Subtraction before gaining (Isaiah 3-4)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, May 30, 2010

Concerning the breakup of the engagement and the wedding of our brother and sister in our church, I would like to take little bit of time to help you make sense of it.

• You are not married until you walk down the aisle as husband and wife.
• Engagement period is for preparing for marriage, but it is also a buffer time when a couple can make their choice not to marry each other for various reasons.
• It is not my place to elaborate for the reasons for their breakup. But, I will say this much. Although it is hard to see right now if any good can come out of this breakup, I believe that God is in control and he is working in their lives. They’ve worked earnestly through many issues during the premarital counseling sessions. However, in honesty they realized that there were things about their personal convictions and values that couldn’t be reconciled for marriage. And, I want you church to know that it is okay for them to dissolve the engagement and wedding in the light of what they’ve discovered about themselves and about each other.
• To do what’s right for the right reasons takes great courage and dependence in the Spirit of God. And, it is never late to do what’s right even it meant calling off the wedding.
• I am sure you are wondering how you can care for our brother and sister.  Let me suggest some ways for you. 
  • You need to be convinced of the gospel that God is at work and he is in control even in the heart wrenching breakup of engagement and wedding. If you are not sure that God is at work in times like this, you will not be much help to them; you will actually become hindrance to what God wants to accomplish in their lives.
  • You need to know that at times God takes things away from us that we depend on for pleasure and self-sufficiency in order to point us to Jesus Christ as our sufficiency.
  • The best way to help them is to soak them with your prayer. They are both suffering from massive heartaches that God will need to heal.
  • Call them, email them, text them to let them know that you support them, that God is at work. Pray for them in person, on the phone.
  • Offer them your listening ears and understanding and that you are there for them if they want to process with you. Offer your shoulders for them to cry.
  • Don’t participate in gossiping or speculating. Don’t participate in blaming game. If you must know, ask them personally.
  • Remember… we are a gospel community. In all circumstances, we need to trust in the power of the gospel to birth something beautiful and life changing from ugly and messy situations.

Now, for the message, I said earlier that at times God takes things away from us that we depend on for self-sufficiency and pleasure in order to point us to Jesus Christ as our sufficiency and our joy. That is the nature of the gospel. Gospel of Christ turns us away from the world and turns us to Christ. Paul said it well when he said in Philippians 3:7, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” The gospel requires subtraction before gaining, subtracting the idols of self-sufficiency and pleasure in order to gain the sufficiency and joy in Christ.

Jesus explains it this way in Matthew 16:26, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Eugene Peterson paraphrases it like this, “What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Who wouldn’t want to gain the whole world? But, if adding the whole world to your possession means losing your life, you understand that this is not a sound proposition. It is a bad deal. Really, who wants to gain the whole world but only to lose your soul, your life?

Subtraction of the idols of self-sufficiency and pleasure must take place before your soul can be sufficient in Christ alone. Something must go, something must be taken out, something and everything that blinds you from seeing God as your true support and supply for your existence they all have to go. Chapter 3 deals with that which must be taken out while chapter 4 envisions what God wants to give.

Subtraction: What must be taken away?

In chapter 3, we see God doing a demolition work. Here is how C. S. Lewis saw our problem in his book Mere Christianity. He wrote, “You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.” Because God’s vision is to build a place, a dwelling for himself, C. S. Lewis wrote, God “starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.” So, what is God after? What is God trying to demolish in order to realize his vision?

Unbelief (chapter 3:1-15)

What we see in 3:1-15 is God rooting out unbelief in him.

Isaiah 3:1 says God was taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah all supplies of food and all supplies of water. And, from Isaiah 3:2-15, we see God taking away both the legitimate and illegitimate leadership: hero, warrior, judge, prophet, elder, the captain of fifty, man of rank, counselor, craftsman (ESV skillful magician) and the legitimate leaders of soothsayer (diviner, fortune teller) and clever enchanter (the expert in charms).

All the supplies and support came from God. And, God established the leadership among them to remind them who is their true support and supplier. But, the leadership was corrupted. They were practically atheists who denied God of all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful.

When God took away the corrupted leadership that people trusted in, we see people desperately trying to fill the leadership vacuum; They put up boys to be their officials; mere children to govern them (Isaiah 3:4). We know it didn’t work because we see in Isaiah 3:5 the nation engulfed in chaos of oppression and uprising. The country became so poor and devastated that if you simply owned a cloak, if you had a coat to wear, that is if you were little better off than the rest, then you could become a leader. But, the reality was that no one wanted to step up and lead because they have forgotten who God is and what God was after. God was after building his Kingdom, but the Israelites were trying to build their own little territory without God.

Isaiah 2:20 says, “Stop trusting in a man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” The Israelites trusted in leadership that was against God. Isaiah 3:8 says that their words and deeds were against the LORD, and they defied God’s presence. Another word, they talked and acted as though they didn’t believe God could see their wrongdoings, or, perhaps, believed that God would just be silent and unmoved by their wrongdoings. Their words and their actions showed unbelief in God who is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful God. Again, practically speaking, they were atheists. So, it makes sense what we read in Isaiah 3:14-15. Since the leaders and the elders behaved like atheists, they had no fear in plundering and crushing the poor, the helpless whom God looked after.

• How about us? Are we Christian atheists? We say we believe in God, but in practice do we reject God who is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful God? Can you think of the ways you may defy God’s glorious presence, talk and act as though God cannot or doesn’t care to see when you wrong or when you don’t do what’s right?

Vanity of self-obsession (Isaiah 3:16-26)

What happens to a nation when the leaders become practical atheists? When the leaders ignore all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God, what happens to the people? It creates self-obsessed people who only have eyes for luxury and comfort.

When you take your eyes off of God who is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful, God who has his mission for you to make him known in this world, you cannot help but look to yourself. That’s what we see in 3:16-26. When the male leadership of the nation squandered away their God given mandate to lead the nation to make God known in the world, their women became proud and self-obsessed. They became obsessed with everything that made them beautiful, ornaments, headbands, crescent, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, veils, scarves, ankle bracelets, sashes, perfumes, charms, rings, jewels, party clothes, gowns capes, purses, mirrors fine linen garments, head ornaments, and shawls, perfume, rope, elegant hair… The list goes on.

But, Isaiah 3:18 says, “In that day the LORD will snatch away their finery.” Isaiah 3:24 echoes, “instead of beauty, branding.” Instead of fragrance, stench, instead of well-dressed hair, baldness, instead of beauty, branding… NLT makes it clearer, “Shame will replace her beauty.”

• Think about your life. Are you obsessed with yourself? Do you spend most of your time trying to appear put-together, confident, competent, and beautiful? Do you realize that all your effort to appear put-together will amount to nothing? Do you realize that all your beautifying obsession will amount to shame?

What does God want to give you?

So, we see God is after getting rid of unbelief in him who is all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful, we see that God is after getting rid of vanity of self-obsession.  Now, what is that God want to give us in place of unbelief and vanity of self-obsession?

Isaiah 4:2 says that “In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful an d glorious…”  The Branch of the LORD is a Messianic title that points to the rule of Christ. The true leadership and beauty are not derived from human leadership, nor from things we put on, nor from the persona we put out. True leadership and true beauty comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 4:3 and 4… here, we see God envisioning us as those left in Zion, as the remnants and holy because Jesus washes away our filth from sins and our mistreatment of others. God wants to transform us from being plagued with unbelief and vanity to being covered by his grace, his kindness, his power of forgiveness.

Isaiah 4:5-6… here, we see God envisioning us under his proactive canopy in the desert, covered by his cloud of smoke by day and flaming fire by night, a shelter and shade from the heat of day, a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.  This is one of the most beautiful images of what God wants to give us.  These verses remind me of what apostle John wrote in John 1:14.  “The Word [the Son of God] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus is the canopy, a shelter and shade, a refuge and hiding place. He is our full support and our full supply. He is our true leader, he is our true beauty. That’s what God wants to give us, his Son Jesus Christ to dwell in us. Isn’t that great?  The gospel seeks to change the idolaters like you and me who sees the universe with ourselves at the center of it^[1], to people who see the universe with Jesus at the center as our true leader and as our true beauty.

Consider what Oswalt wrote in his commentary.

We have sinned in our lust for comfort, pleasure, and security, and we are now experiencing those results. But it is not a cruel God who brings those things upon us, and it is not a rejecting God who abandons us to the fire. Rather, it is a loving God who sees no other way to bring us to the place where he can live in us.^[2]

He is talking about God’s pruning working of subtracting unbelief and vanity of self-obsession.  God takes away precisely because he loves us in order to give us the best that he can give us, his Son Jesus Christ.  That’s love. 

Do you know what must be subtracted in order to gain Christ as your true leader and your true beauty?

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^[1] Oswalt, J. (2003). The NIV Application Commentary: Isaiah (101). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

^[2] Oswalt, J. (2003). The NIV Application Commentary: Isaiah (107). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.