Series: Isaiah
Title: The Cause of Reprobation
Text: Isaiah 65: 11-12
Date: February 21, 2016
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Isaiah 65: 11: But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. 12: Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
Our subject is “The Cause of Reprobation.” Reprobation is God’s work of hardening a sinner’s heart due to the sinner’s willful rejection of the LORD God. In our text, God makes five charges, giving five reasons, why God turned almost all Israel over to reprobation. By these charges we will see that reprobation is just because men are guilty sinners who have rejected Christ for their own depraved will and work.
FIRST CHARGE—Isaiah 65: 11: Ye are they that forsake the LORD.
God gave Israel great advantage over all the nations in the earth. God gave them the law of commandments by which we are given a knowledge of our sin.
Romans 3: 19: Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:20: Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.
Romans 7: 7:…I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
God gave them the ceremonial law by which God shows in type that there is no approaching God except through faith in Christ our High Priest, our Lamb, our Mercy Seat.
Hebrews 10: 1: For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect…7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
God sent them the prophets who preached all flesh is grass, thy God reigneth! So the apostle Paul asks the question, “What advantage then hath the Jew?...Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” (Rom 1: 2) The same is true of each person hearing this message right now. You have great advantage in every way, chiefly because God has established his church where his gospel, his Son, is preached.
Yet, though they had all this advantage, God said, “Ye are they that forsake the LORD.” Therefore, God turned them over to reprobation. Whatever you do, do not ever turn your back on God and make your determination to have nothing to do with God.
GODS’ SECOND CHARGE—Isaiah 65: 11: Ye are they…that forget my holy mountain
Under the old covenant, God’s holy mountain was mount Zion, Jerusalem, where God’s temple stood, where God commanded his high priest would make yearly atonement for Israel at the mercy seat. That earthly mountain was a type of the worship of God and his Christ in his heavenly mount in the general assembly—the universal church—comprised of all God’s firstborn elect children.
Hebrews 12: 18: For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,…
Mt Sinai in the earth includes all that old covenant of works, the earthly Mt. Zion, the earthly Jerusalem, the earthly tabernacle, earthly priests, the blood of bulls and goats. But God’s people have not come to that mountain. We have come to God’s heavenly mountain, the universal church of God, where we hear Christ speak.
Hebrews 12: 22: But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23: To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24: And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 25: See that ye refuse not HIM that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Be sure to hear God! When the gospel is preached, it is Christ speaking from heaven. Where he has assembled his people, he said, “There I am in the midst of them.” (Mt 18: 20) When we could hear the gospel but we refuse to assemble with God’s people, we are refusing to hear Christ speak from heaven. Men who forsake Christ always forsake the assembling together with his people where Christ preaches the gospel to his people from heaven. If you break God’s law there is still salvation in Christ; but if you forsake Christ in God’s holy mountain there is no more salvation.
Hebrews 10: 24: And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.26: For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27: But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28: He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30: For we know [God] that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
If you ever have to move, make it your first priority to find God’s true church where Christ is exalted consistently and sinners are abased. Christ shall not lose one sheep. Any sinner who can forget the gospel and forsake Christ was not effectually called by God’s grace.
1 John 2: 19: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
GOD’S THIRD CHARGE—Isaiah 65: 11: Ye are they…that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
This is the charge of idolatry. Though Israel forsook God and forsook his worship, they never ceased being religious. In fact, they were very zealous. But Paul said it was not according to knowledge.
Romans 10: 3: For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
And remember, idolatry is in the unregenerate heart and mind. Some worshipped idols while outwardly they came to God’s temple, alongside the remnant of God’s elect people.
Isaiah 1: 10: Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12: When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13: Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15: And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 29: 13: Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 14: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15: Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? 16: Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Never imagine that just because you are religious, you are worshipping the true and living God.
John 4: 23: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Philippians 3: 3: For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
GOD’S FOURTH CHARGE TO THE REPROBATE—Isaiah 65: 12:…when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear;
Each time the gospel is preached, God sends forth his general call to everyone present. As we just saw, when it is a messenger God has sent, it is God speaking. Every time they heard God’s true prophet, God says, “when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear.”
Now, think about that! How many times have you heard God speak through this general call? Yet, how many times have you refused to hear? How many times have you refused to go home and study what you heard in God’s word? But each time you refuse the preacher’s word, it is not the preacher you refuse. God told Samuel, “It is not you they have rejected but me!”
I say this to myself and to everyone here—use every privilege God has provided you and use them consistently. Coldness, infidelity, reprobation does not come all at once. It usually comes slowly. Give diligence to hear God speak in his word. Give diligence to read the word of God. Walk in the light God has given you and he will give you more light but refuse and he will take away the gospel, harden the heart in sin--“For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.” (Mr 4:25)
GOD’S FIFTH CHARGE—Isaiah 65: 12:…but [ye] did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
Here, God declares that man’s reprobation is the result of man’s own will—“[ye] did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.” You and I will never be saved by our will. But if God leaves us to our will, we will certainly be destroyed and damned by it--“Ye did choose that wherein I delighted not.”
What do sinners choose that God does not delight in? Sinner’s choose tradition and man’s vain thoughts rather than God’s word in scripture. Men choose self-righteous works rather than the righteousness of Christ given through faith. Sinners choose a form religion rather than Christ who is the power of true religion. Sinners choose a course of sin rather than good works produced by Christ.
John 1:11: He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 8:45: And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
John 12:39: Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart;…
THEREFORE—Isaiah 65: 12: Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear;…
Throughout scripture, God’s condemnation of the reprobate is always attached to a “Therefore…” The sinner earns condemnation by things like these five charges. May God make me and you hear this solemn warning.
Proverbs 29: 1: He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
In Jeremiah’s day, Zedekiah, the chief priests and the people hardened their hearts and forsook God so they were the reason God turned them over.
2 Chronicles 36: 16:…they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
“Salvation is of the Lord.” Salvation is entirely by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. “Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” But condemnation is a wage earned by the sinner—“the wages of sin is death.” This is this message that God uses to give his child a repentant and believing heart. May God do so now!
Amen!