Isaiah chapter 27 will be our
text this evening. We'll just take a verse or two
at a time and go through this tonight. in that day the Lord with his
sore and great strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing
serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea you might remember these first
three words from chapter 26 we have these words again in that
day And as we saw before, it's difficult to pin these words
on one single day in time. We were told in chapter 26 that
in that day, the Lord's people will sing a song of salvation
and a song of trusting in the Lord. For the ancient Israelites, as
we saw, that day was the day following the Passover night. Perhaps it was the day that they
sat on the far banks of the Red Sea when they, we know, actually
sang a song of salvation. As Isaiah said, we will in that
day. They sang of the Lord's power
and His saving mercy, having just witnessed, having just been
told by God, just stand still. What a picture that is, just
stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. For the thief on the cross, it was his last day on this earth.
In that day. His last day was that day. It's the day in which the Lord
keeps the promise that he made in John 14. If I go to prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. that where I am there you may
be also. That's that day. Isaiah also speaks of this day
in chapter 2 verse 11. The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. In that day nobody
is getting any glory but Him. That's going to be a good day
isn't it? The most concise way to say it, perhaps, would be
just simply to say it is the day of salvation. Whatever that
is. It's not pinned to one specific
day. It's the day of God's grace.
It's the day, the time of love in Ezekiel. For the believer,
it's really every day since the Lord revealed Himself to us.
And it also is certain specific days. It's a day we look back
to with Thanksgiving. And it's a day that we look forward
to with longing. Paul spoke of this day when he
said in Acts 26.13, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light
from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about
me. But Paul also spoke of that day
when he said, The Lord himself shall descend with a shout. He'll descend from heaven with
a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump
of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever
be with the Lord. In that day we're going to be
singing It's called the Day of the Lord, 2 Peter 3.10. It's
called the Day of Salvation, Isaiah 49.8. It's called the
Day of God's Power when His people are willing, Psalm 110.3. But
it can also be called, and is called, the Day of God's Wrath. This can easily be seen to refer
to the future day in which it is said that the Lord alone shall
be exalted. That's the Day of Wrath, too.
Because we're told that in that day all of his enemies shall
be brought low, brought down, and that the Lord shall shake
terribly the earth in that day when he alone is exalted. So the day of salvation is also
a day of wrath. We said that the Jews sang of
God's salvation on the banks of the Red Sea, but that wasn't
a day of salvation for everybody. Not everybody was singing on
that day. The Egyptian army was washing
up upon those same banks after God destroyed them. And this
is what we see in our text tonight. Wrath, condemnation, damnation. We see in the beginning of Isaiah
26 and 27 that the Lord's people will sing on that day, but there
will also be wrath and terror on that day. So it's not only a day of salvation,
but a day of judgment. And I always want to remind you
that judgment is not only wrath. The word judgment in the scriptures
means a deciding of the matter and the consequences on both
sides of God's decision being handed down and executed. From his throne, our king decides
who lives and who dies. From his throne, the Lord pronounces
blessings and cursings. From his throne, the sovereign
of kings assigns both success and failure. On the day that
any sinner is saved, there is also a defeat. Our Lord Himself said that when
He does that, when He casts out devils, that's when He saves
us. He binds the strong man, that
is Satan, and takes his spoils. For there to be victory for the
saints, there must be defeat for Satan. And that's what our
text describes. And all of our enemies, which
are represented by Satan here, at Calvary, the heel of our Lord
Jesus Christ was bruised, but the serpent's head was crushed.
And that's the day of salvation, the day that our Lord, he said,
this is the hour. My hour has come. That's that
day. And thus was fulfilled the oldest
prophecy in scripture. The seed of woman. The serpent will bruise his heel,
but he shall crush the serpent's head. And Satan now, we need
to think about what's happened here. is going to destroy him,
is going to defeat him. Satan is a formidable enemy.
I know that religion speaks of sinners having a free will, but
the scriptures say that sinners are taken captive by Satan at
his will. That ain't freedom. You won't
be free indeed unless and until you are a bond slave of Jesus
Christ. Until then you are a witless
puppet of the devil. That's what the scripture teaches.
Religion talks glibly of rebuking the devil Michael the Archangel wouldn't
do that. He didn't dare do it. It says in the Word of God, but
he said the Lord rebuked him Satan is a subtle serpent and
he's a roaring and devouring lion He's the great dragon He's
described as a piercing dragon a piercing serpent or dragon
and In our text, he's the prince of the power of the air. He's
the highest dignitary of hell. The scripture calls him a dignitary.
The prince of the power of the air. You don't want anything
to do with him. And by the grace of our Lord,
because of our champion, the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't have
anything to do with him. That's why Michael was able to
say the Lord rebuked thee. I got nothing to do with you
to say to you. We rejoice in this verse. It sounds like a dark verse,
a terrible verse, and it is. But we rejoice to see our champion
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, deal with Satan on our behalf
as he must deal with all of our enemies lest we be defeated by
them. We are no match for them. We can't beat our weakest enemy.
That's why we're called sheep. Sheep are not fighters. We're
going to fight but he's going to have to win it for a sheep. The woman's seed shall he has
and he shall crush the serpent's head and everyone that's in league
with satan will fall with him and we're going to shout hallelujah
salvation and glory and honor and power unto our god for true
and righteous are his judgments. There's a lot of figurative language
in the scripture used describing this battle, this great victory
that our Lord wins over Satan. It's not a battle in the sense
that we think of, you know, who's going to win. We know who's going
to win. It's a victory from the start. It's a victory on the
part of our Savior. But a lot of figurative language
is used in the book of Revelation and in various places in the
scripture because these are spiritual things. These are high things.
These are things that we can scarcely understand even when
given figurative, simple pictures of it. Much less the reality
of the spiritual things that are going on while we sit here. But what is described here, though
the language can be figurative in the scripture, this is a real
enemy. A powerful enemy. He's so powerful that as our
Lord said to Simon Peter, he would sift us as wheat if not
for our Savior, if not for his intercession. It takes the very intercessory
power of our great high priest to prevent Satan from grinding
you to powder. But if the Lord is your champion,
if he has and does fight your battles for you, You're just
as safe as you can be. There's nothing to worry about.
Martin Luther wrote, The Prince of Darkness Grim. We tremble
not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo,
his doom is sure. One little word shall fail him.
We rejoice in our Savior. That's what we're to do when
we read this first verse of chapter 27. He will punish Leviathan. He will slay the dragon that
is in the sea. Not you. You can't even say a
word. He rejoices. Martin Luther, in
that song, he rejoices in the power of our Savior to just easily
defeat our enemy. But he also wrote in that song,
did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.
And that's true. We're not the right man, capital
M, man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Thus to ask
who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord, savvy off his
name from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. And he will. He will. When he
shall. Now look at verses two through
four together. In that day, sing ye unto her,
A vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. Fury is not in me. Who would
set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through
them. I would burn them together. These
are graphic images, beautiful picture here. We are the her. You see that? And this is the
first thing I want to talk about. In that day, sing unto her. It's
a day of battle. And the Lord is fighting the
battle, and his bride is being sung to. She's not fighting. She don't go into battle. And
you may call me old-fashioned, and I'll confess to it, but my
women don't go into battle. I fight for them. They're fighters. Don't get me
wrong about that. They're fighters. They're tough.
They're strong. But it's not so much a question
of ability. It's a question of honor. I don't
hold the door open for a lady because she can't open it herself.
It's a question of honor. And I don't fight her battles
because she's weak, but it is my honor to do so, and so it
is with the Lord. He's fighting, and we're sitting
there listening to singing. That's how that works. When God,
when Christ is your husband, He fights our battles for both
reasons. We are weak. And it is His honor
to fight. for his bride. We are defended, we are protected,
we are preserved, we are kept by the power of God unto ultimate
salvation and we are sung to. We are singing in that day, verse
1 of chapter 26, we're singing in that day but also we're being
sung to and we're being sung to by Him. That's revealed in
the scriptures. He sings to his bride. We are
comforted in the midst of destruction now. Look at it in the context
of verse one. We're being sung to comforted
in the midst of destruction. When the storm comes, thousands will be falling all
around us, but it won't come near us. We are his vineyard. We are enclosed
and fruitful and comforted. He said, I the Lord do keep it. We are watered every moment,
every moment. Did you see that? Every moment. Every moment, we may think sometimes
that the Lord is neglecting us. David said, Lord, how long have
you clean forgotten me? Job said, Lord, why have you
turned your face away from me? It may seem at times that the
Lord is not watering us, not taking care of us, not pampering
us, not nurturing us, not holding us in his hand, but it's not
so. He is. He is every moment. Isn't that
a beautiful phrase? Every moment. No one can hurt
us. He keeps us night and day. And
there's so many pictures of this in the scripture. He's the good
shepherd. that giveth his life for the sheep. There he is keeping
us, holding us, protecting us, watering us. He's the great high
priest who giveth himself an offering for the sins of his
people. He takes care of us. He provides for us, himself,
a lamb. And he is here the husbandman
who waters and keeps us every moment, night and day. Remember
the final verses of chapter 26 verses 20 through 21 20 and 21
We have this picture of the Lord telling us to come into our chambers
and hide for a little while While he deals with his enemies and
ours You remember that let's look at it again. Just real quick
Come my people enter thou into that chambers and shut thy doors
about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment Until
the indignation be overpowered. God is angry. God's going to
punish some people Satan represents all of them, but everybody that's
in league with him There's gonna be some Jews included in there
because our Lord said you're of your father the devil But until this I've got a little
business to take care of here come into your chambers and hide
for just a moment while I take care of this and then come out
and Everything will be fine. All your enemies will be gone.
I Isn't that a wonderful picture?
Nobody can hurt us. And we see here in our text in
chapter 27 what those chambers are. We're hiding in Him. We're
His garden. He walks through His garden and
waters us and prunes us and checks on us and delights in us, keeps
us. No harm. You see those? No hurt. In verse four, lest we be terrified
by the sight of his wrath upon the enemy, we read in the word
of God and we see that he's a God of wrath as well as a God of
mercy. He's a God of indignation. He's
a God of righteous judgment and justice. And lest we be terrified
by that, we're reassured in verse four, fury's not in me with regard
to you. We're talking about the vineyard
now, the vine, his secret garden, his precious garden. that he
protects and keeps. There's no fury in me. Don't
worry about that. When it comes to you, there's
no fury. Oh, that's so sweet. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Don't worry. He's a terrible
God. Awesome. Terrible in his wrath.
that you have nothing to fear. How many times in the word of
God does he say to his people, fear not. Don't let your heart
be troubled. There's no fury. No condemnation, no fury in him
toward us because no iniquity. Numbers 23, 21, he hath not beheld
iniquity in us. And that's why there's no fury.
God's punishment, as the word punish is in verse one, his fury,
his indignation and wrath because of sin. And we don't have any
because of his precious blood. He doesn't behold any iniquity
in us because there is no iniquity in us. And there is no iniquity
in us because the precious blood of God's lamb has washed it all
away. That's why we come to the table
and remember, are you washed in the blood? Let's remember
and worship. God, who is indeed terrible in
his wrath, not only will not hurt us, but he won't let anybody
else do it either. The rest of verse 4 is describing
how he shall overcome every obstacle, every difficulty in saving us. You set thorns and brine, he
said, I'll go through them. He set his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem. He said, I'm going. The cup that
my heavenly father has given me, shall I not drink it? I want you to notice something
very precious here. We are comforted because we're
sung to and kept in no fury. Comforted. Why? Because he goes
through the thorns and the briars for us. And I want you to notice something
very precious here. He doesn't go around them. He goes through them. What happens if you go through
thorns and briars? You get bloody, bloody shit. And our Savior gave every drop
of his precious blood for my sins. That I might be comforted, that
I might be able to come into his chambers and hide while he
deals with every enemy I have. He gave every drop of his precious
blood. They buffeted his face with their
fists, and he bled. They pressed a crown of thorns
upon his sinless brow, and he bled. They whipped his back as
he gave his back to the smiters, and he bled. They drove nails
into his hands and feet, and he bled. They dropped his cross
into the ground, and he bled. And they thrust a spear into
his side and all the rest of his precious blood poured out
for the sins of his elect. What a wonderful moment when
the Lord says to us as he did to Thomas, behold my hands and
my side. And be not faithless, but believing.
That's what we do when we come to the table. We behold his hands
and his side. We see his precious blood shed
for our sins. And that's what it looked like
when my champion, my king, my lord, and my god saved me from
all of my enemies, including my own wretched, self-destructive
self. He saved me. He did it with His
blood. There's no fury in God for me
because He poured out all of His fury against me upon His
Son. He poured it all out upon my
Redeemer. All of the wrath of God was poured
out upon Him. He was crushed by God under the
burden of my sin. The guilt and penalty of all
of my sins. Do you see why the Lord ordained
this table? This do in remembrance of me
because how easy it is to forget. And even when we're remembering,
we're forgetting. One of these days, one of these
days, we're not going to be thinking about dinner when God shows this
to us. One of these days, we're not
going to be so tired in this weak flesh that we can hardly
keep our head up when our Lord speaks this to
our hearts. One of these days, perhaps, we'll
be able to watch with Him just for one moment, just for a moment,
and we'll remember. And we'll see by His grace who
He is and what He did and who He did it for. And we'll never
be the same again. Now, think about verse 5 in conjunction
with verse 4 at the end of verse 4. This is beautiful now. This is the gospel. Verse 4 ends
on a note of wrath, a note of destruction, a note of burning.
The Lord will tear through you and utterly consume you. You
see that? Or. There's the gospel right there.
You know what the definition of the gospel is? Or. What a beautiful word. Right now we see God's people
called into the chambers, kept, watered, watched every moment,
protected. We see his enemies punished,
destroyed, slain, burnt, But even as we see him speak of his
wrath upon his enemies and his protection and defense of his
people, there's a word of hope to those who are right now in
the camp of the enemy. God says, I will destroy you. You are a threat to my people. You're harmful. And in opposition against my
people, it'd be better if a millstone were tied around your neck and
you'd be cast into the sea. Because I'll destroy you for
them. I'll give people for thee, he
said, and men for thy lot. And he does. And I will absolutely
annihilate, I'll burn you up. As sure as look at you, or Or this might happen. You might
just lay hold of my strength. Lay hold of his strength that
he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me. If you are here tonight, or if
you ever hear this, and you are a sinful, wretched enemy of God, find hope, wonderful, beautiful
hope in this word only. My God turns enemies into friends. If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, Much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. We all were enemies
at one time. Ephesians 2.14 For he is our
peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity, thereby he shall have peace." By that
precious blood. And it involves him laying hold.
Let him lay hold of my strength. You know what the Lord's strength
is? It's Christ. You know why it talks about him
all the time being on the right hand of God? That's the symbol
of power, the right hand, power. He's called the rod of God, that's
power, strength. Christ, the power of God, unto
them which are called in the wisdom of God. Lay hold of Christ
and make peace. That's that's the call of our
Savior. How can we make peace? Because he has made peace listen
to that. I want you to turn over here
with me 2nd Corinthians 5 And we'll be we'll be just another
moment the 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 We are to make peace with God
and we're able to do that because he has made peace and with his precious blood. 2 Corinthians
5.19 To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. That's what peace is. It's reconciliation. We are reconciled to our enemy
and so there's no enmity anymore between us. And here's how he
does it. He doesn't impute their trespasses
unto them. There's enmity because there's
sin. And so where sin is not imputed There is no enmity and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's why
I said this is our gospel. This is our good news to you.
There is an oar. There is peace with God. Are
you his enemy? Be honest with yourself. There's an oar. And we have this word of reconciliation
and so then We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
as his representatives, as his spokesmen, as his ambassadors,
ambassadors of the King. We pray ye, be ye reconciled
to God. Make peace with God. Lay hold
of his strength. Lay hold of Christ and make peace.
And God said, you shall have it. You shall have peace. How can we do that? How can we
by some act of ours, by us laying hold? Even God giving faith. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. Who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He made peace by
His cross. Now you make peace. Lay hold
of Him crucified. and make peace with God. It's because of what he did now,
but now you do something. Not to add to what he did, but
in response. Because. We love because he loved. We believe because he died. We make peace with God because
He has reconciled himself unto us by the death of his son. There's the gospel now. Or, or. And then verse six. He shall
cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom
and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. There's a whole lot in that verse,
but just think about two things here for now and we'll be through.
Our fruitfulness, first of all. We're going to fill the whole
world with fruit. Well, we ought to, Chris, but
I don't know if we're going to. I know if we're going to. We're going
to. He said it. He's ordained it.
Has he not? We are his vineyard and God's
going to get yield. He will enjoy fruit from his
vineyard. It's not in doubt. He will be glorified in the saving
of his sheep. He planted a garden for a reason.
And it will be successful. He shall have fruit. We're going
to bear fruit to his glory. Herein is my Father glorified.
That you bear much fruit. You're going to fill the world
with it. And you know what the second thing in this verse is?
He causes it. The glory is always God. He shall
cause them that come of Jacob to take root. And you got to
take root if there's going to be any fruit. You got to abide
in the vine. Whosoever abideth in me beareth
much fruit. So those two things. We're going
to be fruitful. I delight to see it. I'm glad
I'm in on it, aren't you? I see your fruitfulness under
the Lord. I see how you glorify Him in
your lives, in your commitment to His worship, to His work. And I rejoice in that. And you
know what else I do? I pray I give him every last
ounce of the glory because he caused it. He caused it. That's the fruit of the Spirit. This is the fruit that God enjoys
and delights in. He's the vine and we're the branches. So let's remember him tonight.
I pray he'd give us grace to remember him.