How Did Romans Get Into Isaiah?
(Isaiah 59:1-21)
1. I have told some old jokes before, but never this old.
2. Archaeologists discovered a 3rd century Roman joke book (in Greek) 2009.
3. Seriously, here is one of the jokes. “…about a barber, a professor and a bald man who go one a long journey which involves camping overnight.
As the two other men sleep, the barber shaves the professor's head. He wakes the professor who feels his own head and says: ‘You idiot, you've woken the bald man instead of me!’" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
4. When I think of Romans, I think of Book of Romans. Many of you are fluent in it.
5. Paul quotes Isaiah over 20 x in Romans, so his mind was there. But besides quota- tion, there are so similarities that I will say Isaiah 59-66 is Proto-Romans.
Brief outline of Romans: Sin, Salvation, Sanctification, Sovereignty, Service.
Isaiah 59-66 is proto-Romans. The first 3 points are the three points of Isaiah 59.
For Sovereignty, see Isaiah 63:17 “O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.” 64:8, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
For Service, see Isaiah 61:6a, “but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God...”
Main Idea: God makes the case that we are sinners, lost, and helpless; we need a redeemer who will first intervene and then empower us by his Spirit.
I. SIN (1-15)
This passage describes the behavior of the Jewish people during the reign of King Manasseh, but its principles extend to the human race, including us.
A. SEPARATES us from God (1-2)
When Queen Esther hosted her second party with King Ahasuerus and Haman, she revealed that Haman was out to exterminate her people….the king stepped out to cool off…Haman pleaded and grabbed the queen by the feet and hem of her robe and the king thought he was attacking her…covered him & carried him off … separation
B Makes us EXTREMELY lost (3-15)
Verses 7-8 are within Romans 3:9-18, which elaborates on this theme:
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
• The illustration of three sins a day
C. Leaves us BANKRUPT (depraved) (16a)
Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
II. SALVATION (16-20)
A. Man cannot save himself (16a)
1. Revelation 5:1-5 — ONLY the Lamb is capable
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
2. Depravity means HELPLESSNESS, spiritual poverty
A few weeks ago, I was at Aldi’s and went wild; the bill came to 35cents more than I had… checkout lady waited for me to run to my car where I had some change…
But if I had to pay for the pavement from my house to Aldi’s, the parking lot, and the store itself, my 35 cents would be negligible….
B. God HIMSELF had to do the job of redemption (16b)
Romans 8:3, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…”
The traditional Jewish belief is that Jewish or human suffering atones for sins… that is not correct on a spiritual level, because an acceptable sacrifice must be pure and infinite…
Psalm 49:7-9 says, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.”
C. He is the Effective GO GETTER (17-19)
• Arm of the Lord… his strength or a term for the pre-incarnate Messiah?
D. He is the REDEEMER (20) Verse 20 cited in Romans 11:25-26
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
III. SANCTIFICATION (21)
A. Via the New COVENANT
Jesus shed his blood for us, and, in a sense, we died with him and rose with him
We are under the New Covenant now, one day all Israel will be under it
Main difference between old and new: old included regenerate and unregenerate
B. By the HOLY SPIRIT ruach kodesh
Romans 8:4-11 passim reads, “…in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. … to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace… You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. … If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
C. Centered around the WORD
This is the truth that is being lost…. Modern attempts to substitute the Word for something that does not take mental concentration/stress, like music, pop psychology, ritual, good works. It is the process of studying the Word that makes you holier, not how relevant a portion of Scripture seems to you…
God makes the case that we are sinners, lost, and helpless; we need a redeemer who will first intervene and then empower us by his Spirit.
