Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Isaiah chapter 30, and reading
for our text, verse 18. Verse 18. And 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, Blessed are all they that wait for Him. Isaiah 30 and verse 18. The prophet Isaiah had a word of
reproof to the children of Israel that in their need were going
down to Egypt for help from the arm of man from the Egyptians
instead of from God. Not only were they doing that,
they had not asked that counsel of the Lord either, and therefore
they would not wait for the Lord's help, the Lord's blessing, and
were intent on pursuing their own ways. And the Lord then was
dealing with them, dealing with them in such a way that they
were not to escape out of His hand, and were to be brought
to a position where they couldn't rely upon man and they had to
rely upon the Lord. And this really pictures how
we are by nature. All the time we lean upon an
arm of flesh, we go to the law, we go to our own righteousness,
and we will not wait for the Lord nor seek his blessing and
deliverances that he commands. And so the Lord has his dealings
with his people to bring them so that they will indeed wait
upon the Lord. And the message, the word upon
my spirit this morning is the Lord and people wait. The Lord and his people wait
And this question, why? Why does the Lord wait? Why does
his people wait? Now our text, it says at the
end of it that the Lord is a God of judgment. And we have this
picture that the Lord is the one that judges the right time
to do things, when to wait, when to appear. He sees what we cannot
see, He understands not just the small compass of what we
can see and make our judgments upon, but everything from the
beginning of time unto the end. A parent, they will always use
their own judgment as to what they tell their children, when
they do something, when they don't, when they wait, and when
it is time to be done. We are used to that. We're used
to those that are older using their wisdom, knowledge, discernment
to know when to act, when to do things. And so we have with
God, we are to be reminded of this in your trials, my trials,
whether in Providence, in our homes, in the church of God,
or whether in our souls. When we would be waiting for
the Lord to appear, waiting for His blessing to remember the
Lord is a God of judgment and is better to trust in His judgment,
His wisdom, His understanding than ours. I would also notice
that the waiting is a very real thing throughout the scriptures. We are told in Peter's first
epistle how that God waited in the days of Noah. He didn't just
destroy the world as soon as there became wickedness. He actually
waited, and Noah had time to build the ark and to preach as
a preacher of righteousness, and no doubt many were saved
during that time. But we are told that it was the
Lord then that was waiting before he executed that judgment. Then we have it again with the
children of Israel going into the promised land. The Lord said that the iniquity
of the Amorites was not yet full. He gave a promise to Abraham,
but it was another 430 years before it was actually fulfilled. And we have numerous instances
right through the scripture. We have Abraham waiting for the
promised seed. We have the children of Israel
with Goliath challenging them for 40 days and no one is found
to be able to go out against him. And then David is found. Why wasn't David sent the very
same day that Goliath challenged? Why did it have to wait? those
40 days. We think of the man that was
born blind, was of age, if that was 21 years, why did he have
to wait that long before the Lord performed the miracle when
the Lord was upon the earth? Or the man that was 38 years
at the Pool of Bethesda, why did he have to wait that long
there? Why did the disciples have to
wait and tarry at Jerusalem, until they were endued with power
from on high." The Lord would have instantly got to heaven,
prayed His Father to send a comforter. Why did they have to wait ten
days? Why was it not sent straight
away? And all the time we have these
instances throughout Scripture of either the Lord waiting before
He performs something, Or we have it that man is having to
wait for the Lord as well. And it is that that is on my
spirit, this question, why? And of course, we might ask ourselves
this question as well, that are we really waiting? No, I hope
there are those that are very concerned and exercised in this,
especially in matters of your soul, or maybe in providence,
but can it really be said that we're awaiting or waiting upon
the Lord in every instance? Or is it sometimes just like
a fatalism, we are just going from day to day, and well, if
the Lord appears, he appears, if he doesn't, he doesn't. Awaiting
is a very, specific thing, isn't it? And we think of our Lord
telling the parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins
and they were waiting, they were waiting for when the bridegroom
came. But how were they waiting? We
mean that they were slumbering, they were sleeping. Some were
ready to be awoken were ready to go in unto him to the marriage
supper. Others, they were not ready. And so the very attitude of waiting,
we need to ask ourselves, are we really waiting? Or are we
slumbering? How are we really waiting? So I want to look at three points. Firstly, why does the Lord wait? To try to answer that question.
And then secondly, why do the Lord's people wait? And then lastly, how we are to
wait, thinking of that last point I made in our introduction. But firstly, why does the Lord
wait? Immediately we are reminded the
Lord is a sovereign God. He is not being held up by man,
by Satan. He is not helpless in this matter. The Lord is sovereign. And may
we always remember that. When we are praying, we are not
dictating to the Lord. We are not saying, do this now. There are those that most solemnly
speak to the Lord like that, thinking that it demonstrates
their faith their power with the Lord. But we come supplicating,
we come asking, as sinners, unworthy of anything at His hand. We don't come dictating. The
Lord is sovereign. How would we be with children
if they came before us and they said, I want this now. Please
give me this now. I want it right now. Immediately we think, well, this
child is taking away from us as parents any of our jurisdiction,
any of our judgment. They are being the one that's
in control. I am being their puppet. And we're not to be like
that with our God. We mentioned regarding Noah that
it was a long suffering of the Lord. when we think of the Lord's
judgments that he brings upon men. We read that because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily, the heart of man is
fully set in him to do evil. And this happens, this is a waiting
reason for the Lord's wait in many instances. We mentioned
the Amorites, their iniquity was not yet full, Some might
think, well, when Israel went into the Promised Land, what
destruction, they destroyed all of those nations. But the Lord
would say to them, I gave you years and years of warning. You continued in terrible, terrible
abominations, and you've only got to read the books of Leviticus
of that which the nations before Israel did. And the Lord suffered
it a long time and then suddenly that severe judgment came and
they were cut off. So the Lord waits, sometimes
a long suffering, sometimes because of mercy. He has a people in
a place. If you think of with Nineveh,
he gave them 40 days. That seemed to be the only blessing. a reason to expect hope for that
city, and the Lord gave them repentance during that time.
And so the time to wait instead of immediately bringing destruction,
it was raising up a hope. And so also like we mentioned
Goliath, it was to prove that there was no hope in Israel. There was no hope. Remember,
David had just been anointed by Samuel to be the next king
over Israel. This was the Lord's way with
Goliath of thrusting David into the limelight, into the presence,
not just of the king, although he had been playing the music
to the king, but before all Israel. And of course, the king got very
upset when the people, the women, were singing that David had slain
his 10,000 and Saul only his thousands. But it was God's way. And so it had to be proved first
that there was none. There was no help other in Israel
apart from David the shepherd boy. And so it is in grace as
well, how often it is, as in the context here, Man, he will
take the credit to himself. He thinks he can do well. How
many a young apprentice, how many a young person full of their
own conceit and their own ability to do things, and their boss
has been very wise. He said, well, you go and do
it then. Away you go. And when they make a mess of
it, and make many mistakes, in the end they come back and they
say, no, I didn't know how to do it, how do I do it? And now
they're ready to hear, now their ear is open. And so very often,
we have like Psalm 107, they fell down, there was none to
help, then they cried unto the Lord. And the Lord's waiting
is so that they do not take the glory and honour to themselves,
They prove, no help in self I find, and yet have sought it well.
The native treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. It's
not just proved in a day or two, but sometimes months or years. The Lord knows how long it will
take to bring one to be fully convinced. And again, as the
Heimreiter says, if ever my poor soul be saved, His Christ must
be the way. When we've tried and tried to
obey the law, we've tried to make ourselves acceptable to
God, and yet failed at every turn. And the Lord then waits
to bless that soul, waits to appear for that soul. And it
is that they are to be brought down first. It's like with the
children of Israel that had gone after Baal in Elijah's day. The Lord sent a famine, not one
year, not two, not three, three and a half years. And they were
brought down to their knees. No help. Elijah stopped the heavens
in his prayer to God. And it wasn't to come again until
he prayed again, as we have in James. And the Lord waited, waited
until they were ready to put the Lord on trial on Mount Carmel,
the two altars raised, and the God, whether Baal or the true
and living God, answered with fire from heaven, that should
be the true God. And Baal could not send fire
from heaven, but the true God did. And God used that waiting
then to prepare the hearts. Elijah used that word, in prayer
that they might know that thou hast turned their hearts back
again. The Lord uses delays in his appearing
for his people to prepare their hearts, to trust in him, to look
to him, to give him the honour and the glory. In the case of
Gideon, The Lord reduced his army from a great army to just
300, and that was to stop him taking the honour and glory to
himself. But in the context with our text,
the Lord uses delays and waiting to make a people realise that
they have no power to hasten on any act in providence, any
act in grace, they can't bring a wife or a husband. They cannot
bring a job. They cannot bring a buyer for
their home. They cannot deliver themselves
out of an illness, a sickness. They can't heal themselves. And we are brought to rely solely
upon the Lord. Yes, we use the means, right
to use it. Those are realising that unless
the Lord blesses, it won't be blessed, it won't be effectual. So the Lord waits in that way,
and it is a way that He humbles His people before Him and brings
down their high looks and brings them to be at His dear feet. We think of the overall picture
in the world the Lord waiting for His first coming. He gave
the promise in the Garden of Eden, but then 4,000 years the
Lord waited before His beloved Son came. And now we're in the
time, the Gospel time, when like the Thessalonian church, have
been called to wait for His Son from heaven. He has said that
He will come again in like manner, with power and great glory. And
the Church's calling is to expect that and to wait for that. But that timing is in the Lord's
hand. And in the meantime, there are
souls that are being converted. In the meantime, there are those
nations who grow more and more wicked, more and more sinful,
more and more far away from Him. And the Lord waits to judge them
in a solemn position as our own nation. at this time in our godlessness
and departing from the Lord. And the Lord is in control. He waits, and at His set time,
then there'll be those judgments, then there'll be the end of the
world, then the Lord Himself will come. And the Lord is waiting
for that right time. He's exercising His judgment,
His purposes that are ripening fast, unfolding every hour. So we may be sure, and especially
if you're concerned for your soul awaiting upon the Lord in
Providence, that there is a good reason why the Lord is not appearing
to answer your prayers, why he has not blessed you as yet, why
he hasn't appeared in Providence. The truth that runs right through
the Bible is that the Lord waits. He has a purpose, He has a plan,
He has a time, and He waits until that time is ready, and then,
then He performs it. We would think then of the other
side. If the Lord waits, what about
His children, His people? Why? Why do they wait? Why do the Lord's people wait?
Well, if we picture one that is full of their own ability
to do things, they never wait on the Lord. That's the picture
of the earlier part of this chapter. in providence, in the things
of this life, they will seek to do things as if it was all
in their own power, regarding blessing. No need to wait for
the law, you just read the word of God, you read that you've
only got to believe, and you believe, and you're saved, and
that's it. You don't need power from heaven, you don't need the
Holy Ghost, you just have an intellectual belief. And while that's the case, you
never, never wait for the Lord. You cannot understand those that
aren't waiting. You can't understand those that
have soul trouble or those that are under the fiery darts of
the law. You can't understand those that
don't believe or can't believe. So there's no waiting at all
upon the Lord. May we remind ourselves how much
in the Word of God there are the blessings and the promises
to those that wait. Our text is one of those, isn't
it? Therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you 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. There is a blessing on those
that wait for Him. If we go to Isaiah 40, that chapter
ends with a beautiful word. even the ewes shall faint and
be weary, the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up
with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they
shall walk and not faint. Then Isaiah 49 as well, verse
23. I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed
that wait for me. We have a couple of beautiful verses
in Psalm 37. Verses seven and nine. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for him. Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way. because of the man who bringeth
wicked his vices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, for evildoers
shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall
inherit the earth. And we have these promises, promises
to those that wait. those that wait upon the Lord.
So why do the people of God then wait or begin to wait? Coming
from a position where they don't feel the need of it, they don't
feel that the Lord is able to help them, they've got help in
themselves. But you think when they do wait
upon the Lord, the Lord has dealt with them in such a way whether
in their souls or in providence, so that they are persuaded without
any doubt that they have no help in themselves. They've tried
everything. They're like the woman with the
issue of blood, 12 years, suffered much at the hands of all the
physicians, grew worse, not better. Then she comes to the Lord, and
then she's immediately healed. Like the man 38 years at the
pool, couldn't. He couldn't get down quick enough.
He couldn't get himself into the pool. The Lord knew he'd
been in that situation so long. The children of Israel in Egypt,
they may have thought within themselves, well, all we've got
to do is decide to just gather together and leave, walk out
of Egypt. But the Lord showed with sending
Moses that those nine signs, Pharaoh would not let them go.
They were really in captivity in Egypt. And it wasn't until
the blood was shed, beautiful time of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, and what he has accomplished at Calvary. then
they will let go. And we would remember that the
reason why the Lord blesses or fears for his people, answers
their prayers, is all through that which the Lord Jesus Christ
did at Calvary. Every blessing comes to us through
Jesus' precious blood. Redeem Israel, O God, out of
all his troubles. It is the redemption in the Lord
Jesus Christ. that sets the people free, enables
him justly, righteously to do for them what they cannot do
for themselves. So they are brought, not only
to feel their need and helplessness, but to feel the value of what
they're seeking, if they're seeking their soul's salvation, seeking
for eternal life, seeking for forgiveness and pardon, seeking
for a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I know the value
of it, the pearl of great price. We won't wait for something that
we don't know the value of. You know, sometimes we might
ring up the doctors. We'd like a doctor's appointment.
We're put on hold. We're told that we're the seventh
in the queue. and we wait and we wait, then
we think, well, I'm not so bad, I can't be bothered to waste
any more time, we hang up. But if we really, really felt
ill, if we really had a need, then we'd either continue waiting
or we'd seek some other means to immediately get that appointment. If we're really convinced of
our need, if we're really convinced also that the Lord is able to
come, that we have no other help to look to, and that all our
expectation is unto the Lord, then we will wait. That is why
we wait, because of what value we put on what we're waiting
for, and because we haven't got a help in anything else. The Lord brings that experience,
brings us into that position, where we are under that blessing,
really. Blessed are all those that wait
for Him. You might think, well, the blessing
surely is on those that obtain what they've waited for, that
they've got it. No, the blessing is on those
that are waiting for Him. Before they've got what they've
wanted is a blessing to wait. because the Lord has brought
that soul into that position. It's the same with the beatitudes,
the blessing on those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. They're blessed even while they're
hunger and thirst. The promise is that they'll be
filled, but they're blessed while they're hungering and thirsting.
And the same here, they're blessed while they are waiting, while
their eyes are upon the Lord. What they're seeking for is grace
because they're convinced that they're not deserving of anything
from the Lord. They're looking for mercy because
they know that they've done so much against the Lord. And on
the Lord's part, one of the reasons that we didn't mention that the
Lord is waiting is that He might, as in our text here, be gracious
unto his people that he might have mercy upon them. And so
that then goes hand in hand with why the people of God are waiting.
They're waiting for mercy. They're waiting for grace. They're
not dictating because they know they don't deserve anything of
the Lord's hand. And so they're waiting for the
Lord, waiting for the Lord's blessing for their souls. May I make this distinction?
They're not waiting to seek him. They're waiting for his blessing
on their souls. There's a big difference. Now
some might say they're waiting for the Lord, but they're not
seeking the Lord. If we're truly waiting, we'll
come to that in a moment, then there'll be this seeking. Maybe it is in providence. Providence
and grace go often hand in hand. All of us have lives to live
here below. And it's a great blessing when
a person begins to look to the Lord for providing and to going
before them So when we think of our homes, or a job, or a
wife, or a husband, a house, a home, we're waiting on the Lord to
appear in these providential things. We think of the case with Abraham,
barren, Sarah Barron, waiting for the Lord to fulfil his promise
and to open the womb. You know, it is something that
the Lord has been pleased to set before us, whether a promise
or an expectation, and waiting for the Lord to perform that
and to do that. And because we have no power
ourselves, then we wait on the Lord. May this be an encouragement
to some of you, to me, to wait on the Lord. Why are we waiting? What has the Lord done to make
us to wait? And be an encouragement with
the promises to those that are waiting for the Lord. Our eyes
are upon Thee as a maid to her mistress, waiting upon the Lord
for Him to appear and for the Lord to bless us. Well, how are
we to wait then? What is the right way of waiting? Well, one way is watching in
prayer. If we are waiting, we will be
a praying people, but not just a praying people, we'll be like
Elijah on the Mount Carmel. He is sending his servant to
look toward the sea, to see the beginning of the answer, to see
when the Lord is coming. We're all the time comparing
with what is happening in our lives, with what we're praying
for, what we're asking for. Some of us, We've had times where
the Lord has answered our prayer, but in such a way we didn't recognise
it as an answer to prayer. We went on asking and on waiting,
and the Lord was pleased to show us He had answered our prayer,
but we were offended in how He'd answered, and so we'd gone on
waiting. And it's a great mercy to be
shown that, but we are to be watching in prayer, also in his
word, reading his word. It is through the word of God
that the Lord often directs and appears to his people and especially
in spiritual blessing, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If you and I are seeking for
spiritual blessings, they'll come through the ministry of
the word where Christ is preached and lifted up For His sin-atoning
blood, as shed upon Calvary's tree, is set before us as that
which is so vital. Without shedding of blood there
is no remission, no help, and no deliverance. And we will then
be attending in our waiting upon the means of grace. Not just
a careless coming to and fro to God's house, There'll be actually
a name. Now when we were children at
school, especially if there was something, perhaps an outing
that some of the class was going on, then names would be called
out and we'd be waiting to hear our name being called out. Were
we one to go on this outing or were we one to stay at home? Many times that was the case.
The more you valued where you were going or what was going
to happen, you were hanging upon the Word. You were waiting to
hear your name called. And so it is that when we come
to the house of God, like even those servants of Ben-Hadad,
a wicked king, yet they came to Ahab and they were hanging
upon his every word. And when he said, my brother
Ben-Hadad, at it. They said, thy brother Ben-Hadad. And they managed to get mercy
for Ben-Hadad because of a relationship between him and Ahab, the king
of Israel. It was falsely got, but the attitude
when they came to Ahab was waiting and hanging upon His every word,
that if there was a word of encouragement, a word of help, that is what
they're looking for, and they grabbed it, they took hold of
it. It's not that we come into the house of God to just take
anything and to build our hopes for heaven upon it, but if we
are truly looking, waiting, and then that word is mentioned,
it is read, then we embrace that. Then we are ready, we're prepared
ground hearers. And that word just drops in right
where, where it is needed, where it was a prepared place. And
so may we be a people that are rightly waiting. Now, there are
a couple of things perhaps to mention Think of the Apostle
Paul waiting at Athens because Timothy and Silas hadn't come
to him. And he improved that time. That's
when he preached to them that worshipped an unknown God. He used that time. And we are
exhorted in this way, redeeming the time because the days are
evil. With the children of Israel,
when they're in Babylon, they had to accomplish 70 years in
Babylon. But they weren't to just sit
down and waste that time. They were told to build, to build
cities, to marry wives. And so if you and I are waiting,
whether for the Lord's blessing or appearance in providence,
don't waste that time. Occupy till the Lord comes. Use it. profitably, in a right
way. The Lord will come in his time
away, but let us not waste the time, but rather redeem him like
Paul did. The other thing is the mistakes
that people have made when they have not waited. We mentioned
Abraham. Well, Abraham was given the promise
that his seed and his seed should all the nations be blessed. He
was 75 years of age when he came out of Ur of the Chaldeans and
into Haran and was given that promise. But he waited and he
waited and he waited 11 years and there was no child. So then
he listened to Sarah, he took Hagar and he had Ishmael. Ishmael it was proved a trial
and a trouble even to this day to the children of Israel. But
he had to wait then another 14 years until he was 100 years
old, 25 years in all he waited until Isaac was born. Even Abraham, faithful Abraham,
you might say, failed the test in waiting. tried to further
it by his own efforts and by his own work. I think another solemn character
is the case of King Saul. It's one of the tests of whether
he would really obey the Lord. And he was told to wait for Samuel
when the Philistines were threatening to invade the land because of
what Saul had done to them. He tarried seven days. Samuel
had said seven days he would come. But because he didn't,
Saul forced himself and offered the sacrifice. As soon as he'd
offered it, Samuel came and he solemnly reproved him. It was
not for a king to offer the sacrifice. I forced myself and offered the
sacrifice. King Saul was rejected because
of that. Or think of that, you know, he
waited to the seventh day. The deliverance or Samuel's coming
was the last minute, the last hour. He still should have waited. May you be held to wait on the
Lord and to look for his appearing and for him to come to us. And therefore will the Lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you. expectation the Lord be
gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted it will result
in his exaltation and him being praised that he may have mercy
mercy upon you those of us that feel our sinnership and what
we deserve lord have mercy upon us for the lord is a god of judgment
Blessed are all they that wait for him, not just some, all of
them, may we be numbered amongst them. The Lord add his blessing.