LET US PLACE OURSELVES IN GOD’S HAND THIS YEAR!
Rev. Bernt P. Tweit
Epistle Lesson;
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel Lesson;
Mark 11:1-10
Sermon Text;
Isaiah 63:16-64:8
Maybe just a bit of explanation is in order, before we hop into our text for today. That is to understand the climate in which Isaiah is writing these words. Isaiah was writing these words about 700 years before Jesus came. The climate in his day was this. God’s people had been divided into two kingdoms. There was the kingdom of Israel in the north, comprising ten kingdoms. There were two tribes in the south, that of Judah. Isaiah was a prophet to the people of Judah, the people living in and around the area of Jerusalem. While Isaiah was speaking these words to the people of Judah, the nation of Israel had already been carried off into captivity. Isaiah was reminding the people, "That is what is going to happen to you, if you do not listen to the ways of the Lord."
Knowing that, our text really becomes a pleading prayer. Isaiah is coming before God, on behalf of the people, pleading that God would show His mercy and His grace to His people. So, as we look at our text, which is that prayer, there are three things that I want you to take away. We will look at it from the vantage point of Judah, and then we will make application into our lives, at the end. Take these three things away from our text for today.
In this prayer, the people acknowledge that God is almighty. They recognize that He is omnipotent, or that He is all-powerful.
Secondly, God’s people confess their sin.
And, thirdly, through the prophet Isaiah, he urges the people to place themselves into God’s hands.
Let’s look at those three things, in the context of the people of Judah. Again, in Isaiah’s days, the nation of Israel had already been carried off into captivity. And, the people of Judah were being badgered by the nations around them. They were fighting against them and starting to overcome them. And so, the people were pleading with God, "God come to us. Make the mountains tremble. Make the nations around us tremble, just like you did in the past, when you showed your power and your might."
Certainly, they were looking at some of the times in history, in which God had done that, in a supernatural way.
For example, in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded that God would save that area. He pleaded that even if there were five righteous people there, God please save the city. God said He would. We know what happened. God, in a supernatural way, sent burning sulfur down from Heaven, and consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. The mountains trembled, and the nations around Israel trembled.
Or, in the days of Joshua, when the Israelites came to the land that God had promised, they came to a fortified city, the city of Jericho. God, in a supernatural way, knocked the walls of Jericho down. The mountains trembled and the people ran, trembling.
Or, also in the days of Joshua, the heathen nation of the Amorites were giving the Israelites a hard time. God gave the Amorites over into the hands of Israel. At the end of the day, in which the sun stood still, God sent huge hail stones down. Those hail stones killed more Amorites than the Children of Israel had killed. God showed His might and His power. The mountains trembled and the nations around the Israelites trembled.
Certainly, in the days of Elijah, as Elijah put a contest forward to the prophets of Baal. Elijah built an altar, with a sacrifice in wood and stones. He dug a trench and poured water. God sent fire from Heaven that consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the water and the soil. The mountains trembled and the nations around trembled.
Or, in the days of Moses, as God divided the Red Sea. The nation of Israel was saved and the Egyptian army drown in the waters.
The people of Judah were looking back at those examples in history, in which God had come, and showed His might and His power. The mountains trembled and the nations around Judah trembled.
They are asking God to do the same thing here. "God come to us as you have done in the past. Show your might and your power. Show the people around us that you are God."
In the very next sentence of our text, the people of Judah acknowledge who they are. "But we have continued to sin against you."
Now, here Isaiah doesn’t tell us exactly the specific sins of the people of Judah. But he does say what the result is, because of their sin. He tells us four things. He says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean."
The Hebrew word for unclean is the exact same word that lepers were to use. They were to walk around, with torn clothes, unkempt hair, while shouting, "Unclean, unclean."
Leprosy was a very contagious disease. And here, the people of Judah are acknowledging, "We are like lepers. We are like one who is unclean and that ‘leprosy like sin’ is going to infiltrate our whole bodies."
They acknowledge, "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags."
Here the people of Judah had recognized and acknowledged that God demands perfection, but what had they given to God in return? It was not a pure, white, clean, rag, but here, the filthy rags that Isaiah is talking about is pretty grotesque. What they had given to God in return were menstrual rags, filthy, bloody rags.
"Shriveled up like a leaf," a leaf that had fallen off of a tree, only to whither, decay, and die. And their sins swept them away like the wind.
We are reminded of what the psalmist says in Psalm 1,
"Not so the wicked,
they are like chaff that the wind blows away."
But, after confessing that God is almighty, after confessing their sin, the people of Judah, through the prophet Isaiah say there is only one thing left to do. That is to throw themselves into the hands of God, who created them and preserved them. And that is what God did. One hundred and forty years after Isaiah spoke the words of our text, the people of Judah were taken into captivity. But, a remnant returned. And God preserved them. And the line of the Savior was kept in tack through the tribe of Judah, and the Savior would come. God had shown His mercy, and His hope and His grace to His people. And those who believed in the promise of the Messiah were saved.
Well, how does this text apply to us today? How often haven’t we, in our lives, looked at the nation of Israel, or the people of Judah, and said, "How could they have done that? How could they have gone so blatantly against God, His Word?" Even I sometimes look at them and say, "How could they do that?"
Before we point the finger at the Israelites and the people of Judah, we have three fingers pointing back at ourselves, because we are no better than the people of Judah. And, this pleading prayer that Isaiah speaks today is a wonderful prayer that we should also pray before God. Again, three simple things: acknowledging that God is almighty, confessing our sin, and then placing ourselves into God’s hands.
First of all we should recognize that God is almighty – every time we see a baby born, there we see the might and the power of God. As that wonderful baby is born - a miracle - God is showing us His might through that. Every time the sun rises in the morning, there we see the power of God. In the spring of the year, when the leaves come out and the grass grows on the ground, there we see the might and the power of God, who created us and preserves us.
Today, we, just like the people of Judah, come before God, (as we have already done in our service today), we confess our sin. It is we who need to go around shouting, "All of us have become like one who is unclean." Our lives have made us ‘leprous’, with sin. Just as the skin of the people, because of leprosy, fell off, our bodies have become infiltrated with sin. Our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Every time we want to do something good for God, it is tainted with sin. We wither like a leaf. And our sin sweeps us away.
So, what is it that we can do? Just as Isaiah pleaded for the people of Judah, he also pleads for us today.
As we begin a new church year, let us place ourselves, once again, into God’s hands of mercy, and of hope, and of grace.
The very last verse of our text is that Gospel nugget for us to hold on to and to cherish, today. As we confess, "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. (And we say that every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven.’) We are the clay, you are the potter."
Just as God took dust and breathed into it the breath of life, and Adam came to being, and God created Eve out of the rib of Adam, so God has taken clay (that is us) and He has formed us into a very beautiful pot. As God has taken that clay and formed it into a very beautiful pot, He wants to fill it with His Word. Inside of our lives and inside of our bodies, He wants to tell us what it is that we are to do, and what it is that we are not to do. Inside of this pot, He also shares with us what He has done to save us from our sin. He wants that pot to be filled and overflowing, not with just the knowledge of Him, but also a faith and a belief in Him, as our God, and as our Savior.
"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay,
You are the potter.
We are the work of your hand."
And so, again this year, let us place ourselves in God’s hands, as we acknowledge that He is all-powerful, as we confess our sin, and as we acknowledge that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
A couple of years ago, a man was asked to open a new year in the senate, in Kansas. Maybe you have heard the prayer that he used to open that senate meeting. It has been a very famous e-mail that has been sent around in the last couple of years. I won’t read the whole prayer, but as he opened that senate meeting here is what Joe Wright had to say.
"Heavenly Father, we ask your forgiveness. We know what your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good.’ But that is exactly what we have done. And, we confess. We have ridiculed absolute truth of your Word and have called it pluralism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternate life style. We have killed the unborn and called it choice. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and have called it freedom of expression.
"Search us, oh God, know our hearts today, cleanse us from every sin, and set us free in the name of your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
As we do begin a new church year today, let us place ourselves into God’s hands, recognizing that He has taken worthless, sinful, clay and He has made it into a beautiful pot. As we prepare with great anticipation not only for Jesus coming as a baby in Bethlehem, but also as we prepare for Jesus coming as Judge and Ruler, on Judgment Day, we are ready for those wonderful words in which Jesus will say, "Come. You who are blessed by my Father. Receive the inheritance prepared for you, since the creation of the world."
Blessed be to Jesus, our Savior, for coming as a baby, for growing, for living perfectly, for dying, for descending into Hell, making our filthy rags clean, making us who are unclean, clean before the sight of God, our heavenly Father, forgiving us, and granting us eternal life unto salvation!
Amen.
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