On a day mutually agreed upon by Paul and some of the Jewish leaders of Rome, a contingent of Israel gathered at Paul’s rented lodging.
From morning until evening the Apostle preached and discussed the Scriptures with those people.
but he also knew that others were just getting angry and more resolved to reject what he was saying.
There was no unanimity in group.
In fact the prophesy of the Lord Jesus once again proved to be true.
For from henceforth there shall be 5 in one house divided, 3 against 2, and 2 against 3.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”
“Some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not.”
As the group got up to leave, Paul reached back into the Book of Isaiah and paraphrased one more scripture.
It came from one of the more famous sections of the book.
Isaiah had been serving the Lord as God’s prophet for some time, but he was like a young baseball player in the minor leagues.
In chapter 6 that young prophet was invited to meet the Manager of the Major League team.
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
I suppose every young ball-player dreams of playing in Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, or Safeco Field,
they are struck with awe when they meet the manager and see the field.
Eventually the Lord asked the young rookie if he was capable of playing in the Big Leagues.
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
I just about guarantee that the next words the Lord spoke to young Isaiah, were not what he expected:
“And he said, Go, and tell this people,
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”
he shouldn’t expect to be instantaneously inducted into the Hall of Fame.
And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”
The import and importance of these words are very high.
The theology and meaning of these words are very complicated.
This is a scripture which is quoted several times in the New Testament for a variety of reasons.
But it is a much hated passage of scripture.
It is as hated today as it was in Paul’s day and as it was in Isaiah’s day.
For this morning’s message, let’s dip our toes in these very icy waters.
You’ll notice in Isaiah 6:
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.”
And the seraphim “cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
In verse 3 the word “LORD” IS fully capitalized, telling us that the original word is “Jehovah.”
“The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
As we said last week, Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is Lord in the sense of “adonay,”
He is both Lord and LORD.
His glory filled the Temple as it should fill all of Creation.
And this Lord Jehovah said to Isaiah, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.”
When we move back to Acts 28, we have to ask ourselves if Paul spoke under the inspiration of God?
For the child of God there can be no doubt.
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
And in Acts 28 when he rebuked those men he did so by the direct leadership of God.
Notice the One to whom Paul attributed Isaiah 6:
“Well spake THE HOLY GHOST by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers.”
As I have said, this is an incidental thing and not Paul’s primary thought.
But comparing these scriptures teaches us something very important:
We are reminded of the existence – and deity – of the Holy Spirit.
The Second Person of the Trinity spoke to Isaiah and the Third Person inspired the record.
Or to rephrase it: Jehovah spoke and the Holy Spirit twice inspired that record.
Or again, Jehovah both spoke and inspired the record.
Paul, under the direction of the Holy Spirit said that Isaiah was giving us a prophesy –
and seeing ye SHALL see, and not perceive.”
For all intents and purposes there is very little difference between the two:
But the reality is that people in every generation and every society have the same hard hearts.
The point of both scriptures is that all people have the same fundamental handicap: They are spiritually dead.
God warned Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil, in that very day, he would die.
When they ate that forbidden fruit, they did not die in the sense that their hearts stopped and their brains ceased to function; they lived on physically,
but their spirits did instantly die – just as God had said.
The Bible tells us over and over again that we all come into this world “dead in trespasses and sins.”
And for this reason, “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.”
The things of the Spirit of God can only be discerned spiritually.
So in the case of the spiritually dead, they have a serious problem:
“Go, tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.”
It was just as Isaiah had prophesied:
“Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye SHALL hear, and SHALL not understand; and seeing ye SHALL see, and not perceive.”
That must have stung the hearts of Paul’s guests, because they would have denied the thought.
It was MEANT to sting them.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit used this rebuke to awaken some of them to their spiritual condition.
And that brings us to our next point; one which Paul didn’t actually address:
Like all of us, he wanted to be popular; he wanted to help people around him to feel good.
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away,
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”
One is whether or not the hard hearts, blind eyes and deaf ears are the CAUSE of the judgment or a RESULT of the judgment.
It seems to me that it’s BOTH, depending on which scripture you are looking at first.
But putting that aside, the reality is that judgment is coming.
In Isaiah’s day, the first wave of that judgment was the army of the Babylonians.
Because Israel had dishonored God by assimilating the idolatrous worship of her neighbors into her religion, she had been promised the visit of a foreign invader.
The Babylonians would sweep up and carry away everything and everyone in Israel worth keeping.
Except for some of the poor, the sick and the already homeless, the cities of Judah would be left destitute.
And as prophesied, it came to pass.
But that physical judgment was only half of the equation.
The other half was spiritual and eternal.
Those who had learned to worship foreign idols would half to spend eternity with those deaf and dumb idols and their deaf and dumb worshipers.
Those who were offering sacrifices to mute and impotent gods, were wasting their time and their souls.
And just as they would be carried captive into Babylon, they would be carried captive into Hell.
But what about those Jews who mistakenly thought that they were serving Jehovah.
Maybe they were going periodically to the local high place rather than to the temple in Jerusalem?
What about those who were too poor or too cheap to offer proper sacrifices according to the scriptures, but they sincerely meant to do things the scriptural way?
Just because they bent a few of God’s laws or worshiped Him under a different name, that shouldn’t have brought about God’s wrath, should it?
Yes, it should.
The Lord has not given man any authority to mess with His worship.
And that included the Jews of Paul’s day.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and if they choose to reject, him, they should expect His wrath.
And the same rule applies today.
Paul was quoting Isaiah to say, “Listen up, people, you are standing on the brink of judgment.
Just as you washed out your ears and put on your glasses this morning, prepare your hearts.
Judgment is coming; judgment is coming.”
But there was a final aspect to Isaiah’s commission that carried with it some GOOD NEWS.
“But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.”
Isaiah’s message was that even though Judah would be carried into Babylon, eventually there would be a remnant who would return home.
God would spare a tenth, a tithe, and they would eventually return to the land that God had promised them.
The Lord has always saved a tiny remnant of souls to the glory of His grace.
In the days of the great flood there was Noah.
Then there was Abram out of the great population of the Chaldees.
There was Jacob, then Joseph and the children of Jacob.
In the days of Israel’s kings there was one tribe.
Then when that tribe went down and was carried out, there was a tenth of that tribe which returned.
In the days of Jesus of Nazareth, there were a handful of believers and disciples.
And Paul found the same sort of results everywhere he went.
Today, the story is the same:
“Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
That scripture from Romans 11 is actually talking about a remnant Israel being saved.
But Paul said something much better for us here in Acts.
“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”
The remnant according to the election of grace, graciously includes people like you and me.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God even to sinners like us.
Jesus can be OUR Saviour, just as He is the Saviour to some of the children of Abraham and Jacob.
But the question is: do we have ears to hear His voice; do we have the kind of eyes necessary to see our spiritual need and to see the Saviour?
The Lord has said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
The Lord has said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Have you looked; have you gone to the Saviour, or are your eyes too heavy and your ears too dull to hear His invitation?
In order to have the promise of God, you must repent of your sins and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you do not love and serve the Lord, then you will have nothing left but the judgment of these scriptures.
Which is it for you?