“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.”
Those words shall serve as a catalyst for our chat this morning. I want to use this preaching moment as a vehicle to convey “THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE DELIVERANCE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD - THE HOLY SPIRIT AS DELIVERER.” The TEXT the Lord has tagged and targeted for teaching this truth is ISAIAH 59:19b.
I feel very strongly that the commencement of Celebrating our Cultural and Spiritual Heritage as African descendants must begin with a recognition and appreciation of the Role of the Holy Spirit in our Redemptive History. For He was and is and is yet to play an ultimate and crowning role in our extrication from all forms of tyranny, terrorism and bondage. Let us now give the Holy Spirit some adoration, praise, recognition and honor for His faithfulness to us. Let’s praise Him now with hand clapping and thanks!!! For it is He and His ministry who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of God’s glory with exceeding joy.
And so, I want to spotlight and high-lite Four words: DECLINE, DEPARTURE, DANGER and DELIVERANCE. For the Decline of a Great People can be traced back to their Departure from their God. And this Departure will eventually Expose Departees to Danger. And this Danger of ultimate Destruction Discloses the Deliverance of God.
And so, the first two words I want to high-lite are the words DECLINE and DEPARTURE. For I do contend that:
I. THE DECLINE OF A GREAT PEOPLE CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THEIR DEPARTURE FROM THEIR GOD.
For the context of this 59th chapter of Isaiah contains contents of a Particular Class and Race of People who Departed from their God. That 13th verse houses the phrase “departing away from our God.” And it goes on to list the ways in which this people had departed from their God. It says “In transgressing and lying against the Lord …speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.” Those are concrete expressions of what it means to depart away from God. And that sedition, that breaking away, that departure from God becomes even more pronounced when we consider who these people were.
First of all, they were a Class of people who shared the Same Economic and Social Status. From their inception or genesis as a people, they were all endowed with a shared portion of land, property or possessions. They were economic equals, all having a share in the inheritance that was their legacy from their forefathers. Therefore, Socially, they were equals. There was no upper, middle or lower class. There was a network and community of brotherhood and intermingling of the people one with the other. All saw each as their neighbor and treated each as their brother or sister. Their community was held together in the bond of kinship, shared culture and customs. There was only was class - the Blessed Class! In their youth and purity as a people, they were actively aware of their common economic and social level of society.
There were times in our history as a people that we too were actively aware of our common and shared economic and social level of society. A time when none of us or our forebears had very much of the material wealth of this world, but the little which we did have, we were eager and glad to share with those who had less. A time when we would not allow divisions among ourselves into upper, middle and lower class. At that time there was only one class - the Blessed Class! There were times and period in our history when we viewed and treated each other as neighbors and loved each other as brothers and sisters. All of us whether poor or rich, educated or illiterate, professional or common laborer would all intermingle and socialize as one. We shared deeply the same culture and customs. We all belonged to the brotherhood of man!
Not only was this a people who shared a common economic and social level of society, but:
Secondly, they were a Particular Race of People. Their unique identity did not come from a particular ethnicity, but it came from a certain Covenant Relationship which they had with their God. For racially or ethnically, they were Gentiles like all other races of men. For Abraham himself was a Gentile in the flesh before he received the notoriety as a friend of God. It was not a matter of superior genes or breeding or morality or intelligence. It was not a matter of skin color or goodly physical features. It was a matter of the selection of God as manifested in a covenant relationship. No other race of people were so favored with this privilege as Israel.
And I might add, there was a time when we as a people were keenly aware of our special relationship to God as our Father and we as His people. We had this sense that somehow we were of a special race of people; a people who had been genetically engineered by God in a spiritual sense; that we were made especially for God; that we were destined for greatness thru service. There was a time when we prided ourselves on not being children of men or of slaves but children of God; born-again, regenerated, blood-bought, Spirit-taught children of the King!!!
And yet our text relates a time came when this particular class and race of people departed from their God, and in departing from their God they departed from each other. No longer was their a common economic and social consciousness. No longer was their a shared sense of a special relationship to God in the form of a covenant. And so began their history of transgressing and lying against the Lord, of speaking oppression and revolt, of conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And therefore their community was ripped apart by one-on-one violence, lying, adultery, cheating and a total disregard for the image of God in the person of their fellow neighbors and brothers and sisters.
And that too, is the sad tale that characterizes the Black community in America. The truth of the matter is our decline did not arise from the cruel oppression, injustice and hatred we suffered from the hands of white America. Our Decline springs from our DEPARTURE FROM GOD AS A PARTICULAR CLASS AND RACE OF PEOPLE!! And in Departing from our God, we have Departed From Each Other!!! It stems from our transgressing and lying against the Lord in the spiritual and religious arena; from speaking oppression and revolt in the political arena; and from conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood socially against one another! For any time we disregard our sacred and solemn covenant with God and with one another, judgment shall be far from us neither shall justice overtake us.
And so, today in this 21st Century, truth is fallen in our streets and equity cannot enter. Our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us. And as for our iniquities, we know them!!! We are in Decline! It seems like a major fraction of our young black sons are on a steady descent into degradation. Our religious and political leaders are bending down to brides and kneeling at the shrine of lust. There is a Lowering of the Esteem Black America. Our religious, educational, social and economic institutions have been weakened. Decay, diminution, deterioration and degeneration are all around us. It seems as if we are in a retrogression with disaster!
The first Two Words are DECLINE and DEPARTURE. For the slippery slope of sin descends into Departure from one’s covenant God. But it does not end there; it lands in the Valley of Danger. And so, we need to look at that Third Word - DANGER!
II. FOR DEPARTURE FOM GOD WILL EVENTUALLY EXPOSE DEPART-EES TO DANGER.
For that is the clear message of the first part of our text. Listen to the first part of verse 19b again: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood …” The entrance of the enemy into the heart of the community is a strong indicator of Danger, sho-nuf!
I must deal with the integrity of the text from the standpoint of its Grammatical and Theological Implications. For grammatically, the verbal phrase “shall come in” declares a future occurrence of unspecified time-frame will most certainly take place. It even makes a Declaration of What Shall Be based on the Past Actions of What Was. Meaning that because a departure from God has taken place in the past, “the enemy shall come in” as a Future Consequence. The Theological inference is that the Consequence of Departure from God is the Entrance of the Enemy! Now to me, that speaks very forcefully to the Consequence of Departing from God - DANGER!!!
The entrance or coming in of the enemy here is liked to the figure of a flood. The Hebrew word “ka-naw-har” has the significance of a mighty rushing river or a flooding stream. It paints the picture of body of water once calm, static and confined has now gathered force and destructive power due to a storm which caused other streams and tributaries to empty their contents into it; thus, causing it to break the prison of its boundaries, overflow its banks, alter its course, and subsequently, wreak havoc on everything in its path. Its as if no barrier can withstand its onslaught; no power can deter or detour its deadly force. That’s the word-picture here painted.
However, the Enemy is Unnamed and yet is Well Known. The Hebrew word translated “enemy” here is “Tsar.” The word speaks of one who Oppresses, Persecutes, Vexes, Treats others in a Hostile Manner; Tsar speaks of One who Hates, and thus is an Adversary, an Enemy.
I find it extremely interesting and enlightening that the Hebrew word “Tsar” is the Russian counterpoint of the word “Czar,” from which comes from the Greek word “Caesar.” It speaks of one who rules as a emperor having absolute or sole power and authority. And we all know, from our diligent study of Holy Writ these years, that Rome deified Caesar when it bestowed upon him the title of a god. Subsequently, all the then world, which was under Caesar’s rule, was compelled to worship him. From thence came the concept of Emperor-Worship.
That truth has relevant significance to our text and texture. Because a secondary consequence of a people departing from their Sovereign God is being exposed to the powers of a hostile government. In being taught the ways of God, we are learning that God sometimes uses the atheistic, agnostic and hypocritical powers of government as instruments of His punitive justice.
That seems to be the consensus of both Paul and Peter in their NT writings. For Paul, in Romans 13:1-4, makes this point. Listen as I read it:
“ 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. With thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
And then Peter, in 1 Peter 2:13 & 14, makes this point. Listen as I read it:
“ 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14. Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”
It appears then, that when a people departs from their God, they expose themselves to the hostile powers of punitive justice. And I submit to us that we, as a people, have been exposed to the hostile powers of government for a long time now. For the relative gains that we achieved in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s have and are being reversed, curbed and overturned in the 80’s, 90’s and in this 21st century.
Recall the judicial victories won by our Civil Rights activists and advocates in the courts in the 50’ and 60’s; they have and are being overturned. The gains we achieved in state houses, senate chambers, governor mansions, and in local city council chambers and on local schools boards are all decreasing and shrinking to insignificance. Our collective economic power as a people has become so skewed and scattered as to have no voice in the market place. The number of black students on major university campuses has dwindled due to the roll back of Affirmative Action. More Black students are dropping out of college; fewer Black men are pursuing degrees. The justice and penal systems house more of our Black men than do most of our communities. And that once powerful voice of the voiceless, that champion of the cause of the disenfranchised, that conscious of the nation and the advocate of powerless, the Church in the Black community, has become so marginalized and ineffective that it is almost irrelevant! I do grant the fact that there are small pockets of principled-people churches who are still powered by purpose; but for the most part, most of our local houses of worship are irrelevant in calling our people back to their God and a covenant relationship with each other. They just have a name that they are alive; but for the most part, they are dead and houses of ritualized routine.
And whenever that happens, the ruler of the darkness of this world, the god of this world, that chained and defeated foe called Satan, the Adversary - the Unnamed Enemy in our text, marshals his forces of evil for a frontal attack on such a people. He comes in like a flood!
And as it relates to individuals in this equation, it seems like there is an unrelenting onslaught on trouble on top of trouble. Sickness, weakness, disease, family problems, neighborhood dilemmas, the constant visit of death, the loss of jobs, the diminution of finances, the decline of the ‘Hood,’ school closings, racial profiling, the forsaking of the assembly for worship, and violence on top of violence just keeps on coming!!! THE ENEMY COMES IN LIKE A FLOOD!
We have prayed, fasted, wept, murmured, complained, praised and pleaded; but the enemy keeps coming in like a flood! We have even joined hands in a sort of symbolic connection with our past in singing “We Shall Overcome”; but the enemy keeps on coming in like a flood!
We have found our political power to be of no avail; our judicial pull to have lost its gravity; our social skills to be pointless; out intellectual powers to be dismissed; and even our religious or moral persuasion does nothing to slow the rush of this force; for the enemy keeps coming in like a flood!
Now that’s a Dangerous situation to be in, and yet that’s where we are: WE ARE IN DANGER OF DESTRUCTION!!! The powers of evil know that we our power with God and man has been greatly diminished! They know we are easy prey; and so, they come in like a flood
to drown our cry for help before it can be made;
to quench our desire toward repentance before it brings forth fruit;
to drench our light before it is placed on the lamp stand;
to dampen our salt before it can be shakened out of the shaker!
WE ARE IN DANGER OF DESTRUCTION AS A PEOPLE!!!
But there is a small and seeming insignificant word in our text that holds the promise of some good news. It is that relative adverb of time “WHEN.” It relates that when one thing happens that, at the same time, another shall also occur. It says that bad news is equaled with good news. It says that juxtaposed to DANGER, there is DELIVERANCE! It says “When,” that is, at the same time, “the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Thus we come to that last word: DELIVERANCE.
III. FOR IT IS THIS DANGER OF ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION THAT DISCLOSES THE DELIVERANCE OF GOD.
This is the word-picture painted by the Hebrew text. The Lord breathes and the power of the breath from His mouth halts the flood waters in their tracks. He exhales and the hitherto unstoppable food waters are repelled and made to back up and reverse their course. For the literal rendering of the Hebrew text reads: “the breath or wind of the LORD drives him back.”
The force of that Hebrew verb “Nossah” carries the idea of to impel, to drive, to force, to push. Those ideas and concepts push forth the Irresistible Power of the Holy Spirit.
His Power is unassailable,, unchangeable, unconquerable, indefinable, unquestionable, undeniable, invincible, inexhaustible, unbelievable! HE JUST BREATHES! JUST EXHALES!
He Exhales …
and enemies become friends.
And oppressors become depressed.
And persecutors become defendants.
And vex-ers become vexed.
The Spirit of God Is Our Deliverer. To Him …
No problem is too big to solve…
No circumstance too difficult to change…
No night too dark to brighten…
No heart too broken to bless…
No question to hard to answer…
No joy too lost to restore…
HE JUST EXHALES!
His Power makes …
Corrupt men good…
Drunken men sober…
Embittered men sweet…
Troubled men peaceful…
Indifferent men faithful…
Rude men kind…
Foolish men wise…
HE JUST EXHALES!
He can …
Overthrow kingdoms…
Overrule decisions…
Overpower legislation…
Overturn thrones…
Override judgments…
Overcome principalities…
Overwhelm establishments…
HE JUST EXHALES!!!
“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: because the Spirit of the LORD BLOWS UPON IT.”
Oh, Blow Breath of God! Exhale Spirit of the Living God! Clear Your Throat, Spirit of Christ! For we Deliverance. We need redemption! We need Liberation!
BREATHE, O SPIRIT OF GOD!
“Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will - To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, Till I am wholly Thine,
Till al this earthly part of me Glows with Thy fire divine.”
