In Isaiah chapter 28, the lesson
is we are going to look at a passage or two that we did last time
and the title of this is going to be, The Bed Too Short Part
2. In Isaiah chapter 28, the prophet
is speaking God is speaking through the prophet to Israel and some
of the ones there that have been in charge and teaching and not
teaching. And once again, Israel has shown
their humanity and their fallen nature, nature by man. And as
it speaks to those that are teaching there and those people in Israel,
It speaks to all. It does not just speak to those
people, those Jews that were, you know, shake your finger at
them and they should have known better, but to all of God's people and
all the people in the world, what nature is like and what
man tends to do by nature and will do and what God does for
his people. And as Norm and I were visiting this
morning, and I'm convinced that here, There are some bad things
that show up here, but God didn't take time with those that he
did not set his affection on. There is warning to all, but
the admonitions and the correction and those things come about to
God's people. If it was not a message to it,
and all the scripture is for the the revealing of our Lord
Jesus Christ to his people and what we are like and what God
has done and does for his people. So I'd like to read a few verses
here and I hope condense it down to one
lesson this morning, we'll see. But in chapter 28 of Isaiah,
starting with verse 15, and I'd like to read down just a bit. Actually verse 14 we'll start
with and it says it says wherefore Hear the word of the Lord, ye
scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because
ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are
we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone. a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment
also I will lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters
shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant will be disannulled.
Agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then shall ye be trodden down by it. For
the time that it goeth forth, it shall take you. For morning
by morning shall it pass over, day by day and night, and it
shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter
than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower
than he can wrap himself in it. For the Lord shall rise up, as
in Mount Perizim, and he shall be wroth, as in the valley of
Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to
pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers,
lest your hands be made strong. For I have heard from the Lord
God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice. Hearken, and hear my speech.
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break
the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face
thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the
cumin, and cast in the principal wheat, and appointed barley and
the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him
to discretion, and both doth teach him. For the fitches are
not threshed in a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned
about upon the cumin, but the cumin with a rod. Bread, corn,
is bruised, because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break
it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horseman.
This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful
in counsel, excellent in working. What we've titled or mentioned
several times in the last lesson, in this one, is the bed is too
short. verse there in verse 20, where
it said, the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on
it, and the covering narrow than he can wrap himself in it. And
it's a picture of what has gone on. And up here in, we're going
to start with, look again back in verse 15. And they've said
by their doings and by their nature and by their actions,
a natural man does it. We have made a covenant with
death, and, hell, we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass, it shall not come to us, for we have made lies
our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Now they
didn't say in literal words to God that this is what they have
done, but by nature, man is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. His heart cannot be this. His heart is dead spiritually.
By nature, from the beginning, this is what
it was. By nature, natural man is in agreement with death and
hell. As it says, we made lies our
refuge. When the bad time comes and the
end comes, my good will outweigh my bad. Whatever the argument
may be, it is not going to bother me. It is not going to be there.
Natural man can tell himself that all he wants to, it is coming.
God promises the scourge, the end time will come. Here it says
that falsehood are hiding places, not God's word or God's truth. But, therefore, it says in verse
16, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone. a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste." In contrast,
there is the foundation that is laid in here. Again, as I
was visiting with Norman this morning, there are five points
in this verse alone that could make quite a combination of lessons,
messages, thoughts, whatever. Here it says, a foundation, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth
shall not make haste. We know, but we are going to
see in several places what that stone, that foundation is, or
who that stone is. It is our Lord Himself who is
that foundation. Then in verse 17 it says, Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the
hiding place. The standard is the Lord himself.
He's that sure foundation and that plummet. He's both level
this way and vertically plumb, and anything that doesn't match
that has got a problem. And that's, he says, when I lay
this to the measurement and the refuge of lies and the covenant
with hell and death is not going to cut it. It just, it just will
not, it's not a safe place to be. This foundation is a safe
place to be. And if, if we measure up to this
by what, by nature, we say what we have made an agreement with,
That's not going to cut it. And when the scourge comes, as
it says, it's going to take care of all what you think you're
going to hide in. It's not going to be a hiding place. And if
you're not on this foundation, by nature, we're not. Well, I'd
rather have the foundation. A little bit back into this and
several times over in Israel, God had blessed them and done
some wonderful things for them, put them in some pretty good
places. And what they physically had, blessings they had, And
it points out, they use that for an occasion to just sin more.
They didn't say, well, God has been good to us, so wow, this
is what we're gonna do. By nature, that can't be. Natural
man has not got an affinity to go towards God and to say, well,
yeah, that's good stuff, we better do that. By nature, it's used
as an occasion to sin more. And that, Without that sure foundation,
and it says in verse 18, 19, your covenant with death shall
be disannulled. It's not going to, you may think
you have a good standing, but it's not going to make it. It's
just not going to. And only this sure foundation can be the one. And that's where it gets down
when it says, when the scourge shall pass through, you shall
be trodden down. It's just going to, you're just
going to be trodden down. Then it says in verse 20, the
bed's too short and the cover's too small. And we all know what
that picture, physical situation, not spiritually, we've been there.
The bed's too short and the cover's too small. And we're going to look at here,
and I'm going to make comment a little bit on the end here,
it speaks about that God's, the husbandman, we
are his husbandry, the last several verses talking about the plowing
and the sowing and taking care of and doing those things. God
takes care of his people. That's what he does. If he doesn't
take care of his people, they don't get taken care of. And
he's the one that turns them to them. The one and how this takes place
that we end up on this foundation is like the verse in Zechariah. It's exactly the same as chapter
four, verse six. Zechariah says, not by might
or power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. That's how
things get done. Spiritually is by, if God doesn't
do it in his power and his spirit doesn't do it, it doesn't get
done. We don't have it in us. Um, I would like to, I've looked
at several places right now. Um, we've looked at before in,
uh, Ezekiel and Isaiah that start out talking about the condition
of man. He's in, he's in a bad shape. Um, naturally speaking. In fact, I want to read just
a little bit. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 16. And this talks about, in several
verses that we're familiar with, what condition man is like, as
it were, when God looks on him. And I'd like to read first five verses to start with.
It says, Ezekiel 16. And the word of the Lord came
unto me. Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an
Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as far as thy nativity, in
the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou
washed in water to supple thee, thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these things to thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou
wast cast out in an open field to the loathing of thy person
in the day that thou wast born. picture here of what we are like
by nature spiritually. It's a pitiful sight and there's
nothing commendable about it and nothing good about it and
nothing hopeful about that situation. Verse six, it says, and when
I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood.
I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. And go on in
that, but if it was not for God in that condition, we would be
in that, we would have died in the field as it were there. And
God taking pity on a people that he has from in the true covenant,
the everlasting covenant, the one that does stand, have a people
and those he has an eye on, has always had an eye on. And by
nature, this is an apt picture of what we were like. There's
another passage that talks about being full of sores from the
top of the head to the sole of the foot and nothing in between
that's any better. And by nature, that's a picture
of what man is like spiritually. If God does not intervene, that
is what we are and that is where we are. What God did for the church in
Israel, the picture of what man does and what God, what man is
and what God does by nature does not man seek after God. A picture of the prodigal son
or several other things would work in here. Then I would like
to look at several places here, starting with 1 Corinthians chapter
3, if you would, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And it speaks to the foundation. and those things that God causes
to be done. In 1 Corinthians 3, starting
with verse 6, it says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor. For we are laborers together
with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According
to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if any man build upon this
foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every
man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it
because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try
every man's work what sort it is. And obviously it's not a
religious and how far you've gone in religion. It's as it
says that foundation is the Lord himself, Lord Jesus Christ. The
same foundation that over in Isaiah said, I laid the foundation,
same foundation, not a different picture or a different person.
It says in verse 11, no other foundation can no man lay than
is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And any thing we look at in the
scripture, it has to lay that foundation or be built on that
foundation, or it's not It's like the passage there in Isaiah
that we've been looking at. It's built on lies. It's built on no firm foundation. You show the foundation to those
things and they're out of whack. They're not even close. They're not even in the ball
game. It has to be perfect. And the only perfect foundation
that there is, as it says, is Christ himself. Excuse me. In 1 Peter, and I'm skipping a couple of
spots, we're going to come back to a couple of points, but I
really like this one in 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2, and it's not something that has
to be stretched or looked for. It's very plain what he's speaking
to, and it's like there that we've seen in Zechariah and some
of the other places. He says, do you know what this
is? And he says, no, you've got to tell me what it is. And the
Lord does. But here in 2 Peter, I'm pardoned. Let me get in the
right book. 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. starting with verse one and reading
down a ways. It says, wherefore laying aside
all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all
evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy
priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone
which the builders disallow, the same is made the head of
the corner. And a stone is stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But you are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. description of where we have
been and where we are by his power and his doing. A couple
of things, not only does it speak about the stone and the foundation,
it speaks and clearly says Jesus Christ is that stone and is that
foundation. It can't be construed as church
teachings and church doctrine and church points that we lay
out. It has to be that same foundation
that says no other man can lay. That is the only foundation we
have. If there is any other, it is
a false foundation. If it is mixed with anything
else, it is a false foundation. As God said, righteousness is
a measurement, not anything else. Only by God's power can this
come about. chapter five in Romans. And I go to my old Bible, I had
to replace it, it was coming apart. But I use it because I
have a lot of notes scribbled in the edges and things that
I like. But it's so underlined that you almost can't read it
anymore. I started underlining important passages. Pretty soon
most of the book of Romans is underlined. But anyhow, Romans
chapter 5. It says, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men for that all have sinned. For until the law sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transition. Who is the figure of him that
was to come? but not as the offense. So also is the free gift for
if through the offense, one of one, many be dead, much more
the grace of God and the gift of grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ hath abounded to many and not as it was by one
that sin. So is the gift for the judgment
was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
under justification. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace,
and that the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. For if one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which have received abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ. So not only is he the foundation,
but he is the one that it is provides the righteousness provides
us in him. We, that line is perfectly aligned
with us in him. We're not If we are His, we are
on both flat and plumb. The righteousness and the measurement,
we point to the foundation. We're on His righteousness. It's
not Jesus and us and we'll get the job done. It's all in Him.
We stand in Him. We stand in that foundation.
And as it said, we're lively stones that are built on that
foundation, but that's the foundation that has to be built on. He's
the one that builds that house. We're not the ones that place
ourselves there. A couple of spots in the book
of Acts. In the book of Acts. In chapter three of Acts. And starting with verse 18. But those things which God before
had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should
suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be ye
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And
he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you,
whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his
holy prophets, since the world began. For Moses truly said unto
the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all
things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And that shall come
to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall
be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,
saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of
the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised
up his son, Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every
one of you from his iniquities. Here it shows again that where
we stand, how we stand, what the prophets have always brought
forth, what they've always preached and brought forth, the same thing. And a phrase that's come up in
In many of the lessons lately from our pastor is repetition. There is no new thing. In Ecclesiastes
I think it says, there is no new thing under the sun. Well,
in many ways there is no new thing under the sun. Especially
in the foundation that has been laid by the prophets there is
no new thing under the sun. If that foundation gets brought
into question, which it has been and still is, by those in pulpits,
has He really said this? Does it really have to be that
straight to the line? Anytime there is a doubt brought
in about the foundation, about our Lord Jesus Christ, and who
He is and what He has done for His people, there is a problem. And it's going to be like the
bed too short again. In the end, it will not hold
up. It has to be. Perfect is the mark, and there's
no substitute for that. And as it says here, that foundation
has been laid from all the prophets did the same thing. There was
different pictures of it, and brought out in many different
ways, but the same thing brought out. In Acts chapter 10, In Acts 10, verse 36, let's start with verse 34. Then Peter opened his mouth and
said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is
Lord of all. The word I say ye know which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for
God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things
which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the
third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto
witnesses chosen before of God, even unto us who did eat and
drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him, verse 43, give all the
prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Here again, Peter's
saying, this is not new. You've been told by the prophets,
and now he is here. This is the one that is the foundation. This is the one. And as it says
here in, in verse 43, to him give all the prophets witness
that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive
remissions of sin. And this comes on that not far
on the heels of, of, of before that of the Jews questioning
his parentage of our Lord himself, because they said, we, you know,
who are you? And this is the one that the
prophets were speaking of. This is him. And in God testifying
that this is the one, this is the true won the Savior of his
people that God raised up. It says that he anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and God was with
him. As we know, he is God himself. Then, one more spot, and we are
going to wrap this up for this morning. In Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24, down towards
the end. We know the account of the two on the road to Emmaus
and what followed and he met with the rest of them and the
Lord did. ate with them. And he said unto them, The LORD,
these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto
them, thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you,
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power
from on high. And here, above here it says that it has been fulfilled which was
written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. In that before every
lesson, message, and thought almost can come to mind or should
come to mind, that if he doesn't open the understanding, none
of this means anything. It only means that if God opens
the understanding to what we are by nature, what we tend to,
and what we can only do, and that God has the firm foundation
and places us on that firm foundation. If we're on that foundation,
that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, we are on a good spot. And we can't be in a better spot.
And that's the message that Isaiah was brought to those people. And I dare say there were some
of those that agreed with him and went their way. And there
were some of those that understood what he was talking about. And the Lord opened their eyes
to understand that. And so at this time, be free. Thank you.