"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword." (Isa. 1:19)
"If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.." {Ro 8:13}
"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" {Heb 2:3}
"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.." {1Jo 2:7}
Isaiah 1 & Salvation
"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword." (Isa. 1:19)
Remember Hassell's proposition:
"If the conclusion in these sentences means eternal punishment, than Arminianism is true."
Questions For Discussion
1. Can the language of the Lord be applied to eternal salvation? Is it scriptural to say "if ye be willing and obedient you shall be saved from sin"? Or to say "if ye refuse and rebel you shall be not be saved from sin"?
2. Do the scriptures ever promise salvation to the unwilling and disobedient? Do they ever promise salvation to those who "refuse and rebel"?
3. How does one become "willing and obedient" towards God?
4. Is there more than temporal destruction in view when the threat says - "you will be devoured with the sword"?
5. Though the "sword" may be a Gentile nation which conquers Israel (Babylonians, Persians, etc.), is not the sword behind the human sword the "sword of the Lord" (the instrument of divine vengeance and retribution)?
6. Will not all the unsaved be "devoured by the sword" of divine justice at the second coming of Christ and that denoting their eternal destruction?
In answer to the first and third questions I begin with a rhetorical question: Have not the forefathers of today's PBs often cited the following verses to prove that God in sovereign grace and power makes his people "willing"?
"Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power..." (Psa. 110:3)
"...it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13)
God's work of grace in the heart, in that work we call regeneration or conversion, makes his people "willing," Since making people willing in the things pertaining to God is the "work of God," it cannot fail being accomplished, can it? The will of the sheep to follow Christ is their choice, but it is a choice that sovereign grace produced in them. A song Christians sing, including some Hardshells, is "O Happy Day." A few lines in that song express these same thoughts and ideas.
O happy day that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Savior and my God!
He drew me and I followed on,
Rejoiced to own the call divine
The drawing was of the Lord and the result of that drawing was that the sinner fixes his choice on Christ and on the Father and "follow on." Discipleship begins with the new birth, and vise versa. Sovereign grace produced that change of heart and mind and drew all attention to Christ and the good news. It is at that point that one first "lays hold of eternal life." (I Tim. 6: 12) Faith receives Christ and his life and his healing power.
God not only works in the sinner and saint "to will" in the things of God, but also "to do," so that both "willing" and "obedient" are the effects of that sovereign act of power. These same lost Jews were described throughout the prophesy of Isaiah. They were ever described as being "unwilling."
"For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction." (Isa. 30:9 NIV)
Isaiah 1 Context - Who does God address?
Is it not the unregenerate Hebrews?
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward." (vs. 3-4 kjv)
"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." (vs. 6)
"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." (vs. 9-10)
These people, though God's people in name, by virtue of the Abrahamic and Sinatic covenants, were not God's people in heart and spirit, by regeneration and renewal through the word and Spirit of the Lord. That is clear from the text. These people do not know God. If they had been regenerated and had God living in them, then they would have known him. The LORD describes them as evil, depraved in every whit, and unregenerate as the Sodomites.
The quasi Universalist Hardshells will often argue that any time God addressed the Jews as "my people" that this signified that he was addressing them all as his spiritual people. To argue that these are the Lord's born again people because he called them "my people" would put every Jew in Heaven, from Jezebel and Ahab to Judas! Not to mention his description of them in the above words given to Isaiah. If you make these people regenerated children of God, then you have become virtual Universalists. You have adopted a "no change" or "Two Seed" view of "regeneration," or what some called a "hollow log" indwelling of the Spirit and life of the Lord.
Is God addressing regenerate or unregenerate people in the above words? Will our PB brothers tell us?
And, what of these words of the LORD to Isaiah?
"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (vs. 16-20)
These words show that the depraved ones addressed were still in their sins, still filthy. That is why the LORD exhorts "wash you" and "make you clean." The Hardshells reject the obvious interpretation of the passage in denying that the washing and cleansing recommended was that initial cleansing that comes when one is born again, called, and joined to Christ. Why do they do this? Because they have a proposition that says - "people are never commanded to do anything in their regeneration or in their preservation and perseverance, or in anything connected with eternal salvation." This proposition leads them to deny that faith or believing has anything to do with eternal salvation because people are commanded to believe or have faith in God. The same with repentance. Men are commanded to repent, therefore, using Hardshell reasoning from their man made premise, it cannot have anything to do with being eternally saved. Further examples can be imagined.
We have often pointed out how the scriptures, contrary to PB statements, command men to be renewed or regenerated. See my posting Make You A New Heart for proof of this.
Further, how can Hassell and his neo Hardshell brothers say that the above verses can't be dealing with regeneration or eternal salvation when the words - "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" have historically been cited by their forefathers as dealing with the application of the blood of Christ in washing away sin?
Notice these words from the end of the first chapter:
"Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." (27-28)
Only a quasi Universalist Hardshell would want to make these words into a temporal redemption!
Now, let me cite from Dr. Gill who will give the real Old Baptist position on the passages that Hassell misunderstands.
From the Introduction to this chapter, Dr. Gill in his commentary wrote:
"This chapter, after the inscription, contains a charge of aggravated sin against the Jews; God's rejection of their ceremonial sacrifices and service; an exhortation to repentance and obedience, with a promise of pardon; a restoration from their sad estate; a prophecy of their restoration to a better; and of the destruction of idolatrous sinners."
He also said:
"...since they were guilty of such dreadful immoralities, 1:11-15 when they are exhorted to repentance for sin, to the obedience of faith, and washing in the blood of Christ, whereby their crimson and scarlet sins would become as white as wool and snow, otherwise destruction must be expected..."
Well, I will take Gill over Sylverster!
Their End Is Destruction
So, is the destruction threatened in Isaiah chapter one a mere temporal one? Notice these other verses in Isaiah where the Lord addresses these same unrenewed Jews:
"Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not." (Isa. 65:12)
This destruction is not restricted to this life! These are the words that the Lord will say to all lost men in the day of judgment. The things that characterized their doings were not characteristic of people who know their God.
"Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." (Isa. 66:3-4)
"If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." (Mal. 2:2 kjv)
These verses promise destruction, utter and eternal destruction to those who refuse to believe the Lord and to follow him. It is similar to what we find in the NT. Notice these words of Luke:
"Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." (Acts 13:26)
These Jews, like those in Isaiah's day, were "unwilling" and "disobedient" to the "word of God" and in doing so they proved themselves "unworthy of everlasting life."
Devoured With The Sword?
Being devoured by the sword of divine justice, where we are physically killed by the Lord, is not a good sign! Think of Annanias and Saphira! The greater threat from Jehovah in this chapter is well captured in that song "He Will Set Your Fields On Fire"!
He Will Set Your Fields On Fire
There’s a call that rings from the throne it springs
To those now gone astray
Saying “Come ye men from your load of sin
There at the altar lay”
Many do not heed that the chains of greed
that their conscience never tire
Be assured my friend if you still offend
He will set your fields on fire
Now if you don’t from sin retire
He will set your fields on fire
You have heard Jesus’ call
And in death your soul must fall
Now my friend if you desire
You may join the heavenly choir
And rejoice with him free from every sin
When He sets this world on fire
You have heard his voice
seen His soul rejoice
That trusted in his grace
You have blushed with sin
as He knocked within
But still you hide your face
From the blessed Lord and His own true word
But still you say retire
Leave the downward path
kindle not His wrath
Or He’ll set your fields on fire
This, of course, is well pictured in the Book of Revelation relating to the coming day of judgment and great tribulation.
In closing let me cite these words of Paul:
"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." (Phil. 3:18-19 kjv)
"Whose End Is Destruction" might be the words to put over the heading for Isaiah chapter one! It tells all men that if they "refuse and rebel," and refuse to "wash you" or "make you clean," or "reason together" with the Lord, then their end will be destruction, both in this life and in the life to come.
One other verse I must cite in closing.
"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." (Rom. 6: 17-18)
Question: "was being "willing and obedient" (Isa. 1) part of the experience of "obeying from the heart that form of doctrine delivered"? Yes, of course. And, what was the result of becoming willing and obedient, of obeying from the heart? They were then "made free from sin" and became "the servants of God and righteousness."
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