Life Within the Word (Isaiah 57:17-21)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. 18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners. 19 'I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,' Says the Lord, 'And I will heal him.' 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 'There is no peace,' Says my God, 'for the wicked.' ”
Introduction
Last week, I gave you a sermon about someone who was working really hard and gave all of his earnings to his wife. The wife was saving the money for them. The husband asked how much they saved up and the wife replied that they had no savings. The husband asked where all of the money went and the wife said that she gave the money to her mother because she needed money. The husband had nothing to say to that so one day, he had an opportunity to talk to his mother in law. The mother in law never thanked them for the money so the husband realized that something was strange so he asked his wife again. He realized that his wife wasted all of the money away in gambling so he sent his wife away to the countryside. The idea was to hope his wife would stop gambling. But one week later, she recruited gambling team in the countryside. Why do things like this happen? These problems cannot be solved with your own power and willpower. Why is that? This is because there is darkness working behind that problem. That makes you keep sinning. Then, how can we solve these kinds of problems? The solution to this problem is shown within our Biblical passage. Through today’s sermon may you receive absolute answers.
1. Sin and Choice
(1) The path of your own heart
Verse 17 - It speaks about the reason why the Israelites went into slavery and captivity. The reason why they went into captivity was because of their covetousness. They received God’s wrath because of their covetousness. Where do all of mankind’s problems start from? It starts from greed and covetousness.
Ephesians 2:3 “Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” - We are not following God’s word but we are following after the greed and desires of this world. We should be following the guidance of the Holy Spirit but we are following our own desires and desires of this world. This is the process where we are becoming our own god. That is why God said that He was angry about this and hid His face from us. The fact that God hid His face means that He hid Himself and His grace from His people completely. Since God hid Himself from the Israelites that means that God’s wrath has completely come upon them. Despite all of this, the Israelites continued to live according to their own paths and desires. In order to help the Israelites return back to God and repent, they didn’t change at all but continued down their wicked path. Even though that path leads to death and destruction, the Israelites knew of this and continued down this path.
(2) God's choice
Verse 18 - God saw that the Israelites were heading towards the path of destruction so He knew that the Israelites couldn’t come out of this path on their own so He intervened.
The reason is seen in 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” - Mankind goes through these paths because of evil. Mankind is following the desires of Satan because we were once children of Satan. We cannot come out of the bondage of Satan by ourselves. Just like the woman in the introduction who had fallen into the addiction of gambling. God said that He will save us and pull us out. God said that He will lead and heal us. He also said that He will restore and comfort us. This is astounding. This means that we cannot do it with our own strength so God said that He will help us. What is God’s way? It is by sending us Jesus Christ to show us the way and give us the solution.
Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” - Think about this. Only God can solve the problems of mankind that mankind cannot solve. God was angry and was hiding His face from us. But instead of putting His wrath onto mankind, He placed it onto His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, the wrath that we were supposed to receive from God, Jesus received it on our behalf. Jesus suffered for us. This is the decision that God made. We know that this was fulfilled on the cross when Jesus Christ died for us.
2. Salvation and Creation
(1) The fruit of the lips
Verse 19 - This is a message of grace. We can see great wisdom from this. The word “create” here is the word, “Bara” in Hebrew. God is saying that He will carry on the work of creation. What will God create? He will create the fruit of the lips. Then, what is the fruit of the lips?
The fruit of the lips is spoke in Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” - The fruit of the lips is the praise and sacrifice to God. In the Old Testament, they gave blood sacrifice by sacrificing animals to God. But God did not want animal sacrifices but He wanted the sacrifice of praise. This means that we need to give worship to God. This is the fruit of the lips. When was the time “now” that God was referring to? It was the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross and the work of Jesus was testified. The moment Jesus Christ died on the cross, we can give the praise of sacrifice.
Matthew 16:16 “Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' ” - God said on the rock that He will build His church. On this confession, God will build His church. To build His church means the start of God’s glory and worship. God has reformed worship. God will build a place of worship and praise.
Romans 10:13 “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” - Whoever calls on the name of the Lord can give worship and praise to God.
Acts 2:38, 27-28 “Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' 27-28 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.” - Those who received the blessing of worship, what kind of blessings have we received? Our life has completely changed, we are able to repent before God, and are able to come before God during a time of worship. When we repent before God, then we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We will receive the blessing of recreation. We receive the blessing to give worship to God.
Acts 2:27-28 - We have been freed from the power of the bondage of hell. We have received the blessing of salvation. The moment we receive Jesus Christ as our master and Savior, we are able to enjoy all of these blessings and the blessing of worship. Then, what kind of blessings can we receive from worship?
(2) The Word of the Creator
Verse 19 - God the Creator said this. This means that God can solve any problem. God will solve any problem that comes to us. God promised us peace. Through worship, we receive the blessing of peace. No mankind has promised or said this but the Creator God said and promised us this. We must hold onto this.
John 1:3, 4 “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” - When God created the world, He created it with the word of God. The Word was with God when God created the world. This means that when the world was created, it was created with life. This is interesting. We may ask what I mean by this? How does water and dirt have life? Do you think there is no life in dirt? Everything becomes decomposed into dirt. Isn’t that life itself? When you plant something onto dirt and ground, it grows into something and grows into life. There is life within dirt. Is water dead? When you look at water, so many things come to life within the water. If you don’t drink water, you die. What do I mean? All things that God created, it was created with life. When we look at the moon and the stars, so many people research those things. Why do we research those things and research the dirt within those things? Everything has life. This is because everything was created with the Word of God.
John 6:63 “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” - Hold onto this covenant. God’s word has life and possesses the Spirit of God. Wherever the Word is proclaimed, life is proclaimed.
John 1:4 - This is referring to Jesus Christ. This means that there is life in Jesus Christ. Of course, Jesus is God so He is the Creator. This means that within Jesus, there is light of life. This means that Jesus is inside of us. He is inside of us and shining the light of life and light of creation within us. This light of life, creation, and healing is shining within us. We who were bound by darkness, Jesus is shining the light of life within us. That means when this light is shining, darkness has no choice but to be bound and be broken down. This light has the power of creation and healing. God promised us that He will heal us. When we hold onto God’s word, our problems will all be solved and healed whether that be a problem of addiction. The power of creation is within the word of God. We must hold onto the word of God. The word that God is giving to us today has the power of creation. With the same word, God created the world.
John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” - God said for us to ask Him. You may have doubt but Jesus promised us that it will be done for us. Who gave us this word? The Creator, Jesus Christ. May the work of life be upon your life. I always pray for the power of the Holy Spirit that was within Mark’s Upper Room and the house of Cornelius be upon me and us. I pray this because I know that God has the power and I am powerless. If we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, then the same works will arise. May you be blessed people of God.
3. A Worth For Which You Can Risk Your Life
(1) The path of the wicked
Verses 20-21 - Who are the wicked? Those who reject worship. Those who do not want to give worship. When you don’t participate in worship then you cannot solve your problems at all. No matter how much you use your brain to solve your problems, you will not solve your problems if you don’t participate in worship.
Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” - This is the way of life and how the world works. If you don’t believe, then you will perish and go into destruction. If you do believe, then you will receive life and the life of victory. You will always live a life of fear and chaos if you fail in worship. There are so many people who are suffering from depression and mental illnesses. Even though people are suffering, they are still not coming to worship. There is no peace for the wicked. They cannot receive the power of recreation. Why does God keep telling us this? This is because God is pleading for us to hold onto His covenant. God is pleading for us to experience the answers and blessings from worship and His word.
(2) Enjoy answers first
Status (Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”) - We must enjoy our status first. We are no longer part of darkness or have anything to do with darkness. Our status has completely changed. We have changed into the status as a child of God. We must realize and discover this from worship.
Bartizan (Acts 1:4 “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me.”) - The bartizan that we must enjoy. We need to hold onto the word of God. We need to edit the word that God has given to us. We need to hold onto God’s word, wait, and pray.
Watchmen (Acts 13:1 “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”) - Wherever we go, God has prepared us watchmen for us. In order to save 237 nations and the 5,000 tribes, we must receive the answer of the watchman.
Conclusion
Acts 2:39 “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” - Anyone who receives and holds onto God’s word, you will be blessed by God. Those who hold onto God’s word, God will fulfill His covenant through you.
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