Isaiah 58, 1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Israel their sins. Let's pray together, please. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee again for Thy Word that's ever settled in heaven. We thank Thee for Your instruction You give us by the Spirit, and how You saved us and called us out of darkness to Thy marvelous light. We praise Thee for all the blessings you bless this church with and that we might continue on in praising thee until Jesus comes. We ask your mercies be upon each one, those that are saved that you might be pleased to edify them in Christ, those that are without Christ that you might be pleased to save, and that all things be done in decent and order and to the honor and glory. And we just look to thee, Father, your blessings upon the service in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. The title of the message or this lesson is Chobot Religion, and there's some things that we could substitute for fasting through this passage, and we'll not. We'll stay on fasting, but there's other things we could put in that place where people think that if they're doing this one thing or this particular thing, then God either has to bless them or has to be satisfied with them or whatever it is, and this is what they were doing. They did it all for show. They truly thought they were going through the motions of worship and that it was sufficient and that God would accept it. We might think sometimes when we go to church and we're faithful to attending church and all this, that, and the other that God ought to accept it, but if our hearts is that younger in the world, let me say to you, God doesn't accept it. and that we need our hearts, if you will, and in, if you will, and worship our God. However, their hearts was far from God, and we can see from our text or our lesson as we go through it that they even complained because God wasn't blessing them like they thought they ought to be blessed for fasting. And so they felt there was a connection there that if they fasted, God had to bless them. And so their hearts were far from God. In Isaiah 66 verse 3, it's in the lesson, he that killeth an ox as if he had slew a man, he that sacrificed a lamb as if he had cut off the dog's neck, he that offered an ovulation as if he offered swine's blood, he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol, yea, they have chosen their own ways and their souls delighted in their abominations. In our first chapter of Isaiah, we're not turned there, but 10 through 15 is similar to this. It's not quite as blunt as this one is in Isaiah 66, and their worship was unacceptable to God. They thought they were doing a good job, but in our time, people would probably stand up and say, Well, you've really done good. You know, but God did us not that way. If you haven't done good, He's not going to say you have. And if you've done lousy, He's going to say you've done lousy, and this is what He was saying to them. He convinced of their holiness, they were blind to their wickedness. And this is usually those like the Pharisees were that type of people where they felt they were ultra-holy, ultra-religious and that if anybody was blessed by God, they knew they were. And we know from Jesus' description, He said if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, then you shall not enter the kingdom, and so therefore your righteousness had to be better. Well, those that Jesus spoke to, they would have looked at Him like He was crazy because everybody counted the Pharisees as the most holy people. As we read this, we might wonder why they couldn't see their inconsistencies, their blatant sin, their dishonoring God. They fasted but was quarrelsome with their workers, with their family. They exploited their workers, that is, and complained against God because fasting was not working. They thought fasting was like a magic potion. If you fasted, God had to bless. It's like some Christians in Romans 10, 13 that God must save anyone that calls upon the name of the Lord. But they ignore Romans 10, 1-12 and especially verse 14. How shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed? So faith comes first. The sins of Jacob and of the house of Jacob. We read verse 1, and it tells Isaiah to preach, to be like the trumpet sounding a warning. And this is like a warning trumpet in the tribes when there was alarm when the enemy were coming or when there was disaster approach or at foot or whatever it might be, they would sound the alarms. And this is what is speaking here, cry aloud. And it is to send out a warning. And so this was to be impendent danger to the children of Israel. There in verse 2, Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have ye fasted, say they, and then thou seest not. Wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors." And so here they had a double standard. They had one standard for themselves. Then they had another standard for their workers. And so if they declared a fast day, they wouldn't let the workers off to fast. They would have to turn in the full toll, you know, of their day's labor. And so they acted as if they were the true followers of God, as they were the holy, and with fast as one of their proofs there in Isaiah 29, 13. Therefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. And a lot of this, the doing with the fasting is spoken here and other places in the Old Testament, were man-designed, not God-designed. The day of fasting was the day of atonement, and that was the prescribed day of fasting. God did call for fastings other times, and when we get into it, fasting is more then cessation from food and even beverage sometime, which is unusual. That's not usual to fast on the liquids. But nonetheless, they would fast for personal reasons and personal needs. like our country has called for days of fasting and prayer in the past. And like Israel had in their day and in their time, in extreme circumstances, they In their fastings, they worshiped offerings, gathered, they acted as if nothing was wrong, that God has to be accepted in everything that they were doing. There was nothing between them and God. And to me, this is like a lot of churches today. They don't use God's Word. They don't celebrate as God tells us we're to celebrate. They use music that would not be acceptable to God that could be sung to any deity. You don't even have to change the names. You just put an idol up there and sing to it. Be the same song, same lyrics, same everything. And they THINK that they're honoring God. This is copied from the pulpit commentary. They are not conscious hypocrites, quite the reverse. They are bent on doing righteousness, on not forsaking God's ordinance, on continuously approaching Him. but they are holy without a proper sense of what religion is. They make it a matter of outward observance and do not understand that it consists in devotion of the heart that did righteousness and forsook not rather than had done righteousness and hath not forsaken. They liked their worship separation, only eating the clean meat and going through all the celebrations and everything that God called them to do. They were going through all the motions. The Bible also calls fasting afflicting your soul. Six times afflict thee or his soul, two times and one other time, and afflicting the soul is considered the same as fasting, but notice that usually when it's speaking of other types of fast, it speaks of afflicting the soul, but it can be a cessation of eating. The fast was usually abstained from food. types of food like in Daniel's 21 days. He just left off the dainties and ate bitter herbs and that type of thing, but he was eating, and some fasts were from morning to evening as David did at the death of Jonathan and them, and some of the fasts I think this is the only place we find in the Scriptures, if I'm not mistaken, of Esther and her fast. She called for three days without food or water, without drink, and usually in the Scriptures, There's no limit to what you can drink. I mean the water and that type of thing because you can do without food a lot longer than you can do without water. And so the purpose of fasting is penance and humiliation. That is to humble one's self before Almighty God, to put the flesh down and be of a contrite spirit and that the flesh, if will, is brought under. Now this is the reason some activity, abstaining from certain activity on certain days, anything that would humble one's soul and or show penance or repentance. And some of this fasting is like their Sabbath day. He says, flick your soul on the Sabbath day. But we know that a fast of food and water was not used, or food or water, but food, because part of the celebration was eating before the Lord, so this afflicting of the soul was not working that day, separating themselves to the worship and spending that time before Almighty God. And they were disappointed in God, for they had fasted and God had not rewarded their dedication. And this is one of the ways you can see whether you're kind of a Pharisee or not or whether you're humble worshipper of God, a humble worshipper of God accepts whatever God brings their way. These did not because they figured that the crop should increase or they should make more money or some other thing should have happened, better health or whatever they might have been looking for, that if they fasted toward this, that this would have to happen. There are several books on Christian pasting and almost all of them, and I haven't read every one of them, so the ones I've read animate that there's a blessing to the fasting, and some of them don't say God HAS to bless you if you fast, but they come right next door to it, and others SAY that God WILL bless you if you fast. Now, if your heart's not in it, I can guarantee you God's not going to bless you at all in it. I can just tell you right now, if you're just doing it like the psalms say, to give, to get, to give, to get, to give, to get, that philosophy in the scriptures is give, give, give, and God rewards you. Praise God! God has promised to reward you, but it's like saying, Well, if I put in $10, God's going to give me $20. If I put in $20, He's going to give me $200. If I put in $200, He's going to give me $2,000, and some base they're giving on the give to get to give to get to give to get. And God blesses according to the heart. If your giving is heartless, that is, you're giving to get or some other motive, or it's just passive, you're just giving because you think you should, then God doesn't promise to bless that at all. Just like our worship, God doesn't promise to bless a worship that's heartless. He promises to bless the worship. We worship Him in spirit and in truth, and that intimates the spirit is that we worship from the heart or the inner man and honor God. They were proud of the way they kept the law of God, even going beyond God's requirements, and in their minds they were absolutely faultless. Showboat Religion, there in 58, I put 3B, but we've already read 3 all the way through, so let's start with 4. Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of the wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of the wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that thou hast cast out of thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh?" Now this is God's charges against them when they said they've kept all the ordinances, they've kept all the laws, they're serving God faithfully. God answered them. God seen them in their foolishness. What happened when they fasted? They were ill-tempered. And let me say to you, if you've ever seen people forced into a fast, I don't know if you've ever seen that, but they get ill-tempered if they're not into it. In other words, if they're not doing it for the glory of God, and maybe if there is, I judge not lest ye be judged, many get ill-tempered, get hungry, and they get ill-tempered with one another, arguing, even to the point of fisticuffs, that is, fighting, as it mentions here. Did they think God would hear their cries when they were doing so wickedly? This fast was not a fast that God asked them to do. It is as the Pharisees fasted Mondays and Thursdays. When they said they fasted twice a week, that was the two days that they fasted. And it was not a fast that God called for. It did not. It did not tell them to do that. Then in Zechariah 7, they are in 3. And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these many years? Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted, and mourneth in the fifth and seventh Monday, even those seventy years. Did ye it all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye drink for yourselves, and eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" And he goes on with this, but we're stopping there. 8, 19, we'll just read that real quick, in Zechariah, and the word of the Lord of Hosts, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Thou, the fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy, and gladness, and cheerfulness, peace, therefore love the truth, and peace. Now verse 19 is in the Millennial. That's the difference. But the other verses is back before the millennial, or when God was showing them the error of their ways, and they said, Should we continue to fast? Well, that fast they took up for the 70 years of Jeremiah was just a fast they created. God didn't create it. And so they fasted those particular months. And so there was some Christian books, as I mentioned before, on fasting and gaining power with God by fasting, preaching better by fasting, and there are several different titles, little tracts, little booklets and books on these. Verse 5, they had the ceremony down and they bowed their heads, laid on sackcloth and ashes, and so this was to show, I'm fasting! And it was part of their fasting apparel. There was nothing wrong with the ceremony. If it was from the heart, then in mind, then it was not wrong. If it wasn't, then it was. Would any person who was right with God call this a fast and acceptable day unto the Lord? And God says it's not. They, of course, were saying it was. Verse 6, they wanted their fasting and worship to be accepted by God. Then they would have to change their ways and, if you will, their heart's condition, which was far from God. If a person is harsh in dealing with other people, demanding and violent, Son, should he think that God would accept his worship or fasting? This is God's charge against them, because they was fighting, they was violent, they was treating each other harshly, and of course the Scripture tells you, for a Christian, that we're to love one another, that we are to love our neighbors ourselves, and we're to love one another even as Christ has loved us, and we're to love God with our all, There is no room in there for harshness and fisticuffs and hollering and arguments and all these other things that sometimes happens even in churches. God says, How could you be serving Me and doing all these other things if they did not forgive their fellow Jews? And as we read through there, they weren't forgiving their own family members. I mean, they weren't taking care of their own. They just took care of number one and maybe their spouse with them, but that would be about it. if they did not forgive their fellow Jews, and how should God think that God would forgive them and bless them? God doesn't look on the sad countenance in fasting and pretense of penance, Matthew 6, 16, and 17. Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, They may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, but thou and thou fastest not thy head, and worse thy face." So they would look disfigured and they'd be with their maybe little sackcloth on them and maybe little ashes here and there and go around, you know, like dragging their hands almost to the earth because they're fasting. Suffering for God. And Christ said to His disciples, When you fast, don't do it that way. You just get up and get ready like you always get ready. Go about your task and without going around saying, I'm fasting, I'm fasting, and oh, I'm really having a hard time today because I'm fasting, and that type of thing that nobody should KNOW that you're fasting. It should be between you and God. And there are times when churches used to call for prayer and fasting. We don't see that. I don't know if I've heard of that in I don't know how long, but churches used to do that, and not on a regular, like, weekly basis, but under circumstances where the church is going through difficulty or the nation is going through difficulties, that they would call for that. They were to set free those whom they had in bondage. In other words, those slaves, if they wanted to do a fast, God said, set the slaves free. Set the bonded servants free. Set these that you hold in captivity. And of course, these were the ones that were making money for them. In verse 7, instead of fasting, they should have shared their goods with the poor and needy. There in Matthew, Matthew 25, 31. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit down formed the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered the nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto them on the right hand, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was a hungred, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, or fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a hunger, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Naked, and ye clothed me not. sick and in prison, and you visit me not, then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, or a thirsted, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto eternal life." Now, this is a passage that shows there's a difference in works, but the difference in works is according to the heart. Those that will take the disadvantage, those that will help a suffering Christian, those that will, if you will, do these things that are mentioned there and be a helper, not a destroyer, God will bless that. And even though they The answer they gave shows that they didn't do it for a reward, one, because they said, when saw we thee, and done these things. Two, they'd done it out of compassion, and if you will, he said, these my brethren, and because these fellow Christians that they supported them and helped them through this hard time, and whatever it might be, and of course in prison, the days in the past in certain parts of the world, a lot of Christians are in prison. And so all these come to show that they've done it out of compassion. They've done it out of desire. But they've done it unto the least of these, his brethren, that is the saints of God. They've done it unto him, just like giving water to a prophet. You give a water, a drink, then you get a prophet's reward. They hid from the poor and needy so they would not have to deal with them and feel guilty. So they didn't help the needy Jews at all. And the same was they hid from their own needy relatives. And I put 1 Timothy 5-8. We'll not turn there, but those that won't take care of their own are worse than infidels. God does not just see what is going on on the Lord's Day. He sees what's going on all week long. If they turn, God will replace the curse with a blessing. There in verses 8-14, we'll read a portion of that. The way of the peace they... Then shall the light break forth in the morning, in the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer, thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am, if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, and putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness as the noonday. And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul. in drought, and make fast thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the path to dwell in." We'll stop our reading right there for a little while. And they would turn from their wicked ways and turn unto God. God would turn their curse into a blessing and bless the place and remove the curse. Jeremiah 18, 7 through 10 will not look there, but it mentions a similar thing. Prosperity, God would cause the light to shine upon them out of obscurity before the nations and across them in all areas of their beings. As we bless others, God would continue to bless. Psalms 107, I know this is a familiar psalm probably to everybody. I'm just going to read just a portion there, 107 and 49. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right hand, right way, excuse me, that they might go to the city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfied the longing soul and filled the hunger soul with goodness, such as set in darkness. And he goes on to the rest of the psalm, different situation, how God delivers them from them all. And this is when God promised to bless the people. This is what he's speaking of. God delivers them from all their troubles. Health, godliness go hand in hand, especially when they live godly lives before Almighty God. There's a lot of sickness and diseases that come simply by living an ungodly life. Some lifestyles is conducive to death, or early death, and this is what it's speaking of. And also God promised Israel He would put none of the plagues of Egypt upon them if they followed Him wholeheartedly. The righteous flourish. Faith in God produces righteousness in their life, and those that trust God, the desire of goodness, holiness rests there. It's just in you. It's not something you've got to work up and work out. It's something that's there. And yes, we usually say we have to work out what God's worked in, but if it's lying there, if it's there and present, then it's easy for it to come forth. Answers to prayers go hand-in-hand with holiness and godliness and the fear of God. Directed, we need divine leadership in our lives, direction, decisions, jobs, purchase, giving. In everything we think or do, we should do it with divine guidance. We shouldn't go about our lives, if you will, as if it's just by happenstance. Well, I just happened to happen. This happened to happen. That just happened to happen. That just happened to happen. If we believe in divine guidance, then there is no happenstance. Even though from our perspective and perspective of the world, we say, well, it just happened. In other words, I didn't plan it. I didn't see it coming. It just happened. And yet in God's eternal plan is already in place for that particular thing to come about. Directed we need to divine leadership in our life. And there in verse 11, we read through 12, and we're going to read down through 13 through 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable, and shall honour Him, not to doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasure, nor speaking thy own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I shall cause thee to rise, ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And so we see in verse 11, 14, God supplies their needs, but our my gosh shall supply their needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There in Philippians 4, 19, the supply of everything we need, whether it be water, whether it be in drought, whether it be food in time of famine, whatever it is that we need of, God is able to supply. This promise is like the rest, is not those whose religious practice outwardly that seem to be very pious or religious or holy or whatever definition we want to give it, but if it's only in religious RITUALS, then God doesn't promise to bless that at all. Yes, they SHOULD be a worshiper on the Sabbath day. Yes, they SHOULD do these other things that God called them to do because they were under the law, and these things they were supposed to do, SHOULD do, HAVE to do, but they SHOULD do it JOYFULLY and HONOR God. And so they, if you will, if they DID that from the heart, serve God, it's like tithing. Some people don't like to tithe. You know, you tithe, you should tithe, you're under a duty, an obligation to tithe. God will bless it if you give it from the heart. If you give it grudgingly, then there's no blessing there. It's like the guy in, I can't remember now if it was Florida or Texas, that he puts an extra amount of money in the church's tithes and offerings for a whole year. And, of course, they was one of those, like I promised, 100-fold, you know, blessing and all that. And he's saying that he just lost his money. He didn't see any gain whatsoever. He's doing his figures, you know. And he missed the whole point. If you're just giving to get, you're not going to get. I mean I can tell you that right now. God will bless you in your giving, and everybody that's ever put God to the test has found Him to be true in that. But if you're just doing it for greed, God doesn't promise to bless greed or covetousness at all because covetousness is the sin of idolatry. So their project, they would build, rebuild the former places and be the restorers of the breach. When they returned to Jerusalem after the 70 years of Jerusalem, this is what this particular passage is speaking of, they would be, those that would go there would be the repairer of the breach. the building of the temple and rebuilding Jerusalem. Herod beautified and extended the temple and made it more glorious than what the temple was when Zerubbabel and his crew built the replacement temple. It was not near as spectacular as when Herod got through with it. And so Herod built onto it. and God blessed them in that and that He caused their work to multiply. And verse 14, virtuous, true virtue does not come by a play or pretense of religion. It comes by righteous and loving devotion of the Lord. And if you love the Lord, then you will do those things that are pleasing in His sight. The position, what position in Christ Jesus? Are you in Christ? are having upon you. God promised to Israel, would they have been realized in their lifetime if they had turned to the Lord in holiness? Absolutely. Would the Kingdom have come in if the Jews in Jesus' day had accepted Him as Messiah? Absolutely. The reason that the kingdom didn't come is because they didn't accept Him as the Messiah. You say, well, that was in God's plan. That's absolutely true, but it was their fault that they didn't trust Jesus because Jesus done everything that the Scripture said He was to do. and it's by that which they were bound to study, read, and on every Sabbath day, all the holy days, the feast days, and all the days, and they were supposed to do as much as they could, private scriptures that they would copy down, put it on their clothes, put it on their doorposts, put it in their houses, and so therefore they would have had, if you will, the blessings, and they would have turned to Jesus Christ and anointed Him King. But they didn't. Our blessings are more in the nature of eschological reward than that is when we see Jesus in glory. There's promises to the sight now, but our greatest promises is in the world to come. I mean most of the things that we see the blessings of is when we're with Jesus. The promise that we're going to be there, the promise of His coming. All these things lead to, if you will, the blessings that God gives us, and yet God blesses us day in and day out here upon the earth. However, any nation that will turn to God, as God called Israel to turn, will reap the blessings of turning to God. Any nation that is receiving the blessings of God and turn from that and they will not reap that. In Isaiah 58 verse 4, Thou shalt then delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed them with the heritage of Jacob thy father. for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and we had seen about the Sabbath day. We know we went over this not too many Wednesday nights ago, and so I didn't go through it again, but other than to say, all the feast days was a Sabbath day. The word Sabbath means rest. The seventh day of the week was a Sabbath, but the word doesn't mean seven. of those that Christians have a holy day, and they say, well, the word Sabbath means seven. No, it means rest. And we are to honor God on the Lord's Day.