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And I want to bring your attention to verse number two. It says, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. So the title of the sermon tonight is Separation between you and God. Separation between you and God. Now before we get too much into this chapter, I'm not sure if you picked up on it, but if you look at verse number two, how it starts, but your, okay, your. And then verse number three, for your. What else? Your, if you look at sort of halfway through verse number four, it says they, okay. So your and they. And then verse number five begins with they. Verse number six, their, their webs, seven, their feet. Verse number eight, the way of peace, they, no not. So if you've got Isaiah writing these words and he's like their and your, is he referring to himself? No, he's not referring to himself, right? He's referring to others besides himself. But then when you get to verse number nine, it says therefore, is judgment far from us? All right, now it says us. And then if you look at, continue verse number nine, neither doth justice overtake us, we. See how the pronouns have changed to the us and the we. And you will notice that that is the, look at verse number 10, we. The beginning of verse number 10 is we. Verse number 11, beginning we. And so I just want to show you that there are essentially two groups of people as you look at this chapter. The first part is they and you. So Isaiah is separating himself from that group of people, but then he says we and he includes himself as part of that group. All right, so just to help you understand, the your or the you and the they, that is talking about ungodly Judah. Okay, ungodly Judah. You could say, are they, is it unbelievers and believers? I suppose, but you know, even believers can be quite wicked. Okay, but you know, Isaiah is just highlighting, there is a group of people on the land that are excessively wicked. And then he begins to refer himself as we. And it's very sad because you'll notice that the consequences, or one of the things that we kind of maybe don't want to think about is that the sins and the wickedness of the ungodly starts to have an effect upon us. And then we begin to think, oh, well, if the world can, you know, conduct themselves in such a manner, well, maybe I can also give in to these sins and temptations as well. And so there's two groups. You want to understand the godly and the ungodly, but you'll soon see the downward spiral that as the ungodly get worse and worse and worse, it doesn't take much for the godly to also begin to follow in the same steps as the ungodly. But let's start there in verse number one. It starts with a great hope and great promise. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. All right, so God is always ready to save. You know, if it's an unsaved person, God can save their souls at any point of time. Today is a day of salvation. And so the Lord God can save at any point. Oh, if you are a believer, and you need saving from persecution, tribulations, hardships, the Lord can save and his ear is always ready to hear. All right? But look at verse number two. But, so look, the Lord doesn't fail man. The Lord is always ready to receive us. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you. That he will not hear. So they are praying. They're asking God for help. They're asking God, whatever, for blessings. But because of their iniquities, because of the separation between man and God, God will not hear their prayers. And I want you to understand that our sins hinders our prayers to God. Verse number three. For your hands are defied with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue have muttered perverseness. So the sinners, they've got bloody hands, they oppress people, maybe murderers, all kinds of oppression of human beings. The words they speak are lies. You know, their lips and their tongues have sinned against the Lord. And so there is a separation there between God and man. Now, we're looking at Isaiah 59. So I hope someone knows what the 59th book of the Bible is. James! Praise God, someone knew to tell me. Praise, praise God. Now look, man, there are some chapters that are just like, man, that is the book. And like, there are so many references. Like, there are so many similarities to the book of James that I've only brought up a few. And you can do your, in your own time, your own study, you can look up the rest of them, okay? But come with me to the book of James. Keep your finger there in Isaiah 59. Come with me to James chapter three, please. James chapter three. And if you know the book of James, chapter three is primarily about your tongue, okay? You know, bridling the tongue, and the tongue cannot be tamed. You've probably heard of these, and it sets the fires of hell. Well, that's exactly how Isaiah 59 begins with the tongues and the lies and the perverseness that is coming from their lips. And in James chapter three, verse number six, James three, verse number six, the Bible says, and the tongue is a fire, a word of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. The tongue can be so damaging, the words you speak can be so damaging that it's as damaging as the fires of hell. It can cause all kinds of manner of destruction. Now, let me explain, when it says here about the tongue, that it defiles the whole body, in what sense does it defile the whole body? Let me explain this to you. You can be someone, you can be someone that lives a generally righteous life. You know, generally you don't do harm, you know, in your dealings with people. You know, you can be quite righteous in the way you live. You might have great victory over your sin and, you know, you might be someone that walks much in the spirit rather than in the flesh. And, you know, you might be very generous, you might be whatever, right? You might be very caring, you may even desperately love the brethren and love the Lord, but isn't it true, and I'm sure we've all been there, where we've said words that we regret. Like, you can be doing all the right things, going to church and winning souls and reading the Bible and being a moral employee, but you say some words of misplaced judgment, you say some words of criticism, you say something harsh, like me, I've done it, you say something sarcastic, trying to be funny, and then you offend people. Because the tongue's like a fire. And, you know, it's like, it doesn't matter what your whole body did, just what came out of your mouth defiles that man completely. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, honestly, and I look at myself because I am very sarcastic. And sometimes I meet people for the first time, and I just, I can't help it, I'm sorry, it's my weakness. And someone for the first time, and I forget, because they think of me as a pastor, because I am a pastor, but I don't think of myself as a pastor, right? I just think of myself as Kevin. And so I meet someone for the first time, and I say something sarcastic, and people get offended. So I can't believe the pastor just said that to me. And I go, oh, and I go, and I quickly say, oh, look, I'm so sorry, I'm quite sarcastic. You'll get to know me in time, you know that I don't mean harm, I don't mean to hurt you, but I just can't tame this tongue sometimes, right? It says stupid things, even though I don't mean to say harmful things or hurtful things. I'm trying to be funny, but I realized that, you know, when you don't know me that well, you could take it as offense. And that's why it defiles the whole body. It's like, you could be doing everything right, but the words that come to your mouth, boy, people are going to hold you to account for those words. And in fact, if we just continue there, verse number seven, James 3.7, For every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed, and have been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame, for it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Boy, our words can be very poisonous. It's very true, it says, every kind of beast, things of the seas tamed. Just on Monday, we were at the beach with the kids and there were these like millions of crabs, you know, these, I don't know if you've ever seen them, I've never seen them before, like they kind of got these blue domes on top. And my kids picked them up, and at first they tried to get away, but once my kids held them for a little while, it's like they didn't want to go. They were just happy to just dwell there in the hands of my kids. Like, you can tame anything, but this tongue is untamable. You know, it's better to just shut up and say nothing most of the time. You know, we open our mouths, we think we have great wisdom, but we say things, and we go, oh man, sometimes it's so hard to take things back that have come out of your mouth. Drop down to verse number 14, same chapter, James 3, 14. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. The other problem with this tongue is that it lies against the truth. Tells lies, tells fibs. And that's exactly what we saw earlier. If you come back with me, keep your finger in James, come back with me to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59, verse number 3, for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. You might say, well, I've never committed murder, my hands aren't full of blood, but your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue have muttered perverseness. Verse number 4, none call her for justice, nor any plead her for truth. So they'd rather live in their lies. Okay, no one wants the truth. No one wants judgment and justice to be done. Because everyone's corrupt. You know, when Isaiah's preaching this, he's looking at his corrupt nation. And if there was true justice and judgment, then everybody will be like, you know, brought before the magistrates and found to be guilty. So in order to overcome that, they don't want the justice. It says they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. Really interesting words here in Isaiah 59, at the end of verse number 4. It says they conceive mischief. It's like using language of bringing forth a child, right? So when you start thinking of some wicked things that you might do, you're being tempted to do certain things. You know, it begins that conception process, and then it brings forth, like you give birth to iniquity. You know, you contemplate things, wicked things that you might want to do, the lusts that you may want to give in to, and before you know it, it brings forth iniquity, okay? You go about and you commit the sin that you've been thinking about. Now, that's the same thing that we learned in James chapter 1. So you've got to figure it out in James. Look at James chapter 1, James chapter 1 in verse number 15. James 1, 15, you guys know this passage. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So it's the same thing that we saw in Isaiah 59, okay? Conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. Well, here it says the lusts have conceived, bringeth forth sin, but we have that extra step. When that sin is finished, it bringeth forth death, because the wages of sin is death. The reason why there's death in the world is because of sin, all right? When Adam and Eve sinned for that first time, then mankind lost their... They were immortal, they lost that ability, right? To live forever. And you know, the moment... As far as human beings at large, the average person out there that is unsaved, they've already died spiritually. They're like this walking carcass. There's life in the flesh, you know? And when that flesh dies, unfortunately if that spirit is dead, their soul will go straight to hell. There is no life in them. The best thing about being saved is that you're born again. Born of the spirit. Your spirit is revived. And so when it comes to believers, when it comes to you in this room that are saved, I believe you're all saved here, except little ones, but they've not yet died spiritually, all right? But when it comes to that, even if this physical body dies, spiritually you're alive, which is why you go to heaven. And so we're not walking around with this flesh, there's just this carcass, and dead on the inward, we're very much alive because we've been revived in Jesus Christ. We've been revived by his spirit. But notice that it's the same teaching. The book of James in Isaiah 59 is essentially the same teaching. Come back with me to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59, verse number 5. Now Isaiah begins to use a bit of illustration here to describe their sinfulness. It says they hatch cockatrice's eggs. A cockatrice is a serpent, a type of serpent, okay? It says here, and weave the spider's web. So you can see that the serpent, the snake is mentioned, the spiders are mentioned because of the venom, right? The venom that kills is what's been drawn our attention toward here. It says he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Alright, so this is explaining the results of sin. Now I don't know, I don't know if you actually, like obviously we're not taking this literally, it's just an illustrative lesson that as the venom of snakes and spiders, so too is the venom of sin. It kills, it causes damage, it causes deterioration. Now I don't know, if you ate a venomous baby snake, I don't know if you'd, like an egg, I don't know if you'd die or not. I have no idea, okay? But the idea there is that because sin brings forth death, it damages us. The sins we commit hurt us. But by the same token, when that egg is broken, and that which is crushed breaketh forth out into a viper, it's like there are consequences. Not only does our sin cause damage to us, but as those eggs are crushed, and the vipers come out, those newborn vipers, newborn serpents come out, it causes damage and consequences, especially to the people that we love. And as parents, you know, a lot of you guys are, you know, parents of little younger children, you gotta be mindful about this. That, I mean look, you're a sinner, I'm a sinner, we all know this. But you need to understand that if you don't have some control over your sinful, you know, desires in your life, and you bring your children in that kind of environment, right, it's gonna cause lasting consequences in their life. You know, the biggest problem I see, you know, in our generation is the damage of broken families. You know, wives that are not submissive to their husbands. And husbands that do not love and do not lead their wives. I've been sharing with you guys the big problem of men who, rather than be a leader in the house, would just rather play video games. It's, I mean, there are, and look, it's not that the video games, you know, themselves are sinful, but when you're neglecting your responsibilities as the leader, as the provider, working hard and taking care of your family, then you are committing sin, cause God made it very clear that men should labor and take care of their families or is denied the faith and is worse than an infidel, worse than an unbeliever. And what happens? Wives don't respect their husbands cause their husbands aren't leading, all right? And then it causes damage in the relationship. And before you know it, there's divorce, there's separation, and the kids that grew up in that environment, they're broken. You know, all children wanna see is mom and dad love each other, did you know that? I remember when I was little, when I was a little kid, I would say to my dad, you remember this? Dad, give mom a kiss. That's all, like, that satisfied me, right? Just to know that my mom and dad love each other. That's what kids want. And when kids are brought up in a broken home, it causes a lot of damage. For those that have been brought up in a broken home, you know the damage is caused. You know, sin creates, it's not just I commit sin, okay, I've hurt myself, but it's just me, it's never just you. Sin always hurts the people that you love and care about. There are always consequences, and sometimes generational consequences to the sins that we commit. So be careful, brethren, all right? Be careful about the life that you live, the decisions that you make. Verse number six, their webs shall not become garments. So they're trying to clothe themselves with the spiderwebs. I'll explain that in a minute. Neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. The way I understand this is, because earlier it mentioned telling lies and not seeking the truth, I remember this, so I can confess my sins, especially when I was a kid. Have you ever had to tell a lie? You tell a lie, you never have to tell a lie. But have you ever told a lie? But then in order to maintain the lie, you have to tell another lie. And then you gotta tell another lie. And then you start forming this web of lies. And that's what they're doing, they're clothing themselves with this web, all right? And when I was a kid, I realized, hold on, this is so hard to keep up. I can't remember what I said last time. It's just easier to tell the truth. Because once you have this web of lies, you just pull one string of that web and the whole thing begins to collapse. I don't know what it is. I'm pretty cluey at picking up on lies. Maybe because I've had a lot of kids and I've gotten used to trying to suss out the truth or I don't know. I've also, I've shared with you guys, I've worked as an auditor. And so you pick up on inconsistencies a lot and you learn how to do that. And sometimes brethren lie to me and I know. It's like, you don't have to lie to me. No one is, we don't need to lie to each other. There's no need. We don't have to cover up our sins. I know you're a sinner and I know I'm a sinner. I don't even need to know your sins. So I wanna think the best of you and I know that we're all striving to live godly and live for Christ Jesus, but sometimes we mess up and we mess up. Don't even need to mention it. The one you go to is God. Go to God, right? If you've sinned against the Lord, you've caused offense, go straight to God. You don't need to come to me. Don't need to lie to me. But I pick up on it quite easily. Because it's a web. You pull at the thread and you start to see the whole thing begin to collapse. But anyway, they're trying to cover themselves up in their webs. They're trying to make garments out of spider webs, you know, webs of lies or things like that or unrighteous works. It says in verse number seven, their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not. This is so important. People that live wickedly do not have peace. I don't know about you. I keep changing my mind about this, but I guess maybe they're both equally good for me. I know that life is not perfect. I know that life has problems and all kinds of difficulties. But boy, if I can live most of my life in peace and in joy, I feel like I've lived the best life you can live. Just peace and joy. And the Bible says that we should rejoice when we suffer persecution. When we suffer tribulations, we should rejoice anyway. And so we can find peace and joy even in the midst of our difficulties. But when you're living wickedly and ungodly lives, the way of peace they know not. They have no peace. And then it says this, and there is no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. So not only do they have no peace for themselves, but it says they prepare these crooked paths and when others walk those paths, those people don't find peace. So they have no peace for themselves and they have no peace with others. This is the individual that is in constant conflict with everybody they come across. There are people like this. And again, I have a lot of conversations. I'm not trying to single people out. But when someone says to me, pastor, you know, I've got problems with my employer and my work colleagues. Okay, I get it, I get it, you know. But I also have problems with my parents. And I also have problems with my siblings. And I don't get along with my friends. They've all neglected me. And it seems like at church, I don't get along with anybody either. You've got no peace. You're the problem, okay. I always say this, you need peace and you need to find peace with others. It's funny, because kind of like, this happens often, brethren. I might be hard to believe, but people say these things because they think I'm going to say, man, yeah, man, it's just, you're just living this godly life, righteous life. And everyone, you know, it's just the devil. But it's not just the devil, it's everybody. It's even the righteous that have a hard time getting along with you. It's even the people that love you the most and care about you the most that you're causing divisions and problems with. Can you come with me to James 3? You're in James, so come with me to James 3. James 3. James 3. You know, in order for us to have the peace of God, to have that peace that I want, we need great wisdom from God because our lives require us to make a lot of decisions. Decisions of what to study, decisions of what jobs to do, decisions on how to be a good husband and decisions of how to raise the kids. Our life is constantly making decisions and you know, I don't know what it was, but it was something crazy, like 300,000 decisions and thoughts we have to make just in one day, something like that, you know? And in order to make the best decisions, wouldn't we agree that we need the wisdom of God? We need the wisdom of God. Now I'm not saying you need God's wisdom to choose what you're gonna have for breakfast. But generally speaking, right, the decision we make in life, we need to know God, how do you want me to make this decision? And look at James 3.17. I want you to notice this. It says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable. All right, so when we get God's wisdom, we say, look, I'm gonna make this decision. I believe it's what God wants me to do. The first question you need to make yourself, is the decision pure? You know, sometimes, again, conversations I have, people make the wrong decisions. Sinful decisions. But God understands me, no. If it's wisdom that came from above, it'll be pure. You're not some exception. But the second most important part of that is peaceable. Does the decision you're making bring peace? Now, purity is first. You need to understand that, okay? It's not peace at all costs, okay? Like I said, I've used these examples before. If I'm working a job and my colleagues say, hey, Kevin, you know, great week we've had, you know, we've reached our targets. Let's go to the pub and celebrate with some beers or something like that, right? And I'm like, well, if I go with these mates, we'll have some peace and some friendships. And if I refuse, it might cause a little bit of a distance between us. Well, I'm gonna go for peace. No, no, no. First pure. First purity, all right? Once the wisdom comes and you know the decision I make is not a sinful one, it's a pure decision, then peaceable. And then all these other things. Gentle and easy to be entreated. Full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality and without hypocrisy. This is the wisdom from above. This ought to be our lives. Lives that are peaceable, gentle, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And look at verse number 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them that make peace. You know, in order for me to live a peaceful life, I need to make peace. First of all, we make peace between man and God, right? You get saved and now I'm at peace with God. I'm no longer his enemy. And then I wanna make peace with my church members. I don't wanna fight with anybody here, brethren. Okay, if I've wronged you, if I've offended you, let me know and I'm pretty confident I'll apologize. And let's just forget about it. Let's move on, all right? I wanna be at peace with my brethren. I wanna be at peace with my family. I want peace, all right? The wisdom that comes from above. And I also want to win souls. I wanna bring peace between others and their God, all right? And when we seek after peace, if we sow peace, then we'll have that peace. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them that make peace. You want peace? You gotta make peace. Well, we saw earlier in Isaiah 59, come back with me, there in Isaiah 59 that in verse 28, the way of peace they know not. So you decide, you decide what kind of life you want. I want peace. And so my life needs to be righteous. I need to be walking a life that lines up with God's wisdom, that is pure, then peaceable. But should you choose to live a life that is ungodly, and that's your choice to make, you can. Salvation is not dependent on how you live your Christian life. You know that salvation is completely dependent on what Christ did for you. But I'm telling you, you're gonna find no peace. And if we continue to the verse number nine, now Isaiah points to himself, and I guess you would be included in this list as well. And anyone that is seeking after righteousness, anyone that is saved and trying to do the right things. Verse number nine, therefore, is judgment far from us? Neither doth justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity. For brightness, but we walk in darkness. So this is Isaiah looking at his sinful nation, and goes, I'm waiting for judgment, where is it? It seems so far away. Isn't that the common feeling that we sometimes have? Lord, it seems like the wicked just get away with what they do. Lord, why don't you rain fire and brimstone on Sidney? You can't be that, but here's the thing, he knows better than us. You're the ones keeping it from being fire and brimstone. You know, and there are others that need to get saved before he brings his hammer down. But when we don't see, what's interesting about it is that when we sin against God, we want his mercy and his long suffering. But then we see the wicked world sin against God. God, destroy them! We wait for light, but we behold obscurity. Lord, where are you, Lord? It seems like mothers keep killing their kids in the womb. The faggots are still celebrating every single year. It just seems like you can rip off. I've been cheated, I've had things stolen. Just seems like we just don't have justice. And I don't know if that's you. I remember feeling that way a long, long time ago until I learned that God will balance the books one way or another, and I'm just gonna rest in him. But that's what, you know, his eye's feeling that. It's like, man, it's like darkness, Lord. So the point here is, verse number nine shows us that the sins of a wicked world can affect us. The sins of Sydney, when we see, when we don't see immediate judgment, it can bring discouragement in our lives. And it can cause us to walk in darkness. If everyone else is getting away with it, why should I try so hard? Why should I try so hard to be godly, all right? Look at verse number 10. He says, we grope for the world like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday, as in the nights. We are in desolate places as dead men. So Isaiah's like, man, I'm in darkness. Isaiah's recognizing he's in sin as well now. He's committing sin like the rest of the young godly now. He's like blind, it's like noon. It's like when the sun is at the highest and there's the most brightness, he's still in darkness. Verse number 11, we rule all like bears, and mourn Saul like doves. We look for judgment, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us. I don't know, maybe this is someone here at church tonight. Maybe you feel this way. Maybe you're like, what's the point of it, Lord? You don't seem to be judging the wicked, and I'm trying to live righteously, and I seem to be always getting the bad end of the deal. The wicked always seem to get ahead, and I'm behind. So what's the point? I'm just gonna give up and be in darkness myself. I'm just gonna be blind like the others. There's no judgment. We wait for it, Lord, but it just seems like your deliverance, your salvation is so far away. Well, at the end of verse number 11, but it is far off from us. The answer is in the book of James, of course. Can we read to James 4? James 4. While you turn to James 4, let me just read to you the first verse again in Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59 verse one said, "'Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, "'that it cannot save, "'neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.'" So if that's you today, if you feel like the Lord is so far away or so far from the Lord, no, his hand is not shortened. He's right there. He hasn't gone anywhere, okay? It's us that get away from the Lord. And so in James 4 verse number eight, "'Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. "'Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, "'and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.'" James 4 is about friendship with the world, being just like the world, being an adulterer, spiritual adulterer, loving the world, chasing the world. Well, when you do that, you're far from the Lord, and to draw nigh, you just need to cleanse your hands, sinners, right? Purify your hearts, confess your sins to the Lord. Draw nigh to him, he'll draw nigh to you. But in Isaiah, he's feeling that the Lord is far off, far away. Come back with me to Isaiah, please. I don't have any other references in James. Now, we all sin. We're all sinners. And when we sin against the Lord, what do we do? Do we blame the wicked world that we live in? No, we ought to blame ourselves, right? You know, we don't blame the wicked world. The wicked world affects us. The wicked world discourages us. But if you decide, well, I'm just gonna walk in that same path as they do, I'm just gonna be in darkness like the rest of them, you've made that decision. Lust has conceived in your hearts, okay? And it's brought forth sin, and it's, you know? And so verse number 12, this is what Isaiah says. He goes, for our transgressions are multiplied before thee. I love how Isaiah says our transgressions. He's like, man, God, as much as I can complain and be frustrated at this wicked Judah that I live in, I have transgressions against you. My transgressions, my sins have multiplied against you, Lord. He says, and our sins testify against us, against us. For our transgressions are with us. And as for our iniquities, we know them. I love how he says, and our sins testify against us. He doesn't say the sins I commit testify against this wicked nation that I live in. No, actually the sins testify that I'm to blame. I'm the one that's given into these temptations. I'm the one that's given to my lusts. Verse number 13, in transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, revolt is like rebellion, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. So Isaiah's like, man, we're just like the world. We're doing the same thing. We've departed away from the Lord. We've gone and transgressed and multiplied our iniquities. We've caused oppression. From his heart words have come of falsehood. He goes, I've lied now. See, God's people can become as wicked as the ungodly. You can become, believe it or not, we can, we have this flesh. When you got saved, this flesh did not change. It's the same flesh that you've always had, the same flesh that chases selfishness and wickedness, the same flesh that would rather do its own will rather than God's will. If you say, pastor, no, no, I wanna do God's will. Praise God if you wanna do God's will, but it's not the flesh doing that, it's the spirit. You've got that battle. And sometime, many times, unfortunately, the flesh wins in that battle. And yeah, but it's possible for God's people to just be as ungodly as the unsaved. Verse 14, and judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter. So what's happening here is, okay, we expect the ungodly to lie, right? We expect the ungodly to not tell the truth. But we expect the godly to tell the truth. We expect the preacher tonight to speak the truth. But what if we all become like the ungodly world and we all speak falsehoods? We all just get into our sins and our wickedness. Well, this is the situation, okay? And it says that for the truth is fallen in the street. Like if we don't speak the truth, brethren, who will speak the truth? Who, if not us? The truth is dependent upon us proclaiming the word of God, which is truth. So if you fall in a place of darkness, let me encourage you, get out of that darkness ASAP, because we need you representing the truth. We need you representing Christ. We need you speaking the truth of God's word, all right? Because if not for us, brethren, if not for God's people, there will be no truth in this world. We need churches, we need Bible preaching churches. We need men that will stand up one day and take on the office as a pastor and say, even though this word is full of lies, I'm gonna speak the truth, even if people hate me for it. It says here in verse number 15, yea, truth faileth, and he that departed from evil maketh himself a prey. So people that, at this point in time, because everyone's wicked, he that departed from evil, so the one that says, you know what? I don't like living this wicked life. I don't like all this evil and harm that we're doing, right? So I'm gonna depart from evil. When that man departs from evil and tries to do the right thing, it says he maketh himself a prey, meaning that everyone's gonna ridicule him, everyone's gonna hate him. You've probably experienced this just in your own Christian life. You've probably been ridiculed just for going to church. I don't know. I've never just been ridiculed for going to work and at lunchtime eating my lunch and reading my Bible. You're not actually doing anything. You're not going about preaching or you're not going about confronting people with God's, you're just quietly trying to have your time with God. I don't know if you've had that. You're not just eating and reading and saying, oh, what are you reading? Oh, the Bible? The Bible? It's like, people can't handle it when you're just trying to do the right thing. I've been mocked for tithing. What, 10% to God's house. One of the pastors, you know, gambling or whatever. I just wanna do what's right. Somehow I still have clothes and food and drink. So the Lord's taking care of the needs anyway. The Lord's fulfilling his side of the promise. So yeah, once the nation just goes all evil, even the godly, you know, the one that stands out and says, you know, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna do the truth and you're gonna be prey. Everyone's going to attack you. You're just this lone sheep being destroyed by wolves. And that's why it says, and the Lord saw it. The Lord saw that people that are trying to get themselves out of the wickedness, they're being hated. The Lord saw it and it depletes him that there was no judgment. Now verse number 16, I believe, is a reference to Jesus Christ, okay? And it says this, in verse number 16, And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness, it sustained him. Such interesting words. What's, like you think, surely God does not need sustenance. God does not need to be sustained. That's how I read it, I don't know. Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness and it sustained him. You can read it that it sustained man, the righteousness of salvation. But I believe this is actually a reference to Jesus Christ. Because it says that God wondered that there was no intercessor. And of course, when you get, I'll just read it to you in Romans 8.34. It says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Christ intercedes for us. He's our intercessor between God and man. And God looks down at Judah and he says, you've all gone wicked. Even Isaiah recognizes I've transgressed. It's been multiplied. And God looks down and says, boy, man can't save themselves. I mean, obviously. And so therefore his arm, God's arm, brought salvation unto him and his righteousness. God brings the intercessor, right? God fixes this problem of separation between God and man. And of course he brings forth Jesus Christ. So I believe this is about Jesus because as we continue, it is clearly about Christ. Okay, you'll soon see. Right, verse number 17. So interesting. For he, that's God, put on righteousness as a breastplate and an helmet of salvation upon his head. Now those two things should be very familiar to you. They're two items of the armor of God. All right, isn't Romans six? Ephesians six, yeah, that's right, sorry, yeah. Ephesians six, the armor of God, right? You know, we're commanded to put on the armor of God, right? But I want you to remember it's called the armor of God. Why is it called the armor of God? Because God wears the armor, right? He's got the breastplate of righteousness. He's got the helmet of salvation upon his head. But God's got a couple of other things that are not mentioned in Ephesians six. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing. You're like, oh man, I knew it, Pastor Kevin. There were places of the armor of God that I'm missing. I need the garments of vengeance. I can take revenge on my enemies. I knew it all along. No, Romans 12, 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Vengeance is his. So he wears the garments of vengeance, okay? And something else that the Lord is wearing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. All right, so, you know, when you think about soldiers going to war, they're putting on their breastplate and their helmet and they've got the shield of faith and they've got the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. There are certain soldiers, I guess, back in the days when they fought with swords and shields and all that, that wore cloaks. And quite often, the cloak represented status, leadership. It's to identify a military leader because when you've got a whole bunch of soldiers going to war and there's bloodshed and sometimes you're confusing the enemy with from friends and the friends from the enemy and there are the commands being issued, you know, there are instructions being issued, so much noise, so much turmoil, but if you can look out and see the man wearing the cloak, you know, maybe some type of, you know, I don't know, colorful red cloak or something like that. Oh, there's my leader, there's the captain. He's issuing commands, oh, he's telling us to go right or he's telling us to go left. And you can start following after the leader. Zeal is like that, okay? Zeal is like this cloak that is given to military leaders. And, you know, I wouldn't make the argument that that's only something God can wear. God is, of course, our ultimate leader. We all should have zeal for the Lord, the passion, that drive to serve him and to love him. But I want you to understand that cloak represents status. And leadership, maturity. And I want to bring this up because, oh man, it saddens me so much to see people full of zeal who are babes in Christ, but they've got the zeal, they're on fire, and they look like they've got it all together. They look like they're serving God, they're giving themselves completely to the service of God. I've seen too many. It breaks my heart. And then before you know it, they burn out. Before you know it, they're out of church. Before you know it, they're causing disruptions, divisions. You know, they don't love the Lord. You know, they may even become frenemies. And I used to joke, it's not really a joke in matter, but I used to joke about this. It's like they're wearing a cloak that, you know, they've got the armor of God, supposedly they're supposed to have the armor of God, but once you take off the cloak, it reveals that they're completely naked. They haven't got the breastplate of righteousness on. They haven't put the, they're not shod with the preparation of the gospel. They haven't been girded with truth. They haven't got all these aspects. They looked like they're a leader. Too many, too many to name over the years of ministry. And even before I became pastor, but more so since I became pastor, come across people so on fire, wanting to serve God. I know what's right. Everyone's wrong. All the pastors are wrong. And I'm just the best. And the zeal, and I don't want to zap the zeal because zeal is good. But zeal without everything else, you're just naked. Imagine going to war. That's it, no sword, no armor, but I've got the cloak on. You'll be wiped out. You're the first to be wiped out, gone. It happens in the spiritual realm as well. And I don't know, I don't know if you can think of people such as this. You know, babes newly saved and they want to be the military leader, put on the cloak of zeal. You forgot everything else. And before you know it, they're struck by the enemy and they're finished. The fiery darts of the wicked, right? There was, where's your armor? I thought the cloak would cover me. It's not enough. Need the whole armor of God on. Now, God's ultimate vengeance will come when Christ comes, wipes out the armies of the Antichrist in future events. The Battle of Armageddon, as it's commonly known as. Because I want to show you that as we continue, we're talking about the coming of Christ, when he sets up his kingdom. Verse number 18. According to their deeds, accordingly, he will repay. So God is the one that repays, right? I will repay save the Lord. He will repay recompense. So shall they fear in the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun. So from the rising of the sun, that's the East. So from East and West, they're going to fear the Lord. When the enemy shall come in like a flood and the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Look at verse number 20, this makes it clear. And the Redeemer, who's the Redeemer? That's Jesus, right? And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. So this is talking about Christ's coming. Now that wasn't his first coming, this is his second coming. When he wipes out the enemies and people from the East and the West, people across the globe are going to fear the Lord. And then verse number 21. He comes to Zion, Christ is going to rule from Jerusalem. Verse number 21. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and forever. All right, the way this ends is really important because it gets repeated for us in Romans 11. So come with me to Romans 11, please. Come with me to Romans 11. Romans 11, verse number 26. Paul takes these words from Isaiah and he teaches us this in Romans 11. Romans 11, 26. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written. So as it is written is what we just read in Isaiah 59. They shall come out of Zion, the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. Now we've got to stop here because this is where many preachers will say, well, see, all Israel will be saved. Meaning, what they mean is when Christ comes back, the second coming of Christ, that all the Middle Eastern Jews out there in that promised land, that they just automatically just get saved. But I want you to understand what it says here. Like what it says in verse 21. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. And what it said in Isaiah 59, verse 21. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee. So what covenants are we talking about here? Are we talking about the Old Covenant? Nope, we're talking about the New Covenant. You see, this New Covenant is when God's Spirit is upon us. Like in the New Testament, I'm not sure if you're familiar with this teaching, but we can teach you some of the time, but in the New Testament, we have a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit God within us. Okay, when Christ, you know the New Testament began by the death of the testator. The moment Christ died, that was the beginning of the New Testament. When he resurrected, he breathed upon his disciples the Holy Ghost. And Christ said that after him would come a comforter, another comforter, which is the Holy Spirit. And so this covenant with the Holy Spirit of God that indwells each one of us is this covenant that God is speaking about. So this is the New Covenant. Now what's funny is people say, well, this is all about the end time, which it does tie into the end times because Christ is gonna rule in Jerusalem and all those things, right? But the question is, who are these people? Who is this Israel that will be saved? We're already in New Testament times. And if you've trusted Christ as your savior, you already have the Holy Spirit of God living within you. You've already participated of this promise. But do the Middle Eastern Jews participate in that promise right now? No, unless they trust in Christ, but they've not. So this is really important because you're in Romans 11, let's keep reading. Listen to 27. For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. The only covenant that takes away sins is the New Covenant. The old covenant never took away sins. You could live under the old covenant and still die and go to hell. Korah and his rebellion was a perfect example of that. Actually, that was before the New Covenant began. I'm trying to remember now. Yeah, that was before, wasn't it? Anyway, just because you lived in Israel on the land of Israel, if you were an unbeliever, you would still die and go to hell if you did not mix faith with the gospel. The old covenant did not save souls. In fact, there were many Gentiles that did not participate of that old covenant, but they were still saved because their faith was on the Lord God. The covenant that saves is the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ. So that's why it says in verse 128, for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. What takes away our sins is the New Covenant. It's the blood of Christ that takes away our sins. And then verse 128, as concerning the gospel. This is so important. What is the gospel? The gospel is what saves us. The gospel is the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right? As concerning the gospel, they, that's Israel, are enemies for your sakes. So Israel today, the Jews today, are our enemies, okay? Because they do not trust the gospel. We do. We trusted Christ. We trusted the Redeemer. They blaspheme the Redeemer, okay? But as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. So what makes us elect in God? Salvation, right? So the election is what brings us, or brings people, as the beloved of the fathers, or for the Father's sake. So yes, if the Jew out there today, turn from that Judaism and put their trust in Christ, they are now part of the election. And you are the elect, by the way, brethren. And we are beloved for the Father's sake. But it's because we've believed in the gospel. But if you're an enemy of the gospel, you are not beloved. You're not one of the beloved of the Father. And this is why, when you get to Romans 11, that needs to be understood, right? Before you read Romans 11, you must have read Romans 1, then Romans 2, then Romans 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. So when you get to Romans 9, come with me to Romans 9. I know many of you guys know this, but it needs to be taught, because there is so much false teaching about this topic. Romans 9 and verse number 6. Romans 9, 6. Because Romans 11 did say, all Israel shall be saved. I believe it. But that's as long as they believe the gospel and are of the beloved, a beloved of the Father. Romans 9, 6. It says, not as though the word of God have taken an effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. So those that are of Israel are not all Israel. You could be an Israeli physically, but not be part of all Israel. Let me read it again. For they are not all Israel, they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. I know it sounds cryptic, but if you read it carefully, it's very clear. Just because you're a physical Jew on that land doesn't mean you're all Israel. And the Bible says all Israel shall be saved. So you gotta be part of all Israel to be saved. Verse number 7. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. So just because you have physical lineage to Abraham doesn't mean you're a child of God. But in Isaac, shall thy seed be called, that is, just in case you haven't got it yet, they which are the children of the flesh are the Jews. These are not the children of God. Okay, I'm not against the Jews. I wanna see them saved, just like Paul wanted to see them saved. But it can't be any clearer that they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. So if you're one of the promised children, you make up the seed, and we know who the seed is. Galatians 3 says the seed is Christ. So if you're in Christ Jesus, you are also the seed of Abraham. Galatians 3, read it in your own time. This needs to be understood because Paul is repeating what we learnt in Isaiah 59. So come back with me to Isaiah 59, please. Let's read it now in context or with a clarification in the light of the New Testament. Isaiah 59 and verse number 20, let's start there. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. Well, how do you turn from transgression? By believing the gospel, okay? We saw that early. So that's you. And then verse number 21, as for me, this is my covenant with them saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and forever. So who is the seed? And the seed seed, people that you bring to Christ Jesus or maybe your own family, your own children, you bring to Christ Jesus. Those are the ones that have believed the gospel. Those are the ones that put their faith and trust on Jesus Christ. They are the seed. And so this promise of ruling, having your transgressions taken away from you and ruling with Jesus from Zion for a thousand years when he comes back, that's a promise that is given to God's people. Not just because you're physical flesh. You don't get the promise just because you're physical flesh. You must be in Christ Jesus. You must be of the seed. Anyway, brethren, title for the sermon tonight was Separation Between You and God. And we've seen that our iniquities, our transgressions are what separate us from God. And we've also seen that, brethren, as much as we don't want to admit it, but we can fall into the same sins as this wicked world. We can get discouraged. We can lose hope of God's judgment and we might give up on the Lord and say, Lord, why am I just gonna give in to my pleasures and to my lusts? But I want you to understand that it damages you. Sin causes destruction. It's like venom. Venom of snakes, the venom of spiders. And not only does it hurt you, but the consequences of sin can affect your loved ones. So brethren, let's not have separation with God, right? Salvation has brought us nigh, but we want in our walk to be close to the Lord. And so make sure you, and I've been teaching this because that is the teaching of this book, but make sure you confess your sins. Keep a short account with God and walk closely with Him. If you draw nigh to Him, He will draw nigh to you. Let's pray.