He Will Say, "Here I Am"

Isaiah 58:1-11 ESV

“Cry aloud; do not hold back;

    lift up your voice like a trumpet;

declare to my people their transgression,

    to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek me daily

    and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness

    and did not forsake the judgment of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments;

    they delight to draw near to God.” (Isaiah 58:1-2 ESV)

There are many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ who are just going through the motions of religious practice but whose hearts are not surrendered to Jesus Christ. They do “religious” things, hoping to be approved by God, while they are still living wicked and evil lives in open and in deliberate rebellion against the Lord. But they know they are doing evil, yet they go through religious practices desiring that God will approve them even though they are not living in submission to his will for their lives.

“‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

    Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,

    and oppress all your workers.

Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

    and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

    will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose,

    a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

    and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

    and a day acceptable to the Lord?” (Isaiah 58:3-5 ESV)

So, they are religious people, who make a practice of religion, at least to a point, or in some specific areas. Yet while they honor God with their lips, they deny him by their practices, for their hearts are far from him. For their religion is based on a bunch of rules of human origin, and their lives are not really surrendered to Jesus Christ in walks of obedience and in godly, holy, and righteous living. So they expect God to approve them based off their own human effort even though they are still living in sin.

And so the Lord is honest and direct with them. The Lord does not acknowledge their fasting as something they are doing out of obedience to him because while they look religious on the outside they seek their own pleasure and they mistreat other humans with unfair treatment. They are wicked and cruel and abusive people while putting on a show of righteousness outwardly for others to see and to acknowledge. But the Lord doesn’t look on the outside. He looks at what is in our hearts.

“Is not this the fast that I choose:

    to loose the bonds of wickedness,

    to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

    and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

    and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

    and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:6-8 ESV)

So, what is the Lord looking for in us? What is his desire for our lives? It is that we forsake our lives of living in sin and for self and that we now follow him in walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant) in holy living. And it is that we love God with our whole being and that we love the people of this world and the people of God with the love of God which gives our lives to other people to see them walk in holiness and in righteousness in obedient walks of faith, and that we provide for their true needs.

But just know that just because you may be someone who is generous and who helps feed the hungry and provide for the needy and donate clothing for those who have none, it doesn’t mean at all that you are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ and that you have died with Christ to sin and that you are now living to him and to his righteousness, in his power and strength. For there are many “good deed doers” in this world of ours who have absolutely no relationship with Jesus Christ at all.

So, “good deed doing” alone is not your ticket into heaven. For we have to walk by faith. And doing the good deeds of God he prepared in advance is part of that walk of faith, but not all of it. For we have to surrender our lives to Christ, forsake our lives of living in sin and for self, and now follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands (New Covenant). And then we will be regarded as righteous and godly and as those of genuine faith in Jesus Christ and we will be healed spiritually and we will walk righteously, by God’s grace.

“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

    you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

    the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

if you pour yourself out for the hungry

    and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

    and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually

    and satisfy your desire in scorched places

    and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

    like a spring of water,

    whose waters do not fail.” (Isaiah 58:9-11 ESV)

When our lives are now surrendered to Jesus Christ, to do his will, and we are no longer just performing for an audience out of our own flesh, to look religious in front of others, but we now have humbled ourselves before God, and we have died with him to sin, and we are now living godly and righteous lives, in his strength and power, then when we call on the Lord, he will answer us with, “Here I Am.” Amen! Hallelujah! 

But then we are reminded again of what that looks like. We have to cease from living wickedly and doing evil to others and deliberately and habitually sinning against God. And we have to be those who are loving God with our whole being, in practice, and progressively, who are also loving other humans with the love of God and who are doing good to them and for them. Then it will be obvious that our lives are surrendered to Christ to do his will, and our Lord will continually guide us in the way that we should go.

Video Talk

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Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296