Keep sharing good news without ads.
Isaiah 59
Here we go, we're on.
John, would you open us in prayer, brother?
So you're not gonna do a five-minute introduction.
Like I did? I might, I'll just probably do it after you.
After, all right. Lord, we do thank you for bringing us back together. Thank you for safety, Jeff and I, as we traveled last week. But Lord, as we continue in study of your prophecy that Isaiah has given, we do know, Lord, that sin is a problem in the world and that you do punish sin.
But Lord, we do also recognize that the resolution for sin can come from you and from you alone. We thank you for this passage in Isaiah 59, the benefit of trusting in Christ, Lord, even in the midst of sin.
We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
So I've had the opportunity to go out evangelizing often on Thursdays. And when I go out evangelizing, I don't really like to have a script. It's more how the conversation leads and then looking for opportunities to turn it to Christ.
But I was out there with Phil. Now, recognize Phil is short for Philip. And in Acts chapter eight, Philip is the evangelist. And he was saying to me, he really wanted to try to use the method of the way of the master.
So for two consecutive Thursdays, he and I went to a college campus. We went to Princeton, your alma mater, and we went to Rowan and talked to people. And each time we talked to about seven young men.
And all of them proved interested in what we were saying. Some of them seemed to be, the light bulbs seemed to be going off. And what Phil would do is he would follow the script of the way of the master.
Think about what that is. That's Ray Comfort and Living Waters, that ministry. The first question that you'll ask is something like, do you believe in the afterlife? Or what are your thoughts on the afterlife?
Which gets them talking. And then you move into the diagnostic questions or the questions which get them thinking about sin and their need of a savior. You don't jump right into the good news of the gospel until you first got to the bad news.
And you use the law of God like a mirror. So you ask questions like, have you ever told a lie? What does that make you? And everybody answers the same way, a liar. And then you say, well, have you ever stolen anything?
What does that make you? Well, guess what? Most people say they've never stolen anything. Of those 14, they'll admit they're liars. So then Phil turns around and says, well, you just told me you're a liar.
So I'm not sure I can believe you that you never stole anything. So that's great. And then you go through adultery, even in the heart and blaspheming, taking the name of the Lord in vain. Well, after showing the bad news, we talk about the wage of sin, which is death.
It's like being paid for what you're owed. And then we talk about the legal implications of what Jesus died for your sins actually means because everybody seems to have heard Jesus died for our sins. They just don't know what that means.
It means that he's paid the debt in full. What's the word for that in Greek, Josh? You've studied Greek.
Telestai.
Telestai, paid in full.
I changed it. So the way of the master, I have found to be a tremendous tool because when people, instead of thinking about debating, you know, what's right and what's wrong, when you come in with the moral law of God, it becomes not an intellectual question,.
But a moral question.
The question is, not how do I compare to you or how do you compare to I, but how does any one of us stand before a holy God? That is the subject of Isaiah 59.
Let's go.
Was that five minutes? My five minutes?
I was so happy, but you said I didn't time it.
Okay, okay. So we're gonna read Isaiah 59 today, and I'll call this a classic, classic salvation text. I don't know of another passage in the Old Testament that does a better job of getting the lost man lost in his own mind, revealing the sinfulness of man, and then turning around and showing the good news of God himself coming in the flesh to save sinners like us.
You move through those two movements from bad news to good news. It's much like Romans three through five. Romans 121 through 320 are the bad news, right? And then you have good news from 321 to 521. Bad news, good news.
Well, you won't be surprised to find that when Romans three culminates in the bad news, it quotes from Isaiah 59. It uses this language, the bad news, and then the good news. So who would like to be my first reader?
Rich, you look like you're ready to go. Would you mind reading Isaiah 59, verse one?
Verse one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. There's one pastor, and often I'll point out false teaching in the churches, and you hate to always be negative Nelly pointing out what everybody else does wrong, but we live in the internet age where celebrity pastors disciple the country, right?
And people watch hundreds of thousands of views. So there's a guy named Stephen Furtick in Elevation. You say he's good. One of the things I don't like that he recently taught, maybe he's good at some things, right?
Some things I'm not.
But he stands up and he says, there is one thing that God cannot do.
You're wrong already, because there's nothing he cannot do.
But he goes on to say, the one thing God cannot do is override your unbelief or lie.
That would be a better answer.
Things that are morally wrong, he cannot do by definition of his character, not by his lacking the ability to overcome something. Well, Stephen Furtick says, the one thing God cannot do is override your unbelief.
It's an Armenian tradition that the one thing that God cannot do is override your unbelief. So God can provide salvation, but really it's only up to you. Now, I have a question for you. What would a dead sinner do?
A rebel against the throne of the king if offered terms of peace from the king?
He's smart, he'd take it.
Is he smart?
I said, if he's smart, he'd take it.
Right, and here's the answer. He's not smart.
In fact, he's dead.
He's not, the noetic effects of sin have so distorted his thinking, the way he reasons that he'll reject the offer because he's actually in rebellion against the king. Have you ever heard the analogy?
Of a man who's lost at sea. His ship has sunk and he's treading water, but a helicopter comes and lowers a rope to the sinking man and offers him salvation. All he has to do is what? Grab hold of the rope.
Grab hold of the rope.
Tell me, raise your hand if you've actually heard this analogy preached. Haven't we all heard that? The helicopter with the rope, maybe not. Very common analogy from the pulpits. Here's the biblical definition from Ephesians 2, 1, that you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
Here's a better analogy. When the ship went down, you went down with it.
You should have.
You drowned. No, you did.
Well, you should have gone down.
And you should have.
It always goes down with your ship.
Oh, that's right, yeah, because you were a good captain.
Exactly.
Yeah, you went down with your ship, you were a good captain. Point being, you drowned. Yeah, he's a, this is the pastor's wife here.
He looks at a guy.
God raised me well, didn't I? He would go down with the ship. But you died, you were in the ship, and then it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Now you're a mile underwater, dead as a doorpost. God's hand is still not short to save.
This is the idea here. Look at verse one. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah was lost. He was drowning and sinking deeper and deeper underwater.
He didn't reach up and grab a lifeline. God sent the whale to swallow him. And from the belly of the whale, Jonah confessed, salvation is of the Lord. J .I. Packer summarized the gospel in three words.
God saves sinners. He's the one, the effort is given by him,.
The monergistic, the one-way effort.
Of God rescuing a sinner. He sends the fish to swallow Jonah in order to rescue him and spit him out on dry land. And here we're told the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. He can save.
He has to override your unbelief, contra Stephen Furtick, in order to save you. He has to turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. He has to turn blind eyes into eyes that see. Open deaf ears. He has to raise the dead.
Lazarus, come forth. You see the idea? And this is where we begin. Now, we're gonna get the lost man lost before the good news comes. So let's go to verse two. And Ivan, I'll kind of go around the room in this.
Okay.
For your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Okay, a great place to start. If you wanna share the gospel at Princeton, and it's shocking that these young guys are open to hear it. I just thought Princeton is liberal, you know, as it can get, deep blue.
Nobody would wanna hear the gospel. You go preaching this gospel, and they're all ears. A football player saying he believed. A wide receiver.
What's that?
You know what? It's the power of the gospel. Some of them just haven't heard. How will they hear it unless someone preaches it? But you need to start by getting the lost man lost. That he needs to understand his name.
So what is it that's separated? Is it because God is just an unloving beast as they would portray him?
Sin.
No, it's our sin. All of the responsibility for sin and death is on us. God is not the author of sin. It does not present him as one who could even tempt someone, let alone be tempted by evil. It's because of our sin that we're dead.
And so you begin here. But your iniquities, and here's what people need to know. They've made a separation between you and your God.
Separate.
A holy God and a rebellious people. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Have you guys heard people talk about how they're a spiritual person? Maybe they use crystals to connect with God.
New age.
New age. Or just in some way, they pray all the time. But they don't believe in Jesus. Does he hear their prayer?
No.
No, he doesn't. Not in this sense. He, being omniscient, knows and hears in that sense, but he doesn't regard it. There's a wall of separation between the sinner and a holy God. And that's because of sin.
Now, let's look how bad it really is because here's the big idea here. The problem of sin is far worse than people realize. I mean, you look at the world and you see how bad it is and you see the result, you know, a shooting in Buffalo where a deranged man would just go and murder people made in the image of God.
It's horrifying.
But most people think, well, not me.
I would never do something like that. There's no murder in my heart. There's no sin. But the unregenerate man is capable of all of that. And even if he's restrained from doing it, because God is restraining the wickedness of man, how wicked is man?
I think we tend to think people are generally good. Our culture tends to think people are generally good. And that's not how the Bible presents it. So Kristen, you're a great reader. I'm gonna give you a big chunk here.
Three to eight.
Three to eight, you got it. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly. No one goes to law honestly.
They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adder's eggs. They weave the spider's web. He who eats their eggs dies. And from one that is crushed, a viper is hatched.
Their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil. They're swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know. And there is no justice in their paths. They have made their roads crooked.
No one who treads on them knows peace.
So in order to lead someone to Christ, you first have to get him.
The bad news.
You got to get the lost lost before you can get them found. And this is a great place to go. Isaiah 59. And say, do you know what a sinner is really like? And you can use a question that's more just engaging and conversational like the right comfort method.
Have you ever told a lie?
What does that make you?
A liar. What does it say in verse three? Your hands have defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies.
Falsehood in your translation.
Yep.
Your tongue mutters wickedness. This passage culminates in verses seven and eight. And let's read it now in the New Testament, which picks up on this. That famous passage in Romans three. John, you want to do that one for us?
If we'll wait, let's all turn there. Romans chapter three, verses 15 to 17. He addresses the Jewish people who are in rebellion to the law of God, but also the Gentiles who have the law of God.
Written on their heart and their conscience.
Either excuses them or convicts them. All people are in rebellion. And then this argument of Romans one to three culminates with these quotes from the Old Testament. And one of them is here. Romans three, 15 to 17.
Their feet are swift to shed blood and their paths are ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known.
And read verse 18 as well, if you would.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. And I was just ruminating over the question, have you ever murdered? And what percentage of our population endorses abortion?
Wow.
What else is it but murder?
It's murder.
What if somebody, have you noticed that the monkey gymnastics of trying to say where life begins? One person says the heartbeat, another person says viability, another person says birth. Some people say 28 days after birth.
Why are they doing these gymnastics? Because they're rejecting the clear and obvious teaching that life begins at conception. That's when God has created, that he's knitting together this baby in the womb,.
Psalm 139.
Any rejection of that leaves you without any grounding whatsoever. Playing God, trying to decide.
Just adding into that in verse five, it talks about weaving the spider's web, just believing that you can bring people along, my body, my choice, these other lives. What else is that but weaving a spider's web, taking the unsuspecting fly and catching it in your deceit?
Yeah.
What a wicked web they weave.
Yes.
Yes, their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity. I'm in verse six. And deeds of violence are in their hands. When we were at the abortion clinic, just the last time we were out there, someone in a truck swerved off the road with red face right at me and Steve and some others, missed us by a foot.
And he went across a shoulder that was probably 15 feet wide. So it was absolutely intentional. You could see his red face screaming at us because he saw that we were protesting and praying in front of the abortion clinic.
There's hatred, there's murder in their hearts. I think the only reason he didn't take that group of us out is because he knows the consequence and he's restrained by going to jail. He doesn't wanna, his own self-interest would keep him from doing that.
But it's in his heart. Verse seven, their feet run to evil and they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. Innocent blood.
One of the key themes of scripture is innocent blood. In Genesis three, innocent blood is shed. In three, it's the animal. There has to be an animal die in order to make coats of skin to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve.
Then there's innocent blood shed in chapter four of Genesis where Abel is innocent and his blood cries out from the ground, crying to God, according to Hebrews, for what? Justice, God avenge me. I died unjustly at the hand of my brother.
And the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. It's innocent blood that speaks and it doesn't plead for justice, it pleads for mercy. And it satisfies justice, yeah.
The spider's web has two applications. One is this, it traps the innocent. But the other is that it is a vain attempt to cover what they know is wrong. The excuses that they make, the self-justifications they make for what they know is wrong will not cover, and that's what it says.
Absolutely, they're suppressing. They're suppressing knowledge that they have.
They think it actually hides what they have. But it says it does not serve as clothing. It will not cover.
Right, so verse eight kind of leaves you in this desperate situation.
How bad is sin?
Is it something that God just winks at?
Does he ever just look away and say no big deal?
It's way worse than people realize. This is the description. Okay, next question. And again, we're doing kind of the Roman's road of get them lost before they get them found. So you go from how wicked sin really is to the second thing is what's the penalty?
What's the consequence of sin? The consequence of sin is far worse than people realize. Does our culture believe in hell anymore?
No, because they don't understand how wicked sin is and how severe the consequence is for rebellion against the king, the omnipotent of the universe. So let's read nine to 13.
Before you read nine.
Yeah, a really, I think, cool understanding of what's going on here. You always say follow the pronouns.
Yes, yeah.
Did you notice in two through eight, it's third person plural? And starting in verse nine, it's first person plural.
You're, you're, you're, you're. And then in verse nine, us.
So the author of this is, first of all, setting the reality of sin.
But then he's, he's, he's acknowledging I'm part of it.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, that's good, John.
That's exegesis right there. Exegesis, drawing out what's in the text. Well done, sir. Did he go to seminary or something?
He's just good in English.
Oh, okay. I said he must be an English teacher, really.
That's why my writers were so deceptive.
I'm an engineer, details man, okay?
Yeah, I like it.
Carol, would you mind giving us nine to 13?
Sure.
It is because of all this evil that deliverance is far from us. That is why God doesn't punish those who injure us. No wonder we are in darkness when we expected light. No wonder we are walking in the gloom.
No wonder we grope like blind people and stumble along. Even at brightest noontime, we fall down as though it were dark. No wonder we are like corpses when compared to vigorous young men. We growl like hungry bears.
We moan like mournful doves. We look for justice, but it is nowhere to be found. We look to be rescued, but it is far away from us. For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are.
We know that we have rebelled against the Lord. We have turned our backs on God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lives.
Is that the living?
Yeah, yeah.
And that's a good translation in the sense of being more of a paraphrase.
Right.
Yeah, which gives you thought for thought ideas, and it can be very helpful to get the train of thought. So yeah, now a more word for word, literal is probably better for parsing verbs and prepositions to make sure, and that's important too.
So as you look here, the big idea is they're aware this is Jerusalem not experiencing the blessings of Deuteronomy 28.
They're experiencing the curses, and it's heavy. The weight of God's discipline on his people here is heavy, and Isaiah is confessing. He knows why that is. They're getting a penalty from God. I like the imagery of bears.
Look at verse 11. We all growl like bears. We moan and moan like doves. The idea here is agony. This is a bear that's growling because he's either dying of hunger, or he's just enraged. He's suffering.
And then again, you see the same thing.
With the dove. There's a moaning. We moan and moan like doves. Not a happy bird chirp, but a moaning. Well, what's the problem? Why would God allow his people to experience this?
The consequence of sin. He wants them to know what they've been forgiven and how evil it really is. Yeah, yeah.
He's giving them discipline. Now, his people will come to him in faith and be forgiven, but some won't, and they'll experience that horrible consequence. Let's kind of look back. Verse 10.
We grope for the wall like the blind.
We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight. Among those in full vigor, we are like dead men. It's not a very pretty picture of what sin gives you. You guys ever heard this one?
Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay. Sin is devastating in consequence. How about for believers? Is there a consequence to our sin?
I thought all of our consequence was laid on Christ to tell us that it is finished.
A broken fellowship with God in the sense that he won't hear your prayers.
Okay, and Psalm 66, 18 says that. Our sin has put a wall between him and us. Here's a distinction that's very important for us to make. Punishment, condemnation, versus discipline, training. The punishment, the condemnation, is completely laid on Christ.
In Christ, there is now no more condemnation for us. Romans 8 .1. But Hebrews 12. He still disciplines the ones he loves. So when we walk into sin and get stuck in a stronghold, he loves us enough to break us out of the stronghold.
He will discipline us. And that's painful. So for a believer, there's still a warning in that. The children of God still, it's better to not fall into the stronghold in the first place and not have to suffer the pain of being spanked by a loving father because a loving father won't spare the rod.
And he loves us, right? Does that help to distinguish the two? Punishment, discipline?
Yeah, absolutely. Two passages, Galatians 5 .16, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The implication is that our daily walk, as Paul says in Romans 7, that which I don't want to do, that I do.
If we're not walking in the spirit, the implication is, well, okay, we're fulfilling the lust of the flesh and you're trifecta of sin. But then you also go to Matthew 5, eight, blessed are the pure in heart, so they will see God.
So we're not walking in the spirit, we're fulfilling the lust of the flesh, we're not getting to see God. It's not that God isn't there,.
It's that we just don't see it.
And so the blessings, we lose out on the blessings, experiencing the blessings, and we're vulnerable for being disciplined.
Do you ever stop and think, what have we missed out or could possibly.
Be missing out on right now?
Because we're not always filled with the spirit.
Absolutely, yeah.
Isn't that an amazing thought to think about?
And it's kind of sad. Like, what if God, and the counterfactual thing, it's all predestined in a sense anyway, even as sin is part of His plan for our lives, but as we think about, if I'm filled with the spirit today, He may use me to lead someone to Christ.
He may use me to bless my children in some way that they always remember that day. But if I'm grieving the spirit and in the flesh, walking in the flesh, I experience whatever the minimal thing I get, isn't that an interesting thought?
It matters.
It matters whether we be filled with the spirit. Okay, so, so far in Isaiah 59, we've gotten the lost man lost, how wicked sin really is. We've talked about the consequence of sin, which is this picture of just staggering like a drunken man at noonday,.
Suffering and groaning and moaning.
It's not a pretty picture, the consequence of sin. Now, the next two verses are interesting before we get to the good news. 14 and 15 highlight that there's a public, not just a private aspect to this discipline.
Justice is not just a private matter between me and God, but there's also an effect on society, on the larger. So justice is not simply a private matter, but also a public one. Bob, would you mind reading 14 and 15?
Why don't you read the first half of 16 with that?
That's it.
Is there, okay. So the point here about justice in the public square, verse 14. Justice is turned back. Righteousness stands far away. For truth has stumbled in the street. The ESV reads public square.
The idea here is out in the open, in public. It's affecting everything in society. Now, the church is meant to be salt and light in the culture, right? But what happens when the salt loses its saltiness?
No longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled by men. And the light, if you put it under a bushel, does it light up the town? It's just, it's contained. Are we right to speak to issues of justice in the public square?
Or should we just keep the church's truth, our own private truth?
Good, you're right.
Yeah, good job. And this is one of our justification. Justice is a public matter as well. It affects the children being raised in public schools.
Absolutely. Right?
John, you've done something about this in your personal life, to go affect the public schools. All of us need to be salt and light in the culture, in the public square, because it affects people. And we're to love people, love God, love others, right?
So simple.
All right, so at this point in the text, sounds pretty bleak. Sin and consequence. But that sets us up for gossip. The good news comes now. All right, so Sandy, you get the good part. Do you wanna read 16 to 20?
Sure thing.
And he saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.
And he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself with seal as a man.
Is that it?
Oh, 20, sorry.
That's okay.
According to their deeds, so he will repay. Wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. To the coastlands he will make recompense. So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.
For he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. A redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression to in Jacob, declares the Lord.
Is that not one of the most beautiful gospel passages imaginable? Here he's gotten us lost, and shown us how lost and dead the consequence of our sin, and how even in the public square everything is suffering because of it.
And then verse 16, he saw that there was no man. What are we lacking? A savior, a man. And wondered that there was no one to intercede or save. A priest to go between. And so what does God do? Because King David couldn't do it.
And Samson couldn't do it, however strong he was. And even Joshua, though he brought him to the physical promised land, Moses couldn't do it. You needed a prophet greater than Moses. So who could possibly do it?
Who can reconcile such sinners dead in their sin? Here's the answer. Then his own arm brought him salvation. Salvation is he's gonna come and save himself.
His own arm.
And here's the incarnation. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. Yahweh, the Lord is our salvation. Jesus means Yahweh saves. He put on the helmet, and he comes.
He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. And notice, this salvation is judgment on the enemies, but rescue to those who would find comfort in him, who would rest in him.
According to their deeds, so will he repay. Wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies. To the coastlands he will render repayment, so they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.
For he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. And verse 20, and a redeemer will come to Zion. That's a prophecy. We've seen so many prophecies in Isaiah. 714, the virgin will give birth.
9 -6, a son, and on him the government will rest. 11 -1, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the branch from his root will bear fruit. We've seen it in the servant psalms. In 41, 45, 49, into 50, the beard pulled from his face.
And then preeminently, the pinnacle of the mountain, Isaiah 53, the servant who lays down his life for the sheep, bearing their iniquity. By his stripes we are healed. And here again we hear there's going to be a redeemer, and his name is Jesus.
He's the redeemer. He himself is God who took on flesh to dwell among us. So somebody read that one for me. John 1 -14, whoever gets there first.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.
The redeemer has come. The word, this promised Messiah, put on flesh. He put on righteousness like a robe. It talks about in verse 17, put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. He comes in the flesh with these attributes, salvation to those who would rest in him, but wrath. Now we know, of course, from the New Testament revelation that this coming is twofold.
The first time he presents humble, riding on a donkey. Still a king, still righteous, clothed in righteousness, but a savior to all who would look to him and believe. But when you get to Revelation 19, he comes in wrath.
And the point of his second coming is a sword,.
The breath of his mouth.
And with it, he slays the wicked. And we're following in behind him on white horses, but he comes as a warrior, a warring king. And that's pictured here too. And so in verse, was it 20? Who is saved?
Those who repent of their sins.
Amen, that word turn means? Repent. Repent. The redeemer to those in Jacob. And now, of course, in the new covenant, that's extended to Gentiles as well. To any, to whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Who turn from transgression, who repent and turn to the redeemer, they're saved. Now, a verse that has, I've wept over this verse when I was alone in my office and I said,.
I need a promise.
And I was praying for my kids and I happened to open to Isaiah 59, 21. When you come to the redeemer, let's claim this promise over those who come from us, our offspring. Rich, would you read that? I'm sorry, what verse?
The last one of 59, it will be done. 21. Sum up and be done.
As for me, says, not that one?
Yes, you got it.
As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you, my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants, descendants of the Lord, from their time and forevermore.
Isn't that a beautiful verse of scripture? John, see it?
It's all highlighted in my Bible.
I would recommend you underline that. I wrote spirit and word, Jeff and Jen, Abby and Timmy, forevermore. With little lines coming from Abby and Timmy because it not only says your offspring, but your offspring's offspring.
And my prayer is that this faith that's in me, which came from my parents, which came from their parents, which came from theirs, will continue until Jesus comes. And some of us will have prodigals in this life.
But what's the point of the prodigal son parable?
He comes home, he comes home. And so we pray this verse over the prodigals and say, Lord, Isaiah said, when you turn to the Redeemer, this covenant that you make, you come into covenant, the new covenant, the spirit now in you.
Isn't that great? You see the new covenant right here, by the way, don't you? On Sunday, I talked about Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 and Joel chapter two. Here it is again in Isaiah 59, 21. The new covenant is a spirit covenant.
What's different in the new covenant is the spirit takes up this strong, consistent ministry in the life of a believer, indwelling and sealing you, keeping you until against that day, Jude one. So the spirit that is in you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring.
I'd be happy if we stopped there, but no, how could I deal with if their kids departed? It goes on from there, not just your offspring.
It goes on to say, or out of the mouth.
Of your children's offspring. And the implication, as it says, from this time forth and forevermore.
Amen? Good news.
So this chapter, I mean, Isaiah 59, it's pure gospel. It starts with such bad news about how wicked and terrible sin is. And then the consequence of sin is just devastating, far worse than we realize.
And it has public implications.
In the public square, it says.
But then the good news, God himself is a savior to whoever will turn. He's wrapped up himself in flesh with these attributes of righteousness and salvation and come to those who would turn to him will find him to be a perfect savior.
Would you close us in prayer?
One thought.
Or think first and then pray? Yeah, that's good.
The reality of this chapter is the reality of the human condition from the fall on.
It is, yeah.
But this chapter actually starts with. Behold the land, the Lord's hand is not short that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. That thought takes us through the rest of this chapter into verse 21, the promise to generations.
Hey, that is such a good word. Yeah, remember where we started. It's like a heading to the whole thing. It begins, this is gonna be about salvation. It's good news. And it takes you through the bad and brings you to the good and seals it with this forever promise.
Beautiful, absolutely.
Lord God, you are such an amazing God. We are so undeserving of the sin that we all carry, but the beauty of the Messiah that came and took on flesh, died on the cross so that these sins are covered in the promise, the promise that you give to our offspring and to our children's offspring from this time forth forevermore.
Give us a passion for this truth, giving it, speaking it to a light, to a world that needs to hear it, but resting solid on the promise that your hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. We put our trust in you and in you alone.
In Jesus' name, amen.
