of your people now as we continue to worship you through your word. We pray this in your name. Turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1, we’re going to read the first few verses here. In Isaiah’s time there was two kingdoms that had existed. If you remember I spoke about a month ago from the prophet Jeremiah and explained that after David and Saul eventually the kingdom broke and split. And there was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. And so Isaiah here is preaching primarily to the southern kingdom, which was the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. While he’s doing this, really in the background is the shadow of the Assyrian army that’s about to conquer the northern kingdom. So really the northern kingdom has had his opportunity to repent and is not repented, and Isaiah is being sent from the Lord to go to the southern kingdom. So that’s where

Isaiah 1

Our backdrop is, starting in verse 1 of chapter 1

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People do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evil, who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Now this book doesn’t waste any time getting to the point here. After the opening verse, the scripture comes right out and says, the Lord is speaking, are you going to hear what he’s about to share with you? Right from the beginning, God wants to know, hey, are we going to have ears to hear what he’s going to speak to us? Well, we hear the word that he’s going to share with us. And I want you to notice something. When God speaks, it says in verse 2, he speaks here, we have this kind of anthropomorphic picture of the heavens and the a earth stopping what they are doing because God is about to speak. It says, Hear, O, heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I mean, that’s powerful, but here’s what we see. We see that Israel is now in a very sad position. The heavens have stopped to listen, the earth has stopped to listen, but the Israelites don’t listen. So even creation knows when God speaks, it needs to listen. But the Israelites, God’s chosen, would not hear the word that had been spoken to them time and time again. You know, I’d hate for it to come to that point in my relationship with the Lord, where I don’t listen to Him. And where people around me, creation is listening and I can’t even hear what the Lord is trying to say to me. things that we have in our life, all the communication toys we have, all the technology we have, iPhone, text messaging, email, Facebook all these ways

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we’re pretty good at staying connected with one another, at least on a surface level. Facebook being the quintessential example of that. But in terms of being connected with the Lord, we’re not doing so great. And all these tools and devices, really, I mean, there’s some great Bible apps I have on my phone. Awesome stuff. There’s some great internet sites you can myself included, what do we end up using using those different modes of communication for? Really for interactionn with one another. Really not so much for building ourselves up in terms of our relationship with the Lord. We get really focused on everything we see vertically. We’re falling short there. Look the Luke 14 for a second. In Luke 14 verse 15 it a Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But Jesus said to him, A man once gave a banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of, oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to, Now these are all good excuses that we’re reading to not go to something. the fact If we don’t want to go to something, usually we can come up with a decent excuse to wiggle wiggle out of going whatever we’ve been to. But these are good excuses. But here’s the thing, these good, excuses they kept them from the great. they were being invited to this great wedding banquet. And all these other excuses, all these other things, those were good things to do. But it kept them from the great. They were distracted. Nothing is worth sacrificing when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. All these excuses that we can come up with, we need to push those aside. We don’t want the good things to keep us from the great things. We don’t want the good stuff to keep us from our relationship with the Lord, from nurturing it with Him, and from walking in fellowship with Him. Look, we’re going to always, we’ll always have excuses made to be able to avoid the Lord, to not spend time with Him, to not get into His presence, to not serve Him. We have a work day coming up next Saturday. I got 15 excuses already lined up right now to come. All right? I’m going to be here. Time and time again, we can come up with excuses to get out of stuff that maybe we don’t want to do. Look, I’ve been reading this book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Life Together. And if you don’t know his story, he was a German theologian that was one of the few voices that refused to be quiet during Hitler’s reign. German theologian and he actually had the opportunity and he visited America at least once and people encouraged him to stay. He could have had this phenomenal ministry in the U.S. as a professor, as a teacher, as a theologian, but he felt called and he knew he was supposed to return to Germany.

And that was a tough road that he took that ended in his. But in this book, because of his decision to go back, he ended up living in some different situations where sometimes the living quarters were very cramped. Sometimes 10, 15, 20 people in these relatively small quarters, and it’s during that time that he writes this book, Life Together. And it’s about Christian fellowship, and serving one another, and loving one another, and really being the body to each other. And it’s easy for us in our me, me, me, me contemporary culture to kind of just seclude ourselves and think it’s really, you know, just about us. Or even, I think sometimes we make the mistake just about me and my family. But we’re really missing the broader picture. Because the word talks about the body of Christ, the body of Christ, and being the hands and feet to one another and ministering to one another. We talked at Change the Globe a couple weeks ago about friendship. In 2nd Timothy, Paul deals with friendship a little bit, and it’s interesting. Well, let’s just look at it just for a second. 2nd Timothy, chapter 2. Well let’s do 2nd Timothy chapter 1. to Timothy, he says, you are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are phyjellis and homogenes. Now think about that.. Every single person, Asia is a pretty big area. Every single person, he says, all who are in Asia turned away from me. Then he goes on, May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onacipharus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me.

Onesiphorus

I want a friend like Onesiphorus.

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And you know, that’s the type of friends that we should be to other people. We should be an Onesiphorus. Guess where, where that’s going to happen in the community. It doesn’t just happen one day a week on Sunday. It’s really hard to get to know people.

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I mean, they have a camaraderie that would not have developed had they not been together for a week. Why is there with each other? They have a common purpose of serving the Lord that brought them together to accomplish a task to see his kingdom forwarded. Well the same thing is true with us if I just take next week, for example, the building. It’s easyan. It1959 It’s easy for us to think about the building, you know, whatever. This is God’s house. And sometimes I think we can end up spending more time on our own house than God’s house. That’s to our shame and discredit. This is a reflection when people walk in, they see a statement of what we believe about Christ, what we believe about his church. What’s the statement that they see? So it’s an opportunity when we’re here. If you’ve been to a work day before, you know what I’m talking about. I mean, you have a good time. hanging out, you’re fellowshiping. Yeah, you’re working hard and you’re doing things, but you’re goofing off too and enjoying the camaraderie, the fellowship with one another as you’re working on something for the Lord. And you will, if you don’t have that onusiferous in your life, these are the opportunities where those friendships have opportunity to develop, to grow, to be nurtured. Think of the people that you’re close to. The reason those relationships began have been nurtured is because you continue to spend time with those people. We need one

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in his friendship with Onesiphorus. If this guy, you know, think about that, the Apostle Paul writes all these books in the New Testament, there was a man who was able to minister to the Apostle Paul. Each one of us can have a ministry of encouragement with someone someone else, at least one other person. You can have an impact. We can be ministering to one another. That’s what the Lord wants to see us do.

Empty Religion

Well back to Isaiah. Why was I saying all that? Because we have distractions. And Israel here had stopped listening to the Lord. Look at verse 4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildo, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. I mean, Israel is is

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And the ox gets it, the donkey gets it, but Israel The people of Israel had not kept close to the Lord.

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they are going through the required sacrifices. He says they

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the letter of the law. Verse 14, Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. They’re continuing to follow through on the feasts that they’re required to keep. Verse 15, When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. They’re even praying or having a form of prayer. Externally, anyone else that was looking at them would think that they are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. But they’re missing a vital piece. Their heart wasn’t in it. Their heart was not in it. They just did it because they had to, not because they wanted to. They did it as a ritual, not in reverence. And they did it as part of the routine, not out of a heartfelt desire. It was merely external. And here’s the thing, it’s easy for us to fall into a ritual or a routine. Have you ever been driving in your car and all of a sudden it’s like the light bulb goes on and you’re like, how did I get here? And you’re like five miles down the road. That’s kind a weird. Why? Because you’ve driven that route so many times before that it’s just routine and you don’t even think about it. Or how about when there’s that one time where you’re actually Okay, so you normally drive to church, you normally drive to work, but this time you’re actually supposed to, on the way, you’re supposed to stop at Shop and Save and pick something up. I don’t know how many times, if I’m supposed to deviate from my route that I travel a thousand times, I end up forgetting it, and then all of a sudden I pass it, and I’ve got to stop, and I’ve got to turn around and do that little side route that I was supposed to do. Why? Because I’m so used to the routine. We just go through the motion sometimes. That’s what had happened to Israel. It had turned into ritualism. It had turned into just going through the motions. And they had lost what God required at the very heart of it, which was their heart. So where does this leave us? One word repentance. What are you guys doing with repentance? This was a part of a church just for a brief while when I first got saved. vital to the believers life. How you can read the word and come away with that, I’m not sure. But I think we’re seeing that as the flavor that Christianity is getting. It’s kind of the easy believism. It’s kind of, you know, if you believe, you know, no change necessary. We’re removing repentance from our churches and that’s a sad place to be. We’re going to end up just like the Israelites in Isaiah 1, if we’re not, not careful. Repentance. So what does God do? Does he write him off? Does he destroy him? No. He calls Israel back to him. He calls him to repent. Look at verse 16. He says, and

A Call to Repent

See, repentance can be challenging because it’s easy for us to think sometimes if we’re going through external motions that we’ve repented of something. So a lot of times our concern with repentance is maybe we’ve just made an intellectual assent to our repentance. And then no action follows. But you can also do the other thing, where you go through the external motions of something, but there’s not been an inward change in the heart. Both are not true repentance. Now here we see about nine different ways that the Lord spells out that they can show their repentance. back in verse 16 we read some of them wash yourselves make yourselves clean remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes cease to do evil learn to do good seek justice correct depression bring justice to the father the fatherless plead the widow’s cause so we’re talking about repentance you have to have action but it has to be felt followed and have their true heart essence to it a true belief of it, a true following out with it. There’s a promise that comes with repentance. Look what the Lord promises in verse 18. He says, come now let us reason. Let us reason together, together says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, t they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they they shall become like wool. Let me say something. That always gives his people a chance to repent before he brings judgment. He always gives his people a chance to repent before he brings judgment. he does that not just for his church, but he does it for the nations. Look at Genesis 15 In Genesis 15 verse 13 he says, But then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in the land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. All right, so the Lord says he’s going to bring judgment. He’s actually forewarning of it now. He’s going to bring judgment. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back-back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. What does that mean? The Lord was being patient with the Amorites. He was long suffering. All right, every second minute day, hour, month, year that the Lord does not bring judgment is an act of mercy. Every time he does that, he is long suffering. He is patient. He is hoping for repentance to occur. Think of Jonah with Nineveh. Did the Lord have to send Jonah? No. Whenever you talk about judgment, there’s always mercy involved when you read the Bible. It’s an act of mercy to send Jonah to the Ninevites to warn them. Did they truly repent? Yes. of the Book of Obadiah, a short book, but a book nonetheless, the entire book is devoted to one nation, Edom. It’s not even addressed to the Israelites, it’s addressed to Edom. And again, it’s warning them of their impending judgment. But it’s an act of mercy. To warn someone about something gives opportunity for change to occur. God always gives people a chance to repent. Look at 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3 verse 9, it says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.

He’s not slow to fulfill his promise. Look, some of you, this is more of a side note, but the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise. Look, some of you guys might be going through some tough times, cling to the Lord’s promise here. Whatever discour discouragement you’re whatever you’re dealing with, he is not slow to fulfill his promise. He is faithful to you. He will follow through. He has you. He is holding you. He has you. He’s got you. He’s going to fulfill his promise. Cling to that. His promise will be accomplished. He will hold true. Second Corinthians 1. You don’t have to turn there, but one of my favorite verses it says all the promises of God God are yes in Christ Jesus. Every single promise you can read from Genesis to Revelation, every single promise, God keeps saying yes. Either I have done it, I am doing it, or he will hold faithful to his promises. So the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, some consulonus, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. repentance. I mean, that’s how God is with us. I mean, He longs for us to repent in turn, and He puts off judgment as long as possible. He puts off discipline for the children as long as possible. He wants us to repent of the sin we’ve willingly committed and expressed no remorse for. He wants us to repent of our apathy. He wants us to repent of the fact that. We haven’t repented. When was the last time we got into our prayer closets and spent some true time and repentance prayed through one of the psalms of repentance. It’s probably been a while for some of you. So he longs for us to repent. 2 Peter 3.10 he goes on,, The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with the roar, and heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. We need to be careful, because sometimes we can take advantage of God’s patience, and we can say, tomorrow I’ll take care of that, or tomorrow I’ll get right in that area. The first part is the Lord, the Lord’s patience, the second is the second is guess what? the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. His judgment will come swiftly to you because you’ve taken advantage of his grace. the Lord upholds too, if we follow through with what he’s asked us to do. He says, come let us reason in verse 18, though your sins are like scarlet

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the one that touches us. He is the one that picks us up. He is gracious to us and pours out His grace and mercy and love upon us so that in the midst of our struggle, when we turn to Him, we are renewed. We can’t cleanse ourselves. He cleanses us. How does that occur?

Why is that possible? Because of the blood of Jesus. It’s through His blood that we can Here’s the promise right here in Isaiah. Hundreds of years before Christ was ever born. We see those promises throughout the Old Testament of hope and forgiveness and cleansing through Christ.

Come, Let Us Reason

Well, what about you? Where are you at with the Lord? Do you know your master? Do you know your master’s manger, as Isaiah refers to it? Are you in communion with him? Because that’s what our call is, to walk in newness of life with him. You know the great thing about the Lord? Well, there’s many great things about the Lord. He loves each one of us. And he longs for us to repent. And repentance that, repentance is for the unbeliever. So if you’re here and you don’t know the Lord, or maybe you’re not sure you know the Lord, then God’s command is for you to repent and to turn from your sins, to renounce the evil and turn away from it, to choose the good. Two paths for you to choose. You have to choose. But there’s also the call for repentance for us, because we can easily fall into the pattern of the Israelites. And so we come on Sundays and we just sing the words. And we lift our hands because that’s what we know we’re supposed to do. We listen intently to the word because we know that’s the right thing. But there’s an absence of heart. How do you break out of that? Well, sometimes we just need to repent to the fact that we haven’t repented. And we need to get before the Lord. And if you don’t feel it’s real, then you get there until you know it’s real. Going through motions is empty. It is an empty thing. It is not fulfilling. It is not what the Lord desires for us whatsoever. He doesn’t just want us trudging along. The Christian life is not about trudging along and just doing the routine over and over again. It’s an exciting thing. It’s the thing where you see people get saved, where the Lord’s doing stuff. Are there challenging days? And are there tough days? days where you just want to give up? Absolutely. But it’s back to the promises. It’s back to the promises that Christ has given us. Those are the promises that we can hold on to. Those are the things that we can take hope in. If we’re discouraged, if we have a heart of stone, God can change that. You have to let him be willing to touch your heart. You have to be willing to get on your face before him. But it’s not like God says, oh he wants to repent, or he He wants to change or he wants to walk with me. I’m not going to do that. That’s silly. But he wants you to be broken. Matthew 5 says it, blessed are the poor in spirit. Why? What are they going to see? The kingdom of heaven. They’re going to see the kingdom of heaven. The offer is to each one of us of the gospel or all called to respond and each one of us does respond. In fact, each one of us has responded already in some form or fashion and some of you You have said no. My exhortation to you is to say yes. To say yes to Jesus. Others of you have been in some apathy. It’s time to get that right. It’s time to get before the Lord with a contrite spirit. To be poor in spirit as Jesus calls it. To walk humbly before the Lord. Because the promise to the Israelites is the promise to us. He will cleanse us. He will wash us white as new. one of us, if we but come to Him.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Lord, give us a heart of repentance. There are people here that are cold, in heart God. There’s people here that don’t believe in you, touch their heart. Lord, convict us of our sin. Lord, let us fall before you in humility. fall before you in humility. Forgive us God for our apathy. For send your spirit afresh now to renew each one of us for those that need to repent that they would do so. Wash us spirit, wash us. We need to be washed. Father we thank you for your patience. That you wait and you wait and you wait. Grant us a spirit of repentance To walk humbly before you. Amen.