The Broken-Hearted Father

We're going to journey back into Isaiah's world to hear the story of the broken-hearted
Father. Because the broken-hearted Father is essentially the story of the Book of Isaiah.
Hear O heavens, listen O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I reared children and brought
them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's
manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. He was a wonderful father,
by any account. He only wanted the best for his children. He had established his family,
and he loved them and cared for them in every way imaginable. He withheld no good thing
from them at any point in their life together as a family. The family had been around for
a very long time, and you know not once did the father ever fail his children. He protected
them. They were safe and secure. He provided a home for them with such comforts and prosperity
that made his children the envy of others. In return, all this father wanted was respect
and honor from his children. He longed for that to be expressed in a glad-hearted obedience
by his children in response to him and his love. He longed for it to be seen in the way
that the children lived as a family, so that the family maim might be put out there, that
others might also recognize him and honor him as the great father he is and that he
deserved to be honored as. Surely you'd say that's not too much to expect. Surely that's
the least children spoiled like these children could do in return for such love. Surely that
would be the obvious expression of their love in response to the father's unfailing love.
But you see, surprisingly the story doesn't go like that. Surprisingly the children rebel,
and this isn't just the ordinary little bit of teenage rebellion that you'd expect in
the family. No, this is much more deep-seated, much more long-lasting. These children rebel
seriously. They despise their father's love and commitment. They despise his devotion
and care. So severe is their rebellion that they now only have a relationship which is
token relationship. They relate to the father only in a remote and formal way when it suits
them. In fact, it's reasonable to say they've gotten to the point where they've actually
lost all appreciation, all respect for their father. In fact, the father says they're more
dumb than the farm animals. That's a big call for the father, isn't it? Because he says
at least the farm animals recognize the basics of who feeds them and cares for them, but
not my children, says the father. My children can't even recognize that. You can feel how
broken-hearted the father must be, can't you? This father pushed to the very limits, angry
and hurt at the way his children had treated him so terribly, now decides to go public
because everyone in the world needs to hear his story and how his children have treated
him in response to his unfailing love. His story is a sad story. It's the story of how
in the past these children pushed him to implement more and more disciplinary measures to address
their rebellion because, after all, he loved them. He wanted to bring them to their senses.
What father wouldn't do that? It's also the story of how they continued to rebel. They
continued to despise him. They ignored his warnings. They provoked him more and more
and forced him into more and more severe disciplinary tactics. This story of this broken-hearted
father is also the story of how the father was left with no other option but to introduce
a whole new level of discipline, a severity of judgment hitherto unseen in the family.
The broken-hearted father decided he had no option but to withdraw relationship from his
children. He even decided they would have them forcibly removed from the family home.
Such an embarrassment were they to him as the father of that home. They would be removed
from the privilege they had so much enjoyed over so many years. Things had come to that
point, sad as it is. As a father, he would no longer put up with the rebellion. They'd
pushed the father over the edge and now they were going to have to wear the consequences,
feel the full force of his anger and judgment on the behavior. But, you know, it's also
a story that's full of hope. Because in all of this, the father remains very, very clear
that he has not given up on his wayward children. He continues to love them. And this love will
be seen clearly in the future. Everybody will know it, says the father, because this family
is going to be put back together again. This family is going to be fixed up. I'm going
to see to it personally, says the father, in spite of the rebellion, in spite of their
callous treatment of me. Punishment will give way to reconciliation and renewed relationship.
Yes, says the father, I'm going to deal with the rebellion and ultimately I'm going to
bring my children back home where they belong. I'm going to change them from the inside out
so that finally they might be the obedient children I long for them to be, so that once
again I can be the generous father that I want to be. Friends, this is the story of
the book of Isaiah. And of course, you'll have caught on already that's the story of
the Lord's dealings with his children, what we know as the people of Israel. His special
people. And I chose to resume this series on Isaiah in this way because I want you to
understand why Isaiah is commonly called the masterpiece of the Old Testament. You
don't first think that when you look at Isaiah because it's a very long book, 66 chapters.
The style of writing is almost like a foreign language to us. Speaks of countries and histories
and events that we've scarcely even heard of, let alone feel as if we can be comfortable
with and understand how it all fits together. As a result, many Christians have just ignored
the book of Isaiah. Others have tried to read through Isaiah only to get bogged down because
the details just overwhelm them and they haven't got a big picture of the book that helps them
to put it all together in a context. I want to encourage you, each one of you, regardless
what your relationship with Isaiah in the past has been, I want to encourage each one
of you to go and read this masterpiece. And to do so, say to yourself, it is not as difficult
as it might first appear. I want to encourage you to see it's an exciting book to dig into.
It's a book full of emotion because it's about this broken-hearted father and what he's doing
with his children, all in the context of finally bringing them back home, mended from the inside
out. Now, make no mistake, Isaiah will require hard work. It's not just going to be like
Googling something and getting a one-paragraph answer. It will require hard work but it will
yield rich rewards for work and time invested into it because it shows us a wonderful picture
of God. It shows us the heart of our God. It tells us about God's commitment to His
people and His determination to undo the effects of sin and to make things right in His world,
to fix up the mess that we've caused. What a God, what a picture that is. And most of
all, it introduces us to the gospel of Jesus more than 600 years before Jesus was born.
It's a wonderful story, a sad story of this broken-hearted father being pushed to the
edge in his dealings with his children. That's a great story. And now I want to put the story
of the broken-hearted father into the main structure of the book of Isaiah. So if you
want, now we're moving to chapters and verses divisions but underpin or overlay that story
of the broken-hearted father and you won't go wrong in Isaiah. And hopefully you'll see
the book open up to you as those two go together. And it's not as difficult, as I say, as you
may have previously have thought. Now, as we turn back in our Bibles to Isaiah Chapter
1, we're traveling to what is called the Ancient Near East. God's people historically
are now split into two separate kingdoms. Next one please. We've got the Northern Kingdom
of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The year is 740 BC, the year King Uzziah died
we're told. And according to Chapter 6, Isaiah was commissioned by God for the special task
of being God's voice to his rebellious people, the people of the Southern Kingdom of Judah,
the capital of which was Jerusalem. In Chapters 1 to 6 are Isaiah's introduction. Like any
book, there's an introduction. Chapters 1 to 6 is that introduction where everything's
given in summary. In the context we see the task of Isaiah set forth. It's a two-part
commission that the Lord gives Isaiah. His first task as God's spokesman was to announce
to the people of Judah that God's judgment was about to fall. The rebellion had been
so persistent, so perverse, that God had finally gotten to the point of saying, enough is enough.
They're about to be forcibly removed from the family home because of their persistent
rebellion. And what was going to happen to the people in the Southern Kingdom of Judah
was just what had already happened to God's people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
So Isaiah comes with two things. One, he comes with a word of God saying, God's judgment
is going to fall if you persist in your rebellion. But he also come armed with an audio-visual
from the Northern Kingdom. He says, look, the same will happen to us as had just happened
there if we continue to rebel. Their rebellion brought them destruction. The Lord says the
same will happen for us.
In Chapter 1, verse 10 to 17, the part that was read to this morning, we see something
of why the Lord is forced to this point. In those verses, it speaks of God's people
like Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember, this is God's own people being spoken to by none
less than the Father himself. This is where it's come to. And these people have this sort
of lip service relationship with the Lord. They're still offering their sacrifices. They're
still saying their prayers. But they have no respect for God, no ultimate response to
him. They're just using God when it suits them, going through the motions. And in fact,
worse than that, they've developed a love not for the Lord, but for foreign gods and
all the sexuality that's associated with worshiping foreign gods in the land of Canaan.
This turning away from the Lord was seen in every aspect of society as God's law was ignored.
And those verses were read to us. There's just this list. There's no justice. There's
no morality. There's no caring relationship. Society has fallen apart, all because they
first turned away from the Lord. They've lost their bearings. They've lost their compass
by which to steer society. And the Lord says it's all going to come crashing down. It has
to. For my name's sake, says the Lord. And God's holiness, chapter 6, is the background
to this impending judgment. Because the Lord is the holy, holy, holy Lord, he must, as
a loving father, act to stop this debacle that's bringing his name into disrepute right
across the world. That's the introduction. But more specifically, as we follow through
this task that Isaiah has of announcing God's judgment, the Lord's judgment would come through
real historical events. And these real historical events would be the kingdoms of Assyria and
then Babylon. Two rising military powers. World powers. Mighty military nations. And
the Lord, we're told in subsequent verses, has just whistled one of them. Come on, boys.
Come and do my work for me. The Lord would use the Assyrians as his tool of judgment
on his own people. And then he would use the Babylonians to forcibly remove them from the
family home and take them away from the promised land into exile. And so the first 39 chapters
of Isaiah are a record of this ministry of judgment over a 50-year period or something
like that as it played out in real historical and political events. And so the historical
and political events are just seeing God's kings. First King Ahaz, chapter 13 to 27,
and then King Hezekiah, chapter 28 through to 39, making their choices. Will we listen
to God's word? Will we listen to the word that comes from around us saying, well, look,
yes, there's security in military alliance with Egypt or Babylon or Tyre or Sidon or
some of these other places. Will we look for security in economic prosperity or will we
look for security in the Lord's word? These are the real life events in which Isaiah's
word plays out. And we see the consequences through those chapters. But Isaiah was also
clear right from his very introduction that judgment would eventually give way to salvation
and restoration for God's people. Look at chapter 1, verse 18, for instance, 18, 19,
and 20. The Lord's just spelled out this litany of terrible, terrible crimes and sins and
rebellion. And then he says, verse 18, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the
land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of
the Lord has spoken. Judgment will give way to reconciliation and restoration. And the
second part of the book occurs in chapter 40. Now, for those of you who are reasonably
new to the church, you'll have missed all this. We started this quite some time ago
now, a few years ago now. We've just been slowly working through section by section.
But chapter 40 is a big transition point in the whole book of Isaiah because that's when
the second part of the commission cuts in. The time of judgment, the word of judgment
now gives way to the word of reconciliation. And so chapter 40 starts with these wonderful
words that are very familiar to us all, no doubt. Speaking the words of the Lord, Isaiah
says, 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. The picture
there is of Israel in jail. She's been in clink. She's been doing hard time, hard labor.
But now, the sentence has come to an end. And now, the future opens up with the possibility
of restoration, more than possibility, the promise of restoration and renewed relationship.
And so Isaiah is now to speak tenderly to the people words of real comfort because the
Lord has not finished with his people. What a wonderful thing that is to come out in the
second half of Isaiah. In the midst of ongoing sin, the Lord's words ring really loud and
give some security and bring order into chaos. The Lord has not finished. The Lord has not
with his people yet. There's more chapters to be written. And salvation and restoration,
which was always in the background, even in the ministry of judgment, now becomes the
dominant theme in the last 26 chapters. And what Isaiah is doing here in these chapters
is starting to look into the prophetic future, as it's called. He's looking into the future
with his mind's eye. And he looks ahead and beyond the exile which they're now experiencing.
And he sees what God has in store for them in the future. And he says to his people,
people, be of good courage because the Lord has not finished with us. There's more. We
will have a physical deliverance back from exile into the family home. But more than
a physical deliverance, because we'll still be sinful, we will have a spiritual deliverance.
The Lord will actually deal with our hearts and changes from the inside out so that we
might be the children he wants and allow him then to be the generous father, the tender
father that he wants to be to us. Demolition would give way to reconstruction. Judgment
and exile would give way to deliverance, blessing, and salvation.
And so Isaiah's task then is to speak words of comfort. But there's the problem. You see,
what words would comfort God's people when they're now at this stage totally shattered
as a nation? They've been shipped away from the promised land and they're now in exile
in Babylon in a foreign culture being dissipated through that kingdom. When they feel as if
God's abandoned them, when they feel as if the covenant promises are gone, what words
will bring comfort to God's people in such situation? Well, there's two related things
that Isaiah brings through time and time and time again. And the nice thing about Isaiah
is that themes are repeated. They're variations on a theme because God's people like us today
are slow learners. We need to see God's words applied in this situation and then applied
in that situation, then applied in that situation, applied in that situation. Same theme, different
application because of different situations. And that's what happens in chapter 40 through
to 66. Twin themes. First theme is that God's character and purpose will mean physical deliverance
from exile. Chapter 40, verse 5. Look at it. The glory of the Lord will be with you in
the next verse. The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will
see it for the mouth of the Lord is spoken. Ultimately, why does God promise that he will
restore his people? Because at stake, his own reputation. God will act in the future
not primarily because of his people but primarily because of his own reputation. God has said
and promised certain things about his special people and about himself. He's promised that
in a very public way and he intends to follow through and make sure that the whole world
knows that he's delivered on his promises. His promise was that out of this ragtag nation
called Israel, he would raise up a community that would so bring honor and glory to him
that the whole world would know that he is the living Lord, the one Lord of heaven and
earth. That's a big call, isn't it? Especially when you look at the state of this nation.
But the Lord will see it through for his own name's sake. God's covenant still stands.
They have been forgiven. Once again, they'll enjoy God's mercy and blessings. Best of all,
they're homeward bound. He's going to bring them back into the family home, chapters 40,
verses 3 and 4. The Lord will actually come to Babylon and get them and take them home.
Isaiah's comfort to God's people is this. People, you need to realize that the problem
has not ever been on God's side of the equation. God has always loved you. God has never failed
you. God continues to love you. He will work out his purpose in you. The problem has always
been sin and rebellion on our part as a people. God's covenant purposes are clear and strong
as ever. Isaiah spells them out verse after verse, situation after situation in the chapters
that follow on from here. God's majesty, God's power, God's generosity, God's gracious provision,
it's all spelled out in great detail here. It's all under the umbrella of sin that now
we're moving into this phase of restoration and salvation that every aspect of God's character
is now going to be applied for the good of his people as God's character was applied
for their punishment. The same character now guarantees God's purposes will be secure in
the future. Chapter 40 verses 9 to 11, put it all in a much more close emotional language.
Isaiah says, look, you can be sure that the future is bright. You can be sure that things
will work out as the Lord says because at the end of the day, says Isaiah, well the
Lord has punished you. What we need to say about the Lord is that he can't help but be
a shepherd. He can't help but love his people. Sure, the shepherd sometimes has to take his
flock and get them going in the right direction again, but he can't help being a shepherd.
There's your comfort, says Isaiah, as we look into the future in our mind's eye of faith.
He will be severe yet generous. He cannot ignore their sin and will deal with it severely,
but in the future, the joy of restored blessings to his renewed people will easily overshadow
the time of discipline. As Isaiah says through these chapters, we see the thing coming around
and around again. If you're going to appreciate God's grace in the future, then the key for
doing that is to become aware of your own sin in the present. As Isaiah is constantly
hitting God's people with the need for an honest self-appraisal to say, well look, the
problem has never been God, the problem has always been ours, and we just need to fess
up and realize just how awful our rebelliousness has been. And in the light of that, says Isaiah,
we'll see even greater then, in a greater way, the grace and provision and generosity
of the Lord as we look and anticipate future grace.
The second aspect of comfort is that God also intends their spiritual deliverance because
Isaiah is very clear and the Lord is under no illusion that even when he brings them
back from exile in the future, that the problem of sin is still going to be there. They've
got the same hearts and so the same cycle will happen again unless the Lord does something
to break that cycle. Unless the Lord changes them from the inside out, then we'll do it
all again. That's exactly that second theme that's introduced as words of comfort. We'll
see more of it as we get back into the detail next week, but let me just introduce that
second word, that second theme of comfort. And it's bound up in the notion of a mysterious
figure that appears called the servant, the servant of the Lord. National Israel was called
by the Lord my child or my servant, but national Israel had failed dismally to be the sort
of servant that actually brought honor to the father, to their master. They cannot do
what's right. They cannot do what's necessary to bring honor to the Lord. History shows
that and the future will be no different. Therefore, as a servant nationally failed,
but the most amazing part of God's comfort is that he introduces a new theme to him,
that he will provide an alternative servant. Where servant national Israel has failed,
this other servant who appears in these pages and becomes more and more clear as we move
through the chapters, this servant will not fail. He will do what the nation Israel had
failed to do. He will be the righteous one. He will live as a child ought to live in obedience
and bringing honor and respect to the father. And through him, the whole world will see
what a great father the Lord is. And so God's people are encouraged to do what the Lord
has encouraged to look to this servant who would be one of the nation, who would arise
from the nation, but would be a special defining person, a person who would actually change
them from the inside out, change them where they need to be changed, to bring a spiritual
deliverance as well as a physical deliverance so that they could actually at some point
in the future, by the emphasis and the work of this special servant, actually be able
to be the children that God wants them to be. That's allowing God to be the father,
the generous, tender father that he longs to be.
Well, there's the survey, my friends, trying to get us back into Isaiah. I don't know whether
that's hooked you up or not. Some of you have just become the Isaiah for the first time
ever probably. Some of you, well, I don't suspect anybody will remember any of the past
sermons because it's a while ago. I'm a bit of a realist. But regardless, hopefully that
survey will excite you about getting back into the book of Isaiah because it truly is
the most amazing book in the Old Testament. So can I encourage you over the next few weeks
to do two things? Can I encourage you to actually go and try and read it for yourself? Using
that overlay or underpinning, whichever way you want to say it, of that broken-hearted
father story.
This afternoon I'll be handing out some, for those of you who don't know me all that well,
I love diagrams. So I've sort of summarized the first 50 chapters in four diagrams according
to the theme. So if anybody wants those, that might help you read it. Whatever help, there's
lots of good comedies out there, but just have a go. Because as you get into the book
of Isaiah, it will show you the heart of God for His people. And my friends, surely that's
something we all need to see and hear and feel. Jeremy at Sarah Delft this morning was
saying, don't we often feel that our world sort of isn't what we want it to be? Well,
let's not focus on the world, let's focus on the heart of our God for us as people.
Even though it pains the Lord terribly, He loves His children enough to discipline them
severely until at the end of the story, chapter 66, the children, they are children who are
humble and contrite in spirit and who properly hear God's word and obey. Now just imagine
that, a father that loves his children enough to do what needs to be done to bring his children
to his senses. But more than that, who actually does what his children most need, that is
changes them from the inside out. And this goes beyond what any human father can do,
doesn't it? To actually change his children from the inside out so they actually want
to be the thing that the Lord wants them to be. He perseveres through all the rubbish
that his people throw to him. There's the heart of our God and you'll find that as you
read through Isaiah. What a wonderful picture of our God. Strong and severe in discipline
as a good father ought to be, yet personal and loving. Not satisfied just to discipline,
not satisfied just to be negative and destructive, but always about creating new and better relationships.
And God is our Father who finishes what He starts. That theme is taken up in the New
Testament and Philippians. Friends, here is your God in Isaiah. Can I encourage you
over the next four or five or six weeks as we're preaching through the last few chapters
to get in and discover your God and appreciate Him and respond to Him and be honest before
Him as you identify with these rebels despising His love and treating with contempt is not
His gracious provision for us on a daily basis. Think about this. Gordon and I meet together
on a Friday morning sometimes. We were just thinking about this on Sunday morning. It's
been a long week. Whatever day it was, we got together. It did happen. How our sin adds
to the broken heartedness of our God. As Christians, God sent Jesus into the world precisely to
do away with that which is so offensive to Him. It changes so as we actually have a heart
to do what's right and to choose not to do what's displeasing to the Lord. Therefore,
if we're casual about our sin or we're still and we all do this, if we have areas of sin
in our life that we secretly want to hold on to because we just simply like it, then
picture the broken hearted father saying, what more can I do? What more can I do? I've
not even held back my own son. Put it positively. If we sense God's grace, if we know God's
love, if we know anything of God's commitment to us, then wouldn't we want to respond to
Him in love to such a father? I can remember over so many years, in fact probably the whole
of my life, I had such a high regard for my dad that I would do anything to make sure
that I didn't hurt him in any way. Now, if that's what I do for my father, human father,
how much more should that be my attitude for my heavenly father? He has done infinitely
more for me. Here is your God in Isaiah. Look for Him. Love Him. Respond to Him. The second
thing and reason why I would encourage you is to find Jesus in Isaiah. Six hundred years
before He's born. Find the whisper of Jesus. I used that phrase when we started the series
years ago. I still think it's a good phrase even though I'm sort of patting myself on
the back. It starts off as a whisper of Jesus and as we move through Isaiah's chapters,
it becomes a very clear clarion call. As this mysterious figure of the servant emerges from
the mind's eye of faith of Isaiah until we get to Isaiah 52 and we'll see it in a couple
of weeks, this suffering servant who will actually be the one who will die for our sins.
This is God's plan from the start of the world. We can, in Isaiah, see it come to life in
the midst of failure and sin and rebellion and awfulness. God's purpose comes to life
as this wonderful savior figure steps to the fore and says, I will do for you that
which you could never, ever do for yourself. And you will get through me the benefits of
righteousness and perfect relationship with the Lord that you could never, ever achieve
on your own resources. The problem with sin is massive. The problem
with their sin is massive, but the figure of the servant dwarfs the problem of sin.
My friends, when you read Isaiah, we're in a brilliant position because we've actually
experienced that which Isaiah could only see with his mind's eye. We actually know the
servant as the person of Jesus. We know that internal renewing and the benefits of new
life and new relationship through his death and resurrection.
That's good news, is it not? Good news ought to cheer us up. True? Good news ought to bring
comfort to us. True? So as Christians, we should love to read God's word, any part of
God's word, but we should love to have the challenge to read Isaiah ahead of us over
the next few weeks because Isaiah will help us appreciate Jesus even more so that the
good news of Jesus will become even better news in our ears. So as we see grace in the
past through Jesus, we can anticipate future grace as God says even to us and Jesus, I've
not yet finished with you. But by the same token, and I finish on this,
let me remind those of you this morning who are here, but who are not Christians, of a
truth that's equally firm. That's the truth of the truth.
And real when you flip the coin. See there's no comfort for you this morning in God's word
if you're still determined to rebel against the Lord and reject the very means by which
he says your sin can be dealt with. That is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I have to tell you that while I offer comfort of the richest form to those who are Christians
here this morning, I have to tell you that there's no comfort for you because you still
have nothing ahead of you but the impending destruction of God's anger, God's righteous
anger at your rebellion because God won't overlook it. You won't just be able to sneak
in. Don't think for a moment that your sin and rebellion is not seen by God and that
somehow you can just slip into the comfort zone without actually acknowledging your sin
and confessing your sin before the Lord and taking hold of that very thing that the Lord
says is meant to deal with your sin. That is the death and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't think God hasn't noticed. Don't think it will go unpunished.
A true understanding of the seriousness of your position, if you're not a Christian,
should rob you of any comfort. But you see, that doesn't have to be the end of the story
for you this morning either because God is that loving Father. He wants to be a shepherd.
He wants you as his rebellious child to come to him and say,
Yep, I've stuffed it up majorly. I've created a mess that I cannot clean up.
But I believe, Lord, that you're gracious to clean up my mess for me in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you today, Lord, that's all I want. To be brought back
into the family home, into a new relationship with you. Let's pray.
Lord, your word is powerful, but we are in danger, Lord, of trivializing it by the way
we treat it. So I pray this morning that the power of your word might speak forth for itself
and not in any shape or form be limited or trivialized by my attempts to explain it.
Speak to us, Lord, each individually and all of us together. Help us to see you as
a loving Father, heart broken at our sin and yet unperturbed in your purpose to see that
problem of sin resolved in the Lord Jesus Christ. And help us, Lord, to respond to it.
Help us to respond to Jesus personally and then respond practically in our lives during
the week. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.