10/27/24 “Upside Down”
“Upside Down”
Isaiah 5:20-24
(Display Picture of Top Secret Attraction)
Has anyone seen this building over there in the Dells?
It’s a tourist attraction called “Top Secret”…
…Anyone ever been inside the building?
It’s a very familiar structure, right?
It’s actually the White House…only…Upside Down
Every time I drive by the attraction, I think about how that building is representative of our 21st century culture here in America…
The White House represents our country….
and I think about how our country has been turned “Upside Down” – so to speak – in so many ways during the past 50 years….during my lifetime.
But the most significant way in which our country has been turned on its head has to do with how the majority of its citizens now view God and His Word.
…how such a vast percentage of people recoil at the mere mention of the name of Jesus – and the message of the gospel…and the need for a savior.
I remember back in 1st grade, my teacher – Mrs. Lemme - she would lead our class in a prayer at the start of each day…
and parents would actually be thankful for it…can you believe that?
…now – half a century later – public school teachers are fired if they were to lead a classroom of children in prayer.
Just In my lifetime, our society has gone from the commonsense assumption that there are 2 genders (male & female)…to now believing that there are 72 genders…or some say 460 genders…
…one website I looked at said there are 8.1 billion unique genders because there are 8.1 billion unique people currently living on the planet
…basically they were claiming that the gender continuum is infinite - and therefore – impossible to quantify…
Obviously, what people are trying to do is define one’s gender as something separate from one’s biological sex….
…that Gender is an expression of one’s identity completely separate from one’s physical attributes.
Sorry…but that would be like my ½ ton pickup truck wanting to be called a Smart Car…
…or…a high school student pretending to be a cat
In the 2022 documentary called “What is a Woman”, Matt Walsh interviews a 27 year-old transgender woman who identifies as a ‘Wolfarian’….someone who truly believes they are…part wolf.
I mean, we laugh about this sort of thing…
…and it would be funny except that there are so many people who have bought into these blatant falsehoods regarding human sexuality.
Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi propaganda minister, is credited with this famous quote about making people believe a lie…
…He said this: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
For the past decade, we have been told by secular society – in the media, in the workplace, in the halls of academia, through acts of legislation…
that what mankind has always believed about human sexuality from the dawn of time is all wrong…
…and that what appears to be the obvious situation concerning sex and gender…really isn’t the case.
Folks, this is what our passage of scripture is talking about when it describes “Calling evil good. And good evil”
We are living in a moment in a time that is experiencing Satanic deception to a level that has not been seen in centuries…and its been ramping up exponentially within the last couple of generations.
Just within my lifetime, our country has gone from viewing men who think they are women – and women who think they are men – as having a mental disorder…
…to now viewing these individuals as brave transgender pioneers who are educating the rest of society on the complicated intricacies of human sexuality..
Just in my lifetime, our culture has gone from relegating pornography to the back alleys of society, to now having it readily available to everyone – including children - at just the tap of a finger on a screen…
Just in my lifetime, our society has gone from considering foul language as inappropriate and unprofessional regardless of one’s age…
…to now encouraging children to say whatever words they wish in school – or anywhere else - as a self-confidence-building expression of their identity.
Just in my lifetime, we have gone from viewing others primarily by the content of their character…to now having preconceptions & demands levied upon others based solely on the color of skin…
…The dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had for achieving racial color-blindness in this country has been hijacked and shipwrecked along the rocks of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Just in my lifetime, our society has gone from almost universal agreement that legitimate marriage is restricted to one man and one woman…
…to a very high percentage of people in this country now believing that homosexual “marriages” are just as valid.
All of these anti-biblical societal ills have manifested themselves within the last 50 years…many within just the past 5 to 10 years.
30 years ago, back in 1994, John MacArthur wrote a book called “The Vanishing Conscience” where he writes about the anti-biblical direction that our country is heading…
I’d like to read the first few sentences of the Preface:
“We live in a culture that has elevated pride to the status of virtue. Self-esteem, positive feelings, and personal dignity are what our society encourages people to seek. At the same time, moral responsibility is being replaced by victimism, which teaches people to blame someone else for their personal failures and iniquities. Frankly, the biblical teachings about human depravity, sin, guilt, repentance, and humility are not compatible with any of those ideas.”
…and this was written 30 years ago!!
…think about where we are as a nation now compared to 1994!
As discouraging as it is to be surrounded by a culture that has gone from respecting God’s moral laws to completely disregarding them – it certainly isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened.
In our passage for today, the prophet Isaiah is dealing with a very similar situation in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
If you recall from a few weeks ago, we looked at Isaiah’s commissioning in chapter 6 – where Isaiah has a vision of God’s majestic throne room and an angel touches his lips with a burning coal….remember that?
Well, here in chapter 5, we are being told about the morally deplorable state in which the Israelites were conducting themselves.
Everything that we are seeing happening in our world today…much of the same things were happening in Israel 750 years before Jesus was born.
Isaiah would end up prophesying under 4 different Kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
With the exception of Ahaz, most of these kings were actually decent kings…
This is a reminder that even under good leadership, the citizenry doesn’t always follow in a way one would hope they would.
In fact, immorality and godless culture tends to thrive when peace and prosperity are in abundance…
We’ve certainly seen this in our country, have we not?
The 80’s and 90’s were decades of abundance and prosperity…
…and they were also a time that gave birth to many of the immoral ideologies, actions, and legislation that we find ourselves surrounded by today.
In today’s passage, we see three “Woe’s” that serve as warnings from God regarding the continued immoral & disobedient behavior of the Israelites.
Despite all that God had done for His people over the centuries, the Israelites still indulged themselves in debauchery, idolatry, and the worshipping of pagan gods
….it was detestable to the one true God – and His vast patience was wearing thin with them.
This is the background to these ‘Woe’ statements.
The first statement is in verse 20 (Isaiah 5:20) “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…who put darkness for light and light for darkness…who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter”
Wow…doesn’t this sound familiar?
Just as in Isaiah’s day, our world is following this same pattern of calling evil things good…and calling good things evil.
In other words, God’s moral law has been turned completely upside down.
For instance, the world tells us that greed is a good thing because it motivates people to get to the top of the heap.
In the 1987 movie “Wall Street”, Michael Douglas plays a corrupt investor by the name of Gordon Gekko who made a speech about greed that became a defining element of American culture.
Here’s what he said: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, (for) knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
In 1987, these words were received as relatively scandalous…
Today, however, a very high percentage of the population would nod their heads in agreement….believing greed to actually be a positive virtue.
The Bible – however – has a very different take on the issue of greed.
Jesus says in Luke 12:15 “…Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Jesus then goes on to tell a story about a rich farmer who – rather than sharing his wealth – just builds bigger barns in order to store more of his harvest.
The story ends with the farmer dying prematurely, thereby further emphasizing the irony of his tragic life…
…he spent so much time & effort acquiring money…just for someone else to ultimately spend it.
The greedy farmer missed the entire point of life.
Our purpose is to serve God – and serve others…not to selfishly serve ourselves.
Proverbs 15:27 says “A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.”
So…Contrary to what Mr. Gecko says…greed is NOT GOOD.
Another example of the world calling evil good, has to do with pride.
Did anyone watch some of the Olympics this past Summer?
I happened to catch a few interviews where athletes were asked about their individual performances, and I noticed something this time around that I don’t remember hearing nearly as often in the past.
In almost every interview, the athlete would say something like “I’m so proud of myself” or “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in these Olympic games.”
Very rarely did anyone thank God for the health, time, and opportunity to even participate in the most prestigious competition in the world…
in so many cases, it was all about people feeling really satisfied with themselves…credit was seldom shared with anyone else.
The world tells us that this kind of pride is a positive virtue…
Children are taught that it’s a good thing to be prideful and boastful.
There is even a certain segment of the population that feels the need to flaunt its pride of immoral sexual activity in the public eye through participation in parades, festivals, the media, corporate endorsements, television, music….etc., etc.
The LGBTQ community has planted their pride flag in the soil of almost every facet of our culture…
…Even many houses of worship where God’s Word was once held as the standard of all truth –
…many have now dismissed clear teachings of scripture in favor of bowing to the cultural pressure of accepting a lifestyle that is in direct opposition to God’s timeless Word of truth.
No matter what the world preaches – Pride is always contrary to the moral standard of almighty God.
On the other hand - Humility – the opposite of Pride – is always God’s will for humanity.
Jesus says in Luke 14:11 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
Proverbs 11:2 tells us “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
Almost every sin can trace its roots to either Pride or Greed…or both.
This is why scripture is full of passages that talk about how these two natural attributes of fallen humanity keep people from coming to Christ in faith and repentance…
The 2nd ‘Woe’ in today’s passage is in verse 21 (Isaiah 5:21) “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.”
If you’ve ever been on social media, you’ve experienced people who are ‘wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.’
Thanks to the internet, now everyone has been provided with a platform to express their own opinions on every subject under the sun…
…And – if you’ve noticed – everyone seems to be an expert on everything.
For instance, I’m always amused at how people who’ve never read a single page of the Bible miraculously become experts on its contents…and what God expects of mankind
One of our tendencies as fallen human beings is to have an inflated view of our own knowledge and understanding of the world around us.
History is full of people who thought they knew more than they actually did..
Here’s some humorous examples:
The president of Henry Ford’s bank once boldly proclaimed in 1903: “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad”
Darryl Zanuck, a movie producer in 1946 said this: “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
Ken Olson, president and chairman of the Digital Equipment Corporation in 1977 said this: “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
And finally, in 1955, the editor of Variety magazine had this to say about Rock n Roll: “It will be gone by June.”
…and It’s not just the secular world that can get wrapped up in prideful displays of one’s perceived wisdom.
A handful of theologians who also fancied themselves as modern-day prophets have made bold predictions concerning the exact date of Jesus’ second coming.
One of the early church fathers (Irenaeus) predicted that Jesus would return in the year 500 AD
In 1836, John Wesley made the proclamation that he expected Christ to return later that year…
William Miller – The original leader of the ‘Millerites’…who later founded the Advent Christian Denomination…boldly proclaimed that Jesus would return on October 22nd, 1844…when it didn’t happen that year, it became known as “The Great Disappointment” (You may have heard of that)
Charles Taze Russell – the first president of the Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses – proclaimed that Jesus would return to earth in the year 1874…
Hal Lindsay – publisher of the book “The Late Great Planet Earth” predicted that Christ would return no later than 1988
Edgar Whisenant suggested dates three different times, 1988 – 1989 – and 1993…. He probably made more predictions but I’m sure people just got tired of listening to him!
Jerry Falwell predicted that Jesus would return before the year 2000
Finally, Jack Van Impe predicted Christ’s return to be in 2012
So...what’s the moral of the story?
Don’t boldly speak out about a biblical topic – such as the precise date of Jesus’ return – that we know nothing about..
…All it does is bring condemnation and ridicule to the Christian faith in general … and it can easily turn otherwise interested spiritual seekers away.
Finally, verse 22 (Isaiah 5:22) is quite interesting – it speaks of ‘heroes’ and ‘champions’ drinking alcohol, taking bribes, and denying justice for innocent people.
If we look at the Hebrew root words for ‘hero’ and ‘champion’ we are given the idea of people in leadership – especially political leadership.
This is extremely relevant for our world today, isn’t it…
In other words, it is saying that corrupt politicians who indulge in wine, money, and revelry are inviting God’s wrath upon them – and against the people whom they represent.
These are sobering words to read when we apply them to our country today, aren’t they…
For decades now, corruption has run rampant in Washington, DC…and God – in His amazing patience – has graciously held back from allowing this country to simply destroy itself…
…However…there are some major cracks in the foundation of the USA:
Sexual perversion and a rejection of God’s perfect design
The continued murder of innocent life in the womb
The sanctioning of homosexual marriage
Government & big tech restriction of free speech.
The decriminalizing of certain mind-altering drugs
The indoctrination of our children into an atheistic, Marxist worldview
The teaching of Darwinian Evolution as fact in our public schools
Lenient sentencing for major crimes
Ignoring the needs of our veterans
The predation of children through school-sanctioned drag shows and similar sexual deviancies.
All of these are major cracks in the foundation of our country…cracks in desperate need of repair..
If you were to look up how to fix cracks in basement walls, you will get one of two answers…
If the cracks are minor, filling in the cracks with some caulk should suffice..
...However, if the cracks are major – one will need to completely remove the soil surrounding the foundational wall and repair the cracks from the outside…
Folks, as all of you know, our country has some major cracks in its foundational walls….
…with the need to begin peeling away the exterior soil of greed…the soil of pride…the soil of sexual immorality …the soil of abortion…the soil of humanistic and naturalistic indoctrination of our children…the soil of atheism…and last but not least, the soil of false teaching and apathy within the church.
9 days from now, you will have an opportunity to perform your civic duty of casting your vote to help shape the political direction of this country for the next four years…
But beyond that – and we’ll talk about this next week – we as believers have the ongoing….and greater…. responsibility to change the culture one soul at a time through introducing people to the savior, Jesus Christ.
Political movements and legislation can only accomplish so much…
The only way to bring about true, lasting change is through changed hearts…
…And the only person who can do that is the person of the Holy Spirit.
Pray for Him to bring an awakening to our nation…
…and a revival within the church.
Let’s Pray.