Rick Walker
The Good News Prophet (Isaiah 1:16-18)
Today I am going to share my sermon from last week. Last Sunday I was a guest speaker at the North Road congregation. Perhaps you will find this helpful.
The Prophet's Call (Isaiah 6) [0:30]
We are going to be looking at Isaiah. Take a Bible open to the prophet Isaiah. We will begin in Isaiah 6:1-12.
Isaiah was the greatest of the writing prophets. Greater than Jeremiah. Greater than Daniel. Greater than Ezekiel. Greater than them all. So, let’s take a look.
It was 740 years before the birth of Jesus. A time of sin. Godlessness. Wickedness. Not just among the Gentiles, but among the Jews.
The Lord looked down from heaven and saw that the Jews were godless. The Jews were wicked. And so the Lord is raising up prophets to call for repentance. Amos and Hosea in Israel. And Micah in Judah.
And now in Isaiah 6 Isaiah is called to be a prophet.
One day Isaiah saw the Lord in a vision. The Lord was high. The Lord was exalted in his temple.
God––sitting on God’s throne.
Isaiah sees seraphim flying around the throne. These angels are crying out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.”
Their voices are powerful! The power of their voices is shaking the doorposts of the doorposts of the temple. The thresholds are shaking. Not the voice of God! The voices of his angels––the seraphim.
And Isaiah is terrified. Isaiah is shaking. He cries out, “Woe is me!”
I bet he did! I bet he did.
“Woe is me.” I am a sinner. My speech is unclean. “I have unclean lips. “Woe is to me!”
Isaiah is a guilty man.
And a seraph came, touched his lips with the tongs from the altar, and Isaiah was purified. “Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned.” (6:13)
Until the Cities are Ruined [3:35]
And then the Lord himself spoke! (8) “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
The Lord has a message for the Jews. A warning for the Jews. About judgment.
“Whom will I send with this message? Whom?”
And Isaiah said, “Lord send me!” “Lord send me!”
(V. 9) And the Lord said, “Go tell this people!” Preach judgment to this people. Preach judgment and ruin to this people.
“Go and tell this people!” Not: “Go and tell my people.” “Go and tell this people!” When God calls Israel “this people” instead of “my people” the Lord is not happy with the Jews. Israel has wandered away from God. They are at the point of judgment. They are called “this people.”
That is a tough ministry. And so Isaiah asks this question: For how long? (v. 11) How long do you want me to preach this demand for repentance? How long do you want me to preach about the coming judgment and destruction and ruin upon Judah? And the Lord gave this answer:
Until the cities lie in ruins.
Until the inhabitants have been carried away.
Until the houses are deserted.
Until the fields are ruined and food cannot grow.
Until the Lord has sent everyone away into captivity.
Until the land is forsaken.
Think about that! Tell the people to repent or Judah will be destroyed.
“Lord, how long do I do this?”
“Until Judah is destroyed.”
"Lord, how long do I preach the judgment that is coming?"
“Until Judah is judged!”
And so Isaiah preached judgment for forty years. And repentance for forty years. And in about that 40th year, forty-six walled cities were destroyed by an Assyrian invasion. Sennacherib set forty-six walled cities on fire. And Jerusalem was surrounded. 701 B.C.
People died. People were carried away. Cities were empty. Fields were ruined.
Did it do any good to warn of judgment? Did Isaiah turn the nation back to the Lord? No.
He was commanded to preach until the cities were in ruins, and he did.
King Hezekiah could look out from Jerusalem and see the smoke of forty-six cities in flames. Isaiah could look out and see the smoke of forty-six cities in flames.
My work is done. I have finished what the Lord called me to do.
Isaiah preached repentance, but the Jews hardened their hearts. They closed their eyes. They closed their ears. And Judah suffered.
Oh, I am sure that there were some who came around.
But––for the nation––for Judah––for the most part––no repentance.
Isaiah’s Message [8:07]
Now lets leave the vision where he was called to preach and look at what he preached.
Now to chapter 1:2. Isaiah begins to preach. Here is his message. Isaiah begins with some harsh words.
(2-4) The Lord has spoken. This people is rebellious, ignorant, sinful, guilty, evildoers.
This people is corrupt.
You have forsaken the Lord.
You have rejected the Holy One.
This people has turned its back on Him.
Jesus said: Wide is the gate––broad is the road that leads to destruction.
Jesus said: And many enter through it. (Matt. 7:13)
Are we walking down the broad road?
Are we walking down the road to destruction?
The gate—that is wide.
The road—that is broad.
And it ends in destruction?
Or, are we walking the narrow path that leads to life?
What about the Righteous [9:38]
This raises a very important question: What about the righteous Jews in Isaiah’s day? Everyone wasn’t godless and wicked. Some were righteous. Amos was righteous. Micah was righteous. Isaiah was righteous. And a lot of other people were righteous. What about the righteous? All this judgment and ruin is coming. But what about the righteous?
There is one verse that answers this question. One little verse in chapter 3. Chapter three is all sin and warning and judgment. Sin and warning and judgment. But there is one verse for the righteous. Verse 10. Right in the middle of all this about judgment we have this: Tell the righteous it will be well with them., and they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.
So Isaiah is preaching judgment and ruin and telling the righteous it will be well with you. Just keep doing what you are doing. All will be well.
Good News Prophet [11:02]
Do you know that Isaiah is called the good news prophet? Scholars call him “the good news prophet.”
Does this sound like good news to you? Where is the good news in any of this? Well there is good news.
There is good news for Israel.
And the good news first shows itself in verse one. Even before we get to the condemnation beginning in the second verse, there is reason for hope in verse one. First comes hope in verse one, then comes the words of condemnation.
(Verse 1) The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz saw.
This name, Isaiah––the name of this new prophet––Isaiah––gives hope.
How so? When a Jew opens the Old Testament to Isaiah––like I open my Bible to Isaiah––he sees something that we do not see. Right there, across the top of the page, my Bible says in big bold letters––Isaiah.
And when a Jew opens his Bible to Isaiah, he sees two separate words joined together as one. Two separate words: Yesha yahu Yesha yahu
Big bold letters. One word is “God.” And the other word is “saves.
Isaiah means: “God Saves.”
That––is good news. God Saves.
The preaching in Isaiah of condemnation against the sins and guilt of this people was being prophesied by a prophet named “God Saves.” All of the coming judgments were being prophesied by a prophet who is named “God Saves.” Right there at the top of the page in your Bible it says Isaiah: “God Saves.”
Isaiah is full of good news and bad news. But the good news comes first in the name “God Saves.”
That is good news.
Good news for the Jews.
Good news for Guyana.
God saves.
Isaiah’s Sin Atoned (Isa. 6:1-12) [14:30]
Now, turn over to chapter 6. This is where Isaiah received his vision. He is called to be a prophet.
In his vision he saw God seated on his throne, heard the seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy.”
He said, “Woe is me! I am a sinful man. My speech is not pure.”
And an angel touched Isaiah’s lips with tongs from the altar and said: “Your guilt is taken away. Your sins are atoned.”
That is good news. Isaiah’s sins have been taken away. They have been atoned. God is salvation for the prophet who has confessed his guilt.
Wash, Repent (1:16-20) [15:24]
So what is the solution for this sinful people? Isaiah’s sins have been atoned. But what about this people?
How can they find salvation? How can they escape this judgment? The answer is found chapter 1, starting in verse sixteen.
(16) Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; Stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right. Seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless;
Plead the case of the widows.
That is REPENTANCE. Turn away from sinful deeds AND turn to acts of righteousness.
Repentance takes both. Turning away from one and turning to the other. And it comes with a promise:
(18) Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Your sins will be white like wool because GOD IS SALVATION.
Isaiah continues: (19) If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.
The Messiah [17:04]
There is another reason Isaiah is called the good news prophet.
Isaiah is called the good news prophet because he has more to say about the coming of Jesus than any other
prophet. More. A lot more. A mountain of prophecies about Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God.
Do you know what the name Jesus means? Do you know what it means? It means the same thing that Isaiah means. Jesus means: God saves.
Isaiah means “God saves.” And Jesus means “God saves.”
Jesus was sent into the world to save sinners. That is a good name for the Savior of the world!
In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter preached in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit filled the apostles and they preached about Jesus.
Jesus: approved by God.
Jesus: crucified by wicked men.
Jesus: raised up from the grave all the way to the throne of God.
Jesus, the Son of God.
And verse 37 says the people were cut to the heart. I bet they were! I bet they were! You talk about guilt! You talk about guilt! You crucified God’s Son!
And they cried out, “What shall we do?” I would be horrified––horrified––to think I crucified God’s Son.
And so Peter gave them this answer. What shall you do? Repent and be immersed everyone of you for the forgiveness of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And that is what they did. Three thousand on that very day.
That was a lot of people. That was a lot of sin. A lot of guilt. All washed away.
Washed away by the Savior of the world.
Jesus: God saves.
Invitation.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Today you can enter through the narrow gate.
Today you can begin your walk down the narrow path that leads to life.
You will be glad that you did.
