Well we're coming to Isaiah chapter
59 that Peter read for us earlier and we've been working through
this I think I said last week we started in March last year
March 2018 so we've had one or two breaks but basically we've
got to chapter 59 out of the 66 of this book of Isaiah and
last week we were in chapter 58 and saw in verse 11 what we
were considering as the happy condition of faith. And there
in that verse 11 it says that the Lord will guide his people.
There's the promise of constant guidance, of constant divine
care, of spiritual strength, of eternal life. These are the
promises, what blessed promises they are for you if you believe
the truth of God in Christ. But how do we come into that
happy condition? That's a happy condition that's
stated there. How do we come in to that happy condition of
faith? Because there's a problem if
you hadn't noticed. The holiness and justice of God
is set against the sin of man. And that sin of man calls for
separation. How do I know this? Look at verse
2. your iniquities. This is God speaking to mankind
in general. Your iniquities, your sins, have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear. There's a separation that
is caused by sin. God is holy. God dwells in perfect
light. God dwells in unapproachable
light. He is holy and we, by nature, from the fall, from birth,
we are sinful by nature. We are. You don't need to teach
a child to sin. We're sinners by nature. Sin
is defined in the next few verses. You might have heard it as Peter
was reading it earlier. But in verses 2 to 8, sins are
described in very poetic terms. they hatch cockatrice eggs, they
weave a spider's web, he that eateth their eggs dieth. You
see, it's metaphorical language, but it's about the sin that is
in mankind in general. And that sin is defined and measured
by the ruler of God's righteousness. You know when you measure something,
I mean I'm sure occasionally for his craft, Luca wants to
measure something. Yeah? You don't guess, do you?
You go and get a ruler, and you say, ah, that's 10 centimeters. You get a ruler, and you measure
it against it. Well, the ruler, the measure
of righteousness, is the holiness of God, as defined in his word. I quoted this verse a couple
of weeks ago, in the time of Noah, you know Noah and the flood
and the ark and all of these sort of things, it says in Genesis
6 verse 5, God looking at mankind, of which there were a lot in
those days, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth. This is how he puts it, that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Apostle Paul confirms
it. In Romans chapter 3, Paul says exactly this. He says, there's
none righteous, no, not one. There's nobody that understands.
Nobody seeks after God. They're all gone out of the way.
Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. And he says, now we know that
what thing soever that law of righteousness says, it says to
them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. Do
you ever watch these police interceptor programs, where the police stop
somebody who's either drunk or on drugs or is doing some criminal
activity, and the police get them, and they're dead guilty,
they've been taken, and there's loads of kind of cursing and
objection on what the police, yeah? When you are found guilty
by this justice and law of God, it says, every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. That's the
verdict. That's the verdict of this book.
That's the verdict of this book, that every mouth might be stopped.
Guilty as charged. Guilty as charged. You see, the
problem is at the heart of man. Now, I know it's the organ that
pumps the blood, but speaking poetically about it, it's the
seat of the affections. I know the work goes on up in
the brain, but Scripture uses the heart as the picture of that
which is right at the core of us. And the roots of the problem
is in the fall, in the Garden of Eden. And Jeremiah, the prophet,
says this, God speaking through Jeremiah in chapter 17, verse
9. What do you think about the heart of man? He says, the heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? There's one who knows it. Read
on. I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reins, the inner bits. even to give every man according
to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Now
you might say, but aren't there some that are pretty good? Aren't
there some pretty good folk around? Well, relatively, yes. Some are
better than others, relatively speaking. but not against the
absolute standard of God. What about one like the Apostle
Paul, you know, Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul?
Now, you read his epistles, and there's no question that as we
count the righteousness that is in man, he was a pretty good
man, was the Apostle Paul. Do you know what his verdict
of himself was? 1st Timothy, the letter to Timothy, chapter
1 verse 15, he says this, he says, Christ Jesus came into
the world, why? To save sinners. Right, not you
Paul. Oh, he says, oh no, of whom I
am chief. What Paul? No, you're so good,
you're not a sinner Paul. He says, I'm the chief of sinners.
When I come to measure myself against the standard of God,
I'm the chief of sinners. Well, you say, well surely we
can try better and attain to God's standard, because we're
talking about eternal life. We're talking about life and
death and eternity and heaven and hell. This is what we're
talking about. You read a couple of chapters further on than this
in Isaiah 64 verse 6, and we read that all our righteousnesses,
all the things that we try to do good, measured against the
standard of God's holiness, he says, are as filthy rags. soiled filthy rags. So what shall
qualify guilty sinners before the measuring rod of God's justice
for the sinless perfection of God's heaven? Because it says
nothing less than perfection shall enter there. At the end
of Revelation 21 verse 17, talking of heaven, there shall in no
wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works
abomination or makes a lie, but they which are written in the
Lamb's book of life. What about somebody as holy as
Job? You know, Job is probably the first book written in the
Bible, although it doesn't appear as number one in the order, Genesis
is first. But Job was probably the oldest
book in the Bible. And the record is that Job, compared
with his fellow men, was an incredibly good man. Nobody, as one man
judging another, they couldn't find anything wrong with Job.
He was a very righteous man. But he was a sinner, still. And
God caused him to come into all sorts of problems. He suffered
terribly. All his possessions, all his
riches were taken from him. And then his health was taken
from him. Satan was allowed to go and take all those things
from him, but not his life. And Job cursed the day he was
born. And he sat in sackcloth and ashes,
and his comforters came to him, Job's comforters, the three men.
And all they did was they said, well, surely you've appeared
very righteous, but you can't have been. And he goes through
a terrible experience, but at the end of it, God has taught
him what he really is in terms of God's righteousness. And Job
says this at the end of the book, chapter 42, he says to God, because
God's revealed himself to him and shown him, he says, I have
heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Oh yes, I'd heard all
about you. But he says, now mine eye sees you. Wherefore, seeing
you as you are, holy, I abhor myself, I hate myself, I see
what I am, and I repent in dust and ashes. He learned through
bitter experience. Earlier in the book he was brought
to ask, that verse I quote so often, Job 9 verse 2, how should
a man be just with God? If God is so holy and will accept
nothing less than perfection, how should a man be just with
God? Now here's the answer from God.
If sinners are to be just with God, God needs to save sinners. Look at verse 1. Behold, the
Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. In other
words, he's saying, you know, When we do a job, if you're right-handed,
you need a strong right hand to do a job, right? You need
a strong right hand to get the power of your muscles to do the
job. But if you've got a shortened hand, or it's been cut off in
some way, or it's injured in some way, it's shortened that
it can't do the job. And God says, no, my hand isn't
shortened that it cannot save. He is able to save. He needs
to save a people from the just consequences of their sins. and
he declares his ability to do so. He says, I am able to save. Those who are sinners and deserve
nothing other than, as the next verse says, separation from God,
he says, I am able to save. His arm isn't shortened, he is
able to save. But how? How? When Peter was
reading this, you might have thought, well, we're going to
get to the answer soon, and we do. But from verse 9 to verse 15,
there's a sort of a confession to be made. You know, people
think, oh yes, you must confess your sins, and indeed, indeed,
confess them to God. Don't confess them to a priest
or anything like that. That's nowhere in the Scriptures.
But confession is made. Look at verse 12. This is as
if the people are confessing the fact of what they are in
relation to God. Our transgressions are multiplied
before thee, 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. And judgment is turned away backwards,
and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter, yea, truth faileth. And he that departeth
from evil maketh himself a prey. So there's a sort of a confession
of sin, there's a confession of guilt, there's a confession
of just desert. But even that confession, necessary
as it is, it doesn't justify, it doesn't make a man just with
God. Look at verse 15. All that, he
that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey, and the Lord
saw it. So what did he think of it? And
it displeased him. It didn't please him. It displeased
him. And there was no judgment, meaning that there was no justice
established. There was no correct balancing
of justice. You know, if you go to the Old
Bailey in London, in the legal section, you will see there,
on the top of it, a statue. And the statue is of somebody
holding a set of scales, a balance. A balance of justice. You know,
the evil needs balancing with the punishment that's due to
it. That's the basis of a justice system. The evil needs balancing
with the justice the penalty that is due to it. That's what
it's all about. The Lord saw that in this confession
there was no judgment, there was no balancing of justice. All he saw was sin crying out
for a penalty. Look, verse 16, all he saw was
sin crying out for a penalty, and he saw that there was no
man. What does that mean? He saw that
there was no man. and wondered that there was no
intercessor. He wondered there was no intercessor.
It needed a man, is what it is saying. If sinners are to be
justified before God, their own efforts are not going to do it.
It needed a man. He saw that there was no man.
It needed an intercessor. Isn't it good that we read in
the scriptures that there is one God, Only one. There is one
God, and there is one mediator between God and man. Who is that? It says, the man, Christ Jesus. He wondered 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. It needed a man. The holiness
and justice of God demands a penalty for sin. God would not be God
if he didn't. punish sin. All of this we read
from his word. He said, right at the very beginning
in the Garden of Eden, before the fall in the Garden of Eden,
he said, in the day to Adam and Eve, he said about the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. They could eat whatever they
wanted. They had the bliss of paradise. But he said of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of
it. For in the day that you eat of it, he said, you shall surely
die. You shall surely die. And you
read the record of the patriarchs. This man and that man, all of
them down the ages in those early chapters of Genesis. And three
words end the record of every single one of them. And he died.
and he lived to 800 years, and he died. It came to pass. In the day you eat of it, you
shall surely die. Ezekiel, the prophet, says, the soul that
sins, it shall die. The divine penalty for sin, the
sin of man, is the death of man. That's the penalty, the death
of man. And because we read in Leviticus,
the life of the flesh is in the blood, The blood of man must
be shed for the sin of man. The blood of man must be shed
for the sin of man, to pay the penalty for the sin of man. And
we read, Paul writes in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, he says,
in the Old Testament law, the temple laws, almost all things
by the law are purged with blood, are cleaned with blood. And he
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
You say, oh, this is a bit gory, isn't it, talking about all of
this blood? No, according to the Word of God, if people are
to be saved from their sins, if divine justice is to be satisfied,
if sin is to be perfectly balanced with the just penalty, it needs
a man. He saw that there was no man.
It needs a man to intercede, to stand between one God, one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, to mediate
peace between God who is holy and man who is sinful. Therefore,
God sent a savior. Therefore, his arm brought salvation
unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him. Let's look
for a moment at the Saviour whom God sent. Who was the Saviour
that God sent? Who is the man that will be able
to satisfy the demands of God's offended justice regarding sin? Who is the man that is able to
pay the penalty required to clear the sin debt accumulated to the
justice of God? There's a sin debt that needs
to be cleared. Who is able? If you read in the
bulletin, the little piece that I wrote is, A Man, a Lion and
a Lamb. Let me tell you why I wrote that
piece and what it's about. In Revelation, we did the book
of Revelation about three or four years ago now, and in Revelation
chapter five, John the apostle has been transported in the spirit
into heaven. He's on the earth, he sees things
on the earth, and then he's transported into heaven. Come up hither,
it says at the start of chapter four in the first verse. Come
up hither, come up into heaven. So John's having a vision of
what it's like in heaven, and in heaven, In Revelation chapter
5 and verse 1, he saw in the right hand of him that sat upon
the throne, and in chapter 4 we see that this is God, sitting
upon the throne of the universe, and in his right hand, symbolical
of the hand that, you know, it's a right-handed place apart from
those of you that are left-handed, I know some of you are, and you're
very good with your left hand if you are left-handed, like
Isaac down there, he's good with his left hand. But the picture
is, this is what gets things done. And in this vision, in
this picture, in the right hand of God is a scroll, sealed with
seven seals. And we saw when we did Revelation,
that is the plan of God for the implementation of His perfect
kingdom of righteousness and peace, the kingdom of God. We
live in the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan. God has
a plan to establish triumphant, that's why my book was called
The Kingdom of God Triumphant, a kingdom which is triumphant
over the kingdom of Satan. But this is the plan. When you're
going to do a project, you need a plan. This was, if you'll excuse
the seeming irreverence of the statement, this was God's project
plan for implementing the kingdom of God. A seven sealed book,
but Who's going to open the book? It's sealed. Who's going to open
the book? Because if it doesn't get opened,
the plan is not going to be implemented. It's a plan to make just those
who by nature are not just, so that they can be qualified to
be the citizens of the kingdom of God. He saw a strong angel
with a loud voice shouting to the whole of creation, who is
worthy to open the book? And who's able to implement this
plan of the kingdom of God to justify sinners for heavenly
eternity? And verse 3, no man in heaven
nor in earth, neither under the earth was able. None was qualified. None had the credentials. None
had the ability. None of them had the ability
to do it. And I wept much, says John, because there's going to
be nobody in heaven. There's going to be no people
in heaven. Nobody's going to be qualified to populate the
kingdom of God. Nobody's going to be found worthy
to open the book and read the book, neither to look thereon.
one of the elders said to me, don't weep, don't weep, the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open
the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. He says, don't
worry, there is one, he's the lion of the tribe of Judah. Who's
the lion of the tribe of Judah? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the promised Messiah. It's the seed of the woman promised
in the Garden of Eden, who would come and who would do that which
was necessary. He says, look, there's a lion
in the midst of the throne. Look at the lion of the tribe
of Judah. And he looks, I beheld. Look
in verse 6. He didn't see a lion. In the
midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst
of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. the lion of
the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's qualified
to implement the plan of God's kingdom for the salvation of
his people only in the role of a lamb that was slain. Behold
the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This lamb,
he's all-powerful, and we're not studying this chapter at
the moment, so we'll come back to our passage in Isaiah. But in Isaiah, We see that he
looked for a man because it needed a man to implement the plan.
He saw that there was no man, but there is a man. who is the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is not only a man able to die for man's
sin, because remember, the penalty for man's sin is the blood of
man, and he is that man. He is the man that God looked
for and saw that there was no man. He is that man. And secondly,
he was perfectly righteous. He had no sin. He brought salvation
to him. His righteousness, it sustained
him. The Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly
holy and without any sin of his own. Unlike the priests of the
Old Testament who were just pictures of Christ, they, before they
could go in and sacrifice for the people, they had to sacrifice
for themselves. to clean them of their own sin.
But he, the Lord Jesus Christ, was righteous in himself. He
had no sin of his own. And thirdly, not only was he
a man, but he was God. He was God in infinite capacity. How is he going to die? You know,
Paul says, would somebody die for another? Would somebody lay
down his life for another? Would somebody take the punishment
instead of another? Would somebody do that? Well,
one man might be able to die in the place of one other man,
but who can die in the place of a multitude that no man can
number? Only one who is infinite in capacity,
and that is God. So God, in the person of his
Son, became man. And as that hymn of Wesley says,
Charles Wesley, Infinite. Infinite God contracted to a
span. What was the span? The little
baby. God contracted, God became man.
God became man, born of a woman. He became man. In verse 19, Down
here we see, 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. You know this speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ just a few chapters back in Isaiah 45, We
saw it in verse 21, it says there, Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient
time? Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, and there is no God else beside me, a just God and
a Saviour? There is none beside me. He says,
Look unto me. and be ye saved, all ye ends
of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. I have sworn
by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return, that unto me, this God, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall swear. Who is this God? Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 and verses
9 and 10. Speaking of Christ, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who became humble, who was God, but
laid it aside. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He was stealing nothing from
God in claiming to be God. He said, I and my Father are
one. He made himself of no reputation. He took the lowly station. He had nowhere, he said, to lay
his head. He said, the foxes have holes
in which to live. The birds have nests. He said,
the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. He made himself
of no reputation and took the form of a servant. He who is
God over all took the form of a servant. And God was made in
the likeness of men. Paul tells us somewhere else
in Colossians, isn't it, that in him, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, in him. Now then, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the
cross. That was the most shameful, cursed
death in the Roman Empire, the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God, because of that, because of what he accomplished by it,
because of the debt that he paid by it, God has highly exalted
him, and giving him a name which is above every name. What do
we read in Isaiah 45? That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow at things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth. The Savior God promised to send,
who came, is God himself made man. He's the God-man. He's infinite
God, contracted to a span, to stand as substitute for his people. He stands as substitute. Who
for? You read it again and again throughout
the Scriptures. They're called Zion. They're
called the Israel of God. They're called Jacob. Jacob,
son of Isaac. He was a cheat and a swindler.
He robbed his brother of his birthright. But it says that
God loved him. God loved him. The sinner was
made righteous. He said, Jacob, you shall be
called Israel. The sinner became a prince with
God, in the grace of God. Verse 20, verse 20, the Redeemer,
look there, capital R, the Redeemer shall come to Zion. to Zion,
and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith
the Lord. His first coming, you know, there
are two comings. He's been once, his first coming.
When the powers of darkness, look in verse 19, when the enemy
shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift
up a standard against him. When the powers of darkness were
at their peak of opposition to ancient Israel, God lifted up
a standard against him. What did he do? He sent his son.
God manifest in the flesh. The promised seed of the woman
to seal the defeat of Satan's kingdom. In Galatians 4, Paul
writing to the Galatians, chapter 4, verse 4, he says, When the
fullness of the time was come, the perfect time, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, made subject to
His own law like any other man, made under the law that He might
redeem those, that He might pay. You know when you redeem something,
you pay to get it back, you pay to make it yours, you redeem
it. He did this to redeem those who were under the law, his people
under the law, to redeem sinners from the curse of the law. How
did he accomplish it? You have to go back a chapter
in Galatians to chapter 3, and in verse 10 we read the condition
that we're all under. He says this in verse 10, he
says, cursed. Cursed by God. Cursed is everyone
who continues not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. All things that God has said
must be done, if you don't continue perfectly every minute of every
day without any exception whatsoever, it says cursed. But read on three
verses. God be praised for this, but
it says Christ has redeemed, brought us back, paid the penalty
from the curse of the law. How? By him as a substitute being
made a curse for his people. He bore the curse that the law
demanded, so that the law and justice of God says it's enough,
I'm satisfied. When he was on the cross, his
last words of the Lord Jesus Christ were this, it is finished. That which was necessary to pay
is finished. In his death I don't understand,
but the word of God assures me that in the death of Christ and
the shed blood of Christ, the offended justice of God was satisfied
for my sin. And so we read in Romans 8, verse
33 and 34, you know I quote them all the time. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? You know we have a picture of
Satan as the accuser of the brethren, saying, these are not qualified.
They're sinners. Look, they're mine, really. They're
mine. But it says, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? Christ has died. Christ has died for them. Christ
has shed his blood for them. There's no charge to bring. It's
as if you go before the judge in the court and he says, well,
this charge is cleared, it's been paid for. No debt to pay,
clear it. Who did he come to save? Who
did he come to stand surety for? It tells us in the scriptures,
his people. Jesus, call his name Jesus, said
the angel to Joseph when Mary was expectant with the baby Christ,
and he said he's conceived of the Holy Ghost, and he says,
you shall call his name Jesus. Why? Jesus means Joshua. It's the Greek, well, the Aramaic
for Joshua of the Old Testament. Joshua, saviour. He says, call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Isaiah 53 we saw a few weeks
ago. For the transgressions of my people was he stricken. In
the scripture they're called Zion. They're called the Israel
of God. Zion is not something that the
Arabs in the Middle East hate. It's not that kind of Zionism.
Don't worry, I don't have Any great affiliation to the nation-state
of Israel, I think in many ways it's a political disaster. Absolutely. But Zion in Scripture speaks
of the people of God. I'm talking about a multitude
that no man can number to redeem. They're in that number by the
grace of God and he came to pay the ransom price for them and
to clear the sin debt of what in scripture is called his elect.
What is his elect? Sounds a bit limited. No, it's
a multitude that no man can number. It tells us of every tribe and
tongue and kindred without without distinction of race, or gender,
or age, or intellect, he says there's a multitude that no man
can number that Christ stood a surety for. And it's by grace,
for we read, by grace are you saved. Grace, the gift of God.
Well, what do I have to do to get it? If you had to do anything,
it wouldn't be a gift. It's the gift of God, by grace. Well, how do I know about it?
Through faith. Faith. What's faith? The sight of the
soul, the sense of the soul. By grace, through faith, not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is finished. The work
of Christ is finished. Offended divine justice is satisfied
for the sins of his people. There's nothing more to do. There's
no price outstanding to pay. It is salvation to the uttermost.
We saw in verse 1, the Lord's hand is not shortened. He is
able. Well, Paul says exactly that. In Hebrews 7, verse 25,
he says that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God by him. He says, no man can come to me
unless my Father draws him, but Whoever comes, whoever comes,
I will in no wise cast out. His arm is not shortened. All
his multitude are justified and qualified and made the righteousness
of God in him. We read again, one I quote often,
Paul writing to the Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21 of the
second epistle. He says, for he who knew no sin,
Christ, was made sin. Why? Because it was All the sin
of his people is credited to his account. Why? That he might
pay for it so that his people might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Who are they? Those who hear.
those who believe, those who repent, those who call. What
did Jesus say? This is His words. He that hears
my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Yes, He came and accomplished
salvation, but He's coming again. He really is. People laugh at
the prospect of the second coming. Well, Christ is coming again.
His word assures us this universe is not going on as it is. God,
who is true and cannot lie, has promised he is coming again to
end this world, this created order, this kingdom of Satan,
this kingdom of Antichrist. When the enemy comes in like
a flood, he raises up a standard, lifts up a standard against him.
The enemy is coming in like a flood. We read about it in Revelation
12. I'm not going to turn you there now. There's a flood of
opposition to the truth of God, to the truth of God's saving
grace. We're in what Revelation also calls, I'm sure, Satan's
little season of worldwide deception. It's on a scale that it's never
been like before. But God will lift up a standard
against him. The Redeemer, it says there,
shall come to Zion and for his people. It's guaranteed in verse
21 by his covenant of grace. Let's sum it all up with this,
I'll close with this one text, Hebrews 9 verse 28, Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Amen.