Come Down Lord: We Need You!
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We Have Sinned Against God & Our hearts have become Hardened
Isaiah recognizes, even as you cry out to God for rescue that God's people deserve what they are getting because they have sinned against God; they have wandered away from his ways; they have lost all the fear of God!
Like we said last Sunday, if you really want to know that there is a hope for salvation for a person, you hear how they understand their sinfulness and their wickedness. If you meet people who still think that they deserve some merit for coming before God, or who are proud of their good works or their efforts or their service to the church, you know that those people are of all men most miserable!
Do you want to know that there is a hope for a man to be saved? You will hear him crying out like the prophet Isaiah in chapter six, "Woe unto me, a man of unclean lips; who unto me a man who is unworthy to come before the Lord for I am undone!" And in fact, what Isaiah is saying is that I deserve to die. I am not worthy to be in God's presence, I have sinned!
In Psalm 51, as David prays after he has been confronted by the prophet Nathan, and he cries out for forgiveness before the Lord. Not only does he highlight the reality of his sin, but he says, you see God, what we are dealing with here is not a weakness of the flesh. It is not a once in awhile mistake that I have committed. It is my nature that is who I am. From my mother's womb. I am a sinner! What happened to me is not something that just happened unexpectedly for me to say, "Oh you mean I have sinned again? Oh my goodness!" No. Sin is not just the things we do. Sin is who we really are. Somebody has said that we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners! The reason we steal, the reason we lie, the reason we have jealousy, the reason we are immoral is that, by nature, we are twisted sinners. And when we sin, we have just responded according to who we are. It's not a surprise.
David recognizes and he says, God, if you are going to forgive me, I want you to forgive me knowing that this won't be the last time! Unless you do something that is beyond me and above me, I am always going to fail you, for, from my mother's womb, I have been a sinner.
The reality of our sinfulness is the foundation of the embracing of the Gospel. Until people understand that they have sinned and that their sin grieves the Lord, they will not have the motivation to come before the Lord in repentance. Until people understand the darkness of darkness, they will not appreciate the light but pierces through that darkness! And Isaiah begins from here. Isaiah begins by saying, you see, we know we know we know we have sinned. We have wandered away from you. And our wonder is not one of a mistake by the way. It is one of nature and character. That's who we are. He points out the fact that their hearts have been hardened. That not only do they recognize that they have seen, that they are even so hardened that they don't want to break down and say, "I'm sorry!"
It's one thing to recognize that you're a sinner, is another thing for you to want to make amends and begin afresh. Many of the people who will end up in hell are not people who didn't know that they were sinners. They will not be in hell out of ignorance or innocence. They will be there because while they recognized that they were sinners, they still refused to submit or surrender to the only means of salvation that was made available to them by God. It's not a case of ignorance! It's a case of deliberate hard-heartedness.
Page 1 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 3
We Have Sinned Against God & Our hearts have become Hardened
Isaiah recognizes, even as you cry out to God for rescue that God's people deserve what they are getting because they have sinned against God; they have wandered away from his ways; they have lost all the fear of God!
Like we said last Sunday, if you really want to know that there is a hope for salvation for a person, you hear how they understand their sinfulness and their wickedness. If you meet people who still think that they deserve some merit for coming before God, or who are proud of their good works or their efforts or their service to the church, you know that those people are of all men most miserable!
Do you want to know that there is a hope for a man to be saved? You will hear him crying out like the prophet Isaiah in chapter six, "Woe unto me, a man of unclean lips; who unto me a man who is unworthy to come before the Lord for I am undone!" And in fact, what Isaiah is saying is that I deserve to die. I am not worthy to be in God's presence, I have sinned!
In Psalm 51, as David prays after he has been confronted by the prophet Nathan, and he cries out for forgiveness before the Lord. Not only does he highlight the reality of his sin, but he says, you see God, what we are dealing with here is not a weakness of the flesh. It is not a once in awhile mistake that I have committed. It is my nature that is who I am. From my mother's womb. I am a sinner! What happened to me is not something that just happened unexpectedly for me to say, "Oh you mean I have sinned again? Oh my goodness!" No. Sin is not just the things we do. Sin is who we really are. Somebody has said that we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners! The reason we steal, the reason we lie, the reason we have jealousy, the reason we are immoral is that, by nature, we are twisted sinners. And when we sin, we have just responded according to who we are. It's not a surprise.
David recognizes and he says, God, if you are going to forgive me, I want you to forgive me knowing that this won't be the last time! Unless you do something that is beyond me and above me, I am always going to fail you, for, from my mother's womb, I have been a sinner.
The reality of our sinfulness is the foundation of the embracing of the Gospel. Until people understand that they have sinned and that their sin grieves the Lord, they will not have the motivation to come before the Lord in repentance. Until people understand the darkness of darkness, they will not appreciate the light but pierces through that darkness! And Isaiah begins from here. Isaiah begins by saying, you see, we know we know we know we have sinned. We have wandered away from you. And our wonder is not one of a mistake by the way. It is one of nature and character. That's who we are. He points out the fact that their hearts have been hardened. That not only do they recognize that they have seen, that they are even so hardened that they don't want to break down and say, "I'm sorry!"
It's one thing to recognize that you're a sinner, is another thing for you to want to make amends and begin afresh. Many of the people who will end up in hell are not people who didn't know that they were sinners. They will not be in hell out of ignorance or innocence. They will be there because while they recognized that they were sinners, they still refused to submit or surrender to the only means of salvation that was made available to them by God. It's not a case of ignorance! It's a case of deliberate hard-heartedness.
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