Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 59:1-7 Your Iniquities Have Separated Between You and Your God

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Isa 59:1-7 Your Iniquities Have Separated Between You and Your God

[Study Aired May 3, 2020]

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
Isa 59:4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Isa 59:5  They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Isa 59:6  Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Isa 59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

It is in this very book of Isaiah we are told the Lord’s words are written in a way which is designed to cause us to “go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken”:

Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

In pursuit of that goal we are told “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”.

Isaiah 28:13 simply confirms what the Lord had already told King David in:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.

“The sum” is the result of adding things together. “The difference” is the result of taking away from “the sum” of anything. The scriptures themselves make a ‘difference between the holy and the unholy, and between the clean and the unclean.’

Lev 10:10  And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

There are no ‘differences’ or any contradictions to be found in the Lord’s words, as Christ Himself made so very clear:

Joh 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
Joh 10:35  If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Joh 10:36  Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

The point Christ is making is that we will never find a verse of scripture which denies that mankind is “the son of God”:

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

When scripture appears to contradict itself, it is always our lack of understanding of “the sum of [His] word” which makes it appear to contradict itself.

For example, “Ye are of your father the devil” may appear to contradict the fact that the Pharisees to whom Christ spoke those words were actually descended from Adam, who is the father of all men.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The devil was not an angel of light to begin with, as we have falsely been told. The Truth, Christ Himself tells us, is that “he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the Truth… from the beginning”.

Any apparent contradictions arise from our failing to acknowledge that “all things are of God”:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Col 1:16  For by him [‘by’ Christ who is “of the Father”] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

“All things” includes the devil and his angels. Therefore we are all first “made to err… of our father the devil” before we are “dragged to [Christ, and] … made to… deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live righteously in this present age”:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

“Precept upon precept… line upon line” is telling us to seek what “the sum of [the Lord’s] words is and to never, under any circumstance, seek to find ‘differences’ in “the sum of [the Lord’s] word”.

So when we see how this 59th chapter of Isaiah appears to place all the blame and responsibility for our sins upon our own shoulders, we know the sum of the Lord’s word demonstrates that even as Joseph acknowledged his brothers had indeed chosen to sell him into Egypt, the fact is that the jealousy and hatred which led them to do so was, in actual fact, “not [of his brothers at all, but was in fact of] God, who was “working all things after the counsel of His own will.”

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy waysand hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

To the natural, carnal-minded man, looking for any opportunity to deny the Truth of the Word of God, “You sold me into Egypt” will immediately appear to be a blatant contradiction of “So now it was not you that sent me here, but God.”

In the exact same way “your sins have separated between you and your God” will appear to be a blatant contradiction of “Oh Lord, why have you made us to err from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear”, and if the Lord has not yet given us ‘eyes that see and ears that hear’ (Mat 13:9-15), then our natural, rebellious, carnal mind will remain in the darkness which the Lord is working “after the counsel of His own will.”

We can now continue our study here in Isaiah with the complete assurance that our wicked old man was made wicked by the Lord for our own day of evil… after the counsel of His own will”.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

In chapter 58 we were admonished against denying ourselves and “fasting for strife, and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness” against our brothers and sisters, who we are told are “made to err” by the Lord Himself.

Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

“The fist of wickedness” is the same as taking our brother by the throat and demanding immediate payment for his indebtedness which we feel he owes us. We do this while forgetting the insurmountable, unpayable debt we have been forgiven:

Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mat 18:28  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

This is the sad state of the carnal mind which afflicts us even after our own sins have been freely forgiven. We don’t even know we are smiting our brother or sister with the fist of wickedness. We tell ourselves that what we expect of our brother or sister is for his or her good, and we forget the mercy shown to us when we were far deeper in debt than our poor struggling brother. Yet we claim the Lord’s name, and we claim we know that it is He who is working all things after the counsel of His own will. We simply cannot remember that “all things” includes the errors, sins, character flaws and weaknesses of our poor struggling, less mature brothers.

So, we are admonished to seek the fast the Lord has chosen and to keep holy His sabbath and stop doing our own works on His holy time:

Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

“[Our] feet” are contrasted with Christ’s feet. Our day for doing our works are contrasted with “[His] day” when we are to enter into His rest and cease from our own works. If we seek the fast the Lord has chosen and we keep His day holy, then we will resist the temptation to wag our finger at our fellow servants and we will have Christ walking out His life within our lives:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

“The life which [we] now live in the flesh [we] live by the faith of the Son of God” is the fulfilment in down-payment form of the promise we were given in the last verse of our last study, Isa 58:14. Having Christ live His life within us is our reward for fasting the fast the Lord has chosen and for entering into His rest and living our lives as if we really did believe that all the things which upset us are really nothing more than the Lord’s loving work in our lives for our own good:

Psa 37:4  Delight thyself also in the LORDand he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Even after being forgiven our own insurmountable indebtedness, it is we who, by God’s design, tend to wag the finger at our fellow man and even our brothers and sisters in Christ. Even with the incentive of being given all the “many great and precious promises [which] delighting ourselves in the Lord” will accrue to us, we are still admonished of this fact:

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

These two verses are not contradicting each other, nor are they mutually exclusive of each other. The Lord can very easily inform us that our sins do not shorten His saving hand, and at the same time He can also tell us that our sins do indeed, for the appointed time, separate us from Him. In other words, this is simply an admonition that we are to constantly, vigilantly and diligently be “examining ourselves to see whether we are in the faith”:

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

When we are examining ourselves, we will not be ‘smiting our brother with the fist of wickedness, taking him by the throat and demanding immediate payment for perceived indebtedness. When we are diligently examining ourselves, we will not be wagging our finger at our poor struggling brother. Rather, we will bring him into our own house and feed and clothe him and minister to his every need.

However, the very moment we fail to remember that the kingdom of God, with all of the enemies of that kingdom, is within us and we begin placing the responsibility for their evil deeds upon those who appear outwardly to be perpetrating them, then this is what has already taken place within each of us:

Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

Joseph would have been guilty of every word of Isa 59:3 if he had held his brothers responsible for their own actions. Joseph typifies Christ within us though, who knows that the Lord has made all men wicked for their own day of evil.

How can the Lord say that our hands are defiled with blood if we have never literally smitten nor killed anyone? This is how He answers that question:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

“Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity” is therefore the equivalent of “fast[ing] for strife and debate… to smite [our brother] with the fist of wickedness” for which we are all condemned in:

Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

“Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness” is the Lord’s condemnation of all the lying, false doctrines which accuse our Lord of having such a perverse character that He would torment His own hapless creatures in literal, excruciating flames of fire for all eternity with no hope of deliverance. It is a truly “perverse”, totally unjust, doctrine of hopelessness and eternal torment.

The spirit which teaches that the Lord would condemn anyone to eternal torment for sins lasting no longer than “a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away” is a spirit which provokes these words from our Lord:

Isa 59:4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

The false doctrines of Babylon lend themselves to producing a self-righteous, unjust, merciless, lying people. They produce you and me when we hated the Truth and trusted in vanity and lying false accusations against the Lord and His Christ.

Every lie must be supported by another lie. So, lies beget more lies which become a web of lying false doctrines:

Isa 59:5  They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

When we believe the lies of “that old serpent the devil” we are hatching cockatrice eggs, because those lies produce a self-righteous, hate-filled spirit. We are at the same time weaving a spider’s web in which we ensnare ourselves and others. The false doctrine giving mankind a will free from God’s own influence is a cockatrice egg, which then weaves the spider’s web of salvation by and through good works, which ‘works’ are supposedly the fruit of our own free choice to do either good or evil, depending solely upon our own fabled ‘free will’. ‘Eating their eggs’ symbolizes being nourished by these lies, and it is a deadly poisonous diet which robs us of our life at this time.

When we recognize the lies and crush them with the Truth of the doctrines of Christ, having been the  purveyors of those lies and now seeing how wrong we were, we are now in danger of having those crushed lies “break out into a viper” as we find ourselves turning the Lord’s grace into lasciviousness by  acknowledging that He is intent upon having all men to be saved and coming to a knowledge of the Truth but not yet seeing or understanding the function of His chastening grace. In other words, when we fail to constantly, diligently and soberly examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith of Christ, we find that we have been emphasizing the Lord’s love and His mercy upon our own old man, to the exclusion of His judgments which are in themselves and act of His chastening love:

Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Heb 12:5  And ye [you and I] have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye [we] endure chasteningGod dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

It is true… “[You and I] have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.” We just naturally forget, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” We are hiding nothing from Him in reality, and in our naked self-righteousness the Lord tells us to buy “white raiment” of Him “that the shame of [our] nakedness do not appear”.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Anything less than the righteousness of Christ within us is the same as attempting to cover nakedness with nakedness. It is the same as covering one lie with another lie. It is the same as saying that eternal hell is a reality because we have an immortal soul. It is the same as saying we have a body, and an immortal soul and an immortal spirit because God is a trinity. However, the Truth is still the Truth, and this is the Truth about the Godhead:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

This is the Biblical Truth about mortal man:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

What is the dust? Of what does dust consist?

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds [Greek: aions, ages] were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

If indeed “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” then what are they made of? Of what do “things which [do not] appear” consist? Of what does air, wind and electricity consist? Here is the answer to that question:

Col 1:15  Who [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Yes, it is true, “all things consist by [Christ].” Does it then follow that since ‘all things consist by Christ’ that all things are therefore immortal?

What an absurd proposition! Beasts are not immortal, and man is a beast with a ‘soul’ which is not at all ‘immortal’ but is instead very much “mortal” until such time as he is raised up from his mortality in “the resurrection of the DEAD.” Without such a “resurrection of the dead… they that are asleep in Christ are perished.”

This is the extent of the durability of the physical ‘soul’:

Eze 18:4  Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

This statement is repeated in verse 20:

Eze 18:20  The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

When Christ told the Pharisees…

Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

…He is speaking in terms of a resurrection from the dead as the context makes very clear:

Luk 20:34  And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world [Greek: aion, age] marry, and are given in marriage:
Luk 20:35  But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Luk 20:36  Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

“For all live unto Him” is Christ speaking those things which are not as though they were:

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

What would happen to those who are “asleep in Christ” if there were no “resurrection from the dead”? Do they really have an immortal soul which cannot die? Hardly! If there is no resurrection from the dead:

1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Here is the context for that verse:

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

If there is no resurrection from the dead, the dead are perished. They are not in heaven or in hell, but “are perished”. But Christ is risen from the dead, and as such He, and He alone until “the first resurrection, is “the firstfruits of them that slept”:

1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

No one was given life from the dead before Christ. He is “the firstfruits of them that slept”. Not even King David preceded Christ, and King David, contrary to all Christian doctrine, “is not in heaven”:

Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

The false, lying, malicious and slanderous doctrines of Babylon have spawned one false doctrine after another. The lie of “You will not surely die” has spawned the lie of a trinitarian Godhead, which in turn has spawned the false doctrine of a trinitarian mankind, composed of a mortal body, an immortal soul, and an immortal spirit. Along with such falsehoods comes the fabled doctrine of mankind being given a will that is entirely free from the will of our heavenly Father. That false doctrine of mankind having “free will” has spawned the doctrine of Satan also having a will that is free from the power and sovereignty of God.

It goes on, and on, and on like the rings of a spider’s web, and it has ensnared all men of all time. Nevertheless, no matter how numerous the lies are, two hundred million lies will not change this Truth:

Isa 59:6  Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Two hundred million is the Biblical symbol for all the false doctrines in this world:

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

False doctrines produce evil works, and neither the false doctrine nor the works that come of them will cover our nakedness. Simply being “lukewarm” about serving the Lord will itself rob us of our reward and our crown of life:

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Lies and false doctrines must, of necessity, produce the fruits of those lies, and they inevitably lead to evil, self-righteous works and acts of violence. The doctrine that one can remain spiritually immature, and can and should stand firm in that immaturity, is the spirit of “the church of Laodiceans”. What God wants is for us all to be speaking the same words with the same mind and the same judgment. He wants that judgment to be the judgment which comes of having our senses exercised to know both good and evil:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

If you dare to believe that the words of 1 Corinthians 1:10 is a worthy goal, then you are immediately labeled as a member of a cult because those words directly contradict the mantra of modern-day Christianity, which is, “Agreement in the essentials, tolerance in the non-essentials, and love in all things.” There is a huge difference between those words and the words of 1 Corinthians 1:10, and that difference is the difference between life and death.

It was from believing the lie that the mere knowledge of good and evil would of itself lead to immortality which soon thereafter led to the murder of Abel at the hand of his own brother. The lie that we are immortal in soul and spirit has spawned the lie of an ever-burning hell into which rebellious, sinful souls are cast. The lie of having an immortal soul, which goes either to heaven or hell at the moment of death, has led billions of Christians and Muslims to completely ignore the Biblical doctrine of two successive resurrections. “The first resurrection” is a resurrection of the righteous ones, which will precede a kingdom of God over the kingdoms of this world for a symbolic thousand years. That kingdom is ruled with a rod of iron by those who are in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection. The second resurrection follows a short season of rebellion against the Lord and His elect kings and priests who rule the earth during that symbolic thousand years. Immediately after that rebellion is put down through the destruction of all flesh, the second resurrection takes place, and it is called “the resurrection of damnation [Greek: krisis, judgment].

Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: ‘krisis’, judgment].

Act 24:15  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

The false doctrine of an immortal soul has spawned the false doctrine of judgment at the moment of death, with immortal souls immediately being consigned either to a blissful existence in heaven or eternal excruciating misery in literal flames of literal fire for all eternity upon the moment of the death of the physical body. These false lying doctrines have rendered the great truths revealed in scripture concerning the resurrections of the righteous and the wicked to be little less than useless, and these false doctrines hold back the Truth in unrighteous lies.

Such is the fate of our own carnal minds because we all must come out of the false doctrines of Babylon from whence come all the Lord’s people:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Even when the Lord does address the weak and immature among us, as He does in 1Co 3:1-4; Heb 5:12-14; and Rev 3:14-21, He is admonishing them to get off the milk of His Word “and go on unto perfection” (Heb 6:1-2).

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

All these verses are addressed to us while we are “yet carnal… babes in Christ… using milk [and] not skillful in the word of righteousness”. Now notice how Paul is admonishing both the Corinthians and the Hebrews to go beyond their childish ways and become more mature in the Lord:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

There is not one word anywhere in scripture where we are encouraged to stand firm in our immaturity and weakness of faith. The pattern of scripture is always “let us go on unto perfection… come ye out of her…” etc.

This is what we are told of ourselves as “carnal babes in Christ”:

Isa 59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

A Laodicean spirit is an immature spirit which will always discover that when the chips are down and our faith is being tried, an immature “carnal… babe in Christ” will always end up succumbing to the pressure to fit in with the harlot and her self-righteous rebellious daughters, all the while thinking she is rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. We just read of this Laodicean spirit in the previous chapter:

Isa 58:2  Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

The next verse is really what we are even as we convince ourselves we are seeking our Lord daily:

Isa 58:3  Why have we fasted, [they say], and thou see not? We have afflicted our soul, and thou take no knowledge. Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact from all your laborers.
Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5  Is such the fast that I have chosen, the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to LORD?

These are all words of admonition, which are the work of the grace of God, which “chastens us to forsake ungodliness, and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present age”:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us [Greek: paideuochastening us] that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [Greek: aion, age];

These words of admonition to us will continue through our next study. But in the third study, which will take us to the end of this chapter, we will once again be reminded of the faithfulness of our Lord to defend us against our enemies within and without.

Here now are our verses of the Lord’s admonition to us for our next study. Notice the use of the pronoun ‘we’:

Isa 59:8  They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their goings. They have made them crooked paths. Whoever goes in it does not know peace.
Isa 59:9  Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but, behold, darkness, for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind. Yea, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the twilight. [We are] as dead men in desolate places.
Isa 59:11  We all roar like bears, and moan greatly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

Isa 59:13  transgressing and denying LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

Judgment and Redemption

Isa 59:14  And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.