Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, June 25

Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, June 25

Sermon Text: Isaiah 59

When revival comes to a people, it never starts among those furthest from God.  Revival always starts among those closest to him.  2 Chronicles 7: 14 begins with the words, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray……”  Peter confirms this when he says, “it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (I Pet 4:17).  Repeatedly in Isaiah God has spoken to his people in order to reveal their sin and call them to repentance. 

No one seeks healing who does not first hear the diagnosis of their disease and the danger of it going untreated.  God wants us to understand the depth of our depravity, our desperate need for rescue and our inability to save ourselves.  In Isaiah 59 (and Romans 3) we find one of the most poignant statements of human sinfulness and fallibility in the Bible.
 The aim of Isaiah 59 is to move us to confess, repent and cast ourselves on God’s mercy.

When Scripture confronts us with the truth that “we have turned back from following our God” (Is 59:13), what should be our response?  God calls us to agree with him like David did in Psalm 51 when he said, “I know my transgression and my sin is always before me” (Ps 51:3).  When we “know our iniquities” like David we agree with God concerning our sad and helpless condition, and we rest on his mercy and covenant love.   

We see this kind of confession in Isaiah 59: 9-10.  Note the first person pronouns. 

 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 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.

     

The prophet is speaking for all the faithful of the land, people who by their very nearness to God realize their own sinful propensities and their own need.

This confession is one of a person who is under deep conviction for sin.  This is not a little regret over a few “unfortunate slip-ups.”  Rather, it is recognition of our profound incapacity to produce the “justice” and “righteousness” that God requires.   

Like David I need to “know” my sin and humbly acknowledge it before God.  I need to repent and fall on his mercy.  So do you.  Repentance is not complicated.  “But though repentance is “simple’ we need to be careful not to let it become ‘easy’ or superficial, for sin consigns us to the darkness (v9), and makes self-salvation impossible (v10); repentance must run deep and be heartfelt (v11), and our ‘knowing’ must include how grossly we have offended the Lord (vv12-13).  Yet it is for such people the Lord dresses himself for salvation, and to just such hopeless cases he promises the armed intervention of his counter-attacking Spirit.” (Alec Motyer – Isaiah by the Day, p. 288)

As you prepare for worship I encourage you to prayerfully read Isaiah 59 and Romans 3. 

The following lyrics are from a song that will be a part of our worship.  May the words “Our Only Hope Is You” be the confession of our souls as we gather for worship this Sunday.

Our mouths were open graves, 

Full of broken vows we made;

Our hearts ran wild, 

Our tongues could not be tamed.

What darkness had concealed

Your law has now revealed;

Our guilt was great, our bitter fate was sealed

Our only hope, our only hope is You, Lord.  

Our only hope, our only hope is You.

Though hypocrites and fools, 

You draw us to the truth;

For Your own glory 

You make all things new

Our only hope, our only hope is You, Lord.  

Our only hope, our only hope is You.

The bridges we had burned You have restored; 

You gave us hope when there was none before.

You paid the debt that we could not afford, 

and cast away our guilt forevermore.

So, when our days are through, 

our hope will rest in You;

For we can trust, Your promises are true.

Our only hope, our only hope is You, Lord.  

Our only hope, our only hope is You.