WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:03.520 Turn over to Isaiah 59. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.919 Isaiah 59. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:22.559 We're going through this book of the Bible together, and you might wonder, why are we here today? 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:27.039 Well, it's our normal pattern on Sunday morning to go through books of the Bible. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:34.960 There's occasions where we'll take a Sunday to do a different passage, or we might at some point do a series on a certain important topic. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:45.359 But there's a number of reasons why we tend to normally go through books of the Bible, a paragraph at a time, a chapter at a time, a few chapters at a time. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:52.560 Won't go through all those reasons, but one of the reasons is God has told us to preach the whole counsel of God. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:01:00.719 Not just what I think or what might be on my mind or what I'd like to talk about, but what does he actually say? 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:12.239 So when we go through a book of the Bible, half a chapter at a time, paragraph, chapter at a time, it helps us remember, well, this is what God says, and whatever he has for us is important. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.359 So that's why we're here in Isaiah 59 this morning. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:20.159 It's a dark passage, and it's nevertheless God's holy word. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.120 I'm going to start by reading for us. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:29.439 We'll look at the first 13 verses today, Isaiah 59, verses 1 to 13. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:39.040 Indeed, the Lord's arm is not too weak to save, and his ear is not too deaf to hear. 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:47.120 But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not listen. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:51.680 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:56.480 Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.480 No one makes claims justly, no one pleads honestly. 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:03.920 They trust in empty and worthless words. 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:07.359 They conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:10.879 They hatch vipers' eggs and weave spiders' webs. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:15.520 Whoever eats their eggs will die, crack one open, and a viper is hatched. 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:24.879 Their webs cannot become clothing, they cannot cover themselves with their works, their works are sinful works, and violent acts are in their hands. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.719 Their feet run after evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:39.840 Their thoughts are sinful thoughts, ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, they have not known the path of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:45.120 They have made their roads crooked, no one who walks on them will know peace. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.800 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:56.319 We hope for light, but there is darkness, for brightness, but we live in the night. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.199 We grope along a wall like the blind. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:01.919 We grope like those without eyes. 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:07.680 We stumble at noon as though it were twilight, we are like the dead among those who are healthy. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:11.360 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:17.520 We hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:40.080 For our transgressions have multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities, transgression and deception against the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart. 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:42.800 Let's just briefly seek the Lord again. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:48.080 Lord, we don't want to minimize the weight of your word. 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:55.280 We know that it's here with your authority, and yet we need the Spirit to bring that authority. 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:57.520 It's not my authority, it's the Holy Spirit at work. 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.879 So we pray for the Spirit's work today in Jesus' name. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:01.680 Amen. 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:12.719 One pastor tells the story of how his children wanted to put on a church service for him and his wife. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.680 Kids like to play act, you know, a tea party. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:17.360 Why not a church service? 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:20.399 And this particular pastor has nine children. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:26.399 Now, I don't know how many he had at the specific time this happened, but they were mostly young children. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:28.639 But it's nice because you got many children. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:36.240 One of them can be the usher, one of them can take you to your seat, can do a prayer, do a song, bang on the trash can lid for the music, you know. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:43.040 So he and his wife are ushered into the basement for the children's church service they were going to put on for their parents. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:46.240 And they sit down, there's some songs, a little prayer. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.279 And then one of his sons gets up to preach. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.000 Now, this was not a college-age, you know, son. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:53.680 This was a this was a child. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:57.519 And the pastor's thinking, you know, my son hears me every week. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.160 What is it, what is this sermon gonna be? 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:07.199 And the child gets up behind the makeshift pulpit and proceeds to deliver a very brief sermon. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:10.399 You're all sinners. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:12.000 Let's pray. 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:22.399 I have to warn you in advance, that's what this sermon is going to be today. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:28.560 It's gonna be more than one sentence, but that's really the sermon in a nutshell. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:30.160 All have sinned. 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:40.480 When we move, though, from a children's drama to scripture, there's a there's a big difference. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.839 Children are adorable, they just are. 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:45.839 Sin isn't. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:50.399 It's grotesque. 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:54.240 Sin is really of itself no laughing matter. 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:58.480 And our passage today is filled up with sin. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:00.160 We just heard it. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:01.279 You heard it read. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:03.519 Look again at verse 2. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:12.319 Your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so he doesn't listen. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:18.000 There's the important summary that indeed all have sinned. 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:25.759 As we work through these first 13 verses today, notice that there's a shift in the pronouns. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:31.759 You're like, okay, wow, I was, you know, sin is one thing, a grammar lesson, that's even worse. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.160 Look, look at verses two and three. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:41.680 There, it's your iniquities, your sins, your hands, your iniquity. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:50.240 Then in verse four, the you, you, you becomes no one. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:57.199 And then in verse five, it's they hatch viper's legs. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:04.879 Verse six, their webs, verse seven, their feet, verse eight, they have not known the path of peace. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:14.720 Why does Isaiah move from you, you, to they, their. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:25.120 Well, remember that Isaiah is prophesying here to the nation of Israel, especially to Judah and Jerusalem, but that's his first audience. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:34.959 And yet, under God's inspiration, he's pointing to a deeper and more universal problem in the way this passage develops. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.399 So hold your finger here and turn back over to Romans 3. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.879 All right, hold your finger here in Isaiah 59. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:44.800 Go back to Romans 3 if you've got your scriptures. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:55.040 We read this earlier, and I want you to look again specifically at verses 15 to 17 of Romans 3. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:10.160 There, Paul writes, their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:12.800 Well, that's from Isaiah 59. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:15.519 Paul quotes from our passage. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:17.360 Why does he do that? 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:28.879 If you look here in Romans 3, uh Mike laid some of this out, but Paul is quoting from a number of different Old Testament passages, and he's doing that to make a point. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:30.800 What's his point? 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:36.799 Well, go back earlier in the chapter, verses 9 and 10. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:38.799 He gives us the point. 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:39.919 What then? 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:44.399 Are we any better off we Jews? 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:45.279 Not at all. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:50.559 For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:57.279 It's not just Jewish people who are sinners, it's Gentiles as well. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:03.120 And Paul proves his point by going to Isaiah 59, among other places. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:07.360 Israel's problem is the world's problem. 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:20.000 So you can go back now to Isaiah 59, but when Isaiah shifts from you, you, to they, there, he's hinting at a very profound point. 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:26.559 Israel's problem is not just Israel's problem, it's everyone's problem. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:28.240 All have sinned. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:35.120 And there's one more pronoun shift in the passage, verse number eight. 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:42.080 So verse number eight says, starts, they have not known the path of peace. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:50.000 Then when you come to verse nine, it says, Therefore, justice is far from us. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.039 We hope for light. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:54.320 We live in the light. 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.080 Verse 10, we grope along the wall. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:57.360 Verse 11, we growl. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:00.399 Verse 12, our transgressions. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:07.600 So Isaiah moves from you to they to we. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.320 Isaiah is not preaching from an ivory tower. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:16.000 He's including himself among the sinful people. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:18.879 He's already done that in chapter six. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:24.080 Woe to me, for I am a man of unclean lips. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:32.080 Yes, I live in a midst of a people of unclean lips, but I myself am man of unclean lips. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:39.919 So the message is not you're all sinners, it's we're all sinners. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:42.159 We all have sinned. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:48.799 Israel's sin, the world's sin, and our sin. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:54.879 That's the path that the passage takes, and that's the path we're gonna take in the sermon today. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:59.279 Israel's sin, the world's sin, and our sin. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:14.240 So first, Israel's sin, verse three, your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:23.200 Isaiah says that Israel is a people of lying lips and bloody hands. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:33.200 Throughout their history, generation after generation is marked by the rebellion of lying lips and bloody hands. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:35.279 They come out of Egypt. 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:37.279 God has just rescued them. 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:43.039 They set up a golden calf, and they say, This is your God, O Israel. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:44.159 Lies. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:45.679 Lies. 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:48.639 They complain in the wilderness. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.480 But what is complaining? 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:52.480 Complaining is one of two things. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:57.919 Either, God, I know you're not in control of my circumstances. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:11:59.759 I don't like my circumstances. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:01.519 Well, that's not true. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:02.639 God's in control. 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:09.039 Or it's God, yeah, you're in control of my circumstances, but you're not doing a very good job with those. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:15.200 Either way, it's it's complaining is a lie, and that's what they were marked by, time and time again. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:22.559 The book of Judges shows us that, yes, lying lips and also bloody hands. 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:27.200 Judges chapter 19, you don't have to turn there, but it contains a gruesome story. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:30.320 It's probably not the story they're doing in the children's Bible lesson today. 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:44.240 But in Judges 19, there's a Levite traveling with a woman, and they come to a town within Israel, and men of the town assault and rape this woman and leave her for dead. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:59.919 And the next morning the Levite picks her up, puts her on his donkey, takes the body back to his house, cuts her up into 12 pieces, sends one piece to each tribe of Israel just to try to wake them up to the reality of how violent they've become. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.960 Well, there's no king in Israel during the time of the judges. 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.120 Maybe a king could help out. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:09.200 Doesn't always help out. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:12.000 Sometimes the kings actually make it worse. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.279 Remember the story of Naboth's vineyard? 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:19.600 There's a man, landowner, he's got a vineyard next to Ahab's palace. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.159 And the king, Ahab, he likes that vineyard. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:23.360 So he tries to buy it. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.840 And Naboth says, no sale. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.080 So what does Ahab do? 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:40.399 His wife helps him concoct a plan to have two guys lie about Naboth, that he's a blasphemer, so that they can kill him and just take the vineyard. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:43.919 Lying lips, bloody hands. 00:13:44.960 --> 00:14:03.120 And you fast forward to the book of Acts, Stephen preaches this powerful sermon to a group of Jewish people, and he's able to speak to them only because he's been accused of blasphemy by lying men, and they're talking about killing him. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:13.600 And he's given the stage and he says this You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears, you're always resisting the Holy Spirit. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:16.240 As your ancestors did, so do you also. 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:20.000 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:26.879 They even killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you've become. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:30.480 And how do those Israelites respond to Stephen? 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:32.480 They stone him to death. 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:40.799 Now I say all this, no animosity whatsoever in my heart toward Israel. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:46.879 Our prayer for them should be like Paul's prayer, his heart's desire that they might be saved. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:52.000 We want more and more Jewish people to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:15:00.960 But in order to do that, they have to reckon with the reality that they are sinners, because all have sinned. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:12.960 So we see not only in this passage, Isaiah 59, Israel's sin, when we move into verses 4 to 8, we see the world's sin. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:19.600 And the world sin is also marked by lying lips and bloody hands. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:23.519 You could say a lot, but Isaiah seems to highlight those categories especially. 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:27.120 Verse 3, your lips have spoken lies, yes. 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:29.440 Now what about verse 7? 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:34.080 They rush to shed innocent blood. 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:36.639 Is it really just Israel? 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:38.480 No, it's not. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:52.720 We can go back all the way before Moses, all the way before Abraham, all the way to the beginning in the garden, when the serpent comes along and says, Did God really say, You won't surely die? 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:54.320 It's a lie. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.600 A lie that Adam and Eve believed. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:07.200 The very first sibling rivalry was not about who gets to play the trash can lids for the children's service for the parents. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:14.000 The first sibling rivalry was between Cain and Abel, where one son killed the other son. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:27.039 As you move on in the Old Testament, there's wickedness from the surrounding nations in all kinds of ways, some particularly grievous ways. 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:37.120 Yes, warfare, unnecessary desire to have more territory to kill others, even going so far as child sacrifice. 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:41.600 You can read that in places like Leviticus 20 and Jeremiah 19. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.399 Think of how distorted that is. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:47.759 God's command of the beginning, be fruitful and multiply. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.200 God loves children, and yet to take those image bearers and sacrifice them. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:58.000 And we want a better harvest in the future, so let's sacrifice a child now. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:00.879 We want to be blessed with more family in the future. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:03.519 Let's kill one of our own children now. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:09.440 It's a twisted lie that lands in grievous violence. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:17.839 Here in Isaiah, Isaiah's also had time to call out the people of Israel for their sin. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:24.319 But even in this book of Isaiah, we've seen him pronouncing judgment against the surrounding nations. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:34.400 Again, you don't have to turn there, but chapters 13 to 23 are a series of judgment oracles against Babylon, Philistia, Moab, right on down the list. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.000 Israel's problem is the world's problem. 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:41.759 Who killed the Lord Jesus? 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:44.799 The truly innocent one of all innocent ones? 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.960 The Greco-Roman world or the Jewish people? 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:50.640 Yes. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:58.400 The Jews helped to instigate his death, but the Romans were the ones that actually carried it out. 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:02.160 Pilate might have washed his hands, but he didn't change his orders. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.880 He still had bloody hands. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:13.920 And as we look out, even over the history of the world, we've seen Isaiah's prophecy coming true time and time again. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:18.799 How much unnecessary bloodshed of image bearers has been shed. 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:35.279 You know, in the Western world, sometimes because technology develops or maybe economy gets a little better, we get the illusion that morality is greatly increasing, that humans are inherently good and they're going to find the answer and the success. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:51.279 The last century, the 20th century, most estimates indicate that there was more death from warfare in the 20th century than in all the other previous centuries combined. 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:55.599 How can we say, oh, we're we're doing so much, so much better now? 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:57.839 Everything's about to be wonderful. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.359 Humans are going to find within themselves the answer and the solution. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.880 You find lies and blood. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:12.480 And you might say, okay, well, I mean, it's America did have a civil war, brother against brother. 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:14.480 That was 150 years ago. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:16.559 That was a long time ago. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:23.359 Uh, you know, at least we're not like those ancient civilizations that that sacrifice their babies to the fire. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:30.400 In the last 50 years, 50 million babies killed in America alone. 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:32.400 50 million. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:36.319 Let's get a better harvest. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:38.000 Let's sacrifice a child. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:40.960 Let me let sure my career goals aren't interrupted. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:42.559 Let's sacrifice a child. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:45.200 Is it really all that different? 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:58.799 And what often drives that violence are the pressures of sometimes parents, boyfriends, people in the public world assuring women it's okay. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:19:59.599 You won't feel any. 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:01.200 It's better this way. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:02.559 Lies. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:12.079 Here in Isaiah 59, as we think about the world's sin, we move from Israel's sin to the world's sin. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:19.359 We don't only move further out, we also start to move further in, into the heart. 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.559 It's not merely actions that God cares about. 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:26.559 It's the heart of Israel, the heart of the world. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:30.400 Look at verse 4, the end of verse 4. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.359 They conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.359 Verse 5, they hatch vipers' eggs. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:47.200 Verse 7, their thoughts are sinful thoughts. 00:20:49.359 --> 00:21:01.359 Cain's problem didn't just start when he actually killed his brother, it started with the anger of his heart, where he began to contemplate what it would be like to kill his own brother. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:06.000 Genesis 6 gives us the indictment during Noah's day. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:08.000 And listen to what it says. 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:13.599 It doesn't just say that every action of humanity was rebelling against God. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:21.680 Genesis 6 tells us every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:28.319 If you go to Nebuchadnezzar's day, God judges him. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:34.319 Not when he sets up this giant idol, as sinful as that was. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:42.720 God judges Nebuchadnezzar, the king, when he's strolling along the roof of his palace and he says, Look at this Babylon that I've built. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:50.079 Just the prideful thought of his heart was so revulsive to God that that's the point when God chooses to bring him low. 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:54.160 The Ten Commandments reveal the importance of the heart. 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:58.480 Yes, don't steal, don't commit adultery, but what's the very last one? 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:05.119 Don't covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:25.759 One of the challenges with our world today is that they often think that what you think and feel, as long as it doesn't matter to anyone else, it's it's a category of irrelevant, not not wrong or right. 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:29.519 It's only the things you do that can be wrong or right. 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:41.519 And that's one reason why the world doesn't feel the weight of sin in the way that the Bible outlines what sin is and the way that it goes against God, not only in actions, but also even in thoughts and heart motives. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:51.680 I mean, if you could, even leaving aside for a fact that there's no perfect place in the world, that cultures vary from one to the other. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:56.799 You can never totally agree within one culture, even of exactly what's right and wrong. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:23:01.759 People think that the only things that are wrong are things that are illegal. 00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:14.799 That's just, even if you had a culture that was as good as you could possibly imagine, that had laws that were as just as possible, the things that are illegal are only the tip of the iceberg of what sin is. 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:20.960 And just for the record, I don't believe governments should prosecute covetousness. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:27.680 So I don't believe scripture encourages governments to prosecute these thoughts of covetousness. 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:29.039 But God will. 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:31.759 And that's the important thing. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:35.920 The important thing is not what the world around says is right or wrong. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.599 The important thing is not measuring up to my own standard. 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:43.119 The important thing is, am I measuring up to God's standard? 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:50.640 1 John 3, 4, sin is the transgression of the law of God. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:24:07.839 So if sin is not measuring up to God's standard, then it makes sense that when the world doesn't measure up to God's standard, when it falls short, there's a separation between humanity and God, which we find in verse number two. 00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:15.039 Iniquity separates us from God, and our sins hide his face from us. 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:16.960 That's how Isaiah begins. 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:24.000 He doesn't begin to Israel, or again, by implication here to all the nations, to everyone. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:32.319 He doesn't begin by saying, Well, you know, your decisions are really hurting your future job prospects, or they're giving you feelings of guilt. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:34.079 We got to work on those feelings of guilt. 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:36.720 That those things also have consequences. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:41.039 He says the biggest problem is your sin is separating you from God. 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:43.119 That's the biggest problem in the world. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:55.039 The biggest problem is not warfare from one nation to the next, that's downstream of the larger problem that the world has turned away from God and God is separated from humanity. 00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:58.240 Jonathan Edwards gets it right. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:03.359 The smallest sin is an act of cosmic treason against the holy God. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:10.720 Sin cuts off the world from the best relationship they could ever have. 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:24.720 And we don't need to fear the wrath of any person or even government like we need to fear the wrath of the one that can cast soul and body into hell, as Jesus our Lord Himself says. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:32.240 The world has a sin problem. 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:36.240 And then finally today, we have a sin problem. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:42.000 Verse number 10, we turn to the we's of the passage. 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:47.039 We grope along a wall like the blind. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.480 Sin is deceptive, it clouds our judgment. 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:56.319 Verse 12 ends, we know our iniquity. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:58.640 That's almost a tension there. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:01.359 Well, if if we're blind, how do we know? 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:04.400 It's the Romans 1 story. 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:10.480 People know God, but they intentionally suppress the truth and unrighteousness. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:17.759 They know in their conscience that judgment is coming, but they press it down, they try to put it out of their minds, out of their lives. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:21.440 We're all implicated, all have sinned. 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:35.119 And sometimes we can we need to be careful, even as God's people, that we begin to think like we're really, really wildly different than the world around us. 00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:46.240 But isn't it true that even in our lives as God's people, sometimes our lives can be larked, can be marked by forms of lying lips and bloody hands? 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:59.200 Leviticus 20, uh, that's a place where God's instructing his people not to give their children over to Molech in sacrifice, the way some surrounding nations do. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:01.440 And listen to what God says. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.640 Proverbs 24, 11 and 12. 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:25.119 Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling towards slaughter. 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:32.240 If you say, But we didn't know about this, won't he who weighs hearts consider it? 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:35.920 Won't he who protects your life know? 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.279 Won't he repay a person according to his work? 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:42.799 How can we say we didn't know? 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:46.000 We we know about bloody hands, we know. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:51.200 We just want to stay sometimes in our comfortable sanitized worlds. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:53.680 You say, well, Micah, what am I supposed to do? 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:58.160 Just quit my job and become some kind of full-time advocate for this or that cause. 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:00.960 No, I'm not saying you need to quit your job. 00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:09.279 And then it's gonna look different for different ones of us in how we respond and think about this, but is it on your heart to care? 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:13.440 What do you do when your friend says, yeah, you know, I'm thinking about getting an abortion? 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:17.839 Why are we so quick to say, well, I mean, it's none of my, who am I to say anything? 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:19.200 None of my business. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:21.119 Wouldn't it be odd? 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:28.160 I'm gonna ask you this seriously, wouldn't it be odd if I was talking to a police officer and I said, So what do you got planned for this week? 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:31.599 And they said, Well, you know, I'm planning to kill someone. 00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:33.759 And I said, Well, what do you mean? 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:38.240 And they say, Well, there's this guy on my block, and it's just he makes my life difficult. 00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:48.960 He's drunk one day, he's jaywalking the next, and I just think my life will be a little, a little, a little better if I if I just kill him, not gonna torture him, but just kill him. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:51.519 Don't worry, I cleared it with my boss. 00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.480 Wouldn't it be weird if I said, Well, I, you know, who am I? 00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:58.160 That's the way policing works these days. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:00.000 I mean, he said he cleared it with his boss. 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:01.039 I don't know. 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:06.079 I I would hope that you'd want me to say, well, please don't do that. 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:07.599 And who is your boss? 00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:10.079 We need to get that guy fired immediately. 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:26.400 Do do these considerations about death around us, in sometimes extreme and and and factory-like form, does it take any consideration into our civic life, our life as friends? 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:32.960 Christians can face all kinds of temptation to minimize sin. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.319 And that extends to actions, it extends to the heart as well. 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:44.640 Because remember, Isaiah's told us sin is about the heart, not even just about behavior. 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:51.680 And sometimes Christians can be tempted to kind of split the difference between the world and God's word. 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:54.000 Let me give you an example of that. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:58.880 The world says, well, you know, your a feeling can't be wrong. 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:02.880 Maybe some actions can be wrong, but not a feeling or a thought. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:10.079 And then we see in scripture, certain behaviors are clearly condemned by God. 00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:12.880 And we're tempted to split the difference. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:29.119 Okay, so these patterns of behavior, we can't say those are okay because the Bible's clear about that, but we'll split the difference and say, well, as long as you don't actually act on those sinful desires, those sinful desires, you know, it's okay. 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:30.799 That's a lie. 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:45.359 That's that's that's excusing what the Bible says is a part of the sin that, yes, leads to death, it can lead to all kinds of actions, but it's the thoughts of the heart and not merely actions. 00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:48.480 We don't want to hide sinful hearts. 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:52.480 We want to expose our sinful hearts. 00:30:53.920 --> 00:31:00.000 There's a book called Deeper by Dane Ortland, and he has a very thoughtful chapter on sin. 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:07.039 It's called Despair, the title of the chapter, which even there says something truthful. 00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:16.640 But at one point he says, evil is the oceans, not the islands of our internal existence. 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:19.519 You hear what he's saying there. 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.079 Sin is not just occasionally we do a wrong thing. 00:31:24.319 --> 00:31:34.720 There's something about who we are that doesn't recognize God and that is okay with going against his word, with little thoughtfulness. 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:47.680 Or one other commentator writes, We may very well live in a dark world, but the darkness that first calls for rectification is within. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:54.480 What about the angry thoughts of our heart toward others? 00:31:55.039 --> 00:32:03.519 Doesn't Jesus say in Matthew 5, you've heard it said, don't murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment, to judgment. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:12.799 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:19.200 If you're angry with your spouse, ask, is this really a righteous anger? 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:22.400 You you I think you know what the answer probably is. 00:32:24.319 --> 00:32:26.319 Is there someone else in this church? 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:31.119 Is there someone that you just wish would leave this church and never come back? 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.039 They might not know your attitude. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:36.720 The Lord knows it. 00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:38.720 And he sees. 00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:42.400 Beware that heart of anger. 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:45.599 What about lying lips? 00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:51.279 How eager are we to talk about our devotional lives when things are going well? 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:57.440 And when we neglect God, we just uh don't bring it up. 00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:06.559 Or if someone asks us, we'll give them a devotional nugget from two months ago, like it was from two days ago. 00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:10.240 Because we don't want them to see or know who we are. 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:15.039 Rather than asking for prayer, we lie about the truth. 00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:24.480 Isaiah 59 highlights these categories of violence and speech, hands and tongue. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:36.720 Those are two broad categories, but those categories, as we've seen through example after example in scripture, those categories of lying lips and bloody hands are often connected. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:44.000 We don't mind slanting the truth to someone that we're angry at. 00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:49.519 Isn't that how the internet works in significant ways? 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:55.440 Isn't that why some things are so successfully passed along and retweeted? 00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:57.279 We're not concerned so much. 00:33:57.440 --> 00:34:07.359 As long as the object of this negative article or post is someone we don't like, we're not as concerned about the truthfulness of it. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:14.320 But oh, if it's a person that we like, now we're gonna say, well, we've got to fact-check this. 00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:17.039 We've got to make sure it's entirely true. 00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:34.320 Before you pass along that link that is negative towards some other person or group, ask the question, is this true or am I in the danger of multiplying lying lips? 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:42.480 And then even if you have good reason to believe that it is true, ask, well, why do I want to send this to others? 00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:50.079 Is it is it really to help make them better informed or to stir up righteous concern? 00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:51.679 Is that really the reason? 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:59.760 Okay, or is it I just want others to share in my vindictive spirit? 00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:09.280 Many of us need to, on our internet browsers, have a permanent header from the Charles Wesley hymn. 00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:16.880 Ye servants of God, your master proclaim and publish abroad his wonderful name. 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:25.360 Israel's sin, the world's sin, it's it's our sin. 00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:27.679 All have sinned. 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:34.400 Our passage today brings us into what's called the doctrine of total depravity. 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:40.800 Now that that doesn't mean every person is as bad as they possibly could be. 00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:44.639 That's not what scripture says or that I'm saying. 00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:49.039 We could all be worse if it wasn't for God's restraining grace. 00:35:50.159 --> 00:36:08.000 But it does help us see that every part of us, from our thoughts to our hearts, to our lips, to our hands, every single part of us is tainted and captured by sin as we come into the world. 00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:16.719 I know it's been a dark passage, uh, but it doesn't do us any good to paper over the reality. 00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:28.880 You imagine if you had a doctor and you had some chest pain and you went to see the doctor, and he looks at the scan and sees that you're riddled with lung cancer. 00:36:29.519 --> 00:36:33.519 And he comes back out and sits down with you, and you say, Doc, give me some good news. 00:36:33.679 --> 00:36:35.199 He says, Oh, okay, I will. 00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:36.559 It's looking pretty good. 00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:37.679 Here's some Tums. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:41.280 If you have some chest pains, pop a couple of these, you should be okay. 00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:43.519 That's malpractice. 00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:49.360 It makes you feel better in the moment, but it doesn't help your actual health in the long run. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:52.000 Isaiah is a good doctor. 00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:57.519 He's bringing us into the reality of how severe the problem is. 00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:00.639 Micah, come on. 00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:02.079 I mean, it's it's almost Christmas. 00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:03.599 We got the decorations. 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:07.360 Can't we talk about mangers or something? 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:10.639 Why do you think Christ came? 00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:12.719 And that's a serious question. 00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:18.480 If you're maybe visiting today or just here because it is holiday season, I'll check out church. 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:20.719 Why did Christ come? 00:37:21.519 --> 00:37:24.639 I wonder as I wander out under the sky. 00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:31.440