If you take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 63, Isaiah chapter 63, and we're going to read verses 7 to 14 and give a brief review, and then hit the remainder of the chapter running. This is the word of the Lord. I shall make mention, verse 7, I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has granted them according to His compassion, and according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, sons who will not deal falsely. So he became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them, and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned himself to become their enemy. He fought against them. Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them? Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name? Who led them through the depths like the horse in the wilderness they did not stumble? As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Derek Kidner comments and he says, and this is an important quotation, he says, the glories of chapter 60 to 62 and the vision of the decisive action in 63, one to six, stir the prophet to one of the most eloquent intercessions of the Bible, and note, as he surveys the past goodness of God and the present straits of his people. In verse 7, the prophet is remembering Yahweh's loving-kindnesses. Remember there that the idea of to make mention means I will recount or remember. And notice it is loving-kindnesses plural. The idea is the kind and merciful acts of God done in his covenant love and his loyalty for his people. And the prophet really, in verse 7, is overflowing with joy in what God had done for the people. And he is telling himself to remember, he's telling the people to remember, and in a sense, he's also recounting those past compassions, plural, and loving-kindnesses, plural, somewhat for the Lord's sake as well. In verse 8, he remembers God's covenant and salvation. And in verse 8, just by way of reminder, in case you weren't here, when God says, surely they are my people, that's covenant language. Remember, I will be their God, they will be my people. But this next line, sons who will not deal falsely, it's not as if God had these great expectations of his people, he didn't know what was going to happen, and all of the sudden he was caught in a bait-and-switch deal where the people of God now were suddenly dealing falsely. But rather the idea really is simply that God had absolutely every reason, every rightful reason, to expect grateful and faithful obedience from His people. And so He could say confidently that these would be sons who would not deal falsely, but rather would deal uprightly. That was the lawful expectation of what God had for His people. You understand that God may have reasonable and lawful expectations of his people, and yet know in his divine omniscience that those things are not going to happen. You have the very same kind of situation in Isaiah 5, which I just read this morning in my devotions, where God says, basically, I've done all this work in this vineyard, and I expected a good crop, but instead you brought forth shrinking, stinking little grapes. And the idea is not that God's taken by surprise, because the God of the Bible knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning. The idea is, is God is speaking to his people in relational terms. And he's saying, I had reasonable expectations that with everything I did for you, this is how you should have behaved. We know that that is indeed the case, because don't we find our own selves totally disappointed in ourselves, knowing what God expects of us? Are those rightful expectations that God has of us? The answer is, of course they are. And then the passage goes on to say he became their savior, their deliverer, not only with the magnificent Red Sea, but all of the other littler deliverances that he brought about for them. And then verse 9, there is a remembering of God's compassion and his redemption. Notice God enters into their affliction with them and redeems them with the angel of his presence. And so the point of these three verses is this absolute overflowing sufficiency of God's mercy and love towards his people in covenant, in redemption, and even in carrying them along. In other words, everything that God's people needed to walk with Him in covenant obedience and faithfulness, God had provided and promised to continue to provide. In light of all that God had done in terms of redemption and providence, even this tender expression, the last line in verse 9, He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. Here's the sign of the mighty God condescending to carry His weak people who cannot carry themselves, who cannot, as it were, stand on their own two legs. And so here's God doing everything for them from A to Z, from beginning to end, helping them in every way that they need help, doing everything that they need done. And so you would expect, in light of what God had done, that they indeed would be children who walked in obedience. But verse 10 gives us... the incredible contrast or the irony as it were, but they rebelled. And this is the whole history of God's people. It's the whole history of Israel. It's the whole history of the Christian church. It is the history of God's people, but they rebelled. And then notice they grieved His Holy Spirit. Then notice that the language is not just they rebelled. and they rebelled against the Creator and Lawgiver. That, of course, is true. But notice the language that the prophet uses to describe the rebellion of the people. Our rebellion, their rebellion, was not just simply the violation of some abstract principles or laws. Their rebellion actually grieved the very Spirit of God. And we need to remember that sin is never presented in the Bible as simply some sort of of mere legal transaction. Although legal language is used, we should never think of sinning just like we think of perhaps breaking the speed limit. And that law represents some abstract rule made by, the rule itself is not abstract, but some far-removed legislative body that we've never seen and they somehow have imposed a law and now we've broken that law and now we have to pay a penalty. The Bible doesn't present sin like that. Sin is indeed a transgression of law, but the transgression of law is a grief to the law giver. So that rebellion grieves the heart of God, grieves His Holy Spirit. Now, God's response to this is that he turns in discipline and judgment against his people, and they then see that God takes up the nations, Assyria and Babylon, as rods of correction. And so we can echo with the Apostle Paul, behold then the kindness and severity of the Lord. Verses 11 through 13, remembering the days of Moses, It appears that the affliction that God brings upon His people causes them to remember. They think back to the days of Moses, which were the glory days of redemption, and just the plain old glory days of glory in terms of a redemptive history. And then there's this series of questions. Where is He? Who caused Him? Who divided? Who led? And all of those questions, in a sense, are the heart cry of God's people. Obviously, the answer in each one of those questions is God. God's the one that led us. God's the one that did this. God's the one that did that. And the expectation is, if God did it then, why won't He do it now? And then verse 14, remembering the days of rest, the imagery is Canaan. The end result is the glory of God. God does what he does to make him for himself a glorious name. And now, the intercession moves really to a very earnest type of petition. The people's present trouble, in light of God's goodness to them in the past, their present trouble is almost too much to bear. And in fact, sometimes that's what makes present trials very, very difficult to bear, is it is easy for us to think about God's goodness to us in the past and then begin to wonder, where is that goodness now? There is nothing that can undermine our confidence in God than trials. Trials are indeed, sometimes trials strengthen our faith. And that's going to be the end result of this intercession, I think. But we need to realize that what is implied and what is understood in the intercession itself is that present trials do in fact have the dangerous potential of undermining our confidence in the goodness of God because we look at what He's done in the past and instead of that breathing hope into us in the present, we begin to despair. Why isn't He doing this now? Now that's just plain old Christian experience throughout the centuries. And notice in this section, we'll read verses 15 onward. Notice the urgency of the intercession. Look down from heaven and see from your holy and glorious habitation. Where are your zeal and your mighty deeds? The stirrings of your heart and your compassions are restrained towards me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer, from of old is your name. Why, O Lord, do you cause us to stray from your ways and harden our heart from fearing you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribe of your heritage. Your holy people possessed your sanctuary for a little while. Our adversaries have trodden it down. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who were not called by your name. Now, in this section, it is very, very easy to see the despair of the people, isn't it? The language is absolutely filled with utter despair. But notice in verses 15 and 16, there is this earnest petition based on who God is. Now, when the prophet says, look down from heaven and see, the reason the prophet prays that is because God seemed far away. I love Luther's expression, Deus absconditus, the hidden God, the hidden God. When the prophet says, look down from heaven and see where is your zeal and where are your mighty deeds? He's saying, God, it seems as if you're far away. It seems as if you're totally disinterested. It seems as if you're not paying attention. It seems as if you are uncaring. And it also seems like your promises are absolutely no good, and you've given over your people, and you've totally abandoned us. And here's Isaiah praying, as it were, from a post-exile posture. Remember, Isaiah lives 250 years before the Babylonian exile. In the spirit of prophecy, he's praying from the posture of being in captivity. And so he is crying out to God and when he says, look down and see, it's almost as if he is demanding that God take notice of them, that God pay attention to them. It's almost as if he says, look, you are in heaven and you're dwelling in a holy and beautiful place while we are down here suffering. Now, you might think that that is a little audacious. And certainly it is. But you realize that throughout inspired scripture, you have even the audacious prayers of psalmists and prophets recorded for us. When you are hurting, when you are going through trials and pain, sometimes we can let our rough edges come out in our prayer. And that's what the prophet does. There is a raw honesty here, isn't there? Look down, pay attention to us. And then he has the audacity to go on and say, where is your zeal and your mighty deeds? Not only does it seem like you're totally disinterested, it seems like you're not even doing anything at all. When he says, where is your zeal, Motyer says that zeal here, where is your passionate commitment to keep your promises? When he says, where's your mighty deeds? Motier says, where's your heroic ability and strength to tackle the foe? In other words, the prophet here is so immersed in the suffering of the people, with the affliction of the people, and he looks back and he sees the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God in redemptive history, at the exodus, and in subsequent times in Israel's history, and then he looks at the situation now, and he says they're very, very different. You used to pay attention to your people back then. You used to be zealous to keep your promises back then. You actually used to perform heroic deeds on our behalf back in the olden days. Why have you left us? Why have you abandoned us? If that's not moving enough, the next expression is even more moving. Look at what he says, the stirrings of your heart and your compassion are restrained toward me. The stirring of your heart, the old King James, the sounding of thy bowels and the yearning of thy heart. Where is the stirring of your heart? That most definitely is an affection word, isn't it? You once used to have a stirred heart. You once used to really love us. You used to really love me and your compassion. Remember, as we studied the life of Jesus in relationship to a standard for our own emotional life in the study on the emotions, remember that in the Bible, God himself is not ever portrayed as some stoic, non-feeling being, but rather he is a God who abounds in loving kindness and is full of compassion, right? And his heart is moved towards his people. And in biblical language, the viscera or the inward parts is the deepest part of a person's emotional being. And so here the prophet says, it's as if you are absolutely shut off towards us, emotionally shut off. It's as if you're distant and it's as if you've cooled down towards me or towards us. The language is penetrating emotionally. If you've ever had the experience of having a deep, wonderful relationship with somebody where there was an openheartedness and sort of a face-to-face type intimate relationship, and then all of a sudden you realize that something changed and that person now was distant, that person was emotionally cut off from you and was absolutely cool towards you. If you've had that experience, you know that terrible feeling of distance that once was not there. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Here the prophet says, that's how I feel. That's how I feel God towards me. I feel as if God has just completely shut me out emotionally. I feel as if God has completely cut me off. He is distant from me. Luther comments, he says, thy great compassionate loving kindness deals harshly with me. It's an irony, isn't it? It's almost a contradiction. Your great compassionate loving kindness deals harshly with me. From time to time, this happens in our life in terms of horizontal relationships that we have, doesn't it? I remember at one time in the course of the ministry here, there was a couple that I felt we just poured our life into. Their marriage was on the brink of really absolute destruction. And there was a time where I was meeting with them two, three times a week. And then for the next year and a half, just faithfully met with them. And you just feel a closeness. You just feel like your heart is knit together with these people and as if you're a part of them and they're a part of you. And then all of a sudden you start to notice this cooling and this distance and you're trying to get in, you're trying to get inside and find out what's wrong, what have I done, why have things changed? And the very reality that things have changed is an utter heartbreak. And here's the prophet who says, God, it's like we're trying to get inside your heart and something's changed and we don't know why. This is the language of soul distress, isn't it? This is the language of divine desertion, as the Puritans would put it. This is the language of the dark night of the soul, as Saint John of the Cross would put it. This is the language that has been the experience of saints, and martyrs, and apostles, and prophets, and psalmists, and others throughout the centuries, where they describe it in language like this, the heavens are brass. God seems far away. God's promises seem as if you're trying to grasp air. There's no sense of God's presence. He seems far, far removed. And no matter what I do, things don't seem to change. Now, I think that before we get into the remainder of the passage where there is some glimmers of hope, what we need to do is we need to realize that authentic, Biblical Christianity is not simply the collection of a number of workable formulas whereby you just follow these steps and automatically things are like they're supposed to be. That is not biblical Christianity. And there are times, there indeed are times For whatever the case may be, and in this passage we may get some indications of what may cause this, but there are times where we feel as if there is a barrier between us and God, the God who sent his own Son for us. Now, the tendency that some of us have is this, and this is where we need to be careful. Some of us have the tendency to fall off this side of the horse and say, Look, I know God gave his son for me. God demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If God did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all, how will he not also with us freely give us all things? Therefore, I know God loves me, period, and it doesn't matter how I feel. So I'm gonna get a stiff upper lip and I'm just gonna set my jaw and go through this Christian life. And if I live and die emotionally neutered, so be it. And then there are others who fall off this side of the horse and they say this, where's God? I don't feel God's love for me. Therefore, I conclude God must not love me. Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me, I'll go eat worms. And all of a sudden they find themselves in an irreparable dumping ground. Now, you know both sides are wrong. Both sides are wrong. Just as wrong as it is to conclude, I don't feel God's love, therefore God must not love me. I'm going to tell you that it is also equally wrong to say, well, since I know truth, it doesn't matter how I feel. Now, I know that goes against common evangelical wisdom that tells us that feelings are just the caboose on the train, and if they're coming behind, then that's fine, but no train didn't get to its destination because it lacked a caboose. What is described for us in this passage is the reality. And thankfully, it's not a reality that is all the time. If Isaiah 63, 15 was our reality all the time, we would be insane. We would go crazy. But my friends, if this is an occasional reality to you, don't fret that you are some sort of abnormal, oddball Christian. This was the experience of a man who had been in the throne room of God. Verse 16, For you are our Father. Though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us, you, O Lord, are our Father. O Redeemer from of old is your name." In the midst of this almost suffocating depression of verse 15, there comes out this sort of a mixed emotion in verse 16. You are our Father. Does that strike anybody as fairly peculiar Old Testament language? It should. It should. This is not the typical way God is addressed in the Old Testament. I said it is not the typical way. What you have here is an unusual and rare occurrence. You are our Father. Now, all of a sudden, and notice what happens, and I'm going to pluck this guitar string all night long, or at least until we're done. You need to hear this. Part of what makes the experience of verse 15 so painful is the recognition that God is indeed our Father, That's what makes it so utterly painful, but it is also what gives the glimmer of hope. Both of those things are dynamically working in this text. You are our Father, and then this is somewhat amazing, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us. Abraham and Israel. Two fairly important figures in Old Testament redemptive history. Yes, and in fact, we have a name for what those two people represent, don't we? They are among whom we would call the patriarchs. You know what the patriarchs are? The first fathers. The first fathers. The beginning fathers. Abraham. Yeah, Abraham is the founding father. Abraham was to Israel, the nation Israel, what George Washington is to the United States only in a spiritual covenantal sense. He's the founding father. And in fact, what about Israel? Israel is not necessarily the founding father, but he is the father of the fathers. He ends up being the father of the 12 tribes from whence all of Israel would come. And so here you have the prophet as the mouthpiece for the people saying, you are our father, speaking to God, even though our patriarchs don't know us. Those patriarchs, by the way, who symbolize Well, you tell me, what does Abraham symbolize in the Old Testament? Somebody say it, I hear little whispers. Faith and what's, did you say covenant? Faith and covenant, those are actually the two theological themes that Abraham stands for, isn't it? Faith, he's the father of the faithful. He's the one, his faith, I was listening to a wonderful sermon on Moses today, and Abraham's faith was way better than Moses' faith, most of the time. Now, Abraham's faith wasn't perfect, of course, and he had some serious flaws and some lying problems, but other than that, I mean, he was a pretty amazing man of faith, right? And he's sort of the Old Testament symbol of faith, but he's also the Old Testament symbol of covenant. That magnificent covenant that God makes with Abraham ends up being the mother of all covenants for the people of God. And so here are these symbols. Israel. It's Israel symbolized. When you think of Israel, you think of a change of name from heel catcher to one who's a prince with God. And you think of this event that happens in Jacob's life that changes his life. Anybody remember what event that might be? Wrestling with God. And so here's this one who wrestles with God and prevails and has a closeness, an intimacy with God. And it's as if the prophet says, as the mouthpiece of the people, God, you're our father, our own patriarchs, those who symbolize the very realities that we're supposed to be living out right now, they don't even recognize us. Perhaps what's also implied in this, they don't recognize us, is they wouldn't recognize us if we were standing in front of their face because our own sin has distorted us and we certainly don't look like them. No family resemblance. Then there's this repetition. You, O Yahweh, are our Father. This magnificent repetition, our Father, and then our Goel, our Redeemer, our Kinsman-Redeemer from of old is Your Name. Now notice, once again, there are two things that are running side by side in verse 16. This sense of despair, this desperation, but also you can't miss it. Swimming right alongside of this desperation and despair is a tenacious faith that is not about to let go. John Owen, who preached on this passage, says, it is true, the church of God that speaks, it is the true church of God that speaks these words. This is plain in the acting of faith as to the great interest and privilege of adoption in the verse foregoing when they say, doubtless thou art our father, however things are with us, doubtless thou art our father. Now listen carefully to Owen's words. He says, when all other evidences fail, faith will secretly maintain the soul with the persuasion of its relation unto God, as you see by the church in this place. They were all as an unclean thing, and their holiness was all faded away as a leaf. And yet faith maintains a sense of relation to God, and therefore they cry, Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. O Lord, thou art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting. And then Owen says, I'm persuaded some of you have found it so, that faith has maintained an interest in a relation to God, when all other particular evidences have failed. So it is in our head, Jesus Christ, when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And when all particular evidences fail, he can still say, my God, my God. You see, Psalm 22.1 is the very same kind of thing that you have here. the deepest, darkest despair, and yet with a glimmer of hope, it's still, my God, my God. And he says, so it is here with this miserable and distressed church and people of God. All is lost and gone, and yet faith cries, doubtless thou art our Father. Now, that's why I said that you've got to be careful not to fall off this side of the horse over here. Notice that the prophet doesn't just say, well, because I objectively know that you're our father, everything is fine. Everything is not fine, but what maintains the glimmer of hope and what makes the prophet want to get through this period of despair and distress is the knowledge that God is indeed this father. In the midst of all darkness, all despair, all trial, there needs to be maintained in us a tenacious clinging to God, no matter what the evidence says. There has to be a tenacious clinging, no matter how bad things may look on the outside. And that tenacious clinging has to be, you are my Father. Therefore, I know that you have something better for me than this, and I will not let go. One of the dangerous things about darkness and trial and tribulation that affects the soul is that it can so easily eclipse faith. But what you have right here is a glimmering light of faith that refuses to be eclipsed." It refuses? And so what do we see in this passage? Well, first of all, we learn the fact that we need to be awakened to our sin and rebellion. Understand it as being awakened to the sin and to the rebellion. that makes the prophet so totally dissatisfied with the fact that it seems as if God had left him. So we need to be awakened to our sin and our rebellion. We need to be awakened to those realities, and when we are, then all of a sudden we need to begin to appeal to God on the basis of Him as our Father, Him as a merciful God, our appeal to His covenant faithfulness, and we're going to see all these things unfold. Notice what the prophet does. The prophet does not give up. And notice the prophet is not simply saying, you know what? All of the external circumstances look really, really bad. That's a given. What he's saying is, I can't see God. I can't see God in any of this. The trials are a given. He's saying God's hidden his face. He's far away. He's not even looking. But I'm not going to let go. Because ultimately, I know God better than that. And the God that I know and I love is the God who ultimately comes through for His people. And so I can't let go. Some old sage said one time that if God treated His friends better, He might have more of them. Sometimes it does look like God treats his people pretty shabbily, doesn't it? And the prophet says, you know what? There's no evidence around me to boost up my faith. None. But this I know. You are my Father. Now, just so you don't think that everything then turns to sweetness and light, Verse 17 really throws a wrench into the works for us. If this verse doesn't baffle you, I don't really know what could. Why, O Lord, do you cause us to stray from your ways and harden our hearts from fearing you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Understand what's going on here. The prophet is not simply saying, Lord, times are tough, but we're hanging on. We're not going to let go. He's saying times are tough and it's our sin that caused times to be so tough. And so why'd you make us sin? Now we go from audacity to audacity in verse 17, don't you think? I mean, you can't read the passage any other way than, you made us wander. You made us stray. Now, straying from God's ways, let's just isolate that for a minute. The prophet speaking for himself as representative of the people, just like Jeremiah does, is talking about straying from God's ways. And straying from God's ways, biblically, has first an internal dynamic that then manifests itself externally. All right? It's not as if when a person abandons God's ways that they just do it in a moment. It's not like they're driving along and doing fine and then jump the curb. It's not how it happens. All right? To abandon God's ways or to stray from His ways, first of all, there's an internal principle of spiritual life in the heart that begins to decay. In other words, usually, and I say usually, in spiritual declension or decline, what happens is the heart begins to grow cold first. Before anybody ever wanders away from God with their feet, their heart wanders first. Isn't this why Solomon tells us to watch over our heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues, the springs of life. And so it's the heart as the internal principle that begins to decay, that begins to cool. And then secondly, then there's the external, that is the internal that's beginning to work itself out, failing in our walk with God in holiness and obedience. And so long before, and long is a relative term, but long before we ever abandoned God's ways and go into disobedience and unrighteousness and wickedness, there has first of all been a departure in the heart. The departure of the heart always precedes the departure of the feet, not vice versa. Now, the prophet says, you've made us wander. Why have you made us wander? Why did you cause us to do this? And then he says, why have you hardened our hearts so we don't fear you? Hardened hearts, you get the picture, right? Calloused, unfeeling, insensitive with the result of a loss of godliness and true spirituality. In fact, the end result in the passage is, you've hardened our hearts so that we don't fear you. Now, Owen identifies the lack of the fear of God as this, a lack of a due sense of sin. In fact, just sort of rehearsing some Proverbs, fearing God in the Proverbs means at least three things in terms of action, all right? Dependence upon Him. turning away from evil and walking in His ways. Now, the prophet here says, you've hardened our hearts now so that we don't fear you. That is, you've hardened our hearts to such a degree that our lives now are lived independently from you, lack of trust, there's no turning away from evil, and in fact we're walking in disobedience. Now here's the mystery. I don't know if you've caught on to the mystery yet or not. Why in the world does Isaiah attribute this to God? Don't raise your hand because, but I mean, I wonder how many of us have ever, in moments of honesty with God, asked God such an incredible question. Why'd you cause me to stray? Why'd you cause me to rebel? Why'd you harden my heart? Why did you work in me in such a way that I didn't fear you like I should? Now, I don't think that that's probably normative for any of God's people here. Because most of the time when we sin, when we stray from God's ways and our hearts are hardened and we don't fear God, usually we know where the buck stops, right? we know that it stops with us. But perhaps there are times when we've said, God, why didn't you prevent me from taking this route? Why didn't you stop me from... You know that's virtually the same thing. So the question is, why does Isaiah attribute this to God? And let me give you three ideas. First, It's possible that he may be speaking simply out of the frustration of his own heart, burying his soul, speaking in the language of appearance. Psalmists do that all the time, don't they? Don't the psalmists from time to time accuse God of having abandoned them? Does God ever really abandon his people? Never. There was only one that he abandoned. And that was his own son, so he wouldn't have to abandon us, right? So we do know that in Scripture there is language that conveys a broken, aching heart that sometimes doesn't interpret reality properly, and yet the inspiration of Scripture includes that, because why? That's the accurate reflection of that person's heart. Leupold says a nation in distress trying to solve the problems of sin and evil in this world has recourse to such logic. God did it, but sin is always illogical. The second option is this. He may be implying that since God did not prevent this, He did not keep them, and thus we ended up going our own way, and so ultimately it comes back to God. Alec Motier says, a recognition of guilt of such proportions that the Lord could not let it pass but judicially sentences people to the consequences of their own choices. In other words, we're recognizing the guilt, but you know what? We realize that this is a part of your judgment on us. He also may be saying third option is God really did do this as judgment. And you know, there's a reality there too, because sometimes God punishes sin with what? More sin, right? Sometimes God will punish sin with more sin. Didn't we see that just a couple Sunday nights ago as we studied what the Bible says about homosexuality? Romans chapter one teaches us that God not only brings judgment on homosexuality, but homosexuality is the judgment of God. God condemning sin with more sin. Does God have a right to do that? Of course He does. John Owen says, God may be said to cause men to err from His ways and to harden their hearts from His fear by withholding upon their provocation some such supply of his spirit and actings of his grace as they formerly enjoyed to keep up their hearts to the ways and in the fear of God." So Owen basically says because God didn't prevent it, that's what Isaiah is saying, whatever the case may be, I think the end result has to be the recognition that it ultimately comes back down to our sin. Whether this is some sort of judicial hardening, sin being the judgment of sin, the fact is that it is under our provocation. In fact, Calvin says, he says, those who say that God leads us into error by privation, that is by depriving us of his spirit, do not perceive the actual design. For God himself is said to harden and to blind when he gives up men to be blinded by Satan, who is the minister and executioner of his wrath. Without this, we would be exposed to the rage of Satan. But since he can do nothing without the command of God, to whose dominion he is subject, there will be no impropriety in saying that God is the author of blinding and hardening, as Scripture does affirm in many passages. And yet, it cannot be said or declared that God is the author of sin, because He punishes the ingratitude of men by blinding them in this manner." In other words, God cannot be the author of sin because He punishes sin with more sin. Thus, believers here acknowledge that God has forsaken them, but that it is their own fault. and they acknowledge God's righteous vengeance against them. And he says, in like manner, when Moses said that God hath not hitherto given to the people eyes to see and a heart to understand, he does not really lay the blame on God, but reminds the Jews whence they should seek to obtain a remedy for that stupidity of which they had been convicted. Yet it may appear as if here they aimed at something else by inquiring into the cause and arguing with God that He ought to have acted differently towards them and treated them less harshly. Calvin says, but I reply that believers always look at the goodness of God even when they acknowledge that they suffered justly on the account of their sins. Whatever the case may be, What is not nullified in this verse is that the guilt belongs to us. Whether it is God bringing judicial hardening, whether it is God adding sin to sin as judgment, or whether it is God withholding His grace, preventing us from going into more sin, the fact is that the fault always remains with us. No matter how you interpret Isaiah's statement, the fact is that we end up being the ultimate provokers of what God does. If you read the passage, what you have to conclude, no matter how you interpret verse 17, the first two lines, is this, utter hopelessness. Well, maybe not utter hopelessness, but near utter hopelessness. God has shut us up and out. And we deserve it. Although the language may not have ever passed our lips, there are times when we know that we have sinned against God, And we know that His disciplinary action against us may be severe. We may feel as if the heavens are brass. We may feel as if God is far removed from us. We may feel as if He has indeed deserted us. Notice I keep underlining the word feel. We may feel these things. We may have a sense that He is indeed distant from us and that we are under the displeasure of our Father. And the bottom line is that time and time and time again, No matter what we may say in our moments of prayer or in our moments of conversation, the reality is that we come back again and again and again, and we recognize that when God seems far away, we understand ultimately that we are the ones who have moved. That's something that we know inherently, isn't it? And as much as we may cry out, God look down on us, take notice of us, hear us, we know that those very cries come because of us, ultimately. Verse 18, God's sanctuary is trampled down. Your holy people, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot the last part of verse 17, return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Now, just one, a few brief comments on that. Notice the plea. The complaint is, as it were, why, oh Lord, do you cause us? Why do you harden us from fearing you, so forth? Notice the plea. The plea is pretty straightforward, isn't it? Lord, return. Return. Return. And notice, return for the sake of your servants. The prophet cannot get over the fact that he is indeed related to God. And he is not going to let that fact go. Return to your servants. Notice, the tribes of your heritage. We belong to you. Come back. We know that our sins have driven you away. Come back, return to us. Revive us, return to us so that we can return to you. And here, Isaiah knows no other remedy. Return to us, please. You know, the bottom line is that in the midst of the darkest nights of the soul, in the midst when God seems the farthest away, the reality comes back time and time and time again to this, Lord, please return to me. Please revive me. Don't show me your back forever. Let me see your face. I'm yours. I may not have acted like it, may not have conducted myself like it, but I'm yours. I'm your servant. I may have been out serving other gods, I may have been out serving the ways of this world, but I'm your servant and you know I'm your servant. I'm yours. I'm part of your heritage. I'm part of your purchased possession. Return. Doesn't it come to us time and time again and throughout the course of Christian experience that although we may attempt to draw near to God, we know in our heart of hearts that unless He returns to us, we won't return to Him? Unless He turns us, we won't turn. And so here the prophet's crying out, just return to us. If you just came back to us, everything would get better. Verse 18 adds more misery to the picture of the sanctuaries trampled down your holy people. Notice the language. Notice what Isaiah's doing. He's not going to let go of the fact that they're related to God. You are holy people. We didn't live like holy people, but holy people, consecrated people, set-apart people, covenant people, right? Now, we did possess the sanctuary for a little while. Our adversaries have trodden it down. Verse 18, your covenant people who've been called out of the world, possessed for a little while. Most of the English translations say the sanctuary. The idea could be the land as well. We kept it for a while, but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. In other words, our adversaries, the Babylonians, have invaded and destroyed the very symbol of God's presence with us. This is pretty much as bad as it can get. It doesn't get much worse than this. to have the enemies of God invading and occupying and trampling down His temple. The complaint has to be like this. And notice, this is not, by the way, this intercession is not some nice, neat, logical intercession that follows Roman numeral 1, 2, 3, capital A, 1, 2, 3, capital B, 1, 2, 3. You don't pray like that when you're hurting, do you? You're all over the place, right? And so here the prophet again goes back to basically, every time I look at this trampled under sanctuary, every time I see your enemies, my enemies, our enemies, with the very presence, the very symbol of your presence under their feet, it really makes me think that you don't keep your promises. What was the promise? That they would inhabit the land for how long? Forever. That God would dwell in their midst for how long? Well, this is too short to be forever. Could it be that God's promises have just sort of dropped to the ground? Could it be that He didn't really mean to give us what He said He was going to give us forever? Could it mean that He's let us down? At the end of the day, when all is said and done, and you're on your deathbed, You'll be able to say to your children and your grandchildren, God's been faithful to me every day of my life. Right? I remember the first time we went to Latvia, we met this little old lady who was in her 80s. It was a 14-year-old girl. She'd become a Christian. This was during the Communist Revolution. Her family turned her over, and she spent the next 20 years of her life in a gulag. under forced labor, repeatedly violated by Russian soldiers. You think that would shake your faith? You better believe it would. Day in and day out, do you really think that every day with Jesus was sweeter than the day before for her? But you know what she was able to say at the end of her life? God was faithful to me every day. What she was saying was not, I really sense the faithfulness of God each and every day. That may not have been true at all. But what she was saying is, in retrospect, do you know what I see? I see the faithful hand of God that never left me, that never forsook me. No matter what I ended up experiencing on any given day, no matter how deep the trials were on any given day, the reality is, is at the end of the day, I know God was faithful to me. No matter what it felt like at the time, in the perspective of retrospect, God has been faithful. And so indeed, will we be able, when the death do lies cold on our brow, say, if I ever, I love thee, my Jesus, tis now? Yes, by God's grace, we'll be able to say that. And as we're lying on our deathbed, ready to go and to be with the Lord, will we be able to say, God's kept all of his promises. He's never let me down. He's never failed me. And the answer is, of course, we'll be able to say that. But do you realize that in the day in, day out experience of Christian life, When the trials are dark and harsh, it may seem from time to time as if God's promises fell to the ground. But you understand that any interpretation of God's promise having fallen to the ground is never the final interpretation. Our analysis of any perceived failures of God is never the final analysis. And what ends up happening with God again and again and again is anything that looks like a disappointment ultimately will serve a greater purpose to show forth more magnificent faithfulness in the end. And that's what the prophet is hanging on to here. Verse 19, he says, we've become like those over whom you've never ruled. You hear the despair? Like those who were not called by your name. We're just like outcasts. In fact, we don't even look like we've ever belonged to you. We don't look like you've ever been our king. That's the language of despair, isn't it? Didn't God promise to be their king forever and ever? Didn't God enter into covenant with them? Didn't God say that He would rule over them and protect them and provide for them? All of those things are promises of God. And here they're saying, we don't look like we've ever belonged to you. Here we are under some foreign power, our children growing up speaking Chaldean. It doesn't seem like you've ever been our king. Look at our past history, Lord. And look at our present plight. They don't match up. They don't match up. We don't look like a nation that's known you or worshiped you or ever called upon your name. What we need to realize from this intercession By the way, next week we get prayer for revival. Let me just tell you the end of the story, because I'd hate to leave you here. God doesn't leave his people like that. He doesn't. They may go through periods like that, but God doesn't leave them like that. They may have experiences like that, but God doesn't leave them like that. He is too kind to leave us like this. But, let's not be Pollyannish about the Christian life. I think a Pollyannish, is Pollyannish a word? You know what I'm saying. That kind of approach to Christianity does more to undermine people's faith than anything else. Because when we present to people that Christianity is a bed of roses and we don't prepare them for the fact that they are now about to enter into the hardships of their life. What ends up happening is that they go in thinking God's promised them a rose garden, and then all of a sudden they realize that there are thorns everywhere, and their faith ends up being undermined and attacked, and sometimes it doesn't make it. We need to realize that this passage teaches us anything, it's this, that sin, our sin, and trying circumstances can shake us, and can rattle us, and can nearly break us. Faith can be a fairly fragile thing, can't it? Have you ever talked to somebody face-to-face who thinks for sure that they've lost their faith and the utter despair that they feel? It is a devastating thing. From time to time, I have to sit down with somebody like that and it It utterly breaks your heart. And they already know all the answers that you're going to try to give them. Don't be simplistic with people who are enduring hardship. It doesn't help. Faith can be a fragile thing. And there are times where you can literally with your own eyes watch faith break because of trials or even because of a person's own sin. And the despair that comes from that is a real despair and it is painful. And so here's the question, if that is so, What is it that keeps one from walking away from God completely? If you read the passage slowly enough, you can see it. Although the despair runs deep in this text, this is like Psalm 88 as far as I'm concerned. This is just flat out depressing. If you're ever feeling blue, don't read Psalm 88. Avoid Psalm 88. Read Psalm something else, but not Psalm 88. Don't go to Isaiah 63. This is not the stuff that encourages. This is the stuff that says, here's reality. But notice, all throughout, woven, even though the despair runs deep, notice this flicker of faith that remains. Verse 15. Look down from heaven and see. A person who's completely walked away from God never says, look down from heaven and pay attention. Look at verse 16, you are our father. Oh yeah, the patriarchs may not know who we are, but you are our father. There it is. You know what that is? That is that my God, my God, that is the flicker of faith. You are my father. 17. Why did you do this? But notice, it's not just why did you do this? It's. Return. For the sake of your servant. The prophet never loses that attachment to God, and it's almost as if... this darkness, and we sing it sometimes, when darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace, right? And it's almost as if we know that we've got this rope and we're hanging onto it, we've got it wrapped around us as much as we can, and we don't know where the other end's going because it's going through a veil that we can't see on the other side, but our hope is that it's wrapped around God too, and the bottom line is that we're not gonna let go. You can't see, you don't know for sure, but you're not going to let go. That's the point. You're our Father. We're your servants. We're the tribe of your heritage. We're your holy people. Remember, you made a covenant with us. Is that too audacious for you? It better not be. God, you made a covenant with me. You sealed that covenant in the blood of your own Son. And so, please, you better come through. That's bold language. But when you're suffering, there's no other way to pray. Notice the prophets praying. He's interceding. He's arguing, he's crying, he's storming heaven, and he knows that God's people have had better days because God is good. Therefore, he's not going to give up. Period. Now, the next section is going to be a wonderful prayer for revival, but suffice it to say, 158. It's so good when a hymn writer captures the very thing. 158, we're going to sing this at the Lord's Supper this Sunday night. None other lamb, none other name, none other hope in heaven or earth or sea, none other hiding place from guilt and shame, none beside Thee. That's triumph. That's hope. That's confidence. Verse 2. My faith burns low. My hope burns low. Only my heart's desire cries out in me. By the deep thunder of its want and woe, cries out to thee." That's what we're talking about, isn't it? Isn't that exactly what we're talking about? A faith that's burning low, a hope that's burning low, and in fact the only discernible desire in us that is manifest by a deep thunder of its want and woe is that it still cries out to God. Lord, thou art life, though I be dead. Love's fire thou art, however cold I be. Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head, nor home but Thee." Job could have written that. Isaiah could have written that. Though He slays me, I'll trust Him. Though He slays me, I'll trust Him? Yeah. In times of darkness and despair, We come to the realization time and time again, God alone is our only hope. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that you have not given us a, quote, religious book that is filled with perfect people and perfect endings. But Father, you've given us a book that reflects reality, and we thank you for that. And we pray that through it, you would help strengthen our faith. Father, we pray tonight for those whose faith is burning low and whose hope is burning low. Father, maybe some here or others in our body, and we pray, Father, that you would draw near to them, return to them, rescue them. Father, we thank you. that on Christ the solid rock we stand, and all other ground is sinking sand. Help us to believe that, Lord, even when we can't see the rock beneath our feet. In Jesus' name, amen.