Isaiah 1:1-7
Deja Vu
First, let me explain the Biblical reference. We are in an Old
Testament prophetical book. Most people do not read the Old
Testament. Most Christians do not read the Old Testament. In fact,
most Christians do not like the Old Testament. Most of them will say
that the Old Testament is boring. On that, I would agree. The Old
Testament can be rather boring. Why? Because the Old Testament does
two things:
1. It condemns—a lot!
2. It repeats—a lot!
Others will say the Old Testament does not apply, that it is
irrelevant. On that, they are wrong. Reading the Old Testament is
just like reading the newspaper—if anyone still does that. It is very
current and it tells us what is going to happen not just in the land
of Israel but especially in the Unites States of America. I hope to
show you that this morning. So hang on to this Biblical reference.
Second, the title of the message. Deja Vu is French and it means
"already seen." It is a term used to describe the sense we sometimes
have that we have already seen, done, or lived an event out before.
As you read through the Old Testament prophets, you should be struck
with the feeling of Deja Vu, because our country, our world, and many
of our lives are re-living what has already happened to Israel.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-
perceptions/question657.htm
With that in mind, let’s look at the text.
I. Notice to whom this passage is directed.
Isaiah 1:2 …I have nourished and brought up
children, and they have rebelled against me.
A. Notice that God does not mention Israel here, but "His
children", specifically the children that God has brought up
or reared.
B. Now there is no doubt that God through Isaiah was speaking
TO ISRAEL.
1. In fact, while he does not mention them in verse 2, he
does in verse 3.
Isaiah 1:3 …but Israel doth not know, my people
doth not consider.
2. But this text is not JUST directed to Israel. By using
that opening address, the statement can be directed to
any group of people that God has claimed as His own and
reared up.
C. I believe that includes the Unites States of America.
1. Some would disagree, and that’s all right.
2. Some might even say that it is bad hermeneutics. Maybe it
is not the BEST hermeneutics, but I would not say it is
BAD hermeneutics.
3. Why? Because I believe America is a nation that God
birthed—as surely as He birthed Israel—and I believe
America is a nation that God reared up—as surely as He
reared up Israel.
D. My reasoning:
1. The founding fathers certainly believed God birth America.
a. Each year at this time I share some American history.
b. I do so because the parallels between Israel and the
United States are astonishing.
c. This year, however, I am going to keep my history
to a minimum. Instead, I want to focus on this Bible
passage.
d. But let me share just a few quotes from one of our
most revered founding fathers, George Washington.
(1) George Washington as first a soldier, then a
commander, then the Commander in General, then
chairman of the Constitutional Convention, then
the first President of the United States.
(2) Quotes:
I am sure that never was a people, who had more
reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in
their affairs, than those of the United States;
and I should be pained to believe that they have
forgotten that agency, which was so often
manifested during our Revolution, or that they
failed to consider the omnipotence of that God
who is alone able to protect them.
http://www.great-quotes.com/quotes/author/George/Washington
It is impossible to rightly govern a nation
without God and the Bible.
http://www.searchquotes.com/search/George_Washington_On_God
/#ixzz5JxDy1Wug
It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the
providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to
be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to
implore His protection and favor.
https://www.usa.church/us-history-quotes-about-god-and-the-bible/
2. God’s divine intervention demonstrates that God birthed
American.
a. By that, I mean God did miracles. (That is what
George Washington meant when he said that God
"interpositioned" in America’s affairs.)
b. Now some might not agree that there were miracles and
that is all right with me. I am comfortable using
the word that George Washington used over and over
again, God "interpositioned" in the affairs of
America.
c. For example:
(1) In 1775, the British ceased and occupied Boston.
Washington wanted them out. He sent Henry
Knox, a 25 year old book seller to Fort
Ticonderoga—300 miles away—to bring him 59
cannons—in the middle of an icy winter.
Remember, there were few roads—and those that
did exist were crude—and the British
controlled much of the countryside and
virtually all of the main waterways. But in
just 95 days, Mr. Knox had the cannons
delivered and set up. Victor Brooks, a
historian, called Knox’s success "one of the
most stupendous feats of logistics." As
the sun rose on March 5, 1776, the British
General surveyed the cannons pointed down from
the hills onto his encampment and said, "The
rebels did more in one night that my army would
have done in one month."
(a) Did God intervene or was it just hard work?
(b) You decide, but I believe God intervened.
(2) Things did not go so well in New York. The
British assembled 32,000 soldiers to take New
York from the patriots. That was the largest
army assembled in the history of the world to
that date. Washington declared a day of
fasting. The British army attacked, killing and
wounding American soldiers 10 to every 3 of the
British soldiers. It became apparent that the
rebel forces would have to retreat, but how?
Many were trapped by the British army. That
night, the sea where the British ships were
anchored was boisterous, but the East River was
calm enough that Washington was able to
evacuate half of his troops; but the next
morning, the other half were still trapped.
That is, until a dense fog rolled in which hid
the patriot army’s retreat. Had the Americans
been found out, the War for Independence would
ended at New York.
(a) Miracle or coincidence?
(b) You decide, but I believe God intervened.
Miracles in American History, Susie Federer, Copyright 2012,
4/29/2013, pp 37-48.
E. You decide whether you think God had anything to do with
America’s founding and growth; but first, read her history.
1. Many of these events used to be taught in our schools to
show how God intervened and directed this country, but no
longer.
2. However, just because we don’t know our history does not
mean that it did not happen.
3. This passage can be applied to America as surely as it was
directed to Israel many years ago.
II. Notice the similarities between Israel and the US.
A. God described Israel in Isaiah’s day, the same description
could be used of our country today!
B. Notice The problems Israel had:
1. Israel suffered from a broken relationship with God.
Is 1:3 …Israel doth not know, my people doth
not consider.
a. What did Israel not know? They did not know God!
b. Israel and the US are both nations that were birthed
and reared by God, but they both forsook the Lord to
the place that neither any longer know Him.
Judges 2:10 And also all that generation were
gathered unto their fathers: and there arose
another generation after them, which knew not the
LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for
Israel.
(1) It is very difficult to pass a KNOWLEDGE OF
GOD from one generation to the next.
(a) We have missed it in America.
(b) I cannot speak for the generations before I
was born but in my time as an adult, I
would say most aren’t even close to getting
their children to Jesus.
(2) We can pass a knowledge ABOUT God to our
children, but only God can introduce Himself to
our children and only our children can introduce
themselves to God.
(3) Parents,
(a) You can rest assured that God WANTS to know
your children.
(b) You can also determine that you will do
everything in your power to foster that
meeting.
(c) But we all must acknowledge that the
distance between knowing about God and
knowing Him is the distance between heaven
and hell.
c. I believe there are four things you and I need to do
to help our children to know God.
(1) We must teach them. Church can help, but home is
critical. Devotions, Bible reading, Bible
application, prayers with earnest praying in
times of difficulties.
(2) We must train them.
(a) Training is not just teaching them. It is
also showing them.
i. I am very limited with what I can see
in my head. I have to see something
or how s thing is done. If I can see
it, I might be able to reproduce it.
ii. That is part of what God meant when He
told us to train up a child in the
way they should go.
aa. Every child has been
apprenticed to his parents to
be personally trained in
knowing and loving God.
bb. Our children should see every
aspect of walking with God in
our lives: giving, praying,
worshipping, dealing with
problems, sacrificing,
committing to service—every
thing.
cc. Don’t tell them how to know God.
Show them how to know Him!
(b) But I think training also means making them
capable of receiving God’s seed.
i. That means disciplining them, removing
some of the rebellion toward
authority and creating a humble field
for the seed to take root within.
ii. It also means cultivating faith. Too
many homes are site only home. Every
thing is based on what someone can
see, can calculate, can hold, and
prize. Faith is a spiritual gift. If
it is not cultivated as a youth, it
becomes elusive to adults.
(3) Gradual Release - For parents, this is often the
most difficult; but children have to be released
to live their own lives. If not, many will
rebel. It is better to do a gradual release
while they are growing up than have to suddenly
release them. Hopefully, if we are doing the
job well, we will can start that gradual release
long before it is time for them to leave the
home.
(4) Faith - We must have faith in God. No matter how
things seem, we must believe that God will honor
our labor—mistakes and all—if we were seeking
to please him all along. I believe this is what
Solomon meant when he wrote:
Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should
go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it.
We must believe that if we have done our job,
God will do His.
2. Israel lived a sin-filled life.
Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are
corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD….
a. If you want to know what kind of sins that Israel was
committing, look around.
b. They will be essentially the same ones our country is
committing.
(1) Greed and lust
(2) Malice or meanness
(3) Blasphemy
(4) Perversion
(5) Rebellion against God
(6) False worship
c. God compared Israel to a beast laden or loaded with
sin and wickedness. (See above.)
d. God also said they were going the wrong direction!
Isaiah 1:4 …they are gone away backward.
(1) Like Israel of old, we have forsaken the One true
God for a multitude of gods and religions that
do not satisfy and cannot help us.
(2) Keep this thought in mind for we will visit it
again later.
3. Israel had gone even further, to antagonize God.
Isaiah 1:4 …they have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger….
a. It is one thing to sin against God. It is another to
provoke Him.
b. To provoke God implies that Israel was intentionally
doing acts that they knew would anger God.
c. Anyone can do wrong, anyone can be taught wrong,
anyone can reject Jesus, anyone can doubt, but when
people set out to do the things that God says not to
do in an attempt to prove that there is no God or
just because they know God’s would disapprove of it,
friend, that is dangerous and God will settle with
you one day.
4. Israel was suffering from their sins.
Isaiah 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more?
ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is
sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head
there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and
bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are
burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it
in your presence, and it is desolate, as
overthrown by strangers.
a. We have different terms in our country for some of
these, but they the same conditions from which Israel
suffered.
(1) Israel had revolted against God. We have thrown
God out… out of our schools, out of government
agencies, out of sports, out of history, out of
some of our churches!
(2) There was no soundness in Israel. In America,
many often lament that there is no common sense.
They are about the same thing.
(3) Israel cities are burned with fire. Ours were
for a while. Every time something happened that
people did not like, there was a riot. We seem
to have replaced that now with mass shootings.
(4) Israel was overthrown by strangers. America is
being overrun with illegal immigrants. I’m not
against a control, vetted, and improved legal
immigrant, but allowing uncontrolled numbers of
unvetted illegals is the same condition that
Israel was experiencing.
b. America is sick.
(1) Sick to the point of death.
(2) Sadly, most are calling the sicknesses that are
killing us "progression."
(3) In preparation for today, I pulled some my old
books off my shelves and looked them over.
(a) I noticed books from the 1970-80s entitled
"We Must Defend American" and "One Nation
Under God."
(b) Then I released the very people that these
authors were calling upon us to fight are
the ones who are now controlling our
country.
(c) The Marists are now called Socialist and
Progressives and Democrats or even
Moderate Republicans but they are the ones
that we were called upon to recognize and
fight years ago.
(4) Friend, unless we have a revival, the
capitalistic, God-fearing America that was
created in 1776 is lost.
(a) The enemy has won.
(b) Most are just too blind to know it.
(c) There is only one hope.
III. Notice Israel and America’s Only Hope
Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left
unto us a very small remnant, we should have
been as Sodom, and we should have been like
unto Gomorrah.
A. God had left Israel a remnant.
1. A remnant is a small portion of the original.
2. God left Israel a small portion of righteous people in the
midst of a wicked and corrupt nation.
3. Isaiah was one of the remnant.
a. They were few in number, badly outnumbered by the
wicked.
b. But they knew God and God knew them and they had not
been corrupted.
c. God could use them if they were willing to be used.
B. God has left America a remnant.
1. You and I are part of it.
2. We are not much and we are badly outnumbered
3. But God can use us if we are willing to be used.
C. What must we do so that God can use us? The same things that
God told Israel’s remnant to do.
1. Get cleaned up.
Isaiah 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away
the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil;
a. To wash means to get rid of something that is staining
us. Sin has stained us.
(1) We need to get out of the dirt.
(2) Then we need to wash off the sinful stains.
b. How?
(1) The only way to get out of sin is to let Jesus
pull you out.
(2) The only way to get the sin stain out is to be
cleansed from sin.
(a) One of the most powerful cleaners in years
gone by was lye soap, but \\#Jer 2:22\\
says that won’t help remove sin.
(b) The only thing that will wash sin away is
the blood of Jesus Christ.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
2. Learn how to do right.
Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment,
relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow.
a. The word means to goad or to prod.
b. In order to get a stubborn animal to move where you
wanted it to go, they would get a stick and whittle
a sharp point on it.
c. The implication is that sin hurts.
(1) Learn from the pain it causes.
(2) So you have sinned. There is no sin that does
not hurt.
(a) If not your body, then your heart.
(b) If not your heart, then the heart of someone
who loves you.
(3) Why keep inflicting pain on yourself?
3. We need to think this out spiritually.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the LORD: though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool.
a. When God says "Let’s reason together," He is not
saying "Let’s make a deal."
b. He is saying, "Let’s think this thing through."
(1) Are you going to live forever?
(2) Can you control your eternity?
(3) Can you prove there is no God?
(4) So what is your plan?
c. God is saying, "Think about it!"
(1) God does not want you to follow Him blindly.
(2) God wants you to KNOW HIM. That means to figure
Him out.
D. If we will do these things, God will bless us. If we do not,
the only thing left is for God to judge us.
Isaiah 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye
shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be
devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken it.
It might not happen for a few years yet, but it will happen. As
surely has God judged Israel, God will judge the United States of
America—with one big exception. Israel’s judgment—as severe as it
has been, as long as it has lasted—is temporary. What will happen
to America will be permanent. Our name will fade into oblivion like
so many wicked nations before us. That is likely to happen one day
no matter what, but I would rather it not happen during my life 0r
the lives of my children and grandchildren.
Deja Vu - It has already happened to Israel. Let’s do what we can to
keep it from happening to us.
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