All right, brethren. Tonight,
I'm gonna read from our text, which is Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33,
verse seven. I think I see the light that
might need to be on. Give me one moment. Apologies for that. Let me just
check if anybody says anything. Okay. All right, well, I think I'm
in view of the camera sufficiently. So, all right, we're gonna be
in Isaiah 33, beginning in verse seven. And I'm gonna read our
text because it's kind of long before we begin. You know what? I'm not going
to worry about it. It's great you don't know what
you have until you don't have it anymore. Okay. All right, let's begin again.
All right, Isaiah 33, verse seven. Behold, their valiant ones shall
cry without. The ambassadors of peace shall
weep bitterly. The highways lie waste. The wayfaring
man seeth. He hath broken the covenant.
He hath despised the cities. He regardeth no man. The earth
mourneth and languisheth. Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Sharon is like a wilderness,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. Now will I rise,
saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff. Ye shall
bring forth stubble. Your breath as fire shall devour
you. and the people shall be as the
burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the
fire. 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. Who among us shall
dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? he that walketh righteously,
and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions,
that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing
evil. He shall dwell on high, his place
of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given
him, his waters shall be sure, thine eyes shall see the king
and his beauty, they shall behold the land that is very far off,
thine heart shall meditate terror, where is the scribe, where is
the receiver, where is he that counted the towers, thou shalt
not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou
canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our
solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.
Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither
shall any of the cords thereof be broken." Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we thank you for your mercy and grace towards your
people. Lord, we thank you that you are
so kind to us. Lord, that you would teach us,
cause us to hear your gospel. Lord, it's our only hope. Christ,
your son, is our only hope. We have no righteousness of our
own. We have nothing apart from him.
Lord, he is our salvation. Father, help us to hear that
word. Help us to receive the word that you declare in your
gospel. Lord, give us the faith to believe
it. We pray that you would indeed
teach your people, comfort them, draw them to yourself, that we
might find our all in you. fix our hope in the salvation
that you've provided, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray
for our brethren, we pray for our loved ones, those that are
sick, those that are troubled, those that are afraid or worried
or wearied from much labor and anxiety. Father, that you would
comfort them Turn their eyes and their heart toward Your Son,
Jesus Christ. Lord, deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the sin in this
flesh. Deliver us from the enmity of
this flesh, and wicked thoughts, and things that are sinful and
cause shame. Lord, keep us. Keep us ever looking
to Christ. And Lord, help us, enable us
to be helpers of our brethren here. Lord, enable us to stand
at the ready that we may be used of you in your kingdom as it
pleases you. Father, I'm just so thankful
for your people. Thankful for the love and the
fellowship of brethren. Lord, bless your people. Bless
this people gathered here tonight to hear your word. Feed us with
the gospel of Christ. Cause us to see our Savior and
trust in Him. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right, I'm just gonna
double check. Let me just see if there's any
comments, just in case there's something wrong. Looks like my AV person put up
a message. All right. All right, so our
text is Isaiah 33, and we'll be looking at verses seven through
20. So it's a good amount of scripture, so we won't be able
to spend a lot of time on all the verses. I've titled this
Eyes That See. Eyes That See, because those whom the Lord is gracious
to and has had mercy upon, He promises us that our eyes shall
see the King in His beauty." And that's our hope, brethren.
That's our hope. And so, I want to bring this
passage here and show you the hope that we have in Christ Jesus,
our Lord and Savior. So our text opens tonight in
verse 7, Isaiah 33, verse 7. We read, Behold, their valiant
ones shall cry without. The ambassadors of peace shall
weep bitterly. Now, we're speaking of Zion,
right? This is Zion. This is Jerusalem
and Judah. These are the choice people of
God, right? These are the people who go by
the name of God, that He is their Lord, that He is their Savior
and their God. Yet, as we've been seeing in
Isaiah, that this people, this people, the people, the whole
body that's there, They're yet hard and hardened in their sin. They're dull of mind, they're
dull of thought, they're slow to believe all that the Lord
is declaring to them. They're still unbelieving. They don't hear what the Lord
is saying. They're still trusting in themselves, in their strength,
in their works, in their wisdom. And this goes on with all men,
all persons, men and women, young and old, this goes on with all
until the Lord reveals himself in grace. We're not gonna hear
the word of the Lord until he reveals himself in grace. Now, historically, these are
ambassadors that Hezekiah would have sent to the king of Assyria. If you remember much earlier
when we were looking in Isaiah, he tells the king there, that
was the king at the time, I think it was Ahaz, but he tells him
that Assyria is going to come right up to the neck of Judah,
that he's going to come in like a flood and overcome the land
and come right up to the neck as though he's going to kill
them and destroy them all, make them slaves and take their land
and all their possessions, but He will not succeed in overthrowing
Jerusalem and the people of Judah. The Lord will be gracious to
them. But these ambassadors will be sent by Hezekiah, but they
on their mission are going to fail. They're going to come away
crying. They're going to come away weeping
bitterly. Now, the words here, valiant
ones, may also mean messengers, right? They're ambassadors, they're
messengers sent by the king with a word. And these may be likened
to pastors and teachers as well, those who declare the gospel. But like we see here with Judah,
with this people here, there's none to hear it. There's none
to hear it. So they're crying out and declaring
a word, but there's none to hear the message. Now, the reason
why is because this people has come into ruin. There's trouble
in the land. We're told that the land has
become barren. It's like a ghost town everywhere
you go. There's no one out. It's all
quiet and there's no one traveling or going around. And those cities
which were once great and proud and hustling and bustling, they're
now hidden in shame. Let's look at verse eight. The
highways lie waste. The wayfaring man, the traveling
man, seeth. He hath broken the covenant.
This is now speaking of, historically, of the king of Assyria. He's
not abiding by any covenant with Judah or anyone. He's out conquering. He hath despised the cities. He regardeth no man. No defense
city is going to withstand his army. And it doesn't matter who
you are, he has no regard for you, young or old. He doesn't
respect wisdom. He doesn't respect the women.
He doesn't respect anything, any of the people of Judah. He
despises them. He has no regard for them. And
that's because at this time he was conquering. He was looking
to expand the reach of his kingdom so that everyone in the land
that knew what Assyria was doing, going about and having great
success, they were afraid. So they weren't out traveling
on the roads because they didn't know what they were going to
encounter, when they were going to be stuck in a city away from
home or what would happen. All trade had ceased in the land
because they were under great threat. And when I was preparing,
looking over this message, I was reading Gil on this verse, verse
eight, and when I read his words, I was thinking, how similar is
the description that he gives of them in that day to what we
have been experiencing recently in our recent past, right? We're
opening up now, but there was a time when we were shut down,
where the cities were pretty barren in a lot of places, especially
hotspots, and there was a lot of businesses that came to an
end, that there were transactions no longer being done the way
they had been before. And so regarding the highways
lying in waste, Gill writes, no man walking in them for fear
of the enemy. the ways of Zion, which are said
to mourn because none come to the solemn feasts, none daring
to attend the ministry of the word and ordinances. And then
regarding the wayfaring man, he wrote, he does not proceed
on his journey. A stop is put to a religious
course and conversation. There is an entire cessation
of religious worship. Oh, a Sabbath is kept, but not
a religious one. He that would walk in Zion's
ways is forbid and obliged to sit still. And so we see this
people here were stopped from all their normal routine. They
were brought to a point where they had to sit still, shelter
in place, and not go out because they were afraid that the enemy
would get them and that they would be destroyed. And so we
see that here, that with this enemy, he regarded no life. And
so they were rightly afraid. And this is what was happening
in their day when Assyria was the enemy and expanding out and
coming to overtake them. And it says in verse nine, we
see that they were afraid. And like I said, their cities
were closed up. The once proud cities were no
longer trafficking and doing the things that cities do to
make money for their citizens. The earth mourneth and languisheth.
Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Sharon is like a wilderness. Ambation and Carmel shake off
their fruits. You see, there's no precious
fruit, what the Lord is saying. There's no precious fruit, and
there's no fruit being born there. In all their labors of fear,
there's no fruit being born. Now, what is the picture here
for us spiritually? Because that's what we wanna
see. We wanna see spiritually what is being said here. Well, before salvation comes
to a people, Before salvation has come to a people, all their
labors, all their religious works, their services, their sacrifices,
the things that they do, they're done in fear. They're done in
fear. They're not done in the spirit. They're not done with the right
heart. They're not done with a renewed,
spirit within them. They have no spiritual life.
So everything they do is that which they do of their own strength,
of their own abilities, of their own talents, their own thoughts,
and their own wisdom. We call that their flesh. It's
dead. It's corrupt. It has no spiritual
life, no ability to communicate or please God. And so they're
not serving in all their service they're not serving the Lord
in their service. And that's true of all of us
in religion. A lot of people are taken up
with religion and there's a lot of different religions because
people are very religious, but that doesn't make us accepted
with the true and living God. That doesn't mean that we are
saved just because we consider ourselves to be spiritual or
to have some spiritual knowledge. People may talk in such a way
or have a sense about certain things, but that doesn't make
it true, and it doesn't make it so, and it certainly doesn't
make it so that we have any acceptance or relation with the true and
living God. So whatever men and women are
doing in religion to please the Lord and try to earn His favor. and come to know that by their
works that they are accepted with God and righteous in His
sight, all those works and labors are fruitless. They're dead fruit. They're rotten and corrupt fruit
because they're born of this flesh. They're born of the strengths
of our own abilities. And we think that by those things,
God is pleased with them. And that's a lie. That's not
what the Lord tells us in his word. And so this goes on, sometimes
for a brief time, sometimes for a long time. Sometimes people
live and die in religion and never come to a knowledge of
the truth. But it will continue until the
Lord rises, and we've been seeing this a lot lately in Isaiah,
until the Lord rises in His purpose to save a person, to bring the
knowledge of salvation, the knowledge of Jesus Christ to that person,
when He rises, then they will hear, then they will believe
the Lord. Look at Isaiah 33 10. Now will I rise, saith the Lord. Now will I be exalted. Now will
I lift up myself. You see, when this people was
brought to great ruin, and fear and realize there's nothing they
can do to save themselves, that they cannot earn salvation, earn
righteousness with God, then the Lord said, now I'll rise
so that they know that salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man's
works. It's not by our hands. We are not going to save ourself. And so in this, we see here our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that everything that man
is fearful of and afraid of, when Christ rises, he sets all
things right. He's going to take care of the
enemies of his people. He's going to make right that
which is ruined and destroyed or wrong. The Lord does that. Christ does that. We don't figure
it out and make it then work. The Lord himself delivers his
people and deals with all things perfectly for his people. You
know, naturally, when we get involved, we make things worse. But the Lord reveals to us that
this work is His work. This work of salvation is His
work, and He does it perfectly. He says, now will I be exalted. Not you, not me, but the living
God, Jesus Christ, will be exalted. Now will I lift up myself. So regarding, specifically, just
tonight, regarding our fear and our labor that we were doing
in fear of the enemy, Christ, we're told, left His throne of
glory to deal with our enemies, to put them down, to destroy
our enemies that would destroy us. And so when He comes, He
delivers us from the prison of our fear and bondage to this
flesh and trying to work some kind of salvation for ourselves.
We're told in 2 Corinthians 8-9, ye know, Paul says, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. because he emptied himself of
all his glory and took upon, he stooped and took upon him
flesh like you and me with all its weaknesses, right? He could be cut and wounded and
bleed. even die, which he did at the
appointed time when he willingly gave up the ghost to earn to
obtain redemption for his people. So that one of the things that
our Savior accomplished in our redemption was that he delivered
us from the power that the enemy had over us, keeping us in the
bondage of fear. When we labored foolishly, ignorantly,
in darkness with a veil over us, over our hearts that we could
not understand, when we labored in fear and in doubts, under
threats, Christ delivers us from that. We're told in Hebrews 2
14 and 15 that, for as much as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, Christ also himself likewise betook part
of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. All right, so prior to Christ's
work, prior to him revealing himself in us, through spiritual
birth, through his work of salvation in us, we could only bring forth
fruits unto death. All right, there were fruits
unto death, especially because we trusted in them, which were
all the more insulting to the true and living God, who himself
is holy and righteous and blessed forevermore. So we could only
bring forth fruits unto death. And so we were afraid and we
labored to work a righteousness for ourselves to make ourselves
acceptable and pleasing to God. But it was the resurrection power
of Christ whereby he gives us life and and delivers us from
that darkness. He's the one that takes away
that veil and we realize and come to know all those works
were foolishness. And I want no part in those works
anymore. Lord, deliver me, turn me from
dead works to the true and living God. to do that which is well-pleasing
in his sight, which is the faith which he reveals in us. That's
what God is pleased with, believing the one whom he has sent, right? That's the work of God, that
he works in us. He reveals faith in us whereby
we believe unto righteousness. We believe our God. And so this
word here in Isaiah now is a stark warning It's a grim warning to
those who are asleep in their religion. They're just asleep
in their religion. And those who have no heart or
desire for the things of God either. But most people are pretty,
have some kind of religion, whether it's very minimal it seems, but
they're still confident in what they think, in their opinion.
It's their religion of themselves, their idolaters of self, which
we all are until the Lord delivers us from that. And so those who
see all about them, right? We were hearing about Judah and
the place is desolate, right? And they're looking about and
they see the decay of all that they've done, of all that they've
worked for their whole lives and built up and there's this
great decay, right? But just like them, they weren't
getting it, it wasn't turning them to the Lord, and just like
them, that's how man is today, right? We see all the works that
our hands have done, and we see the violence and the crimes and
the trespasses committed against others all the time, and yet
it never enters our mind to think of our eternal souls and what
the Lord God himself says concerning our souls. In fact, when you
speak to people about the Lord and you go to declare the gospel
to them, for many, they're like those that Peter wrote of in
2 Peter 3, verses 4 and 5, who say, where's the promise of his
coming? Whether they say it out loud
or they think about it later on, where's the promise of His
coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they
willingly are ignorant of. What are they ignorant of? Willingly,
what are they so ignorant of? Well, that God destroyed the
whole world that then was. He destroyed the whole world
with a flood, killing all living things on the earth, saving 8
souls, 8 persons, plus the living things that were brought into
that ark. and then this same God promises
that he will burn this earth up with fire, so that all that
man has constructed and done and built up, all his works,
all his glory that he rejoices in and thinks is so great, our
God says it's all going to be burned up, because all your works
and my works are vanity. All right? So man is ignorant
of these things and he's ignorant about his own righteousness.
He thinks, a lot of people think that they're pretty good. Even
if they think they're bad, they still think they're pretty good.
They can always find somebody that they think they're better
than. So man, generally, seeing the trouble, just like even in
our day, seeing the trouble, we think all is well. All is
well between us and God. Everything's fine, it'll all
get worked out. But the reality is, our works
are ruinous. We're ruined in our works. They're
not helping us in any way. And the Lord is sending out his
messengers, and they're crying, and they're declaring what God
has done, but they're left to weep bitterly because no one
hears it. No one hears that word until
the Lord rises up and causes them to hear it. All right, so
our righteousnesses in ourselves, apart from the Lord's work, our
righteousnesses are very ruined. There are very room, okay? But
after the Lord rises, he makes known to the people. When it
pleases him, he'll make known to the people what we have need
of knowing. He declares what our works are
and he tells us what the outcome of our works are gonna be so
that there's no mystery. He's making it very plain and
clear to us that when we stand before God in our own works,
it's gonna be a miserable day for those people. He says, 3311,
ye shall conceive chaff, right? Vanity, ye shall bring forth
stubble, that which is burned up. He says, your breath, that
is when you open your mouth to speak, will be as fire, shall
devour you, right? Everything you're hoping in,
when you speak and declare your righteousness, it's gonna be
the very thing that consumes you. and the people shall be
as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in
the fire. So that as long as we believe
the lies that we're telling ourselves about ourselves and our goodness
and what we've done for the Lord, We tell ourselves in religion,
my practices and my service and my labors, these are the things
that save me. This is what makes me acceptable. How many of us for so long trusted
in our knowledge of these things? We were hopeful that the Lord
did this work in us because we believed the truth of election
and we believed the truth of limited atonement. and we believed
the truth of his effectual calling, and the perseverance of the saints,
and that we were totally depraved, and we trusted that. rather than
trusting Christ, who reveals the truth of that to us, right? He reveals it to us. We know
that will be delivered from thinking we've saved ourselves, as so
many think, but those doctrines, they're not salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself is our very salvation, and he's our hope,
and we trust that all things that he is pleased to reveal
to us and teach us concerning the Lord, he'll do it, and we'll
grow in that grace and knowledge of our Savior. We'll grow in
love, rejoicing, and just constantly coming to know what Christ has
done for us. All right, so, we've gotta be
delivered from that. And as long as those things are
our hope, as long as we're confident, for example, in the things that
we know, then we're not hearing the gospel. We're not hearing
Christ and our need of Christ. We're stumbling over Christ,
because we're just looking over here at some religious thing,
rather than looking at Christ and believing him. trusting him
for our salvation. Remember when Paul and Barnabas
were sent out and they're preaching first to the Jews, they would
go into a city and go to the synagogue there where the Jews
were, and they would ask if they could declare the word, if they
could read the scriptures and declare the word to the people
that were gathered there. And so when the gospel came to
them, There came a point in Acts 13 46 that Paul and Barnabas
says they waxed bold and they said it was necessary that the
word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing
ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal
life or everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And so the Gentiles, when they
heard that, they rejoiced. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, we know, believed. They believed the word of God. And so we that are in the churches
gathered to hear the word, We don't want to be like the Jews. We don't want to be the new set
of people that are so confident in our religious service and
our works and our knowledge of things. That's not our hope.
Jesus Christ and Christ alone is our hope. So we don't want
to be like those Jews where you just see in so many generations
throughout the scriptures, you see a people constantly hearing
the truth and yet not believing and perishing as we saw that
generation who perished in the way. The Hebrew writer talks
of them in Hebrews 3.15 saying, while it is today, while it is
today, if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts. Don't
say this sounds so simple. This is the simplicity of Christ.
I want to hear something deeper. I want strong meat. Something that moves beyond Christ.
He says, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. And I
say this because in our text, in the next verse, verse 13,
He says, hear ye that are far off what I have done, and ye
that are near, acknowledge my might. Acknowledge my might,
the Lord says. He's declaring to us the gospel. He's saying, hear what I've done. the true and living God has sent
the Son of God to take upon him flesh like you and I, that he
might be a fit sacrifice, because we are sinners. We're the ones
who have ruined ourselves and destroyed everything, and we
have no fellowship with God, and our works are putrid and
stink, they smell, and God does not accept them. They're of this
flesh, they're of this body, this person, and it's not pleasing
to the Lord. And so our God sent the Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our God and our Savior, And
He came and worked all righteousness for His people. He fulfilled
the law of God perfectly for His people. And as the fit sacrifice,
the Lamb of God, He went to the cross willingly bearing the sins
of His people. and bore the wrath of God against
Himself, bearing those sins to put those sins away forever,
so that when Christ shed His blood and died, we that believe
on Him, that hope in His righteousness and not ourselves, He justified
us. He cleansed us perfectly. When
He was buried, our sins were buried with him, out of the sight
of God. He took them away. This is the righteous Son of
God who did this work for sinners, brethren, who are not worthy
of this grace and this kindness. But Christ did this, and when
He rose again, it declared our salvation. It declared that God
has accepted Him and all His people are saved. They were saved. It was declared,
it was then made known that all for whom Christ died were saved
then and there and nothing shall stop them from hearing this word
and believing what Christ has done. We're going to hear what
he's done and acknowledge his might. We'll acknowledge his
might. All right, so you that are near,
he tells us, acknowledge him, acknowledge, believe him, confess
him what he has done, believe what he's done. Don't be like
Agrippa. Remember King Agrippa who heard
Paul and said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. We don't
want to be almost. That's not enough. We must acknowledge
the might of our Savior. Acknowledge that Christ has accomplished
my salvation. Believe Him. If it's justification
from the guilt of your sins that you seek, if you would be saved,
then as Paul and Silas said to that Philippian jailer who said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and all thy household,
right, all thy house, right, as many as shall believe shall
be saved by the Lord. For, he tells us in Romans, if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." We're acknowledging his might. We've heard the word
and we're acknowledging, yes, Lord, you've accomplished salvation
just like you said. That's the fruit, the righteous
fruit of faith which shall be revealed in the saints of God
when he makes known those chosen seed of his grace. All right, that's what the Lord
will produce. He'll bring forth an acknowledgement
of his might. will believe and confess the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, saying that, remember back
in Hebrews, with whom was the Lord grieved? With whom was he
grieved back in Hebrews 3, verse 18 and 19 tells us, to whom the
Lord swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
I'm sorry, and to whom swear he that they should not enter
into his rest, but to them that believed not. That's who he was
grieved with, them that believed not. So the writer says, we see
that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Notice it doesn't say because
they weren't the elect, God doesn't call us to first find out whether
we're one of the elect to believe. He says, hear what I've done
and acknowledge my might. Hear what I've done to save my
people. Believe and confess my salvation. Confess me who is the Savior.
Confess that I'm God. He's saying, don't trust yourselves.
Don't trust, don't look for anything in you and in yourself. Believe,
believe and confess. Acknowledge what I have done
for you. for my people, all right? So
our text asks of such who will not believe, right? Whether it's
through indifference that they don't believe, they just don't
care, or it's just a revealed hatred, right? Because all unbelievers
hate God. There's nothing but enmity there,
whether they realize how deep it goes or not, or because they
think that salvation wasn't for them. That's not what the Lord,
he doesn't call us to know first if we'll be elect. He reveals
those that are elect because they believe, they hope in him. And so he asks those that are
not believing, that are just either through hatred or they're
just stuck, they won't believe. They're not trusting the Lord,
they're just not believing him. He says in verse 14, He says,
the sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. All right, they've been caught
off guard. That's what's gonna happen to
all those who have no hope in Christ, that look to and trust
their own works. They'll be caught off guard because
it'll come suddenly upon them and their hearts and their minds
are fixed in foul places. All right, and you think about
this current pandemic. And it doesn't matter whether
you think it's real or not or what you think its origins are
and what they're doing in here. But nonetheless, whatever you
think about it, it's never been like this, quite like this in
history where all the world at one time shut down. That's pretty
powerful that all the world at one time came to a screeching
halt like this. And so many, many people around
the world are touched by this. Because it's never happened like
this. The only time worse than this was in the days of Noah.
In the days of Noah when everything was brought to a complete end
there. for real there, but you can imagine
just the fearfulness and surprise that has taken hold of the hypocrites,
right? And those sinners who aren't
looking to the Lord and have no thought or knowledge of Him.
But if nothing else even happens, If nothing major or significant
happens as a result of this, you know that this one event
is going to affect generations of people. Whether you're retired
or just about to retire or you're in your 50s or 40s or 30s, your
20s, you're graduating college or getting out of high school,
all the way down to to diapers you're still affected in some
manner. I mean the only thing I remember
when I was younger was when I was younger I was the baby of the
family so my mom would always take me whenever she went out
to the store I went with her and I just remember in the 70s
sitting in long lines to get gas and so you know having heard
that it was Exxon's fault to this day I don't buy Exxon gas. I don't go to Exxon Mobil gas
if I can help it but And so I basically don't spend any money there.
And so that's just me as being, I think it was nine years old
or something like that. And today I'm still affected by that event
there. But there's events that happen
and this one's pretty big, pretty significant that a lot of people
will be impacted and affected. And Judah, they feared Assyria. Judah feared Assyria. But do
you think that the tribes in Spain or in Algeria were afraid
of Assyria? No, they didn't even know about
Assyria. They didn't think about them. They weren't affected.
but here the whole world is impacted, right? And it's set off, it was
set off by certain events, it's now gonna be the trigger for
other events, but all those things find their first causality in
God. This is all according to the
will and the purpose of God. And I say that because we are
to hear his word, hear his gospel. Right? This is no small thing.
You might think it's a small thing and everything's going
back to normal, but no, it won't. And that's just thinking that
that's the only event. Right? That's the only event.
I don't think that's the only event that we'll see. in our
lifetime here, but that there'll be many other things. So hear
his word. And we're asked there at the
end of verse 14, who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? Well, here's the answer, verse
15. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that
despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding
of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and
shutteth his eyes from seeing evil." Christ did this perfectly
in the flesh. Christ our Savior did this perfectly
in the flesh. We can't do any of this in the
flesh. We can't do this in the flesh.
Christ and Christ alone did this in the flesh. But our Lord, He
came to make us righteous, accepted with God, and His Spirit is given
to His people. which gives us life, turning
us to Christ, looking to Christ, being led by the Spirit, walking
in the Spirit by faith, right, looking to Christ, so that all
the righteous fruit that is listed here, right, all this righteous
fruit is found in the salvation of Christ alone, of Christ alone. So listen, Well, this is what
I'm saying here. The Saint of God, by the grace
of God, it says that he walketh righteously. What is that? Well, he's walking by the Spirit
of God. We that are Christ's have been
saved by him, are led of the Spirit. We're led in paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. He's revealed faith in
us and we walk by faith, looking to Christ, believing our God,
trusting that He is our salvation. He speaketh uprightly. What do
we say? Christ is my righteousness. I
have no righteousness of my own. Christ is my righteousness. My
God has provided all things for me. He's given me life in His
Son. "'He that despiseth the gain
of oppressions.'" All right, so we don't turn now to the law
and use it to whip and beat and oppress our brethren, but we
love them and we serve our brethren in peace and joy of what our
Savior has done. We don't find favor with those
who would bribe us with flattering words and their good works to
impress us. That's not what we're pleased
with, but rather, He shaketh his hands from holding of bribes.
We're not looking just to be men pleasers with one another. He stoppeth his ears from hearing
of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. It means that
we look to no other salvation. We have no other hope of salvation
than the one whom our God has given to us. provided for us
for our very lives. Jesus Christ, that's the hope
of our salvation. Christ and Christ alone, all
right? So that's how, that's how, that's
who he's speaking of. The saint of God who's been made
to look to Jesus Christ and rest in Christ, our Sabbath rest.
Now, because of Christ, We're told in verses 16 and 17, he
shall dwell on high. This is speaking of the saints.
He shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be
the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him. His
waters shall be sure. All right, so the Lord is saying,
I'll bless you. I'm blessing my people with my
gospel. All right, in the days of trouble. All right, whatever's to come. When this world has nothing and
everything is collapsing and falling apart around them, we,
brethren, have the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. He says, verse
17, Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off, That's our hope. We see Jesus. We see our Lord
and Savior and the beautiful inheritance of His land with
Him in the presence of our God. Though it be far off, it seems,
yet it's there that we see it and behold it and lay hold of
it by faith in Him. That's our hope. And it's not
shaken, right? When this world is shaken, when
God comes to destroy all these things and they're shaken, we
have a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,
is God. Now, speaking to believers, he
says, verse 18, thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the
scribe? Where is the receiver? Where
is he that counted the towers? He'll look back on all that once
troubled us, all that fear and anxiety that we once had and
see My God has delivered me from that. He's put that away and
taking me out of the prison of fear and anxiety and death and
worry and the enemy that was coming to destroy me. He's delivered
me. We're acknowledging his might.
We're seeing again and again and again be reminded of what
our God and Savior has done for us, brethren. us undeserving,
unworthy sinners, saved by his grace." All right, so we're rejoicing
what he's done, that whole army of the enemy that we feared shall
not be able to destroy the hope that our God has given us fixed
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's done this work. Verse 19,
thou shalt not see a fierce people. You're not gonna come face to
face with that enemy like that. A people of a deeper speech than
thou canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand. Just as our God put a hook in
the nose of Assyria and turned them back and sent them running
away, so the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished the destruction
of our enemies. He's destroyed our enemies. Their defeat is already accomplished. Christ has already done the work. All right, they've all been defeated
by Christ so that Christ is our inheritance. Our eyes shall see
the King in his beauty. We've already received it by
faith. He's our savior. There's no enemy
that shall stand against us in that day. When the wicked are
having to try and abide the fires of judgment, we shall be welcomed
in to the glory of our God Hearing those words, well done thou good
and faithful servant, enter thou into the high rest. All thanks
because of Jesus Christ, who left his throne of glory, all
his riches, and humbled himself, and became like us in weakness,
and bore the reproach of sinners, bore all that shame willingly,
because he loves his bride. He loves his people. He loves
you that love him. He's given you that love. He's
put his spirit in you whereby he's given you hope and assurance
and confidence that this place is not your inheritance. This
is not your home, but you have a home that shall not be shaken,
that shall not be destroyed. This place will be destroyed.
This place will know many sufferings and trials and tribulations and
afflictions, but you in Christ shall never be shaken. Your hope
is given to you by God and keep trusting Him. Even when it seems
like it's shaken, you keep trusting Him and do not depart from Christ. Don't look away. Don't look to
the things of this world and despair. Trust Christ. Trust Him. Cry out to Him whenever
you're afraid and troubled, and He'll answer. He'll keep you.
It's His promise. You're His people. Now, we see
here, verse 20, we'll close here. Look upon Zion, He says, the
city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation. You may have troubles here, but
you see what our Savior has given to us in Christ, a quiet habitation,
a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes
thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords
thereof be broken. So brethren, trust, trust your
God. Trust the salvation he's provided,
Jesus Christ. Believe on Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Acknowledge his might. Believe
on Christ and you shall be saved. I pray the Lord will bless that
word to your hearts and comfort you, brethren. And I look forward
to being able to meet with you all again soon. All right, let's
close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank You,
Father, for the salvation, the love that You've poured out upon
Your people. Lord, when You poured out Your
blood to atone for our sins, to restore all that which was
lost in Adam, in our fall, in our sin and death, Lord, that
you've restored fellowship to us with God our Savior, and that
you've fixed in our hearts the hope of our salvation and inheritance
with you. Lord, that you are our hope and
our joy, our confidence, our strength. Lord, keep us ever
looking to Christ our Savior. Let us not look away at our works
and the things that we've done. Lord, if we're honest, all we'll
see is weakness, folly, chaff, vanity, that which comes short
of the glory of our God. But Lord, keep us ever looking
to Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen.