Isaiah 64

I'd like you to turn to Isaiah 64, please. Isaiah 64, this chapter brings before us the heart yearnings and spiritual burden of Isaiah the prophet. He looks at the decadence of the people, the unworthiness of the people, the rebellion of the people, the awful conditions to which he prophesied, and this drives him into the presence of God.

And it's obvious to see that what Isaiah wanted, representing here the nation before God, was blessing, blessing from God. Don't we desire blessing from God this weekend? Isaiah desired the presence of God as it was once known, or that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down to thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things which we look not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen o'er God beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waited for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned in those's continuance, and we shall be saved.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away, and there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Notice in verse 1 and 2 Isaiah looks up, and that's what we must do this weekend. We may look to each other, or ourselves, but look up.

That's where the blessing will come from. In verse 3 he looks back to the great things in history regarding the nation of Israel, the great things that God had done. His presence and power had been once known.

He looks up in verse 1, he looks back in verse 3, and then you can see in verse 6 he looks within, he confesses his sin, and that he's an unclean thing. He knows what he is inwardly, but may I suggest to you from verse 4, well even from verse 1 and 2 and 3, but we'll go on from verse 4, we have in this chapter beloved, conditions for blessing, steps to blessing. The first thing is this, verse 1, 2 and 3 is, we must want it.

It's obvious that Isaiah gets into the presence of God, why? Because he wants the blessing. He wants God to be present. It is a strange thing for me to say this conference weekend, at the start, this Friday night, to ask the question, do we really want the blessing? Do we? Well that's a challenging question, but are we prepared to pay the price for that blessing? There are conditions, simple practical point, in verses 1, 2 and 3, we must like Isaiah, want the blessing.

This will drive us into the presence of God, that that blessing might be realized and experienced among us. We must want it. Do we want the blessing? Or do we just come to the conference, like a door on its hinges, movement but no real exercise? Are we looking forward to the presence of God and God speaking to us through his word? Do we want the Lord to speak to us? Do we want the result of this meeting to be, this conference to be blessing? I repeat, it may seem a simple point, but may it challenge us this evening.

We must want the blessing. Not only that, but in verse 4, we must wait for it. This can be very axiom to the flesh.

When God doesn't answer our prayers, we feel the concern of it. We question why. Notice, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen or God beside thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

You will know, won't you, that Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 2. There the word is that love him. Here, in verse number 4, is the thought of waiting for him. Are we prepared to wait for the blessing? That's quite a thought too, isn't it? To spend time in the presence of God, to discipline our lives sufficiently, that we are prepared to wait for it.

Wait on God. To wait on God, no time is lost. To wait on God in prayer, no breath is lost.

Brothers and sisters, I simply say to you, do we want the blessing? Are we prepared to wait for it? Do we dictate to God? Do we say to him, it is time for thee, Lord, to work? Let's face the issue. This is a very searching, solemn chapter. There are no shortcuts to blessing, no easy way to blessing.

There are necessary prerequisites and conditions and we have them in this chapter. Let us want the blessing. Let us wait for the blessing in prayer and exercise.

Then, in verse 5, we must work for it. I like this verse. Sometimes we hear of the three R's in the world.

Can I point out in verse 5, the three R's of the believer? But thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. The three R's of the believer. The thought of rejoicing has been mentioned more than once in prayer.

We would long that this weekend may be a time of true rejoicing, joy among the Lord's people, joy in the consideration of the Word of God. Spiritual joy, there's nothing like it. I trust this weekend we will be a happy people and that the Word of God will make us happy and that if we learn something we've never known before, that should make us happy.

Sometimes people say to me, I never saw it that way before. I've never understood this particular verse or this particular phrase, but in this Bible reading today, there's been light in the sacred page. I haven't understood this verse for years, now I see it in its proper light and context, I understand its meaning.

I want to tell you this, if that is our experience this weekend, it will be a good conference. Do you agree with me? We must want the blessing. We must wait for the blessing.

Verse 5, we must be prepared to work for the blessing. Just a little note on these three words beginning with R. Rejoiceth and worketh righteousness. What good, may I carefully say, is rejoicing and joy? You can have outward joy, but we're not working righteousness.

This is practical righteousness, isn't it? Righteousness, yes, is the great theme of Romans. Whether you think of imputed righteousness as a gift from God or righteousness seen in the believer and in the gospel preached righteousness and so on, it's one of the great leading dominant words of the epistle and I'm sure you've seen that. The importance of righteousness in various ways in Romans.

You'll have seen that in the past years of consideration of Romans 1 onwards to chapter 12. Rejoicing, working righteousness, here's a thought, those who remember thee in thy ways. Do we remember God in his ways? Do we remember God every day? Do we remember our responsibilities to him, our responsibility to obey his word? Do we remember how holy God is? If we daily remembered God in all our ways, in his ways, in our walk, in everyday life, what a difference that would make in our lives.

How careful we would be, how conscientious we would be, how obedient to the word of God we would be. I submit to you tonight, these are the three hours of the believer that should concern us. Good to be happy, isn't it? And have joy, true joy, and good to work righteousness, and good, as the verse says, to remember God in his ways.

Behold our wrath, for we have sinned in those whose continuance and we shall be saved. We've thought about salvation in the gospel. Souls being saved from hell and the consequences of sin.

What about lives being saved? What about assemblies being saved and preserved? The devil is attacking assembly testimony today, more than ever. I never knew a period when there were so many problems in assemblies up and down the country, all over the world. I'm speaking particularly too from the United Kingdom point of view.

Lift up the telephone, brother at the other end, what do we do brother? We're in great distress. There's a big problem here, a big matter. We don't know what to do.

Assembly has been divided. Brethren, these things should put us on our knees. To cry to God for the blessing that even Isaiah longed for.

All this prayer of Isaiah will yet be answered, won't it? The Messiah himself will come to Israel. Even the Lord's baptism in the heavens are opened. This is my well-beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.

Oh, that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down. That prayer of Isaiah, I believe, was beginning to be answered at Jordan when the heavens were opened. But in the wonderful future day, God in the person of Israel's Messiah, our Savior will come in his second advent in glory to the earth.

He'll inaugurate his millennial kingdom and he will bring blessings so much needed to the nation and then they'll be called, Isaiah 26, a righteous nation. They're far from a righteous nation now. They're in apostasy.

They've had many, many dark periods in their history. You know as well as I do. But there's coming a time when they'll apostatize no more.

No more long periods of darkness. Israel will never fail as a nation as they did in the wilderness again. How wonderful.

They'll be under the benign reign of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. Look, do we want the blessing? I know these are simple thoughts but sometimes it's these simple things that get into your soul and search you and challenge you. Go away from the prayer meeting tonight at the beginning of the weekend of Bible readings and ministry in the gospel.

Wanting the blessing, being prepared to wait for the blessing and not only that to work for the blessing. Look at verse six. We must own our weakness and worthlessness.

We use this verse in the gospel. It's good material in the armory of the gospel preacher, isn't it? It's often used in the gospel and I appreciate that, the application of it, the use of it. But in the context, it has to do with God's people.

But we're all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Pause. In verse five I take it and can I say the righteousness that is mentioned in verse five, working righteousness, is righteousness that the Spirit of God produces practically in the believer.

Am I right? But when you come to verse six, it's natural righteousness so-called. Man trying to be right before God but he's unclean. And the best that he can do as we preach in the gospel is no good for God.

All our unrighteousnesses are filthy rags. Do we own our nothingness? God can do nothing with us if we have big ideas of self. The great Pope's self is what every believer has to deal with.

May we truly follow the Lord Jesus who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Are we following him? We all do fail as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Now verse seven.

Do we want the blessing? Are we prepared to take the steps and fulfill the conditions for blessing? Remembering again there's no shortcut to the realization of God's blessing and the presence of God among us. Do we want it? Are we waiting for it? Are we working for it? Do we feel our weakness? Cries to God that we might be in the right condition to receive it. Verse seven.

We must wrestle for it. Wrestle for it. There is none that calleth upon thy name.

My, doesn't this seem sweeping? None that calleth upon thy name. Oh, but it likely these Jews in Isaiah's day, God's people, they went to the temple all right. They were regular at the temple and fulfilling their religious so-called traditions and orthodoxy.

But there was no real exercise. They weren't true as a people. They were not spiritually burdened.

There is none that calleth upon thy name and stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. If we want blessing in general, assembly-wise, gospel-wise, individually, beloved, we must wrestle for it. We must take time in the presence of God.

We must pour out our hearts to God. We must discipline our lives to wait upon God and know the blessing of this. I noticed, and I share this with you as I sit down, at the end of verse 9, Isaiah says, we are all thy people.

Isn't that lovely? We are all thy people. I think it's at the end of the previous chapter, verse 18, we have a lovely description of God's people then, the people of thy holiness. What a lovely description that is, the people of thy holiness.

But look at the following chapter, chapter 65 and verse 2, I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people. So in chapter 64 and verse number 9, it says, we are all thy people. That's good.

What a difference there is, beloved, between the people of thy holiness, chapter 62, verse 18, and a rebellious people, verse 2. What an inconsistency between them. We are called with a holy calling. We are the people of God, but are we a rebellious people? Is it possible we are disobeying the word of God? Is there some truth in the Bible that yet we have not yielded to and practiced? It makes its demands upon us, but we steel ourselves against it.

It's going to cost us too much. God help us at this conference as a result of it, if the Lord may not come, to be a practical people, to be balanced, to go in for godliness, to wait upon God, to look to Him, to be really wanting this blessing and fulfilling the conditions for it. I trust this simple little message, yet challenging and searching.

God will bless.