But I will sing of Your strength, in the morning I will sing of Your love; for You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. O my strength, I sing praise to You; You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God. Psalm 59:16-17.

This passage from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, is so needed for us in conjunction with our chapter today, how could I not share it? “The Nature of Regeneration “When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . Galatians 1:15-16. If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this – I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature – His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ. The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God – “until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it. Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.”

We can read our chapter, Isaiah 24, and despair, or we can read it knowing that there is a reason for all of it. In the introduction it said, God’s purpose in judgment…The LORD’S Devastation of the Earth. God always warns us and He provides a way through. See the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; He will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants – it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress and for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word. v. 1-3. Why? The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt…The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls – never to rise again. v. 5, 18-20. And even in the midst…They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” v. 14-16. And right after that, Isaiah says…But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!”…In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. v. 16, 21. And this final verse of promise…The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders – with great glory. v. 23.

We are lost in this broken world, bristling with pride and idolatry. We are found in our deep need for Creator God – Father…Son…Spirit. If all I see is that I am a “moral person” then I will never know my need, turn to Him, and be healed. Lord, open our eyes and help us see by the light of Your Love just how in need of You we are! Our darkness condemns us. Your Love saves us. Turn to Him, our Savior and Lord, who gave Himself for us. He showed us the Father’s Love and we saw our own guilt on the Cross of Christ. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. He will help us by lifting our eyes so we can behold the Love of God – Father…Son…Spirit… and choose Life with Him.