Isaiah 57, that's on page 519, if you're wanting to follow along in the Pew Bible. Isaiah 57, and we'll read these 21 verses from God's Word. The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. But come here, you sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the harlot. Whom do you ridicule? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion, They, they are your lot. Even to them you have poured a drink offering, you have offered a grain offering. Should I receive comfort in these? On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed. Even there you went up to offer sacrifice. Also behind the doors and their posts you have set up your remembrance. For you have uncovered yourself to those other than me and have gone up to them. You have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them. You have loved their bed where you saw their nudity. You went to the king with ointment and increased your perfumes. You sent your messengers far off and even descended to Sheol. You are wearied in the length of your way, yet you did not say, there is no hope. You have found the life of your hand, therefore you were not grieved. And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied and not remembered me, nor taken it to heart? Is it not because I have held my peace from of old that you did not fear me? I will declare your righteousness in your works, for they will not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you. but the wind will carry them all away, a breath will take them. But he who puts his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. And one shall say, keep it up, keep it up, prepare the way, take the stumbling block out of the way of my people. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the Spirit would fail before me and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness, I was angry and struck him. I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will also lead him and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked." Amen. May God write His Word on our hearts. When Ruth and I moved to Pittsburgh in the late summer of 2001 so that I could go to seminary, we, in pre-GPS days, knew that we needed to get a very good map of Pittsburgh, the kind of map that now I would need a magnifying glass to read, to look at all the street names, and to follow. And then as we went to different places in Pittsburgh, I would drive and Ruth would follow along on the map, telling me what streets we were coming to, where the turns were going to be, that sort of a thing. But we were in for a little bit of a rude awakening. Being Flatlanders, what we were not used to was the fact that sometimes in Pittsburgh, two streets that on the map intersect and cross paths that actually you come up to this intersection, what you thought was going to be a place where you would turn, and in fact you are 30 or 40 feet in the air above the road that is down below you as you cross over the top from one ridgeline to the other with the road down in the valley below that you wanted to turn on. Two paths that did not intersect. In the book of Isaiah, God is concerned to declare to us the tremendous salvation that He has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ, that He has paid for through the sacrifice of Christ. He is accomplishing and that He is applying to us all of these great and glorious benefits And yet, we might have the experience, much like our experience in Pittsburgh, of saying, I see that road, I see that place where I would want to be, but how do I make my path intersect with that path? How do I get from here to there? And of course, you know the easy answer. You know the, if you will, the basic Sunday school answer of, well, Jesus is the way. The Bible is the guidebook. That is how we get from here to there. Okay, that's very nice. But Isaiah 57 is given specifically to tell us how is it that we intersect with Jesus? How is it that we, in our lives, intersect with the Word of God? And it specifically calls to us to find our intersection through humility, through contrition. As God says in another passage, Psalm 34.18, the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. and saves such as have a contrite spirit." Or in Psalm 51, verse 17, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise. How do we get on God's path of peace? How does our life, our soul, our heart intersect with God's plan of salvation, His roadmap for our blessing through Christ? Well, what Isaiah 57 declares to us is that God's path of peace begins by contritely trusting God to revive you. Getting on God's path of peace begins by contritely trusting God to revive, to bring healing to your soul. And that word contrite, brokenhearted humility is going to be key for us this morning. Now, Isaiah is emphasizing to us, even in the very structure of the passage, the ends of the roads. The end of the road for those who are wicked, the end of the road of idolatry, and the end of the road for those who are And he does this in the very structure of the passage. In fact, he wants to point us very clearly in the direction that the end of the roads are two divergent paths, and one leads to peace, and the other leads to no peace. Peace and no peace. And some of you like pictures. You think more in terms of a picture. Well, you might think of something like a game board. I'm thinking of the game like Candyland, where you're following this path. But you need to have a divergent path, two different paths here. And one is going to lead to peace, the other to no peace whatsoever. And let's see how this comes out in the outline. In the outline, the first two verses are a brief description of the righteous and how he will, verse 2, enter into peace. Interestingly enough, at the end of the passage, verses 20 and 21, the wicked are presented. But the wicked will experience, verse 21, what? No peace. Their path results in no peace. So we start out with the path of the righteous leading to peace. End with two verses. The righteous leading to peace. The wicked leading to no peace. And then, immediately following the introduction, the short introduction to the righteous, then we go down through v. 3-13 and we have an overview of the wicked. long section on the wicked, followed by 13b through verse 19, long section on the righteous. So we go short righteous, long wicked, long righteous, short wicked. See that? There's just a structure here, a very basic righteous, wicked, righteous, wicked, short, long, long, short. And what we see, not only is that it's bracketed with peace for the righteous, no peace for the wicked, but then right in the middle, right in the seam, right in verse 13, what do we see? Why is there no peace for the wicked? Because what they have put their trust and hope in, when you cry out, when you need help, there will be no deliverance for you from your idols. Second half of verse 13, but what's the righteous trusting in? The righteous will trust in his God. he who puts his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain." So idols can't deliver you, but those who trust in God will in fact have the peace of permanence and safety, even, verses 1 and 2, in their death. they will experience deliverance and rest versus the restless troubled life of the wicked. Verse 20, the wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot rest. So the very structure of this text teaches us that there are two paths. There's a path that heads toward peace. There's a path that heads towards no peace. The path where there is no peace winds its way through idolatry and wickedness. And the path that leads to peace winds its way through trusting in God. Now very clearly then from verse three through verse 13, God calls you and me to not pursue those things that can never bring about peace. After a short introduction about the righteous and the trajectory of the righteous, God summons the wicked, doesn't he? Verse three. God says to the wicked, come here, come here and give account of yourself. Give account, testify about who you are, and then I'm going to render a verdict. I will evaluate you. And God is specifically calling them to give an account because that come here, you..." Verse 4, "...you who ridicule, against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue?" God is saying to the wicked, who are you to taunt and to mock? Going back up to verses 1-2, it's describing the fact that the righteous comes into times of trouble, that the righteous even dies, And that the wicked stand around and their response is, see, righteousness doesn't pay. The righteous ends up at the same place that we do. Your plan was no better than ours was. And God now says, well, come and give account of yourself. Let's talk about your plan, O wicked man. Let's talk about who you are, O wicked man. Who are you to stick out your tongue toward the righteous? I just think it's worth noting. You know, kids around the age of four or five think that they've innovated a grand new strategy when they've learned from some neighbor kid or learned on the bus to stick out their tongue at other people, right? I'll show you. Well, that's nothing new, is it? There's nothing new under the sun. At least 2,700 years ago, people were sticking out their tongue as a way of insulting other people. It says it right here in the Scripture. And God says, who are you to stick out your tongue? Who are you to be so cocky and proud? Look at your own heritage. Where did you come from? You are actually illegitimate children. You are the sons of a sorceress. You began your life in idolatry. You are the offspring of an adulterer and a harlot. Where do you get off thinking that you're so grand and important? You are children of transgression, verse four. Look at your own heritage. And if your heritage isn't bad enough, you're so cocky, but let's talk about your investment strategy. your investment strategy that results in, verse 6, your portion and your lot being what? Oh, I have these really, really nice smooth stones that came out of the creek bed. Aren't I really special? Look at this treasure. I have smooth stones. That is your grand plan as you give yourselves to idolatry, God says. And He says, look at this, v. 6 again, among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion. And then it says, they, they, and I went and looked this up in the Hebrew, the word is there twice. It's an incredulous, right? It's just they, yes, yep, they are your lot. That's your choice. As you've heaped up treasure for yourself, what have you actually heaped up? Smooth stones. Actually, if you want a smooth stone to heap up, you know where you can go to get one? Where's the closest smooth stones to here? I can walk out this door and bend down and the whole bed along the sidewalk where the bushes are is just filled with that kind of river gravel, smooth stones. There's nothing special about this at all. God says, who do you think you are? Your heritage is not a good heritage. Your treasure is worthless. Wow, congratulations. You invested in a load of filled dirt, filled gravel. Good job. And then furthermore, your plan for peace and reconciliation is actually to have a covenant with idols. You've set up your remembrance. And you've gone up to the idols and given yourself to them, making a covenant with them. It's interesting that there is an emphasis here and a contrast back with verse 2. The righteous shall rest in their beds. whereas the wicked have enlarged their bed and longed for the bed of the idols." Instead of the bed being a place to rest, the bed is a place of dissatisfaction. A place of a lack of fulfillment. And here are the people, even the people who God had revealed Himself to. And they're sending out envoys. They have a lack of satisfaction, don't they? A lack of peace, a lack of security. And so they keep sending envoys further and further to find other gods, to find other kings who might just give them the kind of security and love that they desire. They invest more and more of themselves. They're busy perfuming themselves, trying to make themselves better and better that maybe someone will want me. Maybe we can somehow come up with a plan, a God who will give us the kind of security and love that we desire, the kind of peace. They're looking for help all over, v. 9, but the result is v. 10, you are wearied. in the length of your way." Here you are traveling and traveling and traveling, and it never gets you where you want to go, God says. You know, back to our game board with the two divergent paths. Those of you who have played Candyland know that one of the worst things that can happen is that you get about three squares away from victory, and you draw the dreaded candy cane. And you have to go back to almost the very beginning, or the candy hearts, or whichever ones it is, right down at the very bottom of the board. And God says the more you travel, the more you're trying and striving, the longer the path gets. And if you could do this on your piece of paper, you would actually draw a path that every time you get close to the end, 20 more squares get added onto the end of it. Every time you get within sight of the finish line, whoop, three more laps required. because here they are traveling and seeking and seeking, and yet the length of their way keeps wearying them. I just want to stick in a parentheses here and remind you that Isaiah in this section is calling us to evaluate again and again in these last 10 chapters, the theme of the Sabbath is going to come up. And one of the blessings of having a weekly Lord's Day, brothers and sisters, is that we get once a week an opportunity in the midst of the journey through this life, an opportunity to catch our breath, to rest, to reorient, to remember where we've come from, God's great works of salvation and where He's taking us. And what a blessing it is to not just have to run and run and run and year after year after year, and you can never catch up to the end. You know, seven days a week, I've just got to keep working. And then what do I do tomorrow morning? Well, I get up and work some more. And God says, that's wearying. You've just pursued your own way. You keep pursuing these idols and you can never get to the end. and you're worn out and tired out. And then verse 2 has an odd turn of phrase that we need to look at. You're wearied in the length of your way, yet you didn't say there is no hope. You didn't give up. You didn't say, well, I guess I'm on the wrong path. I won't make it. Instead what? Verse 10, halfway through, you have found the life of your hand, therefore you were not grieved. That's not the kind of phrase we use. If you're not familiar with that, not surprising. What's he talking about here? He's saying you're worn out but you won't admit that there's no hope in you because you keep looking, you say, well, hey, my hand still works. Surely I can figure out a solution. Surely I can solve this problem on my own. Hey, I'm stuck down here in this pit, but at least I have a shovel, I can just keep digging. And here you go. Just wearing yourself over and over again. And you're not grieved. Verse 10, you've found the life of your hand. Therefore, you weren't grieved. You didn't see any need to repent. Hebrews talks about Esau, who could find no place for repentance. You know, I can dig my way out of this situation. And the end result is what? Well, the end result is God's assessment here. What's God's assessment? We'll look back up in verse 6. Here you are with your pile of smooth stones. You're offering sacrifices to them. Am I supposed to find comfort in this, God says? Right, we're getting near to, or some of you have already had final exams. God's saying, like, just because you brought a pencil to the exam, am I supposed to think like, hey, you're a pretty good student here? Am I supposed to give extra credit because you brought two pencils? I'm not impressed with your pile of rocks. You don't fear me? And your righteousness, verse 11, you've not feared me. And I'll declare your righteousness, God says, and your works. And it's a big pile of nothing. They will not profit you. And so therefore, instead of having peace, Verse 13, the wind will carry your accomplishments away, a breath will take them away. And I think we've got some people here today who are working on memorizing Psalm 1, and we're singing it as a congregation. And that should sound very familiar to us, right? They are like the chaff, which the wind just blows away and it's gone forever. And there it went. God is saying that idolatry, self-willed worship, your own treasuring up things can never bring peace. But the contrast, then, is with this path of peace. And we can take great comfort in the fact that He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all is concerned enough to put us on the path of peace. So whereas we get on the human treadmill and just keep running and running and say, well, maybe if I turn up the speed, I can get somewhere. God actually calls us to the path of peace. And that that path of peace actually begins—square one, you could say, is contrition, contrition for your covetousness and your backsliding. We've got these two big sections on the wicked first and then the big section, verse 13b and following on the righteous. And there's a lot we could do to actually tear these two sections apart and lay them next to each other and see and compare and contrast. But it's not just all contrast. we might say, well, what's the distinction between the righteous and the wicked? Perhaps it's DNA. Perhaps God is saying, well, the Philistines, they're bad, but all Israel, you're good, because you've got Abrahamic DNA. No, that's not the comfort. Or we might say perhaps those who are judged righteous are judged righteous because instead of like v. 12 where God judges and declares the level of righteousness of the wicked, maybe the righteous are just people who God chooses to look the other way and to not examine. No, not going to work. Because v. 18, I have seen His ways, God says. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. Or we might say, well, it seems like the distinction then must surely be the wicked are engaged in idolatry and the pursuit of foolishness and the pursuit of that which can't really fill and can't really satisfy. But wait, verse 17 tells us that even the righteous has fallen into the trap of covetousness and backsliding. So it's not because of better DNA. It's not because of no idolatry. It's not because God just turns a blind eye to the problems of the righteous. Instead, what we see is actually the first contrast is the contrast between verse 10, therefore you were not grieved, And verse 15, I will dwell in a high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. What's God want from you and from me? How do we get from that path that leads to no peace to the path that leads to peace? Well, it begins with a grieving, a mourning over our sin, a willingness to say, God, I have done wrong. A willingness, verse 18, to mourn over our sins. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. He doesn't say, blessed are those who have nothing to mourn about, for they can always be happy and blessed. He says, blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are able to come to me and willing to come and to say, my coveting is wrong. My desires. You can't talk about coveting without talking about the inner man. Deep down inside, I am a troubled person. Deep down inside, I want things that I shouldn't want. Deep down inside, I lust for, I desire things that I shouldn't have. I desire things that God has not given to me. And other things that God has explicitly said you shall not have. Some of those directly in his word, others of them through his providence. God has said, that's not for you. And there's not a person here this morning who can't look at the desires of your heart the things that you long for, and say that these are things, that all of them are good and upright things. That there aren't things that are lamentable. For many of you, here I've been in the Christian life for decades. And I still find that my heart longs for things that it shouldn't long for, that I'm motivated by, and desire things that are not lovely and pure and glorious in the sight of God whatsoever. And God here points that out to us, that idolatry of the heart in order that we might be a contrite people. And He also points out the backsliding. Isn't it true in the Christian life that in one sense, the more you know, the further you've gone with Christ, the more experience you have with backsliding. Because the more informed you are, the more times that God has met with you and revealed Himself to you and shown His love and kindness to you, the more times you in turn have let Him down. The more spiritual highs He's given you, the more times that you can say, actually, I've fallen off that pinnacle experience once again. And we can be such a forgetful people, lazy people, rebellious people who fall right back into the old patterns again and again. Our desires, Covetous desires should grieve us, and our backsliding should grieve us. Now, how do we go from being covetous backsliders to becoming humble and contrite? Well, one of the things that you need to see and know about this passage is that once again, along with the great theme of Isaiah, Isaiah is making sure that we know the God of our salvation. Because notice that it's God who actually gets our attention, isn't it? That it's God, verse 16, who contends with us who is angry with our sin, who is willing to discipline us, striking us, who is willing, verse 17, to hide his face from us for a season in order to awaken us and to work in us. And the path of peace, brothers and sisters, begins not by hiding or denying our sin and pretending that it doesn't exist. But the path of peace begins with us holding up our hearts to the Lord, holding up our history to the Lord, and saying, here are my desires, God. Many of them are deplorable. and I know displeasing to you and wrong. Here are the things that I previously have been taught by you. Here are things that you've done in my life, convictions that you gave me, that then I slid back from. And we would all do well to spend some time lamenting, being humble, being contrite. Because one of our problems as doers is to say, okay, okay, yeah, I know, there's some bad stuff. Now, what do I do about it? What's the next step? I need to move on from here. Well, no, God just wants us to sit in it sit in it from time to time, and to say, God, these things, and to actually list them and identify them, they're wrong, and I'm sad that I'm this way. And we do that in order that then we might turn our attention to the Lord in order that He might revive us. Right, Jesus says in his earthly ministry, it's not the healthy who need a physician. The healthy don't need to go to the doctor, it's the sick. And it's actually as we own our brokenness, as we are humble and contrite, as we say, my desires aren't what they should be, that then we can come to God and say, God, I need your help. I need your healing. And one of the encouragements of the text is that God has seen. It's not as if God's not aware of your and my wrong desires. It's not as if you're going to surprise Him if you come to Him in tears and say, God, I'm really sorry I've backslidden again. Really? I didn't know that about you. No, He knows. He's seen. But again and again, the text tells us that He's a God who, v. 15, will revive the spirit, revive the heart. He won't contend forever. I've seen His ways, v. 18, and will heal Him. Again, down in v. 19, and I will heal Him. If you and I have nothing to lament over, if we have nothing to be contrite about, if there's nothing to be humble about, we don't need healing. We don't need a great physician. If there's no problem, you don't need help. God says, v. 13, trust in Me. Trust in Me. I will revive you. Trust in Me. I'm the one, verse 15, who is high and lofty, whose name is holy. I'm the one who can actually do it. What you and your little pile of rocks can never do for yourself, I can do for you. I can heal and I can revive. And brothers and sisters, that's the God we need. And God says, not only will I revive you, but then I will bring you all the way home. And we see that spelled out, don't we? We see that spelled out because God does this work. Verse 14, and one shall say, heap it up, heap it up, prepare the way, take the stumbling block out of the way of my people. God's saying there's blockades, there's boulders in the way, but I'm going to clear the path so that you can come back home. And he's referring, of course, to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heap these piles, these things that are blocking the way. Get them to the side. Heap those up on that side. Heap them up on that side. Get these stumbling blocks. Make the way smooth so that my people can come home. And notice that God says, verse 15, and what a comfort this is. that God's ultimate plan is not, I'm going to come and live with you on your level. No, God says, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. This is one of the great truths of the Bible, that God does not reconcile himself to us. He doesn't say, well, this is the heavenly standard, but I'm sorry, I can't maintain that standard. I'll just come down to your standard. I'll reconcile myself to you, but instead that he takes sinners like you and me, and he brings us to dwell with him. reconciling us to Him, making us holy, changing our hearts, changing our desires. And God says, I will level and clear that road so I can bring you to me to dwell with me to enjoy my peace forever and ever. And the path back home starts where? It starts with humble contrition. Because if you don't have anything to be humble about, if you don't have anything to be contrite about, then you're already home. You don't need any help. You don't have anything like verse 13 tells us. You don't have anything to trust God for. You've already accomplished all righteousness. Your heart's already all perfect. But if you can look at your heart and say, my heart is a mess of covetous desires, and my life is a testament to backsliding, then you can come to God and say, God, I have a lot to be humble about. I have a lot to mourn over, but you, God, can heal me. And may God awaken each of us to the depth of our sin problems. In order that we might not be a self-justifying people, the people who are just content with our little pile of rocks, but instead may He bring us conviction so that we might experience the grace of His reviving us and giving us life once more. And so, very simply, how do we apply this? As I said earlier, I think we should all take time to jot down the desires of our hearts that are wayward, and the backslidings, the things that God's convicted us of previously that we're not living up to, in order that we might lament before the Lord but in order also that we might experience the blessing, blessed are those who mourn. Why? For they will be comforted. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked, but Peace, peace, verse 19, to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the Lord, I will heal him. And may God in His grace bring healing to you and to me as He ministers His grace to us. Amen. Lord, thank You for Your Word. And Lord, we thank you that you care about us enough to see us, to pursue us, to come after us in your grace and mercy. We thank you that you care about us and that you are willing even to be angry with our sin to hide your face from us for a season in order that we might recognize our waywardness. And Lord, we do pray that you would bring deep conviction to each one of us. The kind of deep conviction that would convict us of the covetousness of our hearts and that would convict us of our backsliding in order that we might be healed. We praise you that you are the God who heals, the God who has indeed created a way for us to be reconciled to you through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.