Yeah, I'm thinking it might be
better to just keep it by you. Good evening. Our opening hymn will be out
of the softbacks. 115. 115. Brethren, let us join to bless. Brethren, let us join to bless
Christ our peace and righteousness. Let our praise to Him be given,
high at God's right hand in heaven, high at God's right hand in heaven. Son of God, to Thee we bow, Thou
art God and only Thou, Thou the woman's promise see, Thou who
didst for sinners plead, Thou who didst for sinners plead. All the angels ceaseless sing,
thee we praise, our priest and king. Worthy is thy name to praise,
full of glory, full of grace, full of glory, full of grace. Thee, our Lord, would we adore
Serve and follow more and more Praise and bless Thy matchless
love Till we join Thy saints above Till we join Thy saints
above Our second hymn will be number 104 of this op-ed
104 Springs of Joy that's to the tune of Amazing Grace Joy is a fruit that will not
grow in nature's beverant soil. All we can boast till Christ
we know is vanity and toil. But where the Lord has planted
grace and made His glories known, there fruits of heavenly joy
and peace are found and there alone. A bleeding Savior seen by faith
And sense of pardoning love A hope that triumphs over death If joys
like those above to take a glimpse within the
veil, to know that God is mine. Our springs of joy have never
felt unspeakable divine. I'm going to be reading from
Psalm 105. Psalm 105. Starting in verse 1. O give thanks unto the Lord.
Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the
people. Sing unto Him. sing psalms unto
him. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face evermore. Remember
his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments
of his mouth. O ye seed of Abraham, his servant,
ye children of Jacob, his chosen. He is the Lord our God. His judgments
are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant
forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. We'll
stop there. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for bringing
us here tonight to worship you, and we ask that you'd give us
hearts that would be enabled to do that. We ask that you'd
be with Eric as he hopes to bring a message. We ask that you'd
give him what he needs, not only tonight, but from week to week
in his studies. We ask that you'd be with us
as a body here. We thank you for the successful
operation of our brother Scott. We ask that you'd continue to
be with him, strengthen him. We ask that you'd go forward
into the future with us. Keep us looking to Christ and
grow us in the love of our Savior and the love of one another.
We ask this. In Christ's name, Amen. Alright, let's Be turning to
Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30 and we'll be looking
at verses one through seven. And basically our text, what
it's showing to us is the heart of natural man. It's a heart
and it's a It's an action that, sadly, many believers would confess
we know all too well. It shows how that man is willing
to trust self and looks to trust itself, to lean on its strength,
lean on our own wisdom, lean on our own resourcefulness. We do that very naturally. It's very easy for us to do it.
And I'm confessing to you, I see it in myself, my own heart. I
do this as well. And these people here who are
called children, rebellious children, that's what we have in our text
here. The Lord sends his prophet to
speak to these rebellious children. You know, based on what we saw
in chapter 28 and 29, we see that they're paying lip service,
they're performing religious service unto God, and it looks
good on the outside, but they're really trusting themselves. And
this is another way where we see that man is still leaning
on his own wisdom, strength, seeking his own covering, seeking
his own salvation in many ways, but thankfully the Lord sends
his word and he makes it effectual to the hearts of his people by
his spirit so that we do hear. We are chastened, we are turned
from that, whereas the wicked who are set in their ways and
confident in their own works, they won't hear. They won't hear,
they'll pass on to judgment. And so the natural man, what
we see in this flesh, the passions and lusts of this flesh, which
we know, as well as in others who don't know, but the passions
of this flesh drives us naturally to look for some other means
of salvation and some other protection and comfort in things other than
God. And so, We can just see how there's
examples throughout the scriptures of many people. I mean, in our
day, right, you have Arminians, just to give you one example,
people that are very religious, they trust their decision, right? I've decided to follow Jesus.
And that's their confidence, you see, how easy that is for
us to find a confidence in something we do rather than the Lord. A legalist, their confidence
would be the law. I study the law, I look to the
law, I trust the law. And so we do this in many ways. Now, and we'll see that brought
out this evening, but historically this text, It's unclear which
king was doing this at the time. It could have been Hosea, which
is the king of Israel, who looked to Egypt. to help him when Assyria
was threatening him. It could have been Hezekiah as
well, when Assyria was now up to the neck of Judah, or it could
be Zedekiah in Jeremiah's day. It could have been Zedekiah who
also looked to Egypt to help him when Babylon was threatening
him as well. So it could have been any one
of those But spiritually, what it is, is it's the revelation
of man's heart to look to self, to trust in himself, and so that
we're just far too quick to look to our own wisdom. And as I said,
I see it in myself, and I don't want to see it in myself. I don't
want to get five paces into some decision I've made and then remember
to seek the Lord in prayer. I want to seek the Lord in prayer
before I do anything. And when I read this passage,
I was reminded of that. I want to hear what it's saying
for me and for you, brethren. Because we don't want to be like
rebellious children. We don't want to be called out
like that and dealt with by the Lord in this way. So the reality is that in the
end, we don't want to be found being saved and protected and
confident in our own works. We don't want to be, ultimately,
we don't want to stand in the day of judgment having mine own
righteousness, having mine own works. Ultimately, we'd rather
the Lord deal with us here and now so that we stand in the confidence
of Christ because we know that he's accepted and his works are
accepted, not ours. So this is done, here in our
text, and we see this even traced out in our own lives, but the
Lord, what he's doing is he's bringing his people along, right? He's dealing with the wicked,
they're gonna receive judgment, but even his people, for his
people, he's doing this in grace and in mercy, he teaches us and
brings us out of trusting in and leaning on the flesh or leaning
on our intellect or our own resourcefulness and our skill sets and things
like that. He's teaching us, look to me, trust me in all things
and look to me and I'll reveal myself to you because we're going
to see Christ. You think about The disciples,
had they known that one evening that they were going to get into
the ship with Christ and then find themselves in a horrible
wind and fierce sea and waves and they thought they were going
to die. And they probably would never choose to do that, right?
But having gone through it, what did they see? They learned that
this man stills the waves and the winds. Even they obey him. And that was revealed to them
and that's really what we see in our trials is when we're stripped
down and brought to nothing in ourselves and the Lord reveals
his hand to us, his grace and his love and his mercy to us,
aren't you thankful? When you see his work, when it's
undoubtedly him that did it and you say, wow, I really do know
the true and living God and he knows me. He loves me and did
this for me. a worthless, unbelieving, faithless
sinner, that he would do this for me. And that's the beauty
in it, right? Through the fiery trial, when
you see how the Lord provides for us. And that's a beautiful
thing. He instructs his children in
Proverbs 3. If you want to turn there, Proverbs
3. I won't have you turn to everyone,
but I'll read a couple. Proverbs 3, verse 5. Many of
us know this pretty well, but where he says, trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3.6, in all thy ways
acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise
in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. And the
evil that we're to depart from is the evil of trusting himself
and leaning on self. If you look at it in the context,
it's trusting yourselves. And so we're constantly being
reminded that the Lord is our God and we're not our own gods. Psalm 37 three says, trust in
the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. The Lord will provide and he'll
take care of us. In Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, the
weeping prophet The Lord said to him, Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which
exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord." And that's a
comfort to me, to remember that the Lord delights in love and
kindness and mercy. You know, sometimes I think and
consider, you know, just the wickedness of man and pulling
the levers of society and the levers of different things and
trying to make things happen. And it can be troubling to think
of those things. But to know that it doesn't matter
what what wicked man purposes in his heart to do. He may even
be able to implement and execute some of these things, but it
all ultimately works to the good pleasure of our God, and I'm
very thankful for that. And I'm comforted when I remember
that, and it calms me, and it stills me, and it has me just
sit still and look to the Lord. And that's a good thing. That's a good place for us to
be. So that's what we want to do.
We want to glory in Him and in the understanding, right? Because
He reveals this to us. understanding. He reveals this
to us in his word so that we we know this and that we're reminded
of it and comforted by it so that we stop our haste and our
rushing to fix things and we first look to the Lord. So in
these first seven verses here the Lord lays this out in for
us to see the folly of man. He gives us a good example to
be reminded, oh yeah, this is what happens when man thinks
he's providing for himself. If the Lord wills, he can stop
it and bring it to nothing, and that's what we see here, and
I believe that's what the Lord wants us to do. who hope in Him
and believe Him and trust Him. He wants us to see this because
He wants us and it's His will for us to know Him and His will
will be done. So He's going to reveal this
to His people. He's going to make this known
in our hearts and when Our, you know, the hardness of our hearts,
the lust of the flesh brings on just that, you know, our natural
way of doing things. The Lord is the one who softens
us and breaks us and brings us back to himself, to hear him.
And so our title is The Strength of Sitting Still. The Strength
of Sitting Still. All right, so like me, probably
many of you are like this, but it's hard. to sit still. Isn't it? It's hard, especially
when you're waiting on some things to happen, or waiting for an
answer, or waiting for something to come through. It's hard to
sit still, right? And it's hard to be patient for
things, but it's good when we're forced to, right? There's some
things where the Lord just will not let us figure it out, and
will not let us resolve it, and we just have to sit, and be patient,
and do nothing except pray, as it burdens us, as we're reminded,
we're burdened, and when we can do nothing, that's when we call
out to the Lord, right? When we realize there's nothing
I can do. And that's when we begin to call
upon Him. And just a portion of the wisdom which the Lord
gave to Jeremiah in Lamentations 3, 25 and 26, He said, the Lord is good unto
them that wait for him. To the soul that seeketh him,
it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for
the salvation of the Lord. And he goes on, he talks of the
young man, he says it's good for a man to bear the yoke in
his youth. It's good for us to be put through
some hard times, especially in our youth because We're taught
there, we're taught that we're not all sufficient, but God is,
and we're taught to lean on Him. You know, He even says, you know,
it's good for a man to put his mouth in the dust in the hope
that the Lord would arise, that the Lord will come through, and
He does that. And it's good when we're brought
to the end of ourselves and we see, Lord, You've You didn't
forget me, you do remember. You were very kind to me. And
so the Lord does that, it's by his grace. So, all right, now
in our text, the Lord begins with a woe, and a woe means judgment
without mercy. Woe is judgment without mercy.
Now Isaiah 30 verse 1 begins, Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the Lord. And he calls them rebellious
children. And he's been calling them this since the very beginning
of Isaiah's ministry. Look there in the very first
chapter of Isaiah, after the first verse, he tells who he
was ministering to, the time frame that he was ministering.
But the first words given to Isaiah to minister to this people
is verse two. Isaiah 1-2, hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth. For the Lord hath spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. All right, so this is, he's been
talking to this rebellious people the whole time. And what he does
here now in our text in Isaiah 30 verse one is he traces out
two acts of their rebellion. One is that they take counsel,
but not of me. They're seeking for counsel,
but they're not seeking it from me. And second, that cover with
a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
right? They're just heaping up sin upon
sin upon sin, and there's no, break. They're not getting it.
They're not stopping and coming to see that this is wrong, what
we're doing. Thankfully, we're thankful when
the Lord gives us repentance and shows us, what are you doing?
Where are you going? Why are you over there? And he
brings us to ourselves and we see, yeah, what am I doing? Why am I over here? I haven't
even thought to seek you, Lord. I haven't even thought to to
pray to you and to find out your word and what your will is in
this, and asking him to direct our steps, right? So they take
counsel, but not of me. They're not asking God his will,
and if they do ask him his will, they're not even listening for
a reply. They're not looking for him to even answer him, all
right? And then it says they cover with
a covering, but not of my spirit. What he's saying there, they
cover with a covering, but not of my spirit. In other words,
they're looking for shelter. They're looking for a place of
safety. They're looking for salvation,
and they're trying to provide for themselves. They're looking
for that, but they're not looking for the Lord's provision. They're
not looking to my spirit, he says. They're not seeking me.
and who better to protect us and deliver us but the Lord himself,
right? So these men, they had become
fearful of, if it was Israel, or even if it was in Hezekiah's
day in Judah, they were concerned about the rising power of Assyria,
right? They saw Assyria and the grown
threat. If it was in Zedekiah's day,
then it would have been Babylon. And they understood it, and they
were fearful of that. And we can understand that, right?
It's not sinful to realize there's growing threats here. Hey, there's
things to be concerned about over there. Like, we see those
things, right? We see certain things that cause
us to be afraid and to have some concern, because we can see,
you know, we think we can see down and how things are going
to play out and whatnot. And that's understandable. But
what the problem is here, they never turned to the Lord. They
just forgot about Him, and they just went on doing things their
own ways. They turned to their own resourcefulness
and their own ideas and their own ways, and it cost them pretty
dearly in it, right? So, you know, and then the other
sense is, you know, they were hiding it from the Lord, right?
If you look back in Isaiah 29, 15, Isaiah 29, 15, he says, woe unto
them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their
works are in the dark. And they say, who seeth us and
who knoweth us? So, you know, what you do typically
when you've done something and you're ashamed of it, right,
it comes to nothing and you're ashamed of it, you don't go and brag,
you don't brag about it, right? You don't talk about it in the
open. You don't bring light to shine upon it. You just keep
it to yourself and hope nobody brings it up. You don't want
to talk about it. You don't want to get into it, right? Because
there's a certain level of shame there. And so, that's what these
people were doing. Now, when we feel shame and we're
brought to turn to the Lord, that's a good thing. That's a
good thing, when the Lord reveals to us. And thankfully He does
that, because we don't know all things, and we're not perfect,
and we are, again, we're still in this weak flesh, we still
have the passions of this flesh, and we depend, ever depend on
the Lord's mercy to turn us to Him, and to keep us looking to
Him, and He's faithful to do that. He's faithful to bring
to our minds, like that prodigal son feeding the swine with the
husks, And the Lord brought him to himself to realize, what am
I doing here? Why am I still doing this when
I can go to my father, who has more than enough? I'll even be
happy to be a servant, the lowest of the lowest, just to be in
his kingdom and among his people. And so the Lord is faithful to
bring us to ourselves like that, to bring us back to see our need
of him. All right, verse two, Isaiah
30, verse two. Here's the covering that they
saw. that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at
my mouth. to strengthen themselves in the
strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. So first they rebelled against
God by not even seeking him, by just forgetting about him
and not even thinking to bring this to the Lord. And instead
they sought protection in another. And worst of all, it was Egypt,
which is a picture of bondage, slavery. It's a picture of their
imprisonment and their bondage when they were captives, which
is a spiritual picture of spiritual darkness and the bondage that
we're in by nature, being sinners in Adam and having no righteousness
of our own, right? And they were turning away from
the Lord to go back to their bondage. even. And so we see that there,
Deuteronomy 5 15, Moses says, remember that thou wast a servant
in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee
out thence, or from there, through a mighty hand and a stretched
out arm. And so here they are, God's the
one who defeated Egypt, and so they're turning from the conqueror,
the victor, and looking to the conquered for protection. It shows just how foolish we
are naturally, that we would turn from him whose strength
is unlimited and was the one who defeated them. We're gonna
turn back to the foe, the enemy of our souls and the wicked one
for that. Turn over to Galatians 5 with
me. We'll look at this in Galatians
5. And there's a picture. of seeking out this covering
that's not the Lord's. And in verse 1, Galatians 5.1,
Paul says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. Don't turn back to Egypt. of
all places. Look to the Lord. Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. What was the Church of Galatia
seeking for? They were looking for a covering.
They were seeking a covering. They had some people from Jerusalem
come up and say, except ye be circumcised after the manner
of Moses, ye cannot be saved. And they became afraid. They
were fearful. So they were seeking a covering. And the covering, they were told,
is your circumcision. So here, that's another example
of what man looks to. These religious Jews who professed
Christ, their covering, their safety, was looking to circumcision. A Pharisee, We know in the scriptures,
a Pharisee, his covering was, I thank thee that I'm not like
other men. That was his covering. And here,
their covering was circumcision. So they're looking to something
outside of Christ as a covering, a protection, a safety for themselves. And the Lord pointed out, He
says, you're looking for a covering, but you're not seeking my spirit,
all right? And we know through the gospel,
as the Lord reveals this gospel, that Christ died to justify us,
and he rose again by the power of his spirit, and it's by that
resurrection power that we now live. We have the covering. We
have the covering of his blood for justification, and we're
covered with the righteousness of Christ by his spirit, And
that's our covering through sanctification. He's all our covering in everything. And we're to keep looking to
Him even when we sin, even when we're afraid, even when we find
we've gone astray and are foolish, the Lord says, come back to me.
You just keep looking to me. Now we want to go to Him first,
but even when we forget and we're foolish and the Lord brings us
back, then let's look to Him. Let's go to Him and confess it
to Him, right? We can't undo what's been done,
but we can confess it to the Lord and say, Lord, have mercy
and direct my steps, Lord, save me. Keep me looking to You. So, you know, again, it's understandable. to be concerned about many things.
There's many things that we see about us that are concerning,
but let it drive us to the Lord in prayer. So let's be driven
to the Lord in prayer and seek him for the wisdom and protection
that we need and to place our steps so that we don't run off
foolishly in one direction when really the Lord could have saved
us from making foolish mistakes and things like that. And Paul
went on saying, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he's a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become
of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. So we don't want to seek
that covering. whatever it is. We don't want
to seek that covering outside of Christ. We want to look to
Christ and have wisdom and direction from Him. And so what we see
here is that there's no coalition of numbers that we could heap
to ourselves that's going to protect us. When the Lord's purposed
to bring something to pass, when He's determined to bring something
to pass, it's going to come to pass and none of us can stop
him or move him from that purpose. But in seeking him, the Lord
can and does make provision for his people. He can provide for
them and protect them and put a hedge about them even in the
midst of him executing his purpose. And we can depend upon him because
we have the promise of the scriptures, right? In Romans 10, 11, the
scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Shall not be ashamed, right? But those who don't trust the
Lord, they will be ashamed. They'll be brought to shame.
And that's what we see in verse three of our text. Isaiah 30,
verse three. Therefore shall the strength
of Pharaoh be your shame. and the trust in the shadow of
Egypt, your confusion." It's a shadow. I mean, in one sense,
a shadow is just a, it's not the substance, you can pass right
through it, but what they're saying is that, like we look
to the Lord as a hen, covers her chicks with her wings, the
shadow of her wings, and the Lord's compared to that. Well,
they were trusting not in the shadow of the Lord, but in the
shadow of Egypt to trust them. They were going under Egypt's
auspices and guidance and protection and army to protect them there,
but it came to nothing. Instead, when it all broke apart
and came apart, because they had never even sought the Lord,
once it all fell apart, now they were really fearful and afraid
because everything they trusted in and hoped in was destroyed. If that's our hope and our trust
is things entirely outside of the Lord when it comes to nothing,
that's a fearful place to be. But if you look to the Lord and
the Lord directs you and guides you, then even when those things
come to nothing, You're like, all right, well, I guess that's
nothing. That isn't going to help. Lord,
what's next? Where will you have us to go
now? What would you have us to do now? So, I mean, the beauty,
right, is if we're looking to the Lord for everything, then
even when the carnal provisions or actions we take come to nothing,
it's all right, because the Lord ultimately, I mean, it's still
scary in the flesh, but the Lord is We're comforted when we remember
the Lord and we're reminded of him and we see his hand in it. And so it's just interesting
to see the contrast here. carnal man is looking to what
he can see. So he looks down at Egypt and
says, wow, what a strong, powerful place that is. Let's go to them
for strength. And they think, you know, trusting
the Lord is foolishness. And the Lord's telling them,
no, that's foolishness. And the Lord says to us who believe
him and hope in him, he says, faith is the substance. He gives
us faith, right? Because faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. All right,
is the evidence of things not seen. So we know, and the Lord
says, I'm not gonna leave you to be ashamed, you that trust
me. I'm gonna, if you put your trust in me, I'll show you. I'll
reveal myself to you in abundance and how I provide for my people. All right, next we read in verse
four, for his princes were as Zohan and his ambassadors came
to Hanes. All right, so these were ambassadors
that were sent down to Egypt to secure help for them. And what we see is that they
failed to protect them. They sent ambassadors down to
Egypt to secure that help that they felt they needed and that
they were going to get from Egypt. And they failed. But I was reminded
how the Lord has ambassadors. Right? He calls us, the church,
to be his ambassadors, to preach his gospel, right? And I was
thinking, you know, the things that we see about us, you know,
and today, you know, there's like the virus going on, and
that's one thing, you know, the virus, and there's other things
that people are looking out towards, you know, that there's going
to be some interruptions economically with, you know, trade and whatnot
being disturbed and slowed down with ships not making it around
the sea and transporting goods back and forth and all that stuff.
That can certainly be a concern, and it is. It's not like we're
ignorant of those things. We understand how things work
and how things are tied in and whatnot together, but we always
want to be reminded that ultimately And I'm speaking to myself here
more than any of you. We always want to be reminded
that we're ambassadors for Christ. That's who we want to proclaim
and that's who we want to speak of and talk of and remember. Again, it's not wrong to be concerned
and to recognize issues but let us take them to the Lord. And
then when we're speaking to others, let us remember that we're ambassadors
for Christ, right? It's as though God to beseech
you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. And the thing to remember in
a time like this, because the Lord, again, we're comforted
knowing the Lord is in complete control. And I don't have a doubt
that March could be pretty scary looking, right? As you see the
numbers rise, and if you look at them, you'll see numbers rising
in different countries and people are going to get afraid. I went
into Sam's Club the other day and it was about half empty,
you know, not everything, but I mean there were certain things
I looked at and said, wow, like they've had bins of rice there
forever and now there's one bin left with a half empty of rice
and so you could see a difference. They assured me that it would
be filled up, by the way. They said, yeah, we've got trucks
coming all the time. But anyway, you can see that there's effects
that are going on. And people who don't know the
Lord are going to be troubled by it. And what it made me think
of is that, what a great time. to be there with the gospel,
to be ambassadors of Christ, because people are going to be
troubled by it. And this is a great opportunity
to declare the sufficiency and the faithfulness of God, because
we're stripped down in times like this. When a nation is brought
low and troubled, that isn't normally troubled or afraid of
things like this, when they get touched, if they get touched,
right? And when they get touched, that's
a time when they're open, at least in a carnal sense, a human
sense, they're open to hearing because they don't know what
to believe and they're afraid and they're shaking. And so it's
a good time to remember, while these sent down ambassadors to
Egypt, the Lord sends his ambassadors for Christ because we know that
he's made provision for His people in Christ. Christ, you know,
He was made sin for His people and He shed His blood. He died
to justify us. He died our death to put away
our death and to deliver us from our sins and so we can confidently
declare that in Him is salvation. And all who look to Him will
not be ashamed. And it may be a time, you know, where the Lord
does that, because we see these patterns. I was talking to Michelle
today, and we see these patterns, right? We see there's always
things like this. There's always generations and
times of fear, right? You look back in the 30s, and
there was a depression, and the wars, and there's always times
that come in cycles, and there's good times of peace, and everybody
gets happy in the world, and then there's times that shake
us and remind us of our frailty. and our insufficiency and how
weak we really are, and how necessary it is to remember the Lord and
that we need Him. And He becomes real to us, to
those who never thought of Him before. And what a great time
to be there with the Gospel, right? To be there with the Gospel
for for those that the Lord is shaking and stripping down and
bringing to nothing in themselves that would never otherwise hear
the word, right? So it's a good time for that. So, all right, verse five, Isaiah
30, verse five says, they were all ashamed of a people that
could not profit them, nor be in help nor profit, but a shame
and also a reproach, right? And it is a shame, right? I know for myself, anything that
I've invested and leaned on and put a lot of hope and confidence
in, if it didn't work out, I felt more shame. I was more ashamed
because I was a fool to trust in that and think that was gonna
work out the way I thought it was gonna work out, and then
it didn't, it collapsed, and you feel shame. That's what the
Lord says here. They're gonna feel shame for trusting in Egypt
because it's gonna come to nothing. All right, and so, and this is
why I think it could even be Zedekiah, because Jeremiah says,
early in Jeremiah 2.36, it says, thou also shalt be ashamed of
Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. Right, for thinking
that they would be a help to you. All right, so, and that's
like when a man runs to circumcision for his covering, right? The Jew, another example, the
Jew. They trust in Abraham. Well,
we have Abraham for our father. That's their covering. That's
their confidence and their provision that they're trusting in. We
want to be found in Christ. Christ is our covering and he's
our protection. All right, then in verse six,
this next verse, it shows the great lengths that man will go
to, right? Left to himself, he'll go to
great lengths to provide for himself. It says, the burden
of the beasts of the south into the land of trouble and anguish.
From whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery
flying serpent, right? These were those in the desert,
that wilderness, these were creatures there that they would have to
pass through with all their riches and all their store and everything
they laid up for themselves for this purpose, right? And they're
carrying their riches upon the shoulders of young asses and
their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall
not profit them. And these are also, even spiritually,
pictures of the evil one. Just turning away from the Lord
and going through that wilderness without him as a covering. And
you're just exposed to all the afflictions and the arrows of
the evil one there. And it sounds very much like
religion today, well, religion in every day. They change things,
especially the message. They turn from the word of God,
they turn from Christ to make it more appealing so that they
can appeal more to the masses and they can fill the pews or
fill their programs or fill their money baskets. They look to those
to those things and it reveals, it's times like this that reveal
the emptiness of religion to save and the inability of religion
to save and provide and it shows the necessity of Christ and it
shows that religion, dead religion, has no interest in Christ because
that's what they do, they trust in things and they'll twist and
turn the word of God in order to make it appealing to the itching
ear of man. but there's no interest. But
if the Spirit's in it, the Spirit testifies of Christ, right? And
that's what he said, when I send the Spirit, he shall testify
of me. And so that's when we know that
we're speaking by the Spirit because we testify of Christ.
We speak of him and declare him. All right, verse seven, Isaiah
30, verse seven. For the Egyptians shall help
in vain and to no purpose, therefore have I cried concerning this,
Their strength is to sit still. And so thankfully, and I say
this knowing that the Lord does these things because again it
reminds us of the inability of the flesh to save. It strips
us down to nothing in the flesh. whatever works we do in the flesh
they're not going to profit us and we that are his people will
see that and thankfully it's a mercy that he shows us that.
It's a mercy when we go through fiery trials that strip us of
hope and confidence in ourselves and find it placed where it should
be in the Lord himself. And so all things we know are
according to his providential timetable. It's all gonna work
out according as he wills, according to his purpose. And when you're
afraid and fearful, seek him, seek him first and pray to him.
And if you started and remember, well, stop and seek him. Seek
him and go to him and look to him. And so the Lord, it may
be the Lord's purpose to add woe for a time because the wicked
of the land will be judged. The Lord's going to deal with
the wickedness of man. He's gonna, for the good of the
people, he'll deal with the wickedness and judge the wicked in the land
and bring them to nothing. But, you know, and then for the
disobedient children, they'll be chastened and brought to see
the Lord. And then for his people, right,
who we grow cold and weary or afraid, and go through various
times of hardness, but in those times the Lord, He softens the
heart, and He softens us up, and He shows us our need of Him,
and He reveals Himself sweetly to us, and He draws us near to
Him, and that's never a bad thing, that's always a good thing, for
us to be drawn near to Him. As He said, And the close of
chapter 29, verse 24 says, they also that erred in spirit shall
come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. So our Lord says to us, be still,
be still, and your strength is to sit still. And so in that
sitting there, pray to Him. Pray to Him and seek to know
His will, and He'll make it known and He'll reveal Himself to us
and the things that we have need of knowing and what, you know,
we'll look to Him. We'll look to Him and trust Him.
And so I pray the Lord will bless that word to us, you know, and
I pray that we hear it sooner, you know, lest everything we
did comes to naught, for nothing, you know, as we see it often
does, but let us look to Him and it's better to hear it now than
not to hear it or hear it too late. I pray the Lord will bless
that word to your hearts and bless us together in Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your word to us. Lord, we thank you
for your Spirit which brings home
this word to our heart and teaches us and helps us to see and be
reminded again of Christ our Savior and our Lord and our God. And Lord, we're thankful when
we are brought to see our folly and the trust that we've had
in our own wisdom or resourcefulness, Lord, that we might see our need
of Christ and trust in Him and look to Him And Lord, we pray
that. Lord, we pray for our nation,
our leaders, our government, that you would give them wisdom
and the people making decisions, that you would give them wisdom
and success in the ways that they are trying to combat the
spread of the virus, Lord, and just other things that could
be a trouble or a hardship on many other Americans and things
like that, Lord, You know all things. And so, Father, we pray
for this people, that You would give us wisdom and help us to
be kind one to another and to be helpful one to another as
needed. And Lord, that it would be a time when Your people are
given a voice to declare Christ, that we are given a heart to
serve and to show love and compassion in the name of Christ. And you
would help us, Lord, because it's not easy in the flesh at
all. It's not even possible in the
flesh. But Lord, all things are possible with you. And Father,
we pray that you would protect those of us here, Lord, especially
those that are weak and sick and have other health issues,
Lord, that you would strengthen us and provide for us, protect
us, keep us, Lord, and that, Lord, you would bless even these
things to draw us nearer to you and nearer to one another in
love and in joy and in peace and thankfulness in our Savior,
Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, brother. Our closing hymn will be No.
7 from the Softback, No. 7, In Jesus We Are Free. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. ? No more the dread of wrath
? ? No more constrained by fear ? ? We worship and we serve our
God ? ? With gratitude and cheer ? ? In Jesus we are free ? ?
In Jesus we are free ? Free from all sin and from all guilt, we
live in liberty. We'll join the happy song with
all the blood-bought throng, and sing the praises of the Lamb,
whose grace makes us His own.