They Have Forsaken the Lord

[Christsfreeservant]

“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.​

The ox knows its owner,​

and the donkey its master's crib,​

but Israel does not know,​

my people do not understand.’​

​

“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.” (Isaiah 1:2-4 ESV)​

The children of Israel were in a unique situation unlike we who believe in Jesus Christ are today. For they were God’s chosen people by physical birth as physical descendants of Abraham and Sarah. But this did not mean that all of them believed in the Lord with genuine faith, and it did not mean that all of them followed the Lord in righteousness and in holy living and in obedience to the Lord and to his commands. And that was evident, too, during the time that they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

Now we are God’s chosen people only by genuine faith in Jesus Christ, a faith which is evidenced by us dying with Christ to sin and us living to God and to his righteousness. But it is possible for a true believer in Christ, at some time in his life, to wander and to need to be brought back into fellowship with the Lord. And we do have many professers of faith in Jesus Christ, too, who give lip service to him only, but who have never died to sin and who have not, thus, been born again to new life in Christ.

So, presently within the gatherings of the church we have those giving lip service only to the Lord but whose lives have never surrendered to Jesus Christ. And we have those whose lives are committed to the Lord to walking in faithfulness to God and in holy living. And we have those who once walked with the Lord in holy living but who have fallen back into sin and who are presently wandering like many did in the wilderness. And then among us are also those who have never made a profession of faith in the Lord.

But the people being spoken of here, in today’s world, are those who have knowledge of God and of his word and of what he expects of us who profess him as Lord and Savior. They are not the spiritually ignorant, but they are the spiritually void of genuine faith and/or of walks of obedient faith in the Lord Jesus in holy living. Many of them are wandering. Some of them make strides towards obedience to the Lord, but in the flesh, and so they always fail. They always come up short because they are not yielded to God.

So these are people like the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, who did not obey the Lord but who went their own way, instead. They know the truth, but they are avoiding having to obey the truth. For they are those who, even though they know the right way, have chosen to go the wrong way, for they are those who desire evil and not God, and not his righteousness and holiness. For they are the sexually immoral, the idolaters, the revelers, the worldly, and the rebellious who go their own way.

But they are also the unsettled, always looking for something that will satisfy the deep longings of their souls, but who are looking for fulfillment and peace and satisfaction in all the wrong places. They know the right way, and they know what they need to do to walk in the ways of the Lord, but they continue to go the wrong way, instead, for that is what their flesh craves. That is what their hearts really desire. And they don’t follow the Lord because they know that means giving up their sins. So they don’t.

“Why will you still be struck down?​

Why will you continue to rebel?​

The whole head is sick,​

and the whole heart faint.​

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.​

​

“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 oppression;​

bring justice to the fatherless,​

plead the widow's cause.” (Isaiah 1:5-6,16-17 ESV)​

Those who know the way of righteousness but who refuse it are miserable people. They are the wanderers in the wilderness who know there is a promised land on the other side, who can see it, and who sometimes make strides that direction, but who ultimately fail because they are still walking in the flesh, still trying the “my do it” approach that never produces anything good. And it is because they don’t want to let go of their pride and their lusts and their sinful practices. But we cannot live in both worlds.

So they are not at peace. They are unsettled in heart and mind. They are the angry, the resentful, the bitter, the unforgiving who hate what they cannot achieve themselves in the flesh. And so they hate those who are walking in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to the Lord. For the truly righteous are an offense to them. For the truly righteous are always a reminder to them of where they should be but are not. And that bitterness comes out in how they may treat those who are walking in faith.

And so the counsel here to these wanderers is to wash themselves, not physically, but spiritually, and not in their own strength and power, but by yielding control of their lives over to the Lord to now submit to his will and purposes and to walk in his ways and in obedience to his commands. But this involves them first dying with Christ to sin so that they can be reborn of his Spirit to new lives in Christ. And then they can walk in his ways in his power by the grace of God in the strength of the Lord.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Hebrews 10:23-31; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Seek the Lord

An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”