1. WHEN GOD WILL NOT HEAR A LOOK AT ISAIAH 59:1-15 Part 1 Isaiah 59:1-8

2. Introduction (Some thoughts from Zondervan’s Pastoral Annual)  “All of us are prone to complain and quick to feel mistreated. There are times when even God does not act to suit us. Sometimes we get the idea that if we have lead average, respectable lives, God is indebted to see that all goes well with us. When clouds come on our horizon, we suddenly feel that heavens have turned to brass and our prayers have been misplaced or ignored. God seems to be looking the other way”  “Israel suffered from the same affliction. They supposed God had not been sufficiently appreciative of their merits. Observe their complaint, “ 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’…They seemed to feel that time spent in religious performances did not pay, because every time they needed help, the Lord was looking the other way”

3. Introduction (Some thoughts from Zondervan’s Pastoral Annual)  “Usually the people who feel this way are those who have never given anything more than lip service to God. Dedicated disciples understand that a part of their calling involves giving a faithful witness in the midst of the same difficulties that beset all people.”  The thought we want to look at this evening is, if God indeed will not hear you, a careful look at the message of Isaiah will prove very beneficial

4. When God will not hear you: sin is the reason Is 59:2 “ 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”  The problem is not that God is not a loving God The problem is the importance man places on sinful things As long as man prefers his sin to God’s grace, the separation will remain God calls people from their sin but He does not drag them to Him kicking and screaming or if they are unwilling

5. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:3  “For your hands are defiled with blood - The prophet proceeds here more particularly to specify the sins of which they were guilty; and in order to show the extent and depth of their depravity, he specifies the various members of the body - the hands, the fingers, the lips, the tongue, the feet as the agents by which people commit iniquity.” (Barnes’ Notes)  “And your fingers with iniquity - It seems more probable that the idea suggested by Grotius is the true sense, that it means that they were guilty of rapine and theft. The fingers are the instruments by which theft - especially the lighter and more delicate kinds of theft - is executed.” (Barnes’ Notes)

6. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:3  “Your lips have spoken lies - The nation is false, and no confidence can be reposed in the declarations which are made. (Barnes’ notes)  “Your tongue has muttered perversity- the tongue "mutters" malicious insinuations ("perverseness"; perverse misrepresentations of others) (Jamieson- Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

7. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:4  “None calleth for justice - Or rather, there is no one who brings a suit with justice; no one who goes into court for the purpose of obtaining justice. There is a love of litigation; a desire to take all the advantage which the law can give; a desire to appeal to the law, not for the sake of having strict justice done, but for the sake of doing injury to others, and to take some undue advantage. (Barnes’ Notes)  Nor does any plead for truth- All men wink at the injuries and oppressions and none go about to remedy them. (Geneva Study Bible)

8. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:4  They trust in empty words- they trust in vanity; in nothing, as the Vulgate Latin; that is worth nothing; in their own strength, wisdom, riches, righteousness, especially the latter:  They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity- According to their wicked devices, they hurt their neighbours. (Geneva Study Bible)

9. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:5  They hatch vipers eggs- This figurative expression is designed to show the evil nature and tendency of their works. They were as if they should carefully nourish the eggs of a venomous serpent. Instead of crushing them with the foot and destroying them, they took pains to hatch them, and produce a venomous race of reptiles. Nothing can more forcibly describe the wicked character and plans of sinners than the language used here - plans that are as pernicious, loathsome, and hateful as the poisonous serpents that spread death and ruin and alarm everywhere. (Barnes’ Notes)

10. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:5  And weave spiders web- Another proverbial speech whereby is taught, both how by their plots they weave nets, lay snares industriously with great pains and artifice. And also how their designs will come to nothing, as the spider's web is soon swept away.” (Wesley’s Notes)  He who eats of their eggs dies- That is, he who partakes of their counsels, or of the plans which they form, shall perish. (Barnes’ Notes)

11. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:5  From that which is crushed a viper breaks out- The serpents here referred to are among the most venomous and destructive that are known. And the comparison here includes two points – That their plans resembled the egg of the serpent. The nature of the egg cannot be easily known by an inspection. It may have a strong resemblance to those which would produce some inoffensive and even useful animals. It is only when it is hatched that its true nature is fully developed. So it is with the plans of the wicked. When forming, their true nature may not be certainly known, and it may not be easy to determine their real character. Their plans, when developed, are like the poisonous and destructive production of the serpent's egg. The true nature is then seen; and it is ruinous, pernicious, and evil.” (Barnes’ Notes)

12. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:6  Their webs will not become garments- The spider's web is unfit for clothing; and the idea here is, that their works are as unfit to secure salvation as the attenuated web of a spider is for raiment. The sense is, says Vitringa, that their artificial sophisms avail nothing in producing true wisdom, piety, virtue, and religion, or the true righteousness and salvation of people, but are airy speculations. The works of the self-righteous and the wicked; their vain formality, their false opinions, their subtle reasonings, and their traditions, are like the web of the spider. They bide nothing, they answer none of the purposes of a garment of salvation. The doctrine is, that people must have some better righteousness than the thin and gossamer covering which their own empty forms and ceremonies produce” (Barnes’ Notes)

13. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:7  “Their feet run to evil- Make haste to commit all manner of sin, and particularly that which follows, with great eagerness and swiftness, taking delight and pleasure therein, and continuing in it; it is their course of life.” (Gill’s Exposition)  “and they make haste to shed innocent blood: in wars abroad or at home, in quarrels and riots, or through the heat of persecution; which if it does not directly touch men's lives, yet issues in the death of many that fall under the power of it; and which persecutors are very eager and hasty in the prosecution of. The phrase fitly describes their temper and conduct:” (Gill’s Exposition)

14. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:7  “their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity: their thoughts are continually devising things vain and sinful in themselves, unprofitable to them, and pernicious to others: their thoughts, words, and actions being evil; their tongue, lips, hands, and feet being employed in sin, show their general depravity:” (Gill’s Exposition)  “wasting and destruction are in their paths: they waste and destroy all they meet with in their ways, their fellow creatures and their substance; and the ways they walk in lead to ruin and destruction, which will be their portion for evermore.” (Gill’s Exposition)

15. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:8  “The way of peace they know not - The phrase 'way of peace' may denote either peace of conscience, peace with God, peace among themselves, or peace with their fellow-men. Possibly it may refer to all these; and the sense will be, that in their whole lives they were strangers to true contentment and happiness. From no quarter had they peace, but whether in relation to God, to their own consciences, to each other, or to their fellow-men, they were involved in continual strife and agitation” (Barnes’ Notes)

16. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:8  “There is no justice in their ways- The sense is, that there was no justice in their dealings. there was no disposition to do right. They were full of selfishness, falsehood, oppression, and cruelty.” (Barnes’ Notes)  “They have made themselves crooked paths- A crooked path is an emblem of dishonesty, fraud, deceit. A straight path is an emblem of sincerity, truth, honesty, and uprightness. The idea is, that their counsels and plans were perverse and evil. We have a similar expression now when we say of a man that he is 'straightforward,' meaning that he is an honest man.”

17. A deeper look at Is 59:3-8  Is 59:8  “Shall not know peace- the way of peace with God, as before; or he shall not have any experience of true, solid, and substantial peace in his own conscience now, and shall not attain to eternal peace hereafter. (Gill’s Exposition)

18. Conclusion  We have seen through this lesson just how ugly things can look when people choose to live a life of sin  If you have found yourself in any of the actions we have read about, now is the time to make that known and get your life right with God. We invite you to act as we stand and sing