Sermon Transcript
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly, no one goes to law honestly.
They rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders eggs, they weave the spider’s web. He who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing. Men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths.
They have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We hope for light and behold darkness, and for brightness but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as in the twilight; among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are, are with us, and we know our iniquities— transgressing and denying the Lord and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
Today’s message has the potential to be offensive, even among Christians, even among longtime Christians. There seems to be a growing segment who resists and rejects what we’re talking about today. So before we get to our actual text and the actual point of this message, which is both you and I need a Savior. I want to try to set up this message in a way that helps us see it for the life-giving, glorious relief that it is instead of seeing it as something offensive. So here we go, true story.
My freshman year of college, I believe it was during spring break, but my roommate in in the freshman dorm went on a backpacking trip with some friends of his, and they got lost during the backpacking trip. I was not there, so I can only relay the information that he gave to me, but he and his friend decided to go off from the group, and then they went off trail away from where they were supposed to be, and they could not find their way back. Back. They didn’t know where they were. I think they were only lost for like 15 hours, which included an overnight portion into the next morning before a search team came and found them.
But during those, we’ll say, 15 hours, they boiled their own water in a metal canteen they had with them. They slept right on the ground because they didn’t have shelter, and other than a few snacks which they had with them, they didn’t have anything to eat. But praise God, eventually a search team showed up and rescued them before it got too serious. Now, if you were only going to be lost for a few hours, you— and you knew that somebody was going to come find you in just a little bit, that story, um, it might even be a little bit funny, you know, like, ah, we got lost in the woods, it’s a little bit embarrassing, but everything worked out okay. But if you didn’t know, like they didn’t know, that they would be found, those 15 hours would be terrifying.
You’d have no idea what would happen. Are you going to die out there? Will you starve? Will you freeze? Will you ever see your family again?
And then on top of that, part of the anxiety they experienced, according to my old roommate, is this disaster in which they found themselves was entirely self-inflicted. They decided to go off trail. They had been told repeatedly, don’t go off trail, and they thought, we’re gonna go off trail, it’ll be So they’re sitting there terrified, and on top of that, they have to admit they have no one to blame but themselves, and they have to wallow in that emotional stew for 15 hours. But then the search team shows up and their fears are lifted. The weight of the situation is relieved.
They’re gonna be okay. Someone came to save them, and it’s good news. I bet, in fact, seeing the search team come around the corner, it’s still gotta be in the top 5 most relieved moments that he’s ever felt in his life. I, I don’t know, I haven’t kept up with him for the last 20 years, but I assume unless he’s been in a bunch of other life-threatening situations, this would still rank near the top, right? He says, I was rescued.
I needed rescue. I wouldn’t have made it unless someone came to get me, and someone did. Someone got me. If you can emotionally envision that That’s how this message today will hopefully make you feel. We are in desperate trouble.
We require rescue. And then the search team shows up. Praise God. Um, now why in the world, going back to what we said to begin with, why would, why would anyone find that kind of message offensive. A search team shows up?
That sounds awesome! I get to go home? That sounds like the best news ever! What could possibly be offensive about that? Uh, well, here’s why it’s offensive.
Um, it’s hard for some of us to admit that we are lost. We say, I don’t need rescue. I’m good. Thanks for showing up, search team, but it’s really not necessary. I know right where I am.
I’m doing fine. And actually, now that we stop to think about it, like, why do you assume that I’m lost, right? I, I don’t want— I don’t like it that you think that I’m lost. I make my own trail, and there’s no problem with me making my own trail. I don’t need to stay on the path that you or anyone else has ever marked off, and I certainly don’t need to be judged for the path that I’m on.
That’s what some of us think. That’s why it’s offensive. If you’re going to be relieved that rescue showed up, you first have to admit that you are in trouble. Rescue will not sound amazing unless you that you are lost. And that is a difficult concept for a growing number of people, even those who identify as being Christians.
So if that’s a difficult concept for you, you’re not alone and you’re welcome here and we will do our best to help. So we’re going to look at an ancient text today from the book of Isaiah. We’ve been looking at various themes in the book of Isaiah for the past few weeks, and a very prominent theme throughout the entire book is our need for rescue. You cannot avoid it in Isaiah. It is in every section of the book.
You may remember from our intro sermon on Isaiah that a lot of people divide Isaiah into 3 sections. Isaiah writes to people who are under threat from an enemy army. That’s one section. Then he writes to people who have been defeated by a different army and are exiled away from their home. That’s the second section.
And, and then he writes to people who are coming back from exile. And in every section, he rings the same bell. He preaches the same message. He says, guys, we’re in trouble. We’re lost in the woods.
He reminds them constantly of that fact, regardless of their circumstances. If people are about to be attacked, if they’re in exile, or if they’re coming back from exile, he sings the same song. We’re in trouble. So as, as we study what this ancient person Isaiah said to a group of ancient people about their need for rescue, their need for a Savior, I pray that it helps us today as contemporary people who live 2,700 years later. I pray it helps us realize and admit and embrace that we actually have the same need as they did all those years ago.
So as we look at Isaiah chapter 59 today, we will see what Isaiah says about Israel’s past, what he says about Israel’s present in the time that he’s living, and what he says about their only source of hope, which is coincidentally identical to our past, our present, and our only source of hope. So first, the past. Isaiah 59 is in the section of Isaiah that was likely primarily written to people who would one day return from exile. Now, obviously, all of scripture is written for everyone living at every time, but in every text, there is always a primary intended audience, which is always important to keep in mind. And in Isaiah 59, he primarily probably has in mind the people who will one day return to Israel from Babylonian exile.
Now Isaiah writes chapter 59 long before that event ever takes place. In fact, he writes Isaiah 59 long before anyone even goes into exile, let alone returns from exile. But Isaiah knows all of that is on the horizon, and he writes to these future future people. It’s kind of like a time capsule to be opened as the future exiles make their return to the land that they had lost. And as they return, picture this, right?
They’re coming back to the land after being in essentially captivity for 70 years. We would imagine they’re dancing, they’re singing the songs of on as they come to repopulate their ancestral lands. And Isaiah gives them this message: Your inequities have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with inequity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.
A little bit of a party pooper, Isaiah.
I mean, they’re finally returning, right? They’ve probably heard stories from their grandfathers, from their great-grandfathers about the land of Israel, and, and finally they have been freed from their servitude. They feel like God has made a way for them to come back. And God has made a way for them. It’s miraculous that God has provided this.
There’s such excitement as caravans of people journey to Jerusalem, right? And as they’re on their way, maybe someone says, hey, didn’t, didn’t Isaiah leave us a time capsule to read at this exact moment? And someone else says, yeah, I think he did. Let’s Let’s find that scroll and read what Isaiah says. So on this joyous occasion, they may be dancing and singing.
They’ve been essentially liberated from slavery. They break out the scrolls, they find the place and read, don’t think too highly of yourselves because you’re a big mess.
Gee, thanks. Sure am glad we opened that scroll. I mean, I mean, Isaiah maybe could have had a little bit brighter message for them as they’re in this celebratory moment. And to tell the whole story, Isaiah does have some very bright messages for them. Isaiah tells these returning captives— he pens maybe the most hopeful words in all of scripture, and we will talk about those in a few weeks.
It’s all about God’s plan for the redemption of the whole earth and inclusion of all races into that plan. It’s great, it’s uplifting. But here Isaiah is pretty clear. He’s talking about their past and he says, your past is full of sin.
Sounds strange to us, doesn’t it? To stop someone in the middle of a likely celebration and say, hey, do you, do you remember what you’ve done?
I mean, if someone’s getting out of an unpleasant situation and they are going into a pleasant situation, we don’t stop them and say, hey, before you walk into the pleasant situation, let’s just remember you’ve really blown it in the past. That’s strange to us. But as strange as that message might seem to us, it’s actually not strange at all in Scripture. When God liberated Israel out of Egyptian slavery, for instance, you know, this is like Moses, parting of the Red Sea, all that that stuff, when they are about to go into the land God is giving them, Moses stops everyone and says, Deuteronomy 9:5, you aren’t about to enter the land because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God’s driving out before you. Know therefore, verse 6 of Deuteronomy 9, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness.
For you— here he goes, he’s going to remind them of their past— for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. So here they are coming out of slavery, all these miraculous signs, and coming out of the wilderness, about to go into the Promised Land. And Moses stops everyone and says, hey, just to remind you, in the past you’ve been a big mess.
Isaiah later is saying almost the exact same thing in a very similar situation to Moses, right? That both of these groups are leaving captivity, both of these groups are going into the Promised Land, and both Moses and Isaiah say you don’t get to go to the Promised Land because you are awesome. In fact, you are not awesome.
God is going to send you there anyway.
Um, no one really wants to hear that they’re not awesome, right? We, we don’t want to hear that because we all want to be celebrated. We all want to be told, well done, my good and faithful servant. We all want to be patted on the head. We all want the yay.
Right? But here’s the key that we so often miss in scripture. More so than commending good behavior, which the Bible does, the Bible absolutely commends people for good behavior, of course. But more than that, the Bible commends humble people, people who will admit that they are a mess. This is from a pastor by the name of Scott Sauls.
He says, instead of dividing the world into good people and bad people, the Bible more so divides the world into prideful people and humble people. Not good and bad, but prideful and humble. And humble people admit they have some issues. Jews. Prideful people do not.
Remember, Jesus tells the parable of the 2 men who went up to the temple to pray, right? The Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee says, I’m awesome. He says, thank you, God, for making me so awesome. Woo!
That’s not how it says it in the Greek, but that’s what it says. That’s really what the Pharisee says. The tax collector, on the other hand, says, have mercy on me, O God, because I am a sinner. He’s humble. And Jesus says the tax collector, the humble one, is the one who is justified before God.
Jesus doesn’t divide these 2 men into good and bad because they’re both bad. Frankly, but Jesus divides them into prideful and humble. The one who says, “I’m awesome,” Jesus says, “No, you’re not.” But the one who says, “Wow, I’m really in trouble,” that’s the one that Jesus recognizes. That’s the one Jesus pats on the head. That’s the one who Jesus celebrates.
Both of them are lost in the woods, to go back to our original metaphor, but the one who says, I need help, that’s the one who is commended. So if you wanna be commended by God, if you wanna be patted on the head, if you wanna be celebrated, do not, do not pretend Do not claim that you are awesome. Do not do that. Saying that you are awesome is the quickest way not to be commended.
Instead, look at your past, look at your present. We’ll talk about that in a minute and say, I’m lost in the woods. I need help.
Okay, back to Isaiah. If the proper way to divide the world is into prideful people and humble people, it makes sense that even in the middle of a celebration, if these people are coming back from exile in the middle of a homecoming caravan, it makes sense Isaiah would stop everyone and remind them of their past. He doesn’t want to fill them with a false sense of self-esteem, right, which could likely happen as you were going from an unpleasant situation to a pleasant situation. You could, you could really get an inflated view of yourself, but Isaiah knows that will only serve to get them rejected like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, right? Isaiah wants to tell them the truth.
Isaiah is going to push them toward word humility. He’s going to get them to the place, right, where they are commended and they are patted on the head by God if they will admit, yeah, we, we’ve had issues.
Okay, that’s our past. What does Isaiah say about the present? Um, did the Israelites get their act cleaned up while Well, starting in verse 10, he says, we grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes. We hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied, our sins testify against us, our transgressions are with us. And we know our inequities, denying the Lord, turning back from following God. Isaiah seems to believe they are still a mess. Their sin isn’t only in the past. And in fact, here he includes himself in the predicament because he says we a lot, right?
When he talks about our present, he says our present is also full of sin.
Of our 3 points today, talking about our past, talking about our present, and talking about our only hope, I actually expect this point to be the most difficult for Christians to hear, especially if you’ve been a Christian for a long time. I mean, admitting that we used to have issues is one thing, But admitting that we still have issues, that’s much more of a challenge. It’s a challenge because honestly, we are probably a good bit better than we used to be, right? We have likely progressed in our spiritual development. We look back on former versions of ourselves and we think, wow, thank you God for bringing me out of that bad habit.
Thank you, God, for healing that brokenness. We likely— we really are probably better, like truly. And hallelujah and praise God. So then when someone comes along and says we’re still a mess, we might think, right now, wait a minute, I I’m not sure that’s quite right. Do you know who I used to be?
It’s a challenge for many of us to hear that we’re still a mess. I think often the group most resistant to admitting that we are currently lost in the woods is a Christian. Again, especially if we’ve been a Christian for a long time. But may our eyes be open to see reality.
I think it was 12 or 13 years ago, I had a conversation with a very respected professor of church history and Trinitarian theology. I still consider him a friend, but we were just standing next to each other and he said— this didn’t come out of the blue, it had to do with the conversation that we were having— but he And he said, I am sinning right now somehow.
He’s just standing there next to me. And he says, I’m sinning right now. Like I’m committing some sin right now. And he’s just standing there. Like I’m just standing here right now.
Um, and at the time I’ll tell you, I, I disagreed with him, but, um, I eventually came to believe believe that he was right.
For at least because— there’s probably more reasons, but at least it’s true because there is always some percentage of my heart trusting in something or someone other than God. Always. Right now. Always. For example, to whatever extent that I need something— need— to whatever extent I need something other than Christ in order for me to feel significant, satisfied, or secure, to that extent my heart is not fully trusting in God.
All right. If you take away some of my comforts, if you take away all my praise and give me only criticism, but times I feel inadequate, times I feel like I haven’t measured up in somebody else’s eyes, the times I feel scared, the times I worry— all of those are because I’m looking to something or someone else other than Christ to provide me with some measure of significance or satisfaction or security. And of course, I mean, whatever it is, whatever I’m looking to, it always lets me down because I needed it for these things, and it Didn’t come through for me, and so then I’m I filled with I have uneasiness, I have stress, I have anxiety, right? Trusting in these other things never works out. Trusting in anything other than Jesus always causes problems, but I still do it.
My heart is still a mess. It does not trust in Christ alone, right? I mean, in order for me to feel okay. About me, I lean on all kinds of things other than Jesus, my status, my accomplishments, physical appearance. If people like me, if you take all that away, do I still feel okay about me?
Doubtful. All right. Because when they are threatened, I feel threatened. Threatened, which is not a great place to be. So then I need to repent, right?
I say, because I’m feeling this way, I must be trusting something other than Christ. I’m saying, I’m sorry, God, like, please bring me to the place where I trust you alone. Like, this is an ongoing thing in my life, and I don’t, I don’t know if it’ll ever get completely rooted out.
How about you?
What insecurities do you have? Just hit pause for a second and tell the person next to you. Just kidding, you don’t have to do that. Uh, but whatever yours are, right, whatever your insecurities are, they actually reveal where you truly look for probably significant satisfaction or security. It’s probably going to fall in one of those buckets, right?
It’s not Jesus, right? Or some percentage of where we’re trusting is not in Jesus, which means we’re a mess. We’re still a mess.
Okay. That’s our past. That’s our present. What’s, uh, what’s our only source of hope? Um, at this point, uh, in the message, are you Are you ready for the rescue team to arrive?
Have you sat in the emotional turmoil of being lost in the woods long enough that you might rejoice at the sight of salvation? Uh, I, I hope so, right? Now obviously, if you’ve been around Bridges for 5 minutes, you know that I’m going to say our only hope is Jesus, and he is. So there is your fill in the blank. Our— the only source The source of hope is Jesus, of course.
But let’s talk about the shock of this passage. Isaiah has just spent 16 verses describing how we are lost in the woods, how it’s our own fault that we’ve become lost. And even to this day, we still haven’t really gotten our act together. And then verse 15, he says, all of this displeased the Lord.
Sounds about right. Right? Seems like he would be displeased about that. So if we’re a mess and God is displeased, what would we expect God to do next? What do the gods of all the other major religions do when you’re a mess and they are displeased?
What do they— what do they do? They either smite you or they wait for you to get your act together. They say after you get yourself cleaned up, you can come and talk to me, right? But the God of the Bible is utterly unique, and we’re going to talk about this a lot next week.
When we’re a mess and God is displeased, instead of smiting us or making us pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, instead of that, the God of the Bible comes to rescue us.
And that’s a shock. It’s amazing that he would come to get us, right? Verse 16 though, God saw that no one was doing what they were supposed to be doing. Everyone intentionally left the trail even when they were told not to go off trail. So in response, what’s God going to do?
God’s own arm brought salvation. No one else was going to bring salvation, so he did it. He put on righteousness as a breastplate plate, a helmet of salvation on his head, and he got to work. He comes marching through the woods to find us, right? Jesus Christ came to earth, lived the life that we should have lived, died the death that we should have died, and then he was raised back to life, reversing the curse that we bear for our sin.
Where we fell short, God God interceded. God rescued. God brings us home. He is our only source of hope since we are lost in the woods. If you have not trusted him before, today should be your day.
Your prayer can be so simple, right? You just say, Jesus, please rescue me, right? And that’s a great prayer for all of us, even if we’ve been praying it since we were 5 years old, right? Come rescue me, Jesus. What I’ve trusted in has let me down.
I see that you are good and true and right and holy. I need you. I need you to come rescue me. If you have any questions about that, we We’d love to chat with you. You can email any of us as pastors.
You can hit the button, submit a sermon question. We’ll get in contact with you. We’d love to process next steps with you today. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for, for sending Jesus to come rescue us, even though we are, we are really lost without you, Lord.
We need you to take us by the hand and lead us every step of the way back to you. We will not get there on our own, we admit that. We have, we have issues in our past, we have issues in our present, and we need your salvation, Jesus.
We thank you for it. We thank you that you do not hesitate to give it. We thank you that you are not like the other supposed gods, but you are one who comes to rescue always. In your own arm worked salvation for you. We thank you, Lord.
We rejoice, uh, over those things. In Jesus’ name, amen.
