WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.959 Take our Bible and go to the book of Isaiah. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:04.400 The book of Isaiah. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:10.640 And we'll be in chapter 63 and chapter 64. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:15.599 Sadly, this is the penultimate time that I'll be saying that. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:22.559 Next week will be my last message in Isaiah, and we'll head off to London, and Micah will be closing off our book series. 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.800 It's gonna be hard to say goodbye to Isaiah. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.879 This passage of scripture is particularly moving. 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:32.719 It's moved me for the past few weeks as I've meditated upon it. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:40.640 I thought particularly those of us who might be in a place of spiritual depression, to use Martin Lloyd-Jones' condition. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:49.759 Not depression in a clinical sense, but a spiritual depression in which our soul is not where it should be. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:54.799 And oftentimes when that happens, we haven't moved. 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.920 We are in the same place that we've been week after week. 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:04.879 We still show up to church, we still say the right words, we still nod when the scriptures are spoken in the right way. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.400 But we know deep down inside there's something wrong. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.760 There's something just not right about us. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:17.359 We feel the distance between ourselves and God that once was so close. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:21.359 We feel the thinness of our souls. 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:40.879 And we know that there's an ache in our heart that longs to be back with God, but we're filled with discouragement and puzzlement because even though we're not outwardly rebellious, and even though we're not faithless, we're just worn down and drifting, and oftentimes we don't know the way back. 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:43.200 How do I get back to where I was? 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:46.480 Is often the question I hear as a pastor. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:51.920 We know we've wondered, and but we don't know how to return. 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:56.400 We don't know how to come back from where we're at. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:59.920 And that feeling is not an unusual one. 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:07.200 In fact, it's the very condition of the people that Isaiah is writing to in Isaiah 63 and 64. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:26.639 This section of Isaiah that we're in right at the moment is a section in which Isaiah is speaking to the future, to a generation of people who have already gone through the Babylonian exile and are now returning from that exile and coming back to the wasteland that is called Jerusalem and Judea. 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:32.159 They've been carrying the weight of their failure for many, many years. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:36.960 And they're now staring at the ruin that's called Jerusalem. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:45.039 And they're wondering a very important question is God ever going to draw near to us again? 00:02:46.960 --> 00:03:01.360 And so they're weak, they're discouraged, they don't know even how to pray, they don't know how to interpret their own story, and they're unsure if they can ever move forward again out of all of these decades of dryness. 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:08.240 Long before they ever existed, though, Isaiah steps into their shoes. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:18.800 Isaiah prays a prayer on their behalf in order to instruct them how to find God coming back from exile. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:20.719 It's a remarkable passage. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:27.680 He places a prayer into their mouths and teaches them how to return to God. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.240 And that's why this passage is so important for us today. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:38.800 Because you may be looking at your life and realizing that something's broken, but you don't know how to fix it. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:44.400 You know that there's a distance between you and God, but you don't know how to close it. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:50.319 Well, Isaiah 63 and 64 shows us just how to do that. 00:03:50.639 --> 00:04:06.879 It shows us what the awakening of our soul is like, it shows us what an honest return is like, and it shows us a God who meets us in our distance with a mercy that far exceeds our ability to perceive. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:27.279 And so Isaiah guides us, just like he guided them, he guides us to show us how to return to God, not simply rebuilding what's lost, but learning to speak to him with honesty and humility and hope. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:41.439 Here, as we look at these passages, we'll understand how God's truth awakens us and how it reshapes our understanding and how his mercy draws us into a future that's worth living for. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:44.079 So let's take a journey through this. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.000 I want to give us three points. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:54.720 First of all, that this is a prayer of honesty, that this is a prayer of humility, and that this is a prayer of hope. 00:04:55.519 --> 00:05:04.079 And so Isaiah begins that journey right here with a people who are beginning to be honest in their prayer. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:09.439 And then honesty begins with an awakening, an awakening. 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:17.279 An awakening when they start to feel the distance, they start to feel the separation. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:23.120 Take a look at verses 13 to 16 of chapter, 15 and 16 of chapter 63. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:29.680 Look down from heaven and see, from your lofty home, holy and beautiful. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.079 This is the people speaking to God. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:38.079 Where is your zeal and your might, your yearning and your compassion are withheld from me? 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:44.399 And yet you are our father, even though Abraham does not know us and Israel doesn't recognize us. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:46.480 You, Lord, are our father. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.560 Your name is our redeemer from ancient times. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:59.839 Now, these are not the words of the people who have been walking closely with God and then all of a sudden find themselves in a place of discouragement. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:01.600 Not at all. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:12.560 In fact, these are people who have lived such a distance from God for such a long period of time that they've almost forgotten what nearness to God actually looks like. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.160 For generations they've wandered. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:29.040 For generations they've treated God as peripheral, and they've established patterns of resisting God, of grieving his spirit, of treating his covenant as something they could pick up and put down at will. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:42.000 They've lived on the very edges of obedience, drifting steadily away from God, from father to son to son to son to son. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:49.519 But now, but now all of a sudden, they feel it. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:51.439 They feel it. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:59.360 And they look at their life and they look at their life as a nation and they realize this isn't what should be. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.920 The condition I'm in is not how this ought to be. 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:12.399 And what was once very, very tolerable for them, not even talking to God, now becomes unbearable. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:23.040 This absence of God that they had completely enjoyed becomes excruciating to them and they plead with God. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:28.319 There's something pressing on them with a spiritual weight. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.959 They look around and they see the drift that's been caused. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:45.120 They recognize that their worship had grown thin generations ago, that their leaders had lost the way, that the temple had been defiled, the people had forgotten their calling. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:50.720 So now they do the one thing they haven't done for a long, long time. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:57.360 They turn their attention to God and they ask God to look at them. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:02.959 Look down from heaven and see. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:10.160 This is the first cry of a people who are waking up. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:25.040 Who are waking up from a long spiritual sleep, the sound of a heart that's starting to soften, that's this first stirring to their conscience that's been seared and ignored. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:32.080 And almost surprisingly, and here you'll notice that they they reach for a name that they haven't used in a long time. 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:34.799 Yet you're our father. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:48.879 Though Abraham doesn't know us and Israel doesn't acknowledge us, you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old, is your name. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:03.039 Right at the moment, these are words that are just starting to come back into their vocabulary. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:10.320 And they know that their spiritual forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, they wouldn't even recognize them. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:19.840 All those years when those men lived in trust and faith and obedience, well, those are a long way away from there. 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:24.159 These guys wouldn't recognize their children. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.879 But no matter how unlike their fathers they might be, they reach for a deeper reality. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:34.000 They're reaching down and they're saying, you know what? 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:41.600 We may have changed, we may not be like Abraham, we might not be like Jacob, but God, you haven't changed. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:43.759 You're still our father. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:51.600 And there's this honesty that's beginning to awaken in them as they speak to God. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:54.960 It's the first sign of hope in them. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:10:00.559 Because now these people are no longer indifferent to God. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:06.480 The distance that was once normal is now painful to them. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:19.120 But beneath all of it isn't is a truth that they can't yet see, and we'll get to, that this father is going to do things for them far beyond what they could imagine. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:24.480 And this is where the passage speaks very, very clearly to us. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:36.399 To those who might be today drifting in their hearts, still here, still singing, still saying amen when amen is yanked out of you. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.360 But you know deep down inside something's really wrong. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:45.039 Something's really, really missing in your soul. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:54.080 It speaks to us who remember seasons when we were near to God and know that today is not that day. 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:01.679 And it tells us when we can't quite put our finger on what's wrong, how to begin. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.000 And Isaiah teaches us this: that it's very simple. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:12.080 Feel the distance and bring that distance to God. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:22.320 Recognize you're not where you should be, but also recognize God is always who He was, even in the best of your days. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:23.679 Start there. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:31.919 Start with this honesty that wakes up and says, Lord, I feel far from you. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:37.200 Lord, I'm not where I should be, but you're still my father. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.799 That hasn't changed at all. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:45.200 That's where this prayer begins, this prayer of honesty. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:51.440 And it moves, interestingly, as we progress through this, through stages of understanding. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:56.559 Because this awakening of honesty brings with it some confusion. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.919 It's an honest prayer, but it's a confused prayer. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:04.879 And this brings us into the second part of this prayer of honesty in verses 17 to 19. 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:07.600 Listen to these words. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:13.279 Why, O Lord, do you make us stray from your ways? 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:16.799 You harden our hearts so that we do not fear you. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:20.960 Return because of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:27.120 Your holy people had a possession for a little while, but our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary. 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:32.320 We have become like those you never ruled, like those who did not bear your name. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:36.320 What are we hearing here? 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:41.279 We're hearing people pray with a spiritual grogginess, is what we're hearing. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:44.960 They're waking up, but the room is still dark. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:50.399 They're feeling the distance, but they don't even yet understand what created that distance. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:13:01.759 Their hearts are beginning to stir, but their interpretation of what's been happening is still shaped by their drift. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.159 They don't quite get it. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:09.279 And so they pray these prayers, honest prayer, but wrong. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:12.720 Lord, why do you make us stray? 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.840 Lord, why do you harden our hearts so that we don't fear you? 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:24.080 Now, these aren't words of defiance, these are words of disorientation. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:30.080 Not every time somebody prays this way is it a prayer of rebellion. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:32.559 It can be a prayer of confusion. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:46.559 And what's wrong with them is that they're instinctively placing the blame on something outside of themselves rather than looking inward and finding the source of the problem here. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.279 And tragically, they're putting the blame on God. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:54.879 Now, perhaps you've prayed this way. 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.360 Lord, why didn't you stop me before I got here? 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:02.639 You ever pray that prayer? 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:04.480 Lord, you're sovereign. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:06.000 You could have stopped me. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:09.759 Lord, why didn't you intervene sooner? 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.159 Lord, why did you let things get so bad? 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:18.080 It's the exact same prayer. 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:19.919 These these these people to pray. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.600 It's a confused prayer. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:25.360 Honest, but confused. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.320 Their hearts are starting to wake up. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:37.200 They're trying to make sense of the ruin around them, but all they see is what's going on around here, and they're saying, God, why did it get like this? 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:46.240 The temple is trampled, the cities are desolate, everything is emptiness, the ruins are there. 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:54.080 And they even say to God at the very end of this chapter, we're like those you've never ruled, like those who've never even taken your name. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:59.679 We're just like another one of those nations that some big ruling power has taken over and squashed. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:02.960 We're just that. 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:11.919 What they're saying to the Lord to the Lord is, Lord, we look more like the outsiders than the outsiders are. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.080 And in a sense, they're right. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.279 But they're right for all the wrong reasons. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:27.200 Because what they're looking for is for God to fix the world around them. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:31.519 What God's going to do is fix the world that's in them. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:32.320 Okay? 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.679 They're looking at the trampled temple and saying, what a tragedy, God. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:39.759 Why did that happen? 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:44.159 And they're not looking to the fact that they trampled the covenant themselves. 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:52.240 They're looking at the ruins of Jerusalem, but they haven't looked at the ruins of their rebellious lives yet. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:16:03.759 So this is the spiritual condition of a people who are now awakening, but still coming into the fullness and understanding of what repentance is all about. 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.759 They feel the ache of it all, but they misread the cause. 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:10.480 They misinterpret it. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:14.639 But wonderfully, the confusion is not the end of the story here. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:19.200 And their misreading is not the final word, because this prayer is not over. 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:26.480 But Isaiah speaks on their behalf so that when this time comes, they might even know how to pray. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:30.720 Because Isaiah's already put it here for them to reach for. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:39.360 And what he's telling them is you have to speak your aching heart into the void. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:48.320 He's guiding them toward clarity and pushing them closer and closer to the place where they need to be. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.279 And so when we feel far from God, we do exactly what the Israelites do. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.559 We look around at our circumstances and we say, this is just overwhelming. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:01.919 This is troubling. 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:04.000 My prayers are empty. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:05.599 What's the problem? 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:11.599 And we look outside of ourselves and we try to find the problem out there. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:23.440 Churches do this too, in the middle of a declining spiritual vitality, and assume that the problem must be external. 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.880 Well, we just need to hold on, the culture's shifting. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.000 As if that was the answer. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:32.960 People are busy, the world is dark. 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:38.640 And we look up at God and say, God, why didn't you do something sooner? 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:45.200 It's not a harsh question, it's an honest one. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.079 It's a confused one. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:18:00.799 These people are feeling the absence of God, but they haven't quite understood that that's because of their own wanderings, not God's inability to work on their behalf. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:04.720 And so there has to be more here. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:10.799 And this prayer of honesty moves from an awakening through confusion into desire. 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.400 And that brings us into the next chapter in the first five verses. 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:26.000 Because now we see the confusion beginning to lift, and their questions are starting to give way to longing, and their bewilderment is starting to give way to desire. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:34.319 And these people who have drifted and have been unconcerned about it are now yearning for God in a way they've never done for years. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:36.319 Listen to these words. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:47.839 If only you would tear the heavens open and come down so that the mountains would quake at your presence. 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:57.440 Just as fire kindles brushwood and fire boils water to make your name known to your enemies, so that nations would tremble at your presence. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:04.400 When you did awesome works that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains quaked at your presence. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:12.559 From ancient time no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.000 You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right. 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.599 They remember you in all your ways. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:22.319 Now they desire God. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:24.799 Now they want him to act. 00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:28.400 This confusion is beginning to become clarity. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.200 And they're praying these vivid words. 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:36.480 Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down. 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:42.240 Wasn't many years ago they would say, please keep away from us, God. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.079 And what they're praying is not just some polite request, is it? 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:54.799 Some carefully measured petition. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:09.039 No, this is a cry of people who have felt the aching distance of God for so long that they're screaming in their bones for it to be different now. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:12.960 And notice the imagery here. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:24.000 The sky ripping apart like a curtain, mountains trembling in earthquakes and fire consuming everything that's dry and brittle. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:27.359 And in verse 3, they talk about that. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:36.079 When you did awesome works that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains quaked at your presence. 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:38.799 What are they doing here? 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:41.200 What is Isaiah pointing them back to? 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:42.559 What are they remembering? 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.160 The remembering Sinai is what they're remembering. 00:20:46.799 --> 00:21:17.359 They're remembering that time when God humbled the most powerful nation on earth at the time, Egypt and the Pharaoh, when he had laid them low in humiliation, and when he had parted the waters and allowed his people to be free from slavery, walking on dry land, where he carried them through the wilderness and brought them to the place where his very voice was heard, and mountains literally shook, and fire filled the sky. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:26.880 The remembering the God who descended in fire, who split the sea, who shook the nations, and who made himself known in power. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:30.480 And they're saying, God, do that again. 00:21:31.359 --> 00:21:32.640 Do that again. 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:38.000 Be that same powerful force now. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:45.039 But here's the problem look at how they pray. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:58.400 They pray this verse two to make your name known to your enemies so that the nations would tremble at your presence. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.200 They want God to fix the world. 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:05.839 God's going to fix them. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:11.039 They want the mountains to shake. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:13.440 God wants their hearts to shake. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:20.000 They want a restored land and a restored dignity. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:25.039 God wants restored hearts and a restored people. 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:30.640 But God's going to do something more for them than they know. 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:32.319 Take a look at verse 4. 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:43.519 In verse 4, they speak from of ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:48.079 Little do they know that this is the hinge of the whole prayer right here. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:56.079 This is where their longing brushes up against God's unbounded, unimaginable mercy. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.440 They don't know it yet, but it's there. 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:07.519 The remembering of God who intervenes, and they're asking him to act in the way that he did before. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:11.519 But God doesn't want to just repeat the past. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:18.880 As dramatic as it was. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:27.359 They want God to come down in power, but God's going to come down in person to this earth. 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:34.559 You see, what they're longing for is really just a shadow of what God's actually going to do. 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:37.759 The substance they can't even grab hold of here. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:48.400 They feel this emptiness, they feel the thinness of their prayers, they feel the weight of their choices, and they're saying, Lord, we need you to break through here. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:51.279 Lord, come near to us again. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:53.359 Break through all of this hardness. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.119 Shake what has grown cold. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:57.839 Do what only you can do, Lord. 00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:00.400 That's a real longing. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:03.839 But it's still mistaken. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:10.559 Because what they want is a return to what was rather than a reach for what will be. 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:12.880 And we'll get to that in just a second. 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:18.559 This prayer of honesty continues and unfolds. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:23.200 Isaiah is teaching them through prayer how to address their own hearts. 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:44.720 And so this honesty that begins with an awakening, that moves through this fog of confusion, that pushes them into an honest prayer of desire now gets to the heart because it's now in the second movement, a prayer of humility. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:49.119 Take a look at verse 5 at the very end of it. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:53.920 But we have sinned, and you were angry. 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:58.400 How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:08.559 All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and all our iniquities carry us away like the wind. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.119 No one calls on your name, striving to take a hold of you. 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:20.079 For you've hidden your face from us and made us melt because of our iniquities. 00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:27.359 You see, they finally understand what the real problem is. 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:30.640 It's no longer God, why did you harden our hearts? 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:35.599 It's now God, we have hard hearts. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:38.880 We've done this to ourselves. 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:42.640 This is devastating admission of their sin. 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:46.720 And it's the humility that they're expressing. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:53.119 Lord, and the ESV puts it this way: we have been in our sins a long time. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:57.279 This isn't some new problem. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:02.640 This has been going on for a long stretch, but we're just now aware of it. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:07.279 We have been the problem the whole time, and now I see it. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.359 I see myself for what I should have seen before. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.759 Sin has deceived me to think the problem was out there and up there, but I now see it, it's in here. 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:19.839 It's me. 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:24.240 We have become like one who's unclean. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:26.799 All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:37.599 They feel the distance now that they have created. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:40.000 And they own it. 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:51.039 They recognize that their own iniquities have shaped their present, have weakened them, and have carried them further than they ever intended to go. 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:53.200 The problem isn't God. 00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:55.359 The problem isn't circumstances. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.440 The problem aren't the enemies out there. 00:26:57.680 --> 00:26:58.880 The problem's me. 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:07.680 Not my mama, not my papa, but it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:16.960 And so Isaiah here is bringing this diagnosis to their hearts, and he's lifting up the mirror. 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:18.960 And he's saying, Take a look. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:20.640 What's your problem? 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:23.200 Look in the mirror. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:24.720 That's your problem. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:26.720 It's us. 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:47.839 And so he invites them and us to stop explaining the distance in terms of circumstances, to consider more deeply the issues of our heart that have grown cold and accustomed to taking God's name in vain, emptiness. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:53.680 To let Scripture name what we haven't named, sin. 00:27:56.160 --> 00:27:59.200 But also to believe that this isn't the end of the story. 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.119 Because look at the posture of humility in the next phrase. 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:06.160 Yet, Lord, you are our Father. 00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:07.759 We're the clay. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.119 You are the potter. 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:11.599 We're all the works of your hands. 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:16.000 Lord, do not be terribly angry or remember our iniquity forever. 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:17.359 Please look. 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:19.200 All of us are your people. 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:22.880 It's a plead for mercy, isn't it? 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.039 It's a posture of humility. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:30.319 We're just dirt. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:32.400 We're just clay, Lord. 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:34.960 We're really nothing better than that. 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:38.640 You're our Father. 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:43.599 Please, as we yield ourselves to you, shape us. 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:46.079 We can't make ourselves beautiful. 00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:48.720 But you can, Lord. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:50.000 You can. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:55.039 And please, please remember your mercy to us. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:59.119 They're appealing to the very character of God here. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:01.839 Remembering that he's the Redeemer. 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:03.359 Remembering that He's the Father. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:05.599 Remember He's the one that moved in power. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:07.680 Remember He's the one who has compassion. 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:09.759 Remember He's the one who has mercy. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:13.279 Lord, please look, we're your people. 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:24.240 As much as we didn't want to admit it, as much as we tried to deny it, as much as we acted like we weren't, we are. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:27.279 Don't forget us. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:32.799 They acknowledged their failure without excusing it. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:45.680 And now they're affirming that they belong to God, but they're not using it as a presumptuous way to live their life carelessly and callously. 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:48.319 This is a heart of surrender. 00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:52.319 This is the yielding of their heart. 00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:57.200 It stopped resisting and it's begging to be able to trust. 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:17.519 This is where Isaiah wants to bring our hearts when we feel cold and distant, to awaken to the realization that we've been distant, to try to move through the confusion of our understanding of our circumstances and the interpretation of those things. 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:24.079 To get to the place where we want what we should have always wanted, God to come down and do something. 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:27.599 But now the channel is open. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:33.039 It's open because we have recognized the problem isn't out there, it's in here. 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:38.880 And we're submitting ourselves in humility to Him and asking Him to show mercy. 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:42.960 We're in the right spot when we get there. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:49.200 Now, I give this last point as a prayer of hope. 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:56.319 And it may not sound like hope as we look at this, but there's more than enough hope to hang on to. 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:01.359 Take a look at this last section of this, beginning in verse 10. 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:06.799 Your holy cities have become a wilderness. 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:08.960 Zion has become a wilderness. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:10.880 Jerusalem, a desolation. 00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:17.440 Our holy and beautiful temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burnt down. 00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:20.960 And all that was dear to us lies in ruins. 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:26.480 Lord, after all this, will you restrain yourself? 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:31.119 Will you keep silent and afflict us severely? 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:37.119 This prayer that began with a lament. 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:39.680 Where is your zeal, God? 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:41.519 Where's your might? 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:43.920 Moved into a prayer of remembrance. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:45.200 You are our Father. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.839 It's deepened into confession. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:50.319 We have been in our sin a long time. 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:52.640 It's moved into surrender. 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:54.799 You are the potter and we're the clay. 00:31:55.599 --> 00:32:03.279 And now it gathers up all that honesty and all that humility, and it lays it before God in one final prayer. 00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:08.880 Lord, will you remember us still? 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:18.160 You see, these losses aren't just historical losses. 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:23.599 They're actually emblems of what had been an inward collapse. 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:32.720 They're looking at ruined Jerusalem, ruined temple, ruined cities, desolation, all of it emblematic of the desolation of their own soul. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:35.519 And they're now crying out. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:40.480 And they turned to God with the only hope that they have left. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:47.039 Will you restrain yourself after all these things, O Lord? 00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:51.519 Because if you do, I'm done with. 00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:54.640 I have nowhere to go. 00:32:56.559 --> 00:33:02.000 They grab a hold of God as the only hope left. 00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:08.000 It's no longer trying to finagle an alliance with Assyria or Babylon or Egypt. 00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:15.440 It's no longer puffing their chest about how righteous they are, and all the other nations are just idol worshiping fools. 00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:17.920 It's none of that anymore. 00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:24.319 They can't lay their strength anywhere but before God and say, God, if you don't do something, we're done. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:25.759 We're done. 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:27.440 It's over. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:32.720 And they're not exactly sure if God will do it here. 00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:36.079 Maybe it is too late. 00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:41.599 They see the ruins and they wonder, maybe this just is the end. 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:44.799 But they're still gonna pray. 00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:48.079 They're still gonna pray. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:51.599 They're still gonna ask God to rebuild. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:34:00.480 To rebuild this earthly city, to restore their temple, to return them to what once was. 00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:08.000 And God is going to say to them, that's not good enough. 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:10.880 That's not good enough. 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:12.800 That's all you want. 00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:15.599 Oh, I I can put a building up, no problem. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:20.719 God and Son Incorporated, best construction company going. 00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:23.519 I can put a building up. 00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:25.199 That's what you want? 00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:27.039 I can rebuild Jerusalem. 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:28.800 That's what you want? 00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:31.119 It's not good enough. 00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:33.199 It's not good enough. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:36.079 Look at verse 4. 00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:46.880 From ancient times, no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. 00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:50.159 They're now starting to wait on him. 00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:52.800 That's the last verse of this chapter. 00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:55.039 They are waiting on him now. 00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:03.360 The problem is they're not looking forward enough. 00:35:03.599 --> 00:35:05.519 They're still looking back a bit. 00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:14.400 And what they don't know it yet is they're asking for God's mercy, but they don't know the depths of God's mercy yet. 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:17.440 They're asking for God to build them a future. 00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:20.239 They don't know what that future is yet. 00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:25.760 They have no idea just how great a God they're actually talking to. 00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:26.960 Do you? 00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:32.159 Let's go to 1 Corinthians and finish there. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:36.000 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:53.360 Paul is speaking to a church that feels just as small and weak as the people of Israel, just as overwhelmed as they are, just as tempted to measure God by the things that they can see. 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:04.960 And probably like the Corinthians, in the midst of their troubles, are feeling weak, and what they want is visible power. 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:08.400 What they want is visible wisdom. 00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:11.039 What they want is visible vindication. 00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:32.719 And so Paul speaks to this church at Corinth who's grasping at worldly wisdom, who's looking for worldly power and answers, who's thinking that the explosion on the stage shows them the reality of God. 00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:51.360 And he says to them, in verse 6 of chapter 2, we speak a wisdom among the mature, not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. 00:36:51.679 --> 00:37:01.440 On the contrary, we speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, a mystery God predestined before the ages for our glory. 00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:03.679 You want glory, it's coming. 00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:06.480 But it's not going to come the way you think it's going to come. 00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:14.320 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:27.440 But as it is written, what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived, God has prepared these things for those who love him. 00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:35.039 They wanted a rebuilt temple, a rebuilt city, a rebuilt national identity. 00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:40.000