Isaiah 59 A Reality Check Series

Isaiah 59

A Reality Check

Separated from God us vs. 1-8

Confession of Our Sins vs. 9-15

God Brings Salvation vs. 16-21

Intro: CNN Reporter in a gunfight

A cross-country road trip got derailed for a former CNN anchor and her husband after a would-be robber forced his way into their motel room and a shootout ensued.

Lynne Russell told reporters that her husband, Chuck de Caro, decided to stop at a Motel 6 on Albuquerque's western edge because they were tired after a long day of traveling.

When she went out to the car to get something and returned to the room, a man was at the door with a handgun.

"He pushed me into the room and that's when my husband came out of the shower and saw what was happening," "We tried to calm him, confuse him and do everything we could do to just come out of it in one piece."

After grabbing her husband's briefcase, the man started shooting at de Caro. Russell ducked

behind the furniture and de Caro fired back, hitting the man.

The robber was killed and de Caro was wounded.

"It was a gun battle, and Chuck was bleeding heavily, but he didn't stop firing because the man was firing on him," Russell told The New York Post.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Russell said her husband was shot three times and was recovering at a hospital but she did not immediately kno

Read Isaiah 59:1-4

We see a very simple Gospel principle delivered here this morning

Our sin separates us from God

Only the Grace of a loving redeemer can rectify that situation

Through our repentance God forgives and restores a right relationship with Him

Repentance doesn’t come easily for any of us, and its hardest of all for people who have become accustomed to using religion as a cover for their sin

It’s easier to blame God or others than to take a hard long look at ourselves

Isaiah won’t allow such evasion

It isn’t God who is the problem, but you

Your sins have separated you from your God

Isaiah pulls aside the mask & holds up a mirror so that they can see themselves as they really are

In essence he is giving them a reality check and in the process we get one too

Separated from God vs. 1-8

The first reality check we get today is that our own assessment

vs. 1 Hand not shortened

God is speaking to the the Israelites and saying “My hand is not shortened nor my ear deaf”

Basically I see and hear you and I haven’t forsaken you I am just not responding

There is something that is preventing God from redeeming the situation

Is 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke nI dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

God is capable of doing amazing things so if he isn’t we have to ask ourselves why?

vs. 2 Sin Separates

Well God doesn’t give time for Israel to answer or ponder that… he answers

Your sins have made a separation between you and God

When we sin God doesn’t leave us but there is a obstruction put between us

We need to confess that sin for it to be removed and made right

Separate: to withdraw, go over, be excluded, singled out

The problem isn’t with God’s power, His knowledge, or His interest. The problem is with our sin.

Sin has separated you from your God.

In what way does sin separate us from God?

Sin does not necessarily separate us from the presence of God, because God is present everywhere (Psalm 139:7) and even Satan can have an audience with God (Job 1:6).

Sin does not separate us from the love of God, because God loves sinners (Romans 5:8).

Rom 8:39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But sin still does separate.

Sin separates us from fellowship with God, because at least at the point of our sin, we no longer think alike with God.

Sin separates us from the blessing of God, because at least at the point of our sin, we are not trusting God and relying on Him.

Sin separates us from the some of the benefits of God’s love, even as the Prodigal Son was still loved by the father, but didn’t enjoy the benefits of his love when he was in sin.