Heavenly Father, we want to thank you again for this evening. We pray, Lord God, that you give us teachable hearts, help us, Lord God, to be eager not only to learn, but to glean and to know the heart of Christ and what you have been doing all through these years, Lord God, and the prophecies that you've made and how all of these things, one by one, are being fulfilled and will be fulfilled one day.

I pray that you would grip our minds and our hearts, that as a community, Lord, that we would learn to praise you and honor you, that we would have more of you in us than the effects of the world. We pray, Father, that you would bless our time together, just asking for your grace.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we're looking at chapter 58 and 59 today. So chapter 58, the first question that was asked is, what is God calling the prophet to do in verse 1? So the first thing that we see is, if you look at chapter 58, verse 1, "Cry aloud, do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins." In the previous chapter, in chapter 57, who was being rebuked?

Flip your Bible back to chapter 57. Who was being rebuked? Who was being rebuked in chapter 57? The leaders of Israel, right? And what were they called? What were they called to do? What are they called? Watchmen, right? And what was the primary duty of the watchmen? To give warning, to protect.

So remember one of the descriptions that they give in chapter 57 is that they're like dogs but then they can't bark, right? They don't warn. So if we look at chapter 58, it's a continuation of that in 58, where what the leaders of Israel were not doing, God is calling the prophet Isaiah to first and foremost to declare where they stand before God, right?

To call them out in their sins because until they recognize where they stand before God, all the religious things that they're doing doesn't matter. This is probably the most dangerous position that any human being and even Christians can be in, to think that you have salvation when you don't.

Or even as Christians to think that somehow, you know, our primary concern is what can I do to glorify God or what is God's will for my life? And then when you come before God, the primary thing that God's calling you to do is repent, right? So if we don't know where we stand before God, then every religious thing that we're doing in the end is meaningless.

So the first thing that God calls Isaiah to do is to call them out in their sins, to declare to them their transgressions, to reveal their sins, right? What was the primary problem that he's telling Isaiah to call out? Again, they didn't know where they stood before God. He said they were delighting to know his ways.

So on the surface, it seems like they were right with God. There's a lot of sacrifices going on, a lot of superficial religiousness. And yet, God calls Isaiah to tell them about their sin. What does it mean they forsook judgment of God in verse 2? How did you understand that when he said they, you know, they were delighting in the knowledge of God, right, and then they were forsaking the judgment of God?

What does that mean? How did you understand that when you read that? >> Kind of like universal, like God loves everybody. He's not just like, we're just human people. >> So they didn't understand that God was angry with them? >> Or that like God, why would that punish them?

They didn't understand the judgment of God. Anybody else? God is bringing judgment and they don't realize that God is bringing judgment because of their sins, right? They think, they think they, because they think they're standing in right with God. So when all of these things are happening, it has nothing to do with them because they don't recognize the judgment of God.

I mean, I think this is something that, you know, one of the most sobering passages in the scripture, not just this, but all the passages in the Old Testament where religiousness in Israel was extremely heavy, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of worship, a lot of, you know, gathering together, and yet when God shows up, God is angry with them.

God is not happy with them, right? Does that describe what it was like when Jesus came? Yeah, a lot of, a lot of temple worship, a lot of temple activity, right? Every time Passover came, hundreds and thousands of people flocked to Jerusalem, and yet when Jesus comes, Jesus didn't come to praise them.

His primary word that he had for the nation of Israel was rebuke, right? Their repentance wasn't genuine. It was all superficial. And so that's the period that Israel is in right now, right? God is bringing judgment upon them, but they don't recognize this as God's discipline because they're at the temple doing a lot of religious things, right?

So that's what, first and foremost, before he brings restoration, they need to recognize what they need restoration from. And the primary thing that they need restoration from was from their own sins. And so that's why chapter 58, 57 ends with the watchman, basically the leaders of Israel are not doing their job.

They're not warning the people. And then he sends a true prophet, Isaiah, saying, "Go, warn these people about their sins." They're, on the surface, they look like very righteous people, but in reality, when they stand before God, they're under God's condemnation, right? Why didn't God answer their prayers? Because they were seeking for their own pleasure.

Somebody turn to James 4, 2, and 3. If I say somebody, no one's going to turn. Whoever's there first, can you read it out loud? "You desire to have the lust of your murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you find quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. You spend it on your passions." Doesn't that sound, doesn't that passage sound exactly like that? He says you're praying, but then God doesn't answer because you're constantly quarreling, you're frustrated, you do not have because you do not ask, but when you do ask, you don't get it because you're asking for your own pleasure, right?

Sounds exactly like this passage. I'm pretty sure James knew this passage when he was writing that passage, right? This was the condition of Israel. It wasn't because they weren't praying, right? It was because they had sin, right? It wasn't because they weren't at the worship, it wasn't because they weren't active in religious activities.

They were doing all of that stuff and yet their hearts were filled with sin and they kept on coming to God wondering how come God doesn't answer our prayer? And so this is his answer, right? We say that all the time like, "Oh, you know, God always answers prayers." No, God doesn't answer all prayers.

He clearly says, He does not answer this prayer because your prayers, the content of your prayers itself is selfish. Like there's not a holy vending machine that if you do some righteous stuff that God will answer all your prayers. Remember there's a condition to prayer, right? What is the condition to prayer?

If you abide in me, in my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you. So there's condition to prayer. Prayer is not coming to a genie and saying like if you did enough righteous things at church and gave enough and prayed enough and did enough that somehow you're going to come to God and that God's going to answer whatever you want, right?

Even the content of your prayer has to be within the will of God. And so that's what he's saying. It's like, again, it's not because they didn't pray. In fact, they said they love to delight to know God. They were constantly seeking Him. They were constantly praying. In fact, what is the rebuke in this passage?

They were even fasting, right? It wasn't even just casual prayer. They were constantly fasting, but God says your fast is meaningless. So even fasting, even forsaking food and going hungry to seek God, this intense prayer, even that he says in God's eyes is useless because they have no idea where they stand before God right now.

And that's what God is calling Isaiah to show them. Before revival can come, before the Lord's blessing or shalom can come, you have to deal with your sin. Sin that is swept under the rug is never really swept under the rug because God's under the rug too, right? There's nowhere you can go as long as sin is sin, right?

Fervent prayer, sacrifice, giving all of that doesn't make up for the sin that God calls us to repent. And that's what he's trying to do first and foremost. Says they were constantly coming and they were trusting in empty rituals. So again, the historical period right before the judgment comes upon Israel, the Syrians and the Babylonians, during that period, Israel was independent, especially the Southern kingdom.

You know, they, they had some good Kings. They had a lot of bad King, but they had some good Kings. And so there was a lot of sacrifices, a lot of temple activity. So in their mind, they were thinking, well, I mean, think about it in modern terms, right?

I'm active at church, which is what they did. I do my quiet time, which would be the equivalent to them praying, right? I think religious activity wise, they're probably more fervent than most people today. We would probably consider them super Christians, right? At least from on the surface. And yet when they come before God, he said, the primary thing that God's concerned about is not you going out and doing work for God is repentance, right?

So again, this sounds a lot like what Jesus says to, to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jews when he came. And this is probably one of the most deceptive things because when we are busy doing God's work, where it is on the surface, that's when we feel the safest, but then that's when we're also the most frustrated.

At least if you're not a Christian or you're backsliding, you know exactly where you stand before God. That you feel distant from God and you know why, right? Because you know your sins. You know that there's things that you need to repent of, right? But people who are religious, who are not right with God, are the most frustrated because a lot of times we're the ones who are blind.

And we're asking the same question that Israel's asking. How come God doesn't answer my prayer? How come he feels so distant? How come my relationship with God seems so mechanical? And we keep asking, well, I'm doing, I'm trying so hard and yet at the core of where they stand before God, God says, no, until you repent, there is no answer prayer, right?

So this is at the core of Israel's sin right here. What's the kind of fast that he, he seeks? Again, just, just these religious rituals that God doesn't consider that in and of itself fast. It's that God desires for the fasting to be to lose the bonds of the wicked, to undo the straps of the yoke, to set free those who are oppressed, to share bread with those who are hungry, to offer shelter to the homeless, to call the naked and on and on and on.

To care for the family, their flesh. In other words, what he is saying is if you're going to come before God and ask and, and to seek him, you have to care about the things that God cares about. Right? So if you look at all of these things, he's not simply saying that if you, if you read through all the prophets in Israel's history, God has a special place for those who are broken.

And again, I always think about this as a, as a dad of, you know, several kids. And if my kids ask me like what I want, I mean, I have a lot of superficial things, obviously I want, but if there's, I know what my kids can get, like what I really want, they can't afford, right?

For myself. But I think any parent would say, if my oldest son asked me what I desire, my immediate answer would be take better care of your siblings, right? Take better care of your daughter or your, not daughter, your sister, right? Your sister and your siblings, like that would be, because if he takes better care of them, it would make my life easier.

I would have less concern. I would have less burden, less anxiety. So if you look at all of these things, he said, you're coming and asking for selfish things, but if you really want me to listen, he said, this is the true fast. This is what I want you to long for because every one of these things are things that are on his heart, right?

This is consistent with what he says, like, if my words abide in you, right? If you abide in me, my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish, because this is his word, right? And this is his heart and this is his will. So that's what he's saying, make your fast about him and not you, right?

Listen to these five things that God promises if you fast the way God desires to fast, right? Results of true fasting. Light will break through the dawn. What is that in reference to when the light breaks through the dawn? What kind of image do you get? It's not dark anymore.

Yes, that's what I was looking for. The picture that we get is like the nation of Israel under this cloud, right? And they're not able to see. And exactly, I mean, in simple terms, it's from darkness to light, right? When God shows up and he makes things clear, right?

Physically and spiritually, psychologically, things become clear when God shows up. And that's the imagery, right? In other words, when you fast the way that God desires you to fast, when you seek me the way I desire for you to seek me, when God shows up, right, the light gets turned on.

Healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. Think about it. When you're frustrated in righteousness because you're not right with God, how hard you have to work to declare your righteousness. But when you're right with God, it's almost like God goes before you and bears fruit.

Does that make sense? You know, like a church trying so hard to bear fruit when we're not righteous internally. And all we get is the more people you attract to church, the more people who don't like church, right? The more people you bring to church, more of them leave saying that this is filled with self-righteous hypocrites, right?

So even the way that God designed us to bear fruit, what is the first thing he tells us to do? Abide in me. You can't bear fruit if you do not abide in me. This works as a church and individually. I mean, think about the things that you're praying about.

I mean, it may be godly prayer. Maybe what God desires for you. Maybe salvation of a family member or a friend or co-worker. You know, no matter how hard you work and how articulate you are and how many great books that you give to them, if you're not abiding in Christ, you're trying to reproduce and you're trying to bear righteousness on your own.

You just, we just aren't going to be successful. Here it says when God shows up, the light gets turned on, right? There's health and then righteousness goes before you, right? You're not forcing it. He said it goes before you. The Lord will protect you. The Lord will answer them.

I mean, this is probably the biggest benefit of being right with God, that our prayers are not frustrated. The greatest benefit of being a Christian is we have a direct access to our father, the creator of the universe. So to have our prayers frustrated is probably the most frustrating thing.

It's like having a million dollars in the bank account and not being able to access it. You're going hungry. You need to pay your bills and you know you have the money, but you can't access it. You don't have the code. And so for a Christian, the greatest asset that we have is that we are able to enter the throne of grace and call him our Abba father.

But when we have superficial relationship with God, it's just religiousness. And yet we're just harboring all kinds of sins hidden in our hearts. And he says, then our prayers are frustrated. Our fasting is useless. And in the end, everything that we do, we try to do with all our might.

And in the end, you just get frustrated, right? God will answer our prayers. The Lord is the one who will guide them. Again, how often are we frustrated because we're looking for the Lord's will? You know, I think the most important aspect of finding the Lord's will is to be in the Lord's will.

To be in the Lord's will. If you're in the Lord's will on a daily basis, the Lord's will become more and more clear to you. But if you're not living in the Lord's will on a day to day basis, to try to figure out what the Lord's will while you are outside the Lord's will, it's impossible, right?

The Lord's will was never meant to be accessed from outside of his will. If that makes any sense. You have to be in the house of God, in your personal relationship with God. And if you're not there, and then you're looking from the outside and asking for the Lord's will, you're just going to be frustrated, right?

So all of these things, when the light breaks through, all of these things happen. Even in scorched land, he said, you will be satisfied. So in other words, our satisfaction is not going to come by circumstance. By fixing this and adjusting that and changing that. It's like, that's not where satisfaction comes.

Even in a dry land, when everything else is being dried up and dying, he said, you will be satisfied. He said, you will make their bones strong. Ancient ruins will be built. In other words, what was lost will be reestablished when the Lord shows up. And this is all a picture of revival.

All of these things are what happens when true revival breaks out. And what is the catalyst for this revival? True fasting, right? What are some other ways we can put that? What is the catalyst for true fasting? What's another way we can put it? Repentance, right? Getting right with God.

And all of these are same things, but basically getting right with God when God shows up. But God is not going to show up when there's unrepentant sin. God doesn't just show up where everybody is just kind of hiding their sin, you know, and pretending to be okay. Right?

So God shows up when people are ready to repent. The only way that, again, justification causes us to have a, restore the relationship with God. Right? Justification happens when we repent. Revival happens also when we repent. Sanctification. Sanctification is a constant process of recognizing sins internally, externally, sins of commission and omission.

When these things are being repented of, that's when revival breaks out. Right? And ultimately they will delight in the Lord and they will be fed. Kind of remind you of Psalm chapter 1, right? He blesses the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, seeking to seek the mockers, but it is delight in the law of the Lord.

And on his law, he meditates day and night. Right? He's like a tree planted by the streams of water. Right? And it basically describes this tree that's planted by the rivers of water and it is always being fed. And as a result of always being fed, his leaf is always green.

And in due time it bears fruit. Right? And so what did the tree do to bear fruit? They planted by the water. You just need to stay by the water. Right? And that's, that's what he's telling Israel to do. You've drifted away from me and you're trying so hard with all these religious things that somehow if you do more religious things that you can somehow bend God to bless you.

But God always desires to bless them, but he's not going to bless them when there's unrepentant sin. Right? So again, this is, all of this is a picture of revival. You know, if you notice in chapter 58, verse 8 begins with promise of light. Right? Then your light break forth like the dawn.

And then verse 10, again, with the light breaking forth. It's almost like verse 8 is talking about God's light breaking forth. And then verse 10 says, when, when the light breaks forth and you're being revived and your delight is in the Lord and you're being satisfied and you're being fed and it said you will ultimately be a light in the darkness.

Right? So if you're not in the light, you can't be the light. You won't be effective being in the light. You can't be the light by being articulate. You can't be the light by being smart. You can't be a light in the world by having a lot of experience.

The only way that you can be in, you can be a light to the world is by being in the light, the true light of God himself. Chapter 59, it begins, it says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ears dull that it cannot hear.

Clearly he says, God is willing and he is able. Let's take a minute to think about that. He says, God is willing and he is able. We know he is able. A lot of times we struggle with, is he willing? Well, he says he's, he is willing and he is able.

He's the one who's constantly calling his people to come to him. He's the one, he's the one who's pursuing us. He's not like he's pursues us and then when he looks like we're going to pursue him, he turns around and he hides. And sometimes we think that somehow that's the reason why we're frustrated.

Like he calls us and we try to go and then we can't find him. Here it says it's not because he is not able. It's not because he's not willing. It says because of our sins, that God's face is hidden from us. What are five things that mark a rebellious person according to this text?

Their hands are defiled by blood. They speak lies and mutter wickedness. They seek dishonest gain. The reason why I highlighted this is, this is probably the reason behind all of this. Seeking selfish gain, right? And he said the reason why God doesn't answer prayers is because your prayers are self-centered and self-seeking.

Why, why would they have blood in their hands? Because they're trying to profit. They're willing to kill to make money for their own profit. Why are they telling the wickedness? For their own profit. Their feet run to evil. Their throats are filled with iniquity. And so if you look at the totality of what he's saying here, he's saying in every way they become corrupt.

Their hands, tongue, feet, thoughts. You know when the Bible says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength like every part of who you are to love God. So this is a description of a person who is thoroughly corrupt. That is not just with his mind, his hands, his tongue, his feet, his thought, in every way, right?

He has turned away from the Lord. So he calls Israel to repentance and he calls them to justice and righteousness. And so if you seek justice and righteousness while there is injustice in you and unrighteousness in you, he describes in verses 9 through 14 what seeking and pursuing righteousness while there's injustice and unrighteousness in us, what the experience would be for that sinner.

He said they'll seek light but they're going to find darkness. I hope that throughout the week you guys really saw it because I think there's a lot of deep application to every one of these things. Think about that. That even in the pursuit of righteousness when there's unrighteousness in you, the end result is going to be greater darkness.

Again, you know, I encourage you guys to take some time to really meditate and think what that looks like. They desire brightness but there was constant gloom. Gloom to me represents opposite of joy, right? They're seeking, they're desiring joy but they're getting exactly the opposite. Because they're blind, they're groping around in the dark, they can never know for sure.

You can read the Bible from morning till night and not understand the will of the Lord. Remember what the scripture says? The word of God is spiritually discerned. It's not simply by study, it's not just academics. The will of God is not just something that you can know by studying and listening to a sermon.

If there's unrepentant heart, you can hear the same sermon and not understand at all his heart, what his desire is. He said that's why, again, an unrighteous person seeking righteousness, at the end, he doesn't gain more light. It's like a blind man groping around trying to figure things out but he'll never figure it out because he can't see.

They will lose their vigor and be like dead men. The very thing that's supposed to give them strength is sucking the life out of them. And I'm sure every single one of us has experienced that to a certain degree. That when you're passionate for God, you can come clean the church, serve the church, snacks, you know, fellowship and every part of this gives you strength.

But for whatever the reason, when you're not walking right with God, the very same things that would give you strength sucks the life out of you. Coming to church sucks the life out of you. Serving other people, the idea of talking to other people sucks the life out of you.

You don't know what I'm talking about? I hope you never do. I think some of us do. You know that picture, it took me a while to figure out exactly what he was saying. He's saying, you know, they roar like bears and they mourn like the doves. And he says in the end it does no good.

They have no strength in themselves. They can fight fiercely like a bear and they can be gentle like a dove. But in the end, by their own strength, it does nothing. All it is is a technique. There's no power in the bear and there's no power in the dove.

So in the end, whether you are introverted or extroverted, whether you're a type A personality or B or C or D, whatever personality that you may have, he says all of that stuff is just roaring. It's just noise. In the end, it accomplishes nothing. So one of the questions that I asked, why would someone who departs from evil make himself a prey at the end of verse 15, 59, right?

How did you guys answer that? What is that a picture of when they say that? Okay, persecution. So what is that? Definitely it's persecution. But what is that a picture of? How is that an indictment against Israel? Okay. All right. It's a description of just how corrupt Israel has become.

That the righteous are the ones being persecuted by the people of God. Right? Do you become a prey by being righteous? That's how thoroughly Israel has drifted away from God. Right? I mean, you can see that in various periods of Israel's history. You can see that in various periods of church history.

And you can kind of see it even in our generation. When you, when a church begins to drift away from God, the one who stands up for righteousness, those are the ones who get targeted. Jesus freak. Right? And I think where that is the most prominent is in a very nominal Christian culture, which in my opinion is Orange County.

It's not only Orange County, but my experience. And again, this is not, you know, this is not specifically and because I'm a part of Orange County Christianity myself, but you know, I've had opportunities to visit churches from various places all in the United States. And I can tell you, there's only two other places that I visited that is equally complacent or worse.

Guess what? Canada was one of them. If anybody's from Canada, don't be offended. That was one place I came back, man. These people are so complacent. And the only other place that I saw, and I, this other place I didn't see up close. I just judged them from afar.

Hawaii, Hawaii, just too laid back for, for anything. And then the third most difficult place I would say is Southern California. I won't say Northern California. I say Southern California. And when I say Southern California, I'm specifically talking about Orange County. Because I think LA is different. I got saved in LA and I, you know, what's it?

What is it? Anyway, this spiritual environment in LA is a little bit different. It's a little bit more like NorCal. Either you are or you're not. So if you're not, you know, you're gangster. And then if you are, it tends to kind of, because the environment is a little bit more harsher.

But Orange County is like, you're not, you're not like full on and you're not that bad either. You're kind of right in the middle, you know? And so nominal Christianity is a norm in Orange County. You can disagree with me. I'm just telling you my opinion, my observation. And I think one of the hardest places to be sober and passionate for God is Orange County.

You know, the Orange County has a reputation of being very, very conservative. And we are surrounded by mega churches and almost maybe 50, 60, 70% of the people that you may run into, you know, maybe going to church, even if it's not every week, just nominally just going back and forth.

So to be a nominal Christian is very easy. To go to church in Orange County is very easy, right? But to be passionate for God in Orange County is very, very difficult. Because you stand out. I think it's harder to go against nominal Christianity than non-Christians. That's my opinion, right?

Because you're not being persecuted by non-Christian. When you get persecuted by non-Christian, you almost feel like, you know, emboldened. Yes, I stand right with God. But when that comes in nominal Christianity, sometimes within the church, you know, that's something really hard to swallow, right? But that's where you and I are.

And again, I'm saying this because I'm a part of this myself. So this is a place where we need to be more sober. You need to be more sober here than you are in my opinion, than NorCal, right? Because you kind of know where the lines are in NorCal.

You kind of know where the lines are in LA, kind of, right? Orange County, it's very difficult to find the line. Where is that line where God says you're right and you're wrong, right? Where is that line between God comforting struggling sinners versus rebuking rebellious sinners? It's very difficult to find that line.

This is where Israel was, right? It's very difficult to figure out who are the true prophets and who are not. So who is Dehi? I think that's pretty obvious. He's the Messiah to come, the one anointed, right? The only answer to all of this is the Messiah himself. There's only one Redeemer and everything that God's been doing was for this purpose.

And his coming describes him in verse 17 as a mighty warrior. He's coming for battle. He's coming with garments of vengeance. The Lord will avenge. And he will also come to redeem. So if you see his first coming, you know, he didn't come as a mighty warrior. He didn't come to avenge necessarily, but you see him at the end times in the book of Revelation when he comes, this is exactly how he's described, how Jesus is described in his second coming.

Where his first coming, he comes to deal with sin, to give opportunity for sinners to repent. But when that period of his grace is done, when he comes to second coming, he's not coming to do what he did the first time. What he did the first time was to come and introduce a way of salvation.

And those who are rejected salvation, he will come in full vengeance. And that's how he's described in the book of Revelation. OK. (hissing)