July 19, 2026 | Solid Ground Amid Foolish Choices

Isaiah 28:1-29:24, Pastor Jason Lancaster

Transcript

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There was a study done in 2009, I'm not making this up, where they blindfolded people and they told them to walk in a straight line across a field. Many of us can't walk in a straight line without a blindfold, but they put a blindfold on and they told them to walk in a straight line, and every single participant couldn't do it. What they started to do, many of them is starting to walk in circles. And they would walk straight just for a little bit and then veer, and many of them came back to the same spot which they started from. And the name of this study was called walking straight into circles. And the idea is that without a fixed reference point like a tree or the sun or the moon, we're gonna loop. And if that doesn't preach, I don't know what does. Spiritually speaking, if when we get our eyes off of Jesus, we can think we're being religious, we're showing up for church, we're walking straight, but we're just looping into circles. Without our eyes fixed on Jesus, we're distracted and we're lost, getting caught up in some foolish things. We think we're walking straight, but we're just looping in circles. And that's what we have here once again in the book of Isaiah. If you want to look at Isaiah 28, we have these leaders of these two, I guess you could say nations. It's a split nation. I know this is confusing when we talk about history in the Old Testament, but we have the northern kingdom, which is called Israel, split from the southern kingdom, which is called Judah. And both of these kingdoms have a variety of other names. So for this morning, we'll just call them God's people. I'll reference both. God's people, both of them, their leaders, were proud, thought they were walking straight, but they were walking in circles of sin, neglecting to do justice, trusting in foreign powers to save them instead of the Lord. They're walking straight into circles. Let's see it. Isaiah 28, starting at verse one. Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, refers to the northern kingdom, and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is at the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine. So the northern kingdom, Ephraim, and the leaders are called this proud crown of drunkards. They're intoxicated by power and pleasure and actually actually alcohol too. Their glory and their wealth will fade, and they can't see that judgment is about to drop on them. Verse 2. Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent as a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, he has cast it down to the earth with his hand. Think about this imagery of hail. I don't know about you, but this weather has been kind of interesting over the last six weeks. I feel like I've lost power at my house more than I've ever had before. Weird weather happening, and some of it involved hail. And what God is saying, the hail of the Assyrian Empire is about to pound the northern kingdom of Israel. They're the mighty and strong agent that will bring God's judgment. Verse three. When you get old, you can either be a pathetic old person, a bitter old person, or a holy old person. I see that all of the place in the village, and I'm sure you do too, and perhaps it's in here as well. The person who is a pathetic old person is the one who's trying to recapture their youth and be young again. They're trying to recapture the glory days with a variety of surgeries and going after someone way younger than them. You know who I'm talking about, right? This is you're kind of like, that's just that's just pathetic. But then you also have the bitter old person, and this is the one who's angry and resentful about everything. And it's interesting, you always wonder how do people get bitter and angry and resentful when they get old? Well, they didn't just poof become that way. They were probably white like that their whole life. Maybe this is your neighbors, people you know. They're just a bitter old person. But then there's the holy old person, the one that's trying to walk with the Lord, that's trying to seek his face, that wants to know him. That's obviously what we want to be. But if we're walking in pride, walking aways away from the Lord, we may find ourselves being more pathetic and bitter than holy, and that's not what we want. And when we are like that, God brings judgment. Look at verse five. In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown and a glorious dyed into the remnant of his people, a spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate. What we're gonna have in these passages, we're gonna have this kind of glimmers of hope. And here we have this faithful, this remnant who has this beautiful crown. They've they've swapped the crown of pride, this flimsy crown, not for just a different one, but they've swapped the crown of pride for the Lord. And the Lord is now their crown. This is for the faithful remnant. God Himself has become his crown. And now, I, you know, as I was thinking about this this week, I was just thinking, okay, I do wonder what goes on in your head, and I wonder what goes on in mine. And how many of you think, okay, I want to be this holy old person, but circumstances have to change, this relationship has to change, I have to feel better. And I just want to say this I make sure you every single person gets this. If you need to write it down because you have issues with remembering things, write it down. Um, it's for you. Here we go. Nothing has to change in your life for you to walk with the Lord. Do you believe that? There is no relationship that has to be repaired before you walk with the Lord. There's no amount of money that has to come your way. Your health does not have to be fixed. Nothing has to be changed for you to walk with the Lord starting today. You agree? You can be a holy person who walks with the Lord. Do you believe it, or do you want to keep filling your lives with other things? Well, check out these leaders. Verse 7. And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink. The priest, this is basically the pastors, the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink. They reel with having visions, they totter when rendering judgment, for all the tables are full of filthy vomit without a single clean place. Disgusting. The pastors, priests, and prophets are getting drunk. They're giving out these false oracles that are not from the Lord. And the repetition in this passage is deliberate. It says they reel, they stagger, they totter, confused, throwing up, vomiting across the tables. And get this they start to mock Isaiah. Look at verse nine. To whom would he teach knowledge? And to whom would he interpret the message? Those just swinged from milk, those just taken from the breast? For he says, order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there. It's interesting we use these passages as something positive, precept upon precept, but you know, when these passages are used, it's in a very negative connotation where these prophets and priests are just making fun of Isaiah. He's like, dude, are you treating us like babies? I mean, do we need our mother's milk again? You keep saying the same thing again. You're just like a little babbler, line upon line, precept upon precept. Isaiah, you're a joke, and we don't even know what you're talking about. And God's like, okay. Verse 11. Indeed, he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue. If you're acting like you can't understand, you're making fun of Isaiah and his warnings and judgment. Okay, I'll give you someone you can't understand. How about I take you away into Assyria? How about I take you away into Babylon? Let's see how you understand their language as it drops on you for judgment. Verse 12. He who said to them, Here is rest, give rest to the weary, and here is repose, but they would not listen. Oh my goodness. God's like, I will I'm I'm here. I'm gonna give you rest. Turn for your wake up ways. Here, I'm I'm here to give you rest. I am your rest. And you know what they do? They roll their eyes. Do you know that I've been preaching, like I've said before, about 29 years, and I've been in plenty services where people are rolling their eyes inside their hearts, where they're going, dude, you're just a babbler. What are you even talking about? You're just making stuff up. I'm not gonna follow the Lord. And you roll your eyes, and God's like, you can roll your eyes all you want. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. But yet there's hope. Look at verse 14. Here we have hope. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, because you have said, We've made a covenant with death and with Sheol, we've made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, for we've made falsehood our refuge, and we have concealed ourselves with deception. These leaders in Judah are mocking the like, hey man, we got a covenant, we've made a deal with the devil. We made a deal with the devil. We got Assyria, they're gonna help us out. We got a covenant with death, they're going to protect us. We made a deal with the oppressor, they're gonna protect us. But as you know and I know, there are no deals with the devil. There's no such thing. And if you have arranged your life in such a way where you were trying to prevent anything bad happening to you at all on your own terms, in your own power, and to maximize your own happiness, thinking, I have got this deal, whether it's a deal with the devil or not, you're mistaken. I heard something this week that's fascinating that there is three phases of life. And here are the phases of life. Phase number one, get your life together. Supposed to happen in your late teens and your twenties, where you're figuring out what it means to walk with the Lord or get your life together, what you want to do with your life, what's going to be your career. The next phase after get your life together is give your life away. This is where the bulk of our lives, we're raising kids, we're trying to love our spouse and trying to be good employers and trying to serve the Lord and we're sacrificial, we give our lives away. And the third phrase, uh the third phase is this: after get your life together and give your life away, the third one is give your death away. Where you get to a point where you realize, okay, I am gonna die. But I'm gonna use this life and all that I have to bless others and serve the Lord. And I don't care what happens or when God decides that I die, that's not for me to decide. I'm gonna serve the Lord. But when many realize that they're trying to avoid that death where they're trying to gain a few extra yards while they're trying to tick off everything in their bucket list to maximize their enjoyment on this earth, that's not giving your death away. That's still just living for yourself. And that's what we have. We have people here that say, We've made a deal with the devil. We're gonna do our own thing, we're gonna determine our own security, our own protection. We're gonna determine what it looks like for us to exist as God's people. And God's like, Nope. It's not gonna be. And then it gives them hope. And here's the big, big verse in Isaiah. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a testa stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the level, then hell will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the secret place. God's like, I'm gonna level this place in judgment. And when I rebuild, I'm gonna rebuild with this precious cornerstone. And we know that cornerstone is Jesus. Peter tells us that. And he who trusts in this cornerstone in Jesus will not be put to shame, will not spend forever in hell, will have life in Christ, abundant life now through his life, death, and resurrection. Now we know a cornerstone, right? It's the it's that very foundational stone, which the whole house exists based upon that cornerstone. And we who follow Jesus have our eyes locked on that cornerstone so that we're not looping in circles. Our eyes are on him. But what many of us do, because we're good uh southern Christians who live in this cultural bubble, I don't meet too many people in the South. And now the village people don't really count pretty much because most of you aren't Southerners, but I don't meet too many people in the South who don't have some connection to Jesus from their grandma, their aunt, they went to church growing up. And a lot of people, I would say more people than not in the south would say they believe in Jesus. Maybe that's the case for you in here as well. But instead of Jesus being the cornerstone, Jesus is like a brick. He's just a brick. He's not the absolute cornerstone and focus on your life. He's just a brick. He's just kind of part of your life. He's not holding it up, he's not directing you, he's just a brick. And I really do I do ask you, is is Jesus your cornerstone? Is he is he totally he is everything? You give him all? I mean, you when you sin, you go to him for repentance and forgiveness? I mean, you're you're all about Christ, or is he just an add-on brick? Because if you treat Jesus like he's an add-on brick and you truly know him, we are told that the Lord will discipline us. Do you believe the Lord disciplines his children? Do you enjoy it? No, me either. You know, when I was six years old, you know what's funny? I've met two kids this morning who are six. How is that possible at this church? Two little girls. They're not even connected to each other, I don't think. But when I was six, I'm not quite sure if I was six or not, but it fits the story. But when I was six, maybe five, I don't know. My friend and I grew up in Dallas, pleasant grove. My friend, best friend, Anthony on the street. We thought it'd be fun to take a brick and smash Hot Wheel cars. I mean, what would you do? So we had Hot Wheel cars, put one there, smash, put one there, smash. It was fun. But we put one there and he was about to smash it, and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, I want to keep that one. Man, I was screaming like crazy. I was crying like crazy. Anthony's mom was yelling at him like crazy. If Jesus is just a brick, and you truly know him, and he wants to be the cornerstone, there will be come times in our lives where the brick will come down from the Lord, and he will discipline us. And the brick is about to be lowered on Israel. Look at verse 18. Verse 18 says, Your covenant, your deal with the devil, your covenant with death will be canceled. You made a plan with Assyria, not gonna work, and your pack with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you become its trampling place. As often as it passes through, as it will seize you for morning after morning. It will pass through any time during the day or night, and it will be sheer terror to understand what it means. God is saying, I am gonna so bring on you judgment. I am gonna level you. You thought your plan was gonna work, it's not gonna work. And look what he says in verse 20. It says the bed is too short on which to stretch out, and the blanket is too small to wrap oneself in. You ever been on a really short bed? You're like, I I don't even fit on this bed. Try to sleep on someone's couch, you don't fit. You ever got a blanket that's not big enough, it just won't cover you. No matter what you do, the blanket will not cover you. God's like, Whatever plan you have, whatever deal with the devil you've made, it's it's not gonna work. Judgment is coming. Skip to verse 23. Now, I I was uh boy, this it's a it's a long little portion I really want you to read because this is pretty amazing what God is gonna say about how he's gonna discipline his people. I think it's instructive for us, so just kind of stick with it. Just a few verses here. Look at verse 23. Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my words. Does the farmer plough continually to plant seed? Does he continually turn and harrow the ground? Does he not level its surface so dill and scatter cumin and plant wheat and rose, barley and its place and rye when its area? For his God instructs and teaches improperly. For dill is not threshed as a threshing sledge, nor is the cartwheel driven over cumin, but dill is beaten out with rod and cumin with a club. Grain for bread is crushed, indeed he does not continue to thresh it forever, because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, he does not thresh it longer. This also comes from the Lord of hosts, who has made his counsel wonderful and his wisdom great. What in the world? What is this farming analogy? This is so amazing. This is this is the part of really whoa, God in disciplining his people, is disciplining them in the exact right way. Just like a farmer in the way he's dealing with specific seeds. He he's not going to beat the deal with a light rod. He's not gonna roll a heavy cartwheel over the wheat because the farmer knows the exact structural integrity of the seed. God's discipline in your life is never abusive. He is not an abusive father. He loves you. And when he allows or causes or ordains troubles to come your way, he is doing a specific work. And you may say, Yeah, God's never gonna give me more than I can handle. No, he's gonna give you more than you can handle all the time. It's just the way it works. So that you will depend upon him. And so whatever God has allowed, ordained, or caused to come into your life that has been super difficult and unbearable, just know that he is not. An abusive father. He deals with each seed differently. He deals with each person differently. And with each person in here, he knows exactly what you need in blessings and in discipline so that you will get your eyes on the cornerstone and quit acting like Jesus is just a brick. Now we can just close and say amen right there, but we've got to hit 29 just quick, okay? Just quick. All right. Look at verse one. Whoa, oh Ariel, Ariel, the city where David once camped at year to year. Observe your feast on schedule. Now let me stop. He's now saying, okay, you saw Jerusalem. They're just like Ariel's reference to Jerusalem. They could be like, yeah, get them, God. Get the northern kingdom. They're horrible. And then God turns his attention to the southern kingdom of Judah, which he calls Ariel, which means like a heart at an altar where a fire burns up. He's like, You think I'm just bringing heat on the northern kingdom? I'm going to bring heat on you as well. It's like a like a little brother who's excited when the parents are disciplining the older brother, and the mom looks at the son and says, You want some of this too? That's what God's doing here. Judah, you will not escape. And here's the reason they will not escape. Look at verse 2. I will bring distress to Ariel, and she'll be a city of lamenting and mourning, and she'll be like an aerial to me, this fireplace. I will camp against you, encircling you, and I will set siege works against you, and I will rise up in battle towers against you. Then you will be brought low from the earth, you will speak, and from the dust where you are prostrate, your words will come, your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground, your speech will whisper from the dust. God is going to bring them judgment as well. And you may ask, well, why is God doing this? Well, he says to them, add year to year, observe your feast on schedule. He's like, you are just going through the motions of religion where you act like you're worshiping me, you're doing the brick thing, you're still acknowledging me, and yet you're not walking in my ways. You're going through religious motions, and yet I'm not the cornerstone. And I do wonder when we come together, are you the same person that left your car that comes in here? Or do you put on a churchy church face and go through the motions of the Sunday school and singing and offering and all that? And then you get back in your car and you're a different person. Like, metaphorically speaking, if I went to your car right now, what would I smell? It's a dangerous question, right? You're like, whoa. My 19-year-old son Roman has been running this little car dealership uh this summer, and the cars that come to him come from auction. Now, you can read about what cars are like, but when you don't see them in person but just kind of get them, you never know what they're gonna smell like. And some of the cars have smelled like smoke. Some of the cars have smelled like marijuana, some of the cars have smelled like kind of moldy mildewe. Some of the cars have smelled like pets. And so I do wonder if I walk to your car, what would you be like in your car? What would you be like in your house? Are you the same person in your house and on the way to church as you are in church? These people aren't. They're doing the religious things, but they're just walking in circles. And God's like, I see all this religious activity, but you're not giving me your heart. And so he continues. Look at verse 13. Verse 13. This should remind you of the words of somebody. Then the Lord said, Because this people draws near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition to learn by rote. Who said that? Remind you of Jesus? Yeah, he said that about the religious leaders of his day. So you have Isaiah saying it, God's saying it through Isaiah, to the people of his day. You have Jesus saying it to the people of his day, and you kind of wonder has anything changed? Do we still have people going through the motions saying, Yeah, I love Jesus? He's just these guys, he's just a brick. Oh, I love Jesus. Then you're just walking in circles. God is very serious. I would say this God is so serious that you walk with him that if you're not going to walk with him, don't even pretend. Don't even do halves. You give him half and you keep the half. Don't even do that. It the religious hypocrisy. God hates it. Isaiah confronts it, Jesus confronts it, and it still gets confronted today. Verse 17. Is it not yet just a little while before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field will be considered as a forest? On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. You when you read Isaiah, you get whiplash. You go from judgment and confrontation, and now you have some refreshing times that are coming. You have people who are turning back to the Lord. And look what is going to happen to these people's children. Look at verse 22 through 24. I think this should be a big encouragement for you, for those of you who walk with the Lord. Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands in this midst, they will sanctify my name. Indeed, they will sanctify the holy one of Jacob, and will stand in awe the God of Israel. Those who err in mine will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction. What he's getting at here is that there is going to be a time of judgment. But for those who turn back to me, not only are they going to be saved and redeemed and blessed and flourished, but so were their kids. If you look out across our country today, you may say that kids, these days are terrible. They're far worse than you were as a teenager for sure. So you say. But did you know that there is a revival breaking out on college campuses? College students are proclaiming the name of Jesus, getting baptized even in our own state across the nation. And if you are a grandparent and a parent, that gives you hope for your kids. Because you want your kids to trust in a cornerstone. You want revival to happen in your family. And it may not be happening now, but this is a good word of hope to keep praying, to keep pressing. As many of you know, this past week I saw my 18-year-old son for the first time in four years. Many of you prayed for it last week. You prayed during the week for our meeting with him, and it was very encouraging. As I mentioned, uh the system was keeping us apart. And now it looks like that we are going to have, from what I can appear, it depends on all the legal stuff with the system and the professionals and mental health people. It looks like we're going to have a long-term relationship. And I think that I've been setting the bar way too low and praying for him and thinking about him now and thinking about him in the future and my relationship. I've been setting the bar way too low. My bar has been just keep him out of jail. That's such a low bar. I want him to know Jesus. I want him to follow Jesus. I want revival to so break out in his heart that he is a worshiper of the cornerstone. And I'm sure you you want that for your kids and your grandkids as well. But I do wonder, is God going to hear and listen to your prayers? If you're treating Jesus like a brick, where you're just doing your thing, you think about your grandson, oh Lord, please save him, and you just go back to the brick life. Jesus is asking, and he's wanting, and he's desiring to be the cornerstone of your life, where he is everything, absolutely everything. No more of this blindfold say, I'm gonna walk in a circle and you're just looping. No. Your eyes are fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. You set your mind and your eyes on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. There's no more of this looping around in circles because Jesus is life, he is everything. And when you stray, you confess, you find forgiveness, he is your life, he is your Lord, he's not your brick, he is the cornerstone. And since we treat him as such, we go to our cornerstone support everything. Save our kids, save our grandkids, save our marriages, intervene in my life, heal me. We're gonna cry out to the Lord to heal, to restore, to forgive. And if you're not from our church, you may kind of wonder, what are we doing? What we're doing comes from the book of James. The book of James asks a good question in chapter five. Uh it says, Is anyone among you suffering? You don't need to raise any hands, but is there anybody in here suffering? Then you must pray. Is anyone cheerful? I met a lot of cheerful people this morning. Sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? That's another question. Anybody sick? Then you must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna put oil on you if you're sick. This is not some holy oil that we we bless before the service. No, it just represents the presence of God. We're gonna ask God to intervene on your behalf. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they'll be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Did you know a lot of the problems you may be having in your life right now is unconfessed sin. You're in a pattern of habitual sin. Jesus is your brick. And there may be a time this morning where you need to confess sin. Maybe you need to confess it to one of the pastors and the elders. We're not your priest. Jesus is your priest, but we'll pray for you as we confess our sin to one another. This is not complicated what we're going to do. It's very, very simple. If the worship team wants to kind of go ahead and come on up, we're going to sing and worship the Lord for two songs. Because we believe the Lord can only move in ten minutes. That's all we're going to give them. That's not true. When we're done singing, we'll still be up here to pray for as long as we need to pray. For whoever we need to pray for.