JUDAH'S RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS LIKE FILTHY RAGS
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Filthy Rags
a) The statement, "All our righteousness is like filthy rags", is found in the middle of a Biblical poem in Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4-9). The saying has caused a deep struggle in many hearts. Does the statement mean that it's pointless to do righteous deeds and they have no value in God's eyes? No, it doesn’t.
b) We put the "filthy rags" statement into context, looking at other statements in Isaiah to see that true righteousness is not "filthy rags".
2. Judah’s Righteousness Was Like Filthy Rags
a) The first chapter of Isaiah clarifies God’s reason for rejecting as filthy rags the righteousness of his people in Judah and Jerusalem. They were "alas a sinful nation" and a rebellious people (Isaiah 1:4-5). They are likened to Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10-11). Yet they offered to God multiplied sacrifices and prayers (Isaiah 1:11-15). "How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her" (Isaiah 1:21).
b) God once was delighted with the people, but now he is disappointed. They have become two-faced. Whilst they continued to worship, they also continued to do evil. The Lord repudiated their false righteousness as filthy rags —or as he puts it in another metaphor here, "Your silver has become dross" (Isaiah 1:22).
c) So hypocrites who pretend to worship God while deliberately practicing evil, thinking they can fool the Lord, are the ones whose righteousness is like filthy rags. Their righteousness is soiled by their own non-repented sins or the sins of those around them which they tolerate.
d) We come to understand therefore, that when Isaiah says, "All our righteousness is like filthy rags" he is speaking on behalf of the nation, an apostate people in decline — not on behalf of those who who turn to God and his Christ for salvation and seek to follow his righteousness (Isaiah 45:22-25, Isaiah 55:6-12).
The End ...
1. Filthy Rags a) The statement, "All our righteousness is like filthy rags", is found in the middle of a Biblical poem in Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4-9). The saying has caused a deep struggle in many hearts. Does the statement mean that it's pointless to do righteous deeds and they have no value in God's eyes? No, it doesn’t.
b) We put the "filthy rags" statement into context, looking at other statements in Isaiah to see that true righteousness is not "filthy rags".
2. Judah’s Righteousness Was Like Filthy Rags
a) The first chapter of Isaiah clarifies God’s reason for rejecting as filthy rags the righteousness of his people in Judah and Jerusalem. They were "alas a sinful nation" and a rebellious people (Isaiah 1:4-5). They are likened to Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10-11). Yet they offered to God multiplied sacrifices and prayers (Isaiah 1:11-15). "How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her" (Isaiah 1:21).
b) God once was delighted with the people, but now he is disappointed. They have become two-faced. Whilst they continued to worship, they also continued to do evil. The Lord repudiated their false righteousness as filthy rags —or as he puts it in another metaphor here, "Your silver has become dross" (Isaiah 1:22).
c) So hypocrites who pretend to worship God while deliberately practicing evil, thinking they can fool the Lord, are the ones whose righteousness is like filthy rags. Their righteousness is soiled by their own non-repented sins or the sins of those around them which they tolerate.
d) We come to understand therefore, that when Isaiah says, "All our righteousness is like filthy rags" he is speaking on behalf of the nation, an apostate people in decline — not on behalf of those who who turn to God and his Christ for salvation and seek to follow his righteousness (Isaiah 45:22-25, Isaiah 55:6-12).
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