Isaiah 59
A Reality Check
Separated from God us vs. 1-8
Confession of Our Sins vs. 9-15
God Brings Salvation vs. 16-21
Intro: CNN Reporter in a gunfight
A cross-country road trip got derailed for a former CNN anchor and her husband after a would-be robber forced his way into their motel room and a shootout ensued.
Lynne Russell told reporters that her husband, Chuck de Caro, decided to stop at a Motel 6 on Albuquerque's western edge because they were tired after a long day of traveling.
When she went out to the car to get something and returned to the room, a man was at the door with a handgun.
"He pushed me into the room and that's when my husband came out of the shower and saw what was happening," "We tried to calm him, confuse him and do everything we could do to just come out of it in one piece."
After grabbing her husband's briefcase, the man started shooting at de Caro. Russell ducked
behind the furniture and de Caro fired back, hitting the man.
The robber was killed and de Caro was wounded.
"It was a gun battle, and Chuck was bleeding heavily, but he didn't stop firing because the man was firing on him," Russell told The New York Post.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Russell said her husband was shot three times and was recovering at a hospital but she did not immediately kno
Read Isaiah 59:1-4
We see a very simple Gospel principle delivered here this morning
Our sin separates us from God
Only the Grace of a loving redeemer can rectify that situation
Through our repentance God forgives and restores a right relationship with Him
Repentance doesn’t come easily for any of us, and its hardest of all for people who have become accustomed to using religion as a cover for their sin
It’s easier to blame God or others than to take a hard long look at ourselves
Isaiah won’t allow such evasion
It isn’t God who is the problem, but you
Your sins have separated you from your God
Isaiah pulls aside the mask & holds up a mirror so that they can see themselves as they really are
In essence he is giving them a reality check and in the process we get one too
Separated from God vs. 1-8
The first reality check we get today is that our own assessment
vs. 1 Hand not shortened
God is speaking to the the Israelites and saying “My hand is not shortened nor my ear deaf”
Basically I see and hear you and I haven’t forsaken you I am just not responding
There is something that is preventing God from redeeming the situation
Is 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke nI dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.
God is capable of doing amazing things so if he isn’t we have to ask ourselves why?
vs. 2 Sin Separates
Well God doesn’t give time for Israel to answer or ponder that… he answers
Your sins have made a separation between you and God
When we sin God doesn’t leave us but there is a obstruction put between us
We need to confess that sin for it to be removed and made right
Separate: to withdraw, go over, be excluded, singled out
The problem isn’t with God’s power, His knowledge, or His interest. The problem is with our sin.
Sin has separated you from your God.
In what way does sin separate us from God?
Sin does not necessarily separate us from the presence of God, because God is present everywhere (Psalm 139:7) and even Satan can have an audience with God (Job 1:6).
Sin does not separate us from the love of God, because God loves sinners (Romans 5:8).
Rom 8:39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But sin still does separate.
Sin separates us from fellowship with God, because at least at the point of our sin, we no longer think alike with God.
Sin separates us from the blessing of God, because at least at the point of our sin, we are not trusting God and relying on Him.
Sin separates us from the some of the benefits of God’s love, even as the Prodigal Son was still loved by the father, but didn’t enjoy the benefits of his love when he was in sin.
Sin separates us, in some way, from the protection of God, because He will allow trials to come our way to correct us.
So there is fallout of our sin
How easy it is for us to blame our problems on everything except our iniquities!
We will even blame God before seeing that the problem is with us!
We will deny who God is before seeing that the problem is with us!
And your sins have hidden His face from you:
This explains why God’s people no longer felt the face of the LORD shining on them.
It was their sins, not the inability of God to hear, or his lack of interest in hearing.
This helps us understand - at least in a small way - the cry of Jesus from the cross, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46). As Jesus stood in the place of guilty sinners, there was some way in which the face of God the Father was hidden from Him. Not in an ultimate, absolute sense; but in some way. But that was for our sins, not His own!
Confession of Our Sins vs. 9-15
So how do we make things right?
We confess our sins
Vs. 9-15 is what is generally called a communal lament
It is the kind of prayer prayed by desperate people and comes out in long, wracking sobs
The good thing about weeping is that it means we have given up pretending
It means that we have come to an end of self-justification and self-trust
The speakers in these verses are the “mourners” we have already met back in Is 57:18
Is 57:18-19 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.
There is no trace of self righteousness at all
Like Ezra and David, they confess not only their own sins, but also the sins of those who are too blind or too proud to do so themselves
The burden of their lament is the absence of justice
Justice = fairness and truth, the right state of affairs that should exist among God’s people
Justice is far away in the sense that the deliverance God promised hasn’t come yet
Justice is also lacking among God’s people themselves, so much so that it is hard, even dangerous, for anyone to protest
All hope appears to be lost
But there is still one element of hope, and that is the lament itself
As long as there are people who weep, apostasy is not total
Vs. 14-15 Truth has stumbled
Isaiah ends this prayer with an interesting quote
He has been lamenting the lack of justice and shows us why
Justice has been turned back and righteousness stands far off
What is going on here?
Well he uses the public square as an example
The town leaders or Elders would hold court for these discussions
Often times a prophet coming with the word of the Lord would come and speak
The prophet wouldn’t be able to speak the truth
Israel has a long history of rejecting the prophets
Matt 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Isaiah says that truth can’t even enter the square because it is rebuked
Truth is lacking when things are discussed
Even worse when someone tries to depart from that evil the mob attacks them
How true is that today?
Truth is suppressed and if someone steps out of line with popular thought they are attacked
It can leave us in a very hopeless situation
But there is hope
God Brings Salvation vs. 16-21
The final reality check is that God brings salvation
Salvation to our lives and to this world
The turn around comes at last in verse 15b-16: The Lord looked… He saw
He has been well aware of the situation, but unwilling to be used by a community which has no intention of changing its ways
He has withdrawn so that they may taste the full, bitter consequences of their sin
vs. 15b-16 No Redeemer
What God shows us is that no man can redeem the situation
There is no human cure for what our country is going through right now
Jesus is the only answer to our problems
God looked around and saw there was no one to intercede
Then his own arm brought salvation
God’s plan of bringing his Son to redeem the world is in place
It’s going to get ugly before it gets better but in the mean time we have Jesus
vs. 17-19 God’s Armor
Eph 6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
vs. 20-21 A Covenant of the Spirit
Ezek 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Closing:
