Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20030126.htm

JESUS CHRIST IN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY
Part XXIV: Resting In God's POWER In Helplessly Apostate Times
(Isaiah 53:1-3 and 59:1-21 with John 12:37-38)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

It is easy to become discouraged when considering the depth of evil that exists in the world's institutions, let alone in its individuals:

(1) Institutionally, the world contains raw injustices:

(a) This past week our nation observed Martin Luther King, Jr. day, commemorating the efforts of Dr. King to even the scales of racial injustice done to minorities.

Though there is still much to be done for minorities to be treated as fully equal with other Americans, injustices are being done against those in the majority in the name of racial justice: the President of the United States himself recently complained about the enrollment policy of the University of Michigan: there, whites who are qualified to enroll as students are often turned away to make room for unqualified minority students just to meet Affirmative Action quotas!

(a) My brother, a graduate of Cal-Poly Tech university in San Louis Obispo, California tells me he would not be able to get into that institution now were he to apply as an undergraduate as he is a white male! The school is under such pressure to accept minorities and women that white males try applying at other schools instead!

(2) Individually, the world can appear to be a very evil place:

(a) Tuesday morning, I watched a TV news anchor man interview the lawyer of a Houston client charged with murder.

His client, a wife of the victim who had her husband's seven-year-old daughter in the car with her at the time had run over and killed her the girl's father, running the car over him three times!

The accused woman's lawyer is seeking leniency in spite of the fact that his client had verbally explained to the young stepdaughter an hour before the incident that she wanted to "kill" her father!

Even the news reporter seemed appalled at the murder, and wondered aloud how the attorney could even defend the woman!

(b) Every day, 4,000 Americans are slain by abortion, and, according to recent reports, an increasing number of them are full-term babys being killed in partial-birth abortion procedures!



WHAT are we to DO to HANDLE the DISMAY we sense when we view the DEPTHS of the EVIL that exists in our world?!

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "It is easy to be dismayed when witnessing the great amount of EVIL we see in our world today. How are we to DEAL with it?!"
  1. The RISEN Jesus told His disciples on the road to Emmaus how He fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies, Luke 24:25-27.
  2. As these men were edified by Christ's teaching of those passages (Luke 24:32), we also view them, following the list of prophecies named in the Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, s. v. "Messianic Prophecies."
  3. The prophecies of Isaiah 53:1 and 59:1-21 and their fulfillment in John 12:37-38 et al. on Messiah's being "the ARM of the Lord" reveal God's All-Sufficiency to aid us in helplessly apostate times:
    1. The expression, "arm of the Lord" is a metonymy expressing the strength of God, cf. E. J. Young, Isaiah, vol. III, p. 341.
    2. This expression appears in Isaiah 53:1 and 59:1-21 to contrast God's strength with man's great sin in deeply apostate times:
      1. In Isaiah 53:1-3 with John 12:37-38, Messiah's miracles done in God's power ("arm") would not cause His message to be accepted for worldly sinful reasons within the nation Israel:
        1. Isaiah asked if anyone believed the Message of Messiah that was backed by His miracles done in God's power ("arm"), 53:1.
        2. This call is answered by Isaiah 53:2-3: due to Messiah's humble origins and Israel's rebellion against God, Messiah would be rejected by Israel in spite of His miracles done in God's power.
        3. In fulfillment of Isaiah 53:1, the Apostle John reported that though Jesus had performed so many miracles before the nation, it still did not receive Him, John 12:37-38.
        4. What is especially heinous about this rejection is that many of the leaders secretly believed in Jesus, but fear of losing face kept them from publicly accepting Him, John 12:42-43!
      2. In Isaiah 59:2-15, the humanly helpless state of Israel's departure from God is described, showing it was in great contrast to the "arm" of God that would arise to counter man's great apostasy:
        1. Isaiah explained Israel's sins had separated the nation from God's favor and the blessing of answered prayer, Isaiah 59:2.
        2. Isaiah then detailed various sins that had led to this separation from God and His blessings: (a) murder (Isa. 59:3a), (b) lying (Isa. 59:3b), (c) the absence of even wanting justice (Isa. 59:4a), (d) trusting in vain things versus trusting in God (Isa. 59:4b), (e) destructive hypocrisy (Isa. 59:5), (f) violence (Isa. 59:6-8), (g) resulting ignorance (Isa. 59:9-10), (h) oppressive rebellion (Isa. 59:13) and the fact that, (i) when one departed from evil, he left himself a prey for destruction by evildoers, Isa. 59:15b!
        3. Nevertheless, when all hope was lost in the depths of man's great apostasy, God's own "arm" of strength would arise to conquer man's sin with salvation in the Messiah, Isaiah 59:16.
    3. In viewing Scripture, we see HOW God's "arm" of salvation through Messiah would come to rescue man from his great apostasy:
      1. Isaiah 59:16a reveals an appalling situation in which no man even bothered to intercede for justice to the wrongs done in Israel!
      2. Thus, God's "arm" of power ALONE would bring salvation, and God's righteousness ALONE would sustain Him in it, Isa. 59:16b.
      3. We apply this truth by way of other passages for insight as follows:
        1. When all hope for righteousness in man was totally lost, God sent His own sinless Son, Jesus Christ to provide salvation for man by being man's Substitutionary Sacrifice to absorb the wrath of Almighty God against man's sin, Romans 3:20-26.
        2. Thus, when men believe alone in Christ alone, God alone pronounces him righteous, Romans 3:23-24; Ephesians 2:8-9.
        3. Then, the justified live righteously by depending on God's gracious gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Romans 8:3-4.
        4. They look to God ALONE to deliver the world from its current wicked plight at the Second Coming of Christ, Isaiah 59:17-21.
Application: If we are distraught at current conditions in the world let alone in individuals, we have come face to face with the products of man's GREAT sinfulness. The SOLUTION comes by God's "arm" of salvation: (1) first, we must trust in Christ for PERSONAL salvation from sin's plague within OURSELVES, John 3:16; Romans 3:23-24. (2) Then, we live by faith in GOD'S power as believers to live righteously, and (3) GIVE UP on reforming the world, but disciple others to become citizens of Christ's COMING righteous kingdom by faith, Matthew 28:19-20. (4) We respond to the evil we see by (a) working to disciple others for Christ and (b) await Christ's blessed kingdom!

Lesson: Because of his SIN, man is BOTH INDIVIDUALLY and CORPORATELY UNABLE and UNWILLING to be upright, and is DOOMED in HIMSELF for God's judgment. ONLY by CHRIST is there hope BOTH for the sinful INDIVIDUAL AND his sinful WORLD!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 I want to uplift you by telling you about a man named "John."

He was born in 1725 in London to a godly mother and a sailing ship captain. John's mother filled his mind with Scripture until she died just before her son's seventh birthday.

John was sent to live with godless distant relatives who mocked his faith in God. In time, filled with unhappiness, John ran away from these relatives to take a job as an apprentice on his father's ship.

However, his father rejected John as well, so he ran away to seek his fortune in the African slave trade.

John ended up the slave of the wife of an African slave trader, eating food off of the floor like a dog and suffering repeated beatings. He finally escaped and was taken on another ship headed for England.

However, by now John was living a very wicked life, and so broke into the ship's rum, got drunk, and fell overboard. Partly in pity and partly in anger, a sailor on board harpooned John's leg and hauled him back into the ship as he writhed in drunken agony!

Imprisoned in the ship's hull, and during a severe storm, John came to his senses, remembered his deceased mother's godly teachings, and, in reading Thomas a Kempis' book, Imitation of Christ, put his faith in Jesus Christ.

Transformed, John Newton became a powerful preacher in England and ministered the Gospel of salvation by faith in Christ.

One of John Newton's disciples was William Wilberforce, the parliamentarian who led England to abolish the slave trade in a way that left England free of the civil war that raged over the same issue in America. (cf. "God Rescues a Rebel," p. 80-81 in Hymns of Faith and Inspiration by Ideals; A, Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze, p. 208, 244-245)

John Newton wrote the song we will sing in closing, the great hymn, "Amazing Grace."