The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 59: Your True Enemy

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 637

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, isaiah 59, and today's title is your True Enemy your True Enemy. We'll get into all that in just a moment, but if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast, make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast, make sure you leave us a comment on the YouTube channel and make sure you go into the the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, because the more we dig, the more we find and there's a major, major thing going on over there where they're doing wonderful devotions and they're just getting better and better every single day. So make sure you're going. You're reading those in the mornings. Okay, all right, if you have your Bibles, want to join me in Isaiah, chapter 59.

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I don't know if you've noticed a theme going on recently, but there's a theme in the past few chapters that God will say I got some good news for you and then there's a whole lot of bad news after that, right? Well, today there is this moment where God says I got this big idea for you. Remember, the overall theme of Isaiah is God is our salvation, and he's going to tell them I've got this big idea for you. I've got this thing I want to do, but you're not going to understand what I want to do until you understand why I need to do it. Right, that's like the idea of have you ever had something where you're trying to explain something to somebody Like, listen, I need to go do this thing, but why I need to go do this thing, but why? And you say I just need to. Well, if you explain to somebody why you got to go do the thing, then they may understand why we got to go do the thing. Right, and God is constantly saying listen, you got to turn back to me. I need you to turn back to me. And they're going you know, nah, you know I got my thing going here. He said, no, you got to turn back to me. Well, why? God will tell you. I'm going to tell you exactly why. And so he's going to tell us exactly why we need to be very self-aware when it comes to our lives with God, because he's got a big idea for us. And so we're going to read this, and we're really going to take the first two verses, but we're going to read the whole thing come back up again, and that's going to be what we're going to focus on today. So if you're ready, isaiah 59, verse 1, says this Listen, the Lord's arm is not too weak to save you, nor his ear too deaf to hear you call.

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It's your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Your hands are the hands of murderers and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies and your mouth spews corruption. Great Thanks for making me feel better.

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Verse 4. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. They hatch deadly snakes and weave spider's webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die. Whoever cracks them will hatch a viper. Mark me off for that. All right, no, thank you.

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Their webs can't be made into clothing. Nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin. The violence is their trademark. Their feet run to do evil and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them. They don't know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads and no one who follows them knows a moment's peace.

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So there is no justice among us and we know nothing about right living. We look for light but find only darkness. We look for bright skies but walk in gloom. We grope like blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime we stumble as though it were dark Among the living. We are like dead. We growl like hungry bears. We moan like mournful doves.

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We look for justice, but it never comes. We look for rescue, but it is far away from us. Our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are. We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have rebelled and have denied the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been carefully planning our deceitful lies. Our courts oppose the righteous and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets and honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

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The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. He himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained them. He put on righteousness as his body armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head. If you want to know where that is in the New Testament, look up Ephesians, chapter 6. He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion. He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds, and his fury will fall on his foes. He will pay them back to the ends of the earth. In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord. In the east, they will glorify him, for he will come like a raging tide, driven by the breath of the Lord. The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem and buy back those in Israel who have turned away from their sins, says the Lord. And this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. The spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and on your children's children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken. Wow.

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So once again we have three sections. We have two verses where God is saying I have a big idea for you, but I need you to understand why you're not able to receive it. Then he talks about all the bad stuff and then at the bottom he is saying but I want to do something better in your life. Well, what did he say at the beginning? He said the Lord is not too weak to save us and he's not too deaf that he can't hear us. You ever felt like that? You ever felt like that you were asking God to do something for you? And it's like God, are you not strong enough to fix this issue? Are you not hearing me when I'm talking? And God's word, god, through Isaiah, is saying of course I'm not too weak and of course I can hear you. How could I not? I mean like I'm everywhere, like I hold the universe in my hand. I hear you, I'm plenty big enough. Well then we would say God, what's the problem? And God's like exactly there is a problem. And here it is.

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He says verse two. He says it's your sins that have cut you off from me and it's because of your sins that there's now a separation between us. And so you know why God cares about our sin it's because it separates us and our fellowship away from God. And then what he does is he goes through a list and he's saying look at what's going on in your life, look at this. And you're asking me for help. And I'm telling you I want to help you, but your sin has separated you from me, it has separated your fellowship with me. And so he's saying look at all these things. And sometimes that's what has to happen, right, sometimes God has to put a mirror up in our face before we go. Oh, oh, no wonder. Matter of fact, that's what the law was.

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The Bible says in Romans that God created us, and then we fail into sin, and then God gave us the law to see how far from him we had fallen. And that's when he says in Romans, chapter 3, all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then he says later and the wages? The cost of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And he says I got a big idea for you, but it's your sin that has separated us from one another.

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And so here's kind of a checklist that we can go on when we're going through something difficult in our life. The checklist is is God doing something that I don't understand? Is the enemy attacking in a way that I need to pay attention to, or is sin separating me from my fellowship with God? And so here's three things you can do, and I do this all the time. Okay, I'm gonna be honest with you, I do this all the time, and so is God doing something I don't understand. Is the enemy doing something that I need to rebuke in Jesus' name, or is there unconfessed sin in my life? And that is a way of God waving that flag, going hey, pay attention, you know what I mean. And so I fix it in opposite order. As a matter of fact, jesus said that one of the things we're supposed to pray when we pray is God forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And so I take care of the first one of the three, because when we're going to do it, the other order is there sin? Is it the devil, or is God doing something I don't understand, right? So, first of all, take care of the sin, and so I want to encourage you to do this every single day.

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Forgive anybody who has offended you, and one of the things I love is I love to forgive people before they have offended me, because I know they're going to right. So, before they even have a chance, I'm like God, someone's going to make me mad today, so, before they do, I need you to help me with that right. I love how someone said that, dr David Youngki Cho. He pastors the largest church in the world in South Korea. It's like a million people. He said every day, I forgive so many people because I hate so many people. I'm like amen.

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And so every day, first of all, forgive everybody in your life, even if you don't feel like it. Say, as an act of faith, God, I'm working on it. And then say God, if there is any unconfessed sin in my life, will you tell me what it is? Will you bring it to my attention? So, there's any sin in my life, I can repent of it, because I don't want anything to stand between me and you, and that's a bold prayer, cause can I tell you he will. It is amazing to me how many times I will pray that prayer and I will just sit quietly for a moment and just think about my life and something was kind of come up to me and go oh man, yeah, I did say that to them. I need to write that down. I need to go make that right. Yeah, I did do that, god, I'm so sorry for that. Yeah, I did think that, god, I'm so sorry for that. I don't want. I don't want that between me and you. And it's amazing how God will do that. And I take care of that one.

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And then number two the Bible says let us not be led into temptation, but deliver us from against the enemy. And we say, in the name of Jesus, I bind every demonic work of the enemy, I call it null and void, of no effect, in Jesus name, and I declare freedom in my life, and so I take care of any sin, I take care of any work of the enemy, and then I just trust the Lord. Then he might be doing something I don't understand, and that's what God is saying. Is he's saying I am not too weak, but sometimes it is not me, it is. You have let sin get into your life, and then he goes through what it looks like.

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And so can I encourage you today, if you're going through a season right now where it feels like God is not strong enough or God is not listening, go through my checklist. First of all, pray and say God has my sin cut off your goodness in my life. Are you allowing me to experience the fruit of my sin as a flag waving to help me see where my life is? If so, walk with God and ask him to confess it and repent of it before him. Number two take your stand against the enemy in Jesus' name. We have no power of ourselves, but the powerful name of Jesus is what we stand on, and so declare your victory in the name of Jesus. And then, number three trust him, and if you do that, you'll be amazed at what God does in your life. Let's pray together.

Speaker 1:

God, thank you so much that you're with us and you're for us. And, lord, I pray that, as we're listening to this or watching this right now, if there'd be any sin or anything in our life that we need to get rid of, I pray you'll reveal it to us so we can walk free and clean in your world Right now, in the name of Jesus, we just bind every work of the enemy over every person listening or watching this right now in Jesus' name. By the powerful name of Jesus, we declare freedom right now. And, holy Spirit, we trust you in all things and we trust that you're always doing more than we can see. We thank you now in Jesus' name. We pray Amen, and you know what God's word says in Isaiah 12, verse 2, god has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god, is my strength and my song, and he has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 60.

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Brandon Cannon

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