All right, good evening, everyone. I'm happy to welcome you all
to our gathering together to meet with the Lord and to seek
our God in the reading of his word and in prayer and in the
preaching of his word. Our text is gonna be found in
Isaiah 31, and it's a relatively short chapter. And we're going
to read this chapter together before we begin, and I believe
that you'll notice similarities in this chapter to what we saw
already in chapter 30. Isaiah 31, beginning with verse
1, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses,
and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen
because they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy
One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Yet He also is wise, and
will bring evil, and will not call back His words, but will
arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help
of them that work iniquity." Now, the Egyptians are men. and not God, and their horses
flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out
his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is hoping
shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. For thus hath the Lord spoken
unto me, like as the lion, and the young lion roaring on his
prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him,
he will not be afraid of their voice, nor base himself for the
noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come
down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof. As
birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending
also, he will deliver it, and passing over, he will preserve
it. turn ye unto him from whom the
children of Israel have deeply revolted for in that day every
man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold
which your own hands have made unto you for a sin then shall
the Assyrian fall with the sword not of a mighty man and the sword
not of a mean man shall devour him but he shall flee from the
sword, and his young men shall be discomfited, and he shall
pass over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be
afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion,
and his furnace in Jerusalem." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you, and look to you, for you alone are God, and you are
Spirit, and we are but men, but flesh, weak, fallen, sinful,
corrupt flesh. Father, we seek you now, Lord,
that you would be merciful and gracious to us in all things,
Lord, arise and be our God. Cause our hearts to go after
you and to seek you and to call upon your name in things carnal
and in things spiritual, Lord. In the things that we think of
our needs in this life, as well as those needs that we have which
are spiritual. Lord, that you would be the provider
of both our righteousness and our livelihood, Lord, that you
would be our provision in all things. And Lord, we confess
now that certainly this is true, whether we understand it or not,
but Lord, help us to enter into that truth and what you are revealing
to Israel here, reminding them and bringing your people to see
that you alone are God and that you do all things for your people. Lord, we are humbled and confess
our sin and our faults. Lord, that we do not think of
you and turn to you as we ought, and like Israel here, forget
so often and are turned to the flesh because they are many,
and that because they are very strong. But Lord, we are so thankful
that you are ever faithful to remind us and to turn us again
to make us to see our need, and to see that we are but flesh,
but grass that withers and fades and dies, and is burned up. The Lord, that You are eternal,
that You are God forever, and that there is none like You,
who is eternal and holy and righteous, and doeth right in all things,
And Lord, we pray that you would have mercy upon this people,
that you would bless this congregation, Lord, that you would remember
us and our needs and our fears and our concerns. Lord, that you would help us
in causing us to hear your voice and seeing the strength and the
wisdom of our God, to know that there is none like you. Lord,
that we would hear your voice, and that by your strength and
power we would turn, repent, cast away our idolatry and our
confidence in self, and that we would find our all and all
in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you've provided for our righteousness,
and the one to whom we may cast upon all our care. Lord, you
know our fears and our concerns, and we confess them to you now,
Lord, and ask that you would be merciful to us, that you would
protect us and keep us. Lord, that you would give wisdom
and discretion to our leaders in the country. Lord, that we
would once again be able to move about freely. and
have deliverance from our homes and being shut up. Lord, we know that it is not
right that we should not meet together. That it's not right for the governments
to say that we should not meet together as a body. But Lord,
we are thankful for the means that we have to assemble together. to preach your word and to hear
your word preached. We're thankful for that, Lord,
but we pray that this would not be a precedent, that this would
not be something that continues and is done again. For Lord,
it is a dangerous thing. We ask that you would look upon
this and that you would give the judges in our land wisdom
and that they would rule that such a thing could never be done
again. Lord, that you would allow us
to assemble together, and that you would bless the assembling
of your people together, and bless your word to the hearts
of your people. Help us now, Lord, to worship
you, and to hear you, and to believe you. For it's in Christ's
name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren, so again,
our text is Isaiah 31, verses one through nine. Isaiah 31,
it's the whole chapter, one through nine. Now, as I mentioned, this
chapter is a briefer outline of what we saw in chapter 30,
Isaiah 30. And what we have here is that
the folly of man, the folly of man's flesh. And what I mean
by man's flesh are his thoughts, his ideas, the inventions that
he has, the ways that he goes about things, the things which
give him confidence, his flesh, his strength and his wisdom.
These things are exposed before us tonight. as being the rebellion
of sin against the Lord. And the Lord tells us it's idolatry. It's idolatry for us to hope
and trust and have our confidence in that which is flesh and not
the Lord. The Lord shows us. He tells us
this is idolatry. And when I turn you, you're going
to cast off those idolatrous things. And so, The people's
foolishness here is traced out for us as those that are trusting
in fleshly, carnal things, and the Lord contrasts their confidence
with his strength, and he gives assurance to the remnant seed
that there's none greater to protect them. There's no wiser,
stronger provider than God. None can do better for us than
what the Lord himself does, and he'll never be defeated by the
enemy, but the enemy shall always be defeated by him. And so, he
gives assurance to those of us with hearing ears, those whose
ears he's opened to hear his word, to be humbled before him,
and to see that the Lord is right in what he says and what he declares. And he calls them, he calls that,
those people, he calls all people to turn and he sends that word
with power effectually into the hearts of his remnant seed whom
he's chosen from before the foundation of the earth, that they should
be turned from sin, turned from this idolatry and rest upon the
Lord. And then he closes the chapter
with three reasons which he gives, or three things which will be
the fruit of the Lord's coming and doing this thing for his
people. It'll be a profitable repentance
because the Lord is in it. He's the one turning his people.
So he'll bless their turning to repent of the idolatry. And
then we'll see that the Lord is the one who defeats all our
enemies. He's the one that defeats our
foes. And then thirdly, we see that we're no longer in that
wicked body of rebellion against the Lord, because the Lord has
turned us, and so that the Lord himself has delivered us from
the coming wrath, which is to fall upon his enemies. Our title
tonight is Turn from the Flesh. Turn from the Flesh. The first
three verses, we'll see the folly of flesh exposed. Verses four
and five, we'll see the assurance that God gives of his protection
for his people. And then we'll look at that call
to repentance in closing. All right, so just as the 30th
chapter, our text opens this evening with a woe, a woe which is pronounced against
those that are turning back to Egypt, looking to Egypt to trust
the strength of Egypt to help them against their enemies. Historically,
the enemy is Assyria. Assyria, they're threatened by
Assyria. And he says in verse 1, woe to them that go down to
Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because
they are many. and in horsemen because they
are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel,
neither seek the Lord." So, the first thing I want us to realize
here is that this historical account of Israel and Assyria
and turning to Egypt is made profitable to us when we see
it in relation to ourselves, in our own behaviors, our own
actions, and our own thoughts of the Lord, and this world,
and the strength, and the wisdom that we think we see in this
world. And so, it's best when we understand
that we ourselves, in our flesh, are transgressors against the
Lord in the same way. We do this. Our flesh is weak.
Our wisdom is foolishness. Our thoughts are darkness in
this flesh. We don't do that which is right
in the flesh, ever. And the Lord's the one who turns
us, who has given us His Spirit and causes us to see that natural
inclination in the flesh, that which is darkness and and cannot please the Lord, the
Lord turns us and shows us by His Spirit that He Himself is
our hope and our glory. And it's all found in Jesus Christ,
our righteousness, whom He's provided. Now, you think about
what Israel is facing here. They're under great distress. They're fearful. There's a nation,
a mighty and strong nation, called Assyria, and they've determined
to come against them. They're gonna come against them
to destroy them and to take them down, to bring them into servitude. And they're afraid of this. They're
afraid of what's coming. And it's a fearful thing when
you think about it, if you were in their position, how fearful
that is. And so seeing the strength of
their foe, they forgot about the Lord. It didn't cause them
to turn to the Lord. They forgot about the Lord. And
they got into seeking their own means and their own strength
and how they might defeat this enemy. And what they did is they
looked back to Egypt. They looked back to Egypt. They
turned back to them to put their trust in chariots because there
were many. and in the horsemen that they
had because they are very strong, the Lord says. And if you remember,
the Lord told them through Moses in Deuteronomy 17, 16, he told
them, don't turn back to Egypt. He said, in that day when you
guys desire a king and I give you a king, this king, all the
kings that you have are never to turn you back to Egypt. that he should not multiply horses
to himself, the Lord said, nor cause the people to return to
Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses. For as much
as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no
more that way." And yet, this is exactly what Israel did here. It's exactly what they did. They
turned back to Egypt. their princes, the people, they
all turned back to Egypt. And it reveals where their trust
was lying. It was in the flesh, not in the
Lord. And so it showed an overconfidence
in the creature, in the flesh, right? We're trusting ourselves,
we're trusting our strength and our wisdom. We're looking upon
a thing and seeing that's many. There's a great abundance there.
And, oh, look at this. That's very strong. And it would
be like looking at the American military and assuming that we
could face any foe and defeat it and never be defeated because
we trust in the flesh. And the Lord says, there's no
guarantee that you can win this war. And if I'm against you,
you'll never win. and you'll never prevail against
your enemies. They'll conquer you. And so this response in
Israel is a different response than what we saw, say, when Hezekiah
heard from Rabshakeh, or Sennacherib rather, when Sennacherib came
and declared to him what the Assyrian army was gonna do and
that they should yield to their army. And when Hezekiah heard
the words that Sennacherib said, what did he do? He. He. So he called upon the men
to pray, to seek the Lord. And he took that word before
the Lord and laid it before him and he sent messengers to Isaiah,
who was a prophet of the Lord, to hear what the Lord would say.
And the Lord gave him a gracious word back and said, I'm gonna
deliver you. There's nothing for you to fear.
I'm gonna deliver you from them. And we know the Lord did that.
He delivered the people of Judah in Jerusalem. In our day, we
face fearful sights and fearful thoughts and ideas, right? We
have the threat of sickness now. If we go out of our homes and
into the stores to shop or to do our business, there's a threat
that we could become ill ourselves, and that's severely. There's
also the threat of economic hardships and even economic disaster, ruin,
right? their whole business is collapsing
because they were so lean on their income or whatever the
reason, they've come to nothing in themselves and they're afraid.
They're losing all that they've worked for. There's, you know,
we in ourselves have the short-term loss of freedom of movement,
right? Some of us had plans to go to
places that require travel and now we're not able to do those
things and see the people that we love and wanted to see and
be with. And there's also the long-term
concern that, what does this mean? What's going on here? Why
are all these things happening? Why is it so severe and things
shut down? And so we can work ourselves
up and worry about these things. But the point is, what the Lord's
showing us here is that Before we get to worrying and voicing
these things publicly and just saying things that are not profitable
to others, what I see here in this Word is that we're to take
our fears and our concerns and lay them before the Lord. We're
to seek the Lord and to lay them before Him because any time spent
the presence of the Lord. Especially when we're fearful,
and we know that we have no help in ourselves, and that He alone
is the one to help us. Any time spent with the Lord
is a profitable time, and it changes our perspective, and
it turns our heart to desire that the will of our God be done.
Whatever it is, Even if it seems like it'll be against what our
flesh would have, we know that the Lord is right, and that what
He does is right, and that His will is to be done. And so, even
in our carnal fears, in our livelihood, in our homes, in our dealings
in business and with one another, these things too, our decisions
that we make, And these things should be treated the same way
that we think of our righteousness and how the Lord has taught us
and what he's taught us about righteousness. You that believe
and hope in Christ know that we can't affect our righteousness,
we can't cleanse our filthy hands, we can't do anything to improve
our status before the Lord. We know that our righteousness
is found in another, in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so,
just as we are turned to the Lord in the thought of our sin
and our forgiveness and our hope in the Lord, in spiritual matters,
so even in carnal matters, we should seek the Lord in all things,
right? Lest we should succumb to temptation
and to turn to the flesh to try and deliver ourselves or to do
something to save ourselves in regards to carnal things. Our
Lord, when he was teaching the disciples to pray, he said, lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he says that,
he shows us that that should be our prayer. Lord, please don't
lead me into temptation, because the flesh is weak. The flesh
is easily shaken and made afraid, because the flesh doesn't believe
the Lord, and so the flesh will flee to the flesh, and that which
it can see, and that which it thinks is safety. But thankfully,
the Lord overrules and he delivers us from evil. He delivers us
from evil, lest we should, like Israel, be turned to idolatry
and trusting ourselves. So in all things, we are to turn
to the Lord. And think about what the Lord
laid on Peter's heart when he wrote in 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5,
he said in verse 5, that we are to be clothed with humility,
for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. And he said, humble yourselves
therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you." And so that means all our cares and all our concerns,
spiritual and that of a carnal nature, whether it's of the earth
or if it's spiritual, we're to cast all our cares upon the Lord. seeking that he deliver us from
temptation and deliver us from evil. And so it's important to
seek the Lord in all things. And he reminds us in our text
in Isaiah 31, verse two, right? We think of carnal things and
he says to us, yet he also is wise and he'll bring evil, he'll
trouble. and will not call back his words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against
the help of them that work iniquity. And so the Lord saying to us,
you think man is wise? You attribute wisdom to man?
Is not God himself wise? And you attribute strength to
man and strength to the flesh? Is not God stronger than man
and wiser than man? And so even those things that
we think of God and we think naturally in ourselves are foolish
or a sign of weakness in the Lord, he reminds us that the
foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is
stronger than men. And that's a reference to our
Savior who in weakness came in the likeness of the sinful flesh
and laid down his life. But in doing that, in his obedience
to the Father, That weakness, which man considers weakness
in dying, he triumphed mightily over all our foes and our enemies,
and he delivered us from eternal death. And so, our Lord points
this out in verse 3, Isaiah 31, verse 3. He says, now the Egyptians
are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out
his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is hoping,
or he that is helped, shall fall down, and they all shall fail
together." So that when we align ourselves with flesh, when we
align ourselves rather with man, we're aligning ourselves with
flesh. things that are not spiritual, things that are not lasting,
things that are shaken. When the Lord comes and fights
against his enemies, and he shakes his hand over them, they fall
apart, they crumble, and they dissolve, and they are not lasting,
is what the Lord is saying. And so, the Lord is giving us
this word to turn us, to show us our need of Him, and not to
trust in man. And, you know, even as an example,
I was thinking, you know, with the garden. Many of you know
that I have a garden, and I like working in the garden. But, you
know, I found that there's days when I'm out there laboring,
sweating. You know, my brow is sweating
under the heat of the sun, and after I'm, you know, lifting
up various tools and working the ground, it's painful in my
wrists and hands and forearms. inflamed, and there's pain as
a result. And it makes me to think about
that. It reminds me of my weakness
and infirmity in my flesh. And it reminds me to pray that
the Lord bless it. Bless that word, that I not just
be worn down for nothing. That the labor I put into that,
that food doesn't become food for bugs and insects. you know, or subjected to blight
and disease and blasting, right, and become worthless. And, you
know, I think that the convenience of the grocery stores has caused
us to grow hard and cold to these things. But then you see when
this pandemic comes, How we're reminded that it's not so easy
just to go to the store and pick up things. There's not always
things that are there. And you think twice about just
going to the store, and you try to order them online, and you
have to wait. And it reminds me of the overconfidence
of man. I've heard so many people in
America say, that'll never come here. That'll never happen here.
That's a third world country thing. We'll never experience
that. And you see that there's a certain humility and humbling
for us even in this little thing. So it's not all bad. It's good to be reminded that
we're but flesh and that our God is the one who controls the
supply chains and whether things come or go and where they go
and how they move. And so let us remember in all
things to give thanks to the Lord and to seek Him and not
be turned to idolatry and made forgetful of these things and
to think that it's through our industry that our business is
doing well or profiting and that we have jobs and have an income
still. Let us remember and be humbled
under the hand of the Lord lest He show us further that all things
are in His control and in His power. All right, now I want
to move on to see the assurance that God gives his remnant seed. He's speaking to Israel, but
there's a people that are gonna hear his word. And so if you've
been made tender by the Lord, if you've been humbled by the
Lord to hear his word and to seek him, to hear what he would
say, then hear his voice to you, declaring to you his strength
and his wisdom. And he says in verse four, he
shows us his strength. He shows us his strength so that
we know we may put confidence in the Lord. Verse 4, he declares,
thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as a lion and the young
lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called
forth against him, He will not be afraid of their voice, nor
base himself for the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts
come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof."
Now in this illustration, the Lord himself is the Lion, and
we his people are his prey. But don't misunderstand it, it's
not that the Lord is We're not his prey in the sense that he's
going to devour us the way a lion devours his prey, but what we
are seen as is his precious treasure, his prize, his possession, that
which he has acquired for himself. And when these shepherds, which
are actually the enemy, come out to retrieve these little
lambs, these sheep, if you will, to bring them back into the house
of their bondage, the Lord says, I'm gonna fight and stand my
ground. I'm not gonna back away from
them. the evil one. I'm not going to be turned from
and give up my prize. I'm not going to give up my purchased
possession. You're mine now. I'm not going
to be moved away. They're going to be moved away,
but not me. Right? So the Lord will show
himself as a fierce lion against his enemies. The more we trust
in the Lord and the more we we call upon him The Lord will show
himself faithful in all things. We'll see not only the great
details, but all the finer, smaller details of how the Lord provides
in all things for his people. He'll make it known to us and
reveal to our sight what he has done in providing for us. so
that we see and know the Lord really is in control. When you
think of all these various details of doors that shut, doors that
open, windows shut and windows open, and you see how the Lord's
provided in all things, everything. He saved you. He's had mercy
upon you and not allowed you to be destroyed or come to nothing.
The Lord did that. And when our hearts and thoughts
are upon Him and we're praying about these things, He allows
us to enter in to what He in His grace and mercy has already
determined to do before us. And we know that the Lord says,
there are times where He says, I'll wait that I may be gracious
to you. You want to go in? and work your folly and come
to the end of yourself, I'll wait that I may be gracious to
you and show you even more great how wonderful my grace and sufficiency
is for you." But see there in verse four, you're his prized,
precious possession. Peter, writing on this, describes
us in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10, he says, ye are a chosen
generation. a royal priesthood, and holy
nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the
people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have
obtained mercy. And then the Lord, in the next
verse, he assures us that nothing's going to get by his watchful
eye, but he'll attack as a bird defends its nest, and drive away
the enemy. He says, as birds flying, so
will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also, he
will deliver it, and passing over, he will preserve it. And
it reminds me of when I was a young boy, probably, under 12 and I
remember one season there was a on the way home that I would
walk there was this property that I would cut across their
yard it was a corner yard and there was a tree there that I
learned that I had to walk a wide path around because every time
I tried to walk the straight line under it and go through
it there were these two blue jays that would swoop down and
attack me and drive me away and I guess because their nest with
their young was nearby. And so, in that way, the Lord
is saying, I'm going to drive away your enemies. They won't
be able to come near you that are my people. I'll protect you. I'll drive them away. And so,
the trust and the confidence that man has in the flesh, it's
going to fail. Egypt, in our text here, is likened
to the weakness of man's flesh. It's frail, it's brittle, it'll
shrink and flee away. And the hope of our flesh will
fail, it'll come to nothing. The Lord tells us that. But the
Lord who chose us for his precious purchased possession, he sends
his word and he tells us to cast our care upon him. And we that
are fearful and afraid, he says to us, like in Revelation 5-5,
when he said, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof, showing that our Savior
is the one implementing the will of God the Father. He's the one
who's opening the book and performing and executing the will of his
father here on the earth. And so it's Christ, Christ that
has prevailed for his people. We could not save ourselves.
We couldn't save ourselves to put away our sin or to make ourselves
do good and do that which is right and pleasing to the Lord.
So the Lord himself came and took upon the likeness of this
flesh. And He submitted Himself to the
will of the Father, and He was obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. And He bore your sin, believer,
you that hope in Him and have no confidence in the flesh, He
bore our sin in His own flesh, in His body, on the tree, and
died under the wrath of God to purge us of our sins, to make
atonement, to make peace with us and holy God, so that God
is now satisfied with us, just as he is satisfied with his darling
son, Jesus Christ. The sin is put away. The wrath
is put away. Christ has accomplished our salvation. And so our God tells us, there's
peace between you and me. There's peace, rest in Him, trust
Him, and He's our God. He'll provide all things that
we have need of. And so all our enemies shall
be defeated before us. And we'll soon witness that when
He comes again. All right, now, in our last point,
there's a call to repentance here declared. Again, I know
this word will fall on many a deaf ear, but to you that have an
ear to hear it, the Lord tells us there in verse 6, he says,
turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply
revolted. And what he's telling us there
is repent of your false hope, all your confidence in the flesh,
all your trusting to self to do for you, all the things that
you think you're providing for yourself, he says be turned from
that. be turned, because Israel, the
religious people, have revolted against the Lord, and they've
turned from him. But he calls to his people, to
his remnant, and says, turn, turn from that revolting and
that rebellion, and be turned to me. As you've trusted in the
flesh, turn from it, and don't do it anymore. Be turned from
that idolatry. And there's a special focus on
religious works. Because in religion, we're taught
that by the things that we do, we can appease the anger of God,
that we can calm him down and make him happy with us again. That's why many people do religious
things, and why they make sacrifices in religious things and give
of their time and their money and do the things that they do
in religion. Because they're trying, they
think that it's by their works that God is pleased and happy
with them. And that's darkness, that's deadness,
that's a dead letter religion. There's no hope in that. God
isn't moved by the things that we do. In fact, everything we
do in the flesh is sin and wicked and it's all worthy of his wrath
and judgment. So it's only in His grace shown
to us in Jesus Christ that we have any hope with God. God has
provided our peace. God Himself has provided our
righteousness. God Himself is no longer angry
with His people because there's no sin in His people. Christ
has put away the sin and the guilt and the wrath of God from
His people. That's what we're being turned
from because those works are idolatry. That's trusting in
self and our own flesh. That's trusting in our works
and what we've done. And that's refusing the salvation
that God has provided in his son. And it's to call God a liar
to think that we can do something in ourselves by our flesh and
our strength. And so we're to be turned from
these carnal ways and these fleshly ways which are not just the sins
that we do, but the religious sins that we do. Be turned from
those things, and we're to fall before our God, and to look to
his righteousness, which he's provided. He says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added unto you. And again, religion thinks that
when he says, seek first his righteousness, that it means
be more religious. Try to do more righteous things.
Try to do that which you know is pleasing to God. No, it's
not to do more work in the flesh. It's to be turned to His righteousness,
which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the righteousness
of God. We're to seek Him. We seek to
know the Father and to please the Father through Jesus Christ
alone, knowing that He has established our peace, and that He is our
hope before God, that He is our righteousness and our entrance
into the Father, and that we stand complete in Jesus Christ
and in His righteousness. and there's nothing more for
us to add to that. And now our turning, turning
from those dead works and turning to hear what the Lord has said
and to believe what he's declared to us in his son, concerning
his son Jesus Christ, that's salvation. His turning us is
salvation because it's a gracious work of the spirit in us that
regenerates this dead, we have no spirit in us naturally. And
so he regenerates us, giving us life in the spirit. He puts us in the kingdom of
Christ, so that we're no longer just this flesh of Adam, but
that we have a being, we're a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is God makes us born
again. We were dead in Adam, Now we're
born again by the seed of Jesus Christ, and we're made to hear
effectually in the heart by the Spirit's work in us, causing
us to hear what the Lord is declaring to us in his Son, and the Spirit
reveals in all his people faith, whereby we believe God, whereby
we believe Christ, and we're turned from those dead works
to serve the true and living God. And now he tells us at the
end of the chapter that our turning will be revealed. It'll be revealed in the fact
that we'll be turned from this idolatry. Believers know when they're among
believers. As soon as another professed
believer speaks among other believers, we know There's a kindred spirit
there, because our spirit testifies with their spirit that we're
the sons and daughters of God. And the way we know that is because
those that are just dead in trespasses and sins, they speak of what
they have done for the Lord. But the children of God speak
of what God has done for them. And when someone speaks like
that, when someone declares and stays right there of what God
has done for them in Christ, there's a kindred spirit, there's
a fellowship in the spirit there between us, because that's our
hope and that's our confession. It's not what I've done to save
myself, but what God has done in mercy to save me and his son,
Jesus Christ. And so verse seven here in our
text, Isaiah 31.7 says, for in that day, here's the fruit, every
man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold,
which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. He's saying
that it'll be evidence that you've heard the Lord and turned. You've
been given repentance by God because you're turned from your
idolatry, and speaking of, and declaring, and trusting in the
works you're doing, and you're resting in what the Lord has
done for us in grace. Free, sovereign grace of God
in His Son, Jesus Christ, for his people. That's the casting
away of our idols. I don't have any confidence in
the flesh. I don't trust in these things anymore. I don't want
what my own hands have done. It's sin. And so we're turned
from that. And so we are settled in Christ. And then, having planted you
in Christ, he says, verse eight, then shall the Assyrian fall
with the sword, not of a mighty man, and the sword, not of a
mean man, shall devour him, but he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be discomforted. And so, we see that man's works,
they're not gonna deliver us, but the work of the Lord is the
one who destroys our enemies. Sin, death, Hell, which would keep us, the
work of the evil one, the Lord destroys their works. So that
the Lord's people, we cease laboring for our God under fear. We stop
those works under fear. Those are the works of the devil,
which the Lord shows and reveals that He's delivered us out of.
Before, when we were in dead letter religion, we were fearful
and afraid, and when we sinned, we tried to make up for it, and
we tried to be more faithful and diligent in religious things
to please God and to appease Him and to quiet our guilty conscience. Those are the things that we
tried to do, but now being turned from those things and beholding
Christ our salvation, and the hope of our righteousness, beholding
Him, that's our confidence, and that's where we rest and cease
laboring under fear and threat of punishment, or want of reward. We're no longer under that bondage.
We're delivered from our enemies. The Lord shows us that this salvation,
wherein the Lord has provided deliverance for us in Christ,
is a deliverance from the wrath which is coming upon the enemies
of our God. All right, he says, verse nine
there, and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and
his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose
fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem. And so that word
there, Passover, creates in our minds what the Lord did when
he passed over, when he went through the land of Egypt, and
when he went through Goshen, where the Israelites were, all
who were under the blood, in the house, where the blood was
on the doorposts, the Lord passed over all those that were under
the blood, and he didn't strike them, he didn't kill them, or
destroy them, But all the Egyptians' houses, who were not under the
blood, they perished, they died, right? Because they didn't hear
the Lord, they didn't hear his word or believe his word, and
so they perished, being outside of the blood of Christ. And so the Lord says, I'm gonna
destroy all my enemies. But he's delivered you, that
he's turned you, that he's worked repentance in your heart, he's
delivered you from that coming wrath, which is coming upon his
enemies, and upon all those that hate and reject him, he'll burn
them with fire and the heat of his furnace. So, the word of
our God here to us tonight is to be turned to him, and to seek
him, and to look to him for all things, and not to have a confidence
in self, or in this flesh, or in anything that we've done,
but our confidence is fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray
that the Lord would bless this word to your hearts and settle
us in Christ and to rejoice in Him and what He's done for us.
All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy
and grace in causing us to hear your word.
Lord, You know what we are in the flesh. We've got nothing
to boast in. We can't stand here and say that
we're perfect or declare our righteousness. But Lord, we can
look back and see faults, if we will. And Lord, we're thankful
for Your Son. We pray that You would wash us
in the blood of Christ, that You would still our fearful hearts
and wondering hearts, and that you would cause us to rest in
Christ. Cause us to seek you, Lord, in
all things, casting all our care upon you. Lord, knowing that
you care for us, and that you are our God, and that you saved
us for a purpose, and that you delight to show yourself in the
salvation of your people. Lord, cause us to trust you,
Cause us to look to you for all things. Deliver us from our idolatry. Deliver us from our enemies.
And Lord, deliver us from that body of the enemy, those that
you are coming to destroy. Deliver us from all those things.
And keep us safely in Christ, resting in Him. Till your indignation
and wrath be overpassed. For it's in Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen.