Sinners Who Want To See God

Jim's Sermon on Sunday is called "sinners who want to see God". His text is Isaiah 64:1-12, focusing on the first nine verses.

1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
5You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Wow...isn't that a neat read?

People, who know they are sinners, calling upon God to act in their lives. Asking God to act for them despite the fact that they people living in their sin.

The Israelites are calling upon God to act.... to show himself for who he is against their adversaries. That the nations around them might know that God is indeed God.

They acknowledge that God has done things that they didn't look for. Amazing works that they didn't really see or expect, but God did them for his people.

I just love these words:

4 From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
5You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.

Now isn't that the God we believe in? the one that no one ever really understands, but the one that we know will answer us in our time of need? God remembers his people, he meets with those who remember him, who wait for him. He acts for us. He remembers us. I just think this is so cool.

God knows me. He remembers me. Even when I sin or I am just a stupid stupid person.... God still does amazing things in my life. He will still meet with me when I remember him, when I work righteousness in joy, and ....ahh.... I don't deserve such a God as this. Sometimes his grace acting in my life just blows me away. Doesn't it do the same for you?