They are very nice words in that hymn, but are you really living for others every day? It is a searching question and how many of us could put up our hand and say we are living for others every day? So easy to get in a rut and just live for ourselves for living for things, maybe we could say we are living for our children, or living for our grandchildren. That hymn makes the circle a lot bigger living for others. There is a lot we could think about and we could expand our little circle.
I would like to speak from Isaiah 5 about a three letter word that is mentioned six times. The word is woe. We heard this morning not to come here expecting only good news and I’m not here to give you bad news and these things in Isaiah’s day lead people outside the relationship of God and into destruction and they are real things that we are living in a world over 2700 years later. And they are still a danger to God’s people. Have you ever stopped to think what that word woe means? How would you say woe in another way? In the Bible we use in Sri Lanka woe comes at the end of the verse. And in their Bible they have two words for woe and that is sadness or sorrow will come.
Verses 8 to 10 “Woe unto them that join house-to-house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. In mine ears said the Lord of hosts of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without inhabitant. Yea 10 acres of vineyard shall yield one bath and the seed of and homer shall yield an ephah.” Woe unto them that join house-to-house and sadness and sorrow will come. What is this person talking about and a lot of what Isaiah writes are like riddles. I don’t profess to understand it all and I like thinking about these things sometimes. What is Isaiah really talking about in that verse? If we were to put this verse in a nutshell what is the message in this verse. He is talking about the thing called covetousness. He saw people that were given land when they went into the Promised Land and they wanted to increase their holdings. They wanted to get the neighbour’s house and more and more and more. We can say we are not covetousness. What was their ambition what were they coveting? They were coveting the things of this world.
It reminded me of Luke 12 where a man came to Jesus and wanted him to sort out a family problem Jesus did not want to get involved He said to the whole company of people “Take heed, and beware of covetousness for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” I wondered do we have that realisation that the main thing in life is not how much I process of the world’s goods. The main thing in life is how much I process of the Spirit of God. In trying to get more of the earthly goods I could be missing the whole purpose of life, and worse than that I could be leading myself like this verse says sadness will come. Woe is the end result of that kind of thing.
Talks about houses being empty and it talks about the production of the land. It says the vineyard shall yield one bath. I believe one bath is about 22 litres. 10 acres of vineyard shall yield 22 litres and if you had 10 acres and you were looking after it and remember they had no roundup for the weeds and no tractors to plough between the rows, it was all done by hand and just think of the work to cultivate just one acre of vineyard and all the work they had put into maintaining 10 acres and they only got 22 litres of wine. Do you think you’d be satisfied with that?
I’d like to give you this little thought about contentment, we read a lot about contentment in the Bible. There is a big difference to saying contentment and saying satisfaction. 1 Timothy 6 verse 6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” It would not quite sound the same if you said godliness with satisfaction. Satisfaction is something you think of when you have an abundance, contentment is something you can have in the absence of an abundance. I got out my Sri Lankan Bible and I couldn’t think of a word for contentment and I don’t think there is a word for contentment and maybe that is why they fight a lot. It puts it like this “A mind that thinks I have enough.” Do you have a mind like that, that your mind is saying alright now you have got enough. Be content with what you have. Contentment comes when we can learn to say that to ourselves I have got enough now. Contentment does not come when we obtain what we covet. Contentment does not come through covetousness. You may covet something and you think if only I had that extra thing, that extra car, extra property, that extra whatever I would be content. Contentment comes by learning not to covet. It is a wonderful thing if we can learn that early in life.
Covetousness was a problem right from the beginning we learn from Eve, mother of us all, the first woman God created. God told Adam very clearly not to touch that tree and the old devil came along and Adam had told Eve what God had said and she understood it and had it clear in her mind and she looked on something and then she desired it. Genesis 3 v 6 “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food” she did not see it was necessary for food and I do not think she was short of food and other things she could have eaten. “And that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” I do not know if she told him where the fruit came from or if he recognized it and you know the rest of the story. It all started from looking at something she did not need and it was not only something she did not need, but something she should not have had. We could covet things in this world that are not wrong for us to have, but do we need it and seeking that thing is it going to be profitable to our spiritual life? It is very common in this world people wanting more and more things and in the process of wanting that thing they go into debt.
I saw a cartoon strip of a man that was dreaming of having a nice big house. He went off to the bank officer and the bank manager opened the door of course and sat him down and he was dreaming about this thing. And a little further down the strip we see this man running on a treadmill in the bank manager’s office. The treadmill is working a fan and he is looking fatter and the fan is blowing him nicely. The poor man on the treadmill is running, running and he has this picture of what he is dreaming of. Friends let us not fall into a trap like that. What I am coveting for and wearing myself out for. You find you are running on the treadmill of life and getting nowhere. Next thing you find you have not got time to go to the meetings and I am so tired I have not got time to read my Bible, have not got time to pray and then you start to miss one or two then three meetings. Then you think I have not been for three weeks so they will not miss me if I do not go this week and it goes on and on. What is the outcome and as we say sorrow will come. Woe is the outcome. Woe is the outcome of seeking anything covetously.
I think of the story of Achan a very good example of this. We read about Achan in the seventh of Joshua. Joshua 7 v 21 “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it.” They coveted something that belonged to Babylon and something that should have been given to God. That is what happens in covetousness, God is the loser too. Because of Achan’s covetousness and a number of other souls perished, but not only that his own family did. It all started with one little thought I want that little thing I do not need it and it does not belong to me and it is not mine to have. God doesn’t tolerate being robbed of things we have promised to give to Him.
Verses 11 & 12. “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.” It’s a good thing to get up early in the morning for the right purpose to have a little read and a little prayer before the pressure of the day begins and to give the first time of the day to God and it is a good thing. Woe will not come if we do that but these people were up early to go to a party so they can start drinking in the morning and continue drinking all day and what were they thinking? Here they were going in for all the musical entertainment they could find and the pipe and the wine and maybe the pipe was used for smoking something and the wine was used to put them out of their senses and the result was they regarded not the work of the Lord. To think about what God wanted them to be doing, nor did they consider the operation of God’s hand and think about what God’s hand could do for them.
We could say I go to the meeting and don’t get involved in that sort of thing, but Satan has subtle ways of drawing people innocently to clubs and associations and may look harmless for a start and it draws you into a social circle and they are not people that have the same value as God’s people have. And then you go a little further and you get involved in activities with those people and the end result is woe and sadness and sorrow will come. Let us be amongst those that regard the work of the Lord and consider the operation of His hand. When we go to our fellowship meetings and gospel meetings and that is what it is all about it is the work of the Lord, the work the Lord want to do in us and through us. Let’s make God’s work our focus, joy will come then and not woe.
Verses 18 & 19 “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!” When I was learning the language in Sri Lanka we would read a sentence and sometimes it was so confusing and the teacher would say don’t get confused. Just tell me which words in this sentence that you know. Pull out the words that you know and let us do that with this verse also. We will pick out three words iniquity, vanity and sin. And there are two kinds of ropes mentioned there. One is a cord maybe that is what you tie up your pajamas with and if you pull on it hard enough it could break and the other is a cart rope and if you’ve tied up your pajamas with a cart rope you would have a job breaking it. It is a stronger rope. First of all taking cords of vanity and drawing them into iniquity. What is vanity? Vanity is anything that does not have an eternal focus and it is useless to us for our eternal future. We could bind ourselves up with things that are just vanity and the result of that is that we would eventually get bound into iniquity. How are you using each day God gives you? Are you tied up in activities that are really just vanity and then we are drawn into iniquity and that is something that is wrong in the eyes of God.
Then the next step the thicker rope and we may think oh well this is what we are working with is all vanity and what is binding you to it is only a small rope and it is something I can break any time, something I can cast aside any time, and do we keep getting further and deeper into it and this vanity leads us onto an iniquity, and then iniquity leads on to sin.
If you took verse 19 completely out of the context and if you were to say let God make speed and hasten His work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it. You may think that is a nice verse but in this context these people just got involved in vanity and that turned into iniquity and that turned to sin, and a sin they could not get away from and tied with a very strong tie, a cart rope and then they began to mock. Verse 19 is like mocking God we will see if God will do anything about this that we are involved in now. Let Him hasten His work and let’s see what God’s responsive is going to be, and let the counsel of the holy draw nigh.
The old devil is saying you’re sinning you’re in it and what you’re doing is wrong and God is not doing anything about it He is letting you keep going there may be no retribution. That is one of the devil’s smoothest ways of deceiving people. Telling people if God is not stopping you from doing it now it must be okay to keep doing it. The judgment day is not now friends, the judgment day is yet ahead of us, today is a day of mercy and the day of mercy is the day God gives us time to set wrong right. To cut the cart rope and the cords of vanity that is drawing us into iniquity, because God’s purpose is that we would be saved. It all started off with vanity and vanity developed into an iniquity and then iniquity developed into worse sin, mocking, despising, not fearing God and what did the verse begin with woe. Another way that woe comes is with sorrow and sadness and it begins with the pursuit of vanity. Let us think about how we are using these precious lives that God has given us for things that do have an eternal value and do have an eternal purpose.
Verse 20 “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” What are these people really doing? These people are denying reality and contradicting God, if you think this will lead you to blessing, happiness and contentment and denying God’s truth and taking it a step further and saying evil is okay and it is good. And I am sure you all have read pages and pages of the Old Testament, and you see things that were such an abomination and they stoned people that were doing those things in those days. We have the mercy and grace of God through Christ and God gives us the opportunity to turn away from those ugly sins that we would be immediately stoned for if we lived in the days of the Old Testament. They glorified those things that were such an abomination in the sight of God. Friends sorrow and sadness will come if we deny the truth of God and if we say bitter is sweet, and darkness is light, and evil is good and we begin to contradict what the Bible teaches us. The outcome is sorrow will come, sadness will come.
Verse 21 “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Proverbs 26 v 12 “seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.” Proverbs 3 Verses 5 to 7 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.” A man that is wise in his own eyes what is the real problem? The real problem is pride. I know, I already know you do not have to tell me.
We met a dear soul like that last year and we went to his house and he said I can go to any church and give my testimony and this and that. And we listened to him and after a while we said we would like to share something with him we had been reading from the Bible. We asked him if he had a Bible and he went into his bedroom and found this dusty old Bible. Can you find Isaiah such and such and he went through the Bible and didn’t have a clue where to find Isaiah. And this was the man who was telling us how much he knows about the Bible, did not even know where to find some of the books in the Bible. We are glad that that man had the humility to come to some gospel meetings and still comes occasionally. There are many changes in him.
Confidence in yourself, and confidence in your own knowledge, what is the outcome? Woe. Sorrow and sadness will come. Lean not on your own understanding, but lean on what God teaches you, what this book teaches you it is God’s word.
Verse 22 “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” The Sri Lankan Bible puts it very clear for a reward is a bribe, to justify the wicked for a bribe. To take away righteousness from those that deserve righteousness. People think there is a blessing in it for me if I am a little corrupt, a little bit dishonest even if I give a bribe. It may not lead to woe, but lead to being better off. Do you think like that? This verse makes it clear to us to glory in your own strength and liberty and the way you can use and manipulate other people, influence of your money, get what you want. Where will it lead, sorrow and sadness will come? Honesty is not the best policy, it is the only policy. May we be those that will pursue the righteousness of God.
1 Timothy 6 verses 7 to 9 “For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and in too many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown man in destruction and perdition.” It is not a very good thing to drown. Every year some of our friends drown in a spiritual sense. Drowning is where you cannot get air into your lungs, water goes in instead. Air to the body is like prayers to our spiritual existence and it is a sad thing to see people drowning and they are in floods of iniquity, things that flood this world and they get in a position where they cannot pray. They have not time to pray and they drown spiritually. They go to destruction.
Verse 10 “For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Sir Lankan Bible it does not say the love of money, but the lust for more treasures. Not talking about spiritual treasures, but natural treasures. Where is it going to lead? Erring from the faith and piercing one’s self with more sorrows. That little word woe means sorrow.
These are the verses I want to leave you with verses 11 & 12 “But thou O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on the eternal life, where unto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” These things that we have been talking about the woes and the start of a pathway to sadness, disappointment, sorrow and flee those things and follow after righteousness. May the God of heaven help us in these matters.
Truth Archive 