Alright, let's go back to Isaiah
chapter 20. If you noticed as we read Isaiah
20, the last few words of that passage is, How shall we escape? And then if you noticed over
in Hebrews chapter 2, when the apostle there was giving that
serious encouragement and charge to the people of God. to pay
serious attention and give diligence to obey what the things that
they've heard, and that's speaking of the things of the glory of
God in Christ, the salvation that God has freely provided.
And he adds this, he says, for how shall we escape if we even
neglect? He's not talking about an out
and out rejection there. He's just talking about neglect.
And I'll tell you, I believe that's the greatest danger of
people who are sitting under the preaching of the truth. It's
not just standing up and rejecting it. None of you here tonight
are going to do that. None who come on Sunday or Sunday morning,
Sunday night or any time. They're not going to just stand
up and reject. Normally they won't. Usually
the people who do that will just leave. But just the neglect,
and it can be a neglect of the mind. It can be just ignoring
what you hear. And he says, how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? And it is a great salvation because
salvation is of the Lord and he is a great God. We have a
great Savior. He is saved by grace that is
greater than all our sins. And that's the theme of this
chapter back here in Isaiah. That's why I've entitled the
message, How Shall We Escape? Is there any way of escape? Escape
from what? Escape from sin. Escape from
Satan. Escape from the wrath of God.
Escape from hell. Escape from anything that would
be against us or that would destroy us. Is there any way of escape?
Well, men have devised ways of escape. Ever since the fall of
man, Adam and Eve, they devised their way of escape. Cain devised
his way of escape. Nimrod and the people of Babel,
they devised their way of escape. And you can go right on down
the line, can't you? But here's the saddest thing. The people of Israel, who had
been so privileged and so blessed in a temporal, earthly, providential
way. They too had their ways of escape,
and they were all wrong. Because there's only one way
of escape, and that's to turn to the true and living God as
He reveals Himself in His mercy and His grace in Christ. And
that's what this little short chapter is all about. You say,
where did he get all that? Well, it's there. I'm going to
show it to you. You know, Israel's history, think about this, Israel's
history was one of blessing from God. You know, that little nation,
that little insignificant nation that was held in derision by
the great nations. You know, we've studied here
about great nations, Assyria. This chapter 20 here is about
the invasion of the Assyrian Empire. We think about the Roman
Empire and how great it was because we studied that in school, but
we normally didn't study the Assyrian Empire in school, in
world history. Maybe just a few things about
it. But it was a great empire. It was a respected and feared
people. We're studying about this great
Assyrian Empire who come down and conquered Israel, and going
to conquer Judah, and now going to conquer Egypt and Ethiopia.
And then we studied about Egypt and their great civilization,
the pyramids. You know, that's what you think
of when you think of Egypt, don't you? The pyramids. What a monument,
you know. People today cannot figure out
how they built the pyramids, so they get stupid and say aliens
built it. That's right. And somebody said, well, how
do you know aliens didn't build them? Well, I don't think that
deserves an answer, but just like the teacher asked the little
boy, he said, how are you going to find out if life's on Mars?
And the little boy just said, well, just go to Mars and ask
one of those Martians. And if there's any life up there,
he'll tell you. That's the way to do it. Simple. But we study
about these great civilizations. And then here's this one little
insignificant nomadic people who didn't really, in their roots,
they didn't own a parcel of land. You see, Abraham didn't even
really own the land that he was buried on almost. Finally end
up getting it. But they weren't a great people.
And God chose them. And he told them in Deuteronomy,
he said in Deuteronomy chapter 7, I didn't choose you because
you were the greatest in number, the greatest in power, the richest,
or anything like that. It was totally a matter of God's
free, sovereign will. Why did God choose Israel and
not Assyria? I'll tell you why, because it
seemed good in His sight. His sight. Why does God choose
any sinner? That's an unanswerable question
other than the very words that our Lord gave in Matthew 11.
It seemed good in his sight. Why did it seem good in his sight?
I don't know. I know this. It glorifies him.
When God chooses a sinner and saves him by his grace through
Christ, it gives him the glory. And it gives the sinner nothing
to brag or boast in except Christ, God's beloved Son, in whom he
reveals himself. So here Israel, they were so
blessed in so many ways. Paul listed them in Romans chapter
9. Read them sometime. He said,
who are the Israelites to whom pertaineth the promises? Who
had the oracles of God? They had the Word of God when
other nations didn't. They had revelations from God.
They had miracles from God, prophets from God. They had the tabernacle
and the priesthood and the altar and the sacrifices when other
nations didn't. And yet what did they do with
all these blessings? Well, mostly in their history,
if you read through the Old Testament, on the whole they did not believe
God. Their history was one of rebellion,
one of idolatry, one of rejection of the true and living God. They
distrusted the true and living God and turned to other nations
for help. That's what the problem here
is in Isaiah 20. God said, I'm your God, you're to depend upon
me, you're to trust in me, your expectation. You know what that
means, your expectation? Well, somebody says, well, I
expect when I die to go to heaven. Is that your expectation? Huh? Well, will God Do like He does
here in Isaiah 20. Will He destroy your expectation?
Well, I'm going to tell you something. If your expectation is anywhere
but in Christ and Him crucified, it will be destroyed, won't it?
So their expectation many times turned toward Egypt, turned toward
Ethiopia, turned toward other nations. And what did that do? That dishonored God. It dishonored
their God. It was like a living testimony
of this little nation to the other great nations. Now listen,
our God really cannot be trusted. Do you know that's what a sinner
does when he looks elsewhere for salvation but in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you know that's what they're
doing? You take a person who expects salvation, blessing,
reward based upon their efforts rather than the grace of God
in Christ, His blood and His righteousness alone. You know
what? Their whole religion is a religion
that says God, the true and living God, the God of grace, cannot
be trusted. He's either not powerful enough
to save me by His grace, or he's not willing to save me by his
grace, which means he went back on his promise and he can't be
trusted. And that dishonors every attribute
of God's character, his nature. Isn't that something? But that's
what Israel did. Now, Israel there is just a picture
of man by nature, isn't he? I mean, we don't have anything
to brag about and boast of in ourselves, do we? That's what
we are by nature until God brings us around by His Spirit to see
the truth. But you know what the lesson
here is? Actually, it's the lesson of
chapter 18, chapter 19, and chapter 20 here. We've already studied
the first two there. But here's the lesson. You know,
they go together. Remember, chapter 18 shows that
when God visits nations in judgment and wrath, it's foolish for nations
to form alliances as if they could save themselves from God's
judgment. When God passes judgment, when
He passes sentence, It's foolish for nations to form alliances
as if they can help each other, as if their strength comes from
themselves. Well, what do you do then? Well,
you fall at the feet of God and you beg for mercy. That's what
you do. Isn't that right? Beg for mercy. Say, I've got
no hope. I've got nothing to plead. I've
got no rights. The man doesn't have any rights. He gave them up when he sinned.
That right? Give him up when he fell. Adam
gave up all his rights, you see. Just like when a person commits
a crime. You know, we're all the time
in today's judicial system talking about the rights of the criminal.
Listen, when the man becomes, or the woman becomes a criminal,
they give up their rights, they belong in jail. Isn't that right? And that's the issue. And so
what do you do? Well, you fall on the mercy of
God. And God uses nations like Assyria, Egypt, Ethiopia to show
this. Proud man always seeks his own
safety, his own security, salvation, and his own power, wisdom, and
worth. Chapter 19, you remember, last week showed the destruction
of Egypt, but that God will eventually have a remnant of his people
out of Egypt, out of Assyria, out of Israel. God's going to
punish sin, but he is a God of mercy. He is a God of grace,
and he's going to show mercy and grace. Now we come to chapter
20. Now what this shows is that Judah,
it shows Judah rather, Isaiah is a prophet in Judah, specifically
in Jerusalem, and God is going to have a word for Judah through
Isaiah, but he's also going to do something that we might think
strange, but it's not strange at all if you follow the pattern
of the Old Testament. He does it all the time. He makes
the prophet himself a sign to Judah. So that not only, Isaiah,
are you going to preach to them, you yourself in your behavior,
that I command you, you're going to be a sign to Judah. A walking, talking sign. That's what Isaiah is going to
be. And what is his message? to Judah. His message is this.
It is foolish, people of God, to trust in Egypt. It's foolish
to trust in Ethiopia. It's foolish to trust in yourself. It's foolish to trust in anyone
but God and Him alone. That's why we sang that song,
"'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," just to take Him at His word.
His word's good. foolish to trust anyone else,
anywhere else, no matter how good they seem or no matter how
good they look. So that's the issue here of Isaiah
20. So the lesson is this. It's stated
in so many ways in the Bible and so many ways just in the
Psalms alone. Here's Psalms 212. Here's what
it says. Here's the lesson. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him, in the Lord. Put your trust in Him. Now, look
at verse 1. Let's look at this. It's a short
chapter, so it won't take too long, but he speaks of Tartan. He says, "...in the year that
Tartan came unto Ashdod, Sargon, when Sargon was king of Assyria,
the Assyrian Empire, a king named Sargon, and he fought against
Ashdod and took it." What this is speaking of is when the army
of Assyria conquered a town called Ashdod. Now, a city called Ashdod. That city was a Philistine city. It was a Philistine city, but
it was a great city. This Tartan There's an argument
over this, and I'm not going to get bogged down in this, but
some say it was a proper name for one of Sargon's generals. It may have been, or it may have
been just the office. But what happened was Sargon sent his
army down into this Philistine city called Ashdod, and he tore
it up. He conquered it, he destroyed
it. This is history now. That took place in 711 B.C. That's when that happened. That
city was destroyed. Now, the Philistines, you know
who the Philistines were. They were both neighbors of Israel,
but they were also thorns in Israel's side. You remember the
Philistines? A long history of trouble between
Israel and the Philistines. You remember during the time
of the judges, there was so much trouble. Samson fought the Philistines. And the fall of Ashdod, now this
great army, this great city that was conquered by Sargon and Assyria,
it would certainly, when that happened, it would certainly
stand up and make Israel think this. They'd think, well, now,
if they come down there and they defeated Ashdod and they defeated
the Philistines, we're next. It'd almost be like Russia coming
over and defeating Mexico. Well, where are they going to
go next? They're certainly not going to
go south, are they? Something like that. We're next. We're
next. Now, we need protection. We need
help. That's the situation that's being
set up here. So in verse 2, now look at it.
He says, at the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah, the son of
Amoz. Now, the prophet comes into play
here. The people of Judah are saying, we're next. We better
watch out. We need help. So God gives a
word to Isaiah. And he says to him, now I want
you to do something first. And he says, I'm going to give
you a sign to act out. And he says, first of all, go
and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins and put off thy
shoe from thy foot. And he did so walking naked and
barefoot. So he says, remove the sackcloth
from your body and take the sandals off your feet. What he's telling
Isaiah to do is to remove his outer garments to where he wore
nothing but a sash or a loincloth. And that's how he was to appear
before the people of Judah. Now, it might not have been very
modest, but it got the message across. You see, sackcloth, was
that Isaiah's common guard? It may have been. You know, sackcloth
in that day were clothes of mourning and sorrow. And Isaiah's message,
for the most part, was a message of sorrow. and mourning to Israel
for their sins, wasn't it? Sackcloth was a sign of repentance. His message was a call to repent.
Repent from trusting in the flesh. Repent from trusting in Egypt.
Repent from trusting in Ethiopia. Repent and turn to the Lord.
That's what the message is. And that's what we do when we
preach the gospel. We're calling sinners to repentance.
Repent from trusting in your own works, and your own righteousness,
and your own experience, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation, and Him alone. Trust in His finished work, not
in what you're trying to do. You see, here's the thing. God's
wrath is coming through, and you are next. And you do need
protection. Well, who are you going to trust
then? That's the issue. Now, you may think this strange,
but God would sometimes have his prophets to add to their
word a visible sign. And he did it to awaken people's
minds to a more serious consideration of the matters that he had to
communicate to them. And it says here, look at verse
3, Or verse 2 again, and the last part, he did so walking
naked and barefoot. We shouldn't think that Isaiah
was completely naked, completely without clothing. Instead, he
wore his inner garment, customary in that day, sort of like wearing
a nightshirt or a loincloth or something like that. So the message
is not nudity here. That's not the message of God
here. The message was complete poverty
and humiliation for any nation or any individual who did not
trust the Lord. That's the message that Isaiah
is getting across here. Isaiah dressed as the poorest
and most destitute person would dress. And here's what he's saying,
for those who do not trust in the true and living God, there's
nothing but poverty and destitution and ultimately destruction. That's
the message. So one, you don't need to imagine
that Isaiah walked around stripped for the entire three years either.
Look here at verse 3, it says, the Lord said, like as my servant
Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign,
and this is what it is, for a sign, a signification, And a wonder,
that is something to be questioned. That's what that means. Why is
he doing that? Well, glad you asked. Why are you doing that, Isaiah?
Well, let me tell you why. That's the issue. There's a sign
and a wonder upon Egypt. Now, he was walking around in
Judah. A message to the people of Judah. But the message was
about Egypt and upon Ethiopia, those two great nations that
were going to make an alliance and fight off Assyria. Remember
back in chapter 19, chapter 18. But like I said, we need not
imagine that Isaiah walked around stripped the entire three years.
No more than we would imagine that Ezekiel, you remember the
prophet Ezekiel, God told him to lay on his side for 390 days
without getting up? He didn't do that completely,
24-7. And perhaps part of each day
was used for those designated purposes. But this is a message
here. You know, God sometimes commanded
His prophets to go through some real difficult experiences. as
signs to Israel. He had Hosea marry a wife of
Hortum's, a very testing marriage, a very trying marriage. And not
only that, the wife that he married, the prostitute that he married,
Gomer was her name, you remember the story, she left him for other
lovers. And when in her old age they
rejected her and Hosea took care of her, she attributed all of
the things that was given to her, not to Hosea who was giving
them to her, but to her lovers. That's a test, wasn't it? Most
of them said, well, he ought to have just gone up and slapped
her. But you see, God had a message. Ezekiel's wife died as an illustration
for the nation. You can read about that in Ezekiel
24. So many times God's prophets went through these tests and
these times of trial as a message. So this isn't strange. But here
he is walking around in his loincloth. And it says, look at verse 4.
He says there's a sign in verse 3. He's shown us what the meaning
of the sign is. He says in 4, For a sign and
a wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria
lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives,
young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered."
They weren't even going to have a loincloth on, to the shame
of Egypt. Now, that was common when a nation
conquered another nation, they would parade, usually it was
the king and or the nobles or the generals, through the streets
in chains, stark naked, even with their buttocks uncovered.
Not like Isaiah with the loincloth, but just completely naked, to
their shame. This is what's going to happen
to Egypt. This is what's going to happen to Ethiopia. So what
is he doing? What is this sign of Isaiah?
Well, he's announcing the judgment and humiliation of Egypt. And
he walked around three years as a sign of wonder against Egypt.
Under the command of the Lord, Isaiah dressed in this poor and
humble way for three years as a message against Egypt, because
the king of Assyria would lead away the Egyptians as prisoners.
And as the Assyrians took the Egyptians captive, they'd humiliate
them by stripping them naked and leading them away as prisoners.
This would be to the shame of Egypt. Now, what is all the significance? Well, you know, from the very
beginning when man fell, nakedness was a mark of shame and humiliation,
but also exposure to God's disfavor and even His wrath. Genesis 3. You know, in verse 6 of Genesis
3, this is the fall. Satan came into the garden. He
tempted Eve. Verse 6 says, when the woman
saw that the tree, that is, the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, was good for food. and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did eat." Look at verse 7, "...and the eyes
of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were
naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves
open." They knew that they were exposed now to God's disfavor
and even God's wrath. You see, something they were
ashamed of now that they weren't ashamed of before because they
had no sin. They had perfect communion with
God, but now that's been broken, and now their nakedness is their
shame. And what did they do? They tried
to cover their nakedness. They tried to cover themselves
from God's disfavor, from God's wrath, from their own shame,
and they did it by their own work, sewing fig leaf aprons
together. There it is, you see. And the
Lord God, he came down. Verse 9, the Lord God called
unto Adam and said to him, Where art thou? Not asking for information,
but making a point. Look where you are now, Adam.
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked, and I hid myself. He was ashamed now to
be in the presence of God, whereas before he wasn't. And he says
in verse 11, God said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat? And then Adam shifted the blame
to the woman. Here's what we have in this nakedness
back in the garden and back over here in Isaiah 20. You have a
very stark picture of man, bear, before the holy law of God. That's right. Without Christ,
without hope, without anything to glory, and he's just bare
naked before the holy law. He is exposed to God's wrath
and he's guilty. He's deserving of the wrath of
God. He has nothing to cover himself. You see, here's man
in his natural sinful depravity. That's what this nakedness represents.
He's exposed to the elements. Physically, he's exposed to the
elements. Spiritually, he's exposed to
the wrath of God and the judgment of God against all his sin. Open
to everybody, you see. It's almost like if God just
flashed all your sins up before the whole world, and there it
is. Well, that's what it is before God now, isn't it? How ashamed
would you be if that happened? If we walked around and we had
some kind of a little screen on our heads that flashed our
thoughts out, We'd be running from each other. We'd be hiding.
We'd be ashamed. We'd be red-faced all the time.
That's the picture. He's exposed. It's out in the
open there. Right there. Now, that's why
we need Christ. That's why we need to be washed
in His blood. Because without His blood, all
that you can see is dirt. Sin. Is that right? Sin stains. That's why we need
to be washed pure and clean in the blood of Christ. That's why
we need the white robe of His righteousness laid to our account,
put around us, imputed to us, because without His white robe
of righteousness, we're naked before God. We have nothing to
hide our nakedness. And that's the message. Look
here at At verse 5, he says, And they shall be afraid and
ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And
the inhabitant of this isle, or this land, or this nation,
shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation." In
other words, you know, if you look at something, you say, such
is, this is my expectation. And all you see standing there
is a wretched, rotten, naked, dirty sinner. Your expectation
turns into what? Shame. But now if you look and you say,
here's my expectation, and there stands the Lord of glory, having
conquered sin and Satan and death, having come down off the cross
of Calvary and gone into the grave and risen again the third
day and ascended and seated at the right hand of his father,
having finished the work of redemption, having done all the requirements,
fulfilled all the requirements and conditions of salvation in
his effulgent glory, Hebrews 1 says. And you say, here's my
expectation. I won't bring about shame, will
I? You say, well, I'm just so afraid of getting to the judgment
and being ashamed. Well, you set your expectation
too low. What is your expectation? Who
is your expectation? Well, God's going to weigh my
good works with my bad works. Well, you're going to be ashamed,
aren't you? Well, I spent a lot of time trying
to rack up good works and throw them into my robe, and I'm going
to appear before God in my own works. My friend, you're going
to be naked. You're going to hear God say,
just like they said to Joshua the high priest in Zechariah
chapter 3, take away the filthy garments. Naked. But you see,
if you don't have a righteous garment to replace it. You remember
the man in Matthew chapter 22 who went to the wedding feast
and he didn't have the wedding garment on? The king said, how
did he get in here? How'd this fella get here? Oh,
what shame. What nakedness. You see, the
message to Judah here is they shall be afraid and ashamed of
Ethiopia, their expectation, and Egypt, their glory. Who is
your glory? When God judges Ethiopia and
Egypt, it will be evident how foolish it was for Judah to look
to them and trust in them for protection against the Syrian.
Look to God. Let God be your expectation. Let God be your surety. Let God be your glory. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you, he
that believeth in him shall not be what? Ashamed. you shall not
be ashamed." You know what? It's amazing to
me. But I think about this quite often. As Christ sees me, if
He saw me as I see myself, and He was connected with me
in any way, He'd have a lot to be ashamed of. And you know,
in Hebrews chapter 2 there, It says, he's not ashamed to call
me his brother. Now, you want to know why he's
not ashamed? Because in the salvation of an old naked sinner like me, in that salvation that he provided
freely by his precious blood, where he washed me clean. Isn't
that what he did? Did he wash you halfway? No,
He washed us clean 100% and clothed us in His beautiful robe of righteousness. His Father is glorified. And He's not ashamed to call
us brethren. Because we're His creation. We're His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus under good works. You know, whenever our expectation
is in something that dishonors God and elevates the flesh, Or
whenever our glory is in something that dishonors God and lifts
up the flesh, you know what? If we're His children, the Lord
will always find a way to make those things disappoint us. It
can be people. Sometimes God's children get
drawn away because their expectation inadvertently becomes a man.
And you know what happens if they're God's people? He lets
them see the reality, the man will disappoint them. If it's
themselves, they'll disappoint themselves. If it's their denomination,
their denomination will. The only way you're going to
have an expectation of glory and assurity that will never
fail and never disappoint you is to look to Christ and Him
alone. He'll never fail, He'll never
disappoint, and He'll never be ashamed. That's the lesson. Now, here's what he's saying
here. Think about this. You see, Judah set their expectation
on Ethiopia. Judah looked to Egypt for glory.
But now Egypt's gone. That's what he's saying here.
Egypt's been led through the street naked, naked, having been
conquered by the Assyrian army. Where is your expectation? Now,
Ethiopia's gone, you see. Everything that you had your
expectations set upon, everything you had your glory in, is being
led through the street, conquered and naked. So then, how are you
going to escape? Well, there is not but one way.
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. Isaiah chapter 45. Look at Hebrews
chapter 2. How are you going to escape?
The Lord allowed Judah to be backed into a corner, caught
between two mighty empires, Egypt and Assyria. And you know what? They weren't able to trust either
one of them. There was no escape. Except in the Lord God, Jehovah. Except in the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. in the God of grace, the covenant
God of all grace, the God of promise, except in the God who
justifies the ungodly by His grace through the promised Messiah. Now, that's the message of the
gospel to the church today. Look at it again, Hebrews chapter
2. And let me ask you as I read this now, when God brings a sinner,
to realize that he has nowhere to go, nowhere to turn but to
Him and Him alone in Christ. What is that? You know what that
is? That's salvation. That's blessing. In whom do you trust? In what
do you glory? That's what he's saying here.
Therefore we, who's the we there? People who claim to know and
love Christ. We ought to give the more earnest
heed. This message can never grow old
to a sinner who needs mercy. To a hungry man, food never gets
old, does it? If you're hungry, you never get
tired of eating, do you? Most of us, we don't have to
be hungry not to get tired of eating. But you think about a
hungry man. A thirsty man never gets tired
of drinking. I'm going to tell you something,
if you ever get tired of hearing the glory of Christ lifted up
the glory of His person, the glory of His finished work. I'm
going to tell you why you get tired of it, because you're not
hungry. You're not thirsty. You see, that's what God does
when He saves a sinner. He gives him a hunger and thirst,
and it's fulfilled only in one way, the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. And I'll tell you what, he's
not going to argue about how, what the ingredients in the mashed
potatoes and all that, he's just going to, he's going to eat and
he's going to be filled. And it says here, we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
Oh, the things we've heard. Think about the things we've
heard. We've heard of the glory of the Son of God. We've heard
of how God saves a sinner. to His great love wherewith He
loved us and sent His Son. We've heard things that this
world couldn't even imagine. And He says, lest at any time
we should let them slip. Now, the picture there literally
is like a person on a boat, and he's trying to come towards the
dock and anchor the boat, but instead he neglects it and he
just drifts on by. I preached a message from this
one time, and the title of it was, Don't Be a Drifter. That's
what it's about. Don't just sit there and drift
on by. Anchor your boat in Christ. That's what he's saying. And
he says, "...for if the word spoken by angels..." That's speaking
of the Old Covenant here. "...messengers of God was steadfast,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward." In other words, God punished sin back then under
the Old Covenant. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Now, if God punished sin under
that old covenant, how much more is He going to punish sinners
who are not found in Christ? The Shekinah glory, He says,
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
to us by them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness,
both with signs and wonders, Remember what he said about Isaiah,
walking in that loincloth, bringing that message? You're a sign and
a wonder. And he says, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, according to his will. Well, our only way of escape
is Christ. The grace of God in Christ. Don't
just drift on by. Don't turn to Egypt or Ethiopia
or Syria. Don't turn to the arm of the
flesh, but turn to Christ. Let's sing that hymn, Rock of
Ages, hymn number 126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me.