Isaiah 28:1-22
“When God Is Pushed Out”

Introduction
1. TRAGIC Consequences…The Price America Is Paying For Rejecting God Oliver North
2. Ephraim was like we are. Because of her geographic location and her rich fertile soil, and she was protected so she had few wars. She was part of the northern kingdom Israel.
3. She had what I call The Ephraim Syndrome: All of this led to excess and God was pushed out. Excess…Success…Wealth…Expansion (Bigger/Bigger was better). This led to a lack of
satisfaction. They never had enough…Greater, Greater Success…Greater, Greater Wealth…
Greater, Greater Expansion. Never Satisfied!! The Promise Land was not a land of rest, but a
land of opportunity.
4. Ephraim trusted in their own strength, their own accomplishments. It has happened in
America. Has it happened to you? The busier we get the less time we have for God. God is
replaced.
5. Has God been pushed out? Something will push in!
6. Isaiah 28:1-22 God has been pushed out:

Has God been pushed out? Something will push in!
I. A SERIOUS PROBLEM 28:1-13
A. The Wealth 1,3
1. Crown of pride which is on the head of Fat Valley. The Crown of pride has
replaced the crown of glory in vss. 5, 6. The world is filled with ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’
and sound like politicians.
2. Overcome by wine…drunkards (1, 3) It means, ‘broken’, ‘smitten’. It is a picture
of affluence and excess or worldly luxury and fleshly pleasures. Drunkard is
stupefied by excess and they lie in their shame! In v. 7 it is literal drunkenness,
and the dangers of alcohol. This is evidence of something greater…God has been
pushed out. There is a hole, and emptiness. Alcohol is the drug of choice among
teens and college age.
B. The Warfare 2-4
In a defeated society…God must step in.
1. The Foe 2a Relentless and Ruthless the Assyrian forces are like a raging sea.
2. The Fight 2b Cast down…trampled.
3. The Failure 4 The Crown of pride turns into a fading flower in Fat Valley. Figs
were ripe in August and picked quickly. What happens when God is pushed out
of our lives? Disobedience will soon turn glorious beauty into a fading flower.
“Where is the blessedness I knew when I first saw the Lord?”
C. The Walk 7-8
If God’s people err in vision they will certainly stumble in judgment.
1.Ultimate blessing is assured at the end times. (5, 6) God never loses sight of His purpose.
2.God is looking for spiritual leaders…Priests and Prophets. They had the same problem as the people…strong drink. They err in vision…they stagger and stumble in judgment. Table full of vomit and filth.
3.In another way dads you are the priest in your home. What you do in moderation, your children will do in excess. What’s in your refrigerator? Is there filth on the Internet? Does curse words come out of your mouth?
D. The Word 9-13
Three questions: Whom shall he teach knowledge? Whom shall he make understand
doctrine? To whom would he interpret the message?
1. The Objection to the Word 9-10 Isaiah seems to be treating them like
children. (9) His laws are like petty annoyances…one command on another or
joined together coming constantly. (10) The people are casing scorn…scornful
men (14) mockers (22)
2. The Object Instead of the Word 11 For with stammering lips, and another
tongue will He speak unto this people…Assyria came! God would speak to His
people in a foreign language. This explains the tongues of (Acts 2) and (I Cor.
14:21, 22) explains tongues as a foreign language not previously learned.
If you won’t listen to God’s Word He will have to use a language you can
understand: Pain…Disappointment…Loss…Reversal!
3. The Obstinance to the Word 12-13
a. How They Rejected the Word 12 They had heard the message: This is
the rest. It is the rest of salvation…They did not respond to the blessing that
salvation brings!
b. How They Regarded the Word 13 To them it was nothing more than
childish and annoying repetition…the Word of the Lord was unto them. It
doesn’t take much imagination to hear the groaning as Pastor Murray
preaches. It is tragic when God’s people grow tired of listening to God’s
Word. It’s a sign of something bigger…GOD HAS BEEN PUSHED
OUT!!

Has God been pushed out? Something will push in!
II. A SECURITY PROBLEM 28:14-22
If I push the living God out, I must rest on something else. Here Israel was going to rest
on Assyria. They had rejected the rest and refreshment God had offered.
What we choose will take us captive and destroy us.
A. False Security 14-15
1. Watch your ‘friends’ and ‘alliances’…they may take the place of God.
2. You are acting so the prophet’s thought would seem to be ‘as though death and the
grave will not overcome nor claim you’. They come to others, but you are exempt.
Round about you have beheld others fall, and even seen 10 tribes go into captivity,
but you think the death will pass you by.” E.J. Young
3. IT HAPPENS TO OTHERS…NOT ME!
B. Failed Security 17-22
1. The final overthrow of all who trust in lies and falsehood is given.
2. No alliance would stop God. Egypt and Assyria will not stand! Wave after wave
will pass over and there is no escape!
C. Firm Security 16
1. Jesus Christ is totally reliable: a tried stone…a precious stone…a sure
foundation.
2. Shall not make haste beautifully describes the quiet and peace that belongs to those
who rest on Him.

Has God been pushed out?
COME...Rest on Him!