All right, we're gonna be in
Isaiah chapter eight. Isaiah eight, and we're gonna
be looking at the first 13 verses. First 13 verses, and I'm, I think this is a good message. It's relevant, it's relevant
very much to me. And so, if you hear something
in this, that's good, but I saw Christ in it, and I took, away
a lot when I was studying this. It was good for me to hear this
message and to see these things and be reminded that Christ is
all. Our text is Isaiah 8 verses 1
through 13. And what we see here in the text
is that the people here were consumed over a confederacy. They were consumed by a conspiracy,
a conspiracy that was going on in their day. It was between
Israel and Syria joining together to come against Jerusalem because
apart they couldn't take it, each one by themselves. So the
people in Jerusalem and Judah are hearing this and they're
growing very concerned and so concerned that the Lord likens
it to them rejoicing. He says, you're rejoicing in
these men. And it's because they were so
concerned about it. They were so fearful of it and
so worried about it, rather than having their eyes on Christ,
rather than having their eyes on the Lord and fearing the Lord,
who controls everything and brings everything to pass as it pleases
him to do. So I want to show you tonight,
what I want us to see is that it's better to fear the Lord.
Don't fear man. Don't fear what man can do because
the Lord can bring these things to nothing except it please him
to bring it to pass. So we're not to turn to man and
fear him and rejoice in his power and his wisdom and what he can
do, but we're to turn and look to the Lord and rejoice in his
power, in what he does, what he's pleased and able to do.
Our title is Sanctify the Lord of Hosts. Sanctify the Lord of
Hosts, and we'll just have two divisions. We'll first look at,
just briefly, what the scriptures teach about the fear of the Lord,
and then we'll see that Christ is our salvation from the text
here tonight. So, as I mentioned, the scriptures
teach the fear of the Lord. They teach what the fear of the
Lord is, and they teach us to fear the Lord. They show that
He is God, and that we're to look to Him, and to trust Him,
and to fear Him, and to believe on Him. One scripture that reveals
this is Proverbs 1.7, which says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. In other
words, To fear the Lord, it's not only knowledge, it's wisdom.
It's to look to Him. It's wise to look to the Lord
and to trust Him. And we need to take heed of those
words because we know what we are naturally. We know that naturally
We despise the wisdom of God, and naturally we despise the
instruction of the Lord. We're very quick to look to our
own selves and to our own ideas and thoughts, and we shun the
things of the Lord, except that He fill our hearts with grace
and cause us to look to Him and trust in Him. In Psalm 14.1 it
says, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Now,
the words there in Psalm 14, the words, there is, were actually
added by the translators. If you have a King James version,
and maybe depending on the version, you see that it's in italicized
words, and that means that they added those words because they
thought that it went about the way they thought that it was
saying, what they thought the scriptures were implying there.
at that time, but the actual reading is, the fool hath said
in his heart, no God, no God, just like man, he rejects God,
he doesn't want to hear what God says, he doesn't want to
listen to what God says, they cast him off, they shun him,
and they reject what the Lord has to say, and the scriptures
teach because they're fools, they're fools, right? They say,
no, God, I won't do what you instruct me to do. No, God, I'm
not going to listen to you. No, God, I'm not going to do
what you say is wise for me to do. I'm going to go and do what
I think is right. I'm going to do what I think
is the right path and the things that I should be doing in this
situation. We saw that in chapter 7 with
Ahaz. He did that very thing. He turned to his own wisdom and
his own way. Jonah actually gave some very
wise words concerning the fear of the Lord. And we know what
Jonah had done. The Lord said, you go this way
to Nineveh. And Jonah said, I'm going to
go that way, away from Nineveh, and I'm going to go to Tarshish.
It was and he went by sea and we know what happened to him
that he ended up being picked up and thrown into the sea, the
raging sea, and then he sunk down until the Lord had sent
a great fish to swallow him up. And while he was there in the
belly of the fish and the Lord granted him repentance and He
thought about what a fool he had been and he said, this scripture
that we have now, they that observe lying vanities forsake their
own mercy. They forsake their own mercy.
And that's because he was pursuing a lie. When we turn from the
wisdom of the Lord, when we turn from the salvation in the Lord,
we're turning to our own wisdom, we're pursuing a lie, and we're
looking to that which can't save. It's as if we're pursuing after
a dream, and really what it turns out to be for us is a nightmare.
It's a nightmare. And the psalmist said in Psalm
73 verse 20 that As a dream when one awaketh,
so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they are utterly
consumed with terrors? So that's what carnal man is
brought to. That's where man descends down
to when he's turning away from the Lord, because naturally he
has no heart for the Lord, he has no love for the Lord, he
has no desire to hear what the Lord has to say about anything. The reason is that man is born
dead in trespasses and in sins. He's born and dead to the things
of God. He knows there is a God. The
scriptures teach that man knows that there is a God who made
heaven and earth. He knows that there's a God.
Now Jonah was shown mercy. Jonah was granted repentance
and he wasn't completely destroyed. But not all are shown mercy and
compassion of the Lord. When the Lord deems to show mercy
and compassion, but even those who are dead in trespasses and
sins, they know there is a God. And Paul words it this way in
Romans 1, verses 18 through 22. He said, for the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. So that's where man is. He comes forth rejecting God. He comes forth, he might say
he doesn't believe in God, but he knows that there is a God
and he comes forth saying, no God, no God, I'm not going to
hear what you have to say, I'm not going to listen to you or
trust you. We saw that it was true of Ahaz
who trusted his own wisdom when he himself turned to Assyria
and in doing that he showed that he was trusting in his own wisdom,
and he showed that he was trusting in what man could do for him,
rather than hearing what the prophet said, was sent to say
from the Lord, rather than hearing him, he trusted his own wisdom. He turned to Assyria. And we have to ask ourselves,
honestly, when we're troubled and hear of things, of rumors,
or conspiracies, or confederacies, what are we trusting in? Is man
actually stronger than the Lord? Is man able to overthrow and
thwart the will of God and what he's doing? We know that he's
working. He's establishing his kingdom. He's doing all things well, but
we get so easily turned around and so twisted up and so easily
concerned by what man is doing rather than fearing the Lord.
And Peter said, 2 Peter 3, 5 and 6, For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished. It perished. We only need to look at the pursuits
of men and what it is that interests them to see that man just has
this incredible indifference to God. He has just a natural
indifference to the things of God. They just don't move him.
He doesn't really think about them very much. He knows there's
a God, but it just has no effect on his thoughts, his actions,
his choices, and what he does. And it's because the heart of
man is desperately wicked. It's evil. It's just full of
darkness, and it's evil, and he's doing that which is natural,
which comes natural to him, which is his own wisdom and trusting
man rather than God. And it says in Genesis 6-5, speaking
of man, that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth. And that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And that was before the flood.
And yet, it's no different now after the flood. It's just like
that. The thoughts of man's heart are
only evil continually. And we see it in our own hearts.
We see the thoughts that we have, and the ideas that we have, and
the pursuits that we have, until the Lord brings us to ourselves,
as the scripture words, as the Lord brings us to ourselves,
as he brings us to remember the Lord, and gives us a heart to
call upon him, and to seek his face for the trouble that we're
in. Our Lord even said in Luke 17 verses 26 through 30, he says,
as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days
of the Son of Man. That is when the Lord returns,
when the Lord returns to raise up his people. He says they did
eat. They drank, they married wives,
they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into
the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise
also it was in the days of Lot they did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed." This is what Isaiah is warning
us about in this passage. He's saying, don't fear man,
don't worry about what man is doing and set your heart and
your mind so much on what is going on about us that we're
forgetting the Lord and we're not looking to the Lord and trusting
Him and resting Him. We're not to fear man, we're
not to rejoice in man in that way, but rather trust in the
salvation which God has provided in his son for his people in
Christ. So when we hear of rising dooms
and fears, because we'll hear these things, when the wrath
of man and the inventions of evil are rising up around us
and they begin to break out, whether in reality or in our
fears and concerns in our mind, it's very easy to be turned to
our own wisdom, isn't it? It's very easy when you hear
things to, your mind gets going and you start thinking, I know
what to do, I know how to address that and how to take care of
that and to set myself up to be safe from those things. But
the Lord says in verse 13, he says in Isaiah 8, 13, he says,
sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and
let him be your dread. Let the Lord be your fear and
let the Lord be your dread. And that's what we see in this
passage is that man was getting wooed by the power of Syria and
Israel. He's being wooed by it. He's
in awe. He's fearing it. That's really
what he's doing. He's afraid of it and he's fearing
what they're about to do. And so they're being moved by
these whispers of confederacies and conspiracies. And that seems
very appropriate to me in our day. Because we do hear all kinds
of things. There's so much and there's so
many things going on and it's very easy, even for myself, and
I'm speaking for myself, it's very easy to see something and
to get on it and to start pursuing it until I'm sick in the stomach.
And I think I can handle it, but it ultimately turns my stomach
and it causes me to have fears and concerns and doubts and I
start thinking what I can do to start preparing for it and
to be safe for it. And I so often realize, you know,
I'm not turning to the Lord. Now I'm moving. I'm pursuing,
I'm doing things, but I'm not, my heart isn't set on the Lord
and I'm not looking to the Lord and trusting him to provide. I mean, they had a good conspiracy
to be worried about. This was, in that day, those
armies could have come in there and taken everything they had
and killed them and taken away some of their family, taken away
their livestock and their goods and just left them for dead.
And so they had real concern. there, you know, something that
could have really happened that they had seen, but the Lord says,
don't look to those things, don't be fearful of those things. So, he says in, our Lord said
in Luke 12, 25 and 26, he said, which of you with taking thought
can add to a stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do
that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
And so it says in our text, the reason why I'm talking about
this is because this is what's in the text. In Isaiah 8, verses
12 and 13, he says, say ye not a confederacy, and that word
there is conspiracy. He says, to all them to whom
this people shall say a confederacy, a conspiracy's going on, neither
fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. So it's
not even that the conspiracies or the confederacies are necessarily
false. It's not even necessarily, it
doesn't matter whether they're real or false. The truth is, is that the Lord's
greater than all. He's God. He's the Lord. He does
all things well and he can easily destroy and break apart confederacies
so that they don't come to pass the way we thought that they
would come to pass. And the fear of the Lord is better
than the fear of man because it's wisdom. The scriptures teach
that it's wisdom, and it's wisdom because it's Christ. We're looking
to Christ. That's what the Lord has shown
us. That's what he's taught us, that in all things we're to look
to him. We look to Christ for our salvation,
in spiritual things to stand before the Lord, he also promises
to be our salvation in all things, that he'll provide for us and
take care of us. Because honestly, with all the
conspiracies that I've heard of, you can't even begin to prepare
for everything that men believe will come to pass. So it's wisdom
because it looks to Christ, because Christ is the believer's wisdom. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom."
So, as we're looking at this passage here, pray that we would
be comforted in Christ and that the Lord would give us a heart
to rejoice in Christ and to be looking to Him as we go through
the evil in our own days, be looking to Christ and trusting
Him. All right, so let's see this
in our next part here, Christ our salvation. The scriptures
reveal to us the mind and the will of God. They show us the
mind and the will of God which really is summed up in 2 Corinthians
11 3 where it says the simplicity that is in Christ. The simplicity
that is in Christ. We're to be looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all our comfort and all our hope and our joy. And the Lord shows Isaiah that
in a very short time, in this passage, He shows him in a very
short time, this confederacy between Israel and Syria is going
to be brought to nothing. It's going to be dismantled and
destroyed. And it's there in verses 3 and
4, Isaiah 8, 3 and 4. Isaiah says, I went unto the
prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the
Lord to me, call his name Meher Shelalhashpaz. for before the
child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother,
the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken
away before the king of Assyria." So he's saying, I'm going to
raise up Assyria and they're going to destroy that whole thing
that's going on between that confederacy between Israel and
Syria. So don't even worry about that,
he's saying. and we know that the people weren't
looking to the prophet, they weren't looking to the God that
Isaiah was declaring, they were looking to these men, and they
were looking to the strength of their own hands for help. So they were focused, so focused,
and looking at everything that Rezan from Syria was doing, and
Pekah, the son of Ramaliah in Israel. They were looking at
what those men were doing, and were so involved and taken up
by everything that they were doing, and the Lord likens their
behavior to rejoicing. We don't think about that. When
we're so focused on that, He says, you're rejoicing in these
men. You're looking at everything. You're rejoicing in them because
you're so taken up as though they're your God, that they are
controlling and doing everything. Look there. In verse 6, Isaiah
8.6, it says, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of
Shiloh that go softly, that peace that he has provided, and rejoice
in reason and remolaison. Those are the two rulers in Syria
and Israel. They're rejoicing in them. They
were afraid of them, but he calls it rejoicing. Because everything
they thought of, everything they did, when they rose up in the
morning and they went to bed at night, was fearing and worrying
about reason and Pica. So they were rejecting the Lord's
salvation that he provided, that the waters of Shiloh that go
softly, that peace that he provides and gives to his children and
says, just look to me and trust me and I'll provide for you and
I'll do what's right for you. You're my righteous children.
I'll do what's right for you because you're mine. So notice
the Lord doesn't even call him Pekah. He calls him the son of
Ramaliah because he's a murderer. He's a murderer. He actually
killed the king of Israel and took over ruling for him. And
so you know the Lord's going to destroy him. The Lord is going
to take care of that as it says in Psalm 37, 28, for the Lord
loveth judgment. He loves judgment. He loves doing
that which is right. And forsaketh not his saints,
they are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall
be cut off. So the wicked, they'll be cut
off. The Lord will take care of them. So he's provided this
salvation, this peaceful, soft, gentle salvation, and it's all
provided in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, for as
much as this people refuse it, the waters of Shiloah that go
softly. So Shiloah means sent. That's
what it means. It just means sent. And we think of Christ there
because Christ was sent of the Father. He was sent of the Father
to heal the people. He was sent of the Father to
bring peace between God and men and he was sent to the father
to reconcile us who are enemies who are lost in the fall but
to reconcile us to the father that's why he was sent here to
do this if you turn over to john 9 and john 9 and we'll start
in verse 4 Our Lord said, John 9, 4, I must
work the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night
cometh when no man can work. So here he's sent to do that
work of salvation, to seek out and to find and to retrieve,
to bring back to the fold that which was lost, that which he
chose before the foundation of the earth. Because we were all
in Adam, so we all fell in Adam, so he had to save that which
was lost because they were his from before the foundation of
the world. And he says, as long as I'm in the world, I am the
light of the world, right? There's salvation provided in
one name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be
saved, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one name. And he said, when
he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the
spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the
clay. And that's just a beautiful picture
where you see the Lord using means, weak and brittle means,
to heal that man, to give that man sight. It's just like the
Lord using one of us or me to preach the gospel. I'm just weak,
brittle, spittle clay, nothing important in and of itself, but
the Lord uses these things to declare his truth and to deliver
his people out of darkness because it pleases him so that we don't
glory in man, but we glory in the power, the divine power of
the Lord to do this, to effect salvation in the hearts of his
people. And then he said unto him, Go
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. So that's the New Testament word
for Shiloh, Siloam. That's the same word. And he went his way therefore
and washed and came seeing. So we see here just that sweet
picture of how the Lord himself was sent to the Father to do
this. And he sends us, he turns our
hearts and he sends us to Christ to look to him for our salvation
and our hope and our comfort and our peace and our joy. So
then we see how Christ, or in that passage we see how Christ
was sent to heal, to bring healing. As Ezekiel says, he says in Ezekiel
34 verses 15 and 16, I will feed my flock and I will cause them
to lie down, sayeth the Lord. I will seek that which was lost
and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up
that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick,
but I will destroy the fat and the strong I will feed them with
judgment. Now, we also saw how the Lord
was sent to establish peace, as he says in Romans 5, 1 and
2, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein ye stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. So, Christ brought this peace
for us. has wrought salvation for us.
We didn't do this by the works of our own hands. We didn't do
this by our wisdom or our goodness or our power or our strength. We know it's all the Lord who
did this great and tremendous work of salvation where he reconciled
us to the God of the universe, the God who created all things
by making atonement for us, by putting away our sin by the shedding
of his own blood, when he bore our iniquity in his own body
before the Father, that the wrath of God was poured out on him,
that he might pay the debt that we owe. that we could never pay
off. And he paid that debt fully and
completely that we stand before God now accepted in Christ, accepted
in the beloved. So he's done that, he's made
peace with us. And having made peace between
God and men, he makes reconciliation for us with God the Father. As
it says in Colossians 1, 20 through 22, and having made peace, through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. So our Lord had already delivered.
He had already provided deliverance for Judah and Jerusalem, to deliver
them from Israel and from Syria. And they were to look now just
to be at peace and to look to the Lord for the waters of Shiloh,
which goes softly. But they didn't want that. They
didn't want this peace and this calm. They wanted this bold,
audacious, big deliverance from these things. They wanted to
see this impressive show of force in destroying Israel and Syria,
and so they desired Assyria. They desired Assyria. The Lord
was already going to destroy them with Assyria, but now they
are turned. They're moved and turned to Assyria,
and because they turned to Assyria, because that was their trust,
the Lord says, all right, you'll have that then. That's what you're
going to have, and you're going to have it to the full. till
it's coming out of your ears, you're going to have that which
you desired. And it says in Isaiah 8, 7, and
8, Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the
waters of the river, strong, yeah, verses 7 and 8, yeah, strong
in many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory, and he shall
come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks, and
he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over,
he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his
wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel." So
he's saying he's going to overrun all of Judah. He's going to fill
it up, all right, and it's going to be a problem to you. So they
were rejoicing in men. They were looking to men, and
the Lord says, all right, you're going to have then men in abundance
coming up over the land. Now listen to what Isaiah says
later on in 28 verses 14 and 15 because it's appropriate to
this passage here in what we read. The Lord said, through
Isaiah, he said, Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful
men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have
said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are
we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge. under falsehood have we hid ourselves."
So here at this time you see the Jewish leaders and rulers
are making a covenant with Assyria and thinking that that's going
to be their deliverance and their salvation and it wasn't. They
were ultimately taken away by Babylon and when it was time
and the Jewish rulers made a covenant with the Romans in the day of
our Lord. I don't know Well, in John 11,
48, listen to this, the rulers seeing what Christ was doing,
they said, if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on
him. And the Romans shall come and
take away both our place and nation. Who were they rejoicing
in? Are they rejoicing in Christ or are they rejoicing in the
Romans and what they have and believing that the Romans were
the end all be all to all things. So we see how they were trusting
in man and that's the concern here is that we look to man and
we look to our own wisdom and to what we do. It's foolishness,
right? So we're going to continue to
hear of many things, many concerning things. It's abundant. With the
information age, it's so easy to get your hands on so much
information. And even if you don't want to
see it, it's just coming across through your history. It's just
coming across. in so many ways. So we're going to hear things
like political threats. You'll hear of rumors and threats
of war, that they're always talking about war and blackouts and EMPs
and stuff. And you always have the disruptive
promise of emerging technologies, because that's something that
there's always new things coming up that can disrupt and cause
things that we never saw or imagined before. There's always the, you
know, the imminent financial collapses that we hear of and
it's, you know, it goes on and on, you know, the fear and concern
of near-Earth objects flying by and crashing into the Earth.
I mean, there's just so much out there that you can't even
prepare for all of it, you know? And I realize, you know, we look
at certain things and try to think, well, I think this is
the most likely thing that's going to happen. Let, you know, when you hear
those things, be turned to the Lord. Look to the Lord. Lay before
Him in prayer. Because I know for myself I get,
you know, I get doing. I start doing. I start, you know,
immediately my mind thinks, you know, because I'm a provider
or I have to do something so I get to doing and then I realize
I'm so worked up about this thing or I'm so looking at this thing
and I'm not looking to the Lord who's able to provide and to
do all things well abundantly above all that I could ask or
think of him to do because we don't know what's going to happen.
I mean, we don't know. He knows. He knows all things.
He knows exactly how things are going to go because everything
that's going to happen is going to ultimately work towards his
kingdom. There are certain things that
must be. We know that according to the scriptures. There are
certain things that must come to pass at some point in time
and we see the truths of these things rising up all throughout
history, but we know that the Lord is good to his people. He's
good to his people. And if there's something great
and traumatic in our day, then we'll see great and powerful
and wonderful deliverances by the Lord for his people. So, you know, before you go You
know, when you see or hear these things before you go and you
clean out the stores of, you know, your gold and your silver,
you know, those things that are precious to you, because there's
always going to be a savior, right? There's always somebody.
I was, you know, I had some money to move around when I left my
other job and my 401k and I'm looking at things and everybody's
got an idea to tell you what to do with your money and, you
know, as soon as you give a little bit of money, Then they said,
well, if you really want the good information, you've got
to give me another $999 to get the really good stuff. So it's
like this constant thing. There's all these savers out
there to tell you what to do and how to be prepared for whatever
it is that they say is coming. And just before you go and do
that, remember, because that's what Ahas did. It says that he
took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of
the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent
it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the Lord was
going to use Assyria anyway to destroy them. And he didn't even
have to do that. He didn't have to do it. He could
have just waited on the Lord and trusted the Lord to provide
his deliverance. Because it was in the will and
the heart of the Lord to do that anyway. But when we do that,
when we pursue you know, all these other things, I have to
ask myself, who am I trusting in? Who am I rejoicing in? Am
I rejoicing in the Lord? Am I rejoicing in these things
that are causing me concern and fear? and woes. So, the Lord's going to, you
know, He will provide for His people. As He said to the wicked,
Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with them. Right? There's
going to come woe, and it's going to be woe to the wicked. It's
going to fall upon them, and He says the reward of His hands
shall be given Him. He's earned that, and He's going
to have that woe and that concern. But to the righteous, He said
in Isaiah 310, tell them that it shall be well with them. It
shall be well with you, brethren, you who hope and trust in the
Lord. It shall be well, for they shall
eat the fruit of their doings. And we have only Christ to thank
for that, because He's the one by His Spirit who bears that
spiritual fruit in us and works these good works in us according
as it pleases Him, according as He's ordained us to walk in
these things and to know Him and to serve Him. If the Lord
does bring on hard days, then we trust that there will just
be an orchard of spiritual fruit here born among us by which we
may help one another and encourage one another in these things and
seeing the deliverance of the Lord. He said to Isaiah 8, 9,
and 10, it says, associate yourselves, this is what Isaiah said to those
people, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. And give
ear, all ye of far countries. Gird yourselves, and ye shall
be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves, and ye shall
be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word, and it shall
not stand. For God is with us." So I'm not
saying that certain things aren't going to happen or come to pass.
It's just that know that the Lord is going to destroy. the
wicked. He's going to bring woe upon
the wicked, but he will provide for us. In Proverbs 15, 33, it
says, the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and
before honor is humility. So he's teaching us through these
things, whatever he's pleased to bring upon us, in these things,
he's teaching us by experience humility. We may be brought low
at times, but it's that, and by experience, that we'll truly
know what it is to be humbled and to know humility. And you
think about it, when we stand before the Lord, he's gonna glorify
us and honor us because we're gonna stand before a holy God.
We're gonna stand before the ancient of days clothed in the
robe and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What greater
honor, what greater glory is that? He's our inheritance. He's
provided all that for us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 33 6 I want you to hear
this it says and wisdom and knowledge Shall be the stability of thy
times and strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is his Treasure
you who fear him who know him and are looking him Lord if you
don't rise up I'm dead. If you don't provide for me,
it's over for me, Lord. That's your treasure. That's
your treasure. And he says, its wisdom and knowledge
shall be the stability of thy times. What is our wisdom? Or
who is our wisdom? Who is our knowledge? But the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stability of our times. No matter how rough the seas
may get, Christ is the stability of our times. He's our salvation,
not men, not the conspiracies unfolding before us or not. He says in Isaiah 8, 11, for
the Lord spake thus to me, to Isaiah, and this is what he's
to declare to us, with a strong hand and instructing me that
I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye
not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say
confederacy, neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid, but
sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread. So I pray the Lord would use
that to comfort us, to believe on the Lord, to be reminded,
and to seek him in prayer. You know, I'm not saying, you
know, I don't, I think it's in Proverbs where it says either
the wise or the righteous, and I'm leaning towards the righteous,
seeth the trouble and hideth himself. And, you know, we see
things, but that which we hide in is the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no better shelter than the hide in him and, you know,
he's the best preparation that we could have for whatever comes
away. He's the stability of our salvation
in our times. But to you who don't believe,
you know, who may hear this, but you know, who don't believe
it, who don't trust Christ, those people will have days of trouble
ahead, right? Because the blackness The furnace's
smoke that's rising up there from the bottomless pit is going
up and it enters into our ears as though it sounds so beautiful,
right, with a woman's hair. It sounds so beautiful when we
see these conspiracies and hear these things and they're declared
to us with the face of a man, with charismatic men delivering
these messages that enter into the ears and it sounds so compelling
and intriguing. you know when we've looked at
those things you know it's like at the end of it it sounds so
good going down as though that's what's what's coming and in the
end of it what does it have the tail of a scorpion that stings
you and you know you're looking for these things to happen you're
so convinced that this is what's going to happen that you're looking
for death but it does not come you're looking for that death
but it does not come and it's just the sting of a scorpion
and you realize If the Lord doesn't give you repentance, you just
go on to the next one, and then you go on to the next one, and
then to the next one. But the Lord delivers us and shows you, I'm
your fear. I'm your salvation. I'm your
all. I'll provide for you, and I'll take care of you and comfort
you. So let us be turned from the Lord, for why should we perish
in our sins? And that's the hope he's given
us, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's delivered us, and he'll
provide for us. So I pray the Lord will bless
that. to our hearts and help us and
give us wisdom to know because it just seems to get weirder
and weirder, weirder and weirder out there. And that word even
sounds weird, but he provides, he's able. And so trust him.
So let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for Christ, your son, our salvation. Oh Lord, let him
indeed come into our hearts, fill our hearts and our minds
and our thoughts. Let him be the stability of our
times. Let him be our fear and our dread,
because the fear of the Lord is our treasure, because we're
looking to you and we're crying out to you by your spirit, calling
out to our Father. And Lord, we ask that you would
indeed help us to rejoice in and to delight in the waters
of Shiloh that go softly. Lord, that we would look to and
rejoice in the peace that you've established in your Son, Jesus
Christ, for us. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.