#6 The “IF Series”
“IF ONLY YOU COMMITTED
YOURSELF!”
TEXT: Isa.
58:9-12
INTRO: The easiest
thing to do in life is make excuses!
And, we seem to be born with this ability; it comes quite natural for
very young children! We tend not to
like rules and expectations, our natural bent is to avoid commitments, or shirk
them if possible.
ILLUS:
One three-year
old’s explanation for being in the kitchen atop a chair, eating the forbidden
cookies sounds similar to our excuses for sin: “mom, I just climbed up to smell
them, and my tooth got caught on them.” -
Illustrations for Biblical Preaching by Michael P. Green
While we smile at this cute kid, the problem with
making excuses is that they tend to get even more elaborate with time and
experience. And the worst possible
outcome for excuses comes in our relationship with
God.
God’s people did this repeatedly through generation
after generation. It is part of the
fruit of our sinful nature after the fall in the Garden of Eden. Just recall the story there of how Adam
and Eve fell into sin. Eve was
tempted to eat what was forbidden, and after she did the excuses started; “The
serpent did cause me…” And when
Adam was confronted by God he too gave this excuse, “The woman you gave me gave
me to eat…” History is replete with the continuation of this
process!
PROP.
SENT: The Bible
teaches us to avoid making excuses for not living out the life God intended;
His intent is to bless us, but that only happens if we accept the responsibility
to bless others and not make excuses!
I. GREAT RELATIONSHIP! Isa.
58:9a
A. Favored!
(By
God) Isa.
58:9a
1.
Before addressing the need of the people to stop making excuses, God
entices His people with a great promise IF ONLY – they serve Him and not
self!
a.
Starting with a great promise will create incentive to motivate
them.
b.
The positive always sets the stage for a healthy
response.
c.
God is always like this; He always started with promises
first.
ILLUS:
If we answer
the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it
demand? To answer this question we
shall have to go to Him, for only He knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow
Him, knows the journey's end. But
we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means
joy.
- Dietrich
Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship.
Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 5.
2. God’s promise of favor if packed
with favor: “Then you will call, and the Lord will
answer!”
a.
What is more wonderful than this?
God promises a direct communication, with a direct promise to answer them
always!
b.
This is better than Facebook and Texting! God’s promises response to their calling
on Him.
c. They will hold
“Most favored
people”
status!
3.
This is the heart of love, people in love respond to each other this
way.
B. Friends! Isa.
58:9a
1. To
be friends with the Almighty is an amazing reality!
a.
When we are friends with someone we love to hear from them, and to
respond immediately back.
b.
The joy of friendship is that it is a mutual love and respect. Compassion has always been a sign of
God’s favor, even the world recognizes this:
ILLUS:
One day a
student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization
in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fish
hook or grinding stone. Her answer was "a healed femur." Mead explained that no healed femurs are
found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed
femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person's hunting
and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion is the first sign
of civilization.
- R. Wayne
Willis,
c.
Both sides care for each other enough to seek each other’s
best.
2.
This has always been God’s desire with
mankind:
a.
Evidence of this was the Garden of Eden before man
sinned.
b.
God would meet with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, or the early
hours of the day, or the early hours of the
evening.
c.
God desired actual relationship and friendship with His
creation!
d.
God was never interested in a slave to God relationship, or a
relationship of simply powering over mankind; He created us to have fellowship
with Him in a direct way.
e.
While sin removed this reality, God made plans to restore us to Himself
by a blood sacrifice, which He offered Himself through His son Jesus. His desire was to restore our
friendship.
3. As
part of this “friendship” with God, our posture toward others should reflect
God’s posture to us.
ILLUS:
We need people
who, as a part of their responsibility in life, will carry the burdens and
wounds of other people and be outraged by them.
– Ed Danks in
Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 4
II. GRACOUSNESS RULES! Isa.
58:9b-10
A. Favoring! Isa.
58:9b
1.
God expects us to favor others just as He favors
us!
a. So
God addresses the way they treat others as a condition of this new “Favored
status” by God.
b. By
the way, our government does this with other countries; when we grant another
nation “Most Favored Nation” status.
c.
This means that a country has special status with the
2.
This is the status God holds for His people who are in right relationship
with Him, and He calls us to treat others this
way.
3.
The very character of those who have fellowship with God is to treat
others, including sinners with a gracious
spirit.
ILLUS: Even if people
reject the gospel, we still must love them. A good example of this was reported
by Ralph Neighbour, pastor of
Jack had been president of a large
corporation, and when he got cancer, they ruthlessly dumped him. He went through
his insurance, used his life savings, and had practically nothing left. I
visited him with one of my deacons, who said, "Jack, you speak so openly about
the brief life you have left. I wonder if you've prepared for your life after
death?"
Jack stood up, livid with rage. "You -- ---- Christians. All you ever
think about is what's going to happen to me after I die. If your God is so
great, why doesn't he do something about the real problems of life?" He went on
to tell us he was leaving his wife penniless and his daughter without money for
college. Then he ordered us out.
Later my deacon insisted we go back. We did. "Jack, I know I offended
you," he said. "I humbly apologize. But I want you to know I've been working
since then. Your first problem is where your family will live after you die. A
realtor in our church has agreed to sell your house and give your wife his
commission. I guarantee you that, if you'll permit us, some other men and I will
make the house payments until it's sold. Then, I've contacted the owner of an
apartment house down the street. He's offered your wife a three bedroom
apartment plus free utilities and an $850-a-month salary in return for her
collecting rents and supervising plumbing and electrical repairs. The income
from your house should pay for your daughter's college. I just wanted you to
know your family will be cared for."
Jack cried like a baby. He died
shortly thereafter, so wrapped in pain he never accepted Christ. But he
experienced God's love even while rejecting him. And his widow, touched by the
caring Christians, responded to the gospel message.
- Van
Campbell, Homer,
4. Jesus was called,
“a friend of
sinners” Matt.
11:19 – if He can
be, so can we.
5. The favoring attitude by us will
happen: “IF YOU DO
AWAY TIH THE YOKE OF OPPRESSION, WITH THE POINTING FINGER AND MALICIOUS
TALK…”
a.
This is a big “IF”
b.
This means that we don’t treat sinners badly, just as Christ loved us
while we were yet sinners, we must love sinners too while they are still
sinners!
c.
Loving people is not a compromise with sin; it is a command of God when
we stand in right relationship with God.
6.
Jesus clearly had said that all the law was summed up into to great
loves:
a. “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart” Matt.
22:37-40
b. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt.
22:37-40
c.
And notice that Jesus didn’t say to love ONLY IF they bless us, or bless
God!
7. We never have the right to treat
sinners with less than “most favored
status.”
B. Favored! (By Others) Isa.
58:10
1. Notice here that again God says,
“If you spend
yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the
oppressed...”
a.
Being favored by God means showing favor to
others.
b. There are no preconditions on the
call to favor others; it wasn’t only “IF they respond to you the way you
like,”
or
“IF they are
wonderful first to you.”
c.
This is a straight forward call for God’s people to love others, and
treat everyone fairly, in spite of their way of living, even as sinners. Our job is to fight for those who are
oppressed and hungry, those who are hurting, and not only to fight for them if
they embrace our God and our faith, but simply because they are people whom God
created.
2. IF WE DO THIS –
“then your light
will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the
noonday.”
a.
The entire witness of God’s love and light will shine forth in a dark
world.
b.
This was God’s plan for
ILLUS:
"Say, Officer,
I bet you've never been part of a real live sermon illustration about grace
..."
- Cartoonist
Rob Suggs in Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 1.
c. It
was for those reasons God often led them into captivity, to discipline them to
learn to love the other nations.
3.
Literally, acceptance of the Gospel hinges on the way we live out the
Gospel.
4. And, not only will we receive God’s
favor, but man’s favor will rest on us as well, hence the statement;
“then your light
will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the
noonday.” - meaning we
will bring light into the darkness of this world in a positive
way.
III. GIFTED REPAIRER! Isa.
58:11-12
A. Freedom! Isa.
58:11
1. This entire next verse describes
the great freedom for God’s people IF WE COMMIT ourselves to this end, to favor
others as God favors us.
“The Lord
will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and
will strengthen your frame. You
will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never
fail.”
a.
What a promise!
b.
What freedom!
c.
What a powerful witness of God’s great
love!
2.
Loving others as God loves us will open the door for constant guidance
from the Lord, and great strength and fame in the earth, and a never exhausted
supply of water which refreshes everyone.
a. We
can alter our culture more easily with love than
hate.
ILLUS:
A story is told
of Peter Miller, a plain Baptist preacher living in
b. We
can demonstrate God’s great love for sinners by loving them
ourselves.
c. After all, Paul recognized this
when he said, “Or
do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience,
not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
Rom. 2:4 (NIV)
d.
Paul’s point is clear: It is
God’s goodness and kindness toward sinners that helps lead them to repentance,
such should our behavior be toward sinners if we wish to see them respond to the
Gospel.
3.
Just imagine a loving Christian community toward sinners, and the impact
that would have on them!
B. Foundation! Isa.
58:12
1. It
is foundational to our faith to be a “restorer” of souls, not a judge of
sinners.
2. Isaiah here states clearly that if
God’s people will respond favorably to others they will become known as
“rebuilders”
–
“repairer of broken
walls, restorer of streets with dwellings.”
a.
Meaning that we will bring healing not only to our culture, but to
souls.
b. Since God’s goodness leads people
to repentance our similar action will attract people to Christ, and Christ will
be able to heal and restore people, thus God’s church and His people will be
known as “repairers.”
3.
Amazingly, this was all stated under the Old Covenant; yet sounds so much
like the New Covenant.
4.
The final thought to all of this still hinges on one final thing: “IF ONLY YOU COMMIT YOURSELVES…” then
God will be able to act on both His children, and on this world with the best
results for all.
ILLUS:
As Copernicus,
the great astronomer, was dying, a copy of his great book, The Revolution of the
Heavenly Bodies, was placed in his hands. But it was not his brilliant work that
was on his mind. Instead he directed that the following epitaph be placed on his
grave at Frauenburg: "O Lord, the faith thou didst give to
5.
The bottom line, NO EXCUSES!
a. No more, “I’ll act nice to them when I see them
act nice to me”
b. No more, “I’ll show love when I see
love”
c. No more, “I’ll do something good when I see them
show appreciation first”
d. No more, “Well, they don’t deserve being treated
well; did you see how they treat others?”
(Mercy
and grace that we receive from God isn’t deserved by us either, but God grants
it anyway!)
CONCLUSION: The call for all of us as God’s
people is to show the same grace, mercy and love that we have received from God
– not conditioned by how they act toward us, just given freely! When we do this, we exist not only with
God’s favor, but we will also see man’s favor – and his response to the Gospel
of grace! Jesus Himself witnessed
this by His own life; “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and
in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
Can it be said of you, or
do you have an excuse?