Bible Study - Essentials (3) - The Nature of Sin - Isaiah 59:1-13 - March 21, 2021

 

Bible Study – Essentials (3) – The Nature of Sin – March 21, 2021

This is lesson three (3) in our series entitled, “Essentials of Christianity.”

Our focus scripture is Isaiah 59:1-13.

We are sinners, and on our own, we can do nothing about it, except accept JESUS as our Savior.

Some people I have discussed eternity with contend that they are depending on living a good life and a good god will let them into Heaven. Sorry, if anyone of us, as humans, could live a life well enough for GOD to welcome us unto Heaven, there would be no need for HIM to send JESUS to earth in the flesh. Some think if they do enough good deeds or give enough money to good causes that GOD will let them into Heaven. That is not good enough. GOD expects perfection and no human can achieve perfection, except JESUS, GOD’S only perfect Son.

I used to have that discussion with GOD. GOD expects perfection.

No human measures up to GOD’S perfection. In Hebrews 9:22:

 ²² According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

The Jewish priests sacrificed animals for their own sins first and then for the sins of the Israelites. But was the blood of animals sufficient to atone for sin?

We read in Hebrews 10:4-7:

⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;
⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you were not pleased.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
    I have come to do your will, my God.’”^[a]

JESUS was and is the perfect, sinless acceptable sacrifice to the One True GOD for the atonement of sin. Once the penalty for sin, eternal death, was paid in full by JESUS, the path between GOD and mankind was open for all to place their faith in JESUS. By doing so, they are Spiritually and eternally born into GOD’S Family as HIS Children.

Our scripture in this week’s study reveals life under the law. GOD chose the Israelites as HIS people and they accepted HIS offer. GOD gave them the Law to live by until GOD’S perfect redeemer, JESUS, was born upon earth at just the right time. GOD’S plan was to reveal Himself to the Israelites and to the world through the Israelites.

If we consider the Israelite nation as one person in unity serving GOD, we get a comparison of life under the Law versus life under GOD’S Grace. It is all about relationship which began in the Garden and was lost in the Garden due to sin. Redemption from sin required the sacrifice of GOD’S sinless SON, JESUS, the second Adam. Until the moment for JESUS to be born of a virgin, in the flesh, upon earth GOD revealed Himself through the nation of Israel.

JESUS gave HIS sinless life by willingly shedding HIS blood on the cross to pay, in full and personally for each of our sins. But each person has the responsibility to accept what JESUS did for him or her on the cross to be eternally and Spiritually born into GOD’S Family. Flesh and blood cannot go to Heaven.

In an earlier study, the Apostle Paul gave us a comparison of the human body with its different parts serving GOD in unity as one. Each body part has a unique purpose in the human body for it to function as a body. Each body part is vital.

GOD’S desire was for Israel to function as one body with many parts. The body of Israel was to be a light to the pagan world as a witness. The world knew that Israel served the one true GOD, YAWAH. This gives us a different comparison to the Israelites, who were many, serving The One True GOD, Yahweh as GOD revealed to Moses. GOD called the nation of Israel to serve HIM and they accepted. As such GOD has revealed Himself to the world through HIS relationship with the Israelites.

Let’s explore!

The Bible is the revelation of GOD on an ever-ascending scale culminating with the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension of CHRIST and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Since JESUS came to earth in the flesh, animal sacrifices are no longer needed because JESUS has paid, in full, for all sin. The passion of JESUS opened the path between GOD and mankind. All mankind must accept what JESUS did and ask GOD to forgive him or her for their sins. The result is Spiritual birth and becoming GOD’S Son or Daughter.

So, what was the law and animal sacrifices all about in the Old Testament?

GOD made it clear that simply obeying the law was not sufficient to remove the consequence of sin because a person must also obey the Spirit of the Law. The animal sacrifice system was only a place holder until the perfect acceptable sacrifice was made by JESUS, GOD’S Only perfect, sinless SON.

As we study this, think of the Israelites as one person serving GOD under the Law.

The Prophet Isaiah was appealing to the Israelites to wake up and know that GOD was their hope for eternal life. The nation of Israel was a witness to all the other nations to the One True GOD. But were they a good witness? NO! The Prophet Isaiah gave the Israelites a laundry list of the issues GOD had against them.  

Let’s read Isaiah 59:1-5:

1.    Indeed, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save,
and his ear is not too deaf to hear.

 

Indeed, is a word that applies to a proven fact. GOD is real and all knowing, all powerful, all seeing and hears your cries for help. But you have not asked HIM because your hearts are evil and sinful.

 

You, Israelites, have walked with GOD over the years. You know that HE has been visible to you as a nation and revealed Himself in many ways from Egyptian bondage to entering the Promised Land. HE has delivered you from your enemies but you have a serious problem that only you can do something about, which is sin.

 

The Prophet Isaiah was addressing the nation as a collective individual.

² But your iniquities are separating you
from your God,

 

What does unconfessed sin do? Sin blocks and separates our fellowship and relationship with GOD. That is why in 1 John 1:5-10:

 

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. ⁶ If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. ⁷ If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 

This is what JESUS did for all who place their faith in HIM.

 

Let’s read on in Isaiah:

Unconfessed sin has serious consequences:

and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not listen.
³ For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers, with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
and your tongues mutter injustice.

 

Mutter is an interesting word. It carries the idea of meditating. Rather than the Israelites “meditating” on GOD’S Word and “justice”, they meditated on “injustice.” Their sin had cut them off from GOD revealing their sin to them. They had hardened their hearts against GOD and as a result, GOD had hidden HIS face from them. GOD did not listen to them because they did not approach HIM in repentance but they justified what they were doing, which was against what GOD desired from them. Their lips spoke lies and their tongues “mutter” injustice. They were corrupt because they focused upon sin which negatively impacted their thinking as we read ------

⁴ No one makes claims justly;
no one pleads honestly.
They trust in empty and worthless words;
they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.
⁵ They hatch viper’s eggs
and weave spider’s webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

 

What was the Israelites’ problem? It was SIN! Sin was rampant and they failed to recognize their problem because sin blinds and deceives. They ponder and dwell upon empty and worthless words in their minds rather than on truth as revealed by GOD.

 

Once they have allowed these empty and worthless words to incubate in their minds, they produce viper’s eggs, which when hatched, yield venomous snakes or eggs that contain venom. If these snake eggs are consumed, they will result in death or if cracked open puts you and others at risk of death.  The product produced by this empty/worthless mental process produces venomous results. Spider webs entangle the spiders’ victims but the spiders web is full of holes and cannot be used to cover the evil you ponder in your minds.

 

Our relationship to GOD helps us to ponder and focus upon the things GOD approves.

 

In Romans 12:2, we read:

 

² Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

 

The way we think is vital to being in right relationship to GOD. When we block communication with GOD, sin enters.

 

1 John 4:1-4 reveals to us:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

² This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[a] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them (the spirits that do not confess that JESUS has come to earth in the flesh), because the one (JESUS) who is in you is greater than the one (Satan) who is in the world.

In Isaiah 59:5, the Prophet Isaiah wrote about spider webs which carries over to our next scripture.

 

Let’s read Isaiah 59:6-8:

⁶ Their webs cannot become clothing,
and they cannot cover themselves with their works.
Their works are sinful works,
and violent acts are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet run after evil,
and they rush to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;
ruin and wretchedness are in their paths.

⁸ They have not known the path of peace,
and there is no justice in their ways.
They have made their roads crooked;
no one who walks on them will know peace.

 

The hearts of the Israelites were evil and they attempted to cover it up but GOD sees the heart of all. GOD knew the evil they were plotting, planning and embracing. The path they will go down is the result of.

their own doing because of sin. They will have to experience woes because sin has blinded them to the truth that only comes from being in right relationship with GOD

 

As Americans, does this get our attention? Are we who know the truth hiding the light of this truth from others? If we are, we and our children will go down the path of destruction. It is time for us to wake up and be the light GOD intends for us to be. If we do not there are Spiritual consequences as we read on ----

 

Let’s read Isaiah 59:9-13:

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We hope for light, but there is darkness;
for brightness, but we live in the night.
¹⁰ We grope along a wall like the blind;
we grope like those without eyes.
We stumble at noon as though it were twilight;
we are like the dead among those who are healthy.
¹¹ We all growl like bears
and moan like doves.
We hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions have multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us.
For our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgression and deception against the Lord,
turning away from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.

 

When we wake up and realize the plight of the world we are living in, we ask what happened? Where is GOD and where is justice and righteousness? Where is the light and hope that only GOD provides?

 

When we awake from our Spiritual slumber and wickedness, we grope for answers but the darkness of sin overwhelms us. We who knew the truth have been consumed by the darkness of evil that resulted from our sin and complacency.

 

We all growl and moan because we once knew the truth and were in the right relationship with GOD but due to our thought life and being occupied with doing our own thing, we have sinned mightily against the One True GOD.

 

Christians in America, we know the truth and have seen and know the light of JESUS and the hope that is in accepting JESUS as one’s Savior. We must not hide the light of truth from a world that is in the dark covered by evil.

 

As Christians, our hope and justice are only through our faith in JESUS and we must join together and pray that the light of the Gospel will shine brightly from us into a world that is dark with sin.

 

Where is our faith? How much faith do we have to have in JESUS?

 

Faith the size of a mustard seed. Plant it and it will grow into a large tree. Plant it in good soil and water it with the living water that only comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. Blessings!!!