I please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the prophecy
of Isaiah chapter 25 and we'll read verse four. The prophecy
of Isaiah chapter 25 and reading verse four. For thou hast been a strength
to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge
from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the
terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. And of course this
verse refers to Almighty God. The very first words in this
chapter tell us, O Lord, Thou art my God. be a great blessing for all of
us today if we are able to come and to acknowledge that such
words, such phrases have a direct application to us and we are
able to confirm in our spiritual life such truths. Because here Isaiah is confirming
that which he has enjoyed, that which he's passed through, because
the words tell us, for thou hast been. And he looks back in his
life, and he's strengthened by it, to realise how the Lord has
been his helper, has been his strength, and has supplied his
need, and has been a refuge to him, and have been a shadow from
the heat, from the blast, of the terrible ones is as a storm
against the world. Well, we should realize that
Isaiah is not unique. He may be unique in perhaps the
prophecy that he was able to write, but he was a child of
God and therefore he is not unique in that. And what a favor for
us to recognize that the word of God is graciously written
to apply to the Church of God. And it's written, therefore,
to apply it to us today. And it's written to encourage
us to realise that as a man like Isaiah was able to confirm such
truths, the relevance of them, to him in his life, so today
that you and I, for the glory of God, may be able to confirm
that such truths do apply to us in our lives. Because let
us never forget that our life is for the glory of God. And if it's for the glory of
God, there must be those things in our lives whereby we are able
to confirm that God has been with us. And God has blessed
us and God has helped us. To be able to confirm then such
a truth as this, for thou has been a strength to the poor,
a strength to the needy in his distress and a refuge from the
storm, et cetera. Now, one thing is very clear,
that Isaiah and all the church of God come to realize that in
ourselves we're not some great person, we're not some important
person, matter not how the Lord may have prospered us in this
world, as we stand before God we are just like the prophet
speaks here as he says poor and needy. Now I believe The fact
is that every true believer comes to this understanding that they
have to come down before God and recognize and confess that
they are a poor person and they are a needy person and they cannot
rely on what they are able to do, what they're able to say
and to confess that all their hope is in the Lord God. Now then, perhaps we can put
it like this, to realise that we are indeed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. How important that is, how few
people today realise the necessity of being found in Christ Jesus
and that we are united to him. And that he is our strength,
he is our safety, he is our hiding place. And to realise our constant
need of recognising that we do need a great and glorious saviour
in whom we are found within. Now, I read together this morning
that chapter in Genesis where we read of course of that very
sad time in the history of the world. when men and women had
turned their back upon God and they've been blessed with a wonderful
environment to live in, great favours from God and yet you
see they turn their back upon God and we find therefore that
really there were only those eight souls left. You know you
can read that chronology of the ancient people and we will find
that many of those old people who lived to hundreds of years,
which in fact of course is true, people despise it and say, well
of course that's not a true fact. Don't forget all the Bible is
true, every word of it. And those people did live to
a great age because the environment was very different in those days.
As probably you young people know that there was no rain before
the flood. There was just a very comfortable
environment. The dew came down every night
and watered the land. And there was far more oxygen
in the air in those days than there is now. It was a very different
environment. That was one of the things why
people lived to a great age. But the point is this. If you
read carefully, you will find that all those people had died
out, perhaps only a few years before the flood came. therefore
we can conclude that there were only those eight souls that God
determined to save. And God did save, and we know
how they were saved. They went into the ark, and there
was safety in the ark. Now the analogy is quite simply
this. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the ark, the ark to his people. and safety is only to be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people today seek everywhere
else, but let us be very clear, our eternal safety, and we must
consider that really, that's what we should be considering,
our eternal safety. And our eternal safety is only
to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And may he therefore
be our ark, and may we be found in him. Now, you may have noted,
when we read that chapter, the Lord told Noah and his wife and
the three sons and their wives to go into the ark. Now, they were told to go into
the ark. Remember, there'd be no rain
on the earth, being just, a very comfortable environment. And
he might have thought, well, why have we got to go into the
ark? Why? A flood's going to come? How
can a flood come? There's no rain? How can that
possibly occur? Why should we go into the ark? But, what we understand, and
what we're blessed to realise is, that those eight people were
given faith to believe the truth of God's Word. And therefore
they didn't stay outside. And they went into the Ark. And
that was the only place of safety. Surely, my friends, today the
analogy is quite simply this, that you and I need living faith
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe the truth
of the Gospel. You see, many people today, like
they did in the days of Noah, they mock, they mock. They don't
believe the truth of God. Well, what a blessing for all
of us today to be given that faith to believe the truth of
God and to be found entering in to the ark, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what do we read? Those eight
people went in and the very blessed word is this, the Lord shut them
in. Noah didn't have to put the door
on the ark. The door was on the ark, but the Lord shut them in. He shut that door and they were
then set in, in complete safety. Complete safety. And what an
amazing time occurred. And just to again clarify that
situation, you may have thought, well, I don't believe that happened
actually. I don't believe the actual earth
was covered. In actual fact, if you work it
out, it couldn't have done so in 40 days with just rain coming
down. Well, that's probably true. But
what perhaps we forget to realize is, the first thing that occurred
was, the fountains of the great deep were broken up. It was the
water that came up from the great deep that burst forth and no
doubt causing enormous tsunamis and that kind of situation. And
the whole of the world was moved around. And it wasn't just the
rain that came down, but that was one of the causes as the
fountains of the great deep were broken up and the waters came
up. And then rain came down, and the whole earth was covered. And every living creature died,
apart from those who were safe in the ark. Now the truth of
the matter is this, that you and I today, there's only one
place of safety. And when I say that, I mean this.
One place of safety outside of hell. There's only one place
of safety, and that's to be found in Christ. And that's to be found
shut into Christ. And that's to know that God himself
has shut us in. There was complete safety to
Noah and his family in their ark. There was no safety outside,
no safety at all. People may have tried to climb
up to the highest mountain. You know, we read accounts, don't
we, of animals being found in caves. Dead, of course. Drowned,
but in caves high up in the mountains, the hills. They probably tried
to escape. No escape. No escape. And today, we should realize
there's no escape outside of Christ. There's no other way
of safety. It is only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that means to know the Lord
Jesus Christ as our saviour. To know the Lord Jesus Christ
did come into this earth to die to save our souls. My friends,
that's the only place of safety and how necessary it is for all
of us to know that we are safe in Christ. And if we're safe
in Christ, we shall then understand something of the words that Isaiah
speaks to us here when he says, yes, and they're wonderful words,
aren't they? Thou hast been a strength to
the poor. So if we're found in Christ,
what it will mean is this. We will have given up our own
ability to save ourselves. We would have had to have come
and cast all our care upon the great and glorious Saviour. And
we would have had to have been found entering in to receive
that living faith, to enter into the Lord Himself. To receive
that strength to do so, a spiritual strength. And by that I mean
this. The Lord gives spiritual strength
to perhaps pursue that way which our nature would belittle and
think of no consequence. Because naturally, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was upon the earth, there was nothing naturally that
would be attracted to him. Indeed, we're told his visage
was more mild than any man. People paint pictures of the
Saviour as a wonderful looking man. But we should realise that,
my friends, the saviour on this earth, he was carrying the sins
of his church. And he had much opposition. And his visage was more marred,
therefore, than any man. There was nothing attractive,
naturally, to attract people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's just the same today. There's nothing naturally attractive. to us, to Christ. And that's
why we need to be brought down to recognize how poor we are
in spirit. Indeed, we're bankrupt. Indeed, we have nothing to pay,
nothing to pay. We have no currency to save our
soul. And that's why Isaiah tells us
those beautiful words, farther on in this same prophecy. And
he says these words in the 55th chapter. He tells us, ho, everyone
that thirsteth. Everyone, and it's only those
who thirst after Christ. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money. That means
we're bankrupt, we haven't got anything to offer. We're bankrupt. Come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. And he goes on to say,
Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread?
And your labour for that which satisfies not. Hearken diligently
unto me. Oh, how needful it is for us
to do that today. to hearken diligently unto the Lord. You
see, we hearken diligently unto many other things, but my friends,
the Word of God describes to us all that we need to listen
to. And so we are encouraged with
such words as this. And wherefore do you spend money? For that which is nought, et
cetera. No, incline your heart, incline your ear rather, And
come unto me, here, and your soul shall live. And I will make
an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David. Well, do we come to this savior? Have we come to this savior?
This one who is despised and rejected of men? Have we come
down to realize how poor we are and how needy we are? and that we have no ability to
save ourselves? Do we come, indeed, casting all
our care upon Him, believing He cares for us? You see, Noah
and his family, they cast all their care upon God. They weren't
worried. Well, they may have been worried,
but they followed that which God had commanded them. All the
words of their fellow countrymen, who no doubt mocked them and
despised them, What did they do? They listened and they obeyed
the gracious and glorious word of almighty God. And my friends,
you and I today fall in that same category. We have the gracious,
glorious words of the gospel before us. And if the spirit
of God has brought us down to this condition to be poor and
needy, you see, we will need to know the great support of
our God, the strength of our God, and to know that he is our
strength. He's the strength of the poor
and he's the strength of the needy. And he supports us in
our distresses. Here was Isaiah telling us he
was poor and needy and he was distressed. And if you and I
are poor and needy and distressed, the Lord Jesus Christ is then
a very suitable saviour to us. then he becomes that real ark,
that place wherein we can continually come, continually resort, and
as we're found in him, there is eternal safety. And that's
what you and I need today. We need eternal safety. Don't worry about the poor things
of this world. But worry, my friends, about
your eternal safety. Your eternal safety. Quite a few of you know there's that
book being brought out by Matthew Hyde on the First World War. And giving the experiences of
many, many of God's people who were in the front line, were
in the forces, were in France and other places battling. And we can read the testimonies. They wrote many letters and sometimes
they spoke to others. And there's many testimonies
there of their concern about their spiritual condition. Some, of course, were not concerned
about their spiritual condition. In fact, many were not concerned
about their spiritual condition. But there were those who were. And many, of course, did lose
their life. We might think, surely God would
preserve all these people. Well, no. The Lord allowed some
to be taken home to glory at a young age. And also, to leave
behind a wonderful testimony of God's grace and of God's strength
to them. And if you read, and it's a book
worth reading, it's a very easy read, it's a long book but it's
very easy to read, and it indicates there how many of them were so
dependent upon God to give them strength They were poor, they
were needy. They needed God to give them
strength. And the Lord did hear. The Lord did answer prayer. So
we can be thankful today that we come to that same God. That same God that delivered
Noah and his family all those years ago from that desperate
condition which existed in the world at that time. And you know
the world's not a very easy place today, is it? You know, there
are the vast majority of mankind, the vast majority of mankind
today are not following the true God. They're either worshipping
themselves or they're worshipping a false God. There are a very
few in the world today who know anything of the reality of the
truths explained to us in the Word of God. Well, here we have
a man, Isaiah, who was able to declare by the Spirit of God,
the wonderful support that he had enjoyed, that he had been
sustained by. And it's good to be able to read
these great accounts in the Word of God to realize that God wonderfully
supported and blessed his ancient people. And my friends, God has
still wonderfully supported and blessed his people. As I've said
in that account, in that book of those soldiers who died, many
who were called by grace, who followed the truth of God, were
supported wonderfully and encouraged, and of course were taken safely
home to glory. Nothing would hinder and stop
the work of God. They were safe. They were indeed
safe in the arms of Jesus. Underneath were the everlasting
arms, and they were delivered and brought safely home. Well,
here we have then these words today, for thou hast been a strength
to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress. You see, I suppose we could say,
well, if we're just sailing along in our life without any problems,
everything's nice and smooth and easy, we don't feel very
poor, and we don't feel needy. Everything's supplied, we've
got plenty of comforts, we're not very worried about the future,
and, well, we're just enjoying life. People today, they say
this, they want to enjoy life to the full. My friends, you
and I need to enjoy spiritual life to the full, not natural
life, because natural life will vanish away, will perish. And
it's only a very, very, very short time you and I are on the
earth. Let us never forget that. My
friends, before us is an eternity, and let's describe it like this,
there's no time. It's probably the most adequate
way of describing eternity, no time. No time. And you and I, every one of us
here this morning, will be found in eternity. There is no escape. There is no escape. All of us
will be found in eternity. And we'll either be with Christ,
in eternal happiness and bliss, or without Christ, with the devil,
in that eternal place of horrors and fire and blackness and darkness
and utter misery. Isn't it strange? We live in
a day and age where set before us in the Word of God is so very
clearly those two scenes and yet for the majority of mankind
they ignore the Word of God. They ignore it And they follow
their own ways. They follow false God. For the
most part, they follow themselves. And they think, my friends, of
the terrible condition of ending up outside of heaven. My friends, may you and I today
be so, so concerned that we possess the life of God in our souls
and that we are able to confirm in our spiritual life, if not
today, before we die. A statement like this, for there
has been a strength to the poor and to be brought down. Remember
this, it's God that brings you and me down in our own estimation. This doesn't mean poor in a physical
way. It may mean poor physically in
a way, but more importantly it needs you and I to be poor in
the view of ourselves. To be very small, insignificant,
and great sinners, and therefore very needy. This, you see, is the work of
the Spirit. And unless we come down, Christ will never be of
any value. You won't value Christ if you're
satisfied with your life, if you're content with your situation,
if you're content to be outside the ark, to carry on living and
mocking those perhaps in your heart. You may not mock physically
or with your voice, but you may mock in your heart. And yet to
be brought to realise a condition like this, and to be blessed
with the Spirit's work in our soul, Thou hast been a strength
to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distresses. And
what does it really relate to? This strength is this. It's not
our strength, it's the strength of the Saviour. And it's because
we are relying upon what He has done. We're not relying on what
we've done. We have to come like this, like
the hymn writer says, Nothing in my hand I bring, nothing at
all of any value. Simply to the cross I cling. Clinging to Christ as that glorious
ark, that place of wonderful safety. Well, you and I are relying
on the strength of the Saviour today. Are we therefore relying
on what He has done? You see that the Lord Jesus Christ,
although He was very poor in the things in His life, you see
what glorious strength He had. What wonderful strength, wasn't
it? All the opposition, all the assaults of people, all the assaults
of Satan, they could not overcome. The Saviour conquered. Great truths. Bless God for that this morning,
as your hope and my hope is in Him. It's in a risen Saviour. It's in a conquering Saviour.
It's in a Saviour who satisfied the holy demands of the law of
God for us. He died so that we might live. Just ponder that. He died so
that you and I might live. It's through His death we are
made righteous. What a glorious theme it is. As we recognize we're poor and
needy, distressed, we look out of ourselves, out of ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our all-glorious and sufficient
Saviour. And then to have some idea of
the value, the value of the Saviour. My friends, the value of His
precious blood is beyond our comprehension. There's a line
in the hymn which tells us this. Invaluable blood. Remember, without
shedding of blood, there's no remission. If Christ had not
died on our behalf, we would not be saved. We would be eternally
lost. The Apostle Peter knew it, the
precious blood of Christ. How do we value the blood this
morning? A strength to the poor, a strength
to the needy. If you and I, my friends, are
poor and needy today, and in distress, and let me assure you
of this, in our lives, we will come to this condition. We will
have been there, And we will be there still, and we will come
there. If we are the Church of God,
we'll be like this, poor and needy, and looking to the strength
of the Savior. And that means looking to His
finished work, to the great work of salvation. Do you praise God
this morning for the great work accomplished on Calvary? Do you
praise God this morning that He died so that you might live? Do you bless Him for the wonderful
work of salvation. Are you thankful today that Lord
Jesus conquered sin, death, hell and the grave? And well, the
prophet goes on, doesn't he? He tells us a refuge from the
storm. You and I will pass through storms
in this life. Don't think we won't. There will
be storms, many storms perhaps, but in those storms, Where's
our refuge? It's in the Ark. It's in Christ. You see, Noah and his family
were safe, weren't they? That Ark was a tremendous refuge
for them. There was no safety outside of
that Ark. It was the only place of refuge
for them in the storm which came upon them. And what a great storm
it was. My friend, there's only safety
for you and me today. There's only that refuge in the
Lord Jesus Christ. As you and I pass through, the
storms of life, a refuge for sinners, the gospel makes known. Bless God, the work of the Spirit
makes Christ precious as our refuge. Indeed we read in the
Psalms, don't we, Psalm 46 gives us those Beautiful words, as
the psalmist begins and he tells us these words, God is. You see, the word of God is gloriously
positive, isn't it? You and I can rely upon it as
the truth of God. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, that the mountains be carried in the midst
of the sea, that the waters thereof roar and be troubled. Though
the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, see thou."
What a place, what a place of comfort, refuge in God. Well, God's people prove it. My friend, you and I will prove
it. If we look back in our lives and can confirm, as Isaiah was
able to say, thou hast been a refuge, And we can bless God for it,
and we can bear testimony for it. And I believe, you see, if
you and I are able to bear testimony of God's blessing and help to
us, what does it do? It glorifies our God. It brings
honour and glory to Him. And we come and say, yes, my
God is worthy. He's worthy to receive my praise.
He's worthy to receive my adoration. because he has been a refuge
for me and a shadow. A shadow from the heat, when
the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against the whole
world. You see when we get these blasts
from the devil, let us not forget the devil is very keen to destroy
our soul. He will do all that he can to
destroy us. And therefore, how thankful we
should be today that we have such words as this. The Lord
is a shadow, a place we can come and hide in. We're told those
words, a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And just remember,
when the land is near the equator or in the desert, you know, when
the sun's pretty high overhead, you will need in those locations
a great rock to give a little shadow. My friends, the Saviour
is a great rock to His church today. To give that shadow, we
may find relief as you and I travel through this wilderness journey. Well, my friends, may you and
I bless God today that there is a Word of God, there is a
support of encouragement as we are able to look at those testimonies
and experiences of those who have gone before especially those
who are recording the Word of God for our encouragement even
today, and to be able to confirm. May each one of us be able to
come this morning, and if I was asked you all, can you put up
your hand to this statement? Can you concur it's true in your
life? Bless God if you can, for thou hast been a strength to
the poor, a strength of the needy in its distress, a refuge from
this storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible
ones is the storm against the war, and if so, praise God, from
whom all blessings flow. Amen.