Now, when the problem is not
perceived or seen, there's really not perceived a need for a solution
to that problem. But when the problem is seen,
and I mean it's seen, this is my problem. I'm not talking about
theory. I'm talking about when this is seen to be my personal
problem, what's being spoken of here. That is when I'll desire
to see the solution to that problem. And I pray that the Lord will
bless this message to our hearts. Now, in verse 1, we have this
wonderful verse. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it
cannot hear. There is no inability on the
Lord's part to save. His hand's not shortened that
He can't do something for you. His ear is not heavy that it
can't hear. The problem's not with the Lord. Let that be established. Now,
we're going to come back to this verse at the end of this message. But the problem is not with the
Lord. Here's where the problem is,
verse 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and
your God. And your sins have hid his face
from you, that he will not hear." Now, in these first eight verses
of this chapter, the problem is seen to be with
us. It's what is called guilt. The problem is not with the Lord.
His hand's not short that he can't do something for me and
you. His ear's not heavy that he can't hear. The problem is
with you and I. Our sins. Our sins. Not somebody else's. Our sins
have separated us from God and caused Him to hide His face from
us. Now, what is guilt? These first
eight verses deal with our personal guilt. What is guilt? Well, guilt
is not merely an accusing conscience. It's not merely that terrible
feeling you have when you've done something wrong. Now, that's
a terrible feeling, isn't it? I hate feeling guilty. It's a
terrible feeling. You feel guilt and remorse over
what you've done, and you can't undo it. Your conscience is accusing
you. That is a terrible feeling, but
that's really not what is meant by guilt. Here's why. You know, you can be guilty and
not feel guilty, can't you? You can be totally guilty and
feel totally at peace and not feel like you've done anything
wrong. The point behind guilt is this. We're guilty when we
see it is our fault. Now, that's what guilt is. Guilt
is not just that terrible feeling of an accusing conscience. Guilt
is simply this fact. What I've done is my fault. Now, if it's not my fault, I'm
not guilty. If it's God's fault, because
He and His sovereignty let it happen, then I'm not guilty. If it's my mom and dad's fault,
then I'm not guilty. If it's the way I was raised,
if it's their fault, then I'm not guilty. If it's my environment's
fault, then I'm not guilty. If it's the circumstances I'm
in, that's what's caused me to act that way, then I'm not personally
guilty. I'm guilty when it really is
all my fault. The fault's not with God. The
fault is with me. Your sins have separated you
from your God. Now, he goes on To give a description
of this guilt, look in verse 3. He says, for your hands are defiled with blood. Well,
I've never killed anybody. Have you ever been jealous of
somebody? Have you ever been envious of somebody? Perhaps
felt a displeasure at the way they were promoted when you weren't?
Perhaps Jealous of the blessing they had that you don't have
and you think it ought to be coming to you and you're a little
bit upset. That's the same thing as murder. That's hating somebody
without a cause. That's the same thing as murder
in God's eyes. Sure, you and I have hands that
have been defiled with blood. Your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongues hath murdered perverseness."
He's talking about the sinfulness of our actions. He says in verse
four, none calleth for justice. This is universal. It's talking
about my problem. It's talking about your problem.
This is not talking about theory or academics. This is talking
about me. None calleth for justice, nor
any pleaded for the truth. They trust in vanity. Here's
what we're all guilty of. Trusting in that which is nothing.
Speaking lies. They conceive mischief. And they
bring forth iniquity. Here's the fruit of our sin.
They hatch cockatrices' eggs. They adders' eggs. Snake eggs.
And weave the spiders' webs. Now, what is it everybody's scared
of? Spiders and snakes. What seems perverse and unclean
and we're just coiled back from it? Spiders and snakes. Everybody
here likes spiders and snakes? I don't. He says the fruit that comes
out of you is snake eggs. If you crush it, what's going
to come out? A snake. He said your clothing
is spider webs. Let's go on reading. They hatch
cockatrices' eggs, and they weave spiders' webs, he that eateth
of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out
into a viper. Their webs shall not become their
garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works.
Their works are works of iniquity, and the acts of violence is in
their hands." This is talking about the covering we try to
make with the spider web. That's talking about human righteousness.
It won't cover. The works are iniquity. Verse
7, their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent
blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their past. This verse
speaks of our willingness to sin. Our feet run to evil. That's the way they are naturally.
We're not victims. We're not victims. We can't blame
somebody else. Our feet runs to evil quick to
shed blood. The way of peace. This speaks
of our ignorance. The way of peace they have not known. There's
no judgment in their goings. They've made them crooked paths.
Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. The ignorance
of our guilt. Now, let me say this regarding
guilt. Remember, guilt is when it's my fault. My sin is my fault. Nobody else's fault. It's my
fault. My sin. This description is given in
these first eight verses. And it's a horrible description,
isn't it? Spiders' eggs and snake eggs and so on. What a gruesome
view of the fruit of what we do. Now, I have never confessed
my sin before God. Not one time have I ever truly
confessed my sin before God unless I acknowledged it's all my fault. Now, how many times has someone
apologized to you, but you knew the apology was not real because
they had an excuse? Well, I apologize if I did something
wrong. Anybody ever say that? I apologize
if I did something wrong. Well, of course you did something
wrong. You don't really believe you did when you say that. I
apologize, but here's why I did it. Now, that's no apology, is
it? That's no confession of sin. I only confess my sin before
God when I say before God that everything I have done is all
my fault. No excuses. Guilty as charged. Guilty as charged. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world stand guilty, subject to the judgment of God. Now, when you're guilty, You
sure aren't going to have any arguments with God's sovereignty,
are you, if you're guilty? Well, how can it be fair for
God to save my neighbor and not save me? How can it be fair for
God to elect one and pass by another? How can it be fair for
Christ to die for one and not die for the other? Now, when
you really are guilty, those arguments stop. You deserve to
be damned. Now, you've never confessed your
sin until you've acknowledged your own personal guilt. And
secondly, You've never asked for mercy, unless you've acknowledged
your own personal guilt before God. The only time you're going
to cry for mercy, and I mean mercy, pure, oh, have mercy on
me, is when you stand guilty before God. Now, there's our
problem. Guilt. Guilt. It is our fault,
my sin. Well, the Lord could have kept
me from doing it. I know He could have. That still doesn't get
you off the hook, does it? You know, when Adam fell, what's
the first thing he did? He blamed God. The woman that you gave
me, she gave me of the fruit. The implication, obviously, is
if you wouldn't have given me that woman, this would have never
happened. But because you did, I ate of the fruit. Now, that's
no confession of sin. I confess my sin when I acknowledge
my guilt. The second part of our problem
is inability. First, guilt. And that means
it's my fault. My fault. And then there's inevitability. Look in verse 9. Therefore, therefore,
because of my personal guilt, Therefore, is judgment far from
us. It's not anywhere close to us.
Neither does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold,
obscurity for brightness, but we walk in darkness. The next
thing he speaks of is of inability. Because of our guiltiness, we
are in a state of inability. Now, this is part of the problem.
Inability. Before we go on looking at these
verses that describe our inability, I want to ask this question.
What does the Bible mean by inability? What does the Bible mean? I've
never understood anything about sin. I've never truly been convicted
of my sin. I've never really seen my guiltiness
before God, unless I've also seen my inability. Now, what
does the Bible mean by inability? I want you to hold your fingers
there in Isaiah 59 and look at these scriptures with me in the
New Testament. First, turn to Romans eight. Verse six. Romans, chapter eight,
verse six, for to be carnally minded is death. Now, that just means to be fleshly
minded, to have the mind that you're born with. That's all
it is, to have the mind that you're born with and never have
a new mind or be given a new heart. For to be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because
the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, is enmity against God,
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. It lacks the ability to be. You and I are born into this
world without the ability to keep God's law. Do you know that
regarding yourself? Do you believe it? So whether
you do or not, whether I do or not, I'm born with the inability
to keep the law of God. Look what verse 8 says. So them
days that are in the flesh cannot please God. I lack the ability.
It doesn't say I may not. It says I cannot. I don't have
the ability to please God. I don't have the ability to keep
His law. I don't have the ability to please Him. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Verse 14, But the natural man, the fleshly
man, the carnal man, that which we are The way we're born. That's the only way you can describe
this. The way a baby is born. The way we live unless God does
something for us. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them. He lacks the ability to know
them because they're spiritually discerned. He doesn't even have
the ability to receive. Now the easiest thing in the
world to do is to receive, but the natural man can't even receive
the things of the Spirit of God. John 6, I'd like you to look
at this with me. Verse 43, Jesus therefore answered
and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can. No man has the ability to come
to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him. The only way a man could get
to Christ is if the Father draws him. You and I don't even have
the ability to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. If God withdraws
His hand from you and I and leaves us to ourself, we'll perish and
we'll go to hell. We will not come to Christ. Now, that's what the Bible means
by inability. Now back to our text in Isaiah 59, look at this
description of our inability. Therefore, verse 9, because of
our guilt, therefore is judgment far from us. It doesn't reach
us. You ever heard that saying you
can't get there from here? You ever heard that? Of course you've
heard that saying you can't get there from here. Well, it doesn't make
sense, but people use it. But you know, regarding getting to
God, you can't get to Him from here. You could more likely jump
up and land on the moon than you can get to God. And you know
that's impossible. You can't get there from here.
Go on reading. Therefore, His judgment far from
us, neither does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but all
we see is obscurity and darkness, thick darkness for brightness.
But we walk in darkness. We can't see. We're spiritually
blind. We can't see what we need to
see. This is talking about inability. Verse 10, 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're in desolate places as dead
men. Now, there's the great statement
regarding inability. What can a dead man do? Now,
that's the way the Bible describes us. And this is not just negative
speaking. This is the way the Bible describes
us. We're talking about the problem. Where the problem is guilt, the
problem is inability. What can a dead man do? A dead
man cannot perform the functions of life, can he? He can't breathe. He can't see. He can't hear.
He can't feel. He's dead. And the natural man
cannot perform the functions of spiritual life. I can't believe. I can't repent. I can't love.
Not through love of God. I'm helpless in this thing. This
is what he's talking about. Inability. He says in verse 11, we roar
all like bears. And we mourn sore like doves. We're miserable. We look for
judgment, but there is none for salvation. But it's far from
us. We can't save ourselves, for 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,
listen to this description. This is what comes as a result
of inability. In transgressing, that's breaking God's law. Sin
is the transgression of the law. In transgressing and lying against
the Lord, saying things that just aren't true, trying to present
ourselves in a certain way, and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from
the heart words of falsehood. Judgment is turned away backward.
And justice standeth afar off, for truth has fallen in the streets,
and equity cannot enter in. Here, once again, the problem
is with us. Truth can't get in, not because
of any problem with the Lord not being able to get in. He's
making that point plain. It's not because God doesn't
have the power to get His truth in our heart. The problem is
with you and I. Yea, he says in verse 15, truth
faileth. And he that departeth from evil,
make it himself a prey. I mean, those who who see him
doing this by God's grace, he departs from evil. He becomes
a prey to them. And the Lord saw it and it displeased
him that there was no judgment. Now, here's the problem. Guilt. And inability. This is my problem. This is your problem. And this problem exposes us to
the judgment of God. Now, if God let me drop into
hell, would he be just? Now, I know how to answer that.
Of course he would. Everybody here would say yes.
But do you really believe it? Do you really believe he would
be just if he let you drop into hell and gave you no mercy? Now that is the problem. Guilt and inability. Now let's
talk about something more pleasant. The first part is absolutely
necessary for us to understand. We can't understand anything
about the solution until we have some understanding of the problem.
But now let's look at the solution. Verse 16, And he saw the Lord,
he saw that there was no man, there's none righteous, no, not
one. And he wondered, he was amazed
that there was no intercessor. And I don't understand. He knew
there wouldn't be. But yet, as he looked at man, the Scripture
says he wondered. He was amazed at the wickedness, that there's
no go between. There was no stand between. Everybody
just went their own way. He wondered that there was no
intercessor. Therefore, here's the solution. Therefore, his arm brought salvation
unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him. His arm. Brought
salvation. Oh, I love the strength of this
language. His arm. Who is the arm of the
Lord? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I didn't have any part
in this, did we? It says His arm. Oh, the strength when He
makes bare His holy arm. His arm brought salvation. Now, what's salvation? Well,
look at what we've been talking about. You can't understand salvation
without understanding something about guilt. And you can't understand salvation
without understanding something about inability. These two things,
guilt and inability. Well, salvation is salvation
from guilt. And salvation is salvation from
inability. And in His arm bringing salvation,
here's how this works. His arm bringing salvation. He
makes the guilty. Anybody can guess what I'm going
to say? I bet you can. He makes the guilty guiltless. Now that's salvation. He justifies
the believer. And he does it, let's read the
whole verse. He saw that there was no man. He wondered that
there was no intercessor. Therefore, His arm brought salvation
unto Him, and His righteousness, it sustained Him. It's His righteousness
that makes the guilty not guilty. And this is what justification
is. If I'm justified, if Christ's obedience, if His righteousness
is charged to my accounts, do you know what that means? I am not guilty. I'm not talking about
forgiven, although I am forgiven. But it goes further than that.
This fellow talking to you has never sinned. That's the only
way you are if you're justified. That means you never sinned.
If his righteousness is mine, that means I am not guilty. Now, that's the cure for guilt. Becoming not guilty. And God
has the authority to do this. You know, I can't say regarding
you, you're not guilty, or I can't say regarding myself, I'm not
guilty. But if God says I'm not guilty, am I not guilty? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. He, salvation is being saved
from the guilt of sin. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. I'm not guilty. I don't have
anything to feel guilty about. Now, I will, I'll go home tonight
and I guarantee you when I lay down in my bed, there's going
to be things I feel terrible about. And I'll wake up in the night
and I'll feel terrible about it. And I just, but do I have any
guilt? I don't have any. Now that's
salvation from the guilt of sin. But not only is my problem guilt,
my problem is also inability. Inability. His righteousness
saves from inability in this sense. Not only is righteousness
imputed to me, and I've given His obedience as my standing
before God, my only standing before God. His righteousness
really is my righteousness. But not only is my Guilt taken
care of by His righteousness, but my inability is taken care
of by Him giving me a new nature, a righteous nature, a holy nature
that can believe, that can repent, that can love God. You're looking
at somebody right now that really does love God. I love God. I love Him as He is. Lord knows
whether that's true. I always got to say that because
everybody says I love God, but Lord knows whether I really do.
He sees into the heart. It doesn't need to be said, but
I'm saying I do anyway. I love him, and I know there
was a time when I didn't. I do believe the gospel now,
and there was a time when I didn't have a clue what it meant to
believe. I wonder, what does it mean to believe? I mean, I
believe in God. I believe the sky is blue, but
is that believing? There was a time when I had no
understanding of what faith is. I do now. I rely on the Son of
God. I've been delivered from my inability
by His righteousness, a righteous nature given. And that's the
whole package. That's what He does for you.
That's what He does in you. That's justification. That's
sanctification. He looked and there was no man.
Therefore, his arm brought salvation to him. And it was his righteousness
that sustained him in doing this. Verse 17, For he put on, and
when I read this verse, what came to my mind is I thought
of the Lord going to the cross and him putting on these articles
of battle. For he put on, this is how I'm
saved, not by something I've done, his righteousness. He put
on righteousness as a breastplate. You know, the Lord never sinned.
I don't understand. I mean, I understand it's just
like God can't sin, but I mean, this is so mysterious to me. The Lord never sinned. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate. He totally honored and kept God's
holy law. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon His head. And when He went
to the cross, He put on a helmet. And you remember what that helmet
was? His helmet of salvation was a crown of thorns, wasn't
it? And when the soldiers took the
thorns and pressed it upon His head and the blood came out,
who gave Him the strength? to press that crown of thorns
on his head while it was taking place. He did. He's the one who put that crown
on. He put that helmet of salvation upon his head. And he put on
the garments of vengeance for clothing. What's that all about? Putting on the garments of vengeance? Well, the cross. Look in verse
18, according to their deeds, accordingly, he will repay the
fury of his adversaries and recompense to his enemies, to the islands,
he will pay recompense. I remember this when our Lord
was hanging on the cross. And I've said this numerous times
in the last several months. And, you know, sometimes I get
something in my mind and I just can't get it out. And I don't
apologize for it. I like this. When the Lord was
on the cross, he wasn't there to show us how much God loved
us. That's not what he was hanging there for. He wasn't hanging
there to provide us an example. He was hanging there because
God was pouring out His vengeance upon sin. He was made sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. There's only one reason He died.
He was made sin. And the wrath of God was poured
out upon him. The vengeance of God. What I
have coming. God is holy. He can't just sweep
sin under the table. God is holy. And on the cross,
Christ had the vengeance of God. His vengeance against sin. He
had no pity from God. He had no mercy from God. Nothing but the wrath of God
came upon him. He put on garments of vengeance
for clothing and he was clad with zeal as a cloak. Oh, the zeal of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had such a zeal for God that
he would die. He would go to the cross before
he would let his father's holy law be dishonored. Has that zeal? He had such a zeal for God that
he would be nailed to a cross before he would disobey his father's
will. Oh, the zeal. He said, the zeal of Thine house
hath eaten me up. Oh, the zeal of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't you want to be zealous? Zealous for the glory of God,
like our Redeemer. Oh, the zeal of Thine house hath
eaten me up. According to their deeds, verse
18, will He repay fury to His adversaries, recompense to His
enemies, to the islands and the nations. He will pay recompense.
Verse 19, now here's the result of his work on the cross. So
shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west. Now you know
why I fear the name of the Lord? And I do fear the name of the
Lord. I fear God. I fear His name. I look to His
name. His name is my everything and salvation. I fear the Lord.
And you know why I fear the Lord? Because He died for me. That's
why. Not because of anything in me.
Not because I worked it up and somebody else didn't, but because
He died for me. The reason I have this new nature,
the reason I fear God, the reason I want to serve Him, is not because
I saw something and somebody else didn't. It's because He
died for me and He purchased this for me, and that's why I
do it. That's why. So shall they fear the name of
the Lord because of Him suffering vengeance in their place. So
shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West. and His glory
from the rising of the sun of the east. Now, because of what
He did for them, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, and
this is like a tidal wave, what will they do when the enemy comes
like a tidal wave? Is this tidal wave going to knock
us backwards? Is it going to wipe us away? No. When the enemy
shall come like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift
up a standard against him. The Spirit of the Lord enables
us to stand before this flood and the Redeemer. The Lord Jesus
Christ shall come to Zion, his church, and who will aid them
that turn from transgressions in Jacob, saith the Lord." Now,
as for me, the Lord is speaking. As for me, this is my covenant
with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee,
speaking to the Lord Jesus, And my words which I 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." See, that's us right now. My
words are not going to depart out of their mouth. How come?
Because He said it. That's the covenant I'm making with them.
Because I'm making this covenant, They're going to persevere all
the way to the end. My words are not going to depart
out of their mouth. Now, I don't know how long I've
been a believer, but I know this. His words are still in my mouth.
I'm still holding on to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
all on me now. But what a sure and blessed hope
it is. Now, here is the solution. The
problem is guilt and inability. And the solution is salvation
to the Lord. His arm has brought salvation. There's the solution. And He's
going to cause us to persevere. Now, back to verse 1. This is
what we'll close with. Now, you've heard the problem.
And it's my problem is your problem. And you've heard the solution.
Now, let's go back to this glorious verse of Scripture. I hope you'll
have this, and I hope I'll have this written on my heart. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save. Do you know you can't be so low
that the Lord can't reach down? His hand's not too short. He
can reach down to you wherever you are, wherever I am. The Lord's hand's not shortened
that it can't save. And His ear is not heavy that
it can't hear. You say, how can He ever hear
me? I'll tell you how He can hear you. He's got good hearing. He can hear things nobody else
hears. He can hear the sighing of the prisoner. and the groaning
of the prisoner. And there's a reason that prayer
makes it to him. The intercession of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He takes that prayer and presents
it to the Father. Now, the Lord's hand's not shortened
that it can't save. His ear's not heavy that it can't
hear. Lord, save me. And Lord, Hear me. I confess my guilt. Everything
that's said in this passage of Scripture is true regarding me. I confess my inability. And I confess that salvation
is only in the arm of the Lord. Now, Lord, reach down into this
pit that I can't get myself out of and save me. And, O Lord, hear me. Let's pray.