So chapter 26 verse 5, after the appeal in verse 4,
trust in the Lord. Trust ye in the Lord. Then we have a warning in verse
5. God will bring you down. God
will bring you down. To trust in the Lord is to come
down. Let's think about that for a minute that's what trusting
to trust in the Lord you got to come down. Our Lord came to
the place where Zacchaeus was up in that tree and he looked
up and saw him and said unto Zacchaeus make haste and come
down for I must abide at that house today. And that's a beautiful
picture of how if we're going to be with him we've got to come
down from our natural high place of idolatry, from
our natural haughtiness and pride, Job was brought down to the dust,
to the ash heap, and from there he was able to say what? I trust
him. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust him. So you see here, trust ye in
the Lord. But you're coming down. you're
coming down from the ash heap from down wherever
that is in your life whatever wherever that is in your heart
from there you'll be able to trust him by his grace all who
trust in the Lord must come down first down from our proud self-righteousness
down from our superior supposed free will decision-making I'm
the master of my own fate high horse Got to come down. Saul is a perfect example. He
said, I'm a pattern for all believers. And sure enough, he is, isn't
he? He thought he could fight against the Lord by persecuting
his people. He set himself up in opposition
to the Lord Jesus Christ and his sheep. He had to come down. But from down, from in the dust,
he could say, Lord, what would you have me do? So you see in effect what Isaiah
is saying in these two verses is come down. Come down or God
will bring you down. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Bow to him. Because you see to trust in the
Lord is a humiliating thing. It's a humiliating thing. There's
just no question about that. To trust in the Lord is to admit
that you can't save yourself. I've got to trust in Him because
I'm at a loss. I've spent everything I have
and I'm worse than I was before I started. I'm gonna have to trust Him.
I've got no choice. And the Lord brings you to that
place, shuts you up to Himself. But that is a humiliating place.
Saul had to be goaded like a wild animal to bring him down into
the dust. Job had to have everything he
had taken away. What will it take for God to
bring us down to the place of trust? To trust in the Lord is to confess
that you are a failure. Can you do that? Can you do that? Because all of us by nature,
we're trying to make up for our sin. People that say they don't
even believe that there's such a thing as sin are trying to
make up for their sin. They just are. That's what people
do. That's why they go to church
and read their Bible and give tithes Do what they call good
works because they're trying to make up for their sin But to trust in the Lord is to
confess I am a failure The more good I do the worse. I am because
what I call good is evil We're coming down now one way
or the other Simon Peter didn't say when he
sank into the waves, you know, he didn't say, Lord, give me
a minute. I'll be right there. You know, I've got to work this
out. No, he said, Lord, save me. Why? Because he was overwhelmed. He was literally in over his
head. And so are you, whether you know
it or not yet. That's what we're talking about. Trust in the Lord. Trust ye the
Lord that's what failures do that's what wretched vow failures
do they trust in the Lord but you got to come to that place
but you'll come down one way or the other you'll come down
to the place of trust or you'll come down in defeat and shame
as one of God's eternal enemies damned and And in perpetual punishment
forever. One way or the other. There are
two ways to come down. We see them in the scripture.
You can come down the way Satan came down. You remember? He sounded like a free will Baptist. He kept saying, I will, I will,
I will, I will. I will be like the most high.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. But God said
to him, thou shalt be brought down to hell. to the sides of
the pit. That's one way to come down. I like it a whole lot better
the way Thomas came down. Thomas came down from I will
not believe to my Lord and my God. Now that's coming down the
right way. That's when the Lord brings you
down in mercy. That's the way to come down now
and coming down from our pride and self-righteous unbelief.
It's not coming down to a low place. We're low in our own estimation. We're coming down into the dust
indeed. And this flesh must be crucified. It must be humiliated.
But. And we're low in the estimation
of the world, we're called the off scouring of the earth, his
preachers in particular. And all of God's people are just
despised and rejected like he was and is. But though we're low in the estimation
of this world, you see the word city in verse five, the lofty city has got to be
laid low. And yes, that happens, but we
have a strong city. We're not coming down to a bad
place, to a low place in every sense. We're coming down to a
wonderful place. We have a strong... It's fine
for my city to be torn down. Once I understand why. Because
there's a better city. There's a city whose builder
and maker is God. We have a strong city. The salvation
of God is the walls and bulwarks of our city now. So we come down,
but we come down to a wonderful place, just like our Lord came
down. He humbled himself, but now is
highly exalted. We also are, we dwell in the
dust now, but we shall be highly exalted. And already we anticipate
that already. We wouldn't trade places with
anybody. Those who suffer with him shall
also reign with him and be glorified in him and with him, Romans 8,
17. Even now, though, though we have
come down, as far as our flesh is concerned, we've come down,
but he's made us kings and priests unto our God. So don't look at
it as a negative thing. Down is a good place for the
people of God, for those who are brought down in mercy. Those
who are brought down in time now before it's too late all
the woes that were pronounced Upon all of the cities in the
previous chapters of Isaiah. You remember that woe unto thee
woe unto thee They show how the Lord will indeed
bring down the high and lofty The city that's strong in the
flesh the city that's proud and haughty and and lifted up against
the Lord God will bring them down example after example after
example in this very book of Isaiah and in every case we saw
why didn't we pride and idolatry in every case and that's why
individuals have to be brought down because of our pride and
idolatry look at verse 6 the foot shall tread it down even
the feet of the poor in the steps of the needy You see that? He's
talking about now the ones that are brought down in judgment.
And even the feet of the poor, the poor shall inherit this earth.
You wouldn't think so, would you? To look at it. Surely the
spoils are to the mighty. Well, not the mighty of this
earth. The spoils are to the poor in
God's kingdom, in God's way. The feet of the poor will tread
down the powerful and mighty and rich. This pictures his people,
the poor, the ones brought low, the good way, the needy. It pictures us as winning the
victory over our enemies and the enemies of God, even though
we know that the Lord is the one who accomplishes it. And
yet our feet shall tread them down, he said. That's a beautiful
thing. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 9. Deuteronomy chapter 9 this is
this is the way God does thing. This is the picture here in verse
6 of our text the feet of the poor Should tread upon the high
the mighty the lofty the ones that are going to be brought
down The feet of the weak needy and poor are going to tread them
down But we know who gets the glory look at Deuteronomy 9 1
here. Oh Israel thou art to pass over
Jordan this day and To go in to possess nations greater
and mightier than thyself. You see that? The high, the great,
the lofty, gonna be brought down. How? The poor. Cities great and fenced up to
heaven. Verse two, a people great and
tall, the children of the Anacoms, whom thou knowest and of whom
thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of
Anac? Understand therefore this day
that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a Consuming
fire he shall destroy them and he shall bring them down before
thy face so shalt thou you see that God as a consuming fire
is going to destroy your enemies right in front of your face,
and that's how you're going to beat him Isn't that beautiful
That's the way the Lord does things. We're going to win the
victory because God's going to give it to us. So shalt thou
drive them out and thou shalt destroy them quickly as the Lord
hath said unto thee. Isn't that, that's pretty clear,
isn't it? Pretty clear. And then verse seven, the way
of the just is uprightness. Thou most upright dost way the
path of the just. Who are the just? Well, we've
answered this question so many times from the word of God. This is not opinion. This is
just clear revelation. Who's the upright in this context? We've seen it in other contexts.
It's in the book of Proverbs. Often we see the just as contrasted
with the wicked, and we see who that is and why. The Lord gives
wisdom. The Lord is the one who justifies
sinners. And here, who are the just? Those
that trust in the Lord. Right there in the context. They
that trust in the Lord. There's enmity between the sinner
and God because of sin. But there is perfect peace between
God and those that trust in Him. That's what verse 4 says. Those
that trust in Him, perfect peace. The enmity is gone. Why? Because the sin is gone. Just
a fact. You see that? One of the things
we trust Him for is we trust Him as our righteousness and
as our propitiation, our sin offering. We trust Him to have
taken our sins away with His precious blood. We trust that we are justified
before God in Christ. We trust in the Lord. We trust
Him. That's what Paul was doing when
he said, who can charge me with anything wrong? Christ died for
me. That's called trusting in the
Lord. Trusting in His death, in Christ crucified, to justify
me from all sin, from every charge of evil. We trust that we are
justified before God in Christ and Him crucified. Abraham believed
God, he trusted the Lord, and God counted it to him for righteousness. You see that? Well, how upright
are the upright? Does that just mean, you know,
comparatively we're a little bit better than most folks, you
know, because we go to church and stuff? No, the most upright,
you see that in the text, the most upright, that's God. He
weighs the upright in his balances and says they're upright. Christ himself weighs us and
finds us. upright because he is our righteousness. Verse 8. Yea, in the way of thy
judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. The desire of our soul
is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. In the way of your judgments. Now, again, we think of judgments
as wrath. God's judgment is coming upon,
and then we think of wrath, but that's not always the case. It
includes his wrath. When he destroys a place or a
person, he's making a judgment, isn't he? But also, when he saves
somebody, he's making a judgment. The word means to decide a matter. And once again, religion has
it all backwards. In religion, we decide the matter.
In the gospel, God's the judge. He decides the matter. He decides
the case. We sing that song sometimes,
Lord, decide the doubtful case. Thou who art thy people's son,
shine upon thy work of grace, if it be indeed begun. He's going
to decide the case. The way of God's judgment, His
way of judging things, His way of reckoning, that's what it
means, God's way of reckoning. which includes wrath against
his enemies, no question about that, and that's in the text.
But it's not limited to that. But the point here is we're now
in that way, in the way of your judgments, Lord. We look to you. Thank God we are in the way of
his judgments. Hadn't always been that way.
I once was in the way of my judgments, which is foolishness and ignorance
and darkness. But I'm in the way of God's judgments. Now that's what Paul was saying
when he said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. You know why he reckoned that?
Because he's reckoning things God's way now. Not many people
reckon things that way. You know, we used to reckon just
the opposite. We used to reckon that the pleasures of this present
world and delight were preferable to any consequences that would
come in the world to come. People would talk to us about
there's going to be a day of reckoning. Ah, well, yeah, that's all fine
and well, but right now I'm going to live it up. No, it's just
exactly the opposite. Though now we suffer here, we
know that we shall be glorified with Christ. And it's not even
worth a comparison, is it? What is this life compared to
that? Would you pursue the pleasures
of this life at the expense of that? Of losing Him who is life
We reckon things God's way now, that's what I'm saying. We're
in the way of his judgments That's a beautiful play. That's a place
of his grace right there because it wasn't that way by nature
And we didn't just get in that way on our own. He put us there
When he put us in Christ Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 514 the
love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge and This
is the way we judge when we're in the way of his judgments.
We thus judge that if one died for all, it's because we were
dead. That's why he died, because we
were dead. And that he died for all that they which live. We
were dead and he died for us and now he lives and we live.
And we who live should not henceforth from now on, we're not going
to live for ourselves. We're going to live unto him
which died for us and rose again. That's the way we judge things.
That's God's judgments. That's grace. God brought us around to his
way of thinking. Isn't that good? That's beautiful. And because he has, Because he has brought us around
to his way of thinking, we have waited for him. We have counted his very sufferings to suffer with him preferable
than all the riches of Egypt. We've waited for him, the desire
of our soul now is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee.
It's a beautiful thing to be brought around to God's way. And then verses 9 and 10 together,
with my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit
within me 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,
yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will
he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Now, one thing in this passage,
there's a good example of how the world is spoken of in scripture.
You know, religion says, God so loved the world. Oh, that's
everybody. God loves everybody. Wait a minute. It says in verse
9 that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Kind of sounds like everybody, but look at verse 10. The wicked
are going to be shown it, and they're not going to learn it.
When they knew God, they glorified him not as God. You see that? The inhabitants of this world,
God so loved the world, that's his people. That's his people,
that's his garden, not weeds, not chaff, that's his wheat.
He loves his people, he loves his vineyard. He loves his sheep,
not the wolves, not the goats, sheep. And so the inhabitants
of this world to him are his people. The wicked, they're not
going to learn righteousness. So we see that again, and that's
just the way the scriptures are, and people just blind to
that, the wicked, that is those who are not trusting in the Lord,
those that are not justified in and by Christ, are never going
to learn righteousness. Though they be given every outward
advantage, and that's right there in the text, let favor be showed
to the wicked. What advantage then hath the
Jew? Much every way, unto them were committed the oracles of
God, and still 99.9% of them rejected God hated God and Fell in their unbelief Even when light is given to them
even when they favor is showed to them They will not learn because
all the outward advantages Are not enough you see we're dead.
There's gonna have to be a miracle Outward advantages There's got
to be more than that were to be thankful for the outward advance.
I'm thankful that I was brought up in the worship. When I was
very young, we didn't really have a good place to worship,
but even then, my dad taught me and would say, that preacher
said some things that weren't right, and here's what they are,
and here's why they're not right, and he would show me in the word
of God. And I'm thankful for that. That's a wonderful outward
advance, but that's not what saved me. That's just the means
that the Lord used to teach me his gospel. Then one day he saved
me. As Paul said of Timothy, from
a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation. And I'm thankful for the means,
but there must be an inward. There's outward advantages given
to the wicked, but they're never going to learn. There must be
an inward miracle of God's grace. Why do some never learn righteousness? That's what it says. They'll
never learn righteousness. But others do. When God comes
in judgment, it says. And remember, not just in wrath.
God decides the case in mercy and in wrath. And when he does,
why some and not others? Why do some learn and rejoice
in his righteousness? Others will never learn. Why?
He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And to them it
is not given. That's why you learned. That's
why you know. It was given to you to know. That's what we call
free grace right there. It is given unto us and we wait
for Him. Our soul longs for Him in the
night. Do you see that? In the night. You know, everything seems worse
at night, doesn't it? You lay there at night and during
the day maybe it's because we're distracted by other things, maybe
it's just because there's something about the brightness of days
and encouragement to the heart. But somehow at night sometimes
it just looks hopeless. All of your troubles creep in
on you and begin to worry you and you lay there restless and Sorrow may endure for the night,
but even in the night, Isaiah said, our soul longs for him. Isn't it true? Have you ever
laid there thinking, boy, it's just overwhelming? And look,
our afflictions are light. We know that, but we also know
these light afflictions can look real heavy at times, real heavy. And you just lay there broken
sometimes and overwhelmed and just feel like you're just drifting
and don't know up from down. Have you ever just laid there
and thought, Lord, come quickly. Lord, come one way or the other. Come just to comfort me or just
come and change me now. Let's just come now as you've
promised that you would. erase all of this and take us
home. But somehow, someway, come where
I am. That's what he's talking about.
I've desired you. My soul has longed for you in the night. Verse 11, Lord, when thy hand
is lifted up, they won't see, but they shall see. You see that? People talk about the scriptures
contradicting themselves. That makes sense to me, doesn't
it to you? They're not going to see but one of these days
they will. Does that make sense? That's just simple, isn't it?
Well, it says they won't see and they will see. Well, yeah,
that's pretty clear. To me, by God's grace, they're
not going to see in the day of mercy. They're
not going to see now. Those who don't trust in the
Lord, those who are yet in their sin, those whom God has left
in their sin, left in their natural unbelief and self-righteousness,
the high and strong and mighty, as described in verse 5, they're
not going to see, but then they will one of these days. But when
it's too late, they're going to bow. They won't bow, but they're
going to bow. Is that clear? And they're going
to be ashamed for their envy at the people. Yea, the fire
of thine enemies shall devour them. Their own fire is going
to burn them up. It's a terribly sad thing, isn't
it? Terribly sad. And we're witnesses to it. And
it breaks our hearts. We're watching them do it. We're
watching them burn themselves up with their own blasted fire. We pray. Notice that they will not. They
will not. That's not just saying they shall
not. That's not just saying they won't. They're not going to.
This is willing blindness. We will not have this man to
reign over us. We will not. That's where Thomas
was. I will not believe. You can just
quit talking to me about it. I'm not going to believe it.
You ever heard anybody? That was his very word. I will
not. Right from our tent. But then he did. When the Lord sent him power,
the one who said, let there be light and there was light said,
be not faithless, but believing. Now you believe in Thomas. So
what's the difference between Thomas and the reprobate then?
Because the reprobate says, I will not. That's in our text. And
Thomas said, I will not. So what's the difference? Free
grace, the mercy of God. It is given unto you, before
it's too late, to know, to see who I am, to trust ye in the
Lord. Verse 12, Lord, thou wilt ordain
peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Peace, why? Because it ain't
up to you. Aren't you glad it ain't up to
you? The watchword of all religion
is it's up to you. Everything hangs on that. It's
up to you. Everything's up to you. God's
done a lot of good stuff, but now it's up to you. Oh, but when
God turns the light on, there's nothing that gives more peace
to my heart than knowing that nothing is up to me. Nothing. I want to act right. I want to
be responsible. I want to serve the Lord with
fear, and I want to be zealous. That word we saw, zealous of
good will, I want to, but that ain't up to me. I'm sorry, it's
just not. I'm not even sorry about it.
It's just not. It's not up to me. And that's
why we're at peace. We've laid that burden down.
It ain't up to you. Thou also hast wrought all our
works in us. It's going to be well with us
because God's not going to let us go. What do you think it means
when the Lord said, you're in my hand and nobody can pluck
you out of my hand? And my Father is greater than
I, and you're in His hand, and no man shall pluck you out of
my Father's hand. What do you think that means? But what if
we fall away? What if we commit the unpardonable
sin? What if we leave God and His
gospel? If you're His, that's not going to happen. That's not
fixing to happen. God has, God is, and God shall
accomplish everything that pertains to your salvation. Including
everything you do your faith your repentance your service
your steadfastness It is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure Well, I don't believe that that
makes me a puppet. You better come down You're coming
down one way or the other Time to come down By God's grace, I believe that.
I know that's right. I know that's right. I'm God's
puppet. And that's a great peace. He's wrought all our works in
us now. He just has. The alternative to that is not
pretty. Verse 19, thy dead men shall
live. We got to skip down because we're
running out of time. Thy dead men shall live. I want
to close with this thought. 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. Together with my
dead body The dead are going to live and they're going to
awake and they're going to sing. We already know what they're
going to sing because it's in the very text, isn't it? We have
a strong city whose walls and bulwarks are the salvation of
our God. Trust in the Lord. Job said in Job 19.23, Oh, that
my words were now written. They are. Oh that they were printed
in a book. They are. That they were graven
with an iron pin and laid in the rock forever. That they're
preserved forever. They are. For I know that my
Redeemer liveth. Isn't that beautiful? Almost certainly the oldest book
in the Bible, Job, had very little light compared to what we have
now. that his light was from God, and his light shined upon
a Redeemer for sinners. Oh, I know my Redeemer lives,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. One
day he's coming. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh I'm going to see God. You see why he wanted this written
down? What else is there? In my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another. I've heard of him before. It's one thing to have somebody
tell you about him, and that's good. But I'm going to see him
for myself. Though my reigns be consumed
within me, Though I die like everybody else and fall into
this earth Together with my dead body His dead are gonna live
and they're gonna arise and they're gonna sing Isn't that beautiful
the song of the dead? What a beautiful song Verse 1
reveals that God's people have a song And we're gonna sing it
in the day It says in that day, what day? The day of His salvation. That's what we're singing about.
The salvation of God is our city, our walls, our buildings. And
we sing that in the day when He reveals His Son to us and
in us. We sing it every day because
He's saving us every day, isn't He? And we're going to sing it
when we're ultimately saved. When he comes back, when he comes
where we are, where he said, he promised, I'm going to come
again and receive you to myself. We have a song that we're going
to sing in the day of salvation, and it begins this way. We have
a strong city. We're sitting pretty. Mount Zion
is beautiful for situations. Our walls and bulwarks are the
very salvation of the God of heaven and earth the chorus of
this song is He will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed upon him because he trusts in him now you trust in the Lord And look how the song is the
last two verses of this chapter Look how the song is 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 overpassed. All this judgment that we see
in all these chapters of Isaiah, whoa, whoa, whoa, God is coming
and he's gonna lay you waste. He's gonna tear you down. But
here's what God says to his people, come, Come and hide for just a little
while. He hid Moses in the cleft of
the rock and covered him there with his hand. He said, come
into thy habitation. What's that? God is our habitation. That's what the scripture said.
Come into the rock and hide for a little while. I've got a little
business to take care of. The judgment and destruction
of this whole blasted world. That's his little business. He
said just for a little while He said it's not gonna take long.
I won't be long What a God we have Got a little business to take
care of and then when it's over there'll be no more danger no
more enemies no more fear no more tears No more death No more
worrying no more anything entering in that defile us God is going
to destroy this world with fire. He cometh out of his place, you
see, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. And he's going to hide us for
a while in the cleft of the rock, in himself, in our habitation,
in our home, which is Christ. He's going to destroy this world
with fire, but he's going to make us a brand new one. Isn't that beautiful? Before
he ever created Adam, he made a paradise for Adam to live in. Can you imagine what it will
be to live with Christ in his new earth? Pristine and glorious. Even this sin-wrecked earth is
beautiful, isn't it? Mickey and I are watching a a series, you know, of nature,
you know, in Africa. And it's just, it's just, I don't, the heavens and the firmament
declare the glory of God. The earth showeth his handiwork. But imagine the new earth where
there's no sin. Do you have any concept of what
paradise is? That thief on the cross next
to our Lord Jesus as he died for his people, that thief being
one of them, he said today you're going to be in paradise. Where's
that Lord? With me. With me. God's got a little business to
take care of first. He's going to hide us for a while,
until it's past. And then we're coming out. And we're going to be with Him
forever. After He destroys this one, He's going to make that
new one. Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
And He says, I'll be your God and you'll be my people, and
I will dwell with you there. That's heaven. Let's pray.