Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah
26. Isaiah chapter 26. When you read in the Old Testament,
the phrase, in that day. So often times, it is speaking
of this day. Or of that period of time between
the first coming and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that day, that day and age
of gospel grace. And so Isaiah begins this 26th
chapter, In that day shall this song be sung, in the land of
Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation, which keepeth the truth, may enter in. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace. whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. A few Wednesday evenings
ago I talked to you about the new Jerusalem. I talked about
that city that is given in Scripture as a picture and a type of the
Lord's people, of His church, Zion. Paul writing to the Galatians
said, comparing Hagar and Sarah, he says, for this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem which now is,
and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all." The Jerusalem, he
says, which is above or from above is free. and is described
as the mother of all the Lord's people. And then the psalmist,
he makes this statement. Someone wrote a hymn based on
this. He said, Glorious things are
spoken of thee, O city of God. In Matthew, Jerusalem is described
as the city of the great King. But what really makes us know
that he's talking about a spiritual city and a spiritual people is
when John in the Revelation says this, And I, John, saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband." That New Jerusalem is the Lord's
church and people. And that is what is being described
here in verse 1 and 2 of this 26th chapter, because the same
spiritual city is made reference to God calling it the strong
city. Strong city. And not only that,
but the righteous nation. There's only one righteous nation. One nation He describes by the
Apostle as that holy nation. And that is the church. of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he describes this city here
as being surrounded or kept with walls and bulwarks. It is a fortress. It is the city
of the living God. And it is described as being
kept by God's salvation and also as the keeper of His truth. It is kept on the one hand by
God, and it is entrusted on the other hand to keep His truth. It is His Jerusalem. And what this chapter talks about,
in part, is it speaks of the peace of Jerusalem. Because here in Isaiah chapter
26, he talks about them being kept in peace, and also in their
being kept with peace. You see, the very name Jerusalem
has to do with peace. That word Salem means peace. And the psalmist says, in Judah
is God known, His name is great in Israel, In Salem also is his
tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion." Salem, or peace, is
what characterizes this city or people that he is identified
with. So when you hear the apostle
saying in Hebrews 7, in a reference of that one who either was the
pre-incarnate Christ or pictured Him, Melchizedek. He says, for this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which
is king of Christ is King of Righteousness,
and because He is that to His people, He is also King of Salem,
or King of Peace to them. And so Jerusalem, that name He
gives to describe His church, that redeemed and ransomed people,
it means a peaceful possession. It means a vision of peace. And it is called at the same
time Mount Zion, and some believe that this alludes to the mountains
upon which it was situated, which was believed to be the same mount
upon which Abraham sought to offer Isaac. You remember that
picture? Whenever Abraham was commanded
of God to go up on Mount Moriah and worship, and to offer his
son as the sacrifice in that worship, it says that Abraham
said to Isaac, my son God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering, And they both went up on that mount together. Isaac knew that if God was to
be worshipped, The only way he can be worshipped is by that
sacrifice that he has ordained and appointed. And so Abraham
took his son up on that mountain, and in Genesis 22 it says, and
Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is
said to this day. In the mount of the LORD it shall
be seen. He said, And Abraham called the
name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, or the LORD hath seen, or the
LORD hath provided. And he puts the future there
as the past, and it is called that in answer to what Abraham
had said, God will provide. It is the fact that the Lord
will provide because He has provided. And He has provided and will
provide for all His people just like He provided for Abraham
and for his son on that day. When He pointed out to Abraham
the ram, whose horns were caught in the thicket, and Abraham took
that ram and offered him as a sacrifice to God, and they worshipped God. And so Abraham named that place
Jehovah-Jireh with the prospect of what God would provide in
the future because He had provided on that occasion. And that is exactly what happened. God did provide on Mount Calvary
God did provide at Jerusalem, and Christ did, by His own sacrifice
and death, establish peace between God and His people. Brother Tim James, in speaking
about what the gospel is, stated it so well on Friday night that
it first has to do with a report concerning what he's already
done. And that's what the news is about. The gospel being these glad tidings
and this good news, it has to do with what God has done. And rather than being like in
our day when men and women are told one thing right after the
other that they need to do in order to gain the favor of God,
which would not in any way be good news to us, but rather the
gospel has to do with what God in Christ hath done. And one of the things that He
has done is He has brought and wrought peace for Jerusalem. Listen to what He says in Colossians
1. And this has not only to do with
peace with God, but also with peace in our conscience. You
see, the reason why that men and women can come to know peace
in their conscience No matter what they've done that men and
women tell them to do, no matter whose prescription for salvation
they follow, the reason why they cannot come to peace in their
conscience is because unless God has already been made to
be at peace with us, we can't ever have. peace of conscience. So this is why the gospel is
good news. Listen to what he says in Colossians
1 and verse 20. And having made peace. I remember when I was a boy and
we'd ride, it seemed like it was especially in the western
part of the state, there would be these granite crosses. And you see these big granite
crosses by the side of the road set in various places, and they
would catch your attention immediately, because here's a big granite
cross, and it would say something like this, Make peace with God. But the problem is, you and I
as sinners, we can't make peace with God. We never have made
peace with God. And rather than being something
that tells us how to make peace with God, the good news of the
Gospel is that Jesus Christ has already made peace. Listen to what He says. And having
made peace. through the blood of His crops. Not in a feeling you and I get. Not in something we accept or
reject. But 2,000 plus years before we
were ever born into this world, on a cross outside of a literal
city named Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in
the flesh, He made peace on the behalf of His church with God. And He did it in the only way
that peace can be made, and that was by the blood of His cross. That was by His death. That was
by His suffering. That was by His pouring out that
one sacrifice for sins forever. He says, "...by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, And you, he says to these
Colossian believers and believers in all time, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled, finished, done, completed, all by the blood
of His cross, He says, in the body of His flesh, through death,
to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. You think about that. For somebody,
the Lord Jesus Christ, having come in perfect human flesh,
and going to that cross and dying there on that cross, He reconciled
somebody to God. And He not only reconciled them
to God, but in His body, in His flesh, through death, they are
now holy and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight." Now,
they may not be so in the preacher down the roadside. And by their
own natural sight, they won't feel themselves to be by anything
they've done. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and through and by this cross death, since He made peace with
God on their behalf, they are now accounted in God's sight
as holy and unblameable and unreprovable before God." He made peace by
the blood of His cross. But look down at verse 3, where
he says, "...thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind
is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Actually,
what that says is, peace, peace. It actually says, that He will
keep him in shalom, shalom, perfect peace, double peace. And this means that it is not
only a promise of peace with God through the sacrifice of
Christ, but also a peace promise to believers kept by God in Him. have peace, and they will be
kept in perfect peace. Now I noticed something recently. If you want to turn over to Romans
chapter 1, I'll show you one instance of this. But there is
in almost every one of the epistles virtually this same statement. Romans chapter 1, and look down
in verse 7. Because this epistle and all
of these epistles are written to believers. They are written
to the Lord's Jerusalem. They are written to His elect. And it never changes. Listen
to what Paul says. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, call And those two words in italics are not in the original.
They are called saints. They are not called to be saints. They are, in Christ, by God,
called saints. We don't even have a Pope now.
We're in a Pope limbo. I guess nobody will get to be
a saint by that standard, but all of God's people, every citizen
in this heavenly Jerusalem, they are everyone beloved of God and
called saints, or those set apart in Christ. Now listen, grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll find that somewhere in
that first chapter of almost every one of the epistles. Grace to you and peace through
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, grace
always precedes peace. It is because of His grace to
us that we now have peace and are at peace with God. But in all these epistles, he's
not only talking about that peace that has already been made with
us on our behalf before God by the dying of Christ, that peace
we have on the basis of Him reconciling us unto Himself. But this is
a future and abiding peace he talks about. We shall have peace
because we do have peace. Does that make any sense to you?
We have peace, and therefore we shall have peace. And just as God appeared to Abraham
for his son in that mountain, just as He was going to sacrifice
him, and He delivered him, so the Lord will appear for all
His people in all ages, in every time of difficulty, and in every
time of distress, and no matter what the extremity, He will appear
and bless and help everyone that trusts in Him. As a matter of
fact, He even has to help them trust Him. Isn't that something? God having done everything He's
done, God having accomplished in Christ this everlasting peace
wherein He reconciled us unto Him, put us in such a glorious
state of peace before Him, and yet we cannot have peace unless
He helps us, unless He helps us to trust Him. What does it
mean to trust, son? It seems like sometime long ago,
I was looking at that word, and it comes out to be something
like this. It means to lean your whole weight
on. It doesn't mean to just kind
of prop yourself on one shoulder or something like that. It means
to lean and to rest your whole weight on. That's what it is,
to trust something. And this has to do with our mind
and our hearts as well as our standing. We are to have peace
because we have peace. We will be kept in perfect peace
because He has made peace for us in the blood of His cross. This has to do with, as we say,
peace of mind. Oh, wouldn't you like to have
a little peace of mind? Well, it says that this peace
belongs to those who trust the Lord. And I'll say this, the
degree and measure of this peace of mind that we have is in measure
with the measure of trust and confidence that we have in our
Savior. That's why I say, unless He helps
us, unless He helped us at the very first, we would never have
believed on Christ. But now having believed on Christ,
surely we can make it the rest of the way on our own. We can
know He has to keep enabling us and giving us faith and keeping
us trusting in and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It's not me and Jesus. It's not the little fairy tale
about the footprints in the sand on the beach, you know, where
here are two sets of footprints and all of a sudden it becomes
one set. And the man asked the Lord why
there's just one set of footprints on the beach at this particular
time. And the Lord says to him, supposedly, that's when I carried
you in my arms. There's just one set of footprints.
And that is He carries us. He keeps us. And He keeps us. And the word keep here means
as a garrison secures a city. Like an armed camp surrounds
us. These walls and bulwarks that
He talks about here. He keeps us. Thou keeps firmly
established our minds in peace and our confidence. Rest in thee."
Listen to what the psalmist says. A good man showeth favor and
lendeth. He will guide his affairs with
discretion. Surely he shall not be moved
forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil
things, evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting
in the Lord. His heart is established. He
shall not be afraid until he sees his desires upon his enemies. And I'll say this, the degree
to which we are this person depends upon the degree upon which we
are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if I don't have peace of
mind this morning in my heart, that doesn't go back and undo
what He's already done. Do you understand that? If I
am weak and unbelieving, which I am it seems like the most of
the time, but if I'm in that state, if I'm not in the full
experience and enjoyment of this peace, that doesn't go back and
undo what Christ did. He still made peace on the blood
of His cross. But it's in looking to Him. It's
in trusting Him. Not only for that which He has
already done, But for these things that bring us to anxiety and
heartache and all these things, trusting Him for everything,
because of that, He keeps us in perfect peace. You say, how
does it give us peace now? Well, because the God who took
on Himself human flesh in order to go to that cross, and die,
and shed that blood by which we are reconciled and now have
peace with God, He controls everything. He didn't just go to that cross,
die, and make peace for us, satisfy divine justice, bring in that
everlasting righteousness. Did you hear what Richard sang
in that hymn? It's the truth! He rose again. And He not only rose again, but
this One who has made peace, this One who is our Priest, this
One who is our Advocate and our King, He sits at the right hand
of the Majesty on high and He runs everything. You think you
can trust somebody to run everything who is God, absolutely God? Do you think you can trust and
rely on how everything is going? This One who works everything
after the counsel of His own will, if He loved you and gave
Himself for you? We can trust Him because He is
faithful to His promise. I hate not to do what I tell
people. I really do. I hate that so bad
if I tell you I'm going to meet you somewhere, if I tell you
I'm going to do this or that and the other. I hate it if I'm
not able to do that. Sometimes I can. He doesn't have
that problem. He's faithful in all His promises. He says, I'll never leave you
or forsake you. He's faithful in His promises
and He never changes. We ought to have peace concerning
everything, because the One who made peace for us, He's the Prince
of Peace, and He keeps our minds in peace when we consider that
He never changes. We always have a lot of change.
Men wax worse and worse. But He says, I am the Lord. I change not. For that reason,
ye sons of Jacob are not If our Savior would close His eyes one
minute, His thoughts were to drift off. And I'm speaking anthropomorphically,
I believe. I'm likening Him to the weakness
of humanity. But if that were to happen, we'd
perish in an instant. We couldn't have peace for a
second. And He never changes. And He
loves us in Himself. And He loves us too good to do
us harm or to let us be harmed. Therefore we have peace. I tell
you, these are troubling times. They really are. If you trust
your government, if you trust the financial world, if you trust
your stockbroker, your banker, if you trust your doctor, you're
probably going to be disappointed. But looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ and trusting Him. I turned on the weather this
morning. And you not only get, as a matter of fact, an objective
report of actual conditions, that has become pretty much the
least part of the weather. You've got all these documentaries
and you've got all this commentary. Well, did you know that in Antarctica
the oceans have risen a little bit? They don't ever say how
much. And the reason for it is because
The period of time that they've even been able to measure the
depths of the ocean is so short in compared to all the time of
this earth that they wouldn't want you to know that it was
like a sixteenth of an inch or something like that. Oh, but
it's global warming. You could worry yourself to death
over global warming or politics or about anything else. But the
more we look to those things, the more we'll worry and the
less peace we'll enjoy in our hearts. You see, this peace of
mind and peace in mind is given by God no matter the turmoil,
no matter how great the storm, no matter how difficult the conflict
is around us, when we look to Him. Now I want you to turn to
Philippians 4. Philippians chapter 4. And look
down at verse 6. I've had this for I don't know
how long and taught it to my children, about everybody else.
I know you get tired of hearing it sometimes when you leave on
a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning, but I can't help it.
I've got to tell you to be careful. Drive careful, be careful. That's
not what Paul's talking about. When he says, be careful for
nothing, what he's saying is, don't be anxious, worried, or
fretful over anything. He says, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, praying, pleading,
thanking God. Let your requests be made known
unto God. Well, I thought you said God
knew everything. He does. But you and I don't. When we
seek the Lord, when we pray to Him, when we plead to Him, when
we thank Him for all He is, all He's promised and all He's done,
we acknowledge to Him that we don't. We acknowledge in these
things our dependence upon Him. We acknowledge in these things
our looking to Him. Look at the next statement. And
the peace of God. Christ made peace with God. This
is the peace of His presence. The peace of His promises. When
He brings His promises home to our hearts, we may read them
one day and they're just kind of like, we think they're like
gone over our heads like a fast plane or something. But when
He brings them to our heart, it doesn't matter what we've
been told. It doesn't matter who has prophesied
what. It will be like fall when He's
on that ship. And that Heraclidian wind has
it rocking and rolling and twisting and cracking. And everything
is in despair and they're surely to die. And the very seasoned
mariner, he's doing everything he can. He said, we're going
to lose the ship. Paul stands up in the midst.
He said, I believe God that it shall be as he thinks. What did he say? He said, Paul,
you're going to stand before people of authority. You're going
to go to Rome. You're going to be witness of
my gospel before these people and to these people. And yet
everything that's going on at the time appears that they will
surely all perish. Did they? Not one of them. And
in this city, this Zion, this Jerusalem, it's the city of peace. They're going to have peace.
They'll be kept in peace. He says, "...in the peace of
God which passes all understanding." You fool! Broke as a convict, as we used
to say? Sick unto death? Your family
falling apart? The whole world seemingly plunging
its way rapidly to destruction? Don't you understand? Well, I
understand all right. God has given me peace that passes
understanding. Shall keep your hearts and mine. your affections, your emotions,
your thinking through Christ Jesus. No other way, but in Him
who is the way. Now listen to this next verse.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true. Where are you
going to find that at? You're going to find them in
Him who is the truth. I was so amazed this morning
at the ease at which These two men on the Weather Channel could
speak of things with such confidence and such quietness, things that
there is no way, humanly, they could know. I'll tell you in
our day, want of truth is no cause for lack of confidence.
There's a confident bunch of people here. They don't have
a clue. He says, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true and
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any
praise, think on these things. And that can only apply. to the things of Christ, the
things of God's grace. And those things which ye have
both learned and received and heard and seen in me, he said,
do. And the God of peace shall be
the God of peace. Our Lord says, these things I
have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Surprise, surprise. All these
folks running around. God wants you to be happy. God
wants you to be wealthy. God wants you to be healthy.
But he says to his people, in the world, you're going to have
tribulation. You know what that word tribulation
means? I think it was the Roman tribulum,
which was an instrument to thrash the wheat to get the grain out
of it. He says in the world. you're
going to have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. I've overcome the world. And
His overcoming the world, He already has, is the basis for
our peace. He says in John 14, Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
Neither let it be afraid." You see, God speaks peace to His
people through the gospel of His Son. And He continues to
speak peace of His people through this same gospel. And in all
circumstances, they shall possess the peace of God as they believe
on Him. Now, the Bible tells us we're
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably more than that,
it tells us we're to believe on the Lord Jesus. We're to lean
all our weight on Him. Not only in salvation, but in
all things. Back in our text, it comes to that fourth verse,
that statement, and He gives this word. in the Lord forever. Now God never gives a command
without giving us the basis upon which we can truly do it. Trust ye in the Lord forever
for or because in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting life. Where we
often make a mistake is we look to our trusting and not on the
one we are to be trusting. You lean all your weight on Christ.
You say, well, I'm afraid my leg will break. Or maybe I'll
lose my grip. You will. It will. But He says,
beneath us are the everlasting. You see, Isaiah 26 is a psalm. In that day shall this psalm
be sung in the land of Judah. Then it goes on. Well, verse
5 says, For he bringeth down them that dwell on high. The
lofty city he lays it low, he lays it low even to the ground,
he brings it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down."
You see, this is a tale of two cities. The Jerusalem that's
above. And that Jerusalem that is of
this world, which represents everyone outside of Christ. The
foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the
steps of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness. Thou most upright dost weigh
the path of the just, or these justified ones. Yea, in the way
of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. And the desire
of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. With
my soul have I desired thee in the night. This is a song now.
Yea, with my spirit within will I seek thee early. For when thy
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will
learn righteousness. Let favor be showed to the wicked. Will he not learn righteousness?
In the land of uprightness, will he deal unjustly, and will not
behold the majesty of the Lord? Takes the blessing of God? Does
it even acknowledge? Lord, when Thy hand is lifted
up, they will not see, but they shall see and be ashamed for
their envy at the people. Yea, the fire of Thine enemy
shall devour them. Lord, You will ordain peace for us, for Thou also hast
wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside
Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make
mention of Thy name. They are dead, they shall not
live. They are deceased, they shall
not rise. Therefore hast Thou visited and
destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Thou hast increased
the nation. O Lord, Thou hast increased the
nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hast
removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Lord, in trouble
have they visited Thee. They poured out a prayer when
Thy chastening was upon them, like as a woman with child that
draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain and cries
out in her pains. So have we been in thy sight,
O Lord. We've been with child. We've been in pain. We have,
as it were, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell
in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into
thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as
it were, for a little moment. until the indignation be over. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover. He says, hide for a minute. Come
into your chambers. Come into Christ. Come in to
gather with His people. Come in to pray together. Come in to hear His gospel. Come in to into Christ Himself
with fellowship till the end, Ignatius. But the end shall be
for all in Christ. Shalom, shalom. Be made peace. He'll give us peace. Father,
this day we give you praise, we give you glory, we honor your
majesty and most especially your grace. Because of your grace
that we have peace. Help us not to trust our own
understanding, to lean on it, depend on it, but to trust in
our Lord Jesus Christ in all things, all times. May the peace of Jerusalem be
ours in Him. Bring our hearts and our minds
into the sweet calm of your presence, into the sweet comfort of your
word, your promise. Do all that you do for the glory
of your name alone. We thank you and we praise you.
We pray that you bring your word to the hearts of your people.
May it be the messenger of peace. We pray and ask everything in
Christ. Amen.