What God Really Wants | Isaiah 1:11-20

Show Notes

Episode 828: 
In this episode, we delve into a conversation about God's promises of forgiveness and mercy, as highlighted in Isaiah chapter 1. We explore the powerful imagery of sin being scarlet and the promise that it can be made as white as snow. Chris reads a passage that emphasizes God's disdain for empty rituals and meaningless offerings, urging listeners to reflect on the sincerity of their worship and actions. We discuss how God desires genuine transformation in our hearts rather than mere adherence to religious practices.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Chris. Today, I just want to do the very best we can do, you know what, go after it today. I was gonna shoot for mediocrity, but I'm with you, Jeff. With me. I'm gonna elevate my game. Okay, we're gonna give it all we got today. Yes, and today we're actually gonna launch directly into one of my favorite segments that never gets old for me. Okay me either. I like these ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna do who's most likely? Who's most likely? So all we have to do is just just immediately say is it me or you? And we'll see if we Okay, you go first, you go first. I'm going to just defer to you this week, oh this whole week, the week who's most likely to get scammed by a very polite scammer? Ooh, what's telling me? Is it? I think? So? How come? Because I always overpay in the markets whenever you have to negoti not always, but a lot of times. Okay, yeah, how about you. But is that is that different than a scammer? Though they're scamming me. It's worth ten cents and I'd pay three dollars for it. It's kind of a scam. Okay, all right, what are you thinking? Like a phone scammer or like a like an email. Stammer and email and phones? Oh yeah yeah, I never give into those. Yeah yeah, me neither. Yeah, but but you're right, there are different scams, right right, So yeah, okay, let's go with that. Didn't you get your didn't you get your your passport stolen? I did? I did? That was definitely a scam. That was a scam. Yeah, but I didn't get scammed in conversation. No, but the applied scammer. Those guys were faking like they were drunk and fell on you. Right, yes, okay, what a terrible memory. Who's most likely to try a new hobby and become unreasonably obsessed within twenty four hours? Hey, well you're at it, Why don't you give me a paper cut? And port Lemons said, so, who's most likely to try a new hobby and become unreasonably obsessed within twenty four hours? That that is me? Yeah, that is you. I am an enthusiast and through Yes, I find a new thing, I get super excited about it. Yeah, I don't think I've ever done that. Yeah, yeah, I don't think that I've found something new and thought, oh, I can't stop doing this. I love new things. I love doing a new thing that I've never done before. I'd love discovering new things, dumb stuff too, right, And then it's funny. I'll go for a long time and not do a thing and then rediscover it, and then that's all I do for a while too. So even like old things, I don't just keep like I have friends who do, like they have the same rhythm all week every week. They just kind of do, oh, it's Thursday, Taco Tuesday, right kind of people. And I'm just not that person. I don't have that almost perpetual rhythm of most things. But when I'm doing a thing, I do all that thing. Like when it's hunting season, I'm just thinking about hunting. I just want to hunt. During the summer, I just want to grill. I just want to grill right right now, I'm a little obsessed about grinning. I just got a new rotisserie for my smoker. I'm super excited about all I think about. So I've probably watched I'm not lying. I bought the rotisserie yesterday and we're shooting this right before Thanksgiving. So I'm gonna rotissery my turkey. And I've watched probably twelve to fifteen videos on row tissry, and I've rote tissering using rotisserie to do turkey, and then I've watched probably ten more on smoking turkeys. And then I've probably read forty recipes. Holy Christmas. Yeah, getting ready for my turkey. Wow, super excited. And I bought my rotisserie yesterday. I decided I want to buy rotisserie three days ago. Well you know what I did to prepare for my Thanksgiving meal? I ask your wife, when does this start? I gave Liz money, and I'm gonna ask her, Ey, when's dinner. Yeah. So that's me though, But I get really, I'm a real enthusiast. When I find a new thing, I just want to do it and do it, and then I do it till I master it, and then a lot of times I'm done with it. Wow. Yeah, that's that's pretty amazing. Which, by the way, Liz is a very good cook. Yes, she is. She is very so. My my brother passed away, is why why I wasn't on the podcast last week. My brother passed away. So, uh, Liz always rushes to those emergency moments in people's lives, right, So she came with and dropped off some homemade wedding soup with the meatballs in it. Oh my gosh, I just I was. I wanted to fight my family, keep them back. Yeah, and then just tit the whole because she brought in a great, big pot like this, and I just want to drink the whole thing. Yeah, she's listening to you right now. Oh Liz. It was incredible. It was like a big hug, thank you. Yeah, that's awesome all right. Way, who's most likely to fall asleep during a movie? They picked me. I don't know. I could ravel you in this. Do you do sleep in movies? It depends on the time of the day, but I would say anything after seven pm, I'm. Out really okay? Yeah, and I'm talking like, listen, you remember how I remember in the height of Marvel, how excited I must have been for Civil War. Yes, I was in Civil. War because I want to go see nine o'clock movie. And I fell asleep. That's the last like thirty minutes. I don't fall asleep in movie theaters, but I do fall asleep at home. Yeah. Yeah. So my my daughter and her boyfriend went to a movie just a couple of days ago. Yeah, and she came back in talking about the movie, and she says, and guess who fell asleep before the movie started. Oh no, he fell asleep during the credits and never woke up for the whole movie. She knows two times. I'm like, that was an expensive, expensive nap. He just laughed. Yeah, no, kids, Well that's what happens when men work, because he's a hard worker man, right, and that's all that happened. Yeah, okay, I think I'm gonna have to trump you on that because you don't You don't realize how bad I am. Yeah, okay, So you fall asleep after seven? You fall asleep on movies? Yep? Okay, Well you know so many movie quotes. That must mean you watch a lot of movies before seven. That's correct. Yeah, okay, that's correct. So who's most likely to wave at someone who wasn't waving at them? This a lot? I do it too, do you? Yeah? Yeah? Do you do it. Let's say both of us. Do you do it while you're driving? No? I wave at everybody when I'm driving, somebody walking down the street. Way what it's what we did as a kid growing up. Everybody in the pier did that all the. Fun on my bike? No? No, no, no, I'm talking all the drivers. You're driving down the road, you got your hand on your steering wheel, you make our contact and you just wave. You don't do that? No? Oh yeah, I wave at people in my neighborhood. No, no, somebody on my I don't know anybody. I don't know those people. They're No, I'm talking in the whole subdivision, anywhere I'm at. If I'm just on the street, somebody walking on the street, I wave. In I do. Do people ever initiate waving as they're behind the wheel for you. No, not very often, except up where I hunt. You're the only one up up. Where I hunt. If you're driving down you know, driving down dirt roads too, pickup trucks coming by, yeah, you guys will nod and wave. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that that's common. And then also like motorcyclists, they wave at each other. People would jeeps they're in a club. Yeah, well, they're not doing it because we're driving pickup trucks to doing it because we're on the same road. I know, and we're acknowledging each other. Yeah, yeah, I know. But I was also thinking of clubs. I also think dangerous men do that. They wave, right, because waving was always letting you know, I don't have a weapon in my hand. That's where waving came from. You know that, right, No, is this one of these facts that you know that sounds untrue. No, it's true, though, it's true. So waving is I don't have a weapon in my hand. Shaking hands was always we're making peace with no weapon in our hand. Both of those things were, ok. But they don't mean that. Now what do they mean now? It means, hey, I'm a peaceful person, and so are you. That's what I mean. Okay, but nobody thinks that. Nobody thinks I'm not a violent person. Therefore it's why I'm waving. I'm not going to hurt you. That is not I can imagine most people are afraid I'm probably gonna hurt No people. People wave now because they want to be friendly, Okay, I want to be nice. Yeah, I was making a joke too. That's what I'm trying to be in friendly. Okay, we should get the last round. I was like, there's no way we. Should get the get the last one. Who's most likely to hold the door open for someone who's way too far away? That's the worst. Yeah, especially when they slowed down. Yeah, yeah, you hold. The door and then somebody goes, oh, where's my keys? Oh oh oh I got Oh nope, no, So. I actually forced myself not to open the door for people who are far away. And I have to tell myself, hey, I'm off the hook. Like there's like two elderly women coming into the restaurant right behind me, ladies. But I'm like, well, here's the thing. I want to stick around. But I'm thinking like they would almost feel bad. They'd be like, oh my goodness, you don't have to. I'm gonna create like more of a commotion just by sticking around. So I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to slip in let the door close. I'm not obligated. It's actually better for them and for me. How far how far away it's too far? I would say at least fifteen. Yards fifteen yards forty five feet. Yes, okay, yeah, that's a long way. That's halfway across the park. Yeah, I would say, if somebody is behind me within like thirty steps, I'll hold them. Well, those tool ladies like that. What I would do is step outside the door and wait outside for. Them, so I could open the door for them, even in the winter. Yeah, I've done that a lot. Yeah, but I wouldn't hold the door open for them because that makes everybody inside cold. I see see you just stand there. Yeah, yeah, that's right, wait till they come over, and then open it up for them. Good for you, Good for you. It's it's so good. Yes, well, a noble beast. I'll tell you what. That was a fun segment because we had to pick either me or you. Yes, but Isaiah picks God. Ooh there you go. Yeah wow. He doesn't have to pick the transition. He only picks one person God. Yeah. So in this uh pat this whole week, we're talking about God's promises with regard to his forgive and his mercy. Yes, and here today in Isaiah chapter one, it's all about how even though our sins are scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. So I'm just going to pick up in verse eleven this whole chapter. There's a lot of judgment in this chapter. God's kind of mad, and the prophet is letting them know it. But it says here in verse eleven, what makes you think I want all your sacrifices, says the Lord. I'm sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fat and cattle. I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to worship me who asked you to pray through my courts with all your ceremony, Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts. The incense of your offerings disgusts me. As for your celebrations of the New Moon and the Sabbath, and all your special days for fasting, They're all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your New Moon celebrations and your annual festivals. They're a burden to me. I cannot stand them. When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims. Wash yourselves and be clean. Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways, learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of orphans, fight for the rights of widows. Come now, let's settle this, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you will only obey me, you'll have plenty to eat. But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you'll be devoured by the sword of your enemies. I the Lord have spoken. I wish he was like really clear and said what he was thinking. Yeah, yeah, there's no mission jpreting that. I wonder what he meant there. As matter of fact, I don't even know that we even have to talk about this one. Right, okay, all right, everybody, thanks for tuning in. We'll see tomorrow on the bibble. Guys, quit faking it, Yeah right, just get right, learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of orphans, fight for the rights of widows. Confess your sin, right, and then he says, and obey me, and everything's going to be fine. But he said, dude, if you don't want to be all about doing good, and if you're not all about seeking justice, and if you're not all about helping the oppressed, if you're not all about defending the cause of orphans and those who can't take care of theirselves, and you're not going to fight for the rights of widows, He said, then I really don't care about all of your processions and your fancy robes and all your religious rituals in your holy days and all that stuff. He said, that stuff's a bunch of junk to me, because it's only a show. It didn't actually change you. Yeah, this very much reminds me of Jesus speaking about some of the Pharisees. Yeah right, because Jesus actually I think most of them, Yeah, most of them were He was actually saying, like their religiosity could actually become the thing that gets in the way. Yeah. So, And it's a sort of a weird thought, especially if you're brand new to the faith, to think that you know that the like ritualistic even gift giving. It says, you know your offerings, your meaningless gifts, they discuss me so, which means like somebody here is going through the ritual of giving gifts, they're going through with burnt offerings, and they're going through the motions of worship. So it just you know, it translates today for us, like it is possible to go to church to sit up, stand stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, to pray, to recite, or to lift your hands in worship right here in the auditorium, to go to a small group, you know, to go through all of the motions, even reading God's words sometimes right if our mind and our heart is not in it, or if we're just rebellious in our spirit, but to go through the motions of religiosity and to think that that could actually be the thing that God is saying is something that he despises. It's not just something that's like, it's not just meaningless he's saying, I despise it because it's hypocrisy. I despise it because you're it's almost like crossing the line of like mockery. Maybe perhaps you know, it's like going through the motions when really you don't mean it, and so therefore it's you know, it's it's it's empty, it's it almost makes God angry here. Or going through the motions because that's what religious people do, he said. He's really saying, I'm not interested in your religion if it didn't change you, if it didn't penetrate into your heart, if it doesn't make you want to do good and to seek justice and help the oppressed, I'm really not interested if it doesn't make you good. Because what did Jesus say? The great commandments are love God and love people. So here he says, just obey me and do good and seek justice. Right, it's the same. So does that mean that the ritual is bad? No, if the ritual draws you closer to God. I have I have a friend who converted to Anglicanism. He became an Anglican and it was because of the pace of his life, the frenetic life. He was living all these things and he just found this holy experience and he feels closer to God in the ritual. He feels closer to God in you know, the church building he's in is these high, soaring ceilings and stained glass, and this kind of feel like a holy place. He feels close to God there. But man, this guy is six days a week out there serving the homeless, taking care of of widows, helping plant churches, sharing the gospel, you know, just helping pulling people off out of the gutter kind of life. And so I don't think that displeases God that this man enjoys the ritual. The ritual makes him feel closer to God. Right, So that's not bad. That's not what God's saying. God's saying, if it doesn't change you, I don't care about it. Right right now, he also commanded it, right, He's the one who commanded the sacrifice of Rams. He's the one who commanded the gift, the giving. He's the one who commanded the Holy Days. He's the one who commanded the Sabbath. When you get into Malachi, he's mad at them for not following the Sabbath. You get into Jeremiah, he's mad at them about the Holy days. Right. So God expected them to obey. God expected them to do the religious things, but he wanted their heart. Otherwise, if the heart wasn't there, I really don't care about the ritual, is what he's saying. So it's not like he's like, stop the ritual and only give me your heart. God saying, obey me with all of your heart. And part of that obedience was the ritual that was expected of them. So in this though, I love it when he says, come, let's settle. This says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. And the note here for Isaiah one to eighteen in the Life Application Study Bible says, scarlet and crimson are references to a deep red, permanent dye, the dark of which was virtually impossible or remove from clothing. You know, they didn't have all the things we have today, right, bleach. The stain of sin is equally permanent except for one remedy. God's grace is the only cleansing agent that can remove sin stained from our lives, as he promised to do for the Israelites. We don't have to go through life permanently tainted from the effects of sin. God's word assures us that if we are willing and obedient, Jesus Christ, who paid for our sins, will forgive and remove our most indelible stains. Well, you ask him to make you clean. I think about that. God doesn't expect us to walk around with a scarlet letter on us all the time, right Yeah. And there's also something else here in my Transformation Bible Study Notes. It says Isaiah didn't stop with the diagnosis, but also gave the prescription because he wanted Judah to be a righteous people. And he says good. The word settle in this verse can when he says, come, let's settle this, and verse eighteen, it actually means to decide a case in court. Here, however, instead of pronouncing judgment, the judge offered pardon, so settling would be an actual sentence, right, come, let's settle this. And what he's saying is this is this is God's judgment, which is I'm going to make your sins as. We banging the gavel. Yeah right, Yeah, that's pretty it's pretty great. That's Warren Were's b notes. Right, is the editor of that. Yep, I believe that Study Bible. Yeah, the Transformation Study Bible. It's one of my favorites also, and he's the Warren Weiersby. He's in heaven now, but man, he's one of my favorite thinkers and writers about the Bible. So yeah, I love that one. That's really cool. Yeah, so that is true, let's settle this that I think the Hebrew word is it's a court word, it's a legal word, right, right, Like we would say, let's settle up right, right, let's bring it to zero, no more debt. That's that's what's talking about. Yeah, let's settle. That's great. I love that. Yeah, and uh, you know I I also love the idea that when you think about your own sins and you think about the stains. Uh, it's also in my mind, my mind goes to guilt, right, because a lot of times what happens is is, you know, we experience the full measure of sin in our lives. You know, so we have the earthly consequences, We have our our relationship with our heavenly Father and our faith which is damaged. You know, in a lot of cases, we you know, set ourselves back in a lot of ways, right, and so you know, our reputations, our relationships, all that stuff. So we have we feel the full weight of sin. But then we go to God, we repent, we turn the other way, We confess. And the work confess means literally to agree with God. Right, So it doesn't necessarily mean you have to say it out loud. The work confessed. It means to agree to turn from to agree God this is bad. So we confess with our sins. We agree with God that they're wrong, and we turn away from them well to carry around guilt for our wrongdoings. Guilt can be a healthy thing, but guilt has its one job, and our one job of guilt is to is to what I want to say, is to point you in the right direction of repentance. Yes, that's right, right, right, that's. Guilt's job, and so guilt, conviction, all of those things are healthy when they're not easy, but they're healthy if they point you in the right direction. But once guilt has done its job, it is time for us to release the guilt, which is why we can claim the promises of the East and the West and in this case, Crimson going as white as snow, because God doesn't intend us to live in guilt. Right. But a lot of people, have you ever met somebody they just put themselves down and they beat themselves up because they want to wear gill is a badge of honor, right, and they feel like, you know, they're like, oh, they just put themselves down. Love to beat themselves. I'm just nothing but dust. I'm a horrible human. Yeah, I'm not worthy. You know, nobody's like me. Blah, blah blah, and I deserve it, and you know, and it's like no, no. No, it's right. Anybody who says that I don't deserve it, Right, But I'm not the center of the story. Jesus and he's so good. So let's celebrate how good Jesus is. Yeah, see the center of the story. Yeah. So if you want to beat yourself all the time, and I've got some friends theologically who just every beat yourselves up every yeah, every word that they talk about whenever they talk about this, Well, I'm just a worm. I don't deserve it. I'm a horrible person. Okay, we all are, we're all sinners, we're all less than if it's all about us. But it's not all about us. It's all about him. He's the center of the story. He's the hero. So let's let him be the hero. And let's celebrate the fact that he literally Psalm forty, he lifted me up out of the myrie pit and he set my feet on a solid rock. Right, So it's okay for me to celebrate that God did a good thing. I didn't deserve it, but he did it. Thank God for it, and let's celebrate him for it. I don't have to walk around. If he decided to clean me off whom I'd go ahead and keep telling people. But you should have seen how dirty I was in my heart. I still am really dirty, right right? How about just let him clean us off and be clean? Right? That's it. I just it's a frustrating thing. But anyways, So then there's this thing. It comes up a few times Isaiah, it comes up in Ecclesiastes. It comes up in Micah, where he says something like this, learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed. In the Book of Proverbs, it talks about how God expects us to stand up for the oppressed. Matthew chapter twenty five, Jesus says, at the end of all time, we will be judged. We will be measured by this our rewards, and aavan will hinge on, giving a cup of cold water in Jesus name, clothing the naked, serving orphans and widows, visiting the people that are in prison, giving food to hungry people, and visiting the sick, and those kinds of things. In Isaiah or in Ecclesiastes, he says, love, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. That's what he says, right, So this theme, you're trying to figure out what God wants from you as far as the lifestyle of your life. It kind of all comes down to the same kinds of things. God wants us to work towards justice. God wants us to care about people who can't defend themselves. That's why he's talking about orphans and widows. Here to seek to do good and then he'll reward us for those things. And I was thinking about a friend of mine. You know, he's a friend of yours too. He was a vice president of two different fortune five hundred companies. He came to faith late later in life. Feels like he wasted a big chunk of his life. Kind of was down on himself for a long time. Him today, by the way, like. No big purpose. And then we wind up going out and working out in the bush. He got a passion for trying to help people who didn't have good water. All of a sudden, now he's trying to do good. That this light came on, and he's trying to figure out how to raise money to dig wells. And he helped do some of that. And then we had an opportunity to teach him how to be a soul winner, how to share the gospel, how lead people Jesus. He got on fire with that. He just wanted to tell everybody. He started going to people who were hopeless without Christ and sharing the Gospel with them. And then he was reading Matthew twenty five where he says, hey, go and visit the prisoners. And he came to me. He said, hey, who at our church is serving the people? And we have a really big jail in our county. Who's serving the people in the county jail? I said, we don't currently have anybody. He said, I want to start that ministry. Now he's the chaplain at the jail with over a thousand inmates and serving. And if you talk to him, he'll still tell you I'm still a sinner. He'll still tell you, Man, you know, I still struggle in my life, but I have so much purpose in serving other people. And so this is what God's inviting you. Not only is he asking you to do good because you're supposed to be a good person, but my experience is when I watch people who step out and decide to do these things help the oppressed defend, Like right now, the defending the cause of orphans and that kind of thing with transform One. For you, what a passion project that is for you. You find your passion when you start doing the things God tells you to do. And so I don't know very many people who find their passion in religious ritual, not many, But man, you find your passion when you decide you're going to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed. And so he's not just inviting us to be good boys and girls, that is what I'm trying to say. He's inviting us into his mission. And there's something just powerful about that, exciting about it. I email our friend because I gave him a lot of recommendation for somebody who wanted to assist him with the jail ministry. Oh good, Yeah, Yeah, he's trying to build that team right now, right, He's trying to build up a team, and I'm excited about it. So that's really cool. Hey, well, hey, that is our time for suret And so hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,