The Power of the Lord to Save

Invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the Old

Testament book of Isaiah. I'm looking at chapter 59 today

as we continue our study through this book.

You can find where that's located in the red Bibles around

you in the bulletin. The pages are listed for you

there if you'd like to use that. Isaiah 59.

I'm going to begin reading in verse one and read down through

the end of the chapter. Behold, the Lord's hand is not

shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot

hear. But 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.

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 adders eggs.

They weave the spider's web. He who eats their eggs dies, and

from 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, 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. 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 and for brightness, but

we walk and 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 are like dead men. We all 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. For 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

from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and

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 there was no man, and wondered that there was no one

to intercede. Then his own arm brought him

salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

He 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

according to the 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 which the wind of

the Lord drives, and the Redeemer will come to Zion.

To those in Jacob who turned 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, or 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 forever

more, let's pray together. Father, as we come to this

portion of Your word, we pray that You would open our eyes and

prepare our hearts that we might hear Your Word, that we might

understand it, that we might receive it, that we might be

changed by it through the work of the Holy Spirit.

We ask You to do this, and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Have you ever had the privilege of talking to someone who's not

a Christian about the good news of the gospel?

That's what we call it, right? The good news of the gospel.

That word gospel in the Greek, actually the the Greek word you

angelion, it literally means good news.

And it is good news, isn't it? A Redeemer has come to save his

people from their sins, to give the gift of eternal life to, to

purchase an eternal inheritance that is being kept for us in

heaven. It really is good news.

But before we share the wonders of the good news of the gospel,

we have to talk about the bad news.

People need to hear and understand and embrace the bad

news. And it is bad.

The Bible tells us that the heart is desperately wicked.

Who can understand it? People must understand what sin

is and the the depth of the depravity of the human heart.

They have to understand that the standard by which they judge and

evaluate themselves isn't comparing themselves with other

people, it's comparing themselves with God himself.

He calls on his people. He calls on all people to be

holy as He is holy, Every command, every rule, every law

being kept both outwardly and also inwardly in our hearts

every moment of our lives Perfectly.

That's the standard. Once we use the right standard

to evaluate ourselves, we see the depth of the depravity of

our hearts. We see the extent of the bad

news. But once that bad news is

understood and agreed upon, we're ready for the good news.

How Jesus has come to pay for this our sins in full and that

by putting our faith in Jesus, we are given eternal life in

heaven. We confess and repent of our

sins and put our faith in Jesus and believe and experience

redemption from the Lord. That's the common pattern of

sharing the gospel, the good news with someone.

It's the pattern we see throughout the Bible and it's

the pattern we see in our passage today in Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

59. Let's take a few moments and

look and see several things from this chapter in Isaiah.

Let's look and see what it tells us about the depravity of the

human heart. What what it tells us about the

appropriate response of confession and the promise from

a covenant keeping God of a Redeemer who would come.

And then we'll finish by asking, So what?

Now a couple things before we jump into the passage.

First, if you are here today and you are not a Christian, maybe

you've never heard the gospel before, or maybe you have heard

it and don't believe it, then first of all, I want you to know

that we're glad that you're here.

And secondly, I want you to know that the next 30 minutes might

be the most important minutes in your life.

And if you're here and you are a Christian, we're glad you're

here too. And the next 30 minutes will be

important for us as well as we remember what is true, that the

the good news of the gospel and the appropriate response to the

gospel. Second thing before we jump in

is we need to remind ourselves of the context of the passage

that we're looking at in Isaiah 59.

If you've been with us through our study of the book, you know

that the first part of Isaiah was addressed to God's people in

Israel and Judah during the days of Isaiah.

Also the nations around them. Most of it was taking place in

the 8th and the 7th centuries BC, before they had been sent

into exile. The the last part of Isaiah,

including where we are today, is addressed to God's people who

were in exile in Babylon. In the future, they're awaiting

the promised servant of the Lord to come and to rescue them and

to redeem them. And Isaiah 59 is addressed to

those people as they wait in exile.

And notice how he begins by addressing the depravity of

their hearts eight times in the 1st 8 verses.

Verses one through 8 eight times the words iniquity, sins,

wickedness, and evil are used. I think the point was being

made. The depravity of their hearts,

the extent of their sin, and notice some of the specific

things that are laid out. Verse 3.

Their hands are defiled with blood, their fingers with

iniquity, their lips speak lies and their tongue mutters

wickedness. The totality of their being is

involved with their sin. Verse 4.

Their system of justice was totally corrupt.

There's a lack of honesty. There are empty pleas, lies and

mischief. The end of verse 6.

There are deeds of violence in their hands.

Verse 7. They're not slow to do evil.

They run to evil, it says they are swift to shed blood.

They think thoughts of sin, and their pathway is one of

desolation and destruction. Isaiah is painting a picture of

the depth of the depravity of the human heart, the depth of

the sinfulness and the wickedness of the heart and the

actions of the people. And notice he doesn't just point

them to their sin, he also reminds them of some of the some

of the effects of their sin. As we read verse one, apparently

the people were blaming God for not answering their prayers,

feeling like God was distant and and keeping distant from them,

and they were blaming God for that.

But as Isaiah says in verse one, the Lord being distant, the Lord

not answering their prayers, that's not God's fault.

That is the people's fault because of their sin, their

iniquity, their sin has made a separation between them and God.

We read in verse 2. That's one of the effects of

sin. Their sin, their rebellion,

their wickedness has caused God to hide His face from them.

That's what sin does. It separates people from the

Lord. It isolates people from the

Lord. But notice the other effects

that we see here of their sin. There was a lack of justice and

truth, a breakdown in their system of justice.

There's corruption, no honesty. Another effect we see is

violence. There's blood on their hands.

They were swift to shed not just blood, but innocence, blood.

It says desolation, destruction. Are there ways?

And as we would expect, another effect, there's a lack of peace.

Verse 8, The way of peace. They do not know their their

paths, their roads, their highways, their ways of life are

crooked. No one walking on their paths

knows or experiences any kind of peace.

These are the effects of sin, what God's people were

experiencing in Isaiah's day in exile.

And we see the same effects in our world and in our country

today. People living separated from the

Lord, a lack of justice and truth, violence and innocent

blood being shed, crooked ways, a lack of peace.

But we see the depravity of the human heart not just as we look

at God's people back then, but we see it with people today,

even with ourselves. But then notice what happens as

we move into the center part of the chapter.

The depth of depravity of the human heart has been described.

The sins of the people have been laid out before them and

revisited. And then notice what happens

when we come to verse 9. There's a change from a focus on

depravity and sin to the people confessing their sins.

First of all, notice just the change of how the pronouns are

used in verses 2 through 8. It was your, your, your, they,

they, they. But when we come to verses 9

through 15, it's us. It's we first person plural

pronouns, Isaiah and the people are now speaking.

And what do they say? They acknowledge their sin.

Beginning of verse 9, verses 14 through 15.

They acknowledge that justice is far from them, that

righteousness is not with them, that justice is turned back and

righteousness stands far away. Truth stumbles, it says.

They say truth is lacking. Verses 12 and 13.

They acknowledge their sins. They acknowledge their

transgressions are many before the Lord.

Their sins testify against them. They they know their iniquities.

They know their sins. They acknowledge that they have

denied the Lord and turned back from following Him.

And then notice the end of verse 13.

They know that their sin isn't just in their outward actions.

It's not just in how they're behaving.

They know that it's coming from their hearts, that their hearts

are deceptive. What are we reading here?

We're reading Isaiah and the people of God confessing their

sins. The Lord laid their depravity

and their wickedness and their evil and their sinfulness before

them. And the people heard it and they

saw it. They acknowledged it.

They admitted it, and they confessed it.

Notice what else they acknowledged verses 9 through

11. They acknowledged that they are

completely and utterly helpless to fix their problem.

They can't fix themselves. The end of verse 9 they they

hope for light, but only have darkness.

They hope for brightness, but they walk in gloom.

Verse 10. They say we we're like the

blind, or even worse, we're like people with no eyes groping the

walls. They stumble in midday as if it

were the middle of the night. They're like dead people among

the living. Verse 11 They're reduced to

growling and groaning, moaning noises.

They hope for justice, but they can't produce it.

They hope for salvation, but they know that that's far from

them. They can't get salvation for

themselves. Not only do the people

acknowledge and confess their sins, they also understand their

complete helplessness to fix their problem, to make things

right with the Lord, to achieve salvation for themselves.

We see a third and final shift in the passage when we get to

the last half of verse 15. Now the Lord will speak and act.

Look at first, the second-half of verse 15.

The Lord saw it. He, he, He saw the depravity of

their hearts. He saw their sinfulness.

He saw the lack of justice. He saw it and it displeased him

that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man,

and wondered that there was no man to intercede.

Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness

upheld him. He 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 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 a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those and Jacob who

turned 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, or 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 forever more, the people are reminded of

their sins, the depravity of their hearts.

They hear it, they acknowledge it, they confess it and confess

their helplessness to do anything about it.

And then the Lord tells them the good news.

He would fix the problem. The end of verse 15 He saw the

problem, the sin and depravity and lack of justice displeased

him. Verse 16.

He saw that the people couldn't solve the problem and couldn't

make things right with him. There's nobody to intercede for

them. And So what would he do at the

end of verse 16? He would provide salvation.

His own arm would bring salvation to the people.

And notice how he and his work of salvation are described here

in these verses. That phrase his arm of salvation

or his arm would bring salvation.

That's a phrase that's used in the Scriptures to refer to the

power, the might of the Lord. And so it makes sense.

As we read in verses 17 and following, we get a picture of

the Lord putting on his battle clothes.

He's getting ready to go to war. He puts on a helmet, a

breastplate, clothing, and a cloak.

But his uniform, we're told, is righteousness and salvation and

vengeance and zeal. This is a picture of the Lord as

a warrior who is going to battle against sin and wickedness and

evil. Verse 18, He would bring

vengeance on his opponents, wrath to his adversaries,

repayment to enemies such that as we come to verse 19, all of

the enemies of the Lord will end up fearing him and honoring his

glory. And, and notice we're given this

picture here in verse 16 of the Lord not just being a warrior

for us, He's also an intercessor.

The Lord was amazed that there was no one to intercede for the

people, so He became the intercessor.

That's what we're told in the New Testament about Jesus, isn't

it? Hebrews 7 verse 25 Jesus is able

Hebrews 7:25

to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through

Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Romans 8, verse 34. Who is to condemn Christ?

Romans 8:34

Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised,

who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for

us? And of course, the wonderful

picture we get of Jesus praying in John 17, praying to his

Father, interceding for his people, present and future.

That's what the Lord is. He is the one who intercedes on

behalf of His people. He does so by providing

salvation that we couldn't achieve by ourselves.

He defeats sin, which we are helpless to do on our own.

He cancels our debt with God, which we were incapable of

paying and even to this day. Jesus functions as our

intercessor in for us in the heavens.

He's a warrior, He's an intercessor.

And then God tells his people very plainly who he is in verse

20. He is the Redeemer, the Redeemer

that would bring salvation to his people through the second

person of the Trinity, Jesus, that the Lord God Almighty would

come into this world as a Redeemer, a faithful Redeemer,

the one who was long promised and and long-awaited for and

notice He reminds his people he's not just a Redeemer.

He is the faithful covenant keeping Redeemer.

Our chapter ends in verse 21 as the Lord once again reminds them

of the covenant that he is in with him.

He reminds them of the Spirit, that His promise that His Spirit

will be upon them and that His Word would be in their mouths

and hearts, that He would not depart from them, that He would

not leave them or forsake them, and they would.

This would be true for generations to come.

The Lord had established a covenant, a relationship with

His people, and He would always be the faithful Redeemer to

them. Well, So what do we do with this

today? What are some takeaways?

Three things. The first is this we we need to

meditate on the fact of the depravity of the human heart in

this world is real. We have to acknowledge and

understand that the depravity of our hearts and the depravity of

this world is real. It's probably not difficult for

us to look out into the world and to see it.

It seems like anywhere, anywhere we look, we can see depravity,

but we also need to see and to acknowledge the depravity of our

own hearts. We're not just talking about the

hearts of an unbeliever, someone who's not a Christian.

The description that we have here in Isaiah 59 is about the

hearts of God's people. And we see similar descriptions

in the New Testament about the people that are in the church.

The problem is, is that we often use the wrong standard to

evaluate and judge our hearts and our actions.

Often we evaluate ourselves based on how we compare with

others, and we usually can find someone that we feel we're doing

better than and so we think everything is OK.

But the Lord is clear that is the wrong standard.

The right standard is to compare ourselves with the Lord God

Almighty Himself. We are to be holy as He is holy.

His standard is nothing less than perfection, keeping every

law, command and rule, every moment of our lives and our

actions and in our hearts perfectly.

When we use that standard to evaluate ourselves, we see the

depravity of our hearts and our actions.

We should never underestimate what our hearts can conceive.

That's what the Bible tells us. Jeremiah chapter 17.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick.

Who can understand it? Genesis chapter 6 The Lord saw

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that

every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil

continually. Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

Jesus speaking says, But what comes out of the mouth proceeds

from the heart, and this defiles a person.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,

sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, these are what

defile a person. Paul in first Corinthians

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. No temptation has overtaken you.

That is not common to man. We must constantly be discerning

the depravity of our hearts. And then as we, as we discern

the depravity of our hearts, as we as we see the extent and the

depth of our sins, we should follow the model of God's people

in Isaiah, here in Isaiah 59, acknowledging it, confessing it,

repenting of it. As Martin Luther famously said,

all of life is repentance. Repentance is not something we

do just once. It is something we do every day

as our depravity is our sin is brought to our attention.

We confess it and repent of it, acknowledge that we're helpless

in and of ourselves to overcome our sin and to cry out to the

Lord, to forgive us and to motivate us and to give us the

strength that we need to fight and to lean against it.

The depravity of our hearts and the world is real.

But secondly, the faithful Redeemer is real, and we as

God's people today, we have the full story.

We know not just that a Redeemer will come, as the people were

being told and reminded here in Isaiah chapter 59, but that the

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

Redeemer has indeed already come and has finished his promised

work of redemption and salvation.

Not only is he real, He did what He said He was coming to do to

redeem us from our sins. Through Jesus's work and His

death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, He

secured an eternal inheritance that is being kept in heaven for

us. This is the good news of the

Gospel. This is God's grace to us.

We are made right with God. We have full and final

acceptance with God at no cost to us.

That through faith in Jesus, by grace alone, our relationship

with the Lord is re established and sustained forever.

And listen, brothers and sisters in Christ, when we remember

God's grace to us, when we remember his kindness to us in

the gospel, when we meditate on the good news of the gospel of

Jesus Christ, that is meant to lead us to be even greater

people of confession and repentance.

That's what the Bible says in Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Or do you presume on the riches of God's kindness and

forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is

meant to lead you to repentance? How much do you understand God's

grace to you, his kindness to you, his forbearance to you, his

patience with you, the good news of the gospel?

To the extent that you know and understand the gospel, to that

extent you should be moved to be people of repentance, confessing

your sin and turning away from it.

It says also in Titus chapter 2. For the grace of God has

Titus 2 · chapter mention

appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to

renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self

controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

What is it that causes us to say no to our sin and yes to living

in a God honoring way? What is it that trains us how to

do that? The grace of God that has

appeared. The more that we see and

understand the depravity of our hearts and the depth of our

sinful hearts, and the more that we see the extent of God's grace

to us and the gospel, and the more that we see our faithful

Redeemer is real, the more we should be moved to be people of

confession and repentance. That leads to our third and

final take away for today. Covenant means relationship.

Covenant means relationship, right?

He he ends this chapter in verse 21 by by reminding his people

that He has established a covenant with them.

It started all the way back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and

Eve. And when they broke that

covenant through their disobedience, the Lord told them

that though they had been unfaithful to the covenant, the

Lord would be faithful to it and He would fulfill it.

And he gave Adam and Eve a promise of one who would come,

this same Redeemer that is promised to the people in

Isaiah's day, who we now know is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now everybody who is in Christ, who believes in and has

faith in Jesus, is in covenant with the Lord.

And what we see throughout the Bible is as we look at this idea

of the covenant being in covenant with the Lord, it means

being in a relationship with the Lord.

Sometimes it's difficult for us to think of the Christian life

as a relationship, but that's what it is meant to be, a

relationship with the Lord. And just like any human

relationship we have, if we want it to be a strong, meaningful,

satisfying relationship, we have to cultivate it.

We have to put time into it. We have to be intentional about

it. Our our Christian faith should

be about growing in our knowledge of the Lord, who he

is, what he has done, his character qualities, his

attributes. But Christianity is not just

about growing in knowledge. Like any meaningful

relationship, if it's to grow and cultivate, it means growing

in love for the other person. As we grow in our knowledge of

the Lord, it should lead us to growing in our love for the

Lord, our devotion to Him, our wonder and awe at who He is and

all that He has accomplished. And as we grow in our knowledge

of the Lord and our love for the Lord, our understanding and and

being thankful for his grace, it should leave lead us more and

more to be people of confession and repentance should lead us

ultimately to living lives more and more of of more and more

love motivated obedience. So as we conclude today, it's an

opportunity for each of us to reflect, each of us to ask

what's the status of my relationship with the Lord?

How's my relationship with the Lord doing?

Do I even think of it as a relationship?

And as we talk about so often, we can ask ourselves, am I

making use of the God-given means of grace, the tools that

he's given to cultivate the relationship with the Lord?

Are we spending time in His Word?

Are we spending time talking to the Lord in prayer?

Are we regularly worshipping together corporately with God's

people? Are we participating in the

sacraments? Are we intentionally

participating in the fellowship with God's people?

God has given us the very tools that we need to cultivate and to

deepen and to strengthen our relationship with Him.

Are we making use of them or are we neglecting them?

Let's pray together.