We may look at that, Lord willing,
Wednesday night. May not. But you'll be blessed
by looking at it, I believe. Isaiah chapter 8. And all I want to do this morning
is just look at these verses with you and make a few comments,
totally dependent, as always, Lord, Holy Spirit, to make these
things both profitable and for our good and for His glory. The
solemn portion of Scripture is as serious as is God's Word. I listened to a message recently
that a man preached to young people, a message to young people.
It was a great blessing to me. I thought about that. I thought
about my own preaching, and I particularly like that man's preaching. Very
simple, straightforward. And I thought about that. I want our young people to be
able to at least understand the words I'm saying. I want to preach
in such a way as not to be over their head, but not too simply,
not too low. I want all of us to receive the
Word. as little children. I want to.
It must be so. Receive it like we don't know, like we need
to know, ready to hear it. And so this is a message to both
young and old, to all children of all ages. Look at it, verse
5, "...the Lord spake also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as
this people refuseeth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and
rejoice and reason in Remilia's son, now therefore, behold, the
Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and
many, king of Assyria, all his glory." He shall come up over
all his channel and go over all his banks, and he shall pass
through Judah, and he shall overflow and go over, and he will reach
all the way up to the neck, stretching out his wings. He shall fill
the breadth of God's land. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof. The world and the heaven dwell
therein. This is his word. But God called Satan. the God
of this world, not that he has any reign or rule except what
God allows him, what God in his purpose and will allows him to
do. This king of Assyria always represents
Satan, the God of this world, the most powerful man on earth,
the king of Assyria. He had everything on earth at
his disposal. That's what the Lord said Satan
had, all these things with which to use to entice, or that is,
drown men in perdition. And this is saying, what this
is saying here, because this people refused the waters of Shiloh. What's
that? There was a pool over in the New Testament called Siloam.
The word means sent. Sent by God. A place sent by
God where those waters in them were healing. If someone would
be placed in those waters, they would be healed. That's a picture
of Christ, the water of life. Salvation that's in Him. The
one sent by God. Shiloh. Until Shiloh comes. Prince of Peace. Rest. The one sent by God. to save
his people from what? Overflowing scourge, God's wrath,
being overcome by this world. The things of this world being
drowned in riches and perdition and lust and sin. But no, it
says the people, without exception, refuse it. By nature, nobody
wants Here's condemnation. Our Lord said, light has come
into this world, and men love darkness rather than light. And
that was me. Young and old alike. And men
and women and young people are drowning in this world. Overcome by this God of this
world, held captives by Him at His will, the Scripture says.
Not even knowing it. Not even knowing it. And such
were some of you, but God. Says Judah, doesn't it? He'll
even go into Judah. Judgment begins at the house
of God. God's people live in this world. They live in the
midst of this world. Seems like it comes all the way
up to the neck. But they'll not go under. They'll not be overcome. They won't drown. They won't
drown. Look at verse 9 through 13. He says, Associate yourselves,
O ye people, and you shall be broken in pieces. Give ear, all
ye of far country. Give ear, everyone, everyone,
throughout the land, throughout the world. This is for everybody.
Guard yourself, you shall be broken in pieces. Guard yourself,
you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word, it doesn't matter,
it won't stand. Associations, you know, people
think because there's an association, large denomination, Baptist Association,
Methodist Association, Catholic, largest church, so to speak,
in the world. Surely all those people can't
be wrong. It almost absolutely guarantees
it that it's wrong, whatever the world goes after. But the
whole world is... Associate yourselves. Isn't that
what this says? Associate yourselves. So many
associations. He said, take counsel together.
What does this man think? What does that man think? It
doesn't matter what any man thinks. You know that? What do you think?
It doesn't matter what I think. like a certain part of our anatomy.
Everybody's got one opinion. It doesn't matter, does it? I
thought. This is what I think. It doesn't matter. It's only
what God said. Take counsel. There's so many
counselors all over the world. Everybody go into a counselor.
There have never been more counselors in the history of the world. You want me to tell you what
the scripture says about counsel? Right here it says, take counsel
and it will come to knowledge. God has made foolish the wisdom
of this word. Whoever that counselor is, if
his counsel doesn't come from the counselor, it's not going
to help you in one bit. His name shall be called. Isaiah
9, 6, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, called His name Wonderful
Counselor. He said, I am wisdom. I am wisdom. Not what He says
is not true. It's the truth. The way. Now, here's a good way.
God has this way, man has no way. There is one way. Christ
said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other
way. There is a way that seems right
to men and women, but no matter how many get together, no matter
how many think it's the way, it's wrong and it leads to destruction. One way leads unto life. One
way is wisdom from above, and that's Jesus Christ. The words of his mouth are verity,
truth, justice, righteousness, the good way wherein you should
walk, and you'll find rest for your soul. But what do people
say? No. No. Well, look at verse 11 and 12.
This ought to catch the attention of us Southerners. The Lord spake
to me with a strong hand. in power, with authority, as
he had pointed his finger at me. My dad used to speak to me
that way. Boy, when he did this, Paul Edward,
ooh, buddy, I better be listening, strong hand. That's the way the Lord speaks
to his people. We better hope he does, then
we can't kill him. He spoke to me with a strong
hand, and he instructed me that I should not walk in the way
of his people. Don't walk with them, young people. If you walk with this world and
your friends, you're going to die in this world
and perish. Say ye not, verse 12, a confederacy. A confederacy to this people
that say, a confederacy. I'm not from Virginia, though. See, I'm from Kentucky. The Kentuckians
didn't have a clue what side they were on. But anyway, they
tried both. Finally, they were smart. They
got on the winning side. But don't say Confederacy. Just
because it's Confederacy, we're on the right. God's with us.
Everybody said that during the Civil War. Didn't it? North and
South. I said, didn't it? God's with
them. God will. That's not the question. Who's
on the Lord's side? Confederacy. We've got a confederacy
here. We're all in this thing together. We're all in agreement
here. A bunch of rebels is what you are. That's what the confederacy
wants. I'd better get off of this. No,
seriously. It lost, didn't it? God's not
on the losing side. Don't say confederacy. We're
in the right. Confederacy. Neither fear ye
their fear, verse 12. And that wasn't a note for the
North either. Confederacy. Neither fear ye
their fear, nor be afraid. What is their fear? What do men
fear? Well, they fear everything but
God. Our Lord said in another place
in Isaiah, He said, Their fear toward me is taught by the precept
of men. In other words, men, false prophets
mostly, are to blame for the fact that there is no fear of
God before men's eyes today. We have an example. Very recently,
a man got up and told everybody, May 21st, judgment was coming,
the Bible guarantees it. Well, it came and went. And now
he's a fool. You should have known that when
he said a day. God said no man did it. Well,
it came and went, so the world scoffed him again. They scoffed
for years, just like Peter, just like the Lord said. Now stop,
where is the promise of His coming? All things continue. No matter
what these prophets say, all things continue as they want.
Now hold on. God said, no man know, but like
a thief in the night. He said, I know, you don't know,
but I know and I promised it. Be watching, be waiting. Don't fear their fear. And these
false prophets make a mockery of God and they all stand up
to a man and a woman and have told people for years now how
much God loves them, God needs them, can't do anything without
them, and people believe that. And
there's no fear of God before anybody's there. You know what
the fear of God does to a society? It cleans it up. Now, you take
a look around us. Why is this nation like it is?
It's getting more and more perverted and perverted because of this
pulpit right here. Because no man, very few are
left standing up preaching a God to be feared and dreaded. Dreaded? Look at it, wouldn't
you? Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, verse 13. That is, set
Him apart. Our God is set apart clearly.
When we preach, we set the God of the Bible apart from these
false gods today. Whenever we preach, we need to
declare God so clearly that it's clear to see that what's being
said out there, that's not the God of the Bible. This is the
living and true God. The God who worketh all things
after His will, according to His purpose. Not waiting on anybody,
not depending on anybody, not hoping, wanting, wishing anything. Working all things after the
counsel of His will. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. The God in whose hands our breath
is and all our ways. The One who actually reigns,
not a figurehead. Just a symbol on the front of
boats and ships. They had what I call a figurehead. Often it was a god, a good luck
lady or a charm or something to get them through a storm.
That couldn't save a flea. It didn't save one ship. If a ship got through, it was
because that ship was in God's hands. And so it is with every
human being, man, woman and child, the God in whose hands our breath
is, and all our ways to be feared, to be worshipped. Set Him apart. Preach Him so
clearly. Sanctify Him. Let Him be your
fear. They fear this. They fear that.
Men fear man more than God. Let it not be so with us or our
children. Let us fear no one but God. That's
faith. Let him be your dread? I'm not sure I fully understand
that, Brother Henry, but that's God's Word. Dread. In other words, if you don't
know him, you better dread seeing him. That's what it means. But
if you do, look at the next verse. Those that fear, he shall be
for a sanctuary. A sanctuary. Those that fear
the Lord of hosts, He'll be a sanctuary. What's a sanctuary? It's a place
of safety. It's a place to run and hide.
It's a shelter in the time of storm. Sanctuary. I don't know why we
started calling this... Well, the Scriptures does. It
calls the house of God the sanctuary. But it's only a sanctuary if
Christ is prayed. It's only a sanctuary, not if
men come to a building, but if they come to Christ. You see? This building can't protect us. Only Christ can. He's the sanctuary. A place to run and hide, verse
14. He'll be a sanctuary. A sanctuary. Sanctuary, the clearest picture
of a shelter in Scripture is a cave, a cleft of the rock. There have been lots of things
happening on this planet, haven't there? Hurricanes. What can stand
up to a hurricane? Nothing. Nothing. No man-built, man-made shelter
can stand up to a hurricane. World Trade Center built. Titanic. Can't sink. Yeah. World Trade
Center. This thing goes deep. Yeah. It's coming down fast. Hurricanes. Doesn't matter. When His wrath
is like the rest of His nostrils. God. To show His power. The heavens declare His glory.
The firmament shows His handiwork. The wrath of God is revealed
from that. Clearly seen. Knock on all men's little houses,
all of them. But you go up in the mountains,
and you'll find an old cave there, a cliff to the rock that's been
there for centuries, a rock of ages. And you get in there, and
Brother Sammy, it doesn't matter, hurricane or hell or high water,
it's a place of safety. What is that? Excuse me for hollering. Excuse me for not hollering enough.
That rock is Christ! Our Lord said to Moses, and He
says to all these people, there is a place by Me, a holy place of safety, and I
am holy and righteous. I will by no means clear the
guilty. But there is a place by Me, and I am going to put
you on the rock. And when I pass by, where are
we? I'm going to put you in the cleft
of the rock. When that overflowing scourge
comes by, let the rock come down on you. You'll be safe. I'll make my glory, the glory
of my person, I'll make my goodness pass before you. My mercy. What's
His goodness? That He put Him in the rock. That He knew about the rock.
That's His goodness. What's God's mercy? What's God's grace? Where's
God's love? In the rock! That rock is Christ. That cleft of the rock is Christ
smitten, Christ crucified, His wounded side. That's the cleft
of the rock. A man shall be a hiding place,
a sanctuary, a fortress, a high tower. And come hell or high
water, it will not come near you. You may think, I'm up drowning. No, sir. Your head's above water. Did you catch that? The head,
Christ. Oh my, where am I? It says here
in verse 14, but he's going to be for a stone of stumbling,
for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Judah,
Israel. A gin, the snare. Many will stumble
and fall and be broken and snared and taken. Stone of stumbling. How often
does it say that in Scripture? Talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Talking about the truth. Talking about the gospel of Christ,
the true gospel. A stone of stumbling, a rock
of a fence, a stumbling stone, he said to the Jew, to the religious,
a stumbling stone. Stumble over it. Christ said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No other foundation.
There's nothing which to stand on but me. Men stand on their
work, stand on their tradition, stand on their righteousness,
stand on this, stand on that. You better be standing on one
thing, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord is going
to sweep away all refuges of life, all foundations. The sand
of this world is sinking. Everybody in it, but those found
on the ground. Stumbling stump. We stand or
we fall for one reason. Jesus Christ. If we're going
to stand before God, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight,
it's going to be for one reason. Not because we stood, but because
He stood for us. That's right. He's the foundation.
Well, the foundation can no man lay. And the Lord said that to
Moses, I'm going to put you on that rock. You don't put yourself
there. He puts us there. Our Lord one time said this.
He said, this stone, this stone and that stone, He said, if this
stone falls on you, it will grind you to powder. But if you fall
on it, Your heart will be broken, but that's a good thing. You won't be destroyed. And a
rock of offense, verse 14, to the Greek, he's a rock of offense,
he's a fence, he's a foolishness. To a modern, sophisticated, so
to speak, civilized, educated society, professing themselves
to be wise, though fools. This is offensive, this old fashion. Here we go again, this old gospel
of a holy God and a blood atonement and God angry with people. Men didn't make these things
up. No scriptures of any private interpretation. This is God's
work. This is God. It's not some ranting
lunatic on the corner with a sign, prepare to meet thy God. A rock
of offense. It's offensive. The gospel is
offensive. The truth is offensive, especially
to religious men and self-righteous men. But the fact of the matter
is, and people say this, oh, that's just a bunch of tradition
and ignorant superstition. That's mountain lore. That's
what mountain people do. Karl Marx called it the opiate
of the masses, people that need some kind of opium, the drug
to get them through their hard time. They're rejecting one person. They're forgetting this one thing,
that there was a person that lived on this earth 2,000 years
ago named Jesus Christ. Now, he's either God or he's
not. He's either the greatest pretender
to ever live, or as the Scripture says, he's the potentate. You can't be indifferent here,
can you? You can't just take him or leave him. He's either
the greatest loser to ever live, or he's Lord. He's either the
greatest imposter, or he's the truth itself. He's either just Jesus, or he's
Jehovah. Jehovah. And our Lord said this,
O how blessed are those who are not offended in me. Not offended. Thomas bowed down
and said, My Lord and my God. Peter, Simon Peter. Oh, I'm thankful
for old Simon Peter. Kind of reminds me, Sam, if a
bunch of us were the apostles back then, I believe Stephen
would have been Simon Peter. Big old, rough, able to take
everybody on. I'm so glad that the Lord saved
a fellow like your big brother. and revealing His power and His
glory and His ability to save. Simon Peter, you know, a big,
rough, tough, you can't convince a longshoreman of anything. You
can't beat him physically, and you can't beat him mentally,
can you? Been there, done that, seen that. You know, I'm a fisherman,
I'll have you know. Go ahead, Master. We'll cast
our nets over there. Sure. Oh, my. Dropped to his knees. Dropped
to his knees. Brought that proud man down to
his knees. Became a disciple from then on.
Oh, what power. Only one man can save a man like
that. Stronger than he. Stronger than
he. Oh, my. Able to save the other
man. Look at this. Let's go on. I've
got to hurry. Verse 16. Well, verse 15 says,
many will stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be
taken by the God of this world, but He will be a djinn. The Lord
will be a djinn and a snare, and men are going to be held
accountable for what they've heard or haven't heard. Take and bind up the testimony,
he said, in verse 16. Bind it up, seal it, the law,
the word, the truth among my disciples. See, these things
are hidden from the wise and the prudent. I revealed them
unto his babe, his people. See that? Salvations of the Lord,
his blessings upon his people, the psalm said. But look at what
Isaiah said, verse 17. I will wait upon the Lord, but
hide at his face from the house of Jacob. I will look for him.
Isaiah said that by God's grace. And by God's grace, that's what
I want to do. You, Dan? I will wait upon the Lord that
hideth his faith from the house of drugs. I will look for him
when he said, seek ye my face. What do you say to that? Well,
by God's grace we say, thy face will I see. Young people, the
Lord said, seek ye my face. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he's near. When's that? Today. Now, will I wait? Wait on what? You don't know
what's tomorrow, my friend. Don't take refuge in anywhere
else. Don't take refuge out in the world. Don't do that. There
is no refuge but one place. There is no sure safety but one
place. Look at this, in verse 18, you
know the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said this, over in Hebrews 2,
this is recorded, that Christ Himself said this, here is what
Christ said, to those that He reveals Himself to those that
have the fear of the Lord. Verse 18, "...behold, I and the
children whom the Lord hath given me." They're for signs and for wonders.
"...I and the children whom the Lord hath given me." My, my. Christ came into this world to
save a people given to Him by the Father. That's what it said.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And here's
how you know them. They're children. They're children. That's what the Lord said. I quoted him. He said, except
you hear the word as little children, you can't enter the kingdom of
God. Little children, you know, believe you, don't they? They
believe you. Especially if you're their father.
If you're their mother, grandfather, grandmother, they believe you,
don't they? They believe every word you say. They trust you. Do you trust your Heavenly Father?
Believe Him. Just keep on believing that.
Let God be true. Every man a liar. All associations,
counselors getting together, it looks like they have something
to say, but they say it will come to naught. Gird yourself,
no matter what you try to cover yourself, it's going to be ripped.
It's going to be broken. Gird yourself with the truth.
If He girds you. Little children are trusting.
Little children follow you. Implicitly follow you. Little
children are amazed by what you tell them. You know, I've been, as young
as I am, I've been saying these same things to you over twenty
years. And this man's been saying it
over fifty years. Same thing. We don't have a new
message. Same thing. To say the same thing
is not grievous to me. It's my hope. I still want to
hear it. You know why I'm preaching the
same message? Because I want to hear it. Because this is what
gives me hope. And, you know, if you're a little
child, you're amazed by new things, what you hear new. Oh, may the Lord never let us
cease to be amazed by His grace, amazing grace. May the gospel
never cease to be good news to us. Little children are dependent,
aren't they? Totally dependent. The older I get, like Brother
Terrell in his article last week, growth in grace means you grow
more dependent on his grace. Not only do you grow gracious,
but you grow more dependent. What is faith? Faith is believing
Him, trusting Him, more dependent on Him. He said, The whole I
and the children whom the Lord hath given me, they are for signs
and wonder. People say, Show us a sign. Christ
said, I am the sign. Have you seen Him, John? It's just like this morning when
he got up. The heavens, the firmament, he has set a tabernacle for the
sun. And every eye sees him. But they
don't see him. They don't see him. He comes
up every morning. Nothing's hid from the heat or the light thereof.
From that sun. Sun? Yes, capital S. O-N. A picture for all to see. My son. This is my son. His life. He lived because of Him. You
receive everything from Him. Yes, you do. A sign. And His
people are a sign. His people, His little children
are a sign, a wonder. When God Almighty gives birth
to one of His children, it's a wonder. They're a wonder. I'm still not... She's listening. Intently to me. Isabella. These little ones are amazing. They never cease to amaze me.
Do they? I wonder. He's listening to me. I wonder. They're a sign, a clear sign
that God is a miracle and a wonder, an amazement. But God is. I'll tell you a greater sign
and a wonder. New birth. New birth. To take a rip-roaring rebel,
teenage rebel, to shake his fist in his father's face and run
and lick it and spit for this world just as hard as he can
and won't listen to anything anybody says. Dismissed it all. Throw it all away. I don't want
anything to do with that. running as fast as he can, headed
for a cliff, to stop him in his tracks, like he'd been shot, and turn him and make him not look in the
mud, but look up and beat on his chest. and say
everything about me is worthless. God be merciful to me, the center,
the greatest center on earth. For God to do that, that's a
wonder. The wonder of His mercy and His
grace and His power and His glory is a sign, a sure sign. Go tell John again, the blind
can see. Blind to himself. Blind to the
God of this world. Blind to His danger. Blind to
her peril. Open her eyes. Lord, open her
eyes. He's the only one who can. The
only one. And when He does, and I preach
to people, our young people are preaching, preaching, preaching,
preaching like He did to me, and it's just not there. There's
no light there. They're in darkness. There's no light there. But bless
God, one day, like in Shannon's eyes, one day, it's like the
light's gone. Her blind eyes have been opened.
Her deaf ears have been opened. Her loose tongue has been employed
to do what? Seek for mercy. Praise. Thank God. That's a wonder. That's a wonder. I want to go all through this.
Don't go after wizards that peep and mutter. Don't consult dear Abby. Do you know how many people have
consulted dear Abby? About half of them committed
suicide. Wizards that peep. Man, should
not the people of God consult the God who made them? The dead. Shouldn't the dead not go to
the dead, but the living? The living Lord. And people,
he says, will go through this world, verses 21 and 22, they'll
go through this world hardly to stay. The way of the transgressors
is hard. Young people, it's hard. Christ
said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Keeping up with the
Joneses is hard. And the end is really bad. Go
through this world, be hardly bested and hungry. It doesn't
matter what you attain in this world, it's going to leave you
hungry. It's not enough. It's not enough. Not enough education. Not enough riches. Not enough
pleasure. It's not enough. It leaves you
hungry. It leaves you thirsty. And they'll fret themselves, it's
said. Fret themselves. Curse God. Everybody's cursing God. And they're going to look up
when somebody saves us. Somebody came. Yes, He did. And they'll look to the earth
and behold darkness and trouble and dimness of anguish and be
driven to darkness. Despair. I'll take this. I'll
find refuge in this drug. I'll find refuge in this new
thing. I'll find refuge trying to find
some refuge, some answer, some hope somewhere with somebody. It ain't nowhere. It ain't anybody. There's only one. And he said
it, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Light shone in this world, but
here's the condemnation. They'll love darkness rather
than light. But if you've come to the light,
oh, how blessed. You must be one of his children.
Come to the light. Like a moth to a flame. But you'll not be concerned.