May it please almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in his word tonight. Let us turn
to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 30 and we'll read verses 20 and
21. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter
30 and reading verses 20 and 21. And though the Lord give us the
bread of affliction, and the water of adversity, yet shall
not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more. But thine
eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk in it. when you turn to the right hand
and when you turn to the left. As we read through the Word of
God and the testimony of so many of God's saints which are recorded,
may we be instructed and encouraged to be able to trace out our own
life, our own spiritual path and therefore find that our life,
our heart is not something which is unusual, but it is that which
the Church of God are partakers of. And therefore to be encouraged
that we are in fact in the right way, we are in fact in the narrow
way which leads to eternal life. And we should therefore not be
discouraged If we do find the journey far from easy, we may
have thought foolishly, well, if I'm a Christian and if I become
a Christian, my life will be very easy and everything will
be plain sailing. Well, the Word of God doesn't
encourage us with such a consideration. But what it does tell us that
the Lord will be with us through our life, through our difficulties,
through our temptations, and there will be a good end. And
the good end will be that we shall then go and to be with
Christ, which is far better. And it is important for us to
recognise the relevance of such a statement and to pray earnestly
that we may have the evidence in our souls that God is dealing
with us as his children. Naturally, parents deal with
their children, generally speaking, for their benefit. Well, God
deals with his children for their benefit. And therefore, let us
not be surprised, let us not be perhaps disappointed if we
find things aren't going quite as we expected. But we must always
remember that the Lord has told us that he leads us in the right
way, that we may go to a city of habitation. Our life as believers,
as true Christians, is to prepare us for our eternal home. That's the reason why the Lord
deals with us in various ways, and we all have an individual
path to walk. No same path will be for more
than one person. It may be very similar, but we
each have to walk a similar path, which leads at last to eternal
glory. And the great issue must be if
we have the innermost evidence that we are in the right way,
we're walking the right way. This last part of this 21st verse
tells us, this is the way, walk ye in it. So the Lord gives us
good directions and right directions and it's good therefore to be
able to walk in that right way. Now this 20th verse starts off,
as you might think, in a very negative way. It says, and though
the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. Well, we don't like adversity,
we don't like affliction. But the Lord does give us these
things. It's not something that we just
suddenly develop. It's something which God, in
his love to our souls, gives us. And we should never forget
that it is God, therefore, that gives us these two blessings. You may say, well, they're not
blessings at all. Well, they are blessings, and I'll tell
you why in a moment. The bread of adversity, that means when
things are going against us, they're adverse, they're not
going along our way, they're going in opposite directions
sometimes, they're adverse, it's the bread of adversity, and bread
means in this context that it's food, it's spiritual food that
the Lord gives to us to eat, and we don't avoid it, And we
can't avoid it because it's that which God gives to us. And then
the water of affliction. Now the water of affliction is
we know naturally we must have water to live. You can't live
without water. You must have water to drink.
And here we're told the Lord gives this water of affliction. Well, this may be natural affliction. It may be spiritual affliction. The Lord doesn't differentiate
between the two. But whatever is needful for you
and me in our spiritual life, God brings into our life to teach
us and to instruct us. And the great purpose is to make
us more like Him. You see, naturally, we are opposed
to God. Naturally, we only want to please
ourselves. We only want to follow our own
pattern, our own desires. But the Lord, you see, has a
program for all of His children. And what a mercy that is. because
that program is a program that will instruct us, a program that
will teach us, a program that will build us up in our most
holy faith, and a program that will grant us that wonderful
favor of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sometimes we are rather glib
in our prayers. Sometimes we don't really understand
what we pray for. Many times people pray, and it's
not wrong, that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge
of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. But they didn't expect
to pass through the way that God has ordained for them. But nonetheless, we can be assured
that it is the right way. And the wonderful favour is this,
if God has a love to you and to me, he will, without any failure,
bring us at last home to himself. And that will be in a journey,
in a way that feeds our soul, that blesses our soul and fits
and prepares us for our eternal home. You see, nobody, nobody
arrives in heaven who is a stranger to the things of God. You and
I won't get to heaven and feel out of place because the blessing will be
that we shall each have that common bond and that common bond
is that Christ Jesus died to take away our sins and that we
are complete in him. And so as we read this statement
that Isaiah was directed to write, may we appreciate how relevant,
how necessary, how good it is and It says, and though the Lord
give you. It's His gift. And naturally
we always like good gifts, don't we? To receive something from
people we normally anticipate it will be something pleasing
and something we will enjoy and something we will like. But here
you see, we're told the Lord's going to give us things that
perhaps naturally We don't look forward to and naturally we don't
really want. But we may find and we may have
to prove that it was necessary for our soul's spiritual good. And surely that is the great
need that we have. The need that we have is to be
healthy in our soul. As I often say, how often we
are concerned about the health of our body. It would be much
better and much more profitable if we were more concerned about
the health of our soul, so that we truly benefited and we truly
therefore did grow spiritually. And the Lord in His love towards
us, directs us and brings us into these times of adversity
and affliction. Well, you may understand what
I'm saying. You may not understand what I'm
saying, but you will understand what I'm saying, because this
is what the Lord speaks to his people. And therefore we should
not expect to walk somehow a solo path which doesn't include such
a way as this. But it is a way of instruction
and it is a way that of necessity and through God's grace brings
us closer to the Lord himself. So let us not stop praying that
we might grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus
Christ and to not therefore be surprised at the way the Lord
leads us and the way the Lord directs us. But we'll be able
to conclude with those words in the 107th Psalm, He led them
forth by the right way. Yes, you and I are going to look
back in our lives and say, yes, I needed that situation. I needed. That adversity, I needed
that time of affliction because it drew me to the Lord Jesus. It brought me to a time of real
prayer. Prayer ceased to be just a mere
form of words, just traditional phrases. But it brought me to
the throne of grace where I had to pour out my heart to God. And it may have been the Holy
Spirit brought you and me to that position where we had to
pray of necessity, God be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, you won't be able to
pat yourself on the back and say, well, I've lived a wonderfully
good life and I've done this and I've done this for the Lord.
It'll be the opposite. You'll realise what a bad life
you live really and how you haven't been what you would be and it
makes you mourn and cry to God for his mercy. Well that's what
we are told here That's what Isaiah was instructed to write
for the benefit of the Church of God in his age and for the
benefit of the Church of God throughout ensuing ages. So let us not just pass over
such words as this and think, well, that's interesting, but
I'm glad it doesn't apply to me. Well, be sure of this, it
will apply to you in one way or another. As I've said, it
may not be in outward bodily difficulties, it may be in your
heart, in your innermost being, in your mind. Yes, you may have
to plead and cry to God, but He will deliver you. You may
find that the adversary of the devil goes about as a roaring
lion, trying to devour you, trying to turn you away. Sometimes he
goes about as an angel of light, pretending everything's good
and rosy and you can do this and do that and everything will
be alright. Never treat the devil lightly. He's a very wily foe. And he
knows your weakness, he knows my weakness. And you see often
he takes us in those paths. We find ourselves embroiled. It may not be physically, it
may be thinking, it may be in our minds. But what it is sometimes
we have to cry out, can ever God dwell here? Now if that is
so, perhaps that is the way that God is bringing you and me into
this bread of adversity and in this water of affliction. It's not always in a very evident
outward way. Sometimes it's in this way. But
the outcome will be the same. It will draw us to the Saviour. And then you see, we can bless
God for that situation and that condition. You know, if you look
through the Word of God, there are so many times of trial. You
only have to look at David's life, don't you? David's life. He had good desires to serve
the Lord. He left himself to sin greatly. He was chased hither
and thither by Saul. He didn't have an easy life,
did he? There was much adversity, physically
and spiritually. But the Lord was with him. And the Lord didn't leave him.
And you only have to read the 51st Psalm where he explains
something of his spiritual condition and you will realise that here
was a man of God. And here was the evidence of
God dealing with him. And therefore we shouldn't be
surprised If in God's love and mercy toward us, we find that
there are other situations which prove to us that we need a saviour
again and again. What a gracious and merciful
God we have. Well then, there we have him.
Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water
of affliction, He then goes on to say, ye shall, ye shall, yes, that's good to
know, ye shall not thy teachers be removed. Your teachers shall
not be removed into a corner anymore. And that may have reference to
those who preach the gospel. who teach and instruct. And perhaps we've pushed such
teaching and such advice, as it were, into a corner. We didn't want to listen, we
didn't want to absorb it, we didn't want to be instructed
by it, especially if it went contrary to our life and the
things that you and I wanted to do. Yes, what a mercy then
it is, if that has occurred. That has occurred, because it
says, into corner any more, any more, but thine eyes shall see
thy teachers. You see, the Lord gives us then
what we might term spiritual eyes. This is a spiritual journey
and gives us spiritual eyes. to see then that although we've
tried to avoid perhaps listening to the sermons, you may have
done exactly the same. You may have come to chapel for
many years, you may be here tonight with no desire to listen to that
which is being preached. And you occupy yourself with
everything under the sun so that the time may go past and you're
able to be free once again. Well, don't think the Lord doesn't
know about your condition and your situation. And we read some
very glorious words in the Word of God, and it's these. The Lord
waits to be gracious. He waits to be gracious. And
therefore we may be rebellious, We may be hard-hearted. You may
be walking contrary to God. We may be determined to go away
from the things of God. What a mercy, then, that we have
a God who waits to be gracious, who waits and is patient with
us. Yes, we've been, well, you know,
in especially Old Testament times, used to have bullocks to draw
the plough and various farming instruments. And obviously, in
order to do that, they had to get the bullock, who was by nature
wild, and train it and put it into a harness. And usually speaking,
it wasn't an easy job because The bullet kicked and flailed
and tried to free itself. Eventually it was tamed and eventually
it obeyed the master or the farmer and did that which was required. Well, that's a wonderful illustration
for the people of God. We may not want to do God's will. The Lord may come to us. We may
kick and flail and struggle and try to get free of it. And there
we are with this hardness around us. And it's the last thing we
wanted. We can't free ourselves. But
gradually, you see, the work of the Holy Spirit continues. And gradually we are made willing
in the day of God's power to do His will, to listen to the
sermons, to listen to that which at one time we didn't want to
do. What do we find? We find we have a wonderfully gracious instructor,
a very patient God, Look at yourself today. Can you say, God was very
patient with me? Very. Yes. His love was very
great to me. Because he didn't deal with me
as I deserved. Because he dealt with me in love
to my soul. What a great favour and blessing
that is, to realise that here we have a God who gives us then
these spiritual eyes, which we didn't have at one time, to realise
that God is teaching us, God sending perhaps teachers to instruct
us. We didn't like it to start with.
We pushed him away, pushed him in a corner if we could. He didn't
want to listen. But you see, the grace of God
is there. My friends, God never gives up.
Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful to think, isn't
it? Rebellious thou hast been, and art rebellious still, but
since in love I took thee in. My promise I'll fulfil. I've bound thee up secure. There is a security in the things
of God. Because we have a great God. You and I might struggle. You
and I might try and avoid this God. We may come and say, I would
not have this man to reign over me. That may be what you thought. Well, my friends, what a mercy
if God has thoughts of love towards your soul and my soul. How condescending,
how wonderfully gracious, how wonderfully merciful it is to
realize, therefore, that we have this great and glorious God. Yes, who has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. So here we have this. But thine
eyes shall see thy teachers. Yes, what a mercy it is if your
eyes have been opened. They may have been closed. You
didn't want to open them. What a mercy it is when God opens
our eyes to see what God is doing with us. We suddenly realise
the Lord is showing me the right way. The Lord is teaching me
the way I should walk. And I've been rebellious. What
a mercy if we see and know his love toward us. So that makes
all the difference. All the difference. Because love
breaks down hard hearts. It does in natural life, and
it does in spiritual life. To realise Christ loves toward
us, so utterly unworthy. Why should God have taken notice
of me? Because He loves me, that's why. Isn't that good? Isn't that wonderful?
And that will put the Saviour on a very different level in
your heart's estimation, as you realise And we need to realise
the great God, the almighty ruler of the universe, as we might say in a simple way,
has taken time to look upon you and me in our little position
in this sinful world and has come where we were Come
where we are. Isn't it good that Lord knows
where we are all our life? Sometimes we might think we can
escape. You can't escape. God knows where you are. He knows what you're thinking,
not only what you're doing. You may have had thoughts of
how you're going to get away and escape from the things of
God. What a blessing it is when the Lord draws you to himself
and it's the love of Christ which draws and what a wonderful blessing
it is. Well, what a mercy then if you
and I have our given spiritual eyes to then see our teachers
and observe what the Lord is doing through them to bless us. And then he goes on to say, and
thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying. You may think,
well, what does that mean? You know, my ears and hear a
voice behind me. Well, I believe it really shows
to us the voice of God in our hearts, in our conscience. We all have a conscience. And
what a blessing it is if God's given us ears to hear God speaking
to our conscience. Perhaps we may have known things
that we were doing were not good, were not right, and yet you see
we, as it were, were deaf. What a blessing when God gave
us, again, light, The spiritual eyes gave us spiritual ears,
so our ears were open to hear what God was saying and speaking
to our heart, directing us and warning us and moving us away
perhaps from certain things which we perhaps naturally love to
do, but yet in our heart we knew really, we were honest, We shouldn't
be indulging in them. We shouldn't be doing them. What
was it? It was God speaking to our heart,
through our conscience. And why? Because of his love
to our soul. You see, you and I could have
been left to wander on aimlessly through life, doing just what
we wanted to do, and then fall into hell. What a terrible existence. What a mercy, therefore, if through
the love of God, He's caused us to consider our ways. The Lord has spoken to us, as
it were, this word behind us, speaking into our hearts, directing
us and nudging us this way and that way. And it's wonderful,
isn't it? The patience of God. Patience
of God toward us, because we perhaps carry on, perhaps day
after day, perhaps week after week, month after month, perhaps
year after year, walking contrary to God. And there there is this
Word behind us, constantly jogging us, poking us as it were, reminding
us we're in the wrong way. But what a blessing it is, then
when this Work of the Spirit gains the victory and what do
we do? this is what we do we submit
ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in
due time yes what a mercy that is to come to that position what
is it? it's the grace of God and then
you see with this instruction from the blessed Lord, giving
us spiritual eyes and spiritual ears, to be directed in the right
way, the God-honouring way, the way that brings honour and glory
to God, and that way which may be very adverse to ourselves
and bring a lot of affliction to our nature. but yet to have
the evidence it is the right way. And therefore then we can
understand what the Prophet says in this last sentence, in this
21st verse. This is the way. This is the
way. It's not a strange, you may think
it has been, but as the Lord works in our heart, we'll have
the spiritual understanding So when this word is applied, this
is the way, we then realise, yes, this is the way. I now understand. It's the way for me. It's the
way that the Lord has directed me in so that I may walk through
this earth in the remainder of time left to me for his honour
and glory and for the eternal blessing of my soul. Well, this
is the way. And then there's that gracious
instruction. Having perhaps bought to God and his direction to us,
we're now told this is the way. What are we to do? Sit down? Stop? Go backwards? No. Very clear in the word of
God. Walk in it. We are to go forward
in the way that none less than Almighty
God directs us in. Surely that's an exceedingly
humbling thing. I often try and think of it. The great God taking hold upon
us little individual sinners of the earth not worthy of any
notice and yet he takes us and he leads
us and he instructs us and he tells us this is the way walk ye in it that's the way to go the way
ahead and he just confirms that when you turn to the right hand
and when you turn to the left. We may be still looking for an
excuse to not go in the right way. You may think, well perhaps I
could do that, or perhaps I could do that. No, says God. Walk in it, in the right way,
the way ahead, when you're tempted. to turn this way and that way. It's a great blessing to be an
obedient person to the will of Almighty God. Don't forget the
devil wants you to be a disobedient person. And again, if we're honest
and look into our hearts, we will have to say we've often
been a disobedient person. And isn't it amazing that you
and I are still here on this earth, that God hasn't cut us
down as something of no value, something who's in opposition
to God. No, God deals with us. What a
mercy, again, in love to our souls. All my friends never get
past that and realize here then, these wonderful words, This is
the way. We preached last Lord's Day,
didn't we? I am the way, the truth and the life. The Lord
Jesus Christ sets before us such a wonderful example. And as we
ponder what he passed through, the opposition that he passed
through, the adversity and the afflictions that he walked also
that he could pay the price required for our freedom, for our redemption,
so that one day, by his grace, we should be with him in glory,
with the whole Church of God forever, enjoying that wonderful
peace and union. It's good sometimes to ponder
Good sometimes to look ahead to that rest that remains to
the people of God. It is there. It will not be taken
away. And may we each be concerned,
therefore, that the Holy Spirit is leading us in that way to
bring us, and I hope it is, to our desired haven. Figuratively, we sail on a rough
sea, a rough sea, but there will be a haven of rest, a desired
haven at last, when by the grace of God, we are brought safely
home to port, our eternal home. What a wonderful prospect it
is for the Church of God. And so you and I should be thankful
that in the Word of God, the Lord very graciously directs
us to the path that you and I can expect in our pilgrimage through
this life. and to also realise that the
Lord leads us in that right and blessed way because of his love
to our souls. So may we indeed bow down before
our God and worship him and say, not my will, but thine be done. Submission to God is a wonderful
blessing. and a wonderful favour. And it
is a place of true happiness because we are not rebelling,
but we're submitting to our great and glorious God. Well, may you
and I understand then the blessing described here by Isaiah. And although we might find adversity
and affliction difficult, may we look beyond it And see, the
reason why you and I walk that way, it is to bring us closer
and into union with the Lord Jesus Christ and to one day to
be with him forever. Well, may God bless his word.
Amen.