And I'll ask you to just hold your Bibles open there as we look at this chapter together. We'll look at the entire 21 verses of this chapter tonight. And at the risk of sounding terribly repetitious, I want to stress one more time that this passage, like those many passages we have looked at in Isaiah that deal specifically with events in the nation of Israel, trouble and difficulty, this passage is to be interpreted spiritually if we are to gain any profit from it at all for our souls. And that is not at all a loose interpretation of the passage, but it is strictly according to the intent of God the Holy Spirit, as you will clearly see. It is an allegory. The whole chapter is an allegory. An allegory about the grace of God to sinful

Now if you'll take the time at your leisure to read what Paul says, particularly in chapter 3 of Romans, in his comments from Isaiah chapter 59, you will see that that was the intent and the purpose for which it was inspired by God the Holy Spirit. He inspired Isaiah to write the words of this chapter so that he might use these things in the nation of Israel to serve as an allegory showing the depravity, sin, and helplessness of all men by nature, and the gracious intervention of God in Jesus Christ to save chosen sinners.

Now, without question, the prophecy has a reference both to our Lord's first advent and to his second advent. In the days in which the Lord Jesus Christ came, he came to redeem and save us, when he made his first advance into this world, the condition of the world and the condition of the religious world in particular, specifically the condition of religion in the nation of Israel, had degenerated to its lowest hell. So that men and women held to the word of God, they held the prophets of God tenaciously. They would fight you over whether or not the prophets were inspired. They would fight you over the interpretations given to the various sects of the Jewish religion in their day. But holding tenaciously to the name of the children of God, and to the name that they worshipped God, and to the name that they obeyed the word of God, they were totally void of the knowledge of God. Our Lord said, you don't know scriptures and you don't know the power of God." And he was talking to the folks who transcribed the scriptures when he said that. He said, you don't know the scriptures and you don't know the power of God.

So that their religion had degenerated not only into a, just a religious ritualism without God, without the knowledge of God, but that empty religious ritualism without God had degenerated into a moral perversity common among men. So that in the days in which our Lord Jesus came into this world to redeem and save his people from their sins, the world was in a condition of utter moral and spiritual degeneration. So that there was horrible, horrible, indescribable iniquity. that day. So much so that as you read the first chapter of Romans, and you listen to how Paul describes that society, you get the sense that somehow, as blunt as he is with his description of the moral degeneracy of his day, he was covering his words with gentle phrases. so as not to offend, because what he was talking about were things that simply were not fit for discussion among human beings, and yet they were common in the society. Oh, very much like our society today. signaled the coming of Christ in his first advent, and this moral degeneracy in society signals the coming of Christ in his second advent, when he shall come in his glory to consummate the salvation of his people and to renew this earth, making all things new by his power and for the glory of his name.

Matthew Henry says in this chapter, we have sin appearing exceeding sinful, and grace appearing exceeding gracious. Now this is what the chapter teaches us. Listen carefully.

Heartless religious ritualism. That's what was described in chapter 58. Heartless religious ritualism. Religion without God. Leads to indescribable moral wickedness, spiritual ignorance, and ultimately everlasting ruin unless God intervenes and saves. You see, religion without God is worse than no religion at all. Heartless religious ritualism not only leads men away from the knowledge of God, but directing men away from the knowledge of God directs them in a path of moral degeneracy that simply cannot be described and cannot be without God. And we're reaping the consequences of a generation of folks who have walked in religion without God in our society. And as we go through these 21 verses, I hope you will see clearly and distinctly the parallel between the day in which Isaiah wrote and the day in which you and I live.

Now the title of my message tonight and my subject, The Hope That I Have, want to keep constantly before you, you will find in verse 20, the Redeemer shall come to Zion. That's our only hope. The Redeemer shall come to Zion. I hope I don't need to remind you that Zion does not refer to the physical, political Jewish state over in the Far East. But rather Zion refers to the church of God's the chosen body and bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Israel of God.

Now with those things in mind, let me call your attention to five things as we go through this chapter.

First, the character of our God. In verses one and two, the prophet gives us a hint, oh what a hint it is, of the character of God. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot say, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities are separated between you and your God, and your sins have heard his face from you that he will not hear.

The lost, ruined condition of man, man's sin, man's guilt, man's corruption and man's ultimate condemnation and everlasting destruction can never be blamed upon the character of God. I can't say that sufficiently with sufficient emphasis. Man's ruin, man's condition cannot be blamed upon the character of God. There are many who seem to think somehow that if we declare God's sovereign grace, and declare what the scripture reveals concerning God's absolute purpose, and God's predestination, and election, and so on. Then men will turn around and say, well, why does God find fault with me? But man cannot rightfully blame his condition upon God's character, or upon God's work.

You see, God is a God ready to save. He is described in the scriptures as one who delighteth in mercy, and one who waits to be gracious. The Lord God is able, willing, and able, and willing to be gracious to needy sinners. That's what he says in the first verse. He said the Lord's hand is not short, but it can't say. His ear is not heavy, but it can't hear. That's not the problem. The problem is with us. The problem is with man.

In verse 2 it says, your iniquities, your sins have separated between you and God. Now this is what I'm saying. If you are saved, if I'm saved, if we go to heaven, if we are found at last with Jesus Christ in glory, that's God's fault and God's work and God's glory. That's the only way we'll get there is if God brings us there.

If a man refuses to trust Christ, if a man dies in his sins, if you go to hell, that will be your fault, your work, and your blame forever. You won't blame that on God's purpose. You won't blame that on the idea that God would not be gracious to you. You won't blame that on the idea that somehow you wanted to be saved but God wouldn't let you be saved. Oh no. Oh no. God's hand did not show up. God's ear is not heavy, the problem's your sin. Your iniquities have separated between you and God.

The wages of sin, the scripture says, is death. That's what you earn. That's what you earn. Your sin deserves death, your sin deserves judgment, your sin deserves eternal wrath, for your sin is against the infinitely holy God. But the gift of God, the gift, free gift of God is eternal life for Jesus Christ our Lord.

Secondly, in verses 2 through 8, the prophet displays for us the cause of grief. Sin. That's what separates between you and God. And the cause of all grief, all pain, all sorrow, and all trouble in this world is not hard to find. It's simple. I recognize that what I'm saying here is not popular. I recognize that it is somehow something that people have just decided can't be so. But man, no man, is the product of his environment. I know that goes against philosophy, I know that goes against what's considered political correctness, I know that goes against the educational norm, I know that goes against psychological studies and surveys and all that stuff, but I'm telling you, man is not the product of his environment. Man's environment is the product of his sin. We've got things just exactly backwards. The cause of man's grief is his iniquity. Sin has created a great gulf and chasm between God and man, between the creature and his creator. And in these verses, Isaiah speaks for God and describes the horrible sins of Israel in his day.

But if you care to read with me, turn over to Romans chapter 3. The Apostle Paul's commentary on this you'll find out that this inspired interpretation lays all the sins that Isaiah describes right at our doorsteps as well. Look here in Isaiah chapter, or in Romans chapter three and verse nine.

So you read this passage in Isaiah and say, well, that was the Jews. That was back under, in Isaiah's day. Oh, but Paul picks right up on it. He says, this is talking about you and me. In Romans chapter three and verse nine. What then, are we better than they? No and no lies, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're only to sin. All of them. Jews and Gentiles. The Jews who had the word of God and the name of God and the prophets and priests of God, the tabernacle and the temple, they're to sin. And the Gentiles who groped about in darkness, all of us, under sin. Under the curse and death of sin.

As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not even you. No, not even me. Not righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand it. Nobody has any ability, by nature, to understand God's Word, God's truth, and God's ways. Nobody. There's none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. You hear these nuts talk about going to Russia or going to different parts of the world and the heathen are just all over the place just to hear the word. That's not so. It never has been so. There's none that seeketh after God. None that seek God. None who seek God as is revealed in scripture seek God in his glory and in his grace. Nobody does. Not by nature. They seek God like a totem pole. They think God gets carved out of, or whittled out of wood, or carved out of the stones. They think that God's being carried out of their pocket for a good luck charm. But none seek after God. Nobody's interested in God worshipping and serving him. They don't. They are all going out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. That's the whole race of man. Unprofitable.

There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of Ashes is under the lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace have they not known. And here's the reason. There's no fear of God before their eyes.

Now, you might read this passage in Romans, or this passage back here in Isaiah, and you say to yourself, well, the preacher's talking about somebody else. He's not talking about me. I've not done all these things that are here described. And as I go through the catalog of sins as Isaiah describes them here, you might think, well, I'm not like that. Now, listen carefully to this. You listen carefully to that. I said, sweet, sweet Carrie Barkley. I love her to death. And you're not guilty of these things outwardly. But don't ever imagine that's because you're morally superior to folks who are. Don't ever imagine. Don't ever imagine that somehow because you haven't done these things, oh, I wouldn't do that. Don't ever imagine you wouldn't do that, whatever it is. I hear folks say, I don't see how somebody could do that. I see how anybody could do just about anything I've seen yet, because it's right here. That's right. It's right here.

You see, if you are not outwardly guilty, it is not because you're somehow superior to another. but rather it is simply because of God's restraining hand of providence and mercy that he's kept you from performing the evil that's in you. One of my constant prayers to God for myself, my wife, my daughter, and you as I call your names before God, I pray God keep us from the evil that's in us. Not the evil that's out yonder. I'm not near as concerned about the evil at yonder, as I am the evil in here. I'm just telling the truth. I'm not near as concerned about those young people sitting there being overtaken by the evil at yonder in the world, as I am them being overtaken by the evil that's in their hearts. You understand what I'm saying? The evil that's in us.

B.H. Carroll said, recited, cover the whole catalog. Their hands, their fingers, their lips, their tongues, their feet, and their minds were all involved. Their state was most despicable and called for the severest judgments. They were all gone out of the way. And so here we have an indictment against the whole human race. Notice what he says in verse three. Their hands are covered with innocent blood. Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perversions." We live in a generation of men and women who, like these folks here, have taken and slain their own offspring, their own sons and daughters. The Jews, when they were involved in a horrible worship of false gods, took their sons and daughters and offered them as sacrifices to those false deities. And many women today promote the wholesale slaughter of unborn children. you call it what you want to, the hands drip with innocent blood. Innocent blood.

More particularly, far, far, far more horrible even than that, the hands of mankind drip with the innocent blood of the Son of God. But we crucified the Lord of Glory. We nailed him to the tree. We took God put it on the cross and said, to hell with God, we'll do this to you. We'll do this to you. We will not carry it! That's what man did with the Son of God when he got his hands on it.

They said they're a generation of liars. Your lips have spoken lies. Do any of you remember those days When if you said to a fellow south, I'll take care of this for you, two cans of this. No need to sign any papers, no need to get any lawyers to get this done. The done deal got his word. Anybody trust a fellow like that in here? Anybody? He's not around. He's not around.

The whole generation in which we live is a generation of liars. It's demonstrated from the highest, most respected officers in the land to the lowest, lowest men in the prisons out here at no point. I'm telling you, the generation we live in is a generation of men who don't trust each other and have no grounds to trust each other because we live in a generation of liars.

Their mouths are full of perverse things. Mutter perverseness. I could spend a good bit of time on that, but you listen to what I'm saying. We've come to a place in our society and in our age when men with all the conviction of having real conviction, I mean, the Adcocks, they've got real conviction, but what with Forrest, they will call evil good and good evil, and seem to think that they're in the truth.

We have been so duped and so perverted in our thinking by the educators, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, and by legislation, by education, by television, that this generation has been taught to speak perverse things, and accept them as being right things. So that it becomes commonly acceptable for people to live in open immorality, and it becomes taboo for anybody to say they're wrong. It becomes commonly acceptable for people to behave in a manner that is totally destructive and ruinous to every fabric of decency in society, and it becomes, well, who are you to judge somebody else? To say you can't behave like that.

We have brought ourselves to a position where the whole generation speaks perverse things. I'm astonished sometimes when I listen to folks give opinions who claim to be believers, and many who are genuinely believers, but they speak things that are totally contrary to the Word of God, because they've been conditioned to think like the people of this world think. Be careful, my friends, that you don't let that box in your living room dictate your moral judgment. Be careful that you don't let the philosophy and the opinions of the age dictate to you what's right and what's wrong. Rather, look to the word of God to find that.

Then in verse four, we see that there was no justice in the land. No justice in that land that forgot God. And there can never be any justice in a land that forgets God. None calleth for justice, nor any fleeth for truth, but trust in vanities. and speak lies, that conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. Now about everybody I read in commenting on this fourth verse, said it's talking about the courts of justice. He said it'd go to courtroom. There's no justice. There's just no justice. Read tomorrow's paper and you'll find a commentary on that verse. No justice. No sense of right. No sense of justice. And they can't be when folks forget God.

You see, the only standard, the only thing absolute in this world is His book. There's nothing else absolute. What God says is so. But the world says, we can't have that. No, no, no, no, we can't insist on that. We will decide what's right. Well, you decided wrong. You started off wrong. and you're going to continue to go wrong as long as you think like that. What does God say? That's right. Nothing else is. Nothing else is. And when men throw this aside, throw aside the word of God, the law of God, the revelation of God, they have thrown aside every basic standard of decency and uprightness so there can be no justice in the land.

Then in verses 5 and 6, We read that they were corrupt, scheming, conniving, self-serving, violent people. They hatch cockatrice eggs, adders eggs, snakes, serpents eggs, and weave the spider's web. He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their web shall not become gunk, Neither shall they cover themselves with their works, their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands."

So that he's describing folks who have no regard for the neighbor, and they scheme and plot no matter how destructive it may be to their neighbor, and at the same time they don't profit anything by it themselves, because God will allow it. And so, there's just scheming self-serving people, but they're self-serving people of a corrupt heart and a corrupt nature who walk contrary to God, because when men walk contrary to God, they walk in corruption, and there's no end to it.

And then in verses 7 and 8, when people are sold to the wind, they reap the whirlwind. And when you make crooked paths for your feet, You make pain and grief for your life. And when you do that, you can never find the one thing everybody wants. You can't do it. You young people sitting here looking at me, and you think to yourself, boy, what I want, what I want, is I want peace and happiness. peace and happiness. And I'm going to tell you, there's only one way to find it. There's only one way to find it. And that's by surrender to Jesus Christ. Walking with him as Lord and Savior. Trusting him. Seeking to do his will. There's no other way.

You make crooked paths for your feet, you make destruction and misery for your feet. I can tell you some measured experience. Read what it says here. Their feet run to do evil. Run to do evil. Well, let's go here. Let's do this. Everybody's involved in this thing. Looks like blood here. And they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their past. The way of peace they know not. And there is no judgment in their goings, no righteousness in their doings. They have made them crooked paths. Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Do you see the message of these verses? The cause of grief is sin. Rebellion brings ruin, deceit brings destruction, and hell at last, no peace, no peace. Somehow you watch folks ruin their lives, you watch them choose the path of destruction, Older folks, younger as well. Had so many friends along the course of the years. Kids I watched grow up, passed them on my knee, taught them the Word of God, and watched them choose a path of crookedness, perversity, and self-serving pleasure.

And I want somehow to standpoint of you and say now wait a minute. Let me show you where this is going. Let me show you. I've been there. Let me show you where it's going. Destruction and misery are in that way. That's all. You live for yourself. You do your own thing. I'm going to have my way. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm not going to pay any attention to God or his word or other people. I'm going to serve me. And I'm telling you, destruction and misery are in your way.

Now then, in verses 9 through 15, the prophet speaks now for the people, and he gives us the confession of guilt. The first thing that God the Holy Spirit does in the work of conversion is to convince and convict men of sin. And once a person is convicted of sin, he confesses And the confession of sin is the forerunner of the forgiveness of sin.

Now notice Isaiah's confession. He spares nothing. He speaks not for himself alone, but for the people, for the nation. Let's take his words up in our mouth. Therefore is judgment far from us. Justice is far, far from us. Neither doth justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity, for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night. We are places as dead men, who roar like bears and mourn sore like doves. We look for judgment, for righteousness, for uprightness, but there's none, for salvation, for deliverance from this mess. walking about in blindness, confusion, and helplessness spiritually, blind and confused.

Well, that speaks pretty well of our nation, our society, our generation.

Then in verse 12, for our transgressions are multiplied before And our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us. We can't get rid of them. We can't shake them. We're laid out at night. They're there. And as for our iniquities, we know. The prophet names every description given a sin. Iniquity, we haven't measured up. We've not come close to doing what we ought to have done. Transgression. Lord, we've seen your law and we've trampled it under our feet. We've broken the law. We transgressed. We confess it all.

And then he speaks of the depravity and perverseness of the heart. This is in transgression and lying against the Lord. and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. The problem is here. Our hearts are corrupt and deframed. And the result of thus walking contrary to God's revealed word, his revealed will, his revealed law, his revealed purpose, the result is apostasy from the truth of God.

And judgment is turned away backwards. justice standeth far off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey." And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Isaiah said the whole body professed religious is so perverse that whenever there is a man who sees the truth of God and he turns from the evil of the people, turns in the evil way of his generation, and would walk with God, everybody looks at him and says he's a madman, he's lost his mind, and he becomes a prey for the malice of the whole religious world. Then in verses 15 through 19, the prophet gives us a blessed promise and prophecy of the coming of our Savior, the Christ of God. And the Lord saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and as a helmet of salvation, or had the helmet of salvation upon his head. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. To the islands he will repay recompense. so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

What does all that mean? When hopelessness and helplessness, despair had nearly crushed the life from this generation from this people whose religion was empty and void of the knowledge of God. Then Christ steps in to say, and when man is brought to the utter end of himself, like that particle in a faraway land, when he comes to himself, he brought to the end of himself, the Lord God steps in and says, I'll step in and take over now. I'll step in and take over now.

And the Lord God sent forth his made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. The Lord Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sin. When he saw that there was no man who could save or would save, he became a man that he might save. When he saw that there was no man to make intercession for his people, he became an intercessor for his people. In the covenant of grace, he interceded. While he was on this earth, he interceded. When he was hanging on the tree outside Jerusalem, he interceded. And yonder in glory, he still interceded. I interceded for them.

Our Savior said, when no man could save and no man would intercede, his own arm brought salvation to him. That is, he came, the mighty arm of the Lord, and he by himself, posed by his hands and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

The Son of God came here to do three things specifically, as they're described in verses 16 through 19. He came to save his people. That's what verses 16 and 17 say. He came to accomplish redemption, and he did. He came to destroy his enemies and ours. He said, now is the fence of this world cast down. And when he comes again, he's going to destroy them ultimately. And he came to establish his kingdom in all the world, so that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, men and women everywhere shall know the Lord. He will call to his word, throughout all the world, in all the four corners of the world, and his spirit, the spirit of his grace, he will pour out upon chosen redeemed sinners, and they'll call on him. From everywhere in this world, he will have a people.

Then verses 20 and 21 describe the believer's experience of the covenant of grace. Now this is not by any means a full, complete description of the blessings of God's covenant. But there are things promised here to every chosen soul, every chosen sinner who turns to God in repentance and faith. He says, the Redeemer shall come to Zion. Who's he talking about? Unto them that turn from transgression and Jacob, said the Lord God. You turn to Christ, and he will turn to you. Now then, be sure you understand, I hate to have to keep repeating it, but it's necessary in our, I don't mind repeating it, it's necessary though in our society and in our day. Somebody will say, well that means that salvation really is up to you, now if you turn to the Lord then he'll turn to you. No, that's just the way you experience it. You turn to him and he will turn to you, but if you turn to him it's because he has already turned to you in grace and turned you to him.

You can compare scripture with scripture. Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned. Turn upon us, O God, and save us. Close your face to shine upon us. But the promise is still given. You turn to God. Anybody who will turn from his transgression, turn from this perverse society, turn from this ruined age, turn from iniquity, transgression, and sin to God in Jesus Christ, turn to him, and the Redeemer will come. mercy and grace, in all the fullness of his grace and glory. He says, also my spirit shall not depart from them. That's the essence of the latter part of this chapter.

Let's read the verses together. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord, as for me, this is my covenant. with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and even forever."

In other words, he's saying, my spirit that I've given you, I'll give to them and they'll never depart. He shall be in them a spirit of grace and supplication, a spirit of preservation, and a spirit of mercy. And my word, my word shall not fail. My word that I've given you will stand fast. It'll stand fast. That word that he's given, his word of oath, before the world began, he said, I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. And he said, it'll stand. It is his word of grace. He says, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. It'll stay. It'll stay. It is his word of promise. It shall not fail. I've given to them eternal life and they shall never perish. It is his written word. It shall not fail.

Do what men will. Say what they will. Raise all the objections they want to. Cover it any way they want to, the word of the Lord endures forever. It'll still be standing when all other philosophies and all the philosophies and opinions and thoughts of men have long been trampled in the dust. The word of the Lord will stand forever. And his preached word shall not cease. God says, thy word will not depart from your heart, from your seed, from your seed to seed. In other words, he says, I'll have myself a witness. You don't have to worry about that. Things may look dead now. May look as though truth has fallen in the streets. Though men trample the word of God under their feet and totally disregard the word of God. Though it looks like the whole religious world has now forsaken God wholesome. God says, my word will stand. I'll not leave myself without a witness. It'll stand to your seed and your seed's seed forever. My word.

And so we now speak for God, and I call on you to turn from your transgressions, to turn from the course of this world, and turn to God in Christ. And I'm telling you, if you follow him, if you trust him, if you speak to him, if you walk according to his word and his will, I'll tell you right up front, you've got to turn from the whole world. I mean the whole world. There's nothing left there. Turn from the opinions and the course and the way of this world. Follow him. And he says, the Redeemer shall come to you. He'll come now and give you grace. And he'll come in the end. and bring you to glory. You've got his word for it. Amen.