The sermon titled 'A Remnant in a Sinful Nation' by Scott Brown focuses on Isaiah 1 and explores the state of the nation during Isaiah's time, emphasizing the consequences of rebellion and sin. The speaker describes the remnant as a small group preserved by the Lord in the midst of a sinful nation. The sermon also discusses the characteristics of a collapsing culture and highlights the importance of the family in preserving the gospel.

Take out your copies of the Word of God and turn to Isaiah 1 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken, and I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, the donkiest master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. Alas sinful nation, O people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord and they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward And why should you be stricken again?

You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed up or bound up or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, overthrown by strangers.

So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for this text. Thank you for using Isaiah to speak your word.

We ask that you would use Mr. Brown today to do the same to help us understand this text further to convict our hearts and our souls and bring us to understand You more. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. In our text today Isaiah 1, 1-9, There are many things that we ought to zero our focus in on. First of all, you have a man with a message in verse 1.

And second of all, you have a God who's witnessing everything that's going on in the world. And third, in verses 3 through 7, you get a picture of what happens when you have a sinful, unresponsive, wounded people. And then finally in verses 8 and 9 you find what happens when there's a remnant existing next to those who have been judged. This passage of scripture seems to remind me so much of our times that we live in today. It's pretty hard to find a real Christian in the world today that's not really concerned with what's going on in our culture.

I can consume the entire span of time in this sermon just going over really, really disturbing cultural indicators. We see them in the news every week. We live in a nation that most people believe is under judgment. We live in a nation that's like this nation that is described here. And so our text shows us what happens when you have wounds, when you have a remnant in the midst of a very wounded people.

When you have people who've been bruised, they've been wounded, they've been cut up. People talk about this terrible trend among young girls today of cutting. But the truth is, when you turn away from God, you're cutting yourself, you're wounding yourself in different ways. It's just not relegated to the depressed teenager. This whole reality of the sinfulness of sin and the things that happen to an individual and what happens to a nation, a nation under judgment.

This passage of scripture is brought to us, I'm sure, for many different reasons. One of those reasons I want to suggest is that it's brought to us at this time to help us to understand how to live in the midst of a nation that is under judgment. How do you think about what's happening around you? How do you diagnose? How do you make observations and conclusions about what's happening?

And how do you see yourself? How do you look at yourself in the midst of a society that's like this one that's spoken of in Isaiah? And this question, are we a self-conscious people in a time of spiritual declension. Do we know who we are? Do we know how we ought to look at the cultural indicators?

How should we feel? How should we respond? How should we then live, as Francis Schaeffer said so many years ago? And that's what we have before us. And if you have an outline in front of you, I titled this message, A Remnant in a Sinful Nation.

And this passage of Scripture exists in a larger context. The first 12 verses in Isaiah speak of God's judgment against Judah and the whole diagnosis of what's going on in His place of dwelling. It's really interesting. In chapters 1 through 5, except for verse 1, where there are names of kings, all those chapters don't give you any dates, no names, no real historical markers. They just give characteristics, symptoms, issues that are existing in that nation.

Then from chapters 6 through 12, our historical markers and world powers are mentioned. In these first eight verses, You see a disclosure of the apostasy and I've broken this up into four different sections First of all the vision is cast in verse 1 secondly the witnesses are called verse 2 Thirdly the accusations are leveled in verses 3 & 4 and there are many and then number 4 the illustrations of what's going on are given. So that's the basic outline. Next week, we'll deal with the false worship that was one of the great drivers of the destruction. What you find in the Old Testament is that God destroys people because of false worship, because they do their own thing in worship.

And so, this is sort of the large picture, but all of these things are written for a purpose. 1 Corinthians 10 says that these things were written for an example. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted and do not become idolaters as were some of them. This whole disclosure that we're given here in this modern age, written by a prophet of an age of old, is given to us for an example. The things that were happening in the days of Isaiah, We should ask, are they happening here?

The things that Isaiah said, we should ask, should we say them here? The things that he recommended the people do, should we do them here? These are the questions that I think are critical as we enter into this study of Isaiah. So let's begin with the vision, the vision cast in verse 1. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz.

Now, notice it's not visions, plural. It's vision in the singular. Isaiah here is summarizing his experience in an anthology. He's brought together a collection of things that he's written throughout this span of his prophesying. It's a collection of writings compiled and then summarized in this vision.

So, you should see the book of Isaiah, the prophecy, as a vision. It's one whole brought together with many pieces assembled in an anthology in a prophecy that spans at least the direct historical matters, at least a hundred years, and of course it goes far, far beyond that. So it was a vision, singular, of Isaiah. Secondly, it was a vision of salvation. Isaiah's very name really tells you what this book is all about and that its name signifies salvation.

It means salvation is of the Lord. And Isaiah's name and even the names of his children provide really the primary outline and message of the whole book. It's interesting that his name and his children's names would actually give the heart of the message that's being given. The third thing is that this was not a vision of personal insight. This was not Isaiah's brilliance, though Isaiah was absolutely a brilliant man.

But it was divine insight. The word vision that's used here in verse 1 does not include any thoughts of Isaiah's personal insight, but rather it's the insight of God delivered through the mouth of a prophet. It's not human wisdom, it's not human opinion, but it's God speaking to a troubled world and He's speaking through this man who is named Isaiah. He speaks as one from the outside looking in. This is one of the most important things that ever happens in the world, is when you get a voice from heaven.

You're confused. You have tumultuous feelings. You have confused thoughts. You're not sure who you are, where you're going. But a voice from the outside comes and God speaks to you from outside of your own confusion.

This is what this prophecy is all about. You can bet that the people in the days of Isaiah were wondering what was going on. They were in a period of prosperity, But there were also dark clouds on the horizon. How were they to understand these things? They heard the rumblings of the nations.

What were they going to do with these things? Well, here what they are receiving is an external testimony of what is going to happen to them and is really in process. I also want to point out that he saw the vision. The word saw or hazah in Hebrew means, of course, to see. And it's sometimes used as a physical sight, but here it's used of divine insight.

And this term, saw, occurs 35 times in the prophet Isaiah. And it's an important word because it speaks of really the heart of the matter, and really our greatest need, and that is that God sees beyond appearances Judah and Jerusalem were in a state of prosperity they judged their souls To be right, but they weren't right at all But God sees he sees inside He looks behind the facades of the nations and the individuals. This is one of the most helpful things that ever happens to a person, is when the eyes of God fall upon the soul, And God says, do you see that there? And they see it, maybe for the first time. Maybe their family members have seen it and their friends have seen it, but God sees.

He sees into the heart, and he reveals what is really there. So this is Isaiah. He sees, and he's painting a picture of what he's seeing. Prophets paint pictures, and this is a picture of a nation in rebellion. It's a picture of what happens to nations when they are in rebellion.

And in this scene, God disrupts, because what does Isaiah see? Well, he sees a vision but in chapter 2 it says that That he saw a word He was seeing a word This is what he saw the words of God himself And the word of God is always disruptive. It always crashes into your life. It always shows you who you really are. It always tells you what you ought to do.

This is the value of it. You're delivered. You're saved from your own ways, your own ways of thinking, your own life. He snatches you out of these waters that are taking you over to the falls where you'll be dashed on the rocks. He snatches you out.

He says don't live that way. I'm taking you in another direction. I'm putting you on the narrow road. I'm taking you off the broad road. I'm taking you out of darkness.

I'm putting you into light. And this is what this vision is. It is he saw a word, a word from heaven. And this is always the place where blessing begins in a person's life. It's when they see the word of God, a vision from God, and the interruption, the disruption that God brings about as a result of bringing His Word to His people.

And so in this vision, in this seeing, what you find primarily is a picture of the results of sin. That's the primary focus of the prophecy. There are prophetic, futuristic elements of it, for sure. But the heart of the matter, from the heart of the prophet, is judge your heart. Is it right with God?

And if you do not, recognize that there are always consequences to missing the point, rejecting the word of prophecy, and living thinking your own way. And so what we find here is that the people in Isaiah's day did not really have a right view of themselves. They were self-congratulatory. This is really the issue that we all face when we live in the midst of a collapsing culture. We are living in a collapsing culture.

And I just want us to recognize the reality of all those that live in the midst of collapsing cultures. And that is that the first thing that you see in a collapsing culture are sinful people congratulating themselves and promoting a wrong and an unrealistic picture. Because modern man believes that he's just fine. Sort of. I mean, he knows that he needs to improve himself.

He knows that he needs to get a better life than he has now. And he longs for it. Modern man is on a self-improvement track. And he wants to change his self-talk. He wants to become the brilliant person he was intended to be.

But God actually says something different to modern man. He says, no, your greatest problem is your sin. And that's what the message here of Isaiah. Another thing I'd like to point out here is that it was a vision delivered in Judah and Jerusalem, to Judah and Jerusalem. And We have no record of Isaiah Ministering outside of this geographic footprint and this is very common With prophets of God those who God calls.

There's a focused calling and this is why You we find Peter who was primarily the apostle to the Jews. The apostle Paul was primarily the apostle to the Gentiles. And Isaiah was a prophet that kept his ministry primarily within the confines of Judah. And this is how God has arranged life in the world, where there would be a focus of life. He does this in so many areas.

He gives you a family, and you have a focus on your family and he gives you a local church and he centers your your focus on your local church he gives people different kinds of ministries and Isaiah's ministry was was highly focused in Judah and Jerusalem. And then also the time of this prophecy is identified in verse 1. He saw it concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So his ministry stands for kings, beginning with Uzziah. His ministry starts when he's 20 years old, when Uzziah died.

And then his ministry progressed into the 16 years of Jotham's reign, and then the 16 years of Ahaz's reign, and the 29 years of Hezekiah's reign. These kings reigned during this footprint of time. And imagine young Isaiah at age 20, beginning 16 years, making observations, speaking to King Jotham. And then he's 37 years old, and he begins the new reign of Ahaz. And then he continues on till the death of Ahaz, and then through Hezekiah.

So these reigns were the time frame that this prophecy is spanning. And his ministry most likely concluded as the Babylonian captivity began. So all these years, king after king after king, he continued to say the same thing and then finally the captivity came most likely he was a witness to it now during the periods of of these kings you see a cycle that happens. And I just want to repeat the cycle to us here before because one of the things I really want us to continually focus on in this first section of Isaiah are these matters of how you think about the times in which you live. And what you see in the history of Israel are these cycles.

They're cycles of prosperity. And the Prosperity always springs from holiness. It arises out of a revival of times of repentance. And prosperity happens as a result of that. Well, God promises that.

And then there's ingratitude springs its ugly head after times of prosperity. And then there is destruction by the ungodly that springs out of the ingratitude. And then there's the restoration that springs out of the ashes of destruction. This is the cycle that you see among the people of God and what you have to ask yourself Where are we in the cycle? Are we in a time of prosperity?

Are we in a time of ingratitude? Are we in a time of destruction? Are we in a time of restoration? I'm sure most of us have thoughts about where we sit in the cycle of revival that God has for His people. But there are times when, as the commentators Kyle and Dalitch have said, the divine methods of education are exhausted.

And all that now remains for Jehovah to do is to let the nation and its existing state be dissolved in fire and to create a new one from the remnant of gold that stood the fiery test. At this time, so pregnant with storms, the prophets were more active than any other period This is a picture of this time The glory days were going to come to an end and soon the abundance was about to be Swept away and what we need to recognize is that we are either living before a time of crisis in the middle of a time in crisis or after the crisis is finished we're leaving living in one of those times and Sometimes you kind of wonder if they overlap in different ways. But the people in Isaiah's time were in a time of prosperity before a time of crisis. It was a calm before the storm. Things looked so good on the outside.

Now, every generation has this challenge. Do they understand the cycle in which they exist? Do they understand the times? Do they know who they really are? Have they examined themselves according to scripture, or are they just comparing themselves with themselves?

Because a great deception comes over a nation when they compare themselves by themselves instead of comparing themselves with the Word of God and Isaiah speaks to put an end to that deception in the nation of Israel so that's the vision cast in verse 1 Next the witnesses are called in verse 2 Hear O heavens and give ear O earth This is a direct quote from Deuteronomy 32 in the song of Moses where Moses is Prophesying in this song that this very thing will take place Isaiah is dependent upon Moses in Deuteronomy. Isaiah is saying this is that which was spoken through the prophet Moses and Moses was a prophet in Deuteronomy chapter 32. We've read it this morning already. I won't review it again But this is a summons before a tribunal This is a moment of judgment and it's a picture of final judgment You find judgments taking place throughout the Bible and all of them cast forth a vision to the final judgment. They all contain elements of that judgment.

You get it when Cain was driven away, you get it in the days of Noah, you get it in the scattering of the nations, you get these pictures of judgment. The Song of Moses is one of those that gives you an element of final judgment because God is so kind. He gives progressive help. He shows you what it looks like in this way and then that way. He shows you dozens of ways of what it looks like God doesn't just come and chop his people off He warns them he sends them many prophets as the Bible says rising early many prophets God gives us so many warnings and that's what we find here So there the witnesses are called and the witnesses are hit the heavens and the earth it might sound strange The head how are the heavens witnessing?

To this apostasy or what about the earth the earth is just dirt. This is just used atoms This is a materialistic environment that we live in. It's just dirt. It's just a moon. No, it's not just that.

And I don't know how to explain it to you, but somehow, the heavens and the earth are witnesses to this. Jesus said, you know, the rocks will cry out. Now, what did that mean? It means something. We do know that there are songs in the heavens.

I don't know exactly what that means We do know that the heavens declare the glory of God We do know that God speaks from heaven There's this idea that that all of creation is witnessing these things. The whole creation groans, by the way, as well. So we shouldn't think wrongly of creation. Creation is not God, but creation is a witness to the things that happen under the rule and reign of God. And so Moses prophesied that this will take place in chapter 31 verse 29 where he says, For I know after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you.

And then he says, and then evil will befall you in a latter day. So This is a scene before a courtroom and and who are the witnesses the heavens and the earth and the Father and the Son And the Holy Spirit are all witnesses to everything that takes place in the earth No one ever does anything in secret. Nothing ever You never did a single thing in secret. We have this term called secret sins, but we know what that means. It means that they might have been secret from another human being, but they were never secret from the heavens, never secret from the Earth.

They were part of the whole groaning of the creation. They were witness from heaven, every single part of it. No one can escape. No one can get behind a wall, away from the vision of God. And EJ Young said this about this whole problem of trying to figure out how it is that these inanimate objects, the heavens and the earth, somehow witness.

He says this, if the insensate planets can be appealed to as witnesses of the sinfulness of men, how great is that sinfulness. It may also be that the unfeeling elements are thus indirectly regarded as more faithful than Israel. So the witnesses are called and the Lord is speaking as in a courtroom and Then the accusations are leveled and there are many And I've itemized them there in your outlines the first is That they are cared for but rebellious he says I have nourished and brought up children. Here's a picture of a father who's nourishing and bringing up children. This should make you think of Ephesians 6, 1 through 4, where fathers are commanded to bring their children up in the nourishment and admonition of the Lord.

It's the same idea. This is what fathers do. They desire to bring their children up and care for them and feed them and clothe them and give them wondrous experiences in the world. This is what fathers do. And this is what this father had done for Israel.

He put them in a garden, in a vineyard, and it was so well appointed. And he gave them everything they needed for life and godliness in that vineyard, in that garden. And he says, I have nourished and brought up children. This is just the whole matter of the fatherhood of God and His love toward His children. He says, I am the Lord your God.

I am your Father. And as a father, he adopts children. He brings children up through his kindness and nourishing. And this is the prototype for all fatherhood. But the question is, when we see this kind of rebellion, Do we know how to understand our times and live in times of apostasy when we see a people who are cared for but rebellious, the people who have been fed every day of their lives, who have been surrounded by goodness, but yet they're rebellious even though they have been cared for from heaven, from before they were actually born into the world.

It says, and they have rebelled against me. The word rebelled brings images of armed resistance to an established government. It pictures a breaking away like a disloyal son, or maybe even a criminal. And they've cast aside a loving father and run in a completely different direction. And so this is a story of a people in rebellion Number two Ignorance and unthankful verse three the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib But Israel does not know my people do not Consider and here one of the most remarkable facts of this text is God is using animals and comparing the animals to mankind.

He's using an ox and a donkey, and he's saying, that's you. How's that? Not all that flattering, really. Because he picks, actually, some of the dumbest creatures. And he says, you're dumber than an ox.

He is speaking of this dullness, this ignorance, that even exceeds the ignorance of an ox or a donkey. It's interesting. In the beginning, man seems to be smarter than the animals, and he names the animals. And now, in this spiritual state, he's dumber than the animals. And these two animals are named.

These are both work animals. I think that's significant. And the main idea is this. Are you ready for the main idea? I've carefully written this main idea.

In times when people are inflamed with idolatry, the animals have more insight about their masters than people. When people are inflamed with idolatry, the animals have more insight about their masters than people. Idolatry makes you dumb. Idolatry destroys your senses and it makes you stupid. And the idea here is that, you know, donkeys are smart enough to go to the feeding trough of their masters.

But Israel isn't smart enough to understand who feeds them and where to get real food. Where do you get bread of life? Where do you get the waters of life? An idolatrous people doesn't even know what life looks like. And they're dumber than an ox and dumber than a donkey.

You know, in the Bible there are many illustrations of animals being compared with people. In Isaiah, not too far away here from us, we'll read, all you like sheep have gone astray. In the book of Proverbs, we read, go to the ant, you sluggard. In Hosea, we read, for Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf Ephraim has joined to idols. This is a reality of idolatry, is that it makes you dull and it actually makes you so stupid that you don't even know where the true food exists.

You don't know how to make yourself, your soul happy. You don't know how to satisfy yourself with good things. Because God is a satisfier with good things. He has His river of delights. In His presence are pleasures forevermore.

And when you let idolatry run, you become dumber than an ox. There's no careful contemplation. He says, my people do not consider. They just keep doing the same things without seeing the troubles that their disobedience has brought them. They just do not consider.

And then next, sinful. These are people who are sinful. It's interesting. In the coming list here, there are four nouns and there are four adjectives. The nouns are nation, people, brood, and children.

The adjectives are sinful, laden with iniquity, evil doers, corrupters. So there's this juxtaposition of nouns and adjectives. But the first is sinful. Alas, sinful nation. This is a cry of an anguished father toward a child.

That's really the heartbeat of this word that is being used. And sinful has to do with missing something, missing the target. God had intended them to be a holy nation. And now They are a sinful nation. Their awareness of sin is so dull.

And their society has just become a society, an entire nation of sinfulness. And you're surrounded with people who've lost their way, and you're in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. This is a reality for those who are in a time of apostasy, is that the whole nation thinks a certain way. And it's all wrong. Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever felt that when you read the Bible and you compare it with what the people in? Your culture saying you're saying no one believes this no one does because you're living in a sinful nation and What the people of God have got to reconcile themselves to is that when they're in a time of apostasy, they will find themselves saying this, how come no one believes this anymore? That's what you're going to say. And you're going to catch yourself saying it all the time. And you're going to open up your newspaper, and you're going to read what's going on in your nation.

And you're going to hear what your leaders are saying, and you're going to say, everyone believes what he just said. And you'll say, everyone in the media believes what he just said. But God says it's not true. So when you're living in a time of collapse, recognize that you will be living in a sinful nation that the entire populace will have become a wicked and corrupt generation, a perverse generation. And that's why it is that you stick out and you look odd, that you are shining like lights in the midst of this kind of generation.

When you are in a state of apostasy, you will find yourself saying, everyone believes that, and it's not true, because you are in the midst of a sinful nation. And it's a people weighed down, a people weighed down with iniquity, laden with iniquity. This has to do with the effects of sin weighing you down. And you know, how is it that sin does weigh you down? It weighs you down in so many ways.

Sin weighs you down. It slows you up. It's a weight. And it will eventually take you down. This is why the Lord Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Weighed down by your own ways, replacing those ways with the Lord and then getting rest in your weariness. But people are weighed down by iniquity. I am so aware of this. Every time I go into a hotel room and I'm getting ready to speak on the next morning. And I see that television set staring at me.

Every single time there's one single thought that comes down and that is, how much will I be weighed down if I turn that thing on? How much will be destroyed? How much will be lost tomorrow? How much will be driven out of my soul as a result of this? Because you are weighed down by iniquity.

The cost of iniquity is that it weighs you down. And it steals from you the glory, the beauty, the happiness, the effectiveness of your life. It steals every good thing from you. But you have to recognize what sin does. It weighs you down.

And when you're living in the midst of a time of collapse, you have to understand your times. And you have to understand what's happening around you and the people who are weighed down by iniquity. There's so many things that that are upon our culture today that are just direct results of people being weighed down. They're slowed down, they're burdened, they're not free, they don't have the fleet of foot that they could have. They're not having the effect and attraction that they could have if they hadn't drunk so deeply of sin.

Next, replicators of evil. A brood of evildoers. This has to do with giving birth to evildoers. The word is also translated as seed. Brood and seed are very similar in their meaning.

And it most likely means that the entire present generation, the entire offspring, the descendants, the seed of those who have been born from families. They are offspring of evil doers. This is the replication of evil. This is why it's so important that you finally somehow establish a holy family, a family set apart for God, That you say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then you replicate that.

Somewhere along the line, a family has to stop and say, we're not going to live that way anymore. We're going to be a holy family, and we're going to replicate holiness instead of becoming a brood of evildoers and just continue to have more and more children who copy The evil that we've established in our homes the most important thing that you can do in your society is first of all turn your heart toward God and Make it a holy place before God and then turn your family toward God and make it a replicating Family a replicating holiness and goodness and centering your family around the holy and beautiful and good things and Recognize how important it is what you bring into your house This is a brood of evil doers. They are creating a seed, an offspring of evil doers. When you live in a time of collapse, you should know how to Understand your times and what the righteous are to do in a time of apostasy. And it does have to do with your seed.

What you do with your seed has tremendous significance in a time of apostasy. And then number six, they are corrupters. Children who are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.

These are spoilers, corrupters. Children who are corrupted and then they become corrupters. This is just the way the world is wired. You cannot stop this. Which is why we must go back to the well, to the springs of the waters of life.

Those springs begin in the heart and in the home, and in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're all so interdependent to be corruptors. You know, you have to ask yourself, you children who are in your parents' houses right now, I just want to speak to you for a second. Are you corrupters? Are you corrupters?

If you are a corrupter, you will beget children most likely. And you have to recognize what that means for you. To become like this means that God will destroy you. You will not win at the game of corrupting. You cannot win.

God is almighty. He made the heavens and the earth. No one ever won their game of corruption. But here, the children are corrupters. You know, all of this in the context of a last sinful nation.

It just makes me think of how our perspective, I'm sure, is that God has blessed America like no other nation. And there were days in our history where the name of Jesus Christ and his father, God the Father, were confessed publicly. And he was acknowledged in the courts. And he was prayed to in her Congress. And covenants were made based on the covenant of God.

And all you have to do is go read the constitutions of the colonial governments. It's undeniable. Just go to the original documents and read them. And you see a clear dependence on the authority of Jesus Christ, God's Son. But we're a backslidden people now, and we've become a nation of corrupters.

We have forsaken the Lord and have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. So when you live in a time like this you have to know how to understand your times. When you see things like this happening You have to recognize what that means for you. Number seven, their backs turned away. They have turned away backward.

They turned their back and walked in the wrong direction. Maybe this has happened to you. Probably hasn't happened to you. You know what? I'm sure it has happened to all of you.

When you've had a child and you've called them by name and you've asked them to come or do something and they turn your their back on you and they go the other direction. Or when you're trying to talk to them, and instead of looking you in the eye, they're doing this. And they've turned their back to you. That's the picture that's here. It's the picture of a rebellious child with their back turned away from their father.

You could go to Hebrews chapter 10 and see what this looks like among the people of God. But it's the people whose backs have turned. You have to recognize when you live in the midst of a collapsing culture, what it means when people's backs are turned against God and they're not listening to God. It has meaning and it will have consequences as in the days of Isaiah. And then 8, they are chastised but unchanged.

Verse 5, why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. Now, this word stricken is important to stop on for a moment. It has to do with injured, hit, struck. It's a very strong word and it means that God was doing this to his people.

He was striking them. He was hoping they would stop. He was hoping that their wound would cause them to say, who am I? What has become of me? But they didn't stop.

And so the Lord says, why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. You don't even feel the striking. The punishments brought no repentance. The preaching was deflected.

The appeals from the brethren were not accepted. The calamities were ignored. The thicknesses were thrown off. The disasters were misinterpreted. Matthew Henry says it like this, God sometimes in righteous judgment ceases to correct those who have been long incorrigible and whom therefore He designs to destroy.

This is a picture of what is happening. They were insensible to the judgment. Here's a question for us. Are we like that? Have we just passed off our calamities as having no meaning at all?

Or have we looked at every calamity and asked, oh, Lord, what are you teaching me? We live in a world that does not want to acknowledge there are any spiritual meanings to any calamities. I grew up in a world like that. I think I grew up thinking like that. And somehow we have to recognize that God does strike His people, and there comes a time He might strike them over and over again, and they become completely insensible to it.

And even If you struck them to the ground, it wouldn't cause them to repent. You saw this in Hurricane Katrina where God struck this place. And what were the people doing? They were running through the stores, looting and rifling whatever they could get their hands on. Instead of saying, oh, Lord, help us, they said, I'm here to help myself.

This is a picture of a culture in collapse. And then there are these illustrations that are given. I'm going to mark three of them. Isaiah explains through some very vivid imagery what all this looks like. He gives first of all the illustration of a beaten up body, secondly of a burned up city and finally of a destroyed field.

In verses 5 and 6 we read of the analogy of the body. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. So this is an illustration of the body.

He uses a physical body to illustrate the infirmities that exist during this time of rebellion. And he likens a person's life to a sick body. Bodies broken down, sick, killing themselves, treasuring up wrath. And the question really is this, what has sin ever done for you except to hurt you What has sin ever done to you, but to hurt you? David speaks of it in Psalm 38.

My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, there's no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken. I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.

Now there are different areas of the body that are identified. First there's the head. It makes your head sick. And then the heart, the whole heart faints. This is the weakness of not being able to cope, of having a fainting heart, of being filled with fear, not strong at all, but afraid of everything.

And it's the whole frame from the bottom to the top, even from the sole of the foot, there is no soundness in it. And the remedies are being ignored. To me, this is maybe the most tragic human part of this reality of apostasy, that the wounds are not closed up. Have you ever had a wound that wasn't closed up? I've never had a wound that wasn't closed up.

And I shudder to think if the wound had just remained open, what would have happened? Or bound up, a wound that's bound up and secured so that it can heal, or soothed with ointment. And he's speaking of anointing oil. This appears 165 times in the Bible relating to medicine or some kind of unguent. And it's used in Jeremiah 8.22 of Balm.

In Revelation chapter 3 of eye ointment. In Psalm 45, it's the oil of gladness and of joy. In Micah chapter 6, the lack of oil was viewed as judgment in 2nd Samuel chapter 1 Shields were anointed with oil To make them supple so that they could deflect the darts of the enemy. You know, in the New Testament church, if anyone is sick, you call the elders of the church and they pray for you. And what do they do?

They anoint you with oil. That's what they do. This is the healing salve of God that begins with repentance and continues on with prayers and the things of the kingdom of heaven. But This whole imagery of the body being sick. This is what sin does to you.

And you end up a person, you're like the walking wounded in the world. You know, when you walk out into the world that's rejected God, You really are walking among the walking wounded. You know, I had a friend who was telling me the other day he drove into his parking lot at work and he said that there were dozens and dozens of people that were playing zombie games and they were dressed up like zombies. And they surrounded his car and they started climbing on his car, crawling on the car over the, you know, looking in the windshield and his children were crying. You know, these are people who, they're acting like they're the walking wounded.

Well, they really are wounded in soul. But their makeup and their outward appearance really betrays what's going on in the inside. It might be one of the most accurate, faithful representations of their lives. But this is a picture of wounded people walking without having drunk of the waters of life, that haven't had the oil of gladness of Jesus Christ, of salvation, of repentance, of turning to God. Instead of having your back toward God, turning toward God and lifting up your hands and saying, oh, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Oh, Lord, I desire to walk with you. This life has been so harmful to me. You know, that's what happened to me. I realized how harmful this was to people. And I was allowed to see it when I was a young teenager.

And I saw how harmful it was to my friends. And I thought, I'm going in that direction. I don't want to go there. I am not going to go in that direction. I turned my back and went the other way.

But it's a picture of a body being destroyed by wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And there's nothing in the world that will heal those wounds. You can cover them up with makeup and all kinds of things like that. And all your little self-help programs, but on the inside you're nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores without the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the next image is a burned up city used as a body, then a burned up city.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate. And then the third analogy is a remnant. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom.

We would have been made like Gomorrah. Now, the daughter of Zion refers to Israel. And of course, this is an agricultural picture. And There's a booth. The only thing left in this vineyard is a booth.

This whole matter of the remnant is now brought up here in these last two verses here. And the idea is that the remnant is a protective in the city, the remnant preserves like Lot and did in Sodom and like Noah's family until they were finally taken. But these images here, the booth in the vineyard, and then the hut in a garden of cucumbers, these are frail structures. You would only spend overnight in these kind of structures. There are all kinds of images that Isaiah uses for the remnant in chapter 30 He talks about it's like being left on a pole on a hilltop or in chapter 6 like a stump of a felled tree But from that stump comes new life.

It says it's like a besieged city, like a blockade. People within a city holding out. If you can imagine that. The people of God are in this besieged city behind the walls and are being assaulted. And then he says, except or unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom.

We would have been made like Gomorrah. And there are many remnants of the Bible like Noah, like Lot, like Joseph, like the 7, 000 that did not bow their knee to Baal. The remnant. When you live in a time of apostasy, you have to recognize the value of a remnant. You have to ask yourself, am I part of the remnant?

This last week, I had a remarkable dinner with a well-known Christian leader in another town. And just the two of us had a dinner. And we had discussed a number of issues. And I asked him his perspective on the family-integrated church movement. And I was totally shocked at what he said, because he is not sort of part of this gathering of people across the world.

And I asked him his perspective, and he said that he felt that these churches could be the people through whom God would preserve the gospel in the coming years. And I couldn't believe he said that. And so a few minutes later, I said, why did you say that? And he said, because these churches are fiercely committed to the word of God. He said, because there's a seriousness about the things of God.

And he said, because they have a family life and a family unity that's necessary to pass the faith on to the next generation. That's why he said that. And how important is it to have a church that is like that? And after he said that, I went home and I wrote down a number of things that I feel have some relationship to this remnant that exists today. I'm going to read them to you now.

And I believe these things will help us preserve the gospel and preserve a remnant of replicating disciples in the next generation. Number one, we believe in a different gospel compared to what many advocate in America today. We contend that the true gospel must be preached, that sinners are not saved by any work of man, including a prayer or an experience or making of a commitment, but rather sinners must repent, believe, turn from their idols, and bear fruit, for faith without works is dead. That's a different gospel, by the way, than is being preached in a lot of places close by us. Number two, we believe that the church should be led by the Word of God alone and that preaching in the church should be faithful and careful and expository, uncompromising in nature, in order to bring the whole counsel of God to the church.

Which means you don't skip over the hard parts. Number three, we believe that scripture is sufficient for everything for life and godliness in the home, the church, and the state. We believe that Scripture should govern every part of life, including the church and the family and the civil government. In many ways, we're like the Puritans of old, who desire that the word of God govern absolutely everything, and you should not leave anything untouched by the word of God in your life. We live in a world where people think, well, obedience is not necessary.

Number four, we believe in the centrality of the church for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. And we've made a church a very important part of our lives. We gather for worship for extended periods of time, compared to most churches. Our fellowship meals, our practice of hospitality cause deep relationships, because our understanding of scripture is that it demands that we know one another and be part of each other's lives. We believe the church should be a big, big, big part of your life.

It's not something that you show up at and you leave at noon. But you are actually intertwined with people's lives, and you know them. Number five, We're trying to bring up our families using the explicit instructions of the Bible using a scripture alone as our guide for all instruction discipline Church life economic life and the walking beside of our children Number six we have a multi-generational objective that governs our church and our family agendas and it concerns us greatly to pass on the faith for the next generation. We gather our families to worship together and work together for this purpose. Number seven, we are not outsourcing education to pagans and therefore corrupting the next generation.

We are convinced that home discipleship is the biblical norm and further that it is a requirement, and further that a public education system that exists today is not just a poor alternative. It's unlawful because it violates every biblical command and principle for the education of children, beginning with the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Number eight, we are counteracting and actually destroying youth culture in our midst because of our understanding of discipleship methodology that you see in the Bible, which is age-integrated. And we've rejected the idea that church should be divided by age, but rather should be a mixture and a picture of unity of all ages and all stations of life. Number nine, we are not antinomian in our understanding of scripture.

We have embraced the idea that the governor of the world has given his laws to direct us. We believe that our hearts will lead us astray. We believe that we need an outside voice. Our understanding of the harmony of the Old and the New Testaments and our convictions regarding the use of the law and the gospel comes from the great confessions of faith, the Westminster and the Baptist confession and others. And we contend that when people obey God in these areas, the gospel will be preserved in the future.

Those who ignore them will create churches where the gospel will not be preserved. Now, it is my personal conviction that only these churches that genuinely embrace the sufficiency of Scripture and are devoted to the exposition of Scripture, and who L.A. And teach their churches to think biblically about everything, and who are fiercely desirous of obedience to the law of God, who are passing on the gospel to the next generation daily in their homes and a reviving biblical family life, they will be the ones who will preserve the gospel in the next generation and the rest of the churches will fall into oblivion and they'll be destroyed just like Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar and finally Titus did in 70 AD because God will destroy false worship How do you live in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation? How do you do it? Isaiah?

Will tell you and he here here in this first Section has given us a sense of what happens when a nation is under collapse now He's not done with that because he's going to speak of it for the next 12 chapters But what we should we should recognize is verse 9 It's the power and the mercy of God to preserve a remnant in every generation. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. He says, unless the Lord of hosts, This term you'll find in Isaiah. And it's code for unbounded authority.

It's code for the mighty sovereign hand of God. The armies of heaven, the omnipotent God, The God of glory who comes with all of his holy angels with him. And he sits on the throne of his glory. That's what the Lord of hosts has to do with. And so what do we do?

Let's let's do at least Three things let's recognize the sinfulness of sin and how sin so underperforms and turn from it and Secondly the judgment of God and how God will bring all things to judgment. But He does preserve a remnant. But finally, when you think about all the wounds that are identified in this passage of scripture, the bruises, the cuttings, the open sores. It should take us back to the one who was wounded for our transgressions, and the chastisement of our peace fell upon him. And what we have in the midst of a broken society is the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits on his throne, who has come to heal a broken people.

You know, before we turned our backs away from the world and toward the Lord, we were like nomads. We were just seeking our own conveniences and we had nothing permanent. But with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find the wounds being closed day by day, being bound up month by month, and finally healed. That's the picture that Isaiah brings here in these first nine verses. It begins with such destruction and hopelessness, and it ends with a remnant, with a hut, with a booth in the middle of a bombed out vineyard.

This little tiny remnant. But they know who they are. They know how sinful they are. They know how great God is. And they desire to follow Him with all of their hearts.

I pray that God would give us that in this time of apostasy that we live in. Oh Lord, Lord we are we are we live among a people of unclean lips and we are a people of unclean lips. And oh Lord that you would come and pour out your spirit on this congregation living in this little place. Lord, like we would be like those who were the remnant in Jerusalem, in the hut, but yet crying out to you, faithful to you, O Lord, make us a remnant. I pray that you would bring off these streets of this town, those who would become part of this remnant.

That you would bring them in here for healing. That the cuttings and the bruises would be made well again by your son Jesus. Amen.