Verses one and two, Isaiah receives
a word from God. This whole book, of course, is
Isaiah's prophecy that he received from the Lord. And this, of course,
is a chapter of that. And notice that he records faithfully
with witnesses present. There's a reason why he does
that. Let's read it. Moreover, the Lord said unto me, take thee
a great roll, a roll of parchment, and write in it with a man's
pen, concerning Mayor Shallal Hashbaz. Yes, I practiced that
a couple of times. You're all going, wait a minute,
did he say that right? You're not even going to know. And I took unto me faithful witnesses
to record. Uriah the priest and Zechariah,
the son of Jibrekiah. Now, this is important. Isaiah recorded what God said
faithfully, and there were witnesses there to make sure he recorded
exactly what was said, and that he wrote it when he wrote it,
why he wrote it, where he got it from, There's a reason for
that. God had spoken, and when things
come to pass the way God says they will, everybody's going
to look back and say, what God said came true. You
remember when the Apostle Peter, when the cock crowed the third
time, remember what it says? He remembered the word of the
Lord. How he had said that's what was going to happen. Can
you imagine that? If the Lord Personally face-to-face told
you this is what's gonna happen and then it happened like hours
later days later, baby That'd be impressive wouldn't it When
things come to pass as God has spoken People are gonna know
that God has spoken That's why he does that God had shown Israel
over and over and over again that his word is faithful and
true and to be heeded. He did it over and over again.
He did this a lot. He says he does in Isaiah 46,
eight. If you'd like to turn over there,
I'm not going to be long tonight. So let's look at these passages
together. Isaiah 46, eight. And this is important. I want you to see this because
when the gospel is preached, And those who know him, you can
look at your whole life and see this, because you've seen in
the word of God the way things are, and then you've experienced
them. You've experienced them. And what God said is true. How
many times? All right, Isaiah 46, eight.
Remember this. You see, that's the thrust of
this whole thing. You remember what I say. And
show yourselves men. Show yourself that you're not
an animal, that you're not just gonna forget what God said, that
you're gonna listen to God and remember what he says. Bring
it again to mind, oh you transgressors, you sinners, when you're wallowing
in your sin or when you're suffering because you sin, remember what
God said. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and
there's none else. I am God and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning. Told you from the
beginning how it was going in what was gonna happen. Why? And
for ancient times The things that are not yet done saying
this Do you see The message of this passage is so
powerful remember this I Don't forget, bring it to mind. You
sinners who are so prone, as James said, to look like a man
looking in the mirror and say, OK, that's what I look like.
You got to look again an hour from now because you already
forgot what you looked like. And that's you. You don't even know
who you are. And here's what he said when
he says, when he declares the end from the beginning, here's
what he's saying. My counsel shall stand. He's
saying two things when he does that. What happened here in Isaiah,
him saying what was going to happen before it happened, what
God is saying when he does that is what I say goes. And you're
going to see that because when I say it, it's going to go. And
then you're going to say what God says goes. And here's what
you're going to find out when I do this. I do what I please. If somebody says what's gonna
happen before it happens, and then it does, you don't have
to look at them and go, you know what? That's God. All right, he's God,
and there's none like him. You see, I've never seen that
passage like that before. Isn't that glorious? And we see
that in the gospel. We experience that what he says
stands, and that he does as he pleases. Because He says, this is my pleasure,
this is what's going to take place, and it does. According
to this, God declares what will happen before it happens so that
men will know those two things. What He says goes and nothing
can stop God from doing what He's declared that He will do. Because let's face it, he's not
just looking into the future to see what's going to happen,
he's the one that makes it happen. That's why he can say this is
what's going to happen, because it's what he's fixing to do. I'd say those two things are
undeniable if God can declare truly the end from the beginning.
You can't deny that his word is infallible. And that he does
as he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? Do you know how many prophecies from scripture have
come true exactly as God said they would? We see some of them
in the headlines. You can go back to the early,
you know, just decades and look at headlines and see what God
said. Coming to pass. God's Word is not, and here's
a lesson from this, God's Word is not some obscure, difficult
to understand, unclear, cryptic message from another world or
something that can be missed with any excuse, or ignorance
can easily be pled concerning. You just can't do it, can you?
It's open and clear, and God said, this is how it is, and
it's proven over and over again. It's plain, it's clear, it must
be obeyed. And it concerns his son, as we
see in this very chapter. And this prophecy begins with
the birth of Isaiah's second son, in verses three and four,
Meir Sheolal-Hashbas, which means hasten to the spoil, hasten to
the prey. That's what it means. And it
speaks of war, doesn't it? Hasten to the spoil, hasten to
the prey. It speaks of war and war was
coming. That's why they named him this
war was coming to God's people and it was coming quick Because
look what it says look at verse 3 And I went on to the prophetess
and by the way This is Isaiah going to his wife and she's called
a prophet It's not because she prophesied but because she was
his wife the prophets wife And she conceived and bear a son
and Then said the Lord to me call his name may or shall I'll
hash baths for before the child shall have knowledge to cry my
father and my mother The riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria before that
baby Is old enough to say mama or dada That's pretty early It's
coming. It's coming quick And the Lord
speaks and he warns his people to expect what's coming. It's
coming soon now. Look at the reason it will begin. The reason for it is given as
the Lord continues to speak here. Look at verse 5. The Lord spake
also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters
of Shiloh, that go softly. I sent you a gently flowing river. The river now is a symbol of
life, isn't it? Back then, especially, you didn't
live far from a river, from a source of water. And he said, I sent you a gently
flowing, softly flowing river, but you rejoiced in reason We're
the lives Now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up upon them
the waters of the river Strong this is the river Euphrates
they say a strong powerful river And that's symbolic of this even
the king of Assyria and all his glory And he shall come up over
all his channels and go over all his banks. I Like a river,
you know that does that that floods the land king of Syria
is gonna spread He's gonna spread him his influence his power his
Destruction and he shall pass through Judah. He shall overflow
and go over. He shall reach even to the net
And the stretching out of his wing shall fill the breadth of
our land Look at those next two were oh, Emmanuel Man oh, man
You read this chapter of Isaiah? You think well, that's hard to
understand and then you look at it again It's so simple so
simple and clear the message here Isaiah had a second son
and God said call his name this this name. It's so hard to say
And here's why? I'm gonna bring destruction. There's gonna be war. It's gonna
be trouble And it's coming soon But as he speaks He says these were all in that.
I think with me refusing the waters of Shiloh here. Refers
to despising the will and way of God. That's that's pretty
obvious because that's always the problem. Whenever whenever
God sent trouble, that was why because they rebelled against
him. How many times do we see that in the scripture? This was
expressed by their rejection of the godly rule of King David.
We read in chapter 7 about Ahaz and his evil and him saying,
oh, I'm not going to provoke the Lord when the reality was
he didn't give a hoot about the Lord or what he said. The Shiloh
is this gently flowing river that flowed near the temple in
Jerusalem. They knew what he was saying.
Because they lived there. And this shaloh flowed near the
temple in Jerusalem. It was symbolic of the worship
of God in Christ. It's symbolic of God supplying
the needs of his people through the worship of him, which is
in Christ. God shall supply all your need
according to his riches, where? In Christ Jesus. That's what
this river symbolizes. And the people weren't satisfied
just worshiping God in simplicity and enjoying his blessing as
they never were. And still today, we see this
in the hearts of sinners, don't we? Don't ever get me wrong when
I say this, because I thank God for the ones that come faithfully
and hear the gospel and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ and
the gospel preached. But let's face it, look at us.
Look at us. Nobody much cares, do they? In
our day. Nobody much cares. And even when
somebody will come and hear the gospel and join into the worship
for a while, it's rare for that to be enough, isn't it? They're
looking for something more. They're looking for something
more. It's not enough. Not satisfied worshiping God. These people
weren't. And people still aren't that don't know Him. The worship of God, honoring
Christ in the gospel, in the ministry of the word, in the
fellowship of his people. Is that enough for you? I've
told you this a hundred times probably, but I visited, I preached
to the church one time, a long time ago. It doesn't matter where
it was or who it was. A long, long time ago, decades
ago. And one of the men, was complaining
to me about their preacher, about their church. And he said, we
just don't do anything. We're not doing anything. We don't
do anything. I said, are you worshiping God? Are you hearing the gospel? Is
your pastor preaching the gospel? What do you think God wants us
to do? He said, go preach. And whoever's interested, they'll
come listen to you. This is what God desires, what
he delights in, the worship of his people. He wants to be exalted
through the preaching of the gospel, and he gets what he wants.
That's what his preachers are going to do. But that's just not enough for most
people. That's tragic. But his true elect, boy now,
that's all we want to do. We want to just gather and worship
him. We want to do what they did in the temple through different
means. We don't sacrifice animals and things like that. But what
they were doing was delighting, rejoicing in the fact that God
receives sinners by the blood of an innocent victim. God will
receive us and commune with us and accept us and bless us and
go with us and protect us and keep us. That's what we're doing here.
Worshiping the God that has us in his hand. Worshiping our father. And praying, Lord, don't leave
us alone. Go with us. But there are consequences when
God is despised. When he's rebelled against, there
always are. There are temporal consequences.
And of course, in the case of the reprobate, there are eternal
consequences. God said, you don't like the
gentle river Shiloh, so I'm going to send you a different kind
of river. It's going to overflow its banks. It's going to sweep
you away. And it did many that's in the form of the Assyrians
We're gonna sweep through the land and lay waste the land Of
God's people and then verse 8 and he shall pass through Judah.
He shall overflow and go over He shall reach even to the neck
and stretching out And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the
breadth of thy land. Oh Emmanuel Here's bad news and
good news in a single verse. I The king of Assyria is gonna
have his way for a time. The Lord's gonna unleash him
on you now. It's gonna be bad. It's gonna
be bad. But don't ever forget, this is
Emmanuel's land. Thy land, O Emmanuel. You remember
the promise in chapter seven? The same foreboding of trouble,
you know, given. But he said, a son's gonna be
born. This land is not going to be
taken over by the Assyrians because there's going to be a Jew born
in this land one of these days, way down the road. And his name would be called
Immanuel. Called Immanuel's land because
Immanuel must be born there many years hence. The land is going
to be war torn for a while. There will be sorrow. There's
going to be temporal consequences for sin. And it's going to cause
the rebels and reprobates to just rebel more. And hate God
even more, but it's going to cause his elect to mourn and
weep and cry for mercy. That's God's way. Many, no doubt,
will die in their sins in this war. You reckon? Some of these
rebels are going to die in this war, and they're going to die
in their sins. But one of these days, there's
still going to be a Jew born in this land. And Israelite,
and his name is God with us. You think about that when there's
war, when it looks so hopeless. We're getting our hats handed
to us now, but the name of this land is God with us. We can call this church that,
God with us. Wherever his people are, wherever
you gather together, he said, I'm with you. I'm there in your
midst. And so whatever's happening,
whatever we're suffering, whatever trouble we got, however bad it
looks, our very name is God with us. His name is the Lord, our
righteousness, and our name is the Lord, our righteousness.
His name is Emmanuel. That's my name too. Call me God
with me, because that's all that much matters about me. God never, this is another good,
beautiful thing here. God never destroys. He never
brings that, that temporal judgment or any kind of judgment without
clear warning. Warning after warning from God
is ignored. And then even when destruction
is imminent, He tells them it's coming. You know why He does
that? For His sheep's sake. He's told us in the last times
there's gonna be trouble. Get ready. Don't marvel when
men hate you. Don't be surprised by it. Don't
be shocked. Don't be caught off guard when
this world is so bad that you can't hardly stand to live in
it. Isn't that what he said? You're gonna have tribulation.
Oh, but be of good cheer, Emmanuel. Be of good cheer. Why? Because
God's with you. and he tells them it's coming.
He's always been faithful to do that. I think about it a lot,
even when he was giving those beautiful promises to the disciples
before he was about to bodily leave this earth, and he knew
the sorrow that was coming to their hearts when he did that.
Can you imagine that? They had indeed left everything,
and all their eggs were in one basket. And he's about to leave them. And he said, don't let your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's
house are many mansions. And then he said this, if it
wasn't so, if it was going to be bad and
not good, I'd tell you. I'd tell you right now. I would
have told you. Isn't that gracious of you? And though in this world there
shall be tribulation, God is always with his true Israel,
his spiritual Israel. Remember the beautiful promise
of God in this same context now in chapter seven. This is all,
this is prophecy from Isaiah from the Lord concerning these
things. And he said in verse 14 of chapter
seven, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. and shall call his name
Emmanuel. And even in the midst of this
dark prophecy, against the land of Israel, he says, this is still
Emmanuel's land. That's where you live. You live
in God with us. And don't forget it. Look at
verses eight through 10 now. When we saw verse eight, look
at nine. Associate yourselves, O ye people,
and you'll be broken in pieces. There were these unholy alliances
with the people of Israel. Remember, Israel and Judah were
divided. Israel was fighting against Judah with some of God's
enemies. They had become the very enemy. He said, you gather
yourselves together, you associate yourselves, and you're gonna
be broken in pieces. And give ear, all you far countries,
gird yourselves, and you'll be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves,
and you shall be broken, In pieces, he says it three times. I'm gonna
tear you up. Take counsel together and it
shall come to nothing. Go ahead and make your plans.
Go ahead and fight against my people. And it's gonna be ugly
for a while for them. But they in my hand, they living
in my land. And all of your... And why do people hate God's
people? Because they hate God. You could read Psalm chapter
2 with regard to verses 9 and 10 here, and you'd see what's
going on. They all confederate against
God and His Holy One and His people, His purposes, His will,
cast His cords from us. Yeah, you go ahead and do that,
and all of you rise up against Him. You're gonna fail. All your
counsel is going to come to nothing. Speak the word and it shall not
stand. You know why? Emmanuel. That's what we say. Have you seen that thing? You
know why you can't prevail against God's church? You know why the
gates of hell itself can't prevail against it? Because Emmanuel,
God is with us. And so who can be against us?
What encouragement we ought to draw from this. How this ought
to make us able to lay our heads down on our pillows at night
and sleep in peace, for thou, Lord, only makest us to dwell
in safety. No weapon formed against us shall
prosper, not a dog will wag its tongue against us. Why not? Emmanuel! God is with us. Oh, let's worship him. These people here, these Confederates,
these ones that are going to form, these are the villains
in this whole ordeal. The ones who despise God and
his king, as I said, refer to Psalm 2. The Syrians and Israel
had allied against Judah. And God promises them that their
unholy alliance will not prevail. I'm going to break you in pieces.
My people are going to be troubled for a while now by you, but I'm
going to break you. What they hope to accomplish
will never happen. And the Assyrians, of course,
are included in this also. There may be some short-term
victories for them. No doubt they'll triumph and
have big parties and all that. But ultimately, the enemies of
the people of God will not prevail. God's counsel shall stand, as
we saw in the first verses of this chapter and later in Isaiah,
where we read. But theirs will not, verse 10.
Their counsel shall not stand because God's will. You can't
be both ways. You can't be your way and God's
way. It's going to be God's way. And this is why. Because God
has a people and He's with them in every sense of the word. With
them, for them, in them. He's with us and God before us.
Who should be against us? You see the gospel in that? If
God justifies, who shall condemn us? We win. We win. We know how it comes out, and
we win. And we win because God is with us. And why is God with
us? Why is He with us? Why did Emmanuel
come? Mark 10, 45, even the Son of
Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give His life. A ransom for many. I'm going to be the victor. All
things are mine. And the victory is mine, and
this is why, because the Son of God came and gave himself
for my sins. It's that simple. Hebrews 9, 26, Now
once in the end of the world hath he, Christ, appeared. Why did he come? Why is God with
us? I shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. Why is God with us? To put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see why God calls us to the
table? That's the one thing he says you do that as often as
you do it. You come and you worship him
in the breaking of his holy body, in his incarnation. and in the
breaking of his body and in the shedding of his precious blood.
Honor Christ crucified. Preach Christ crucified. Trust
in Christ crucified. Worship Christ crucified. That's why God's with us. Because
he loved us. And herein is love. Not that
we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. And now the gospel in these last
verses, the message to sinners. These last verses, and I just
want to read them. But you see what, how this is set up and
what, and God's promise. This is, you're Emmanuel's, you're
my people now. This trouble's going to come,
but your enemies, my enemies, your enemies are not going to
prevail. And this is why, because I'm with you. And we see in all
of scripture why he's with us, because he loves us. He loved
us enough to give himself for us. And look at what he said,
verses 11 through 13. Don't you listen to me? And don't
you listen to me? And now this is this goes right
with our lesson this morning. It's going to be you or God.
It's going to be this world or God. It's going to be God or
man. And for the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, verse
11, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.
I shouldn't make alliances with this world. What we should have
done to begin with was just enjoy and appreciate and be satisfied
worshiping the Lord. In the things that he had given,
all the symbols and pictures of Christ that he had provided
and told us how to worship him. We should have been satisfied
just sitting by Shiloah, enjoying the worship of God. But we weren't.
And those that aren't, don't you join with them. Don't be
like them. Say ye not, verse 12, a confederacy. There is no confederacy. What
fellowship hath light with darkness? To all them to whom this people
shall say a confederacy. Don't you say a confederacy.
Not my people now. Don't you do it. Come ye out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord your God. Neither fear ye their
fear. Don't be ascared of what they're
scared of. He said, I'll forewarn you who you shall fear. Fear
him who, when he has killed you, have authority to put you in
hell. Don't kill them that can just kill. Don't fear them that
can kill the body and then can't do nothing else. And look, verse 13, sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear. You see
that? This is the gospel now. Bow to
him. Submit to Him. Don't fear this
world. Don't listen to this world. Don't confederate yourself with
this world. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. You know what
that word means there? The word sanctify means to set
apart and to acknowledge as holy. Do that in your heart. Put God
in your heart. Consider Him. Reverence Him as
the holy God that He is. and fear and reverence him and
not anybody else. Not anybody else. Let him be
your dread and he shall be, listen, is this the gospel? And he shall
be for a sanctuary. Even when this world is coming
down around your ears, you're gonna have a sanctuary if you
fear him, if you reverence him, if he in your heart is God alone. And you worship him and trust
him and submit to him you're gonna have a sanctuary There's
a hiding place But also for a stone of stumbling He's gonna be both
Which one is he to you? The title of this message tonight
is a sanctuary or a stumbling stone The lord jesus christ is
one of those to you And for a rock of offense to both the houses
of israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning. That's the beginning. When you
begin to fear God and reverence God and actually give a hoot
what God said, that's when it starts. That's the first thing
that he gives his people. Don't you fear God. That was
that thief. He was he was a goner wasn't
he? No, you talk about hopeless. What's the first thing that happened
to him? He looked at that other thief that was railing on the
Lord and he'd been doing it just a minute ago. He said don't you
fear God? What does that mean? All of a
sudden he did fear God. That's what it means. You see
that's the beginning. That's the beginning right there. We see him as he is who he is. And we begin to be in awe of
Him. But He's going to be a stumbling
stone to many, and many among them, verse 15, shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. Don't listen to men. The message
here is clear. It's the same message. Shut your
ears to the deceivers who are talking about you pleasing God
by your own works. God is with us because that can't
happen. If there had been a law that
could make you right with God, then salvation would be by the
law. But God had to come down here with us to do something
we couldn't do, to accomplish what we couldn't accomplish,
and to pay for what we did do. Don't listen to them. Listen
to God. Fear God. Because the wickedness of one
man, Ahaz, many people were led into destruction. There's another
important lesson now. None of us sins to himself. Our
sin affects many others. And here's the word of God to
you, sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Fear him, don't fear
the world, the way of the world, the word of the world. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And where you fear
God, when you fear God, where will that take you? That's the
beginning, what's the end? And he shall be for a sanctuary.
When you begin to fear God and you hear his word and you realize
I'm in trouble I need a place to hide Then you know what he
is for you then a place to hide a sanctuary A port in the storm
An anchor A hiding place I'm gonna put you in the cleft of
the rock God said And I'm gonna cover you there with my hand
That's sanctuary. A sanctuary for some. A stumbling stone and a rock of
offense. To many. And he, as he said, many, many
will stumble. Many are going to fall. Many
are going to be broken. What about us? Oh, Lord. Have mercy on us. Romans 930,
what shall we say then? that the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, Gentile dogs, without God, without hope
in this world, didn't even know God and didn't even have the
word of God to know God. They followed not after righteousness,
but they've attained righteousness. You know how? By faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, have not obtained Righteousness. Why not? Because they sought
it not by faith. They didn't seek it in Christ.
But they sought it by the works of the law. And you know why
they did it? For they stumbled at that stumbling
stop. What's he talking about in Isaiah
8 there? He's talking about the gospel. He's talking about works
and grace. That's what he's talking about.
That's the whole message of Isaiah chapter 8. Are you trusting yourself? Do you trust in this world and
the way of the world to try to please God by your own works,
by your own righteousness, or by faith? Have you come to the
sanctuary of God? The true sanctuary. This place
is not a sanctuary. This is just an auditorium. Christ is our sanctuary. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him, whosoever receives him as their righteousness, whosoever
receives him as their sin offering, whosoever fears and reverences
him and sanctifies him in their hearts will never be ashamed. Do you hear the message of this
gospel? Are you seeking righteousness by the deeds of the law or by
faith in Christ alone? Do you trust him as your righteousness?
Lord, I ask you in terms of our text in Isaiah, are you a confederate
with the world or with God? Same question. Are you seeking
God's way, the God-man's way or man's way? which is Christ,
or the God's way, which is Christ. Or are you going your own way?
Seeking to establish your own righteousness? The Lord Jesus
Christ said very simply, I am the way. The way where? Where was he going? He said,
I'm going to God. Going to my Father. Well, how Lord, we don't know
where you're going and we don't know the way. I told you I'm
going to my Father. We don't know the way, I am the
way. I am the truth. Isaiah chapter 8. Don't listen
to them. Listen to God. Don't fear this world. Don't
fear their fear. Fear God. And I'm the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. He that hath a son And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Is the Lord Jesus Christ to you
a sanctuary or a stumbling stone?