and the hardback Tyndall number
15. Brethren, we have met to worship. Let's all stand together.
Number 15. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the All is vain unless the spirit of
the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners rise. slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell is moving,
can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers
and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the
Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely,
let us love each other Let us love and pray for sinners till
our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and
serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Those who are struggling hard
with sin, tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that He
will be found. Our Lord is so much more willing
to be found than we are to look for Him, isn't He? If any man come unto Me, I will
in no wise cast him out. What a great promise. Let's open
our Bibles for our Scripture reading tonight to Psalm 39. Psalm 39. I hope this will be a word from God that will remind
us why we're here. We'll begin reading in verse
four. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days,
what it is, that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast
made my days as a hand breath, and mine age is as nothing before
thee. Barely every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up riches and knoweth
not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. Deliver me
from all my transgressions. and make me not the reproach
of the foolish." Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful
to know that there is a throne of grace through which we can
call you our Father and know, Lord, that we have an advocate,
thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who ever lives to make
intercession for us. Lord, as sinners, we are in need
of your mercy. We're in need of your grace.
and how we pray that you would use this hour to remind us, Lord,
of how willing and how full of compassion and how full of mercy
you are towards your children. Lord, that you would bless us
with your spirit. We pray that you would give us
an understanding. We pray that you would increase
our faith. We pray that you would strengthen
our love for Christ and for one another. and that you would reveal
to us afresh your love for us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 318. 318. Let's all stand
together. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
every hour. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. ? Stay thou nearby ? ? Temptations
lose their power ? ? When thou art nigh ? ? I need thee, oh,
I need thee ? ? Every hour I need thee ? ? Oh, bless me now, my
Savior, I come to thee ? I need thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. I need thee, O I Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. our most holy one. Oh, make me thine indeed, thou
blessed son. I need thee, oh, I need I need
thee. Every hour I need thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to thee. Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 30, please? Isaiah chapter 30. How I hope that the Lord will
speak peace to our hearts tonight. I've titled this message, Hope
for Rebellious Children. hope for rebellious children. Now we know that whatever is
not of faith is sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had perfect
faith all the time. He was never without faith in
his Father. Trusted God, tried and tempted
in all ways that we are, yet was himself without sin. We, on the other hand, struggle
with our faith, don't we? We are always looking away from
Christ, losing sight of him and The Lord calls it rebellion In
first Samuel chapter 15 God says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
and Stubbornness is the same as iniquity or idolatry He goes
on to say, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken better than the fat of rams. how oftentimes we substitute
obedience with sacrifice and the fat of rams. Well, just like well, so much
better than a loving parent is able to deal with and correct
a rebellious child, our Heavenly Father treats His rebellious
children with tenderness and with mercy and with compassion. And Isaiah chapter 30 begins
by exposing Our rebellion really is as idolatry. Anything that causes us to look
away from Christ, anything that would keep us from obeying God
and believing His Word, the Lord calls sin. What did Paul say? This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. Before we look at this passage,
I want you to turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 10. Jeremiah chapter 10. And look with me at verses 23
and 24. Oh Lord, I know that the way
of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Oh Lord, correct me. But with judgment, not in thine
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." Now Hebrews chapter
12 makes it clear that God corrects his children. He is not lacking. in the means that he exercises
to chastise his children, and that his chastisement of his
children is the evidence of his love for them. If you're not
chastised, you're not a child of God. And what does the prophet
say here? Lord, correct me, but correct
me with judgment. Correct me with your word. Correct
me gently. Lord, don't do it out of your
anger. If you correct me out of anger, I'll come to nothing. Now it was the full fury of God's
anger and God's wrath that fell from heaven on the person of
our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin bearer on Calvary's
cross. That was the full fury, the fiery
wrath and anger of God. And now the scripture says that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our propitiation. What that means
is that the fire of God's anger has been extinguished. Does he
correct? Does he judge? Does he discipline
his children? Yes. Yes. And to one degree or
another, everything that we do that causes us to look away from
Christ, whether it be in our hearts or in our lives, is rebellion. It's rebellion. I pray that our rebellion will
be short-lived. Peter had some very serious rebellion
in his life when he denied even knowing the Lord, didn't he?
He went from cutting off Malchus' ear in the Garden of Gethsemane
and standing firm in his resolve to defend the Lord to denying
his very existence. But in just a few hours, the
Lord cast a compassionate eye on Peter and broke his heart. And that rebellion was broken,
wasn't it? David, on the other hand, spent
the better part of a year in rebellion against God after his
sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, doing everything he could to
hide it. And if you read Psalm 51, you read the turmoil of his
heart in his attempt to hide his sin from God and from man. It's all rebellion. This applies not only to short-lived
rebellion, it applies to times when the Lord allows one of his
children to fall into sin for an extended period of time. It
also applies to those who don't yet know God as their father,
but he knows them as his child. And so he allows their rebellion
to go on for a period of time until he's pleased to intervene
and to bring them back to himself. This is what Isaiah chapter 30
is about. However long, however long we
live in our riotous living in a far country, The Lord is going
to bring every one of his children back to himself. Can you relate
to that? This passage is all about the
hope of a father who knows how to correct and how to love and
how to subdue his children in love. As rebellious as they are,
And I pray that the Lord will cause each of us to see that
this rebellion, as I said, every thought that we have and every
attitude that we have and everything that we do that causes us to
look away from Christ is rebellion. And Lord, correct me. Correct me. Do it gently. Do it in love. Don't do it out
of anger. If you do it in anger, Lord,
I won't be able to stand. All right, go back with me to
our passage now in Isaiah chapter 30. Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the Lord. that take counsel, but not of
me, and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they
may add sin to sin, that walk to go down into Egypt, and have
not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of
Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Now, Notice
he calls the ones that he's addressing in this passage rebellious children. Children. These aren't this isn't
a description of the of the reprobate. This isn't a description of the
pagan who has no interest in the things of God. This is a
description of us. God's children. Sometimes our
rebellion is very blatant, heinous. Sometimes it's just making an
alliance with our conscience. saying to our conscience, I'm
going to allow you to atone for your own sin by wallowing in
the shame of your guilt rather than looking to Christ. That's rebellion. Or we get offended and justify
ourselves and blame others and we fall right in the footsteps
of our father Adam, don't we? Pointing our finger at someone
else and something else for our own rebellion. Going to Egypt. Making an unholy alliance with
our will. Bolstering our resolve to be
more committed and to not to do that anymore Lord we can we
can we can do this I've got the willpower. I've got the commitment
to do this rather than looking to Christ It's rebellion It's
sin Our strength turn with me to verse to verse 7 The last
phrase in verse 7, their strength is to sit still. Look at verse 15. For thus saith
the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest
shall you be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your
strength, and you would not. How many times, how many times
we have refused to rest in Christ. I can fix this. I can solve this
problem. And God says rebellion is as
witchcraft. And stubbornness is as idolatry. Why? Because whether it be witchcraft
or idolatry or stubbornness or rebellion, it all has the same
result. We're looking away from Christ.
It's sin. Christ is not being glorified.
We're not sitting still. We're not resting in Him. We're
trusting in Egypt for our strength. Or we measure our progress by
the law, and we think, well, we can get better. Oh, foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you? Did you come to Christ by
your faith or by your works? And if you came by faith, how
is it that you're going to continue by works? And yet we do it, don't we? Why? Because there's a spirit
of rebellion in sinners. And the Lord is rebuking us in
the beginning of this. Or we indulge ourselves in the
pleasures of sin, thinking that that's going to make us happy.
That's going to make us happy. I'm just going to do that. I'm
going to act that way. And what do we do? We're rebelling
against God. We're denying the truth of what
we know. He's revealed in His Word. Rebellious
children. And the Lord says, woe unto you,
rebellious children. You that go back down into Egypt,
that walk after your own ways, you strengthen yourself in the
strength of Pharaoh and your trust in the shadow of Egypt.
Verse three, therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your
shame and the trust of the shadow of Egypt, your confusion. The
very thing that we turn to for help in our time of need becomes
More of our problem, doesn't it? Well, in other words, we
just we accentuate the problem by not coming to Christ By not
looking to Christ by not resting in Christ by not believing God
Every time we try to fix our sin problem By going down into
Egypt the very thing that we do to try to resolve the problem
only makes it worse. I Egypt's gonna turn against
you You think you're going to you're going to solve this problem
by strengthening your will I'm gonna show you what your will
is and God in his mercy turns our will against us and shows
us how weak it is, doesn't he? You think that wallowing in the
shame of your guilty conscience is somehow going to atone for
your sin? And then we find ourselves right
where David was in Psalm 51. Lord, Lord, return unto me the
joy of thy salvation, the bones that thou hast broken. Oh, Lord,
I can't fix it. I can't fix it. My strength is going to be to
come and sit still and trust Christ. Verse four, for his princes
were as Zohan and his ambassadors came to Hades. That's just two
cities in Egypt. And he's talking about the king,
Now the historical setting here is the king sends ambassadors
down to Egypt to make an unholy alliance with Egypt to defend
them against the Assyrians. And we've seen this already. We see it today. The treaties
that those countries make, the treaties that every country makes,
what treaties have ever really stuck? But over there particularly,
I mean he said you send your ambassador down to Egypt to make
an alliance, you're making a covenant with liars. If you make a covenant
with yourself to be better, to do better, you
make a covenant with the law to try to satisfy its demands,
You're making a covenant with a liar, aren't you? With yourself. You can't keep that covenant.
God says, I'm gonna disown all that covenant. The only covenant
that's going to stand is the promise that God the Father made
to give his son a bride. God the Son promised to do everything
necessary to redeem that bride unto himself, to satisfy for
her God's requirements for righteousness. To fulfill the demands of the
law and to take her sin on himself and satisfy God's justice. That's
a covenant. God the Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant, didn't he? And he promised to make those
whom God chose, those for whom Christ lived and died, to make
them willing in the day of his power. There's the only promise. Everything else is based on lies. And that's what the Lord is saying. You see, faith is believing the
promise of God. We sang that hymn the other day,
Tom. Standing on the promises. Standing
on the promises, yes. That's what faith is. Believing
the promises of God. But what do we try to do? We
try to fix our problems with our own promises and all we've
done is sent our ambassadors down to Egypt. Verse five, they were all ashamed
of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit,
but a shame and also a reproach. All these alliances that we make,
all these promises, all these places that we go in order to
try to fix our lives and fix our problem and satisfy ourselves. Whether it be indulging ourselves
in the pleasures of worldly sin, or whether it be trying to fix
our sin with self-righteousness. The scripture says, it's of no
profit. It's of no profit. It doesn't
help. You come, where? To the throne
of grace. The throne of grace. And find
mercy and help in your time of need. But we won't come, will
we? We're so reluctant to come. We're
so slow to come. We know we need to come. We need
to be coming all the time. Lord, we need to be fellowshipping
with you in our hearts and spirits all the time. But we don't. Why? Because we're rebellious
children. Verse six, the burden of the
beast of the south into the land of trouble and anguish from whence
come the young and the old lion, the viper, the fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches
upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the
bunches of camels to a people that shall not profit them. Now
here's a picture of these ambassadors being sent by the king with beast
of burden, laden with riches, trying to purchase from Egypt
what they can only get from God. And the Lord says the only thing
down there in Egypt is vipers and fiery serpents. I mean, they're
just going to bite you. They're going to kill you. And
that land is, you know, It's bad now, but it was worse then.
Just thinking about the serpents that are in that part of the
world. But this is a spiritual picture,
isn't it? This is a much worse serpent than a snake. This is a serpent that bites
your soul and leaves you without any profit. There's no profit
in them. And you spend everything you have. And you're left wasted. I've sent all my riches down
to Egypt. It's kind of like the woman with the issue of blood
who had spent all that she had on physicians and was worse off
now than she was at the beginning. That's what a rebellious child
does. He spends his wealth, his youth, his ability on things
that don't profit. And he's left with nothing. And
only when we're left with nothing do we find Christ to be everything. Only when Christ the Lord is
all you have is He all you need. For the Egyptians, look at this,
this is so, I can relate to this. Every verse of this speaks to
my soul. For the Egyptians shall help
in vain and to no purpose, therefore have I cried concerning thee,
their strength is to sit still. Don't take your wealth down to
Egypt. Don't try to satisfy the demands of the law. Don't try
to salve your conscience. Don't try to compare yourself
to man or to yourself. Don't fall into the blame game.
And don't indulge yourself in the pleasures of sin. For a season,
there may be a pleasure in it, but in the end, it's gonna lead
to death. You're gonna wear yourself out. Sit still. That's hard to do, isn't it?
No, it's impossible. It's impossible. You can't do
it. It takes a divine work of grace
in the heart to cause a sinner to sit still and trust Christ. We won't do it. We can't do it.
We don't have the ability in ourselves to do it. Now go, write it before them
in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to
come forever and ever. And it is written in a book.
Aren't you glad? It's written in a book. We've
got the word of God. These words are not by private
interpretation, but holy men of God wrote as they were moved
by the spirit of God. This is the word of God. That, and one of the themes of
this Bible, one of the themes of this book is that all the
children of Adam are rebellious children. That's what sin is. Rebellion
is as the sin of witchcraft. And so whatever, to whatever
degree we look anywhere other than Christ, we're being rebellious. Lord, lying children, children that
will not hear the law of the Lord. All men are liars. We lie to ourselves, we lie to
one another, and we won't hear, will we? Lord,
if you don't make me hear, if you don't speak the truth to
me, I can't speak the truth. Which say to the seers see not
unto the prophets prophesied not unto us right things speak
unto us smooth things and prophesied deceits Don't tell us the truth This is this is every one of
God's children before he saves them They don't want to hear
the gospel. I want to hear the truth. I And in another sense, in our
own hearts, why are we reluctant? Why are we so slow of heart to
believe? Why are we like those disciples
on the road to Emmaus? When the Lord said, when the
Lord rebuked them and he said, you're so foolish and slow of
heart to believe. Did you not know that these things
must be accomplished? And what did they say? Only later
were they able to say, did our hearts not burn within us when
he walked with us along the way? And in the breaking of bread,
that rebellion was exposed for what it was. And they were broken. Lord, break my rebellious spirit.
What Jeremiah say? Correct me, Lord. Do it in judgment,
not in anger, not in wrath. Let your wrath be satisfied on
my sin bearer. Correct me, Lord. Cause me to
be an obedient child. Get you out of the way turn aside
out of the path cause the holy one of israel to cease from before
us They say well that is that the
words of a of a believer Might as well be the lord said
if you are not for me you are against me how many How much
time do you and I spend during the day when we're not for Christ? We're not thinking of Him. We're
not rejoicing in Him. We're bound up in the things
of this world and the things of our own imaginations. So the Lord said, Cause him to be away from me.
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because you despise
this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and stay there
on. This oppression is the word here
is fraud. Fraud. You're trusting in a lie. You made an alliance with Egypt,
and they've lied to you, and you've lied to them, and you've
made this agreement, and you're resting in that. Rather than
resting in Christ, you're resting in something else. This is all
sin is. And the child of God who is sensitive
to their sin knows this is a problem in my heart. They would never say, cause the
Holy One of Israel to depart from me. No believer would say
that. No believer would say, well,
I'm trusting in my righteousness, I'm trusting in my works, I'm
trusting in the law. But we know that in our heart
of hearts, that's what we do a lot of times, isn't it? Therefore this iniquity shall
be to you as a breach ready to fall Swelling out in a high wall
whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant Oh what a blessing
that is Lord cause any wall that I build tear it down Lord tear
it down It's wood and stubble Cause it to fall and cause it
to fall suddenly Lord. Don't let me stay on anything
other than Christ I He shall break it as the breaking
of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces He shall not
spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it
a shard To take fire from the hearth or to take water with
our of the pit Well, God's gonna break this vessel Ain't that what the Lord does
when he exposes our sin Does he not break our hearts Does
He not plow our fallow ground? Does He not cause us to say,
Behold, I am vile. I am vile. Wretched man that
I am. Lord, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? It's so insidious. It's part of me. I can't get away from it. What
am I going to do? Lord, give me faith to flee to
Christ, to sit still and to trust Him. And when the Lord breaks
your heart, there's not a piece of that pottery left to carry
an ember from the fire or drop a water out of the well. You
can't do it. Lord, I can't. put out the fire
of God's wrath through anything I do. I can't get the water from
the well. Say not in your heart. He didn't
say don't say it with your mouth. He said say not in your heart.
Perish the thought. Don't even think this way. What
can I do to bring Christ down from above? What can I do to
bring him up from below? What work can I work to work
the works of God? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. Sit still. For thus saith the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, verse 15, in returning and rest shall
you be saved. Oh, it's a labor to enter into
His rest, isn't it? It is a labor. It's a spiritual
labor. Why? Because we're fighting against
the flesh. We're warring against our flesh. That's where the labor is. In quietness and in confidence
shall be your strength and you would not We trust Christ for
our souls and then we don't trust Him for the daily needs of this
life. We get all out of sorts and upset
over the littlest things, don't we? What is that? It's unbelief.
It's sin. It's rebellion. But you say, no, for we will
flee upon horses. Therefore shall you flee, and
we will ride upon the swift. Therefore shall they that pursue
you be swift. 1,000 shall flee at the rebuke
of one, and at the rebuke of five shall you flee till you
be left as a beacon upon the top of the mountain. Now that
word beacon is a dead tree. So here you picture a mountain
with one dead tree standing on top of the mountain with no leaves
on it, just a dead tree. And as an ensign on a hill. Now verse 17 says, the result
of you trying to fix it is fear. Fear. The spirit of fear is not
of God. It's of us. It's what we bring
upon ourselves. You see, not sitting still and
trusting Christ, going down to Egypt and making alliances with
sin in order to try to fix our problem only causes the rebuke
of one to cause thousands to flee. How ridiculous is it that a thousand
men would flee at the rebuke of one man? And yet that's how
foolish our fear is, isn't it? That's how foolish our fear is.
And we're full of it. We fear all the time. We fear
things that we ought to be trusting God for. Why? Because we're rebellious
children. Now here's the good hope, look. And therefore, therefore will
the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be exalted
that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment
and blessed are all they that wait for him. The Lord's going
to allow you to try to fix it. The Lord's going to allow you,
he's going to allow his rebellious children to indulge themselves
in their rebellion, however it might be, until they come to
see that all they're doing is causing themselves pain. All
they're doing is destroying their own lives. All they're doing
is causing fear. They're not fixing it, they're
not solving anything. And the Lord says, I'm gonna
let you go down that road. I've got you on a leash. I'll
let you go down that road until you come to the end of yourself.
And then you're going to come and cry out to me. And as soon
as you cry, soon as you cry, I'm going to hear you. Why? Because I love my children, even
though they'd be rebellious. I love them. I love them. And as soon as they acknowledge
their rebellion, as soon as they cry unto me, I am there to deliver
them. Deliver them of all their fears. Give them comfort and hope and
cause them to sit still and to be quiet. All the things that
they're looking to Egypt for, I'm going to give them. But they've
got to come to realize they can't get it in Egypt. Egypt can't
give it to you. It just can't. But the Lord lets his children
go down to Egypt. And if he lets you stay in Egypt,
it's just because you're not his. It's because you're not
his. There's no other way to put it.
If you can be satisfied with Egypt, and you can be comforted
with Egypt, and you can find everything you're looking for
in life in Egypt, He'll let you stay in Egypt. But if you're
His, you're not going to be happy in Egypt. You're just not. Therefore will the Lord wait.
He'll wait. You see, he's in control. He's
not anxious. He's not wringing his hands.
He's not saying, oh, won't you let me have my way in your life?
He's ordering your steps. What did Jeremiah say? He said,
Lord, I know that a man's steps are not ordered of himself. Correct
me, Lord. Guide my steps. that he may be gracious unto
you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment,
blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall
dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, and thou shalt weep no more, and
he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he shall hear it, he will
answer thee. Cry out to Him. There's no hope
anywhere else. There's no hope anywhere else.
Everything else is just going to bring fear and disquietness
and discomfort. And Lord, I want to read this verse and
hopefully Sunday bring a message from this passage. And though
the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
yet shall not thy teachers be removed into the corner anymore,
but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. Why? because your teachers are
pointing you to Christ. Lord, I need a man to tell me
about Christ. And though I brought much adversity
into my own life because of my rebellion, Lord, I cry unto thee,
help me. I'm poor, I'm needy. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, David said, but now, Now, Lord, I trust Thee. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
You would show Your compassion toward these
rebellious children. Forgive us, Lord, for Christ's
sake. Give us rest in Him. And expose to our hearts, Lord,
the weakness of Egypt. Cause us, Lord, to hate that
which you hate, and to love that which you love. For we ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Number 200. Let's stand together.
300. 300. Yeah. ? More secure is no one ever ?
? Than the loved ones of the Savior ? ? Not yon star on high
abiding ? ? Nor the bird in home nest hiding ? ? God his own doth
tend and nourish ? ? In his holy courts they flourish ? Like a
father kind he spares them, in his loving arms he bears them. Neither life nor death can ever
from the Lord his children sever, for his love and deep compassion
comforts them in tribulation. Little flock, to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this defender,
At his will all foes surrender. What He takes or what He gives
us shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust His purpose
wholly, tis His children's welfare solely. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you said, but
I know what you mean.