Sermon Video: The System is Broken - Isaiah 1:10-20

Where does the road to the cross begin? As we once again begin this week our Lenten journey, it is important that we remember that the road to the cross began long before the Son of God was born in Bethlehem. The need for a redemptive Messiah was clear at the Garden of Eden, and humanity’s inability to self-remedy the situation only grew more evident as the story of God’s interaction with man unfolds. In Abraham there was hope, a Covenant people was formed, but when clarity of God’s standard was shown through the Law of Moses the inability of mankind to live up to it was clear. God then sent prophets like Isaiah to warn his people of the consequences of disobedience, and it is through the eyes of Isaiah that this message, and the next five to follow, will look at the road to the cross.


How does God feel about half-hearted obedience? The people of Israel are raked over the coals in chapter one of Isaiah for thinking that they could continue lives both lacking in righteous deeds and full of sin and yet still appear before God with sacrifices, worship, and prayer. God rejects all such attempts by his own Covenant people, the people with whom he is supposed to have a relationship, as a father to his children, or a husband to his wife. The lack of real obedience by God’s people leads him to label their efforts as “meaningless”, “detestable”, and “burden” that he will no longer bear.

The same warning that applied to the descendants of Abraham applies to the Church today. Not to America, or any other nation, we have no Covenant with God, but to his universal Church, the bride of Christ, to whom the New Covenant has been given. If we do not root out sin in our midst, as individuals, families, and local churches, our acts of worship and prayer will be just as useless as Israel’s. God desires a relationship with his people, we cannot hope to please God if we don’t take our commitment to him seriously.

To watch the video, click on the link below: Sermon Video