Okay, we are going to be in Isaiah
chapter 28 this morning and looking at a few verses there. The title, I guess, or the introduction
to this is going to be apportioned. We are going to look at this
that says that the bed is too short. You will see what that
means here before long. I would like to start in chapter
29 and start with verse 7. We are going to read
down a few verses. It is woes to Ephraim that Isaiah
has given the word to them. their situation and that judgment
will come. Indeed, as we have seen in Malachi
and other places, judgment is going to come. It may not be
today or tomorrow. Sometimes the judgment that fell
on them was immediate as far as a physical thing and by another
nation or God's hand or whatever. in judgment on them and sometimes
it refers to, and many times it at least is referring to,
the judgment that all men will face before God and the condemnation
that is on men. And I'd like to read this starting
with verse five, a section down through there. And it says, in
that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for
a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people. and for a spirit
of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength
to them that turn the battle to the gate. But they have erred
through wine, through strong drink, are out of the way. The
priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are
swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through
strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. But
for all, Tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there
is no place clean. Not a good start on where they
are at. They are in a pretty nasty spot
here. In verse 9 it says, Whom shall
he teach knowledge? Whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? Them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little and there a little. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people, to whom he said,
this is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear." We're
going to make more comment on that, on the plight of natural
man, and regarding what the prophets say, what God has said, and what
the word says, and it says here, but they would not hear, and
we'll See how true that is. Verse 13, but the word of the
Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little,
that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and
taken. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, you 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, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
of stone. a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste. And we
see here, and again we're going to look at some other places
that bear on this, but here where it says in verse 15, it says,
ye have said, we have made a covenant with death and with hell are
we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it will not come unto us. We have made lies
our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." We are
going to see how true that is. Most, I dare say, probably not
very many men have actually said those words out loud to somebody
else, but in the heart that is what natural man is like. As
it says here, they They're in agreement with death and hell.
And they said, it's not going to bother us in the end. We've
got, we're covered. And it says, we have lies, our
refuge. And, and like I say, we have
not physically said those words out loud to God or to anybody,
but we, we sure have in our heart been in that position. And then
in verse 16, we'll, we'll see that this is, this is the promise
that God is from all time. There's going to be, a foundation
stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation,
he that believeth shall not make haste. Speaking of the Lord himself
and of the rest that God has for his people, that only he
can open the eyes and give life to that. And then we're going
to go on just a little farther in verse 17. It says, judgment
also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the water
shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not
stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Then ye shall
be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you. For morning by morning it shall
pass over, by day and by night, and it shall be a vexation only
to understand the report." Here it says, you may think you are
covered, but he said when the day comes, your agreement's not
going to do much. It's going to be no good. You're
not going to be covered. The scourge is going to overtake
you. And vexation, it says, is going to be there. For the bed,
verse 20, for the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself
on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself
in it. For the Lord shall rise up, as
in Mount Perazegibion, that he may do his work, his strange
work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore
be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong, for I have heard
from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole
earth. Give ye ear and hear my voice,
hearken and hear my speech. A pretty sad account here, but
it's not only account of these, and those that were ruling and
those that at that time and place in Israel, but of natural man
as a whole. The covering and it just isn't,
it just is not there. It just, it's lies. And the bed
is shorter than a man can stretch himself and the covering narrow
than he can wrap himself in it. And I was talking to Mike earlier
and I traveled with a friend one time and I got an extra bedroom,
storage room, whatever it might be, but it had a youth bed in
it. A youth bed, and I was not a youth anymore, height or width,
and it had blankets to fit and a rubber or a plastic cover on
the mattress. I did not have a very good night.
It did not Feet off the end, you know, and the blanket's too
small. I can relate with regard. It's humorous in that regard,
and I had a very poor night's sleep, but that's pretty small
comparison to what it is spiritually, what the covering. And we're gonna look at a couple
of instances there. To start with, just a minute
here, let me get on the right page here. Let's turn to the book of Genesis
chapter 3. We are going to look at a couple
of instances of this that we have. They fit all through the scriptures.
Genesis 3, starting with verse 4, you will You will recognize the passage
here of Adam and Eve in the Garden in the Fall. It says, verse 4,
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened, and ye will
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a treated desire to make one wise, she took the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were knit together and made themselves
aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat? And the man said, the woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did
eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is that that
thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. A couple of things here that we've looked at before,
and obviously that Eve ate, gave of that fruit to
Adam, and their eyes were opened. And the fall took place right
then, instantly, immediately. Every fiber of their being was
now different than it was. It was not the same anymore.
Their nature had changed and was now a totally sinful nature. They were naked before God and
they tried to cover themselves. The nakedness that they actually
had was not the physical nakedness but the spiritual nakedness before
God. They were not covered. They said, well, we hid ourselves. Well, they didn't hide themselves
from God, obviously. The fig leaf is worse than the
short bed. It just did not do the job that
they hoped it would do. And the physical nakedness had
not much bearing on the spiritual death that they had just suffered
through the fall and covering themselves. And then in the very
next chapter, A few verses, starting with verse 1 of chapter 4 of
Genesis. It says, Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord. And she again bare his brother
Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller
of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock,
and of the fat thereof. And the Lord has respect unto
Abel and his offering. But unto Cain and his offering
he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. Lord, art thou wroth? And why
is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him." Here, the story we have of Cain
and Abel, the first sons that were born. in the offering that
Cain brought. I suspect, we don't have record
of it, but I suspect that those boys had the same upbringing.
They knew from their parents and from God what was expected
as far as offering to God and what that represented. When God
had clothed Adam and Eve after they thought they were clothed,
and the Lord clothed them with sheepskins, that may have not
physically covered them in any better in some ways than the
fig leaf. Symbolically, at least, it was
more comfortable for sure, but symbolically it was the covering
that God prescribed and a blood offering had to be offered to
cover that. That picture, I have no doubt,
was instilled in those boys of what the right sacrifice was
and why it was the right sacrifice. Cain brought the best stuff he
had. Be that as it may, that was not
a symbol and symbolic of the covering that was needed for
Sin. Cain thought it was good enough
and he didn't see why that wasn't good enough when he brought it
in. We see where that led to, and he was very wroth because
God had respect unto Abel. It wasn't because of who Abel
was, it was because of that sacrifice that was brought. And that Abel's
heart was such that he understood a few things, I believe, and
brought that sacrifice. It wasn't just haphazard that
one of them brought this and God said, well, I like that one
and this one, I don't really like it. There was purpose behind
those sacrifices. And Cain thought that that was
good enough. And he thought it was good enough,
and it was not. And his heart showed that when
he had not respect for that. And he knew what to do and could
have done that, but obviously the Lord didn't put it in his
heart, he did not, and therefore slew his brother over that. But it's the same principle,
the same thing, fallen man, Faced with who God is, I can do it,
I can cover it good enough. And we've all been in that position
one way or the other, whether we've thought that or said that.
And we've heard a lot of people say, it just is not gonna, in
the day, the bed's gonna be too short and the covering's not
gonna, it's just not gonna cover it. And that's what we do by
nature is we We think we can do that. We think
we can hide from God as Adam and Eve did. We think we can
cover the problem and except for the way that it's prescribed
to be covered by the blood of our Lord himself, it is not covered. And that's the long and short
of that. It says here in the first few
verses that we read in Isaiah 28, 14 and following a bit there,
and it says that, when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it
shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood have we hid. That's it boiled down. That's
what a natural man, the best he can do is that of his own
doing. Let's look at a couple of verses.
In Isaiah chapter 8, starting with verse Oh, that's not where we want
to go. Just a minute here. Oh, just a minute. OK, here we
go. How about chapter 1, not chapter 8? Let's start in chapter 1 and Isaiah is bringing some thoughts that the
Lord has given him to deliver to them. It says, verse 2, it
says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Isaiah chapter
1, verse 2. For the Lord hath spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against
me. The ox knoweth his master, and the ass his master's crib.
But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. a sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord,
they have pervaded Israel, and they are gone away backward.
Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. From the sole of
the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is
desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate
as overthrown by strangers." And it goes on in telling them how unfaithful they've
been and what not. But God has led and taken care and done things
for them, and they have had the profits and things. And it says
here, the sole of the foot, even the head, there's no soundness
in it. And it goes on. And indeed, that's natural man. It doesn't matter where and when
and whatever situation. Spiritually speaking, It could
be like Saul physically. Boy, there was never a better
specimen that they all thought that could be king, physically
speaking. But he was this 100% like all
natural men were. There is no soundness in it by
nature. It is not in God and His Spirit
that we will see revealing himself to his people, that's where we
are and that's what we are. If somebody does not mollify
those things and bind up the wounds and take care of those
things in a spiritual way and put life there, there's no hope
for this in this situation. And that's where Isaiah is telling
them over here in verse 28 that this is, you think you have this
covered and figured out, but here's your, you're not, it's
just not going to work. And as Adam and as Cain and others
that we have record of. Turn to Psalm 118, Psalm 118. Okay, Psalm 118. These are not new verses by any
means or discoveries by any stretch of
the imagination, but what the Word has to say deals
with this, of course. Psalm 122, verse 18. Verse 18 and 19, it says, the
Lord, start with 18. The Lord hath
chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them and I will
praise the Lord. This gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee for thou hast
heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's
doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. And this is what God causes in
his people. They desire that. They desire
him to to reveal Himself to us, to become our salvation, as it
says here. And verse 22 speaks to what we
saw in Isaiah, also that we'll read again. The stone which the
builders rejected refuses become the headstone of the corner.
Speaking of the Lord Himself, the one that has been prophesied
and spoken of and told of since at least the third chapter. Heel's
going to be bruised, but the serpent's head is going to be
smashed. He's going to be destroyed and he will deliver his people. And then in Matthew 21, we're
going to kind of go back and forth a little bit in some of
this, but Matthew chapter 21. starting with verse, Matthew 21, starting with, with verse, let me get the right play 21. Well, actually verse 42 is what
we're going to read. The parable up here of the husbandman,
we're not going to read all of it, but the husbandman sends
different ones there and are taken and beaten and killed
and then down. Verse 38, actually, I'm sorry.
It says, but when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among
themselves, this is the heir, come, let us kill him and let
us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast
him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord, therefore,
the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen?
Verse 41, they say unto him, he will miserably destroy those
wicked men and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen,
which shall render him the fruits of their season. Jesus saith
unto them, Did ye never read the scriptures? The stone which
the builders rejected, the stame has become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And here speaking of himself,
obviously coming in and doing the work the Father sent him,
our Lord, to redeem his people. They took and slew him, as it
says here, by wicked hands. And it says in verse 42, did
you never read the scriptures? The stone which the builders
rejected, the stain has become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And obviously,
when it talks about this, and make him that position, he had
that position. He was the chief cornerstone.
They rejected that. Men rejected that cornerstone
as worthless and valueless, but it did not change the position
he was in. Our Lord was, as we have several records of,
He's the one that spoke things into existence, creation, and
sustains all things. He wasn't put in that position
by men or religion. He is Lord God Almighty because
He's Lord God Almighty. and that has nothing to do with
that. Verse 12, back again in Isaiah,
something that I don't want to go back without, I don't want
to go on without that verse. In Isaiah again In verses 9-12, remember God
taught the people truth, it says, line upon line, precept upon
precept. By his prophets in all time,
God has had his men proclaim the gospel and what God would
have men to know in that way outwardly from the beginning
of time. But they would not, in verse
12 in Isaiah 20, it says, This is the rest where, he said
unto them, this is the rest where ye may cause the weary to rest.
This is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. And I mean, to
this day, how many people hear the gospel when it's preached
by God's ministers and preachers that preach the word, how many
people hear it and nod their head or whatever, and they won't
hear it. They don't hear. as Cain. Cain would not hear it. He just
did not hear that. The truth of God has been declared
all through time, but natural man cannot hear it. He has no
heart for it and no spiritual life. Luke 24, along this same
Speaking to this, in Luke chapter 24, we are very familiar with
this passage here on the two on the road to Emmaus, and the
Lord comes and speaks to them. And remember, he comes upon them
in Luke chapter 24, and he says, what's up, guys? And their chins
are in the dirt as they're heading towards Emmaus. And he said,
you a stranger that haven't heard what's going on here? The one
we thought was gonna redeem and save the world, and there we
are. Our bubble's been popped as far
as that hope goes. Christ says to them in verse
25 and 26, it says, then he said to them, O fools and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not
Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his
glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto a village,
and whither they went, and he made as though he would have
gone farther, but they constrained him." And we know the rest of
that as it goes on and he meets with them and others. But here,
as it says here, old fools and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken." By nature we can't see it. We just have no heart or eyes
or ears to hear that. Remember Christ spoke to the
Pharisees. I believe there were a lot of
Pharisees that were honest as they could be men, as far as
they weren't evil hearted as far as their intents, as far
as they understood things, and they were following the old religion
best they could, and they weren't all out to kill people and stuff,
but Christ met an awful lot of them. that we have record of
it, that were pretty evil in that, outwardly even. But there
were those, and he spoke to some of those and said, search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they
are those that testify of me. And they thought they had eternal
life in the method they had, and yet the bed's too short and
the cover's too small. The religion they had, as far
as just the religion goes, It was, as we know, a works religion
like a lot of natural man still have. Works religion and it just
isn't going to get the job done. There is no spiritual value to
that. There were those, I believe, that In all time, we know there were
those that followed the religion that was prescribed in the Old
Testament of the sacrificing that saw what those were talking
about. As Norm said just the other day, speaking about the
scapegoat, and the one that was sacrificed, and the one that
the hands were laid on, and then it was led away into the wilderness. There were those that understood
that picture, that God showed them that that was as the Lord
himself. that was, that was shed for his
people and that the sins were put on and taken care away. There
were those who just saw two goats and they went through the motions
of that. And that's all they ever saw.
But there were those from time of old that understood that God
showed them that this was their hope picture of the, of their
hope of the Messiah that was to come. And, uh, that there
are those that, that understood that and knew that. And, um, in Romans chapter one. And we
have, we have record. It's not, it's not hard to find record
in the scriptures of what we're seeing and also of what man is
like and what the hope that is, that God's people have, that
God has laid out for his people. But in Romans chapter one, In
just a few verses you could put in your parenthesis Romans and
go that route, but we are going to look at just a little bit.
In Romans chapter 1, starting with verse 18, this is speaking to
the to the natural man and the Gentiles that are guilty before
God by nature. But it's not just Gentiles, it's
obviously all of man. It says, 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
shown 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. and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore
God gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, changed
the truth of God into a lie and a worship, and served the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. It goes
on, but I want to, a thought I want to back up here. verse
18 where it says, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all godliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Um, saw that
and that's addresses that what we saw on Isaiah chapter 28 when
they, when they said, we have, we have an agreement with the
devil in hell and we're, we're taking care of. And here where
it says, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. That is the best that can be
done by nature or by works or any other source other than God's
Spirit to his people. The hope that is before us is
that rock that we have. We are going to look at a couple
of places. Isaiah chapter 5. I think this
is where I want to go, Isaiah chapter five. And just a thought
here. No, that's not where I want,
I'm sorry. Turn the page. Okay. John Chapter 3. We've just got
time for just a couple of spots, but John Chapter 3. He's visiting with Nicodemus
in John Chapter 3. And Christ tells him that except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And
Nicodemus kind of scratches his head and sees that in a physical
way and doesn't understand that. And Jesus answered and said,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and hearth the sound thereof,
but cannot tell where it comes from, and where it goeth. So
is every one that is born of the Spirit. And then I want to
jump down here to verse 14 of John chapter 3, and
it says, As Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, even
so the Son of Man must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through the world through
him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son. And it says in verse 19, this
is the condemnation that lights come into the world and men love
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Everyone
that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest
his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought of God. And in this, for time we're going
to have to, continue at a different lesson with this another time.
But those have to be brought by God to Himself. They have
to be brought by God to Himself. He has to reveal that truth.
It doesn't come by religious teachings that we saw as we see
and only God can open the eyes to do that and he does so. And
that is the hope that he is having and that we hold to and stand
in. And that foundation, that true
rock that is laid, that God laid and reveals himself to us. And
with that, be free. Recording stopped. Recording
stopped.