How can you claim the promises of Isaiah 58 (for good health, continual guidance, answered prayer, etc.)? How can people who struggle with sins despite their long-term devotional habits, finally overcome?

<p>How can you claim the promises of Isaiah 58 (for good health, continual guidance, answered prayer, etc.)? How can people who struggle with sins despite their long-term devotional habits, finally overcome?</p>

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Arkadelphia Seventh-day Adventist Church Plant

Eugene Prewitt

Help the Oppressed

"'Cry aloud and spare not, and show my people "'their transgressions in the house of Israel, "'their iniquity.'" Before we get to that verse, I wanna speak a bit about something in our foyer.

There are 8 boxes of 60, That's almost 500 copies.

And I looked this morning, I saw that 15 of them are missing.

Don't worry, if you took 1, you're not in trouble.

If you didn't take 1, you are in trouble.

You ought to take 1 of these with you when you leave today, or 2 or 5 or 10, and give them to whoever it is that you think would love to have 1.

Because frankly, as a church, we bought these for a reason, and that was that you could give them to the people you think ought to have 1.

In other words, if there's someone and you wish you could get something for them, you just don't have money to do it, well, no longer is money an excuse.

It is for you, for free, to take and to use.

The foyer is a funny word that means the front part of the church where you walk in.

Isaiah chapter 58, where we just were for the scripture reading, has come to be 1 of my very favorite chapters in the whole Bible.

Isaiah 58, 1 of the reasons it's 1 of my favorite chapters is because it has the most incredible promises in it.

Do you know some of the promises you find in this chapter?

It says, and the Lord will guide you, what's the word?

I can't think of a better blessing than that.

It says, your light will rise, the end of verse 10, your light will rise in obscurity, your darkness be as the noonday.

In other words, if there's something in your life that is confusing, you're not sure where to go or what to do or why did God allow something to happen, God will shine a flashlight right into that dark part of your life.

Instead of just calling, what if you cry out to him?

You will cry and he will say, I'm right here.

And that last idea in verse 8 where it says he'll be your re-reward, that word literally, that word is rear word.

That's how it's supposed to be pronounced, not re-reward.

Rear word means it'll be your rear guard.

You can go forward in life and I will cover the things that are beyond your control.

I really think, brothers and sisters, you can't find a better collection of promises than you find between Revelation, Isaiah 58, verses 8 through 14.

We didn't even look at verses 13 and 14, but you can summarize the promises there that your Christian experience will be a delight, that you will end up finding joy in your experience with God.

Continual guidance, bursting health, light rising in obscurity, you pray, God hears, you're in desperation, he's right there with you, your Christian experience is a delight.

And under what condition do you get these things?

That condition is found in verse 6, verse 6 and 7.

"'Is not this the fast that I have chosen?' When the Bible speaks about the fast he has chosen, I should give you a little context for your case.

Israel was full of people that would fast occasionally.

In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees, they would fast.

A lot of them fasted 1 day in a week, but what about the 1 that made the prideful prayer?

These people would restrict themselves from food as a way of getting God's attention.

But that never was the fast that God had chosen.

There was a fast that God had chosen that he told them that once a year, they were to humble themselves and to put away their sins.

They were to make themselves right with God in preparation for a day of judgment.

That day of judgment was called the day of, do you know the word?

This was the day of judgment that they were getting ready for and on that day they were to fast in a sense of putting away their sins, humbling themselves before God.

But people really lost track of the meaning of that.

And instead of viewing that as a day to make themselves right with God, they viewed it more like a day to stop eating as a ritual.

Instead of coming close to God by separating from sin, they came close to God by doing some symbolic activity.

Well, Which thing brings you close to God, symbolic activity or putting away sin?

Sin is what separates us from God, so putting it away is what brings us close to God.

Symbolic activity doesn't make us closer or put us further away.

God does give us symbolic activity, but that's as a teaching method.

The symbols are to teach us things, to remind us of the importance of other aspects of our spiritual life.

I'm not saying the symbols are unimportant, but the symbols are a teaching method, and themselves, they never have made spiritual life happen.

So in verse 6, before you get to the promises, God explains the type of fast that he has chosen.

He says, it is to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke.

We're gonna come back to verse 6, talk about what it means, but first let's just briefly observe verse 7.

Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house, and when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh.

Verse 7 says that if I find someone who's really hurting, someone who's in need, someone who's hungry or naked or cast out into the streets, I should not view their misfortune as separate from me, but I should be willing to put myself out to bring them in.

That is, it's not convenient to bring someone to your house if there's not sufficient food, it doesn't seem convenient to feed them.

But here in America, verse 7 isn't as often practical for us as is verse 6.

That is, our government tends to feed hungry folk, and even the poorest people in America tend to have too many clothes.

I don't mean all, but I mean as a general thing.

Is it true that there are still people even right here in our midst that are in bondage to sin?

The truth is that verse 6 is the first condition.

What God says is if you want continual guidance, if you want bursting help, if you want a delightful Christian experience, if you want prayers that are answered and want me near in emergencies, then find people who are beset by temptation, people who are overcome by their weaknesses and help those people get free.

So that's the end of part 1 of my three-part sermon.

Part 1 was, if you want the blessings, meet the conditions.

The conditions are, help people with their sins and help them with their physical or otherwise practical needs.

For part 2, go to verse 2, Isaiah 58, verse 2.

Yet they seek me daily, they, that is God's people.

Yet they seek me daily and they delight to know my ways.

Like a nation that did the right thing, that's what righteousness means in that kind of sentence.

Like a nation that did the right thing and had not forsaken the ordinance of their God, They ask of me the ordinance of justice.

Verse 2 tells me that the class of people who need help with their sins in verse 1, that class of people that need help with their sins are people that have devotions.

How often do they seek Him according to verse 2?

When you hear someone talk about devotions, that's what they mean by the word devotions.

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Help the Oppressed

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