We turn again to God's Word in
the chapter that we read, Isaiah 59. Drawing your attention this
morning to the words that we find in verse 10. Isaiah 59 and
verse 10. We grope for the wall like the
blind, we grope as if we had no eyes, we stumble at noonday
as in the night, We are in desolate places as dead men. Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 10. We read the chapter of course
and the whole chapter shows us something of the awful nature
and the consequences of sin. We read of the nature of the
sin in the first part Certainly from verse 3 to verse 8, we have
a remarkable description of what sin is. But also at the beginning,
particularly in that second verse, we are reminded, are we not,
of the consequences of sin, as sin is that that separates, your
iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Sin separates
from God. God himself is a vice too pure
to behold iniquity. He cannot look upon sin. He is the Holy One of Israel. Even the sinless angels, the
burning seraphim, must veil their faces before His holiness as
they cry, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts, Heaven and Earth
are full of Thy glory. He is Holy Father, Holy Son and
Holy Spirit and so sin can only result in that awful separation
from Him. Remember how he spoke to our
first parents there in the Garden of Eden, in that paradise that
he had created, concerning the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. He said in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die. What is death? It's a separation.
There's physical death, there's that separation of the body from
the soul when God made the man. He formed his body out of the
dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and he became a living soul. And death is that awful
severance between body and soul. Then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was and the spirit to God who gave it, says the
preacher in Ecclesiastes. And though the Lord Jesus Christ
experienced a real death upon the cross. Remember how he cried,
we are told now that when he had cried with a loud voice he
said, Father into thy hands I commit my spirit and having said thus
he gave up the ghost, he gave up the soul, he committed his
spirit into the hands of God. He knew that awful separation.
His was a true human nature, body and soul and there upon
the cross He tasted the bitter thing that is death in that terrible
separation. That's physical death. But there
is also, of course, a spiritual death. And spiritual death is
that separation of man from God. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
God said, dying thou shalt die. There would be ultimately that
physical dying, the separation of body and soul, but there was
also that dying right at the beginning. Immediately there
was that separation. Adam sought to hide himself from
the voice of the Lord God when God came into the garden. And ultimately at the end of
that third chapter in Genesis we see how God rolled the man
and the woman out of the garden. Oh, what a terrible separation
that was. No more enjoying the fellowship
of God, only separation from God. Your sins, your iniquities
itself have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid His face from you. And the Lord Jesus Christ upon
the cross didn't only experience physical death. Christ knew something
of that terrible spiritual death, that separation. He was and He
is the eternal Son of God. And there is of course a blessed
unity in the Godhead. Though God be three, God is one,
undivided and indivisible. And yet there upon the cross
our Christ as he bore that punishment of the sins of his people, must
cry out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? What a bitter experience it was
when he made his soul an offering for sin. Sin separates. That is the consequence. We have
this description of what sin is, the awful nature of it as
it were from verse 3 to verse 8 but there in that second verse
we see this terrible result of sin separation and furthermore
as sin stops and shuts as our prayers. That's what it says,
does it not, at the end of that second verse, your sins have
hid his face from you that he will not hear. Do we not sometimes
feel that when we sin against God, how hard it is to come to
Him in our prayers, even to begin to make our confessions? We feel
so ashamed. Our mouths, as it were, are shut.
We know not what to say. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
says the psalmist, the Lord will not hear me. I thank God that
there is one in and through whom the sinner can approach, that
we have an advocate, with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
and early, is the propitiation for our sins. The terrible results
then of sin is this awful separation, this stopping, this shutting
out of our prayers. But then in this chapter we see
something more of the consequences of sin in what follows from verse
9. From verse 9 through to verse
15 we are told something more of the awful result where we
are those who are guilty of sins. And it's in this portion that
our text is found this morning, this 10th verse. 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 in desolate places
as dead. Man. What do we read of here? Do we not see something of the confusion that comes because
of sin? Look at the context, the immediate
context. Verse 9, he says, Therefore is
judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us. We
wait for light, but behold obscurity or brightness. but we walk in
darkness. There is this confused state
of affairs and it comes into the hearts of the people. Verse
11 he says, we roar all like bears and moan sore like doves,
we look for judgement but there is none, for salvation but it
is far off from us. Sin brings confusion in its wake. And in contrast, of course, God
is very much the God of order. Sin is the very opposite of what
God is. And God is not the author of confusion, says Paul to the
Corinthians, but of order, as in all the churches of Christ.
Where God is there is that that is properly ordered. We see this,
of course, in the works of God. When we contemplate the great
work of creation as we have it recorded here in the scriptures,
in the opening chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, we see
how God is a God of order. in the manner in which he brings
all things into being as of nothing. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were made so that things which we see are made
of things which do not appear. And God works by degrees, he
works through the six days of creation. There is a blessed
order and then when we have the further detail in chapter two
With respect to the creation of man, we see again the orderly
way in which God goes about the creation of the man and then
the creation of the woman. There is order, all is pronounced
to be good as God views His creation. In fact, He says it is very good. God brings order there. Sin only
brings confusion. Now, all things are not right,
because of the entrance of sin into this creation. Because of
that, all is obscured, all is confused. Verse 9, therefore,
is judgment far from us. See how he's been speaking in
the previous verses, from verse 3 to verse 8, describing something
of what sin is, the nature of it, and then we have this opening
word in the 9th verse which is really drawing a conclusion from
what has been said in the previous verses. Therefore, as a result
of the nature of sin, Judgement is far from us, neither doth
justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold
obscurity for brightness, but we walk in darkness. Again, remember the words of
the preacher in Ecclesiastes, he says, Love or behold. Consider this, this only have
I found, that God made man upright. but they have sought after many
inventions. God makes man upright, all is
right, all is ordered, but none goes the way of sin, the way
of confusion, or the confusion then which is sin. And of course
the remarkable thing is that as men are dead in trespasses
and in sins they have no awareness. It's when there's that blessed
awakening in the soul that we become aware of these things,
aware of the confusion of what sin is. Now, we can observe a
number of things here with regards to that that comes into the awakened
soul. First of all, where there is
awakening, we feel the blindness. that has come through our sins,
that's what we have in the text, is it not? 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 in desolate places as dead
men, he says. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, where
we have that awful list of curses that come because of disobedience,
the children of Israel walk contrary to God and his nor they will
reap curses, not blessings. The way of blessing must be the
way of obedience to what God has commanded. But if they go
contrary to what God has said, there will be curses. Deuteronomy
28 is a long chapter. There are many curses that are
spoken of in that chapter as they are, if you so believe.
And amongst those various curses we have that of blindness. And it's interesting because
the statement is very much similar to what we have in our text.
In chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, verse 29, they shall grope at
noonday as the blind grope at in darkness. and thou shalt not
prosper in thy ways and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled
evermore and no man shall save thee how similar the language
is you see to what the prophet utters in our chapter this morning
and this is one of those curses that will come upon the children
of Israel if they disobey God if they go contrary to his commandments
if they're guilty of sins they will feel blindness, they'll
grope, as in the dark. And we see something very similar
again in the book of Job. It's not
Job who speaks, it's Eliphaz, but there in Job chapter 5, Verses 13 and 14, he says, He
taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of
the froward is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the
daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. This is God's
dealing, you see, with the sinful man, the conceited man, who looks
to himself, who only looks to his own wisdom. whose ways are
really forward. He is walking contrary to God.
They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope in the noonday
as in the night. For the wise man tells us quite
plainly, the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not
at what they stumble. We grope for the wall like the
blind. We grope as if we have no eyes,
we stumble at noonday as in the night. This is what comes in
where there is that beginning of the work of God in the soul
of a man, there's that sense of his blindness, he cannot see
things clearly. And not only that, there's also
that dumbness that comes because of sin. Those opening words in
the next verse, verse 11, we roar all like bears and mourn
sore like doves. We cannot find words to express. We cannot speak as we would speak. The sinner confronted by God
is unable to speak. In a sense he feels he has nothing
at all to say. What can he say? Isn't this part
of the ministration of the holy law of God? Where the law is
used in a lawful way, it is given, is it not, to bring that conviction
into the soul of the sinner. We know that whatsoever the law
says, except to them who are under the law, says for that
every mouth may be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God, therefore by the deeds of the Lord shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin, and where there is that knowledge, the mighty stops. There is that sense of dullness.
What can we say? When we are brought to realise
what we are before a holy God, when we see ourselves in the
light of that revelation that he has given of himself. And
we remember that God created man in his image and made him
after his likeness. The man is so unlike God and
we feel it ourselves. We are so far off from God. All that awful separation. We
are in that state of alienation. The carnal mind, the natural
mind is enmity against God, it's not subject to the Lord of God,
neither indeed can be, says the apostle. And when we feel these
things, what can we say? Whose mouth must be stopped,
Paul says in Titus 1 and verse 11. That's what we have to come
to. We cannot articulate Words, we
cannot really find that that adequately expresses what we
feel, we cannot really make a confession. We roar all like bears, and mourn
so like doves, he says. There's the blindness of sin,
there's the dumbness of sin, and then worst of all, of course,
there's the deadness. The deadness of sin. At the end of that 10th verse,
we are in desolate places as dead men, he says. Paul tells us, you have be quickened
who were dead in trespasses and in sins. This is the amazing
thing, is it not, in the experience of the people of God that when
the Lord comes with all that gracious quickening, When there
is that communication of life, that new life in the soul, the
life of God in the soul of a man, strangely then we feel what we
are, we feel the deadness of our sins. We feel our impotence,
our sinful impotence. We can do nothing. We're in that
condition where there's no help in ourselves. And we have to
be brought to see that every help must be brought from God.
This is how God deals with man, is he not? He turns the man to
destruction. He shuts the man into what he
is. His nature, as a sinner. And then, having turned the man
to destruction, in the words of the 90th Psalm he says, Return,
return you children of men. Or where the word of a king is.
there is power. That's what we have to look for,
for God to come and speak and speak his word home to our very
souls. Here is something then of that
confusion that comes because of sin and here is the awakened
soul and he begins to feel these things, his blindness, his dumbness,
his deadness. But this is the beginning of
the work of God, is it not? This is the conversion. of the
sin, of the conversion from sin. I was struck some time ago in reading
one of the letters of Mr. Philpott in which he, I can't
remember who he was writing to now, but he is speaking of his
elder sister. He had experienced the grace
of God, he'd known that salvation to come into his own heart and
God was dealing with his older sister in a similar fashion.
There was a blessed awakening in her soul and in the course
of his letter he refers to this particular verse that we're considering
for our text. He says this was really her experience
when the Lord began with her. 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 in desolate places as
dead men. You see, we're not converted
all at once, are we? There is a century in which we
have to recognise that conversion is something that is gradual. Now, let's not confuse conversion
and regeneration. The new birth is immediate. As
soon as the Spirit of God comes into the soul of the man, he's
born again, born from above. But conversion is that, that
in a certain sense is progression. We have it intimated, I would
say, in some way in what we read in Peter's second epistle, where
he speaks there in the first chapter of the day star arising. It's not really the dawning of
the day, it's before the day dawns. In chapter 1 and verse 19 of
2 Peter we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you
do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arose in your
hearts. There's a day star herald, as
it were, of the new day, but then there's a dawning of the
day, the sun of righteousness, arising with healing in his wings,
in his beings. The day begins to dawn, and there's
a sense in which initially the light is half-light. Again we
see something similar, I would asserting the miracle that the
Lord Jesus Christ performs on that man who was blind and Christ
restores the man's sight. In Mark chapter 8 verse 22 we read how he comes to Bethsaida and they bring a blind man unto
him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man
by the hand, and led him out of the town. And when he had
spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him
if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, I
see men as trees walking. After that he put his hands again
upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was restored, and
saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house
saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to any in the town. Initially the man sees men as
trees, walking. He is not seeing clearly you
see, and yet the Lord has performed a miracle. He is no more blind. Isn't that something of the condition
that we have here? We grow up to the wall like the
blind. We grow up as if we had no eyes.
We stumble at noondays in the night. We are in desolate places,
as dead men. This is the way of God, is it
not, as he deals with us, in the way of grace. It's precept
upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little. as it were at the beginning,
feel our way along we have to feel our way and we know
that this is the way of God with us all we don't see everything
clearly at the beginning by degrees God instructs us and establishes
us and it's good that we should have to feel our way We know
in another sense how that through religions more than notions something
must be known and felt. We feel it in our own souls.
We feel what we are. What is the evidence that God
is dealing with us? Ultimately the evidence as we
have it here in this portion is that there will be that confession
of our sins. There will be that acknowledgement
of what we are before God. That coming to him Confessing to Him, looking to
Him for all our salvation. And we have it at the end of
the chapter here, the Redeemer shall come to Zion. And unto
them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. But see how in the chapter we
see the place of confession. It's interesting to observe the
certain progression that we have in this chapter. In the first
eight verses, Isaiah the prophet speaks on behalf of God. The prophets of course are the
very mouthpiece of God. As Peter tells us, these holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. They
are not speaking their own words. They are speaking God's words.
And so, what is the language of the Old Testament prophets?
God saith the law. Not their opinions. It's the
word of God that they proclaim. And so at the beginning in these
first eight verses, we see the prophet speaking on behalf of
God. He speaks to the people. And he also speaks about the
people. Initially, he speaks in the second
person. verses 2 and 3, but your iniquities have
separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his
face from you that he will not hear for your hands are defiled
with blood and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken
lies, your tongue as muttered perversely, how direct he is
he speaks you and your he uses the second person but then at
verse 4 following observe how he turns now to speak in the
third person not so much speaking to them but speaking about them
And so we have such words as Thy and Their. Verse 4 he says, None calleth
for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. Thy, trust in vanity
and speak lies. Thy, conceive mischief and bring
forth iniquity. Thy, hatch cockatrice eggs and
weave the spiders with. He that eateth of their eggs
dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their
webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves
with their works. Their works are works of iniquity,
and the act of violence is in their hands. It's they, their,
he's speaking not so much directly to them, but he's speaking about
them. He is describing them. He is
setting forth the nature of their sin. But then he changes again,
you see, at verse 9. Because now he begins to speak
in the first person. And he identifies himself with
the people. It is not so much that he is speaking as God's
messenger now, but he's speaking for the people. It's the first person plural
that he uses at verse 9 and the following verses. It's words,
it's us, it's ours. You see how in these verses it's
really the language of confession. He's coming now and he's acknowledging
the sin that the nation of Israel is guilty of and is part of these
people look at what he said for example in verses 12 and 13 for
our transgressions are multiplied before them and our sins testify
against us for our transgressions are with us And as for our iniquities,
we know them in transgressing and lying against the Lord and
departing away from our God-speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving
and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. It's the language
of confession now. Initially, he speaks in the second
person, it's you, it's your telling them directly, And then at verse
4 following, he's speaking about the nature of their sins, what
they are. But then at verse 9 following, it's the first person. And what does he confess? He
confesses many sins. All we're guilty, he says, as
he comes before God as the mouthpiece of the people, we're guilty of
many sins. Verse 12, for our transgressions
are multiplied. Oh, we're a sinful people. And
now we've sinned, we're laden with sin. This is how he begins
his prophecy. We go right back to the very
first chapter in Isaiah. Look at how he speaks of the
nation in verse 4. Our sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupt. They have forsaken
the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backwards,
laden, bowed down, dragged on. That is the force of the word
that he is using. Such a great burden of sin. So
many sins, multitudes of sins. The psalmist says, iniquities
prevail against me. And this is what the prophet
feels as he comes to make his confession to God. Iniquities
prevail against me. What does the psalmist say? Ask
for our iniquities. Or thou wilt purge them away.
God can purge away a multitude of sins. That precious blood
of Christ, does it not cleanse the foulest sinner. But here
you see in his confession there's many sins. And then he goes on
to speak about these sins are before them, they're before his
face, before their face. Again, verse 12, our transgressions
are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with
us, and as for our iniquities, he says, we know them. The language again is so similar
to that of David. We sang from that great 51st
psalm in the mythical version. David's psalm of penitence after
his great sins of adultery and murder in the case of Bathsheba
and Uriah. What does David say there in
the psalm? I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin. is ever before them. No escaping it. My sin, David
says, is before me. This is the awakened sinner,
is it not? Our sin is before us, we can't
escape it. Look where we are, we find ourselves
as sinners. And it's a terrible thing when
sin is before us. To cease in smarts but slightly
to own with lit confession is easier still but all to fail
to feel it. Cuts deep beyond expression,
says Joseph Hart. And this is the confession that
we see here, you see. Our transgressions are with us.
As for our iniquities, we know them. We can't escape them. But
it's not only a multitude of sins that are confronting Isaiah
as one of this sinful nation. It's also sins before God. That's the remarkable thing,
is it not? Again there at the beginning
of the twelfth verse, our iniquities are multiplied before God. That is the great evil of sin,
is it not? It's such an offence to God.
Oh, that God who is holy and righteous and just. And not only
so, that God who is good, who does good. That God who is merciful
and gracious and loving. To know that our sins are against
such a God as that, And David was brought to that, was he not,
in Psalm 51, against thee, the only of thy sin, he says, and
done this evil in thy sight. That's what he felt, his sin
was before God. Though he was guilty of sinning
with Bathsheba, sinning against her husband Uriah, the wicked
way in which David conducted himself. And yet, ultimately
it says, his sin is before God, his sin is against God. The verse 13, in transgressing
and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from
the heart words of falsehood. All the terrible things that
sin is. It's no easy thing, is it? To
own it, to acknowledge it, and to confess it. How can one? How can one? All we can do really
is cry to God that He would grant to us that true spirit of penitence. We find it so hard sometimes
even to come and ask Him, and to call upon Him for that. those
words at the beginning of verse 11, we roar all like bears and
mourn, soar like doves, words just silence. We feel so oppressed that we
cannot really articulate that that is in our hearts. It was
the same, was it not, different circumstances, but we have those
remarkable words in Ezekiel's great prayer after he had been
sick, and he comes before God in the spirit of thanksgiving.
But what does he say, like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter,
I did mourn as a dove, mine eyes fail with looking up, but O Lord
I am oppressed, undertake for mercy. Again, there is a similarity
you see in the language that is being used here in verse 11
of chapter 59. We roar like bears and mourn
sore like doves. This is how the king felt. He was like a crane, a swallow.
All he could do was chatter away or mourn like a dove. What does
he say? He wants that the Lord should
undertake for him. He is so oppressed. And this
is how we must come, you see, as those who are oppressed and
we want God to appear, God to undertake again. Ezekiel 7 and
verse 16, we read these words like doves of the valleys, all
of them mourning everyone for his iniquities. Mourning over
our iniquities. Or what are we to do? We are
to look to God, we are to look to Christ. Oh, we must look to
Him, we must look to His person, the God-man, the mediator. We
must look to His work, all that great work, all that He accomplished,
that life of righteousness, and that sin-atoning death upon the
cross. We have to look to His blood
and His righteousness, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. cleanseth
us from all sin. But we have to come and acknowledge
our sins, do we not? If we confess our sins, we are
told he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But we
must confess, we must feel what sin is. If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word
is not in us. Ah, but if we confess, if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This then is our blessed hope. It's all together in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We might feel ourselves sometimes
to be just as He's described here in these verses that we
considered this morning. We grope for the wall like the
blind, and we grow up as if we had no eyes, we stumble at noon,
day out in the night, we're in desolate places as dead men,
we roar all like bears, and mourn sore like darts, but God hears
us, and God answers, and God appeals, and that is our confidence. The Redeemer shall come to Zion,
and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, Say it
aloud. Amen.