Isaiah chapter 33. In these first two verses, two
kinds of people are described. A people who rob and deal treacherously,
and a people who trust the Lord to save them. Let's read it together. Woe to thee that spoilest, and
thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt
not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil,
thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou shalt make an end to deal
treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. That's
the people who rob and deal treacherously. Not that they'll stop on their
own, but the Lord will stop it. The Lord will bring an end to
it. Here's the second people described here. O Lord, be gracious
unto us. We have waited for Thee. Be Thou
their arm every morning and our salvation also in the time of
trouble. Turn with me. Hold your place
here. Turn with me to Habakkuk chapter 2. There's a marginal
reference in my Bible to Habakkuk. And I turned over there and I
began reading. And I discovered that the words
here in Isaiah are very much the same as the words that our
Lord spoke to Habakkuk. They were dealing with different
kings, different enemies. Isaiah is dealing with the king
of Assyria years before. Habakkuk is dealing with the
king of Babylon years after. But spiritually, it's the same
enemy. And the Word of the Lord is the same. Because He doesn't
change. His Word doesn't change. The
way He saves then is how He saves now. But look with me here. This is how all men live. in
one of these two ways. Verse 4, Habakkuk 2, verse 4. Behold, his soul, which is lifted
up, is not upright in him. That was the first kind of the
spoiler, the one who spoils and deals treacherously, though he
wasn't dealt with that way. That's how he deals. His soul
is lifted up. It's not upright in him. But
the second kind of person we saw, that the just shall live
by his faith. Now, hold your place there in
Habakkuk just a moment. Why did the king of Assyria,
that's who we're dealing with here, who spoiled and he wasn't
spoiled and dealt treacherously, why did the king of Assyria deal
with nations and then deal towards Judah, why did he deal with them
that way? What made him do that? Why did he say one thing and
do another thing? Why did he demand a tribute from
them and then they gave the tribute from him and he wasn't satisfied
and he came and said, now turn the whole kingdom over to me.
He had conquered all these other nations. He had done all that
conquering. And then he turned and he wasn't
satisfied with all that. He came in and he said, now I'm
going to take Judah. Take them too. Now we know from Isaiah 10 that
he was a rod in the Lord's hand. The Lord had raised him up and
unrestrained him and allowed him to do what was in his heart.
But what personally, what made him in his own heart think to
do and act the way he did? Look at verse 6 at the last of
that verse. It says, a woe to him that ladeth
himself with thick clay. I read that, I thought for a
minute. First thing that crossed my mind, you ladies make that,
first thing that crossed my mind was ladies getting these masks
of clay, of dirt, of dust, you know, to preserve their beauty. That's putting dust on dust. Clay on flesh is dust on dust. That's what it is. Why does he
laden himself with thick clay? Look down at verse 9. He coveteth
an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high,
that he may be delivered from the power of evil. Now let me
just talk to you just a minute. When a man has got everybody
in this earth, Believer and unbeliever has a fear of evil. But with a man who hasn't been
born of the Spirit of God, his only motivation is the fear of
evil. It's called the fear of bondage. It's bondage, that's what it
is. And his thought is that by gathering, laden himself, covering
himself, surrounding himself with things of clay, things he
can touch, things he can see, this is going to save him from
the power of evil. And so he goes about trying to
get all of these things. The more of this covering he
can get, the more it soothes the conscience into thinking,
I'm secure, I'm safe from the evil. You think about nations, forming
alliances with nations. And once when we naturally think
the more alliances we have with other nations, the safer we are
as a nation. And that wasn't the case with
those nations that made a confederacy to come against the Lord's people.
That wasn't a case with when natural Judah tried to make a
confederacy with other nations to save themselves. That wasn't
the case. Men by nature will try to cover themselves and make
alliances with other men to save themselves from other men. And
the same goes for estates, and houses, and monies, and religious
devotions, and all of these things. Lading ourselves with things
we can see and touch, and thinking by lading ourselves with thick
clay, we have saved ourselves from the evil. And brethren,
the sinful heart is so deceptive and desperately wicked if this
covering begins to be jeopardized just a little bit. The man whose
treasure, whose evil covetousness, whose is his own wisdom, his
own strength, it's in this covering of thick clay. When that covering
begins to diminish just a little, oh man, it's just a panic. It's
just, it can't happen. This is my salvation. And so
a man will rob, he'll deal treacherously, he'll spoil, do whatever he can
to get that covering. Ain't that right? We saw that
when this nation, when things happened with the economy in
this nation, and everybody went into a panic, a panic. That covering won't save us.
That covering's not our salvation. It's not at all. That's a desperately
wicked covering. It's a covering of deceitfulness. And that deceitfulness of the
heart is so wicked is when we think we've covered ourselves
with something that is salvation, whether it be spiritual or temporal,
and begin to trust in those things, brethren. The evil covetousness,
the evil desire, the evil of our depraved, sinful, deceitful
heart is all we've really done is covered ourselves with more
evil. That's it. We haven't done anything
to save ourselves. And so we see it in the king
of Assyria. He couldn't be satisfied. He
was thinking, the more kingdoms I conquer, the more nations I
conquer, the more people I conquer, the greater my kingdom, the greater
I am, the more safe and secure I am. Well, there's a different
kind of people. That man who lives that way,
his soul is lifted up in him. His soul is not upright in him.
We're talking about a heart matter here. But the just shall live
by his faith. Now look at this second verse,
back in Isaiah 33, 2. And my subject this morning is
the treasure of the believer. What we just talked about, that's
the treasure, the very covetousness of a of a natural heart. Now look, this is the treasure
of the man who's been given faith. It describes what it is to live
by faith. Oh Lord, be gracious unto us. We've waited for Thee. Be Thou
their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of
trouble. What we see here is in the midst
of the king of Assyria, he's come up and he's sent his ambassadors
up to the wall of the city and they begin to cry from without. They begin to boast about what
all they've done and who all they've conquered. And they begin
to tell those on the wall, the ambassadors of Hezekiah, they
begin to tell him, don't you trust in God. Don't trust Him. Don't trust it. They said, is
this not the one that Hezekiah went and broke the gold off of
the temple and took the treasures out of the temple and gave to
our king? But look what they do in the
midst of this to save us. This is what faith is. Living
by faith. Casting all into the arms of
the Lord. You think of how panic stricken,
what reason to fear there was. when this army, this great army
who had just conquered all these nations, are standing outside
the walls ready to come in. But they said, O Lord, be gracious
unto us. Grace. Just asking for grace. Not merit, not anything about
just, Lord, save us by grace. By Your grace. You know what
that means? It means, Lord, we don't have
anything. We don't have anything to offer
You. We don't have any way of conquering our enemies. We have
nothing. We're asking You, Lord, to save us by Your grace. That's
casting Your care on Him. And look, we've waited for Thee. Remember back a few chapters
back where He said their quietness, their assurance is to wait on
Me. Everybody else in Judah, many in Judah were running about
and they were saying, oh, let's make a confederacy with this
nation and that nation and let's go down to Egypt and let's do
this. And Isaiah is speaking for the elect remnant in Judah
who had sat there and waited on the Lord. And he said, Lord,
we've waited on You. Not running around, panic stricken,
just waiting on You, on Your salvation. He said, our prayer
is for one another. This is a good prayer for one
another. Be thou their arm every morning.
Isaiah is speaking of Hezekiah and his ambassadors and those
rulers. Lord, be thou their arm. And
he says, in our salvation in the time of trouble. Be our arm. Be our salvation, Lord. We're
not trusting in our arm. We're not trusting in salvation
of our hands. Lord, You be our arm. Living
by faith is meditating on what God's already done in conquering
our enemies. Look at verse 3. At the noise
of the tumult, the people fled. At the lifting up of thyself,
the nations were scattered. This is definitely a prophecy
about what the Lord would do, what He was going to do. He sent
His angel into the camp of the Sarians while they were camped
out and He slew 145,000 people. Think of the noise. Think of
how frantic they were. That was one of their coverings.
Their great army. Safety in numbers. Think of that
great tumult when all of a sudden that covering is diminished. And they fled. They fled all
those nations that were made up. Every time the king of Assyria
would conquer a nation, he would absorb them into his army. And
so his army was made up of all the nations he had conquered.
And when this began to happen, the Lord did this. And when it
did, they fled. They took off. And that would happen. This is
a prophecy of that. But Isaiah, he's sitting here
saying, Lord, at this time, right now when he's praying, he's talking
about what God had done in the past for his people. Before that
ever came about. The Lord always, He teaches us
in the heart what He's already done. Look over at verse 18. Verse 18. Thine heart shall meditate
terror. Not terror of God toward us,
terror of our God toward our enemies. Think on that. Where's
the scribe? Where's the receiver? Where's
he that counted the towers? Where's he that trusted in those
things of clay? Where is he? Faith concludes
with the Apostle Paul, hath not God made foolish the things of
this world? Think about those things. Living
by faith is meditating on how richly God has provided for us. Completely and totally provided
for us. Look at verse 4. He said, Your
spoils should be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar,
as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
I want you to look with me at Psalm 69. A couple of passages
I want you to turn to. Psalm 69. They had come in and
they had taken spoils and taken spoils of the Lord's people,
His elect remnants scattered throughout. But the Lord said, Isaiah says
here praying, He says, Lord, You're going to return the spoils.
You're going to return that which was taken away. Psalm 69 verse
4. This is a psalm of our Lord.
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. They that hate
me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. What did
the first verse say? Why do you spoil them that didn't
spoil you? Why do you deal treacherously
with them that didn't deal treacherously with you? And the Lord says here,
they that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my
head. They that would destroy me being my enemies wrongfully
He did no evil. There was no sin in Him. He did
nothing wrong. They being my enemies wrongfully
are mighty. And He said, then I restored
that which I took not away. You see, our own sin, our own
rebellion against God, robbed God of His glory and it robbed
every one of His chosen children of His glory. Being able to behold
His glory, being able to rejoice in His glory, being able to do
anything but to set our minds on that evil treasure, that evil
covetousness to try to gain and cover ourselves with a thick
covering and protect ourselves. But the Lord came and He He is
the very glory of the triune God in a body. He came forth
and He satisfied, obeyed and satisfied a law He didn't break.
He came in and brought in an everlasting righteousness He
took not away. He came in and He perfected a
people that He did nothing to cause to be an unrighteous people. And in all of it, our God in
Christ restored that which He didn't take away. That's grace. That's mercy. That's salvation. He restored. He caused us to
behold the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. He caused
us to behold Christ our righteousness. He caused us to behold He is
the Restorer. He took the spoils out of the
hand of Satan. Those captives that were lawfully
His captives because we sinned. We did the sinning. In Adam and
in ourselves. But He came and He lawfully,
justly took those spoils back out of His hand and returned
unto His people that which He restored to His people better
than what we had from the beginning. Eternal, everlasting, unchanging,
life. It can't be diminished. It can't
be taken away. No man can diminish. Look at Isaiah 53, verse 11.
We're talking about how He returns that which we were spoiled of.
Look at Isaiah 53, verse 11. This is why the Lord bruised
His Son. This is why the Lord made his
son an offering. Look, he shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. For by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bare the sin of meeting, and he made intercession for the
transgressors." The spoil is his, and it's his to divide it
with whomsoever he will. And he will restore it to everyone
for whom he purchased it. He bought it. He conquered the
enemy. Now, look over with me at Romans
chapter 8. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Look at Joel chapter 2. Our Lord
has promised us, He's promised that that He didn't spare His
own Son. And with Him, He'll give us all
things. That's what He's promised every
child He's called by His grace, brethren. Every child. Now, you
meditate on the past. You think about the past every
time that you have ever had anything taken out of your hand by the
spoiler. It's been because God the Father,
as a loving Father, correcting His child, took it from you because
it was separating you from Him. And He took it from you to turn
you to Him. But every time, whether it's
been Any of that covering that we
get, we start looking at it and thinking that covering of clay
is our salvation. But every time He's ever taken
away, He's done it for our good, for the good of His children
and to bring us to behold His glory. But every time He's ever
done that, He's turned around and taken the spoil right back
out of the hand of the enemy and provided us with everything
we needed so that we didn't lack anything. You know why He's able
to do that? That army that He uses to take
from His children or correct His children, just as that king
of Assyria was, that whole army, He's the Lord of hosts. And everything
in this army belongs to Him. It's His army to use it as He
will to bring glory to His name and to save His children. Now look here in Joel. Chapter
2, and this is what it'll be in the very end, brethren. Joel
2.25, he says, I will restore to you the years that the locusts
had eaten, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer
worm, my great army which I sent among you. There his army, he
sent them. And he said, I'm able to put
them down just like I raised them up. That's Him. That's our
Lord. That's who He is. And by that
man who doesn't have this spirit to live in just this rest, settled,
assured place. He's moved by every little wind. He's moved by that covering being
removed. But this believer, He has a whole
other treasure. It's not that evil covetousness
of the heart. It's a different treasure altogether.
Look down at the end of verse 6. The fear of the Lord is His
treasure. The fear of the Lord is His treasure.
God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. Look over at Romans 8. Romans
chapter 8. Verse 14, For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. What a thought! As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, that you receive
the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children
of God. And if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified together. And here's where we rest back
there in our text in verse 3. Our treasure, the treasure that
now governs where that evil covetousness governed, where we thought we
had to save ourselves, now the treasure, now the rule, the fear
of the Lord is knowing that thy God reigneth. Look at verse 5. The Lord is exalted. He's exalted. Oh, we live in a world though,
don't we? We live in a world where everything is just not
this simple. Our minds are sometimes cloudy,
aren't they? Look here, their minds see it.
Look at what the Lord did, verse 7. Behold, their valiant ones
shall cry without. They came to the edge of that
city and they cried, we're going to see this as we go later on.
But the ambassadors of peace wept bitterly. Hezekiah's ambassadors,
they wept over what king of Assyria's ambassadors cried. They were
trying to put doubt into the minds of God's people so that
they wouldn't trust God. Wouldn't trust the word of his
prophet. They said, and this was their
mourning, they said the highways lie waste. They destroyed the
highways. Remember what the Lord said to
the Pharisees? They won't enter in and they prohibit those who
are trying to enter. That's what the king of Assyria
did. Cut off the highway. The wayfaring man seeth. There's
no traffic on the roads coming in. He's broken the covenant. He's despised the cities. He's
regardeth no man. He had taken a tribute from them,
made a covenant to protect them, but He broke it, the king of
Assyria did, and they're weeping and they're mourning. You're
not going to find any promise in this world, in this life,
that's going to be a lasting promise if God hadn't made that
promise. That's true. That's true between
a husband and a wife. If God's not in it, it's not
going to... It's not going to be a lasting
promise. I mean a faithful promise, a
true promise. You're going to have to take
him in there, Melinda. I can't. That's getting old. I can't. The earth mourneth and languisheth.
Lebanon's ashamed, hewn down. Sharon's like a wilderness, bastion
and caramel. All these places have been conquered.
They've all been captured. But here's what the Lord said.
Now will I rise, saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. When we're brought to the end,
when we're brought to where, oh Lord, restore unto me. Restore
unto me Thy Spirit. Restore unto me a clean heart.
Lord, restore unto me the strength of Thy salvation. We're weeping
bitterly! The Lord says, now I'll arise
and I'll be exalted. I love how He said it in Psalm
12. He said, and I'll set him in safety from him that puffeth
at him. Puffeth at him. And that's what
He says here. He says, everything you've done that you've conceived
is chaff, it's stubble, it's your breath as fire shall devour
you and the people that shall be as the burnings of lime and
as the thorns cut up and burn in the fire. He said, I'm going
to save my people. I'm going to save them from them
that puff at them. That's where we rest. Verse 5,
here's our treasure. Sure dwelling places. He says,
He dwelleth on high. He's filled Zion with judgment
and with righteousness and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability
of thy times and strength of thy salvation. When He's filled,
with judgment and knowledge. Yes, He has. Judgment and righteousness. Brethren, He makes us to behold
that we're not going to be saved by our wisdom, but we behold
His wisdom. We're not going to be saved by
our strength, but He's our strength. He's our arm. And He reveals
this where? He reveals this in Christ Jesus. Those who are called, Christ
is made unto us the power and wisdom of God. And that's where
we behold this. Ah, here's what he says. He calls
on everybody to look to his land, to look to his Zion, to look
to his church, to look to his kingdom, to look to what he's
done. You believe everybody here right now who trusts the Lord.
You look, you look, you survey. Who makes you to differ? You survey this now. You look
to those spirits of just men made perfect. All the prophets
of old and all the men of old that He started with just a little
bitty mustard seed and He's just kept it and added to it and kept
His church and His kingdom all through the ages. You look now.
Who did that? Who did that? And when you behold
it all, and you behold these nations lifted up against nations,
and you behold right now all the chaos in our nation, what
do you behold? Let's see. Verse 13. He says, Hear ye that are far
off what I have done, and ye that are near, acknowledge My
might. The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. There was lots of
folks in Judah who was proven that they weren't approved. He said, Who among us shall dwell
with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? Here's who. Now this is the treasure
of the believer. This is the opposite of that
running to and fro and trying to save ourselves. He that walketh
righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of
oppressions, He doesn't spoil, he doesn't take bribes, he's
not trying to save himself, he's not running around trying to
establish his house and he set his nest on how to save himself
from the evil. He's trusting the righteousness
of his God because he set forth righteousness and judgment in
his heart. He set forth wisdom and power
in his heart. He's not going to be that one
that shakes hands from holding of bribes. He's going to stop
his ears from hearing of blood and shut his eyes from seeing
evil. He shall dwell on high. Why? Because that's where our
God dwells. That's where our Savior who restored
everything dwells. He dwells on high and He says,
and you dwell in me. This is faith. This is trusting
Him. And He says, He shall dwell on
high, and His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks.
Bread shall be given Him, water shall be sure. Thine eyes shall
see the King and His beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off. Do you see it? Do you behold
it? This is the sure inheritance. This is the sure land, the heavenly
Jerusalem, the city that God says, I'll defend for my glory
and for David, King Jesus, my King's sake. Look down at verse 19. Here's
what you won't see there. You won't see a fierce people.
You won't see a people of a deeper speech than you can perceive,
of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand. Just speaking
plainly, God's salvation is by His grace. God's salvation is
by His choosing, by His will, not our will. God's grace is
by Him restoring all things unto His people in Christ Jesus Himself. It's by Him sending forth His
Word of Truth. It's by Him creating life in
the heart. It's by Him. You can understand
that. You don't perceive somebody you
can't understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our
solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation." People who are at peace in Christ. People who aren't going to be
shaken and moved in Christ. A tabernacle that shall not be
taken down. That's what His church and His
kingdom is. Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed,
neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there,
In His church, in His kingdom, amongst His people, He says,
they're the glorious Lord. Don't you like that? The glorious
Lord. You know, there's one that's
not glorious. The man of man's imagination. But this one's the
glorious Lord. He will be unto us a place of
broad rivers and streams. wherein shall go no galley with
oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." There's not going
to be any rowing of men. There's not going to be any servitude
here. This is going to be by His power
and His might. For the Lord, now watch this,
verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. If you go in a courtroom, And
anywhere in the United States, if you watch a judge, what you'll
find with a judge is he's dispensing justice. He's dispensing the
law. If he's a good judge, that's
what he's doing. He's not in the business of showing mercy. He's in the business of upholding
the law. Our God is a judge who's satisfied
his own law and He gives mercy. Our Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our King and He will save us. All the tacklings are
loose. They couldn't well strengthen
the mass. They couldn't spread the sale. The prey of a great
spoils divided and the lame take the prey. His children, they
couldn't do anything. They're going to take it. They're
going to take everything. And the inhabitants shall not
say, I'm sick. Are you sick? We're not sick,
are we? We're every whit hole. And look at this. The people
that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. It's gone. It's all gone. This is our hope. This is our treasure. That's why We now look into that
evil covetousness that once ruled our heart. Let me make this statement
to you. Being outside of God is the evil
that you and I need deliverance from. Being out of the everlasting
arms of God is the evil we need to be saved from. We'll just
keep covering ourselves and covering ourselves and all we've done
is You stayed in the same evil. But brethren, you've been sanctified. You've been separated from the
evil when God reaches forth His hand in an omnipotent grace and
He plucks you from the wretched evil of your own heart. and draws
you under His wing and draws you to His breast and makes you
behold that He is the wisdom, the righteousness, the sanctification,
the redemption by whom and through whom you shall never, ever be
separated from Him again. And when you're brought there,
you've got a whole new treasure. It's called the fear of the Lord.
And what a treasure that is. What a treasure. I want you to
have this treasure. I want you to know this treasure.
I want you to rejoice in this treasure. And no more rejoice
in that wicked, evil, covetousness of the heart. What a treasure. This is the treasure of the believer. Believe Him. Believe Him. It's
free. It's a free, brought by God,
a free treasure. Amen.