Have you ever asked yourself the question, “How much is enough? How much am I required to do to simply get by as a follower of God?” When I was in college, Lee and I were taking our World Lit. II class together. We had found a professor we liked in the English department who we had taken for World Lit. I, so we decided to take her class again. The only problem was that she was very difficult in grading papers. Thus, during the middle of the first day of class, as we were going over the syllabus, Lee leaned to me and whispered, “I’m just settling in for a B in this class.” I figured, she is a tough grader, it’s not a class in my major, there is nothing wrong with a B, sounds like a good plan. So, we resolved to simply shoot for a B in that particular class.

In another class that I had, the professor would actually contract for grades at the beginning of the class. If you wanted an A, then he would tell you what you had to do. If you wanted a B, then you would simply have to do less work, and so on. Obviously many at the beginning of the semester would just try to figure out what they had to do to get by and would contract for that.

Sometimes, it seems that we want to do the same thing as the people of God. We know it is tough to be real faithful and so we just resolve to settle for a B. Or we simply wish that God would give us a contract on a graded scale. You know, this much righteousness for an A and only this much for a B, and so on. Yet, this is not God’s call to his people in the Bible. God is not interested in half-hearted followers who are just trying to get by. No, God desires that his people would worship and follow him in spirit and in truth, recognizing that by his grace they can indeed be pleasing to their God.

In our text this morning, we see an example of the Israelites just trying to get by in their worshipping and following after God. They just want to do enough to receive God’s blessings, especially over their enemies, and nothing more. Yet, the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that manipulative religious rituals are not what he desires. No, he calls for true worship through reflecting his character and work in daily living. Thus, we want to ask and answer this question from our text this morning: What is Isaiah teaching us about true worship in this text?

First, we learn that sin towards one another in our daily lives denies true worship.
Look at Isaiah’s clear statement of this in 59:1-2. Here, we see clearly that sin separates us from God. It is not that the Lord’s hand is too short or his hearing too dull, no, the problem is the people’s sin. So, what exactly is the sin that Isaiah is addressing in this passage?

Well, it seems that like us, the Israelites were believing lies. Let me identify at least two that it seems they were believing. First, they believed that God delights in and will bless us when we simply go through the motions. Look at 58:1-5 with me again. Israel had the motions down. They knew how to make the religious show look good. They knew the actions to take, the words to say, where to put the sackcloth and where to put the ashes so as to appear humble and contrite. They knew like we know. We are at times the Kings and Queens of religiousity. We know what to say and how to say it and to whom to say it. We know how to convince everyone around us, and even ourselves sometimes, that we are devoted to the Lord.

Yet, the Lord is not fooled by the show. He is not taken in by our play acting. Look at verse 5 again. The Lord knows what is going on. It reminds us of Jesus’ dealings with the Pharisee’s. They knew how to ‘do’ religion. They had developed a whole tradition based on just getting by. Yet, Jesus tells them in Matthew 15:8-9, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Christ was not fooled by the act of the Pharisee’s, just as God was not fooled by the act of Israel in Isaiah. In the same way, he is not fooled by us when we simply try to get by and just go through the motions. We must worship our God in truth, through heart felt obedience in all the areas of our lives.

This leads to the second lie that Israel was seemingly believing, namely that God is not concerned about our treatment of others. Look at 58:6-7 with me. Look also at 59:3-8. The sin that Isaiah is confronting here is one of a social nature. It seems that the people of Israel were simply not concerned with caring for one another. They had no interest in letting the oppressed go free, or feeding the hungry, or acting justly toward one another. They could care less if the homeless were provided for or if there was peace among them. Yet, they still wondered Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?

God has made it clear in his word that we cannot claim to love him and yet have no regard for those around us. Claiming to love God means by definition loving those around us, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ as 1 John makes so clear. Think of it this way, what if I asked for private meeting with you and told you that I wanted to be a faithful preacher of God’s word and I explained to you how I wanted to teach the text and really encourage the people of God with the word of God. And then, just when the meeting was coming to an end, I told you that I never wanted to actually stand before a congregation and deliver a message. How would you respond? You would immediately inform me of my contradiction. You would tell me that being a faithful preacher, by definition, requires that at some point I stand and preach.

Well, the same is true of loving God. By definition it requires that we love the needy, the poor, the oppressed, which can be a difficult task at times, but is nevertheless necessary. What good does it do us to fast when others around us are going hungry? We must look for practical ways to love and provide for the needy, be they brothers and sisters in Christ or not. A couple of great ministries that we support which help us fulfill this task is the Care Center and Birth Choice. These are two ministries which are trying by God’s grace to help those in need, to feed the hungry, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. We must as a Church and as individuals continue to join with them in their labors. We are simply deceiving ourselves if we think that God is not concerned with how we are treating others. True belief and true worship of God involves action. It involves heart felt obedience to the commands of God, including the command to love one another. Only by this can we truly follow hard after our God.

Second, Isaiah is teaching us that God will bless those who worship him by reflecting his character and work.
Look with me at 58:8-9a. Now we must pause even at this point and make clear that Isaiah is not teaching the health and wealth gospel. Isaiah is not saying that if we are good to the poor, then God will do everything that we want him to do for us. Our obedience does not result in a blank check from the Lord. Again, this is using obedience for manipulation and God will not be mocked.

Yet, there are promised blessings for obedience and serious consequences for sin. Pick back up at 58:9b and read with me through verse 12. The Lord makes it clear that he will guide the people of Israel if they are faithful to him. If they will keep his command to care for the hungry and the needy, then he will provide for them. This is a common biblical principle here: as we are faithfully pursuing obedience to the Lord to meet the needs of others, he will provide what is needed. Is this not what the biblical writers have in mind when they exhort us to pray ‘according to the will of God.’ Think of it this way, the end is that the hungry are fed. The source for such feeding is the Lord and his provision. Often the means by which this provision is distributed is through the people of God being obedient to his commands.

In the end, we are simply wrong to expect God’s blessings if our goals are not in line with his. If we want blessings from God for our own selfish means, then there is obviously a problem. Rather, we should delight in using the blessings of the Lord to be good to others. I’ll say it this way, the Lord delights in being good to his children partly because his children delight in being good to others. The Lord blesses us that we might be a blessing to others. This is true worship of our God. God is a God who cares for the needy, how much is our own salvation evidence of such truth. Therefore, as we seek to worship him in truth, we must care for the needy as well. As we do we can trust that the Lord will provide.

Yet, can we really have any hope at actually worshipping God in such truth. I mean hear the confession that Isaiah writes on behalf of the people in 59:9-15a. Could we not join with them? Have we not hoped for justice and found none and looked for salvation but it was far from us? What then is the hope for the people of God that they will ever truly worship their God? Their hope is the zeal of God himself. He will restore justice and righteousness. He, himself will send a Redeemer to Zion. Thus, we see Isaiah’s next lesson.

Third, true worship will be restored at the coming of the Redeemer.
Look at 59:15b-21 with me. Here, Isaiah begins a discussion of this Annointed One who will come to rescue Israel. Even as we have seen in past weeks of the Promised Servant who is to come to bring salvation, here we see that the One to come will bring justice and righteousness and salvation to the people, and not just to Israel, but even to the nations as we will see in weeks to come. The imagery of Isaiah in this passage is clear, it is God himself who will put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. And he will cloak himself with zeal for the salvation of his people and the glory of his name. Again, we see our God as Warrior who will fight to defend his name and his glory among all the nations. And here his fight is not against the Babylonians or the Assyrians or the Canaanites. Rather, his enemy is sin and injustice and he will defeat them, restoring his covenant with his people.

The fulfillment of this promise should be no mystery to us, for we live in the days after the coming of our Lord Jesus. Did he not take up our battle on our behalf? Did he not do war with sin and death and Satan and everything that held us captive? Did he not defend the very righteousness of God and uphold his name and his glory, while at the same time rescuing a people for the Lord who could indeed worship him in Spirit and in truth? Is this not the reality we live in? Our God has kept his promise to Abraham and has blessed the nations through his seed. He has indeed sent a Redeemer to Zion, Jesus of Nazareth, our risen Lord. And the covenant has been restored and even this very morning we are the fruit of such labor.

Yet, we like Israel are still waiting for the ultimate redemption. We too are waiting for a Redeemer to come to Zion. Only we know his name and we have his promise that he will return. And this time there will be no enemies left. He will put an end forever to injustice and unrighteousness and hunger and sin and death. The zeal of the Lord will do this. And no more will helpless children be killed because they are inconvenient. And no more will a helpless women be starved to death while the whole world watches. No, on that day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we as his people will gather around the throne and we will not go through the motions and we will not be distracted by our sin and selfishness and we will enjoy the presence of our God forever.

As we come to the table this morning, may we indeed remember what the zeal of the Lord has accomplished in sending his Son to bear our sins on a tree. May we remember the sacrifice that he made and resolve to love and serve the needy around us even as he has served us. May we not go through the motions, but out of sincere hearts may we proclaim to one another we have heard and we believe and our hope is in the shed blood of Christ. And in light of what we have said this morning, may we indeed look to the return of our Savior with joy and longing and much expectation. Amen.

WORSHIPPING THE LORD IN TRUTH

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