Great Prayers No.3 Isaiah's Prayer - Let the fire fall

Thank you for joining us. And the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter.

We are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord. Do not remember our sins forever.

O look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people. Your sacred cities have become a desert, even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and glorious temple where our fathers praised you has been burnt with fire and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? Verse 15 of the previous chapter. Look down from your heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Now verse 11, the next chapter, last line.

All that we treasured lies in ruins. Look from your glorious throne and see the mess. All that we treasured lies in ruins.

It happens. It happens to an individual. It can happen to a city.

It can happen to a nation. It can happen to a local church. It can happen to the church, national and international.

All that we treasured lies in ruins. Here is this old and godly man with prophetic insight. I refer to Isaiah.

By the gift that he has been granted from the Lord, he goes forward beyond the years of his own experience and anticipates what is round the corner, so to speak, as far as the history of Israel is concerned. He knows that as a result of their crass disobedience, they will finish up in Babylon in bondage and that when they return, the city Jerusalem will be desolate. And perhaps even more than the city of Jerusalem, he has in mind the people that inhabit or should inhabit the Holy Land.

And the circumstance is so horrific, it's so contrasting to what it used to be, that he says to the Lord, look down from heaven and see from your glorious throne, all that we treasured lies in ruins. Now, one of the reasons why we're looking at this particular prayer, for that is what it is, is because by the virtues of inspiration, it applies not just to Isaiah in his day, and even with him, it was prophetic, it also applies to us. You see, this is a prayer asking that God in his grace will look down and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Isaiah is asking that God in his grace will turn a situation round. He has a concern, a concern for the well-being of his nation, which was in Old Testament language the equivalent of the church. And when Isaiah looks at the church, he sees her in ruins.

And so he says to the Lord, look down from your heaven, see that once what we were is now no longer. The gold has been tarnished. In language that bespeaks Jeremiah in the final chapters of the book of Lamentations, which he also read, which he also wrote, Isaiah comes to the Lord and says, this is what we were and this is what we now are.

Once we were a good nation consolidated with a great infrastructure. Now we are nothing. We are in ruins.

O Lord, that you would render heavens and come down, that you will intervene, because our circumstance is such that without your intervention, we are desperate. A man grabbed me with a vice-like grip the other day. I can mention him because you will not know him.

I don't think I've ever been squeezed so tightly or read within the passion of the embrace such anguish of spirit. His life had gone to pieces. All that he had stood for had fallen apart.

To see a man weep is a moving experience. I don't think that it demeans manhood to weep. There are times when you can do little else.

Little else is appropriate. And as we were going through the calamity that had brought him to this particular point in his life, he had this one significant philosophical, theological comment to say. I know it's going to be all right because I care.

I feel. Years ago he wouldn't have cared. Years ago he wouldn't have felt.

You see, the strange thing is that if spiritually you're adrift and you are concerned about it, then there is hope. It's when you have no concern, it's when you have no sense of conviction or contrition, that you really put yourself almost outside the providential reach of God. For you harden your spirit and you do despise to the sacrifice of Jesus.

Now don't you see, my dear friend, that here is a man who too is in anguish. In anguish of spirit and yet he has hope. Here is a man who, because of what he knows of the Lord, is able to recite this particular prayer.

And this prayer can become your prayer and my prayer. As first of all, he puts into place what used to be. You see, the opening verse in the NIV, the way it's translated is just a little bit misleading.

It should be in the past tense. All that you wouldst have, rent the heavens and come down. All that when our nation was in its great turmoil, in its great difficulty, that then Lord you had come down and turned the whole thing around.

You see, here is the language of theophany. Here is the language of God drawing close. It had happened historically.

Doubtless the prophet had in mind when Jacob was at Peniel or perhaps more particularly when Moses was at Sinai, then God had come down. And the result of God coming down was phenomena occurred. The mountains trembled.

It was just metaphorically like fire setting twigs ablaze and causing water to burn, to boil. When God came down and moved in on Jacob. When God came down and moved in on Israel, he turned Jacob from a twister to a prince and he federated Israel to become the nation, his own people.

But Lord, we went astray. If only, if only at that point you had intervened. I sometimes think that if I ever wrote, and doubtless I never will, the autobiography of my life, I would entitle it If Only.

If only I'd done that and not this. If only. Do you share the same sentiments? Well, you see, this is a prophet and he's saying, if only, if only God had come down at the point when Israel was so needing him, but because of their faithlessness, because of their rebellion, they didn't.

He who had, verse 3, done awesome things that we didn't expect. He who in ancient times, verse 4, had visited Israel in such a fashion that it could be said of this God, no one has heard any deity like you before. No ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

But we didn't wait. And the church took a tumble. And as the walls of the city of Jerusalem crumbled, so the spiritual people of God in the Old Testament became just a shadow of what they were.

If only, Lord Jesus, you'd been there. My brother would not have died. If only.

If only. But you see, my friend, if you're feeling at your wits' end in your own life at this moment, this prayer speaks volumes to you. What do I mean? Because you have inserted at least in your memory a happier time, when you were obedient, when you knew something of the sunshine of God's love.

If only. If only that could come back. But at least you have this to your credit.

You have this as your hope, that you're uncomfortable where you are, and you do believe that there was at least an occasion in your life when God moved in and sorted you out. If only the church was like she was on the day of Pentecost. If only the church in the United Kingdom was like the church in Seoul, where they queue up for prayer meetings early in the morning.

If only. But you see, if you mouth your if-onlys, at least you've got some target in your prayers to which you can direct your aim. Of course, it wasn't true, verse 5, that the whole nation was disobedient.

There's always been a remnant. When our Lord came on earth, there was Anna, you remember, and Simeon, who in the temple, these old people were coming before the Lord. And they knew that God does come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

But the generality in Isaiah's time is that the people have long since forgotten God, and there is no way in which they can condemn God for his seeming inactivity. So, the prophet takes you from what has been, if only, to what is now, the present. We continue to sin against them.

We continue to sin against your purposes. And as a result, you were angry. You see, this is a nation, this is an individual who is not trying to buck responsibility.

One of the problems within the 20th century is that everyone else is to blame but not me, not ourselves. But Isaiah assumes responsibility for the guilt of the nation. And the departure of God, or seemingly so, is something that is quite reasonable in the face of what? Verse 6, all of us have become like one who is unclean.

Using the imagery of dirty rags that have become contaminated as they have dealt with bodily discharge. So, Isaiah suggests are the equivalent of righteous acts that people in his day are offering the Lord. They are spiritually so unstable and so lacking in substance that they shrivel up like a leaf, with the net result that when the wind of circumstance blows, they are nowhere to be seen.

They are carried away with the wind. And back again to the generality, no one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you. And the consequence? You hid your face from us.

You made us rot because of our sin. It's painful, isn't it? It's even more painful when you take it out from this immediate context and apply it to the church in the 20th century. Why are we as we are? If the church is the most powerful organism in the world today, why is it that at least in the West we make so little impact? You know, this church is starting to show its age in terms of the building, as is obvious with this structure that's around me in the pulpit as we're doing repair work.

If you turn the clock back and research the history of our church, you'll come across some very interesting things. John Hanson is doing this just at the moment. You see, what the preacher had to say here was so important.

It was recognized as being so important in the community that the sermons would often be preceded and put in the local press. Did you know that? When Douglas Crouch was making comments about the return of the Lord and the setting up of his government, the press was so interested that they gave a fairly large proportion of space, quite frequently, to what he had to say. Now, apart from your potted sermon in the Daily Telegraph and the Times and an apology of one in the Guardian, you hardly get anything in our press, basically, that is an attempt at declaring or reporting sermons, the Word of God.

One hundred years or thereabouts have gone by, and the influence that the church had within this country has largely eroded. I know there are exceptions, but by and large you must admit that this is the case. And so you ask yourself, why? And one of the reasons is its relative powerlessness.

It seems to be anemic. But that wasn't always the case. Take the day of John Wesley.

Take the day of Jonathan Edwards, over there in America, as it was called then, before it was federated into the United States. What these men had to say had clout. Why had it clout? Well, because there was such an unusual sense of the presence of God attending their ministries.

You see, He came down. He came down from His heavens, oh, that thou would rend the heavens and come down, oh, that there may be phenomena. Phenomena in terms of lives being changed, phenomena in terms of people turning out of their homes in London and going to Kennington Common and so forth in their thousands to hear the Word of God.

To hear men, to hear women who had such a close encounter with God that what they had to say came with a peculiar authority. Yet by and large, with some exceptions, let's not do down the church where it doesn't need to be done down. That is not the case today.

And so the prophet will help you further because having gone to the past and engaged in nostalgia, if only, and having gone to the present and allowed the problem and the responsibility to stay where it really should be with the church, with the individual, he now takes you back to God. You see, unless the Lord does something, then we are in dire problems, says Isaiah. The future of Israel, well, there will be no future.

Yet, oh, Lord, verse 8, you are our Father. That's a daring comment. You see, here's your son, this prodigal.

He's in the far country. He's squandered the wealth of his home. He's lived as though his father was dead.

And his circumstances spiral downwards as the stock exchange breaks. You can't get decent interest. And in any case, he's got no capital.

And he comes back. And when father sees him, he says, my son, not the boy, not this pig-stinking man, not this reprobate, my son. And here is Isaiah in a very daring fashion, anticipating that bit of theology made plain in the New Testament.

He says, yet, oh, Lord, despite this, you are our Father. You are the potter. The fact that we are clay does not mean that we are not responsible for the actions in which we are engaged.

We acknowledge our responsibility. But, Lord, the sovereignty is yours. You are the potter.

You are our Father. We are the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord.

Do not remember our sins forever. Thank God for the delete button. You see, Isaiah will always take you away to Jesus.

Oh, he didn't live to see the day of Jesus. But there was a sense in which he anticipated it. He knows the problems.

He knows that the whole condition of the nation is absolutely impossible unless and unless someone comes from heaven. Emmanuel, God, coming down, rending the heavens. It happened.

There is a babe in Bethlehem's manger. There is a cry. Someone has been brought into this world who is unusual.

His name is Emmanuel, Jesus, the Savior. Give him 30 odd years and see that blood-stained, bedraggled figure on a cross. Realize that he is dying for your sins.

He is dying for the ruin of the church. He is dying for all the things that you and I have done that are wrong. And his precious blood is the delete button.

Do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are your people. Lord, look at the state.

Look at the state of the church, the sacred cities, the desolate. Zion is a desert. Jerusalem is a desolation.

Lord, our holy and glorious temple where our fathers praised you, that is in ruins. A place where God made his presence felt no longer exists. But more than the building was the concept of God coming down, God being amongst his people.

That was the important thing. This was the credible fact of the Jewish nation that marked it out historically. God was their God in a most unusual way.

And so, Isaiah prays for the restoration of Zion. Do you ever pray for the church? Your glorious church. Your glorious temple.

Oh, Lord, come to your temple again. Come in great power. Come with great authority.

Lord, reestablish your name, reestablish your gospel. Give it an authenticity amongst people as you demonstrate your power. Because, Lord, all that we treasure at the moment is in ruins.

You see, it's possible that God will never do anything with anyone until he's desperate. Maybe it's that sense of desperation that we lack. Oh, that you would rend.

They say of George Whitefield that one English actor offered 100 guineas to be able to say, Oh, like Whitefield said, Oh. You see, there was pathos there. There was heartache.

There was a sense of, Oh, Lord, the 17th century, we desperately need you. Our ale houses are filled with people. There's drunkenness.

There's prostitution. There's so much wrong on the streets of England. Lord, look what's happening in France.

There's a bloody revolution coming around. Oh, God, save us from that. And he did.

As Wesleyan Whitefield and others got desperate. Lord, all that we treasure lies in ruins. Lord, see this.

Will you hold yourself back? Because if you don't come and turn the situation around, then who can? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? And that's a rhetorical question into which he smuggled the answer. No, he won't keep silence. No, he won't punish beyond measure.

Why? Because he is a passionate God. He is the sympathetic God. He is the God who responds to the urgent prayers of people for revival.

And that's what Isaiah did. He prayed in that fashion. Do you pray? Why? We desperately need revival.

And even if it never comes in our lifetime, we still need to be praying and working for it. So here we have it, my friends. If only.

Remember I told you? That if you've got an if only in your life, at least there's help. If individually you're in a state of shipwreck, asking God to bring you back to where you used to be. Here is confession.

Our problem is self-caused, Lord. But here is anticipation. You can go back to the days of the if only.

You can bring back what I've lost. You can bring the power. You can bring the glory back to the church as a community.

This is what God can do. And will do. As people call upon his name.

And in his sovereignty. As he responds. Let's sing the Wesleyan hymn.

525. O thou who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart. Let's sing each verse of this hymn.

Pause for a prayer. And then if you'll sit down after the prayer, there's just one or two things I briefly need to say also. 525.

Let him not stay in secret. From that peace I seek. And he loved us.

Our Father. Who art in heaven. As we partake.

Father, some of us have not tended that holy fire with the care that we should have done. and the blaze is now just a flickering ember, but at least the embers are there, if only. If only you would rekindle it.

Lord, we are willing. With contrition and repentance we come before you. Forgive us for what we did which offended you.

Forgive us all our trespasses and lead us eventually to your heaven, but in the interim, restore and return the church as a whole to the pattern of Pentecost. Restore and return each one of us as individuals to what you want us to be. Forgive us for the things that we did that we should not have done and for the things that we should have done which we left undone.

And Lord, send us out, realizing afresh that the God who moved in the past is the God who controls the future. The walls of Jerusalem can be rebuilt, treasures can come back, the brass tossed on one side and gold bestowed by the Lord in abundance. So bless each heart gathered in your presence and send us all on our way to love you more dearly, to see you more clearly, and to follow you more nearly.

All our lives. Amen. Please sit down.

I mentioned the special nature of our service this evening. We'd be glad to have you come. It will be a thoughtful service but a joyful one as well.

There will be this evening, I wanted to do it this morning but I ran out of time, some little display of some pictures on some projects that we're behind in India. So those will be in the foyer tonight. Those of you who are very enthusiastic in terms of walking, we have a tab walk, something not to be missed.

Next Saturday when the weather is going to be very, very fine, October the 26th, you've got details by the welcome desk. Please take them and also our community newsletter which tells you a little bit more, at least for your neighbours, about the tab and try to involve them in one of our services. Thank you for coming this morning.

Good morning and God bless you.