Isaiah 59
1 Is the Lord’s hand unable to save? Is His ear heavy so as not to hear?†
2 But your sins stand between you and your God, and He turned His face from you because of your sins, so as not to have mercy.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins; and your lips speak lawlessness, and your tongue plots wrongdoing.†
4 No one speaks righteous things, nor is there true judgment. They trust in worthless things and speak vain things; for they conceive trouble and give birth to lawlessness.
5 They hatch the eggs of asps, and weave a spider’s web. He who is about to eat of their eggs finds a sterile and broken egg, and in it a basilisk.
6 Their web shall not become a garment, nor will they clothe themselves with their works; for their works are works of lawlessness.
7 Their feet run swiftly to evil to shed blood. Their thoughts are the thoughts of undiscerning men, and destruction and misery are in their ways.
8 They do not know the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their ways; for the paths they travel are corrupt, and they do not know peace.
9 Therefore judgment departed from them, and righteousness does not lay hold of them. While they waited for light, darkness came upon them, and while they waited for the dawn, they walked in darkness.
10 They groped around for a wall like blind men, and like men who have no eyes they groped around. They shall fall at midday as though it were midnight, and shall groan like dying men.
11 They shall proceed together like a bear and a dove: We waited for judgment, but there is none, and salvation departed far away from us.
12 For our lawlessness is great before You, and our sins oppose us; for our lawlessness is with us, and we know our unrighteous deeds.†
13 We acted in an ungodly manner, and we lied and departed backwards from our God. We spoke unjustly, and were disobedient; and we conceived and meditated on unrighteous words from our heart.
14 We departed backwards from judgment, and righteousness stands far off. For the truth is consumed in their ways, and they could not pass by a straight path.
15 Truth was taken away, and they turned away their mind so as not to understand. But the Lord saw this and was not pleased, because there was no judgment.
16 He also saw there was no man, and He observed, but there was no one to help. He defended them with His arm and established them with His mercy.
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate and placed the helmet of salvation on His head. He clothed Himself with the garment and covering of vengeance,†
18 as a recompense of recompenses, even a rebuke to His adversaries.
19 Those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the east, His glorious name; for the wrath of the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with anger.
20 He who delivers shall come for Zion’s sake, and He shall turn back ungodliness from Jacob.†
21 “This shall be My covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit who is upon you, and My words I caused to be in your mouth shall not fail from the mouth of your seed; for the Lord has spoken it, from now and forever.
Psalms 102
1 By David. †Bless the Lord, O my soul, And everything within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His rewards:
3 Who is merciful to all your transgressions, Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from corruption, Who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
5 Who satisfies your desire with good things; And your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord shows mercies And judgment to all who are wronged.
7 He made known His ways to Moses, The things He willed to the sons of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not become angry to the end, Nor will He be wrathful forever;
10 He did not deal with us according to our sins, Nor reward us according to our transgressions;
11 For according to the height of heaven from earth, So the Lord reigns in mercy over those who fear Him;
12 As far as the east is from the west, So He removes our transgressions from us.
Proverbs of Solomon 21
26 The sacrifices of the ungodly are an abomination to the Lord, For they offer them lawlessly.†
27 A false witness shall perish, But an obedient man will speak guardedly.
28 An ungodly man resists shamelessly to the face, But the upright man himself understands his ways.
29 There is no wisdom, there is no courage, There is no counsel for the ungodly.†
30 The horse is prepared for the day of war, But help is from the Lord.
2 Timothy 3
Moral Decline in the Last Days
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:†
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!†
6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;†
9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
The Pastor’s Defense Against Apostasy: Loyalty to Tradition
10 But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance,
11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, †
15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.