If you would take a Bible and turn to Isaiah 59, this book of Isaiah, this prophecy was written and given to an entire nation. And of course there were a number of people in that nation who were open idolaters, blatant sinners. But there were a number of others who Because of their religious heritage, they knew and they believed enough to pray to God and to call out to God in their time of need. Even sometimes with fasting, they would pray and call out to God. And yet, they were in a situation where God had been silent in response to their prayers. There was no answer from heaven. And they were asking themselves, Isaiah 53, excuse me, 58 and verse three, they were asking themselves, why have we fasted and you have not seen it? Oh God, why have we humbled ourselves and you have taken no knowledge of it? What is the answer to that question? Well, one possibility that you could entertain would be that, well, maybe he can't. Maybe he can't see our acts of worship and hear our prayers. Maybe he can't do anything to help, perhaps because there is no God. There is no God to help. He doesn't exist. There are a lot of people that think that today. Perhaps because they believe somehow that he's dependent on something else in his creation, on the will of men, or the power of nations, or too strong. But the question or the possibility of his being unable is addressed in this first verse. Notice right from the beginning, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. or his ear dull that it cannot hear. Whatever else might be the explanation in your life as to why God is not hearing and answering and helping in response to your prayers, it is not that He is unable. It is not that He cannot hear, that He cannot act. That theoretical possibility, He claims to be an impossibility. It is not in the nature of God to be unable to do anything that is in His holy will to do. But there is a real possibility. And it is a real possibility for us as to an explanation for why God is not hearing and answering our prayers. And of course, in Israel's case, it was stated to be the cause for their prayers not being heard. And that is in verse 2. But your, what? 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." Your sins, he says, your iniquities, have separated between you and God. Your iniquities themselves have erected a wall, sinful brick by sinful brick, that prevents you from coming into the presence of God. Is that true for us? How high is that wall that our sins have been adding to? The sins themselves have erected a veil that hides the glorious light of His presence. Now sin is not always the cause of God's not hearing and answering our prayers as we might imagine Him to. Sin is not always the cause of His face being hidden from us and our prayers being unheard. Sometimes the Lord is simply testing the faith of His people. He's drawing out their perseverance by withholding Himself for a period of time. He's perhaps answering them with a deeper wisdom that they don't understand. And He is answering them, but they don't see it. But so often, what was the case with Israel is the case for people today, even God's people at times. Why is it that heaven is deaf to your prayers? And the answer in this case is your sin. Your sins have erected this barrier between you and God. You can't penetrate heaven because you've built the wall. Let that settle into your mind for a moment when you're tempted to sin. Your sin is going to cut you off from the ability to enjoy what is most satisfying in all the world to your soul. Your sins have separated between you and your God. Now the rest of this passage is just kind of a back and forth between the condition in which these people found themselves of being you know, cut off from their God and the cause of that condition. And you see it every time in the word for. He's giving them the reason or the cause of the condition that they're in. And it's all rooted in their sin. And first of all, in verses 3 to 8, the Lord charges the people with their guilt. The Lord charges the people of Judah with guilt. They use the members of their bodies as instruments of unrighteousness. Verse 3, their hands, he says, are defiled with blood, and your fingers, he says, with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wickedness. Friends, the body is dead because of sin. Sin makes use of our very bodies in order to rebel against the very one who created them. And their society, verse 4, was charged, was characterized by dishonesty. No one enters suit justly, he says. No one goes to law honestly. They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies. Their society is built on dishonesty. The end of verse 4 describes the stages of sin. They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. You know, don't you, that most sins are conceived long before they're ever brought to fruition? You know what that's like? The seed of that iniquity is already germinating in the mind. We're not only sinners because we act sinfully. Our sin lies much deeper than that. In our thoughts. And even in our desires, even in the very desires of our natures, we find this corruption, conceiving iniquity so often. James says it like this, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, and then desire, when it has conceived, brings forth sin. And sin, if it is allowed to fully grow, it brings death. Oh, by nature we are corrupt to our very core, to our very minds and our very hearts. He describes the fruit of that sinful nature in verse 5 in terms of harmful creatures of the earth. He says, the people of Judah hatch adders' eggs, snakes' eggs. They weave the spider's web. As even one of our own poets has said, oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. He goes on to say, he who eats their eggs, these poisonous eggs, dies. Of course, the fruit of sin only brings death and destruction. And from one that is crushed, he says, a viper is hatched. Here's the man who sees the egg, the snake egg, and he sees the potential danger that's there. And so he goes to crush that egg only for the venomous serpent to emerge and to strike him. Even from what is crushed, it is hatched. Reminds us of the impossibility of crushing our own sinful nature by our own power. The very moment that you try to subdue your own sinful nature by your power, a new corruption is born. This is the way of humanity. This is the sinfulness of a people. And vain it would be to try to cover that up. To try to cover yourself with your own works. Or verse 6 says, their webs, those spider webs, will not serve as clothing. And men will not cover themselves with what they make. Man's covering himself, his attempt to cover himself, and his sinfulness by his own efforts is just as vain as trying to clothe yourself in a spider's web. It's just as transparent. It's just as flimsy. There is nothing for it. It is as inadequate as the fig leaves sewn together in the Garden of Eden. Our attempts, all of our attempts to cover up Our own sinfulness to gloss over our faults and our failures and rebellion against God. We can never hide our transgressions from the eyes of the Almighty. We are naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we must give an account. He sees, He knows. Wrap yourself up in those spider's webs. But he sees and he knows every secret action, and every sinful thought, and every perverse motivation of your heart. It's all open to him. And every aspect of human existence is corrupted by sin, verse 6. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands and their feet. They run to evil and are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Every aspect of your being, right? Hands and feet, actions, deeds, and thoughts. Humanity is thoroughly corrupt before God. And if a person keeps going down that path, then the end of that path is spiritual and eternal destruction. He says desolation and destruction are in their highways. That highway that those people were on, it ends only in one place. It ends only in destruction. That is where the path of sin always ends. It ends Destruction the way of peace they have not known verse 8 and there is no justice in their paths They have made their road crooked and no one who treads on them knows peace. It's a path of injustice and No peace and it ends in nothing but destruction That's the road every one of us is on by nature That's the path that so many of these people in this ancient Nation we're on it's a path of destruction sin Transgression and rebellion against God always leads that way This is the charge that God levels against the nation of Israel But in fact, it's a it's it's really the very charge that God levels against all humanity in our natural state Romans chapter 3 and verse 9 says, we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, none are 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. No, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They have used 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." Echoing this very passage. The Bible says that's true for every human being. For all humanity. Not just of this nation. This is you apart from grace. This is you by nature. This is me by nature. But Israel might have said, well, we're not that bad. I mean, this is pretty harsh language. We are certainly not that bad. We seek the Lord. We pray, we worship, we fast before the Lord. But listen, none of that can take away our sin. None of that. can avert the righteous judgment of God upon the sins that we have committed before Him. But while much of Israel tried to justify themselves, verse 9 and following now really gives voice to a small remnant of those people who were willing to confess their sinfulness. And you can see that there's actually a shift in verse nine in terms of who's talking. Verses one to eight is all written kind of in a singular voice, the voice of the prophet who's speaking to the people, bringing accusation against the people. But in verses nine to 13, you have this plural voice of the repentant in Israel, and they're making confession of their sin. And the heart of that confession is the end of verse 12. Just jump down there for a moment. They say this, we know our iniquities. That's what repentant people say. Oh, listen, you don't have to tell me about my iniquities. I know my iniquities. Oh, you don't have to convince me I'm a sinner. I know. I feel it. We know our iniquities. There are people who don't know their iniquities, perhaps because they're unaware of those iniquities, at least in some kind of a conscious level. They need to be instructed by the word and the law of God. There's a huge ministry of the law of God to show us to demonstrate for us where our sin really is, how we are in fact rebellious against our Creator. But even more than knowing what our sins are, what we really need to do is to acknowledge those sins, to own up to them, confess them, Like David prayed in Psalm 51 verse 3, 4, I know my iniquities and my sin is ever before me. This is the song that was sung during the offering. Lord, I know my sins. Here, in verses 9 to 13, is a confession of guilt and sinfulness before a holy God. Verse 9, Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. because of our sins, right? That's why we're in this condition we're in. We hope for light but behold darkness and for brightness but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes. We can't see. We're spiritually blind. We stumble at noon as in the twilight. It's not that God hasn't given us light. We're just blind to it. We grope. We stumble among those who are in full vigor. We are like dead men, spiritually dead. We groan, verse 11, like bears, and moan and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there's none, and we wait for salvation. We hope for salvation, but it is far from us. The voice of the penitent owns up to the charges that have been laid out. They acknowledge that their present situation of oppression and misery is, in fact, the righteous judgment of God. God is just. Therefore, we stumble, and we moan, and we're in this situation that we're in. We rightfully deserve it, they say. They go on and say, verse 12, for our transgressions are multiplied before you. and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities. Transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning back from following God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Oh, what? Brutal honesty is in these words. These people say, this is what we have been from our very hearts. We've been so sinful like this. And in these verses, we get really a wonderful example. One of those many places in the Bible where we have a wonderful example of what true confession really looks like before God. And it's manifest in the kind of terminology that they use. Listen, with the heart one believes and with the mouth confession is made. These people confess with their mouth what is in their hearts. So many people say with their mouth words of semi-confession that really don't manifest any kind of a penitent heart. Oh, I'm sorry if you were offended. Or anybody say that sort of non-confession confession? Well, nobody's perfect. Lord, I've sinned, but you know nobody's perfect. Like, well, so what? Listen to the way these people talk. They call what they've done transgressions. There's an acknowledgement here that they've breached an appropriate boundary. They've clearly crossed a line. They have violated the clear law of God. They've transgressed God's word. We've sinned before you. This is a general word that encompasses all of the wrongdoings that they have committed against both God and men. And they confess their iniquities. which is a word that connotes the guilt of what they've done. The fact that it's something that actually deserves punishment. By calling it iniquity, they're making no excuses. They're not angry with God over this state that they're in, this oppression that's on them. They're acknowledging that their guilt has brought this on. They've been iniquitous. And they've recognized, verse 13, that they are denying the Lord. Oh, let that one sink in for a minute. Lord, I have denied you. You understand that every sin is an act of personal rebellion against the lordship of God. A denying of God. You know, we sometimes dismiss our sins as just a minor little thing that we did that doesn't really hurt anybody, or maybe just something that we did that bothered someone else. But our sins are ultimately rebellion against God, denying the Lord. And the verse uses the language of oppression and revolt against God. Have you ever thought of your sin like that? They confessed too that they had been turning back from following Him. This is an intentional removing of themselves from the path that they should have been on. Pursuing sin always means going in the opposite direction of pursuing God. You cannot pursue God and pursue your sin at the same time. They say that. They confess that. We have removed ourselves, turned back from following after You, O Lord. And finally, in the end of verse 13, they confess that they have conceived and uttered what is false. They've uttered lies. You know when you sin, you lie? You lie to yourself. You lie about God. You lie about yourself. You lie about reality. You lie about goodness. You construct a false narrative in your own mind. And the root of confession is forsaking all of those lies that you've told yourself in your mind and agreeing with God, taking God's side of it. saying what He says about your action, your words, your thoughts. That's the heart of confession. The voices of the humble cry out in honest confession before God. Is this how you pray? Honest and humble before God, agreeing with Him, I've come to the Lord saying, Lord, I've crossed the line. I've sinned against you and against others. I've denied you. I've rebelled against your rule. I've been dishonest with myself and with you and with others. I am guilty. There's no excuse, Father. I deserve judgment. I am fundamentally corrupt, even my heart. The Lord is deceitful. Listen, those who are proud, and those who are under the sort of the chastening judgment of God, and they just get angry at God. I can't believe you're letting this happen. I'm praying to you, why aren't you answering? People who make excuses for their sin. People who feel that they know better. They never will know the mercy of God. And they will continue to erect a wall that just separates them from God. But for you, for you friends, my dear beloved friends who know your iniquity and confess it honestly and humbly before your God, there is grace to help. God shows grace to the humble. And in verses 14 and 15 now, he reiterates the condition that they're in, and then the causes for the situation in which they find themselves. Verse 14, justice, they say, is turned back, and righteousness stands far away. Why? Because truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking. And the result is that he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Truth and justice and righteousness are nowhere to be found in Judah. And the reason for that according to the verse 14, is that they have rejected God's truth from the public square. You know why there's no justice in their land? You know why righteousness doesn't permeate their society? Because they have excluded God's truth from the public square. Now doesn't that sound familiar? We live in a country that was founded on Puritan ethic rooted in biblical revelation of truth. And today, people might say, well, you can believe the Bible if you want, just as long as you don't bring it into the public square, as long as you don't bother the rest of us about it, as long as you don't act like it has something to do with reality, as long as you keep it in your own little head and your own little church. All right. Don't dare, though, proclaim what you call truth in the educational system, or in the halls of government, or in the place of your employment. Don't let that happen. Truth is lacking. Truth is shut out. And what's the result when that happens? Look at verse 14, what happens when truth, what happens because truth has stumbled in the public squares? The beginning of the verse, justice is turned back, right? Righteousness stands far away. There's injustice. And the ultimate result of that is this, the end of the verse, he who departs from what is truly evil actually ends up making himself a what? he becomes a prey and that is the sad reality in much of the world and in much of human history that the believers who proclaim what God says to be true reality as it is revealed to them in scripture by the Almighty God People who dare to proclaim that find themselves harassed, beaten, and jailed. They become a prey. And even in our own country, Christians who just simply tell the truth in the public square found themselves in lawsuits for refusing to affirm unrighteousness. Justice is turned back because truth is not allowed to enter a public square. This is the judgment of God upon a people. It was the judgment of God upon the people of Judah. But, the end of verse 15. Oh, this is sweet. But the Lord saw it. Now you just stop right there and say amen, right? The Lord saw it. and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede, no righteous hero who loved God's truth and was willing to proclaim it in the public square, and to stand up and to deliver God's people from being a prey. They're in a situation in Judah at that time, much like it was when the people of Israel faced the Philistine armies. And their great giant Goliath came out and said, who will stand for the people of Israel? Who will come out and fight me on your behalf? And you looked around, and there was no man. situation that was then. But then look at verse 16, middle of verse 16. In the midst of that situation where there's hopeless corruption and sin and iniquity and the judgment of God and the people of God being oppressed in the midst of all of that situation, God's own arm brought him salvation. That is, it brought salvation to the one who was a prey. His own arm and His righteousness, the Lord's righteousness, upheld Him. Where there was no possibility of any human Savior, God Himself stepped into the world to become its Savior in the fullness of time. In verse 17, He put on righteousness He put on righteousness. When he came into the world, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, like he's getting armed for battle. And he put on a helmet of salvation on his head. And he put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, He will 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 the glory, His glory, they will fear from the rising of the sun in the east. For He will come, He will come, to bring salvation to his people like a mighty rushing stream with which the wind of the Lord drives. The Lord's salvation means a sweeping judgment on wickedness from east to west, across every corner of the globe. And like a swollen, rushing river driven by the mighty winds of a fierce storm, He will sweep away all unrighteousness from the earth. This is the way the Lord will come. to a people who have no help for themselves. He himself will come and in a mighty rush sweep away all wickedness. And this is good news for all of those who have long been a prey because of the injustice in the world due to human sin. and an unwillingness to acknowledge the truth of God. This is good news that he comes with righteous vengeance to the earth. This is good news that he comes to bring true justice to a world that is sorely lacking it. And then verse 20, and a Redeemer will come to Zion. That is, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord. Because, of course, the problem with a sweeping kind of justice is that it sweeps up every one of us, or all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. By rights, listen, you and I, every one of us, should be swept into hell in the righteousness of God. My injustice may not be the same size and shape as yours, the next guy's, but it is genuine nonetheless. But here is the promise of salvation for all who turn from their transgression. those people who have confessed their sinfulness who have been repenting in verses 9 to 13 he comes to sweep away all injustice but for them he provides redemption from that justice that sweeps through to those people he will come as a redeemer to redeem is to set somebody free by paying a price like the redeemed who were delivered from Egypt, the people of Israel who were redeemed from slavery at the cost of the firstborn of all the land, or a lamb to take its place. Like Boaz, who redeemed Ruth's family by paying their indebtedness on their lands and marrying their daughter. Like Hosea who redeemed a wayward wife by seeking her out and paying off her creditors, bringing her back to himself. So our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, laid down his own life as the redemption price. So that we could be his. He allowed himself to be swept away in the torrent of God's own judgment. so that God's justice could be satisfied against us, that we might be saved in the day of His wrath. This is good news. This is good news for all who confess their sinfulness, who make no excuses for the fact that they deserve the judgment of God. This is good news that there is a Redeemer. There is redemption to be had. And that redemption is in Christ Jesus alone. He is the Redeemer. So that all who turn from transgressions and turn to Him are delivered from the judgment of God. And in verse 21, very last verse, he goes on to describe a covenant with them through the Redeemer. You could call it a covenant of redemption. We just have barely time to skim this. I hope maybe to return next week, but verse 21, as for me, the Lord says, this is my covenant with who? with them says the Lord that's plural this is my covenant with them all those who turn from their sins to the Redeemer this is my covenant with them and here it is here's the covenant of redemption my spirit is upon you upon who you singular this is my covenant with all of you my spirit is upon you singular speaking to the Redeemer and my words that I have put in your mouth singular shall not depart out of your mouth singular or out of the mouth of your singular offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring says the Lord from this time forth and forevermore I just really want to emphasize just one thing in this last verse for sake of time and that is this that the covenant of redemption benefits many but it's made with one. And the only way that you and I are ever going to have the benefits of God's redemption and the covenant mercy that God makes with us in the covenant of redemption is by being united to the one, to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, by grace rather, through faith. Now, are you clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you united with Him? Are you trusting in Him? Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you one of those who's confessing your sinfulness? Are you one of the ones who's described in verse 20 as those who turn from their iniquities and transgressions to the Lord Jesus? Remember, you cannot walk the path of Christ and go down the path of sin. Those who stand in the Redeemer are the only ones who are gonna be safe in the day of God's judgment when it sweeps away all of humanity. When it comes like a roaring river that goes up over the head and every human being will be helpless under the flow, under the unstoppable flow of justice. in that day when every human being, every puny little human being is brought to the bar to stand before the God of righteous vengeance on all injustice. Every one of us is called to give an account. The only way for any of us to be safe in that day is to stand in the Redeemer, the one with whom that covenant is made. And I'll tell you, there are going to be millions who are swept away. But there is a Redeemer who was willing to pay the price. We might be delivered. How long will you continue to resist? How long would you just go on making excuses for your sin to live in your sin? Your sin will lead you to destruction. But for those who turn to Christ Jesus, There is life for those who are angry and bitter at God because of what He's allowed in their lives. They don't even have eyes to see that it's the judgment of God upon their own sinfulness. Well, there is nothing to be for it but the judgment of God. But for those, praise God for those who know their iniquities and who look to the Redeemer There is forgiveness. There is safety. Turn from your iniquity and receive the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's bow and take a moment for every one of us to just be alone before God in your own mind right now with no thought of others around you, and what's going on, and what's going to happen later. You and God. Your sin separates you from God. But a Redeemer came to take away sin. The call to you today is to be honest about yourself. To agree with God, to take God's side about the way that you have lived and spoken and thought and acted. To confess your sinfulness and to call out to God to be merciful to you. Redeeming you, buying you back out of sin and misery. Delivering you by His own mighty arm. His own gracious love. Would you call out to Him today? Call out to Him, save you from your sin. Let's take just a moment to pray quietly while the pianist plays. Amen. Listen, a final word to you who do know your sin and maybe feel it weighing heavy on your conscience. The good news is all embodied in Jesus himself. And there's a hymn, we're not going to sing it because of time, but some of the key words of the hymn say this. My life is hid with Christ. My whole self, my whole fate, the whole outcome of my life is all united in Him. And where is He? He conquered sin, conquered death, and now is ascended at the right hand of the throne of God. You see, being a Christian or having heaven is not about the fact that I've gotten to a certain level of goodness in order to achieve it. It's about the goodness of someone else. And that goodness is the benefits of that goodness spill over to me because I'm united to Him. And it's a union that comes by God's grace. And it comes through faith in Him. Hold on to Christ. Christ is all. He's all that every Christian can ever boast. You have nothing else. I boast as Christ crucified, Christ righteous instead of me. Let's stand. We're going to be dismissed in a word of prayer rather than singing the last hymn. Brother Alex is going to come and dismiss us in prayer. And what I'm gonna do today, I am always available to talk and to pray, but today I'm just gonna slip out and be in the back, over here towards this side over here, towards the music room. And if you would like to come and talk about your relationship with God, about your sin, about the day of God's judgment, you just want some answers or want some prayer, And I would love to talk with you. We'll be dismissed in prayer now.