Yes, we can. All right, good to see you this afternoon. I hope you're doing well. This is a day the Lord has made. And we rejoice to be able to have one more day of Bible conference after today. Now then, our theme song this week has been All for Jesus. Hymn 354, go ahead and get out your hymnals, turn to 354, and let's get ready to sing all four verses. All together. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. All my clouds get burnt like new wings. All my days and all my hours. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. All my days and all my hours. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. All my days and all my hours. Let my hands perform His bidding. Let my feet go in His praise. Let my eyes see Jesus only. Let my lips sing for His praise. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. Let my lips sing for his praise. All for Jesus, all for Jesus. Let my lips sing for his praise. Sing his praise to Christ, our Jesus. ♪ Always in my spirit's vision ♪ Looking at the crucified ♪ All for Jesus, all for Jesus ♪ Looking at the crucified ♪ All for Jesus, all for Jesus ♪ Looking at the crucified Oh, what wonder, how amazing, Jesus Christ, see my face! Thanks to God we are delighted, let us be rest in his peace. Amen you may be seated As a part of our chapel, as a part of our Bible conference this year, we've been looking at Psalm 119. Our third student council emeritus is the treasurer, so I'm going to ask Daniel Lee to come and read cap, not cap, but I guess cap for us, Psalm 119, verses 81 to 82. So I'm 119 versus 81. All right. I'm going to ask, is there an elementary student who would like to volunteer to read the next section? Is there anyone? All right. Remember we have a lot of med for us. That is 89 through 96. You twitched it just the right time. So it's 119 versus 89 through 96. in heaven, your faithfulness endures for all generations. You established the earth, and it abides to continue to stay according to your order of demise. For all are your servants. Unless your law has been my delight, I will never forget you. I will never forget your decency. But by where you have given me life, I am yours. Save me. And now, ma'am, this is Psalm 119, verses 97 through 104. Let's have Cathy Lee come in. Solve 119 versus 97. Before I met you, I had no understanding of how much effort you put into things like this. I understand more than I can, and I think it's a good result. I am still learning from everything you do, but I'm not giving up. I can rejoice in the things you do for yourself, and also when you listen to my voice, I am not giving up. Thank you, Kathy. Wonderful message here reminding us of just how sweet God's Word is. Your Word is sweet to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I hope all of us delight in God's Word and rejoice in its truth, looking for it to help us, to strengthen us, and to point us to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this afternoon, our final song, before we look at the message this afternoon, we need God's grace every hour. 405, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, It saved a wretch like me. 405, we'll sing all verses. Let's stand to sing Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. Stand to sing. 405. Amazing Grace. and saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. But this can calm my heart to fear, Embrace my fears, relieve. How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come His grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. When leaving nature, ♪ 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun ♪ ♪ We know that saints do sing God's praise ♪ ♪ And when we've first begun to pray ♪ We just sang about God's amazing grace. When you think of who we are, when you think of what we are like, God's grace should amaze us. It should be a source of continual surprise to us that God loves us, that his mercies are new every morning, that, you know, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not destroyed. And so, as we look at God's Word, we see this testimony that we are indeed sinners, that we do indeed fall short of the glory of God. And yet, He has mercy on us. He has compassion on us. Throughout the scriptures you see a testimony that the holy righteous God looks upon his creation and sometimes he's disappointed. That was true during the time of Noah. He looked at the earth and he saw that every thought, every intention, everything that people did was only wicked continual. Several times in the Bible, God basically lays out the case against people and basically has, you know, if you were going to go to court, this would be your charge sheet. This is your indictment. These are the things that you do wrong. And so Bible Church We looked on Wednesdays at the Book of Romans, and the first three chapters are just Paul saying, from the Old Testament, from the Scriptures, we're sinners. There's none righteous, no not one. In the Old Testament, there was what is sometimes called a Gospel of the Old Testament. This man revealed more about the Messiah probably than any other Old Testament character. But as he proclaimed the good news, the Messiah is coming. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and be with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is the one, a child shall be born unto you, The government will be upon his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of course, this is Isaiah. And Isaiah not only brings good news, a Messiah, the Christ is coming, but he, like Paul in Romans, lays out the case First, against the Jewish people, the people of Abraham, and then against the entire world, basically saying, look, here are the charges. You guys deserve God's judgment. God loves you. He will give you mercy. But let's see where you are. Let's see what you're like. Let's make sure that you understand, you do not deserve grace. Grace is a gift. Grace is something that God gives you despite what you deserve. God grants mercy, which means he does not punish you the way you deserve. And so what we see here is we're looking broadly at the book of Isaiah. And this afternoon, we're not going to get through 60 chapters. tried to get it into slightly more bite-sized chunks. We'll start out at the beginning of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter one, I want to read to you basically the first, I'll start out with the first six verses of Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah one, verses one through six. So please get your Bibles open. We're looking at the Old Testament. The Old Testament book of Isaiah. In the first 12 chapters of Isaiah, God is talking to his own people. God is speaking to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are Jewish people. These are people of the Bible. And so as Jewish people, people who know God's word, they should know what God wants, right? Yes. There are a lot of people here at Seoul Christian School You have Bible class every day. Your parents take you to church. So you should know God's Word. You should know what God expects from you. And so here are God's people, and God's people have pretty much messed it all up, sad to say. So we're here in Isaiah, chapter 1. And Isaiah really does point out that the servant of the Lord, last year we looked at Isaiah and we saw the servant songs. The servant of the Lord, the Messiah, triumphs. He wins despite the fact that his chosen people crucify him. The world, the nations are raging against him. No one welcomes him as their own. Very few bow the knee during his earthly incarnation. Here is what it's like. Alright, got your Bibles open? Isaiah chapter 1. We'll just read the first six verses here. So this is indeed the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. So here he is. He's speaking about his own people, Judah. This is 700 years before Christ. He's there in the capital, Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This is the time period. These different kings of Judah. Verse 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD. Notice all caps. This is Yahweh, Jehovah. For Yahweh has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner. The donkey, its master's crib. But Israel, does not know, my people does not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. You've got all this wickedness, this iniquity. It's like a big burden, a big basket of bad all on their back. A people laden with iniquity. A brood. A brood, right? A brood of evildoers. Children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it. Wounds, bruises, putrefying sores, they have not been closed or bound up or sued with points. What a picture. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, this evening, this afternoon, this is not a happy message. We ask you to use your word to search our hearts, to search our minds. Lord, know us. Lord, you know our down city and our uprising. Lord, you know all things. You are God. You are the Holy One of Israel. And Lord, as we look upon you and behold your loveliness, your power, your omniscience, your grace. And we look in the mirror of your word. Father, forgive us that we are not like you. Forgive us that we have sins that we like and sins that we run to repeat over and over again. Father, search us, try us this afternoon. See if there are wicked ways within us. Lord, if we are harboring sin, if there is sin that we have in our lives, we pray that even this afternoon you would wash us with the blood of Christ. Renew us, restore us to yourself. Do what only God can do. We pray this in Jesus' name. I basically have two points this afternoon with a whole lot of sub-points. The two points are, in chapters 1 through 12, we are going to see God's case against his own people. Here is God looking at his own people, his children, those who should know better, and finding they fall short. And so first we'll see God's case against his people. And so as God looks at his own people, he says, this is not good. And then God kind of lifts his eyes, and he goes beyond, and he looks out at the rest of the world, and he says, this is even worse. My people are bad. My people should know better. But these other nations? that I will use to punish my people are even worse. And so what we see is God's people backslidden, God's people not being faithful to God, sinful, but the other nations of the world also wicked in God's condemnation of them. then Lord willing, tomorrow we will see the final triumph of the servant of the Lord. Because what we have to see first is what God has to deal with. God has to deal with people like you and like me. People who are not as devoted to him, who are not as obedient to him as we should be. Now maybe some of you are doing your best. Maybe you're an exception here. But for most of us, we could be seeking God. We could, there are areas which may, of our lives, which are not under God's control. And we need to make sure that we are completely consecrated, completely given to the Lord. Every day this week, we've been singing, all for Jesus. And I hope that is our commitment. I desire for that to be our commitment. My prayer is that the Lord will use his word this week to call us to commit to being like him. But if we are saving areas of our lives for ourselves or for sin, we are not what we should be. So I'm calling those of you who are children of God, to ask God to examine you as we look at this Word. Those of you who have never trusted in Jesus, this is a time for you to see, am I like these people, the Jews or these other people? So be looking at God's Word and comparing yourself. Am I like this? or with God's help. Am I actually trying to do that? All right. Why don't we go ahead and get the back light off so we can see the screen just a little bit better here. What we want to see in these first 12 chapters is the obstacle of his own. An obstacle is a problem. It's like a giant wall or a giant problem. And God's problem is his people. He says in verse 2, I have my kiddos. They are my family. They are my children. Here are my children and I look at my children and I say, this is not right. My kids are not the way I want them to be. My kids have not been brought up right. They have not responded to my teaching. They have not responded to my fatherly care. I am their father. And they're like, they're worse than the animals. Do you remember the other guy we compared to animals earlier? He was like a donkey. Who was the donkey guy? Yes. What was it? Not Bilem like a sheep, but Balem. Yes, Balem. Remember, Balaam was dumber than donkey. Well, here are God's own people, his children, and God says, you know what? There are ox, oxen, more than one. They go and they eat where they should. There are, verse three says, the donkey knows where to find a place to rest. Oxen, donkeys, good. They know their owner. Here are my children, the ones I brought out of Egypt, and they're all messed up. And so, it's like God remembers all the past history with Israel. I mean, here are God's chosen people. 1-1 says it's Judah. Who is Judah? These are the people who say, Father Abraham. And Father Abraham is their father. And they can go through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. They go down the line and they remember, you know, God made a covenant with Abraham. God said Abraham would be the one that the blessing comes through. And that's true. And they said, you know what? Not only are we the benefit, we get Abraham's benefits. We can remember our history. We remember Sinai. Moses brought the people out of Egypt. We beat them bad. Boy, they, we knocked them down. The Lord did it. Ten plagues, Red Sea. we go through Sinai, God's Ten Commandments, awesome possum. And God gives his covenant with Moses and God said, you obey me, I will bless you. Disobey me and watch out. Blessing and cursing. That's Mount Sinai. Ten Commandments, all the rest, that's Moses. And in the Ten Commandments, and that covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, God said, you are mine. You are my people. And the people say, yes, God, we are yours. Right, so they have the Abrahamic Covenant. They have the Mosaic Covenant. And then, a thousand years before Jesus comes, there's King David, second king of Israel. And God says to David, David, you're a man after my own heart. David wants to build a temple. And God says, I love that. David, I'm going to build you a house. Your throne is going to be established forever and ever. Look at this. This is a kingdom, unlike Saul's, that will not pass away. And so here is Abraham. Here is Moses. Here it's David, these wonderful covenants, these wonderful promises God has made to his people. And the people were saying, yeah, oh yeah, oh yes, yes, yes. Right? We have this history. We have this history with God. We have these promises God has made. God promised Abraham, look, you will be the instrument. Your descendants will be the one through whom God will bless all the world. God promises Moses, look, if your people obey me, if they keep this covenant, you will be blessed. Now, if you disobey, other things will happen. And then God promises David, look, your throne is established forever. There's going to come from you someone who will reign forever, the Davidic covenant. These are the promises of God. And here is Judah on the throne. These kingdoms, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, these are all descendants of David. Right? And to these kings and to these people of this nation of Judah, God says, man, you've missed a lot. You've gone off course. You call me my, you say my God, you say, You are my people, but look at the way you are living. I mean, the wickedness of God's people, the people who went about saying, you are my Lord, you are my God. These are God's people. And God says, look, you, you're my people. You're my children. We just read verse two, my people. I brought up children. You're my kiddos. Right? Fathers love their kids. And when kids rebel, when kids disobey, there is a way to grieve and hurt your father. And these are children that have made their dad sad. They've disappointed him. And so God says, look, verse 3, the ox knows its owner, the donkey its master's crib. Israel doesn't know. Israel doesn't consider. Who am I? Who are you? You are mine. You have promised to obey, and you're not. You promised to be my people, to go by my covenant, and you are breaking my covenant. You are breaking The things I told you to do, you said you do, and you're not. And so these people are stupid. They're worse than the ox, worse than the donkey. Israel doesn't know. An ox knows his place. A donkey knows where to find its food. But these people are not looking to the God. Trusting in Him, they forgot about God. They were unhealthy, spiritually speaking. It's like they have a bad case of COVID, of leprosy. From head to toe, they are sick. Sick, sick, sick. Nasty people. And so they are spiritually unhealthy. They are sin sick. Thirdly, because of their sin, now they are under God's judgment. Verse 7 says your country's desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land. Why? Because God, remember Moses said in the Mosaic Covenant, if you disobey, bad times come. It's all coming. Not because God is out of control or lost control. It's coming because these people broke God's law. They disobeyed God and it's not fun. It's not cool. It's not good. It is painful. Verse 9 says, unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a remnant, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you remember Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19? A fire righteously destroyed those cities. Brimstone, ashes. Terrible fate. A deserved end. Because of their sin. But that's not all. It would be bad enough if God could stop here, but he continues. He says, look, my people, what have they done? Look at verse 10. He is now calling his people Judah by the name of these wicked people. Look at verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Wait a minute, Sodom was destroyed. Yes. This city, God, this country, God's country, Judah, is as bad as Sodom. Give ear to the law of our Lord. What? You people of What is the purpose of the multitude of your sacrifices to me? See, they're killing animals right and left. They're sacrificing. They see the rule book and it says, do this, and they're doing it, but their worship is wrong. Their worship is not acceptable. The rams, the cattle, the bulls, the goats, Verse 13 says, bring no more futile sacrifices. You are trying, you say you're worshiping me, and you're doing all these things, and they're even right things, otherwise right, with a right heart. But when the heart is wrong, all your money, all your sacrifices are for nothing. Bring no more futile sacrifices, verse 13. The incense, the things that I command, no. Once something good, a good smell, a perfume, now it's an abomination. Now it's like a dead, decaying corpse. It stinks. Incense is an abomination to me, verse 13. New Moon Sabbaths, Culling of Assemblings, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meat. What should be to the praise and glory of God has become something God rejects. Verse 15 says, when you spread out your hands, right? They're praying. I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Why? Your hands are full of blood. So instead of doing righteousness, they tried to escape righteousness. Verse 21. How the faithful city, right, Jerusalem, that wonderful city, the peaceful city, the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice, goodness, righteousness, but righteousness lodged in it. But now, instead of righteousness and justice, who's there? Murderers. killers, right? They're trying to get away from righteousness instead of doing righteousness. They're rebellious, verse 23, they're thieves, they like to be bribed. This is not good. So what we see is God's own wicked children were indeed offered grace. They were given a chance to return to God. Verse 16. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease. It means stop. Cease to do evil. Stop the badness. Stop. Learn to do good. That's what you're here for, right? Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Verse 18, come now and let us reason. Use your brains. Stop being senseless. Come to your senses. Return to me. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Don't your sins be as scarlet. Right? You are bloody. You are murderers. You are killers. You are thieves. You are wicked. Don't your sins be as scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Forgiveness. Cleansing. Refreshment. Especially in this summer, right? It's hot out there. Though they be red like crimson, some of you are red shirts, right? Those red shirts like wool, white, fleecy sheep, right? White sheep. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. So God offers restoration. Look at chapter 2. It says, and God says, you know what? One day this offer will be taken. In the latter days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains. All the people, all nations shall flow into it. Many people shall come and say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways. So grace is offering. there's a chance to return to God. God's people are going to turn from their useless riches, verse seven, a land that's full of silver and gold, no end of their treasure, a land full of horses, no end of their chariots. They're going to turn from this materialism, this stuff, from the terror of the Lord, verse 21. They'll go to the glory of his majesty. So sever yourselves from the wickedness whose breath is in their nostrils. They're going to turn from their idolatry. Verse 8 says, their land is full of idols. And they're going to turn, verse 18, to the true and the living God. Verse 18 says, he will abolish idolatry. God will judge. They will no longer be so proud. Verse 11, the lofty looks of mine, they will be humbled. The Messiah, the branch, will come. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of His names. And so, look at Isaiah chapter 4, verse 2. In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious. And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. There will be a day, there has been a day, when the branch, the Messiah, has come. The branch, the Messiah, is the one who is beautiful. The branch, the Messiah, is the one who comes to offer forgiveness, who comes to make an unfruitful people fruitful. So in Isaiah 5, there is a vineyard, a place with grapes. And God is a farmer, and he goes out and he looks for yummy grapes. You guys like grapes? Anyone here like grapes? I see a few of you. Alright, the grapes are good, right? And so he goes out to get grapes, and eww, man! It's sour! They're wild! They're not... Man! Here is the farmer going out to get good grapes, going out to his people, and they're not the way he should be. They should be. And so, what we find is Jesus says, you know what? I am the branch. I am the vine. You are the branches. You guys, when you get life from me, you are able to bring forth good fruit. You are able to bring forth the fruits. So this wild vineyard, chapter 5, becomes a good place. And those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ are able to bring forth good fruit with the Holy Spirit. Now then, that was God's people. Quickly, the world. The world in chapters 13 through 24, just note this, Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Jacob, Push, Egypt, all of these guys, the rest of the world, also bad. God's people bad. The world bad. What's God going to do? He's going to send his Messiah. He's going to send the servant of the Lord to redeem bad people and make them good through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for redemption when it comes to Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lord, we look at the world and we see that the world, like us, are sinners. We need Jesus. We need him so badly. Lord, we are so bad. But Lord, we can be good when we trust in Jesus and by his grace, learn to do good. Lord, I pray that you would use your word, even this afternoon, to cause us to see our need for your son. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, elementary first, and then middle.