TRUTH WARS: PART TWO
Truth Has Fallen In The Street
Isaiah 59:1–16 (ESV) Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. 5 They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. 6 Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. 8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. 11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
If America ends up in the graveyard of civilizations, it will be of her own doing!
Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
1 Samuel 8:18 “When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
“The only cure for the crookedness, the craziness, the chaos and the confusion in America is the cross!”
Hosea 14:1-2 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sins have brought you down. 2 Bring your confessions, and return to the LORD. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises.
1. Bloody Defiled Hands. Vs. 3a
In America, we are swimming in a pool of blood! A holocaust of 63,459,781 unborn babies in America since 1973.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses, therefore choose life, that you and your children may live.”
2. Lying Lips and wicked tongues. Vs. 3b
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.”
Ecclesiastes 10:1 “Dead flies in perfume makes all of it stink.”
A Diet of Deadly Lies. Vs. 5a
John 8:44 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
b. A Useless Web of Wickedness. Vs. 5b-6
Sinful people “cannot cover themselves” with their sinful cobweb of evil deeds to hide what they have done.
Pornography is the #1 internet business in America! Over 1 million sites on the World Wide Web!
Judges 17:6 “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Truth has fallen. Vs. 12-14
“When “trustworthiness, truth” stumbles in the streets where people interact and do business, truly upright people are excluded from doing business.”
3. vv. 15b-16a God Saw
God has seen the lack of righteousness that exists on the earth (15b, 16a).
God is patient and long-suffering with sinful people, but eventually he will justly deal with the problem of sin and sinful people.
A second thing that God “saw” was that there was not one person who could or would intercede in and for this serious situation of rebellion and sinfulness among mankind.
Interceding is prayer unstoppable, persistent and in the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 4:17-19 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” 19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
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