SERMON TITLE: Misery (WSC 19&20)
SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 1:1-31 (NIV84)
SPEAKER: Matt Heft
DATE: 11-23-25
Westminster Shorter Catechism
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
Good morning, my name’s Matt Heft. Thank you for being here this morning. Typically, my family and I worship at our North Main Campus, so a special hello to everyone there. For those here at County Road 9 Campus, if I haven’t had the chance to meet you yet, I hope you’ll stop and introduce yourself after the service.
I, along with the other elders of Gateway Church, want you to know that God loves you and we love you too. We truly do. You are on our hearts constantly and we pray for you daily. As we take time to be thankful as a nation this coming week, we are thankful for you.
On occasion, I like to share some personal information just so we all know each other a little better. A couple months ago, I was at the Marathon Center for the youth production of Annie. I was talking with a friend, and he said something along the lines of, “so do you like musical theater”? I was shocked that he would ask me such a question and I realized he doesn’t know me as well as I thought he did.
Over this weekend, part two of a popular movie came out. I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but I likely will. There’s just a part of me that feels drawn to that story. One of those pictures is from high school and the others are at a community theater shortly after college. And best of all, the pictures where Dorothy and the Lion are dancing is my beautiful wife, Amberly.
But just so we’re clear, I don’t plan on singing this morning. But…if I were king…
Today, we’re continuing the series from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. You may recall that in August, I covered questions 17 & 18. Question 17 was this:
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #17
Question: What happened to man in the fall?
Answer: Man fell into a condition of sin and misery.
Following this, I provided some examples from Scripture of sin and misery. Let’s go through a couple of those again.
Romans 5:12 (NIV84) – “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
Sin came into the world through one man. That sin brought misery and in this verse, the specific misery mentioned is death.
Or how about this one?
Romans 3:23 (NIV84) – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Again, we see that all have sinned, and then the misery that follows….we’ve fallen short of God’s glory. We don’t measure up. That’s misery.
And then in August, we spent the remainder of our time talking about sin. If you were here then, you know that I warned you about today’s sermon. I told you that we would be spending the bulk of our morning today talking about misery.
Today, misery isn’t a word that we use very often. Of course not. Who likes to think about misery? But there are some pretty prominent uses in our current culture. For example, finish this phrase…misery loves? Right, misery loves company. And there’s the creepy Stephen King novel turned into a movie titled… Misery…that is not a recommendation! And there are many, many songs with the title “Misery”. So even though we don’t use this word much in everyday conversation, we tend to have a fairly good idea of what it means.
Just so we have a working definition for this morning, let’s define misery. Misery refers to the pain, suffering, and ruin that result from sin.
A definition is fine, but what does misery look like in real life? We’ve all experienced misery to one degree or another and will continue to experience it. Some of you have experienced more than your fair share and it may feel like “the hits keep coming”. The misery you face may be because of sinful choices that you or someone else made. The misery you face could have no one to blame…it’s just misery. Here are some examples of misery the elders have seen over the past year.
Misery is all around us. We experience it daily. Some days may seem a lot worse than others, but misery always seems to be lurking nearby.
I think my original definition of misery was ok, but I want to expand it a little further.
Misery refers to the pain, suffering, and ruin that result from sin. That sin may be Adam’s sin, my own sin, or even someone else’s sin.
There’s misery that’s not tied directly to our individual sin. Some of you need to hear that this morning before I get started. There’s misery that we experience because of Adam’s sin and not because of our own sin. A few weeks ago, Pastor Josh was preaching about the covenants and said this to us, “Does this [covenant of works] apply to us today? Meaning – do we experience the results of this covenant being broken? Yes. Adam’s breaking of the covenant has affected all of us. Even though we’re not Adam – this covenant has continuity with us and our relationship with God today.”
And specific to today’s topic, Adam’s sin means that there’s been continuity of misery all the way to us.
I’d love to blame all my misery on Adam. But if I’m honest, much of my misery is caused by my own sin. And much of your misery is caused by your own sin. And even if you’re an unbeliever and may not be sold on Adam, you know that your own choices have caused plenty of misery. We can’t ignore this aspect of misery. I make choices each day that open me up to some degree of misery. And when I face the consequences of that misery, even though I may try, I can’t look around and blame everyone else. My sin causes misery.
Adam’s sin has brought misery, my sin causes misery, but one additional way that we experience misery is through the sin of others. I think of a child whose parents get a divorce, a friend choosing alcohol or drugs over their relationship, or a victim of violence whose life is forever changed. The sin of others causes misery.
The sin of Adam causes misery, my sin causes misery, and the sin of others causes misery. As I was preparing, I was really trying to categorize where our misery comes from. It didn’t work. And it didn’t work because that’s not how sin and misery work. I’ll never be able to figure out what proportion of each one’s sin is contributing to my misery. But I do know that Adam’s sin introduced misery to the human race, but boy, I, along with all of you, are pretty good at keeping it going.
With that, let’s take a look at our first question for today. Question 19 from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #19
Question – What is the misery of man’s fallen condition?
Answer – By their fall all mankind lost fellowship with God and brought his anger and curse on themselves. They are therefore subject to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
Let’s spend just a moment on this answer.
“By their fall”: This is reminding us of the fall of Adam & Eve when they ate from the one fruit in the garden that God told them not to eat from.
“all mankind”: By eating of the fruit, Adam and Eve didn’t just create misery for themselves, they created it for all of us.
And what was that misery, here we see the first part of it:
And because they, Adam & Eve, did this, they’re subject to all of the miseries of this life, including death, and eternal pains of hell.
The one sin of Adam unleashed all of this misery on them. But as we just discussed we have this continuity of Adam’s sin that’s been passed down to all humanity, including you and me. It seems unfair, but because of Adam’s sin, we gained not only his guilt, but we also gained his misery.
I was doing my daily Bible Study a month or so ago in the book of Isaiah. I wasn’t specifically preparing for this sermon, I was just reading Isaiah, but then, I saw it. Right there in Chapter 1, all of these different miseries started to pop out at me. It was like reading a text where someone took the time to add text effects to individual words. Let me show you.
While you’re turning to Isaiah 1, I’ll set the stage. The nation of Judah had turned away from God and they were pursuing things their own way. They thought they knew better the way to peace and happiness. The prophet Isaiah comes onto the scene and God gives Isaiah a word to speak to the nation of Judah.
Isaiah calls them out for their sin and in doing so, he’s showing them the misery they’re facing because of their sin. Listen for different types of misery as I read Isaiah chapter 1. And while I’m reading, consider whether you’re experiencing any of these miseries in your own life.
Isaiah 1:1-31 (NIV84)
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. *And right here at the beginning of the book of Isaiah, we see Israel’s sin – they’ve rebelled against God.
The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” *The miseries now begin. And the first one listed, they lack basic understanding.
Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, *the next misery, they are loaded with guilt. Don’t raise any hands, but I wonder if there may be some here this morning that would admit, “I’m loaded with guilt”.
a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart is afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. *As a nation and as individuals, they’re experiencing physical, mental, and spiritual affliction.
Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. *Their nation is being destroyed right in front of their eyes.
The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. *Let me pause and explain this one. What does a hut in a field of melons mean? Imagine just the simplest of structures that would be put up to give some brief shade to those working in the fields. No offense to my son and some of his buddies, but it’s kind of like a log cabin that they keep trying to build in our woods. It’s temporary. A strong wind, a lot of rain, snow, it will have to be rebuilt over and over and over again. And Isaiah’s saying that’s what Judah is like. A very temporary shelter that won’t withstand even the slightest storm.
Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. *These people are going through all kinds of religious looking motions, but God’s saying, just stop. Imagine if God looked at us as a people and said just stop meeting together, stop taking communion, stop the baptisms, stop the Christmas Eve service, stop Vacation Bible School, stop the mission trips, just stop because the way you’re doing things is so repulsive to me, I can’t even stand to watch it. That’s misery.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. *When God won’t hear our prayers, that’s misery. This verse reminds me of James 5:16 where it says, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. That verse in James is quite a contrast to what was happening in Israel many centuries earlier.
Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD. *God’s trying to show them exactly what they need to do to demonstrate that their hearts have turned back to him. Now I like this next section. I think we can call this foreshadowing.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. *Why scarlet and red for the colors to represent sin? Let me tell you, I went down quite the YouTube rabbit trail for this one. We have to think back to a world before all of the synthetic dyes that we have today. Because of how natural dyes for scarlet and crimson are made, they’re impossible to get out of the fabric they’re applied to. But how clean does God say he’s going to make them? As white as snow, white like wool. I’ve seen some of your sheep at the fair. Whiter and cleaner than those sheep. Back to Isaiah 1.
If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers! *More misery. Evil doers have replaced righteousness.
Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. *When you heat up a metal to the point of being a liquid, the dross is the impurities that will rise to the top. (for the grammar majors, I thought a lot about that and I’m almost certain it’s supposed to be “the dross is the impurities”) Can you imagine taking what you thought was valuable, melting it down, and the only thing that’s really there are a bunch of impurities. Or maybe the example of wine. Your choice wine is diluted. Maybe you feel that the very best of what you have is just diluted. It’s watered down. That’s misery.
Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them. *Another misery is that the government isn’t leading by protecting its people from those on the outside and supporting justice for those on the inside.
Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.” Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish. *Brokenness, perishing, death. More misery for those that continue in their sin even though righteousness is offered.
You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. *Note a couple more common descriptions of misery. Ashamed and disgraced. The context here tells us that this is related to sexual sins committed by the people.
You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”
And that brings us to the end of this long list of misery being faced by the people of Judah. Their sin led them into misery.
As we read through Isaiah 1, maybe you saw some ways that you’ve been experiencing misery in your life.
When I hear all the miseries in Isaiah 1 or I just hear about all the other miseries possible in this world, I find myself wanting a formula for misery.
Don’t we all want a formula for what kind of misery we’ll get from our sin? How much misery we’ll get? How long will that misery last? I really want to know… if I commit this sin, this many times, I’ll reap this amount of misery. I want that formula because I want to make a decision about whether or not I think that level of misery is worth it. It may just be me, but I suspect we all do this to some degree. We think we can calculate the amount of misery we’ll face, based on what we want to do. We then compare that amount of misery with the amount of happiness we think we’ll gain and if we like how our formula turns out, we’ll jump in and do whatever it is we want to do.
And if my made up formula doesn’t tell me the answer I want, then I’ll put a little extra weight on the side of the scale that will give me what I want.
But God didn’t give us formulas for misery. He told us to love him, obey him, follow him. The only cost he told us to count was what it would cost to walk away from this world and follow him. And the answer to that formula, the answer to that calculation is that it’s worth it. It’s worth it to turn away from this world and follow Christ.
Isaiah 1 paints an awful picture of the conditions in Judah. And as I spoke and you read along, perhaps there were a few of those miseries that felt really personal to you too.
Here’s a thought that I had while preparing for this sermon. Have you ever thought about what a mercy misery is? I think I created a tongue twister there. Let me say it differently. Have you ever thought about the mercy of misery? I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about misery being a mercy from God.
Let me explain what I mean. The ultimate misery that we can think of is eternal torment and separation from God in a place of eternal darkness. We often call that hell. That was referenced in Question 19 at the beginning of this sermon. I think we would all agree that that is the ultimate misery. Our sin has earned us this level of misery.
Now think about this world, the land of the living. Imagine that we had original sin, our sin, and other people’s sin, but there’s no misery. No matter what sin you commit, there are no negative consequences. There’s no illness or disease that came to us from the original fall. There’s no sensation of pain. Our emotions are always positive. My wine is always full strength and never watered-down. No misery at all.
Are you still imagining this world? Now, I come to you and tell you all about this awful place called hell that is going to be full of misery. You can’t even begin to fathom what that would be like, because you’ve never even experienced a little bit of misery in this life. And because you’ve never experienced misery in this life, you doubt that there’s truly an eternal misery that exists.
Now we all know that that’s not the world we live in, we all experience misery in this life. Some of this misery will be due to the fall, and some will be because of our own sin, some will be because of the sin of others. But when we face misery in this life, we can be sure that God has indeed created a place, an eternal place where we’ll be separated from him. Where misery will be far worse than anything we’ve experienced on this earth and it will be eternal.
God has given us misery on this earth. And as painful as it is at times, I think we need to thank God for this great mercy that he has shown us by allowing us to experience just a taste of misery, so that we will know that there is an eternal misery that we all want to avoid.
I want to look at Question #20 in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Here’s the question and the answer.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #20
Question – Did God leave all mankind to die in sin and misery?
Answer – NO!
Let’s practice. I’ll say the question and you say the answer. “Did God leave all mankind to die in sin and misery?” “No”. The shorter catechism is short, but not that short. Let’s put the actual answer up there instead.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #20
Question – Did God leave all mankind to die in sin and misery?
Answer - From all eternity and merely because it pleased him, God chose some to have everlasting life. These he freed from sin and misery by a covenant of grace and brought them to salvation by a redeemer.
This is the good news of the Gospel. Even though we’re all deserving of misery, both in this world and for all eternity, it pleased God to choose some for salvation from sin and misery.
Maybe today, for the first time, you’re ready to turn to God and cry out to him for salvation from eternal misery. Or maybe you accepted the truth of the Gospel a long time ago, but you’ve become trapped by sin and you’re experiencing misery because of it. No matter which one of these would describe you, this next section is for you.
Let’s talk through the good news.
When we came into this world, we were dead in our sin. And if you’re here today without Christ, you’re dead in your sin. You’re morally, ethically, spiritually, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead. You’re not only merely dead, you’re really most sincerely dead. We can find this truth throughout the Bible, but it is said most directly in Ephesians 2:1 (NIV84) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin.
At the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned Ephesians 2:3, it tells us that without Christ we were by nature objects of wrath. But I didn’t keep reading. That’s where the good news is.
Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV84) But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
What does Christ have to do with this? If you haven’t been around church a lot, you may not realize that when I use the word, Christ, I’m referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God. He’s a part of the trinity, along with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The whole trinity is eternal, meaning they’ve existed forever, but Jesus was born as a human on this earth about 2,000 years ago. He was born to Mary, who was a virgin. Throughout his entire life, Jesus never sinned.
Being born of a virgin, Jesus didn’t have all the miseries of inherited sin from Adam, and being sinless, he didn’t have misery created by his own sin, but he did have the misery that was caused by the sin of others.
Even though he was perfect, the people around Jesus arrested him. They put him on trial, a trial that was a sham, and they declared him guilty… even though he was innocent. The punishment given to Jesus was to die by hanging on a cross.
He willingly went to the cross, like a lamb being led to slaughter. And the punishment that he bore wasn’t for anything he had done, but it was the punishment for the sin Adam had committed, it was punishment for all of my sin, it was punishment for the sin of all who would call on his name. And because God required a perfect sacrifice as punishment for our sins, the blood of Jesus is sufficient.
Jesus was taken down from that cross and he was placed in a tomb. But he didn’t stay there. Three days later he rose to life again. He was on this earth for another 40 days until he ascended into heaven and is now at the right hand of God the Father.
Because of what Jesus did on the cross, if we will confess our sins, turn away from them, and turn to him, our sins will be forgiven.
Christians, I need you to listen to me now. This includes you too! If you’ve found yourself trapped by sin, the blood that washed away the original sin from Adam will wash away the sins you committed last week, or yesterday, or this morning before church too. You’re not trapped. You don’t have to be stuck in this continual loop of sin. The blood of Jesus is powerful enough to wash all your sins away. Hear me when I say that God doesn’t look at what you did last week and think, “Oh no, what am I going to do now, I didn’t know they were going to commit that sin.” Not at all. God knows everything about us and he still chose to save us through the power of the blood of Jesus.
And when that blood washes over our lives, we can reflect back on Isaiah 1:18.
Isaiah 1:18 (NIV84) “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
I love the thought that when Jesus comes into my life, it means that all of my sins are washed away. I love the imagery of being white as snow. A fresh canvas. If that were all that God did for us, that would be enough. But that’s not all that he did. God has put on me a robe of righteousness.
Isaiah 61:10 (NIV84), “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
God didn’t just get me all cleaned up… which I desperately needed… he put a robe of righteousness on me. Let’s try a financial example. He didn’t just get me out of a pit of debt, he brought me back to even and then he filled my back account to overflowing! That’s figurative. My actual bank account is not overflowing.
With the riches of Christ, I have the power to live for him today and I’m promised an amazing home in glory. I’ll be with him in heaven someday. And if you do not accept Christ into your life, then there’s only one alternative. That alternative is eternal separation in an awful place called hell, where the misery we’ve talked about will never end.
I know that all of us here this morning understand the experience of misery. Some have experienced that stronger than others, some have experienced it more often, but we’ve all experienced it.
It’s my hope this morning that you’d begin to see misery as a great mercy from God. Even in the pain, he is calling you to himself.
No matter the source of the misery, let’s be the kind of people, the kind of church that provides loving care to those that need care, and also that provides Biblical wisdom to those that need Biblical wisdom. And whatever combination of those that’s needed in each individual situation.
Most of all, I pray that everyone here this morning would come to Jesus to escape an eternity of misery and experience the wonderful blessings of being adopted into his family.
Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for such a wonderful mercy, the pain of misery. But thank you also for sending your Son, Jesus, to keep us from experiencing an eternity of misery. I pray that we would turn to him when we experience pain in this life. And Father, thank you for the Holy Spirit who comforts and convicts us of our sin. May our ears be tuned in to what he’s saying to us.
I know that some here this morning are experiencing misery so strongly that they’re not sure how to keep going forward. I pray that we would care well for those in our midst that are suffering miseries of all sorts. And I pray that we would open up your Word to find the only source of strength and hope in the midst of whatever misery each of us may be going through.
Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus on that cross. It’s in your name we pray, Amen.
As you leave this morning, if you are experiencing misery in your life, let me encourage you to come and pray with one of our prayer teams. They would love to pray with you and talk with you.
And now, receive this blessing. May God turn the misery in your life into a beautiful picture of his mercy.
You are sent.
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