In the sermon titled 'Rend the Heavens,' Scott Brown delves into Isaiah 63:15 through 64:12, emphasizing the urgency and desperation in Isaiah's prayer for God to intervene dramatically. Brown outlines ten elements of Isaiah's prayer, highlighting his cries for help, acknowledgment of God's fatherhood and sovereignty, and the recognition of human sin and frailty. The sermon stresses the need for revival, urging believers to seek a deeper relationship with God, to become more like Isaiah in their prayer life, and to pursue righteousness. Brown calls for the church to be unified in prayer, to desire God's transformative presence, and to recognize the frailty of revivals. Through Isaiah's example, believers are encouraged to cry out for change, to acknowledge their dependence on God, and to seek His mercy and guidance for individual and communal transformation.

Morning. Our sermon text this morning is from Isaiah 63 verse 15 all the way through chapter 64 to the end. Look down from heaven and see from your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?

Doubtless you are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. O Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants sake, the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people have possessed it, but a little while.

Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become like those of old, over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came down, the mountain shook at your presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you who acts for the one who waits for him.

You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers you in your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned. In these ways we continue and we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and there is no one who calls on your name who stirs himself up to take hold of you for you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities but now oh Lord you are our father we are the clay and you are Potter And all we are the work of your hand.

Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look. We all are your people. Your holy cities are wilderness. Zion is a wilderness.

Jerusalem, a desolation. Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised you, is burned up with fire. And all our pleasant things are laid waste. Will you restrain yourself because of these things, O Lord? Will you hold your peace and afflict us very severely?

Father, we we are so Glad this morning that we can call you our father Lord, we thank you. We praise you that we are called by your name, but as we read here Lord, we see the Terror of sin Lord, we see the separation that sin causes because of how holy and how just and good that you are Lord. And Lord we pray that you would look upon us as a congregation and have mercy this morning. Lord as we read in these words of Isaiah we are people Lord that often go our own way. We continually go our own way.

And Lord it is only because of your grace and mercy that we stand. If you would mark iniquity Lord we would all be undone but you give us grace day by day and it is all because of a great conquering Savior our Lord Jesus Christ that we can even call upon you and enter into your throne room and and Lord today we we ask you today to not let the the morning pass without you revealing to us our sins. And Lord, not only to reveal it, but to grant us repentance and atoning. Lord, when you look upon us as a church, we pray that you would reveal all these things that we would draw closer to you, the idols, the worldliness, the tendencies of our hearts, Lord. And Lord, even as you look upon this nation that is careening headlong on a path of destruction, we pray that yet there would be restoration and revival in the land.

Lord, that you would be pleased to work through the churches and to bring salvation to sinners, Lord. And as Mr. Brown now comes to deliver this message, we ask you to give us attentive hearts. Lord, may you use him, fill him with your spirit. Use him, Lord, to speak from your heart to ours to convict us of sin and to fill us with hope and may you remove any false props that we might cling to any religiosity and may we agree with Isaiah that Lord we must be saved and if it is to be so that it is only by your great goodness and mercy Lord so be with us now we ask in the name of your son our Savior Jesus Christ amen Each day this week I've had to face a desperate man multiple times a day into the night, sometimes late at night, early in the morning, I would face this man, this desperate man, his name is Isaiah, and he is uttering a prayer here in this section that we are in, in Isaiah 63 15 through 64 12 and he is a desperate man he's full of zeal for awakening and as I've been aware of this desperate man you know over and over again all day long and even you might say all night long you know there have been times my wife has looked at me and I thought she was saying something like with her eyes, What's wrong with you?

What's wrong with you? And what was wrong with me is that I've been faced with a very, very desperate man, a man who's praying, he's crying out to God. He's saying some of the most astonishing things to God. Rend the heavens, come down, you know. He's a desperate man.

And I thought of how unlike I am compared to Isaiah. The urgency of this prayer is astonishing. And Isaiah, he's a man who will not rest. In chapter 62 verse 1 he says, for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. Isaiah will not rest He also will not let God rest.

He will not hold his peace before God. Isaiah is a desperate man, and I pray that somehow we would face this desperate man this morning, and he would affect us. That He would make us more like Him and less like the way we are, content with everything. Not so much desiring the interruption of God, not so much seeing how much He ought to rend the heavens for us to make the changes that are necessary. It's reminded me of how content I often am.

But Isaiah won't let God rest, and so he pleads with God. He also reveals something to us here, and that is that God will not let his watchman Rest in chapter 62 verse 6 He says I have set watchmen on your walls of Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace Day or night You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give him no rest until he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a praise on the earth." This is the whole tenor of Isaiah's prayer. He's a man who won't rest. He's a watchman who cannot rest.

I pray that God would make us more like that. I pray that He would make me more like that. Here we are. We're coming to the very end of a year. And most of us are thinking about next year.

We're considering what has happened and and Thinking through what ought to happen next year and this prayer I I Hope will be a help to us to center us to unify us as a church to make us more to make us more one in our efforts together. That we are praying for the things that matter, that we're laboring, that we're earnestly crying out to God. That there would be a desperation for the things that are broken. We are here to build up the old waste places, to raise up foundations of many generations, to be repairs of the street and and and restorers of the breach. That's how why God has put us in the world and we are fortunate to have a desperate man before us.

And remember the historical moment that Isaiah is speaking into. He, in these words here, is either speaking of the Assyrian attacks and the devastation, the apostasy that was upon his people or the Babylonian captivity, which also point to other judgments and deliverances in the future. But Isaiah is praying here beginning in verse 15. But he's prepared himself for prayer in the previous sections and I don't know where how far you want to go back to say Isaiah has been preparing himself to pray. You could go back to chapter 60 where he says, arise shine for your light has come.

He's calibrating his soul. He's speaking of the ways of the power of the gospel from chapter 60 all the way up into the point that we are here today. And he's crying out for God to look down, to come down, to rend the heavens. Now, what about us? How does this work for we who are gathered here together at Hope Baptist.

I think it should pose a question for all of us, and that is, what needs to change in my life, in your life? What needs to change in your family, in our church life, and in our whole life in this nation. If God would rend the heavens in any one of these places, what would it look like? And do you want that? Do you want him to rend the heavens?

Do you desire him to make those changes? Are you ready? Are you hopeful that he would actually do something like that? Or would you just rather that he leave you alone? And I pray God does not leave us alone.

You know he does he uses many many ways that in so that he would not leave us alone. He sends us so many things And he's not leaving us alone. He sends us troubles. He sends us economic fluctuations. He sends us people who will sin against us.

He does that in love. He does not want to leave you alone. And so this prayer here is really a prayer that God would not leave any of us alone. And so we should be asking, you know, what areas in the landscape of our churches or our hearts or anything that needs alteration. We should be asking that question now here at the end of the year.

You know, what is it? You know, is it the salvation of our children? Is it the maturity of our children? Is it our own seeking first the kingdom of heaven? Is it the salvation of our grandchildren or maybe our great grandchildren?

Is it our zeal for the lost? Is it taking further steps in holiness? Removing the impurity and the foolishness of this world and centering our whole life upon the kingdom of heaven? What is it that God would want to alter in the landscape of our lives together here as a church and as he does it individually he'll do it in our church as well it's so critical that each one of us individually turns toward the Lord and there's this this private alteration that takes place from the inside and then working out into every part of our lives. This is the whole focus of Isaiah's emotional outpouring here in this prayer.

He's crying out for an awakening, for real and actually radical changes that would take place. And the question is, would we just rather that God leave us alone? I pray that we are not like that at all. That we would want God to come down and draw near. And that he would tear anything that needs to be torn, that he would burn anything that needs to be burned, that he would evaporate anything that needs to be evaporated.

You know the result of revival is always a transformed world and this is a prayer of revival. William Calper back in the English Reformation in the 18th century wrote, Lord, rend the heavens and make a thousand hearts thine own. So that's what this prayer is all about. And I pray that we would be able to relate with it rather than to rebuff it. And so I've identified 10 elements of Isaiah's prayer.

And my prayer is that I will be able to get to all 10 because it's a very deep prayer. It's astonishingly distinctive in its elements and it touches so many matters of doctrine, deep matters of doctrine. This prayer is so full of sound doctrine it's not even funny, particularly for the person who's supposed to try to explain it here today. But I'd like to bring ten elements of this prayer in order to teach Hope Baptist how to pray. The Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray.

They came to him and they said, Lord teach us to pray because we often don't know how we ought to pray. We pray such shallow prayers. We pray such self-serving prayers. We don't know how to pray very well, but here Isaiah teaches us how to pray in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray. It's very appropriate that we look out in the coming year with help, with instruction for how we ought to pray.

So let's look at these ten elements of Isaiah's prayer. The first element is that He cries for help. In verse 15, look down from heaven and see from your habitation, holy and glorious, where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me. Are they restrained? This is a petition of a desperate man crying for help from a God who does not seem to be zealous or merciful at the time and Isaiah is in pain and he's crying to God to pay attention to him He feels that God's attention has been diverted It's it's it's not toward him And notice how personal this is.

It's a very personal cry. He is concerned about himself. Do you see that? You know, we've seen Isaiah in So many different contexts. Now you learn something more about this man.

He's concerned about himself. He says, where are your zeal and your strength and the yearning of your heart and your mercies? Toward me. Toward me. Here we see the human-ness of Isaiah.

Isaiah is speaking very personally. He doesn't do this very often, quite in the same way, where he's asking God to pay attention to him. In one way he's saying and I don't want to belittle this in any way, but in one way he's saying, what about me? What about me? And you know we go through times like this, particularly in times of trouble, when we might feel that God has abandoned us.

You know, even our Lord Jesus Christ cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know, James even recommended, if anyone is suffering, let him pray. We see many examples of this in scripture where a man is crying out to God in his desperation, like Job. But here Isaiah has been a prophet to four kings. He and his family has been speaking into the lives of many people into his nation.

It was a time of apostasy and revival At different times during his his 40 year ministry the Lord had already revealed to him that no one was going to listen to him and This was his lot in life that he would cry out and no one would listen his ministry would be rejected This is why we read in Isaiah chapter 6 when Isaiah sees the Lord and he says, Lord here am I send me. God tells him no one will listen to you. And this is Isaiah's law in life. He's crying out and yet he does believe in the holiness and the glory of God. And he's wondering why there is so much trouble and has God fled away or is he restraining himself?

And why does it seem like he's not holding? Why does it seem like he is turning his face in the other direction? But Isaiah understands that God does see. I want to suggest that in his cry he believes. He believes that God sees.

There's so much evidence of that in his testimony here. He does not believe that he is alone, that his angels, that God's angels will attend and protect his people. And this is why the Apostle Peter himself said, cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you. I think this is Isaiah's tenor. He feels the desperation of it, but he has not lost hope in God.

And he cries out to God, verifying that he does believe in God. And so he speaks of his holiness and glory. He says, and see from your habitation, holy and glorious. He believes in that God. He believes that God is the source and the fountain of holiness and beauty and goodness.

And he acknowledges that God's zeal and God's strength do exist, even in his cry, where are your zeal and your strength? And then he recognizes the yearnings of God's heart. While he doesn't feel them, he knows of the yearnings of God's heart for his glory. In fact, in the previous chapters he's been speaking so carefully about them, about the yearnings of God's glory for His people and what it does and how He heals the lame and He causes the blind to see and He gives you springs in the desert. He knows that God's yearnings are for For the beautification of his people, but he wants more of God.

He's not content He says God more more and the question is is is that is that a characterization of us? Do we want more of His holiness that exists in His habitation? Do we desire that all of our springs would be in Him? Isaiah is like that. He does plead with the Lord who is there, and he desires his presence.

And so he cries for help, believing that God's holiness and his yearnings are real and that they are effectual, even though in his flesh he doesn't see them. So the first thing that we see about this prayer is that he cries for help. And we should be doing the very same thing. Consider how you might cry out to God in that very same way. This desperate man, let him face you.

Let him look in you in the eye and help you to become more like him in this way. And then the second thing that we learned, the second element of this prayer, is that he remembers the Fatherhood of God. Doubtless you are our Father. See, he's not lost his belief. Doubtless!

He does not doubt for a second that God is not his Father. Doubtless, you are our Father. Though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel does not acknowledge us, you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is your name. He remembers the rock of God, His Father, His Redeemer, the one who exists forevermore. And he's recognizing that God is his Father.

When you pray, you should pray as if God was your Father. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray. And he said, pray like this, our Father, our Father. It's a collective prayer. All of us together are praying to a Father, but Isaiah prays this very same way, doubtless you are our Father.

You know when all of the outward evidences fail, the remembrance that God is your Father should never fail you, that He is the anchor of your soul. The recognition that God is your Father is the foundation of your faith. And so we open our hearts to him as our Father. Now before you can say doubtless you are our Father, you must be born again. Does your spirit bear witness that God is your Father and you are His son or His daughter?

Does your spirit bear witness? Can you say that? Do you know him? Do you love him as your father? Do you see all of his works as the works of a kind and compassionate father toward you?

Do you see him that way? If you don't see him as a kind father, I don't know how you can know him. This is the doctrine of the fatherhood of God that is presented before us. And then he says something that is difficult to understand and there are various ways to understand it though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel does not acknowledge us you oh lord are our father our redeemer from everlasting So he speaks of Abraham and Israel and there are various ways. I'm not sure exactly what he means here You can take take your preference As you like he may be saying that that he may be saying we are so degenerate to such a degree that we wouldn't be even recognized by Abraham or Israel.

Or he could be saying that Abraham and Israel can't help us. We stand before God. We stand before our Father alone. There are various ways that it can be understood, but the truth of the matter is that Isaiah believes that God is his Father. And if you pray, recognize the fatherhood of God, his fatherly care, his tender work in your life, and how he's always brought everything to you that you need.

This is what a perfect father does, and he is a perfect father. And so he's affirming the blessings of God's fatherhood. He's not just a father, but he's a Redeemer. But He's not just a Redeemer. He has an everlasting name.

And then the third element of this prayer, after his remembering the fatherhood of God, he acknowledges God's sovereignty in verse 17. Oh Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servant's sake the tribes of your inheritance. Now, this is an astonishing and even terrifying statement and and you know much much has been written about the sovereignty of God over the years and trying to understand it. The sovereignty of God will bend your brain forwards and backwards in every which way.

And no man has ever been able to really explain it perfectly. And I don't think that I can do it here. Let me quote E.J. Young, the commentator on this verse. He says this, the thought is that God causes the people to wander from his paths and to harden their hearts so that they will not fear him.

The prayer does not, however, absolve man of responsibility, for the people's lack of blessing is due to their own sinfulness." I think he stated the two problems that always must be dealt with when you're dealing with a verse like this, particularly, and the sovereignty of God. You know, John Owen speaks of this hardening and he makes various distinctions of the different kinds of hardening that take place in the lives of people. He says that we often we air inwardly and it continues by continuing in our outward performances without inward preferences toward him. He speaks of this This hardening can happen in the life of a believer and they just continue on in their religious experiences. But their hearts are airing in that sense and they're hardened from the fear of God.

He also speaks of a kind of hardening where God gives you up. He gives you up to destruction. That your hardening reaches such a degree that almost all is lost as a result, and perhaps all would be lost. He speaks of a partial hardening that can take place among believers and he cites Hebrews 3.13 as an evidence of it where he says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. There's a kind of hardening that can happen in the life of a believer through the deceitfulness of sin.

And the question that we ought to be asking in our praying is, is there a hardening taking place in our lives in any way? This kind of hardening refers to people who once experienced maybe in great measure times of tenderness and desire for God but then there is decay and the hearts are hardened from the fear of God. And then John Owen says that often that person sees and is terrified by the hardening and they cry out to God and they say, oh Lord, why have I become so hardened? And they return to the Lord. And it often happens when a person's distresses increase or there are various calamities that take place.

And they begin to fear everything but God. They fear their reputations. They fear the economy. They fear everything. They fear their health.

They fear the weather. They fear their friends. They fear their boss. They fear everything but God. And as a result, they find themselves realizing how far they've slipped from the fear of God.

The fear of God is a sweetening fear. The fear of man is always a hardening and a devastating kind of fear. And there's this decreased sensitivity to sin and secret sins rule and reign. You know, we've seen this. We've seen this in our own church.

You know, I've been a pastor for about 35 years. And I've seen this all my life, where people will go through seasons of decline. It might be a season of increased worldliness or hardness. And they become cavalier about their time. And they waste it away.

Their desire to use their time for spiritual profit declines. They find more joy in the silly entertainments of this world than they do in the things of God. And they're in a state of decline. They're in a state of hardening that takes place. And then, sometimes, many times I've seen it where they begin to long for God.

They see the foolishness of it and they turn. This is life in the Church of Jesus Christ where there are various kinds of hardening that take place. Some of them are hardening's unto death and eternal damnation. Some of them are hardening's that would cause them to finally turn or perhaps even even be a distraction and and a defilement in the church and The church gets to see the difference between light and darkness in the life of someone who is falling away. And they see it and they don't want that.

There's the hardness that is spoken of in Romans, Chapter 9, where God has, it's the hardness of God's electing power. In Romans 9 verse 13, it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Where he says, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not him who wills or him who runs, but on him who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up that I may show my power in you that my name may be declared in all the earth therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and Whom he wills he hardens the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of this very same thing in John chapter 12 verses 37 through 39 where we read from the Lord Jesus who said, They could not believe because Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them.

These things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him. So there are various kinds of hardening. Some of them are so terrible and devastating. And as you pray, ask yourself, Do you see the sovereign hand of God in your life? Do you see any hardening take place?

If you do, turn, return. Move away from the worldliness that has begun to grip your heart and turn. Prayer is such a blessing because it does serve to reveal so much to us. As we pray, we should ask, Lord, Why have you brought this hardness into my heart or into the hearts of the people in our church? So that we would turn and that we would fear God like we did at one time.

You know, people go through seasons in their lives. And here, maybe you're in one of those seasons now, and you're hearing a preacher speak to you about a low season that you might be in. Please listen. Don't turn. Don't harden your hearts.

Today's the day. Turn. So Isaiah's teaching us to pray here at Hope Baptist. The fourth element of this prayer is that he remembers the frailty of revivals. Verse 18, your holy people have possessed it but a little while our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary and the big question is in verse 18 is what is it?

Possessed it And my understanding of this is that he's speaking of the fear of God, that they possessed the fear of God a short time. And as a result, adversaries were treading down their worship. And it's the fear of the Lord and His ways that He's speaking of. Your holy people have possessed your fear and your ways but a little while." You know, this is a reality of times of awakening. Some commentators believe that this refers to the land and the whole life of the people of God in the land and how God vomited them out of the land.

But they became a certain way. They became like those who were never ruled. Look at verse 19. To me this is one of the saddest verses in Isaiah. We have become like those of old over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name.

You know, what is it like never to be ruled by God? What happens to a heart? What happens in a family? What happens in a nation when the people are not ruled by God? It's such a tragic situation when this happens.

To be ruled by God is the very, very best thing. You know, the Lord Jesus spoke of those who would look at him and say, I never knew you. It's the equivalent of saying, I never ruled you. We have become like those over whom you have never, you never ruled. What a tragic thing.

You know, the secret of all revival is the rulership of God. And here we find an obedient church that fears God. That's what is implied here. We often slip into periods where it doesn't seem as if God is ruling us. But the most important question in any church is, is Jesus Christ ruling us?

Do we want Him to rule us? Or do we just want to do our own thing? Do we want Him to mess with our lives? Do we want Him to rend the heavens? Do we want Him to burn up the stubble?

Do we want Him to boil off into steam all the unprofitable things? Do we want him to be ruled by God? Is he ruling you? Do you want him to rule you? You know, as you pray, this is a critical matter to consider.

You know, the rulership of God is such a sweet thing. When God rules, there's such happiness that breaks forth everywhere. You know, I was reading this last week in account of the Great Awakening. Here's a description of the town of Northampton, Massachusetts. The town seemed to be full of the presence of God.

It never was so full of love nor of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought unto them, parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The assembly in general was from time to time in tears while the word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.

Awakening is such a sweet thing, and yet it can be such a short thing. But it all depends on one thing. Are we a people who are ruled by God? Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. This is the primary foundation of love in a fellowship.

It's the keeping of God's commandments and desiring to be ruled by Him. And yet there's a frailty of revivals. You know, we've seen times of awakening. You know, we've seen a number of people saved this year. It's been very wonderful.

I know what I just read about families rejoicing in the salvation of children, that's happened here. May it increase still more. But when you pray remember the frailty of revivals. They're often short-lived. And then the fifth element of the prayer, the fifth element of the instruction of Hope Baptist as it prays in the coming year, is that he prays for dramatic change.

Verses 1 & 2, Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence." Now all of these things refer to real change because of the presence of God. There's a tearing and a shaking and a burning and a boiling. This is Isaiah's petition that God would do a dramatic and a visible work among them. These manifestations of his glory and there are five figures that Isaiah uses to bring to mind to show us what this is like. These are illustrations, these are images to help us understand, I think, one thing.

I really think he's just talking about one thing in all of these images. First he says, oh that you would rend the heavens. And he's talking about tearing, dividing, splitting. This terminology is used for the tearing of a cloth, a garment, a kingdom, a heart, tearing it, making it, there's something that needs to be torn. I don't know if he means something needs to be torn down, but there's a sense of change here.

That the garment, the heart, the kingdom needs to change. It needs to be torn. And The question is what needs to be torn? And then he speaks of the nearness of God in the next figure. He speaks of the mount, that you would come down.

That God would come down. Now, does God show up? Does God come down? Not in the way that people often speak of it. God is omnipresent.

God doesn't show up. God is always showed up. He's always by virtue of his omnipresence. Now he does work, he does pour out his spirit in particular ways. That's different than God showing up.

And but This is a figure of speech that God would come down. God did not literally need to come down to see the Tower of Abel in Genesis 11.5. It says that God came down. In Genesis 18.21, regarding Sodom, God did not need to make a trip to Sodom to see what was happening in Sodom, even though he said in Genesis 18 and 21, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it. These are figures of speech here.

But he's speaking of the presence of God here. The presence of God is the sweetest thing for a church. And this is why we read in Matthew chapter 1 verse 23, Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. And when that God who is with you is with you, he will never leave you or forsake you. He's omnipresent.

But this is a figure of speech of God coming down. It's a cry for the outpouring of the Spirit of God. It's really a cry for Jesus Christ Himself. In John 1 we read that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld as glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of God." The most fundamental matter of a revival is God. God is the center of it all.

And then there's the mountain shaking, that the mountains might shake at your presence. I Would expect he's speaking about cyanide and but he's speaking of the way that God shakes the mountains It's figurative when he when Jesus said, you know when you pray that this mountain would be moved, he's speaking in figurative language. He's talking about something dramatic, a radical change in the landscape. And in this very same way, Isaiah's using terminology that Jesus did. And then the next figure, the fourth figure is brushwood.

As fire burns the brushwood. I think he's speaking of things that need to be destroyed. The wood and the hay and the stubble, the unprofitable things. And then the final figure is this figure of water boiling. I think he's talking about water evaporating.

And so this is a prayer that God would change everything. You know, the heavens are rent, the mountains shake, the brushwood is burned, the water is boiling and things change. Changes are felt and seen and they're known. They happen in real life. You know, revival doesn't cost any money, and it requires no schemes of man.

It costs tears of repentance and obedience. That's all it costs. You know, when God comes down, you see it in the humility in the church. You see it in the longing for the Word of God. When God comes down, You see it in their love for one another you see an awakened sense of sin you you see a poverty of spirit You see a zeal you see a recognition of Christ as Redeemer and guide and head and provider When when the heavens are rent you see these kinds of changes people abandon old practices They throw away old attitudes and judgments against people.

They're changed. What does it look like when the heavens are rent in a church? The people are different. The fabric, the ground, Everything, everything has changed. You know, Robert Murray McShane, he spoke of times of revival where he said it was almost like some people had a second new birth.

He didn't believe in a second new birth, but he said that it often seems like that, when there's a rending of the heavens, where God takes a people into a deeper and a sweeter and a more obedient and a humbler place. That's the kind of revival that Isaiah is praying for. You know the Lord is teaching us I think here about prayer about our own church and what it looks like to to have the heavens rent. Can you feel the passion of Isaiah? Oh Lord, rend the heavens.

I don't know how you get more viscerally passionate than using language like that. But Isaiah's whole being is caught up in this matter. You know, in the Joel, the prophet was prophesying of the coming judgment of the day of the Lord. And he says this in Joel 2 17, he says, let the priests who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the altar. Let them weep between the porch and the altar.

Is that what we're doing? Are we weeping? Do we have this kind of passion? You know, as I've been facing this desperate man by the name of Isaiah multiple times a day and in the middle of the night, I've just been so confronted with all of these things that Isaiah is here before us. In many ways, I think as an example, are we weeping between the porch and the altar?

Are we crying out to God that he would come and make those changes? You know, we have a very blessed time after the preaching where men stand up and they instruct us further and I benefit from it very much and I'm very grateful for it. But I wondered this week why it is that in those times, there aren't many tears, there's not much repentance. We are very cerebral here. We're very cerebral here.

Now, we should be cerebral here, okay? It would be very harmful if we were not thinking through these matters, because it's critical that we do. It's the beginning of all change. You must think. You must change your mind.

So I don't want to be accused of denigrating being cerebral. But could it be that we might be a little too cerebral at the expense of our awareness of our own sin. And we should hear these words, rend your hearts and not your garments. And Isaiah says this is so important because it'll have an effect in the world that that the adversaries Will have knowledge of God. He says this when he rends the heavens your name will be known to your adversaries and the nations will tremble at his presence.

There's a social implication here. There's an impact in the community that results from God rending the heavens. These changes that he makes in his church, they spin out into the world and the nations actually tremble. How do you know when God has come down? When people change and when the nations tremble, that's how you know.

It's a good thing when the nations tremble at the church. We want people to think so sweetly about the church, and we should to a degree, but that sweetness is often right to turn to trembling. And then the sixth, they acknowledge that God has acted before verses 3 and 4 when you did awesome things for which we did not Look you came down the mountains shook at your presence. I Perhaps I perhaps we're back to Sinai the plagues of Egypt the the great calamities that God brought Against the enemies of God You know the mountains were skipping and God is working. God has worked it many, many times.

He can work again. That's the idea. When you're praying, remember that God can work again as he did in those days. It is dependent upon his sovereign hand. At the same time God does hear prayer.

He responds to prayer. And that's why Isaiah is praying. He believes God is his Father, and that God will work. And then the seventh thing is he recognizes the sad state of the visible church in verses 5 through 7. And he begins with speaking of the fact that that so few rejoice and do righteousness Verse 5 you meet him who rejoices and does righteousness Who remembers your ways You are indeed angry for we have sinned.

In these ways we continue. We need to be saved. He's speaking about this sad state of the church where so few are saved. But he speaks of what it means to know Him and to be met by Him. Those who rejoice in Him and those who love righteousness.

These are the ones that He meets. And then He speaks of their impurity. He says, But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. So he speaks of the fact that the national landscape looks more to him like filthy rags.

Now, what are the filthy rags that he is speaking about? Now I think this might be one of the most misunderstood, mischaracterized verses in the Bible. Because you often hear Christians speak of this About themselves now. I just want to make a few Comments about this these these filthy rags They are not the good works that the Holy Spirit brings about in the life of a Christian. Isaiah is not speaking about the person who obeys God.

The Lord Jesus Christ says that when you obey him, they will see your good works and they'll glorify your Father in heaven. Yes, the believers have good works. Everything that a believer does is not filthy rags. But often we read that and we think of it in that sense. There are good works that the people of God do.

Our confession speaks of what are good works. They are not filthy rags at all. And we're often confused about that. A good work is defined by doing what God has commanded and the spirit induced works are not filthy rags. Your obedience toward God is not a filthy rag.

I don't believe. You know, Kevin D. Young wrote a book called The Hole in Your Holiness. He actually addresses this matter in the book. I'm just gonna read you a section of it to help you understand what I'm trying to say here.

Because I think that we should rather say that God delights in the good works of his children. But at the same time the fake and phony filthy rags of their outward performances are completely filthy to him. I think that's what Isaiah is saying. Here's Kevin DeYoung. He's talking about people who say oh I'm a spiritual failure but praise God Jesus came to save spiritual failures like me.

I cannot obey God's commands for one nanosecond. I never truly love God with all my heart or my neighbor as myself. Even my righteous deeds are like filthy rags. If you could see my heart and see my sins, they're bad. But the good news is God has saved me because of Christ's death and resurrection.

I'm His adopted, forgiven, clean child. Nothing I ever do can make God love me more or less than He loves me in Christ. Even though I continue in sin, I can never disappoint my Heavenly Father, for He looks at me and sees the righteousness of His beloved Son. What unspeakable good news." Now, is there anything wrong with this? Well, there's not, everything is not wrong with this, but there are a few things that perhaps are wrong with it if you're tying this to the filthy rags that Isaiah is speaking about.

You know, DeYoung says it sounds very humble to say I can't obey God for one nanosecond, but it's not true. It's as if you're acting as if holiness is out of reach, that there are no good works that you can do. We're all aware of the taint of sin that affects absolutely everything. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, They were righteous before God and they walked blamelessly in the commandments and the statutes of God. That's in Luke 1 6.

Job was a blameless man and upright, he feared the Lord and he turned from evil that's Job 1 8 the Apostle Paul is frequently commanding or commending churches for their obedience and their godly example read 1st and 2nd Thessalonians The Lord Jesus Christ teaches that a wise person hears his word, and he does them. That's in Matthew 7, 24. James says the same thing in James 2, 22. The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesian Church that they were created for good works and that Christians actually can be rich in good works as the Apostle Paul says to Timothy in 1st Timothy 6 18 and that you can walk in a manner worthy of your calling that we bear fruit that we bear good fruit and it's pleasing to God as Paul says to the Colossians in Colossians 1 10 that you can present your body as a pleasing sacrifice before God as it says in Romans chapter 1 that you can obey your parents when you obey your parents it pleases God it's not a filthy rag necessarily it could be if it's fake praying for governing authorities pleases God we learned that in 1st Timothy 2 1-3 It's the outward performances of righteousness that are fake that Isaiah is speaking of are the filthy rags.

Those are your filthy rags. And so when he says this, that we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags, he is speaking of the unconverted who need to turn to Jesus Christ. He may be speaking of the converted and the wayward who have fallen into a pathway of fakery. It is so that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

And in that life, He causes you to perform good works. And your life is being beautified day by day, and week by week, and month by month, and year by year. And God sent His only Son that we would believe, that we would repent, that we would receive him and obey him. And these are all good works of God. They're not filthy rags at all.

And then in verse 7 he speaks of this sad state of the church in terms of their independence and their prayerlessness. He says, and there is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. And I believe he's speaking primarily of unbelievers here. They don't take hold of God at all. They just want their own life.

And they don't stir themselves up. And they don't call on him. The mark of a Christian is that you call on him and you stir yourself up and you take hold of him. Now do you do it perfectly? No, I don't think so.

But this ground of your soul that desires to call on and stir yourself up and take hold of God is a mark of a true Christian. And then the eighth matter, He pleads for mercy in verses 8 and 9. But now, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are our potter and all we are the work of your hand. He's acknowledging his dependence as a lump of clay, and how he needs the potter's hands to shape him.

And he's pleading for mercy, and then he says in verse 9, do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look, we all are your people. And he's really speaking of the matters of sin that needs that need to be repented of they are matters of God's fury You know, do you feel God's fury, children, when you dishonor your parents? Do you feel God's fury when you don't have compassion on your spouse? Or if you're cheating or lying or you're gossiping and slandering people, do you feel his fury?

There is a desensitization of it there. And then number nine, he recognizes the condition of the nation and the church in verses 10 and 11. First of all, he speaks of the cities. Your holy cities are a wilderness. Zion is a wilderness.

Jerusalem is a desolation. And then he speaks of the temple, our holy and beautiful temple where our fathers praised you is burned up with fire. And all our pleasant things are laid waste." And I think he's speaking of the Assyrians who destroyed their temple and took the treasure and perhaps Nebuchadnezzar who was going to do it in a little over a hundred years from this time. And then finally he speaks to God with what seems to me to be his most earnest question. He begins the prayer in the same way that he ends it.

In verse 12, will you restrain yourself because of these things, O Lord? O Lord, will you hold your peace and afflict us very severely? Will you, O Lord? This is Isaiah, a child of God speaking to his father. He's crying out to God for change and it's such an earnest prayer for change and he's begging God not to restrain himself.

He will not be silent. He will not hold his peace before God. He'll be like that woman who continued to go and knock at the door. And finally the master relents and says, okay fine. If you're going to keep bugging me, I'm going to answer your prayer.

This is the kind of prayer we need in our church. Prayers that don't cease. Prayers that continue on. Crying out to God, oh Lord, please do not hold your peace. Now, just a couple of final things to consider by way of application.

God's man, Isaiah, this desperate man, is pleading with the God who is sovereign. He knows God is sovereign, but he pleads with him. And you know how much more ought we to be like Isaiah? Do we like the steady state that we're in? Do we want God to mess with our system?

Do we want Him to rend the heavens? Do we want Him to melt the mountains? Do we want Him to burn up the chaff and the unprofitable things in our lives. Do we want him to evaporate the things that should be evaporated? Do we want him to do that?

So I've had to face this man over and over again many times a day, this desperate man. And I've wondered if God would have mercy upon us and that he would give us the same kind of desperation? Would we be people who would pray for change, dramatic change in every area around us, from the very depths of our hearts, to the way that we operate in our families, to the way that we function out in the community, would we be a people who would cry out that He would change us according to the holiness of His standard in heaven? That He, the Holy Father, the Father in heaven would come and He would come down and He would change us. And that we would learn to pray like this desperate man, Isaiah, would you pray with me?

Father, Father, I thank you for laying before us things that are absolutely true. I pray that you would help us to bring these things into practice. That we would see the things that need to be rent the things that need to be shaken the things that need to be torn The things that need to be burned the things that need to evaporate. Oh Lord that you would help us to pray against all these things that your glory would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. I pray Lord that you would unite us together as a church after these things and you would keep us from all pettiness.

Amen.