098: Stephen Davis - Exhortation: Learning to Do Right

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

2. 0:33

   And now let's hear more about this week's talk. Hi, welcome back to Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. This is Brother Brian Adams from the Morristown, New Jersey Ecclesia. I have with me my wife, Rachel Adams. We wanted to start off by thanking Chris and Levi for their continued efforts and the help that this podcast has done.

3. 1:04

   They will be back in a few weeks. They're just taking a short break, but they'll be back for their historic 100th episode. For now, Rach, would you like to introduce today's podcast? Sure. So if you listened to last week's podcast about Grace and Ruth, you know the phrase, as it happened. And that very much is the case for today's podcast.

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   Brian and I have been going through old talks that we were at for different weekends and stuff and other ones people had recommended to us. And when we went to sign on for our Ecclesia live stream last week, it really just wasn't working. So as it happened, we tuned into the Stoughton Ecclesia up in Massachusetts, where Brian actually was a member of for until you were what, nine?

5. 1:49

   Yeah. And Brother Steve Davis gave an exhortation that was just so excellent and timely that we just said, forget it. We're going to do this one as our first talk. So, Brian, did you have any favorite points or parts for that exhortation that stood out to you? Yeah. So it was a very timely current events based exhortation.

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   Brother Steve opened with saying about to be July 1st. And were you happy with the first half of this year, 2020, and how it's going so far? Rhetorical question, because most people would say this has been a miserable start to their year. And he listed off a lot of the different things that most people would also agree have made this year really tough to endure so far.

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   The ongoing pandemic, the riots and protests about racial injustice, the economy just like tanking and people losing their businesses. But he decided to then give us some perspective by rolling it back and saying, what about generations before us? And he suggested 1968, where he said in 1968, you would have seen the assassinations of both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

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   The nation was in the grips of the Vietnam War, which was taking all different kinds of a toll on the morale. But then he rolled it back even more to suggest, what if you happen to be born in the year 1900? And then from there, it hits this murderer's row of milestones that no one wants to have lived through.

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   So World War I, when you're like a young teenager, the Great Depression, when you're a young man trying to start a family in the 1920s or early 30s. World War II, the Korean War, the ongoing Cold War threat. And he did this to exemplify that if you gave just a little bit of perspective, maybe what you're going through now is not as bad as what you might perceive it.

10. 3:49

    Hmm. And that's interesting that that was your favorite part, because you as a history teacher love when people tie in any history to their talks. But really, that was just kind of the introduction, the actual title of the talk, which I realize we haven't actually shared yet. The title of the talk was Learning to Do Right, Seeking Justice, and Coming to the Aid of the Oppressed.

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    And he spends a lot of the exhortation in Isaiah going through the sacrifices of the Israelites that were unpleasing to him, and that their worship was useless to him because he was more interested in their hearts. And he wanted them, too, to do this, to seek justice and come to the aid of the oppressed.

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    So I think my favorite quote from the entire exhortation was, Justice isn't political. It's biblical. And as he goes through Isaiah, he comes back to Christ's ministry in Luke 4. And when he goes to the temple in Nazareth, he quotes from Isaiah. And it's that verse in Isaiah which talks about the importance of learning to do right, seeking justice, and coming to the aid of the oppressed.

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    And it's almost like a mission statement for Christ's ministry. And I find myself sometimes getting caught up into almost too ritualistic of an attitude and just going through the motions and doing all the things. But what I loved about Steve's exhortation was that it was more than just doing things on the outside.

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    It was about changing your heart and trying to be more like Christ. And if you look at this, this first, I think it was Christ's first public words of his ministry in the temple. And for him to have said that this was pretty much the purpose of his ministry in quoting from Isaiah, I think is really important and especially timely now for us to listen to and consider.

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    Anything else you wanted to add about the talk today? It's definitely worth your time. Yeah. So this is an exhortation given at the Stoughton Ecclesia. It's pretty short. I think it was like a half hour sweet spot for exhortations. Spoken in English. Yeah. So, all right. We hope you enjoy it. And as Chris and Levi say, we hope you share it on social media and talk about it with your friends.

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    Family members. And of course, we would love to hear your thoughts as well. And if you have any other suggestions for the next few that we'll be putting on, we have some ideas, but we're always open to any other ones. So with that, we'll let you roll into the talk, which is entitled Seeking Justice and Coming to the Aid of the Oppressed by Brother Steve Davis.

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    Tuesday is going to be June 30th. We're halfway through the year. How do you like it so far? Yeah. Undoubtedly, 2020 has really been a challenging year for all of us. Between the health crisis, the tanking economy, the terrible levels of racial injustice, it's hard to imagine that things could ever have been worse.

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    I've heard some say that 2020 is the worst year in modern American history. But is that really true? When I was five, a few years before my memories became etched in my mind, or most of my memories anyway, the U.S. went through worse. The year was 1968. 1968. And most historians say that it was the most traumatic year we have ever experienced.

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    1968 was the year both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated after advocating for civil rights. Just this morning, I received an email from our brother Tracy Nichols. He said to me, I'd like to tell you about my first experience with racism when I was six or seven years old. Martin Luther King was assassinated, and I was returning with my mom when I heard the news.

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    It was the first time I heard the N-word used by white people. I also remember my best friend, who was a white boy and whose mother was good friends with my mother. One night, she allowed me to sleep over, and my friend woke me up in the night, and he said he had something to show me.

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    We ventured outside in the late hours of the night and climbed onto the building of the elementary school that we were attending. We crawled to the edge of the building, facing a town's high school football stadium. And there, Brother Tracy says, I witnessed a Ku Klux Klan rally, not truly understanding. This is our Brother Tracy, six or seven, eight years old, experiencing that.

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    What does that do to a person? 1968 was also the year of the Vietnam War. It's when the draft calls peaked, and there were 50 American servicemen that were being killed each and every day in combat. 1968 was the year that racist George Wallace led a powerful third-party political movement under the slogan, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.

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    And it seems shocking today to learn that this racist man got 10 million votes. You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes we look at history through too narrow of a lens. We tend to focus on the here and the now, forgetting what happened in the past. And I think this is why Moses, in his song from Deuteronomy 32, wrote and counseled us to remember the days of old.

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    Consider the days long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. You know, many years ago, I had an opportunity to sit down with one of our beloved ecclesial elders. It was our sister, Pat Sabian, before she fell asleep in the Lord. Pat told me about her experiences growing up in London during the Nazi bombing blitz of the city there.

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    Pat talked about her memories as a 12-year-old, how she could hear the Nazi planes flying overhead as she lay in her bed with the blackout curtains drawn. She told me about the percussion sound of the bombs exploding, sometimes far away, but sometimes very near. And if I recall correctly, she said that a bomb actually landed on their family's garage.

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    Of course, the damage wasn't just to property. Pat said she got used to having some of her friends and classmates stop showing up at school when they were killed after bombs landed on their homes. So when we think about 2020, brothers and sisters, perhaps a little perspective is helpful. For a small amount of perspective at this midpoint of granted a terrible year, imagine, though, that you were born in 1900.

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    On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and by the time it's over, 22 million people perish in the fighting. When you turn 18, the Spanish flu epidemic hits, and it kills 50 million people. Then on your 29th birthday, while you're starting to raise your family, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25% and the world economy stagnates, and this country grinds to a halt and nearly collapses.

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    If you were lucky, you were able to keep a job, but you probably only earned about a dollar a day. Then when you turned 40, World War II started. If you were like Pat Sabian's parents living in London or most anywhere in continental Europe, the bombing of your neighborhood or the invasion of your town by foreign soldiers with tanks and their artillery was probably a daily event.

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    Then between your 39th and your 45th birthday, you would have seen 75 million people perish in the war. Then came Korea and Vietnam and the Cold War. And as you neared retirement, the Cuban Missile Crisis almost led to the nuclear annihilation of the human race. And so for perspective, it's amazing to think back on the lives of our parents and our grandparents and their parents.

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    Perspective is an amazing art. Consider now the life of a Jew living in Jerusalem during the time of the Babylonian invasion of their land. I ask you to consider that because for the past several weeks, the middle portion of our Bible readings have led us through the prophetic book of Isaiah. And it's here where the prophet years earlier warned the people of the consequences of their sins.

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    And I'd like to ask you to turn to Isaiah chapter 1. And we're going to read about these warnings that Isaiah is delivering to the people. And in verse 2 of Isaiah chapter 1, he says, Hear, O heavens, listen, O earth, for Yahweh has spoken. I reared up children and brought them up, but they've rebelled against me.

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    God's children were rebelling against him. Verse 4, the prophet says, Ah, sinful people, the people loaded with guilt, a brood of evil doers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken Yahweh. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. So when we read about the people living in the city, we discover that they were worshiping God.

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    They were actually performing acts of law. They were going to the temple. They were offering the sacrifices. Look at verse 11. He says, The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me? And what we see here, brothers and sisters, is that God had no pleasure in the act that these people were performing because it wasn't impacting their hearts.

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    He says, I've had more than enough of the burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fatted animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who is asked of you this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing me meaningless offerings. Your incense is distestable to me.

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    He concludes in verse 15. He says, God says, I will hide my eyes from you. And then in verse 16, we start to understand why God was upset with the people, despite the fact that they were going to the temple, despite the fact that they were going through the process of offering sacrifices and at least ceremonially worshiping God.

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    He says in verse 16, Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. And what was it that they were to learn to do, brothers and sisters? Isaiah says it clearly here in the 17th verse. They were to seek justice,

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    encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, and plead the cause of the widow. He says, if you are willing and obedient, you will eat of the best from the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. And so Isaiah presents the people with the choice.

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    Learn to do right. Stop doing wrong. If you can do that, he says, you will not be devoured by the sword. But if you resist and rebel, you will be. And so when we read these words, brothers and sisters, we learn that seeking justice and defending the cause of the oppressed is not a political issue.

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    It's a biblical one. And we also read that seeking justice and defending the oppressed does not come naturally to us. We're inclined to do what's in the best interest of ourselves and of our family, even if it's at the expense of someone else. That's our human nature. That's our inclination to sin. And so Isaiah emphasizes in verses 17 that this is a process that needs to be learned.

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    We'll read it again, verse 17. Learn to do right. Verse 18. Come now, let us reason together. And so as we continue through chapter 1, Isaiah warns that if Israel does not do that, if they don't learn to do right, then God is going to judge the city by sending the nations to conquer Israel.

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    The invasion, he says, is going to be like a purifying fire that separates the dross from the silver, pulls out those impurities. Let's look at verse 25. I will turn my hand against you. I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. This is what God is saying. Verse 26.

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    The end of verse 26, he says, afterwards, after this purifying fire, you will be called the city of the righteousness, the faithful city. And he's showing that this purifying fire is designed so that Zion can be redeemed with justice and so that her repentant ones can experience righteousness. And then he goes on to say that rebels and sinners will both be broken.

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    They will be removed from the city. They will be the dross that's driven out, leaving only those repentant ones. Look at chapter 2. Verse 2. In the last days, the mountain of Yahweh's temple will be established as chief among the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it.

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    You see, this is God's plan that all families of the earth, all nations of the earth will be blessed through Israel. Verse 3. Many nations will come and say, come, let's go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, the God of Israel. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.

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    The law of the Lord will go out from Zion and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. These are the things, brothers and sisters, that Isaiah was encouraging the citizens of that city to look forward to. This was the carrot that would encourage them to do away with the evil ways that they were enduring.

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    And if we fast forward in time through the book, we sadly find that despite this promise of a mountain of the Lord's temple being established, the people, sadly, did not heed the prophet's warning. They did not learn to do right. They did not seek justice. They did not defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless.

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    And as a result, Isaiah condemns them. Flip over to the 29th chapter as we fast forward through the book. And we're going to look at verse 13. It says, Yahweh says, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men.

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    Therefore, once more, I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will perish. The intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord.

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    And so, there is this woe that is presented to the city. And next, in Isaiah chapter 39, Isaiah gives King Hezekiah a detailed prophecy about a coming Babylonian invasion and destruction. This is a hundred years before this actually took place. And he says to Hezekiah, the city will be invaded and destroyed. Look at verse 5.

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    Isaiah 39, verse 5. Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord Almighty. The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants in your own flesh and blood who will be born to you will be taken away.

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    And they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. And history tells us that these things came to pass exactly as Isaiah had prophesied. 2 Chronicles chapter 36 gives us the terrible details of the destruction of the city. The death of thousands of its inhabitants. And so when we look at our situation here in the year 2020, it pales in comparison to the events and the experiences of the Jewish inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem who witnessed firsthand an invading army that came into their city, set fire to their homes, set fire to the temple, killed their wives, killed their children, and dragged a remnant of those people across a hot desert sand 1,600 miles away to live and to weep by the rivers in Babylon.

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    But brothers and sisters, that's not the end of the story. The destruction of Jerusalem is not the end of the story. Isaiah spoke about this refining fire and about how the result of this refining fire would turn an old corrupted city into a beautiful new Jerusalem. Jerusalem. And this new Jerusalem would be the center of God's kingdom, a kingdom that would be inhabited by a family of believers who desire justice and who will become a blessing to all the nations of the world by teaching them about their God and his ways.

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    The new Jerusalem will be filled with the glory of the Lord just as the temple was before the destruction by the Babylonians. And this is what we read about in chapter 40 of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1 opens in a new scene. Not with the scene of the destruction but with a scene and a promise of hope.

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    It begins with the words comfort. Comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed. That her sin has been paid for.

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    Verse 3 A voice of one calling in the desert A voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Think about the people who are reading these words while held in captivity as hostages in Babylon. And knowing that there are thousands of miles apart from where they currently live to where they need to go.

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    And the words of comfort were that despite the fact that there is this gulf of separation between Babylon and Jerusalem there will be a highway that will make your travel back to the new Jerusalem easier. The hills will be brought low the valleys will be brought high it will not be a difficult walk for you.

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    The remnant who survived and who were later returned to Babylon they did survive. The remnant did survive. And they later returned from Babylon through the desert on a highway that was straight and easy to travel. And you'd think that that experience would cause them to bring good tidings to tell their neighbors and their friends about the wonderful things that God had done for them.

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    That they would be a witness to the nations. But that's not what happened. Despite the fact that God blessed them and brought them back on this easy way they harbored resentment and maybe rightly so. You can understand why they would resent having been in captivity all those years. But they should have been joyful that they had been returned to the land.

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    And instead of being a witness that proclaimed the good news the people began to complain just like they did when they left Egypt. Look at chapter 40 verse 27.

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    Why do you say this is God asking the rhetorical question why do you say oh Jacob and complain oh Israel my way is hidden from the Lord. despite the fact that God heard their prayers despite the fact that God brought them back from captivity they complained. And it's at this point when Israel complains that Isaiah introduces a character in the record that we know as the servant.

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    We find the servant introduced to us in chapter 42 and we know from the new testament that the servant is none other than Jesus the only begotten son of God. Turn now to chapter 42 verse 1. Here is my servant whom I uphold my chosen one in whom I delight I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

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    We see these same words brothers and sisters repeated at Jesus baptism in Luke and just so we don't miss the point John the Baptist first quotes from Isaiah chapter 40 when he describes himself as the one who prepares the way for the Lord by making paths through the desert easy to travel. Luke chapter 3 and I'm going to read chapter 3 verses 21 to 23 this is John the Baptist speaking and he says when all the people were being baptized Jesus was baptized too and as he was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice from heaven you quoting from Isaiah are my son whom I love and with you I am well pleased and so Jesus begins his ministry and he started by going to his hometown the place where he grew up with his friends and their families and Isaiah goes into the temple goes into the synagogue and where does he begin he begins by quoting from the prophet Isaiah in the very place where Isaiah focused on justice the very thing that the Jews in Isaiah's day had ignored so how did Jesus begin his ministry he begins it in his hometown in a synagogue by quoting from Isaiah turn to Luke chapter 4 verse 14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside he taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him he went to Nazareth where he had been brought up and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom and

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    he stood up to read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and unrolling it he found the place where it was written Jesus unrolled that scroll until he could get to the very point in the very passage that he wanted to emphasize to the people and what was it verse 18 the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind and to release the oppressed to come to the aid of the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's service and at this point in time brothers and sisters the glory of the Lord first came back to Jerusalem think about it the glory of the Lord never inhabited the temple after after the Babylonian invasion but now for the first time the embers are starting to grow again Jesus who is filled with the Holy Spirit is back in that city the glory of the Lord is there and what we see here is a glimpse it's the coming attractions of what the new Jerusalem will actually and eventually look like the old Jerusalem that was burned with the refiner's fire is showing its first signs of life the stump of Israel that had been cut down has now grown a shoot it's coming back to life let's turn back to the prophet Isaiah and we read in Isaiah 11 about this very prophecy about that stump that had been cut down by that fire and about how there was a promise that it would come

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    back to life Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse from his roots a branch will bear fruit the spirit of Yahweh will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and of understanding the spirit of counsel and power the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh and he will delight in the fear of Yahweh look what it says next he will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide what he hears with his ears but with justice he will judge the needy with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips and will slay the wicked righteousness will be his belt go down to verse 9 they'll neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Now brothers and sisters it's our hope it's our desire we might even say that it is our expectation that we will be a part of that great day the day when they will neither harm nor destroy on God's holy mountain the day when all the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and the reason that we can expect and hope for such a fate is because the suffering servant bore !

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    the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors so we're going to conclude our exhortation this morning by looking at today's reading in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 4 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed this is a year where we feel the need more than ever maybe for healing and as we now break bread to honor Jesus memory let's look forward to that day of healing when the troubles of this life will be resolved and when the earth will be restored to perfection but in the meantime let us preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God and tell our neighbors and tell our friends about the hope that we have for a better world and for a righteous king and for the end of all sin and suffering and injustice and brothers and sisters let us actively work within our lives within our families within our ecclesia within our neighborhoods to make the world a better place today by doing right by seeking justice and by coming to the aid of the oppressed in this tumultuous year we experience the joy and the comfort of knowing that by his wounds we are healed and as representatives of Christ as a light that is to shine before the world let us do our part in bringing healing to a broken world thank you for listening to the good Christ Delphine talks podcast

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