When the Fight is Lost

Just grab our bibles.

Grab our bibles and thank you sir, and turn to

Isaiah chapter fifty nine.

Isaiah fifty nine.

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even an outline. I know it's been missing for a

while and you want to know why is it there now?

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Just go straight there and.

Say, hey, I'd like to know what steps I need

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and we'll connect with you right there. Okay, I think

that's everything. I've been feeling like I'm forgetting something all day.

I'm sure I'll find out what it is when I

go to bed. But Isaiah fifty nine, everybody there here's

all right, We're excited.

I'm excited. Here's how I'd like to start.

What is the Bible's story about good and evil.

And how humanity is doing in that fight.

What's the Bible story about good and evil and how

humanity does?

I mean, from the get go, you got Adam and Eve.

They lose.

They lose fast, and they lose big. They lose with

the serpent.

They lose when it comes to telling the truth.

They lose even when it comes to covering up their

own shame.

Right they're like so fig leaves as some sort of

like try to cover up.

You got canaan Abele. After that, they both lose. I mean,

Kane loses the fight against sin Able loses the fight

against Caine.

It's bloody. I can't remember who it.

Was, but I thought it was insightful that when I

heard someone say that, right from the get go, you

got Caine killing Abel, wiping out twenty five percent of

the Earth's population. It's a dark start. It's a dark

start for humanity. And like those passages Godam and Eve

and canaan Abel and so.

Many other passages Isaiah fifty nine, which we'll read in

just a moment, it's not like merely historical.

It is also theological, richly theological. In fact, fifty nine

in particular is a poetic story or a theological declaration

not just about an event, but this story about good

and evil and how humanity does on its own in

that fight. And if you're not a Christian, if you're here,

because you may be curious about the Christian faith, super

glad you're here. Maybe someone brought you as a guest

this morning, maybe maybe your parents brought you as a

guest this morning.

But whatever the.

Case, if you're not a Christian, I think that you're

going to find what the Bible has to say about

good and evil and how mankind on its own does

in that fight. I think you're going to find that

actually pretty challenging, not encouraging in the conventional sense, not

uplifting in the conventional sense. Actually it's about profound darkness,

but also about profound redemption. If you are a Christian,

I think re examining this will perhaps make us a

little less surprised at our own sin, more ready to

celebrate the work of God and his redemption, profound redemption,

and more eager to open up our mouths and proclaim

the story of that redemption to others.

Let's read it.

Isaiah fifty nine starts this way. Behold, the Lord's hand

is not shortened that it cannot save, or is ear

dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made

a separation between you, you and your God, and your

sins have hidden his face from you, so that he

does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood,

your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your

tongue mutters wickedness. No one entersuit 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

adders eggs, they weave the spider's web. He who eats

their eggs dies, and from one that has 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, and they

are 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.

One who treads on them no one who treads on

them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and

righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light, and

behold darkness for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 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're like dead men. We growl like bears. We moan

and moan like doves.

We hope for justice, but there is none for salvation,

but it is far from us. For our transgressions are

multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. Our

transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities, transgressing

and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God,

speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the.

Heart, lying words. Justice has turned back.

Righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the

public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and

he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The

Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was

no justice. He saw that there was no man and

one that there was no one to intercede, and then

his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

He put on righteousness as a breastplate and helmet of

self on his head. He put on garments of vengeance

for clothing, and he wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

According to their deeds, So 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 his glory from the rising.

Of the sun.

For he will come like a rushing stream which the

wind of the Lord drives, and a redeemer will come

to Zion to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,

declares the Lord. And as for me, this is my

covenant with them, says the Lord. My spirit that is

upon you, and my words that I have put in

your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor

out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of

the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord.

From this time forth and forevermore, This is the word

of the Lord.

So as we look at this story about good and evil,

and how and how humanity does with that that fight.

Let's ask what's the story about how this fight could

be won?

And I think what we have here and the way

I'll set it up is it's like a theological story

in four parts. It's theological story in four parts. That's

how we'll take it this morning. Where does it start.

Here's where the story starts. Defeat starts with defeat. And

by starts, I mean, yes, I mean like Adam and

Eves sort of starts right, loss against the serpent, loss

against truth, the fight for truth, loss against.

Canaan able bloody hands.

I mean even when it at the start, at the

time of Noah, as God says, and the thoughts of

men were continually towards evil, and.

Not just.

Starts in scripture, but starts in where Chapter fifty nine

puts us. The theological starting point in this chapter is defeat.

The fight is lost.

In a way that calls back to the sin in

the garden. The fight is lost verse one and two.

The fight to be near God is lost, is separated,

the fight to beat sin verse three is lost, the

fight for truth verse three and four, it's lost, The

fight against the serpent that's lost. Your your hatchet serpents.

Now the fight for covering, remember Adam and Eves fig leaves.

That's lost. Now we're using spider webs. You see how

Isaiah's doing this.

Fight for a righteous thought life no Verse.

Sevens that's lost, their thoughts or thoughts of iniquity. The

fight for peace, it's lost. No one who treads on

their roads knows peace. No one knows the way of peace.

Peace with God is broken. Peace with yourself lost, peace

with others, peace with creation. The fight is lost. That's

the start. This is Scripture's assessment that all are defeated

by sin, not just here in Isaiah fifty nine. That's

subscription's assessment throughout all of the Bible. This is how

Paul puts it in Romans chapter three in the New Testament, saying,

we charge that all are undersin as it is written,

none is righteous, no, not one.

All have turned aside.

And then he puts together this whole collection of quotes

from all over the Bible, including a quote from Isaiah

fifty nine right here saying their feet are swift to

ruin the way of peace.

They have not known.

Isaiah is saying all universally, it's universal, all are defeated

by sin. And he's using Isaiah fifty nine to make

the point, because I think Isaiah fifty nine makes the point, you.

Know, rather vividly. It's a truth.

That throughout history, human philosophy and.

Psychology have.

Struggled against thought, against pushed against our own flesh, wiggles

against the idea that all everyone. Some have recognized it

that there's a there's a psychologist, pretty controversial figure now,

but he put it pretty well, so I'll use it.

Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologists for twenty years, taught at Harvard.

Regardless of whatever else he might say.

He puts it this way.

We need to know that people are full of snakes.

I'm full of snakes, and I need to know that

you're full of snakes. No one isn't that's verse one.

No one says it twice, no one. It's universal, this defeat,

it's universal, and it's pervasive. By pervasive, I mean that

there is no part of us that is untouched by

this defeat by sin. There isn't an untouched portion of

us that is pure that could somehow redeem the rest

of us. I mean, we're not always as bad as

we could be. Praise God that we and the world

isn't as bad as it could be. God made this

world that has been broken pervasively and universally by sin,

But it's not as bad as it could be.

I mean it's restrained.

Sin is restrained by the law, Sin is restrained by conscience,

Sin is restrained by consequences.

That's great, but there's.

No part of us that isn't untouched.

By sin pervasive. When my kids ask me, what does

that mean?

Pervasive deprivaty, and they have asked, I always use this analogy.

It's like blue cheese.

It doesn't mean the cheese is all mold It just

means it's all moldy. There's no part that you can

break off that isn't contaminated by mold, so don't eat it.

It's disgusting, probably about fifty to fifty. Every room is

fifty to fifty on blue cheese. I think it tastes

like feet, But anyway, Isaiah fifty nine, the defeat that

sin has on humanity is universal. It's all and it's pervasive.

There's no part of us that is untouched by it.

Like verse seven says, the thoughts are thoughts of iniquity

Verse eight, the way of peace.

They don't know. I think it was GK.

Chester and who said the defeat of man by sin

is the Christian doctrine that is the easiest to observe.

Just look around, and yet some find it the hardest

to confront. Why Well, confronting this truth leaves us with

two ugly choices. One, we could just deny the defeat. Right,

we could just go into denial, denial of the defeat,

just use the fig leaves of Adam and Eve, right,

just covered up. I'm not that bad, don't cover my shame.

How about the cane's like what what did I do?

Or the pharisees hypocrisy or the liars from the letter

of First John, I'm not sinful. We could go into denial.

But the other ugly choice is desperation. Desperation about the defeat,

because if if all have been defeated by sin, there's

none that none of us.

Are going to be able to intervene.

And if every, if, if every part of us is

pervasively touched by sin, there's not some pure part of

us that can somehow get outside of us and.

Redeem the rest of us. It's not going to happen.

That leaves us in a pretty desperate place. And the

question is have you have you glimpsed this in the world?

Have you glimpsed it in yourself?

Are we people who are.

Ready to confront this defeat? Because it suggests that our

self improvement projects themselves are shot through with pride and

selfishness and a whole lot of other things. And that's

the basic biblical progression. If we admit this defeat, what

we find is desperation. That's the move from defeated to desperate.

That's what we see in this passage. There are some

who see this defeat and they get desperate. That's the

sense of the shift from them to the us.

Did you notice that shift? Maybe when we read it right?

Therefore justice in verse nine, Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does.

Not overtake us.

We hope for light, We hope for brightness, walk and gloom,

we grow, We stumble.

Who's this we?

It's not like they are defeated and we are desperate. No,

it is they are we. We are the them that

actually admits it. There's some segment of the them that

we can call we. We actually admit and confront the

fact that we are defeated universally and pervasively by sin,

and that makes us.

Darkly desperate? Do you do you glimpse it? From time

to time a pang of conscience that sort of.

Cracks open, maybe as you're getting ready for bed and

you're rehearsing the things that you did and thought and

said throughout the day, and a pang of conscience cracks

the facade of I'm a good person. A couple of

questions on that. When that happens, do you just close

that crack up as fast as you can.

Or are you willing to put your eye up and

look to follow that thread? Do you? And the other

question is what will you do.

When what you see when you put your eye up

to that crack, when what you see is desperately.

I mean, the defeat.

That we see in verses one through eight is ugly,

but the desperation of nine and following.

That's painfully dark. We hope for light darkness.

We grow like people without eyes, and not just our

eyes are closed, not just our vision is blurry. We

don't even have eyes. We stumble, we moan, we're like

dead men. I think the new Testament say dead in

our trespasses, and the Biblical view of the human heart

is what we might call impolite.

I don't know.

How the Christian radio station got to be known as

encouraging uplifting, because the Christian doctrine of humanity is not

encouraging or uplifting in the conventional sense.

It's rather impolite. It is ready and.

Won't stop declaring that sin is deeply real. Death and

darkness and abuse and oppression is deeply real.

It's very impolite. It's like the kid at the high.

School student council meeting who's sitting there with the Megadeath

T shirt on, just scowling at everybody else.

And not just here.

Again, this is not just an Isaiah chapter fifty nine reality.

Throughout all of Scripture, the picture of the human heart

is more like apocalypse now than a hallmark holiday Verse eleven.

Salvation is far Verse twelve and thirteen.

We know our iniquities, our transgressions are they're with us.

Verse thirteen. We're lying from the heart.

We have no excuse.

We can't just say, well, I've got a good heart.

I just know the Bible says no. Actually, it's the

fact that you do anything that's not sinful at all,

that's the surprise. Thankfully, we've got the law and conscience

and consequences to restrain us. But that sin that's coming

from the heart Verse fourteen. I mean, look at this,

this quadruple hit. Justice rejected. Righteousness is aloof truth. Uprightness

cannot enter.

Verse fifteen.

Even those who would would depart from evil, they become victims.

I don't turn your back. It's desperate.

It's in fact, it's beyond repair.

The professor of philosophy at U T. Austin, doctor Bujaschevski,

I learned that for you. He wrote in this book,

The Revenge of Conscience. I actually read the whole book

and then learned how to say his name. He wrote,

it's beyond repair. This situation could not be repaired by ourselves,

any more than a surgeon could sow on his own

severed hands. I like that quote not only because it's

like vivid, but also because it just captures the desperation

of verse thirteen. We have a these are lies from

the heart. Verse fourteen, Righteousness cannot enter. The defeat is

universal and pervasive, and if we're willing to confront it.

What it leads to is desperation.

And if confronting our defeat just results in desperation, then

where does deliverance come from? What we're about to see

because Isaiah describes the deliverance just as much as he

described the defeat and the desperation. Starting in verse fifteen,

he gets into delivered delivered. That's the next part of

our theological story. Defeated, desperate, delivered. Isaiah describes this theological

reality that a sin has defeated all of us, so

that no part of us is untouched. There's no merely

human person who can deliver this world from sin and sinners.

And here's how Isaiah describes God's posture in that deliverance. Right,

he sees it displeased him. There's no justice, there's no man,

there's no one to intercede in his own arm brings salvation,

and he does it like this verse fifteen. He puts

on the breastplate of righteousness. He puts on the helmet

of salvation. And if you've been in Sunday school as

a kid, you probably remember those pieces of armor.

But from Ephesians, not from Isaiah. Talk about that. In

a second, he.

Puts on the breastplate of righteousness. He puts on the

helmet of salvation. It's a suit up montage. You know

what a suit up montages?

Any other? Like superhero movie fans. I still love him.

I still love him. You know a Superman.

He goes to the phone booth and he suits up.

Not much of a montage. He just goes in, he

comes out. But like you got other they're strapping it

on right, they are suiting up. My favorite is Iron

Man because it kind of does it all by itself, right,

just he's ready to go right. Scores will be settled,

stuff will be kicked, names will be taken.

Getting it.

That's exactly how Isaiah describes God delivering the world. He

suits up and he's gonna make it happen. And the

deliverance that he brings is.

Repayment. He thought I was gonna say, Jesus, it is Jesus.

Actually, Jesus delivers repayment. What we see in the New

Testament is that Jesus is the judge. He will come

in a white robe with a name, King of Kings,

lord of lords on his thigh with the sword, and

he will repay for sin and sinners. So Verse eighteen

says two according to their deeds, So he will repay

repayment to his enemies from coast to coast, those who

opposed God twisted truth, who were hypocritical, who had evil thoughts,

who broke peace with God and Self and others in creation.

Justice will come everywhere like a rushing.

Stream, which provokes a couple of things.

I mean, one is prayer, praise for justice. Praise God for.

Justice, because without God's justice, how is their hope for

the world? But also dread for justice because with God's justice,

how is their hope for me? Because I am those

who opposed God twisted truth, we're hypocritical. I am those

who broke peace with God and Self and others and creation.

And you put your eye up to that crack when

the pang of conscience comes and look in and see

it's you too.

So how is their hope for us?

And there's hope because repayment isn't the only mission God

is suiting up for. He's suiting up for repayment, and

he's suiting up for redemption. That's what it says in

verse twenty. And a redeemer will come to Zion to

those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord right.

The deliverance God has in mind involves a redeemer, because

we can't deliver ourselves, and we've already seen the defeat,

we've already made ourselves. Look at the desperation. It's like

Paul writes to Titus on crete. Remember we were looking

at crete just a couple of weeks ago, a rough place.

Paul writes to Titus. This is Paul. This is the apostle.

Paul writing to like Titus, like he's the pastor of

pastors in the island of Crete and the whole church

planting team. And he's writing and he says this, we

ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astrays, slaves to various

passions and pleasures. He's putting himself in this list too.

Paul gets desperate defeat, but he says, but here's where

redemption comes from. But when the goodness and loving kindness

of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us not because

of works done by us in righteousness, but according to

his own mercy. That is the essential message of the

Christian faith, that we can't deliver ourselves from sin.

That God must do it. And he does it in

Jesus Christ.

God, the son who, having become a man, lives as

the only man under defeated and untouched by sin, the

only one who could intercede. He can intercede. He is

the one who can bring salvation. That's who we're called

to trust. Jesus Christ, who suits up to defeat his

enemies and deliver anyone who had trusted him.

That's a redeemer.

Colossian says, his death on the cross was an act

of battle. He suits up and he delivers those who

were as good as dead. Colaussians, too, says, and you

were dead in your trust passes and the circum uncircumcision.

Of your flesh, and God made you alive together with.

Him, having forgiven all your trespasses, canceling the record of death.

How he nailed it to a cross across that Christ

suited up.

And died on. That's a redeemer.

He suited up to defeat sin, and he calls us

to turn from it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Listen, if you're not a Christian, I get it. I

am bringing a lot to you this week. I am bringing.

Are you willing to admit defeat. Are you willing to

trust God as a deliverer? That is the essential message

of our faith. We can't deliver ourselves. That our self

improvement projects, apart from Christ, apart from the work of

the Spirit, are shot through themselves with selfishness, pride, and

everything else. If you are a Christian this morning, I

am reminding you of the cause for which we praise

and celebrate the grace of God. We were dead, defeated,

and desperately so, and our deliverance came from someone who

did what we could not do. But there's one more

part to this theological story. Right, defeated, desperate, delivered. The

last part of this theological story. Is this what's your

role in telling this story? Or is that just something

that guys like I do, wear a funny microphone, stand

up on a platform. No, the last part of this

theological story, just for the sake of the de's I'm

gonna call deputized.

Here's the point. If you've been delivered, you've been deputized.

If you've been delivered, you've been.

Deputized, he says in verse twenty one. And as for me,

this is my covenant with them, those who are redeemed,

says the Lord. My spirit that is upon you, speaking

to the Redeemer, My spirit is upon 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, or out of the mouth of your

children's off spring, says the Lord, from this time forth

and forever more. In other words, the Redeemer will have

these words of deliverance. And the multiplied offspring of the Redeemer.

Who's that, that's us. If you're in Christ, the.

Multiplied offspring of the Redeemer will have these words of

deliverance in their mouth. It means if you've been delivered,

you've been deputized. You have a message, you have a word,

you have a word. That's what Paul is actually talking

about in Ephesian six, when you learned about the armor

of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation.

He's referring back to Isaiah fifty nine. He's saying, you're

putting on the same suit, You're on the same team.

You've been deputized.

If you've been redeemed, you've become an emissary of the Redeemer,

and your weapon is the word. You're not dying on

a cross for the forgiveness of sins. Your fight isn't

the same as his fight. You're on his army, but

your fight is to proclaim the results of his fight.

That's your fight.

The fight that was lost has been won, not by us,

by God himself. And Paul is saying, God's put that

word in your mouth, that the fight that was lost

has been won by God himself. The fight that was lost,

this is your word. This is the word. This is

your word. This is what you've been deputized to share.

The fight that was lost has been won by God

himself in Jesus Christ. Paul saying, God has put this

word in our mounds. Now suit up and proclaim it.

You've been deputized. That's why he says when he says

he goes through, he goes through the armor of God.

He says, now pray that I would have boldness to

open my mouth, which is how I ought to speak

with boldness, because this word has been put in my mouth.

This word has been put in your mouth.

And if you've been delivered, then you've been deputized.

The word is in your mouth.

That's the theological story that you've been deputized to tell.

Though we were desperately defeated, God himself delivered, and you've

been deputized to tell the story.

Can you tell it? Let's stand and pray you can