Vain Oblations

In the book of Isaiah, we read in chapter 1, beginning in verse 12, when you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abominable unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it.

It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me.

I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.

Cease to do evil. I will stop there, friends. This sad and pitiful description of the Jews in the days of the prophet Isaiah is a picture of a people of God who had become out of touch with God.

They worshiped God with their lips, but their hearts were far away from God. They were a sin and religious people whose prayers went unheard and whose worship was rejected by Almighty God himself. They had a form of religion without an intimate knowledge of God.

I'm just going to report, friends, my own recent experience of going to church this last Easter, and you can draw your own conclusions, friends. For Easter, I visited a Reformed Baptist church with a young pastor, and that morning I wasn't feeling well, so I asked the Lord Jesus to undergird me so I could attend church to worship him corporately. I said, Lord, will you come with me to church today so I can worship you there? After all, it's Easter Sunday, and you're a risen Lord, and I can't wait to sing praises to you, to the one who is worthy to be praised.

But you know, Lord, I'm a sick old man with heart trouble, and I'm feeling kind of low. Will you ride with me in the car beside me, and will you keep me company? Will you walk into the church building with me and give me courage to meet some new people? And if I may so speak, the Lord Jesus said he would be glad to do all that for me. So we drove to church, and on the way there, I spoke hopefully to the Lord.

I said, maybe, Lord, I'll even make a new friend today. Well, when we got to that church, I had to park my car way around the corner of the back of the building and walk a very long way because the parking lot was full, and there was no visitor parking. We entered the sanctuary where several hundred people were milling about and chatting with their friends, and we stood there waiting to be seated by an usher since there were no empty seats, but no usher was around, and everyone just ignored us as if we were invisible.

Well, that was true for Jesus, and I guess it might have been true for me for an old man by himself is invisible in a crowd to most folks anyhow. But this was supposed to be visitor-friendly Easter Sunday, but none of them were friendly to us. There was a little bench at the back wall of the church, and that is where we sat ourselves.

There was only room for two on it, just Jesus and me. The service began, and after some man-centered worship by a worship team, the young pastor came out and got things started by telling a funny story that wasn't funny at all, but he thought it was funny. Then he put up on two big screens three or four visual jokes until he got his audience roaring with laughter.

I thought, this is Easter Sunday. I stared at the ground. I was embarrassed for Jesus.

Then after he had warmed up his crowd with entertainment, he then read a brief passage of scripture of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and he mentioned something about discouragement. Then he made this comment. He said, Jesus came alongside them to show them he was their buddy.

That's what he said. He called God a buddy, and I turned to the Lord, and I apologized to him by saying, I'm sorry, Lord, that he referred to you as a buddy. You're the great God of heaven and earth, but he put you on man's level, and this being Easter Sunday and all, I'm so sorry, Lord.

Then the young pastor proceeded to read a long quote by Tim Keller, and I turned to Jesus, and again I apologized and said, I'm so sorry, Lord, this is embarrassing, especially on Easter morning. Then Jesus stood and said to me, come along. It's obvious we are not welcome here, and we got up and turned our backs on that crowd of religious people and left the building, but they never missed us.

The terrible crime taking place in America today, friends, is not out on the streets of our cities through violent crime, but inside our churches where worse crime is taking place. Our churches have been hijacked by men who treat things, the things of God, lightly, and it's a crying shame when you take time to go to church to worship a holy God, and because of the carnal fleshly atmosphere, you're not given that opportunity. Worse, you have to endure the Lord Jesus being dragged through the mud of base entertainment of funny stories and jokes by a pastor who's more like Jay Leno than a prophet of God, and we wonder why the church in this country has no authority and is powerless and under the remedial judgment of the withdrawn presence of God.

Our vain oblations are not acceptable unto him, and we've driven the spirit of God away from among our assemblies through compromise with the world and conformity to the flesh. Our churches have become more houses of entertainment instead of houses of prayer, and God is not welcome in many of our churches anymore. Only a heaven-sent revival can pull us up and out of the muck and mire and mess we have made that we call church today in this once great land that used to fear God and had a sense of reverence for God.

I know there's godly pastors out there. I'm not trying to lump all of them together because I know some of these godly pastors personally, but there are few and far between. Listen friends, am I the only one having trouble finding a church today? Are you having trouble too, or is it just me? I wonder.