May it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah, and chapter 32, and we'll read the second verse. The prophecy
of Isaiah, chapter 32, and we'll read verse two. And a man shall
be as a hiding place from the wind and a covet from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. These are the words of the prophet
Isaiah, who lived through some difficult days and we're told
at the very beginning of the book of Isaiah, the vision of
Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem
in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah. And they were not easy days. And it would appear that these
words in reality for the time were addressed because of King
Hezekiah, who we know God raised up. in a wonderful way to enable
the Israelites to turn back to God in good measure because they
departed and of course we know they continued to depart and
eventually were carried away to Babylon for those 70 years
because of their disobedience. And we should never think that
what God says is just mere words. What God says is always true.
and what God speaks and promises always comes to pass. Well, we can recognise this as
the position which existed in the days of Isaiah, but also,
of course, there is a much deeper purpose in these words. And not
only for Israel at that time, but also for the Church of God
down through the ages. applies to us still today and
it will down to the end of time and it's wonderful really to
realize that we have a God who has recorded such wonderful glorious
and encouraging truths because life does not get easy times
in this world are not easy and yet to have this promise this
is a promise here because It says, and a man. And we might
ask, well, who is that man? I think without any doubt, this
man referred to is the Lord Jesus Christ in prophecy. And to think
then, as the prophet says, and a man shall. This word of God
is true. It will be so. It is true. It will come to pass.
And we can rely upon God's word. We can't rely on the word of
men today. So many lies, so many false promises,
and yet the word of God from Genesis to Revelation is true. The words of the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, when he prayed that high priestly prayer to
his father in that 17th chapter of John, he said, thy word is
truth. And that should be a wonderful
strength a wonderful comfort to us today when on every hand
really there's difficulties and trials and problems but may we
remember our God reigns and our God is in control of everything
and therefore we have a verse here which elucidates really
the power and strength of this mighty God our Savior and we're
told therefore that firstly a man shall be as an hiding place from
the wind and then and a covet from the tempest the storms and
rains and then as rivers of water in a dry place the provision
of Almighty God and then as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land
so we have there four statements from God and we should recognize
them and realise how relevant they are to us today. And so
to think that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfils all those positions
that this verse refers to. The Lord Jesus Christ, a man. He was a man. He is now risen,
seated at the Father's right hand, there to intercede for
us to his Father. wonderful to realize that the
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world died upon that cross in
order to take away the sins of his church and as he rose in
the dead and then ascended to his father and now sits there
for our benefit today we as sinners of the earth cannot approach
directly to our Father who is holy and cannot look upon sin,
but we have an advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. And may that be an encouragement
to us as we pray to God to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who is seen. that holy perfect deliverer the
blessed Lord Jesus and a man shall be a hiding place for us
from the wind from the wind well we don't always know where the
wind comes from in actual fact we probably never know really
where it comes from and we never know when it's coming We may
have some indication from the forecasters today but they're
not always right and sometimes they get it very wrong. And so
we have a picture here which we can visualize. The Bible is
full of examples, full of pictures for us to understand. And we
have a picture here of strong wind, the wind blowing and yet
There is a place where we can hide from it naturally. And as
you and I face our life, there will be difficult times when
in a spiritual sense, the wind may blow against us. We find our journey hard and
difficult. There's oppositions. And my friends,
we should remember, we have a great adversary, the devil. who is
always endeavouring to blow us off course, is always endeavouring
to overthrow us. Well, when we see him come in,
as we're warned, like a flood, the Lord, we're told, raises
up a stand against him and provides himself as a hiding place. What a mercy then to have such
a great and glorious God, who looks upon us and provides Himself
as our hiding place. When we do have battles, spiritual
battles, the devil's always trying to overthrow us and pretend that
you and I can do this and do that, contrary to the Word of
God, just like he always has done. right from the very beginning
in the days of Adam and Eve when he contradicted what God had
spoken when Eve was able to recite precisely what God had said and
told her she didn't take any notice of that. Well how foolish
she was and down through the years how foolish people have
been And how foolish we are today, unless we know and observe the
truth of God. And we're thankful, I hope we're
thankful for those words in the first chapter of Peter's epistle,
where he tells us, kept by the power of God. You see, Satan
came with that wind to the apostle Peter, when he was in the judgment
hall. He already told the Savior that
he wouldn't deny him. The Lord told him he would, and
he said he wouldn't. Why? He was relying on his own
strength. My friends, we must never rely
on our own strength. We need to remember what the
Apostle Paul said. when he wrote to the Philippians,
he said this, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. And my friends, there's the secret. There's Christ as our great and
glorious hiding place from the wind which blows, and Satan knows
when to blow, when perhaps we're weak, when perhaps we're not
as strong as we should be, and yet to think that we have a great
and glorious Saviour to whom we can come and hide in. We can hide in the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's provided Himself. That's a wonderful truth, isn't
it? When you and I should think, and we should think, of the greatness
of God, and realise how all powerful he is high and lifted up the
creator of all things spoke the world into being looks down upon
us is mindful of us this is the great God and you think of I
think we mentioned this morning the millions, the billions of
people in the world and yet this God knows exactly what everyone
is thinking, what everyone is doing. My friends, it's a good
thing to have high views of God, just like Isaiah, when he tells
us, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. My friends, by faith, what
a blessing it is to have high views of God. He's not a little
God. He's an all-powerful God. He's
able to do far more exceeding abundantly than we can ask or
even think. So when perhaps we feel to be
overwhelmed, overwhelmed, what a mercy it is then to realize
that if God is for us, who can be against us? In the 61st Psalm
we're told about the greatness of God and he says from the end
of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed
lead me to the rock that is higher than I well that touches on the
further point but what a blessing it is when our heart is overwhelmed
we may sometimes think what shall I do? how can I continue? It's just too difficult, my life
on this earth." Well, here we have David. David knew what it
was to have opposition. He had many wars, didn't he?
He had many people. He had Saul pursuing him again
and again. And therefore, he's able to write
this from the end of the earth. Destitute position. Will I cry
unto thee? when my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. That should be an encouragement,
shouldn't it, to us today, to realise that David prayed it
and David proved it. And David rested in what God
did for him. And so he comes on and he tells
us, for thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from
the enemy. Well, a hiding place from the
enemy. Here we have Isaiah speaking
these words sometime later, but how true still. And a man, the
Savior, shall be a hiding place from the wind. And it's a word,
my friends, tonight that we can rely upon. And we can plead God's promises. That's why we have them. We have
them recorded so that we can bring them to our God. We can
plead them and pray that they may be worked out in our little
lives and that we may overcome through our blessed and glorious
Saviour. And so a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind. And then he goes on and he says,
and I cover it again, And that's really a place of refuge from
the tempest. A tempest we can imagine being
a storm, a great storm, wind and rain blowing and impossible
for us to, as it were, fight against it. We can understand
it as a natural illustration but also of course it speaks
to our souls it speaks to us that we will have battles the
battle of life and we can look to the Saviour as that one who
provides this covet a place that we can run to a place where we
can find refuge a refuge for sinners the gospel makes known
It is found in the merits of Jesus alone. We should remember
such truths as that to encourage us because there are tempests. We have to realize that they
were recorded in the Word of God. Many tempests in the lives
of God's people. Much opposition, my friends,
still today. We might think, well, we're past
those days. Well, we're not past those days.
The devil has acted today as he always has been. And you and
I should realise that the devil never gives up this side of the
grave. His great desire, his intention
is to overthrow us, to destroy our faith, to bring those things
into our life which produce that position where we're willing
to give up everything. Well, let's remember that God
is with us, and if God is with us, my friends, we're on firm
ground. Yes, the devil will not be able
to overthrow us. However much he tries, and sometimes
we may think that we will make shipwreck. We will make shipwreck. Well, the Word of God tells us,
hold fast that which is good. Hold fast the word of God. Rely upon the truth of God. Rely upon
what the Savior has said. And recognize that the devil
cannot overturn the truth of God. He will come, as he did
to Eve, and oppose that question, hath God said? Yes, he always
desires to bring doubt into our mind, where you and I have to
respond as God gives us strength and grace, to respond by what? By quoting Scripture. The devil,
my friends, cannot overthrow us when we quote the Word of
God. And therefore, may our great
concern be that we have a good knowledge of the Word of God
and we are able to quote Scripture against those times of opposition. When there is this tempest, the
devil comes and casts seeds of doubt. My friends, what a blessing
it is to go in the strength of the Lord. We read, I will go
in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. We can point the devil to what
Christ has done. We can point the devil to his
wonderful work of redemption. You see, although we sin, although
we fall, what a blessing it is to have a saviour who came into
this world to redeem our souls. One of the ways the devil tries
to overthrow us is to tell us, well, you're no good. Well, we
know we're no good in ourselves. we can tell him that we are redeemed
and we're redeemed in a wonderful way, redeemed with a precious
blood of Christ. The devil cannot stand being
told that because he knows he lost the battle at Calvary. He knows that Christ died to
atone for the sins of all his church. And therefore, you see,
when the tempest rises, to be able to come and tell the devil
that we are more than we overcome through the blood of the Lamb.
We're more than overcomers through what Christ has done. We're not
relying upon what we've done. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. What a good and firm foundation
that is. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
this man is a covet from the tempest. It's quite clear that
the Church of God, as they travel through life, will have these
battles, from the wind and from the tempest. And we should not
think that we have got a special niche that we shan't have to
endure this opposition. Be sure the word of God is there
for our encouragement and to help us and to enable us to press
on against wind and storm and tide, all against us. But in God, we shall do valiantly
through his glorious and finished work. The devil hates Calvary. My friends, go there often. Look to Jesus. Look to his finished
work. As Isaiah said in a later chapter,
look unto me and be ye saved o'er the ends of the earth for
I am God. there's none else what a mercy to be able to tell the
devil that great and wonderful promise and there it is for poor
unworthy sinners to look to the saviour the blessed lord himself
look unto me it's a gracious and wonderful encouragement A
glorious invitation, and what a mercy it is. A man, a man. Well, we read in the Gospels,
behold the man. And it's good for us to sometimes
sit and meditate and behold the man. And in beholding the man
Jesus, to recognize what he did, what he completed, at that work
at Calvary, those final words, those glorious words, it is finished. It is finished. He gave up the
ghost. He'd done the will. He'd done
the work that his father had given him to do. And what a great
battle it was. But my friends, he overcame.
The devil tried to overthrow him. As we know, he tempted him
after he was baptized. And what did the Savior do? And
what shall we do? He quoted scripture to the devil. My friends, the devil cannot
face that because he knows it's true. So may we be found armed
with this great weapon of Scriptures. Well and a man shall be as an
hiding place from the Scripture, from the wind and a cover from
the tempest. And then he tells us, he goes
on and gives us encouragement, as rivers of water in a dry place. We may come into dry places sometimes
in our spiritual life. We seem hard-hearted, we seem
very dried up, there doesn't seem to be any life, no evidence
of the work of God and we perhaps feel ready to give up and throw
overboard all our religion. Well, remember this, a man shall
be, the Lord Jesus shall be, as rivers of water, not just
a little drop, rivers of water to quench our thirst, to enliven
us, to encourage us, to put life back into us as we may be dried
up. What a mercy it is then to look
to Jesus, to provide us with this soul refreshing showers
of the water of life. Oh, my friends, what a kind and
gracious God we have. What a wonderful God who invites
us so very wonderfully to come to Him. Indeed, we read in a
further chapter in this same prophecy, the 55th chapter of
Isaiah, we read, Ho, everyone, everyone that thirsteth So if
you and I thirst, my friends, the gospel word is to you and
me. Ho, everyone, just note that,
everyone that thirsts us, come ye to the waters. Come to the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who provides all that we need.
And he that hath no money, we may feel bankrupt, But you see,
we can come. We don't have to provide anything.
The hymn writer says, I came to Jesus as I was, weary and
worn and sad. That's a glorious truth, isn't
it? We can come to the Saviour just as we are. And so the prophet
goes on. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price. That seems a complete contradiction,
doesn't it? And yet how wonderful it is to
realise that God gives these things freely. Utterly undeserving
we are. And then he asks the question,
wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and
your labour for that which satisfies not hearken diligently unto me. How often we fail to listen diligently
to what God says. It's good if we listen diligently
unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight
itself in fatness and not only then to drink but also to hear
You see, we've been thinking of recently in the letters to
the seven churches in the second and third chapter of Revelation.
And at the end of each letter addressed to those churches,
we read, He that hath an ear, let him hear. And here it is,
the word of God here in Isaiah. Incline your ear to hear the
good news of the gospel. Don't shut your ears. That's
what the devil wants. Incline your ear and come unto
me, hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. What promises
there are in the Word of God. What promises there are in the
Book of Psalms that David wrote to encourage us to come to our
great and glorious Saviour and incline our ear to hear the Word
of God. My friends, it's written for
your and my encouragement. It's written there to help us
on our journey of life as we travel through this life It teaches
us to be found looking unto Jesus. It teaches us how to come, what
to do, and it gives us that direction. What a mercy then, if we're blessed
with that favour, to hear, to incline our ear, and to come
unto me, come unto the Saviour, and hear, and your soul shall
live. We may feel perhaps when the
devil comes in like a flood that we have no life we may feel well
I don't think I possess life that's what the devil wants you
to think but my friends examine yourself and we're encouraged
to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith or not examine
yourself and see what God has done for your soul how God gave
you spiritual life, how he shined into your heart and gave you
that good hope through his grace that you are a true believer,
that Christ has died to atone for your sins. So be encouraged
and don't forget the devil has always been a liar, he always
will be. Rely upon God's truth and tell
him so and the 6th verse in this 55th chapter of Isaiah tells
us seek ye the Lord seek ye the Lord, don't give up don't give
up it's not easy, the Christian life is not easy it's a hard
life there's much opposition that's why we have words of encouragement
seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while
he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, evil thoughts, unbelieving thoughts,
forsake them and let him return unto the Lord and the promise
he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly
pardoned. So you see the worst sinner,
the greatest sinner can receive the abundant pardon. What a mercy
we have then, such a kind and gracious God. And the Lord goes
on, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways. We may have thought perhaps foolishly
that when we who are blessed by the Spirit of God and became
a Christian, that life would now be easy. Well, we should
realize that once we're a Christian, life becomes more difficult.
Because until that time, the devil largely leaves us alone. But now his intention is to overthrow
us. So don't be surprised then if
we find our life Difficult and opposition, temptations occur,
which they will, but remember the greatness and mercy of God. And so he tells us indeed, for
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see,
God's ways, they're on a different plane to ours. We're earthly. God is heavenly. He knows what
He will do. He knows the end from the beginning.
You and I don't. But what a blessing it is, as
the Word tells us, trust in Me at all times. Not just now and
again. All times. And that's why we
have encouraging words like this, that the man shall be as rivers
of water in a dry place. He pours forth His blessing into
our hearts and we rejoice at what He's done as He leads us
into all truth as it is in Jesus. As I've said, what a blessing
it is to find at Calvary. As you and I stand there by faith
and view what the Saviour's done, what he completed and to realize
that because of his death we receive that glorious blessing
of forgiveness of all of our sins and surely then we can rejoice
and praise God for the value of his blood that shed blood
upon Calvary my friends without shedding of blood, there was
no forgiveness, no forgiveness for you and me. But what a mercy
to realize, yes, that blood was shed, that I might receive the
forgiveness of all my sins, every sin, every sin, none left behind. Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ,
how precious, how valuable, how wonderful it is, and may we truly
rejoicing as rivers of water in a dry place. And then he says,
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. It's just interesting
to ponder that for a moment because a little rock, a little rock
doesn't give much shelter, does it? And especially in the Middle
East, where the sun is often more or less overhead and it's
very strong and powerful a little rock doesn't give much shadow
at all but a great rock does and Jesus Christ is this great
rock and so we have and a man shall be as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Sometimes, this life is weariness. Because we're assaulted by the
devil. Because life is difficult. To realize then, the Lord looks
upon us. He knows where we are. He knows
where you and I are every moment of our life. And He knows He
can bring us into those spiritual positions where we are in the
shadow of the Saviour. What does that do? It brings
relief. It brings relief to our souls. To realise that Jesus, that great
and glorious Saviour, has looked upon us, he's heard our cries,
he's heard our prayers, he's come to us, he's caused us to
call upon his name, to cry unto him in a time when he may be
found. He hasn't turned us away, he
hasn't turned us away. No, this man, this great and
wonderful Saviour is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Well, it's given us here as a picture. The picture for us is to realise
that in a weary land, and the land is weary with the heat in
the Middle East, days after day of no cloud and just endless
sunshine, it's very hot and weary. And so we have this picture and
how wonderful it is in such a land to find a huge rock which gives
us shadow where we can have a little respite a little rest well that's
the picture that we have in a physical way and it directs us to the
glory of the Saviour who when we are wandering through this
world with all the assaults of Satan to be found in this place
of refuge. This place of this shadow, refuge
for sinners. The gospel makes known, is found
in the merits of Jesus alone. And in that shadow, we can meditate
and see and remember what Christ has done. Go back to realize
the goodness of God in fulfilling that which was spoken right back
in the third chapter of Genesis the Lord would provide. A glorious
Saviour who would bruise Satan's head. And so we can remind ourselves
of these great truths and be encouraged by it that the devil
will not be able to overcome us. He may tell us he will And
sometimes we're tempted to think he will, but my friends, he will
never be able to because we are safe in the arms of Jesus, for
whom the Lord has died. He didn't die in vain. He didn't shed his precious blood
in vain. He died to redeem our souls so
that by his grace, One day we should go to be with Him in glory
and to spend a never-ending eternity with Him and the whole family
of God. It's a wonderful prospect, isn't
it, to think upon. And sometimes it's good, again,
as we may be in this battle of life, to just come and remind
the devil of what God has said. what has God said? He said this
I go to repair a place for you and if I go to repair a place
for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am there ye may be also we can tell the devil that and
what a blessed time that will be you see in this shadow of
a great rock in a weary land. What does that do? It exalts
the name of the Saviour. What does it do? It strengthens
us in our soul, in our inner man. It encourages us to press
on against all the opposition which there is in this life. To realise that at the most we
have a short time to live on this earth and then the blessings
of Emmanuel's land. So we should be encouraged and
thankful that we have therefore such a great and glorious word
recorded here and reminded perhaps of the the book of Revelation
right towards the end 22nd chapter John was there as you may remember
on the isle of Patmos and what did he see? he told us in that
22nd chapter I'll just read it and it tells us this and he showed
me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out
of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street
of it, and on either side of the river, there were the tree
of life, which bared twelve manners of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and
his servants shall serve him. And of course, the Lamb of God
is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Well, may God give you
and me faith to look forward to that inheritance which is
incorruptible and undefiled and reserved for you who are kept
by the power of God through grace unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. Well, can we not thank and glorify
our God for his goodness and mercy in providing his word to
strengthen us and encourage us as we press on through life and
a man glorious Saviour shall be, no doubt, as a hiding place
from the wind and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water
in a dry place, as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Amen.