Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 31. I have a message this evening entitled,
Christ Our Defender. It is my prayer that when we're
done looking at this passage this evening, those of you who
know our Lord will find such comfort and confidence and assurance
because of who your Savior, who your Defender is. At the same
time, it's my prayer that those of you who do not know the Lord
will be compelled to run to him, to find him as your refuge because
of who he is. Now God's people have so many
enemies. We face so many dangers and toils
and snares. If you spend a lot of time looking
at this world and looking at all the dangers we face and all
the enemies we have, it'll scare you half to death, it really
will. But God's people have a great defender. Our defender is God
himself. In verse five, let's read it,
we'll come to it again in a minute, but this, God says, tells us
now, he's our defender. As birds flying, so will the
Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also, he will deliver
it. And passing over it, he will
preserve it. God himself is our defender. Now, if you look at 2 Kings chapter
19, at this time when Isaiah is writing what has filled Israel
with fear, is King Sennacherib of the Assyrians is coming. And he's coming with vengeance.
He's destroying and conquering everywhere he goes. And as Sennacherib
approached Israel, this was God's promise to Israel in 2 Kings
19, beginning in verse 32. Therefore thus saith the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria. He shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor
cast a bank against it. He's not gonna enter this city,
not gonna touch it. But by the way he came, by the
same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith
the Lord, for I will defend this city and save it for mine own
sake and for my servant David's sake. Well now, after that, Everything
ought to be real settled, shouldn't it? Everybody ought to be calm
and have complete confidence, so that crab's not going to cause
us any trouble, because God said he's not setting foot in this
city. He's not even shooting an arrow at it. He's not coming
here. He's going to turn around and go back the way he came,
because God's going to defend the city. But flesh, being what
it is, everyone wasn't full of peace. Also, flesh being what
it is, everybody in that city didn't know the Lord. So they
didn't have any peace. And you know what? They shouldn't
have had any peace. If you don't know the Lord, you ought not
have any peace for your soul. Now, they should have had peace
about the city. They should have known Sennacherib
not coming in this place, but they didn't. They didn't have
peace for their flesh or their soul. So what did they do? Well,
verse one, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help. and stay
on horses and trust in chariots, because there are many, and in
horsemen, because they're very strong. But they look not unto
the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Now we've seen
this over and over again in our study in Isaiah. God's promised
to defend Israel. He's going to defend Jerusalem,
but Israel would rather trust in the arm of the flesh, and
not even their own flesh. They'd rather trust in the flesh
of the Egyptians. Now this is where you end up
going, you know, if you look at things with natural understanding.
Now think about this. The people now want, they want
an Israel. They want to tie themselves to Egypt. And all their forefathers
ever wanted was to be set free from Egypt. And they thought,
if we ever get out of this place, we're never coming back here.
We're never going to have anything to do with this place again.
And now their descendants, want to tie themselves to that very
place, to that very people. That's what human logic will
get you now. And remember this, Egypt is a picture of bondage
to the law. Now, why do you want to go back
to that bondage that at one time you long to be delivered from?
Why do you want to go back to that bondage to the law? Well,
that's what happens if we follow the natural logic, human logic. Following human logic will always
take us back to bondage to the law. Because even when we know
the Lord, the flesh is unchanged. And the flesh always has an attraction
to the law. The flesh always wants to keep
the law. The flesh always wants to at
least keep some laws. If not in order to be saved,
maybe in order to keep our salvation or in order to improve our standing
with God. That's what the flesh always
wants. If you follow human logic, You always go back to bondage
to the law, just like Israel is trying to tie themselves to
Egypt. Most of Paul's letter to the church at Galatia was
over this very issue. Believe we're trying to go back
to the law. This is my advice. Whatever the
logic of the flesh tells you to do, do the opposite, because
the flesh is always wrong, especially spiritually, because the flesh
will never have faith in Christ. The flesh will never rest in
Christ. The flesh will always want to
keep the law and bring you back to bondage to the law. So whatever
the flesh wants you to do, whatever your initial reaction is, do
the opposite because the flesh is wrong. Now in Israel's case,
I understand, you know, they saw they didn't have a great
army and a lot of resources and they saw Egypt. Boy, they got
lots of horses. They got lots of chariots. They
got a very large, well-trained fighting force. And I understand
the flesh being impressed with that. But we're going to see
this in just a minute. All of that is absolutely no
help at all if God's against them. And looking for help from
Egypt is looking for help from an enemy of God. This is the
logic of the flesh. Let's see where the logic of
the flesh brings us. And just like Isaiah was telling
Israel, don't you look to Egypt to help. I tell us here this
evening, don't you look to the flesh to help you. I don't care
how impressive that flesh looks, don't look to the flesh to help
you to get out of the spiritual mess that we're in. The flesh
is the enemy of God. The flesh is the enemy of Christ. Don't look to the flesh, look
to Christ. That's what he says here. You
know, the woe that is pronounced on Israel is they would not look
unto the Holy One of Israel. Don't look to the flesh, look
to Christ. Now, this is a question I try
to answer often because this is something I, as a child and
young person, wondered all the time. What is it to look to Christ? I think, Henry, just show me
where to look and I'll look. What does it mean to look to
Christ? Looking to Christ, as simply as I can make it, is to
trust Christ. You know, when we talk about
Israel looking to Egypt, they were trusting Egypt to help them.
Well, looking to Christ simply means to trust him. Trust him
to do what he said he'd do. Trust him to be all of your salvation
without any help from you. Look to Christ, trust him. Now,
None of us can look. I know that. None of us can look. None of us will look to Christ
by nature. But the gospel still commands
us to look, doesn't it? Look and live. Now someone's
going to say, Frank, if I can't look, if I don't have the ability
to look to Christ because I'm dead in sins, I'm blind, I'm
dead. If I can't look, why are you
telling me to look? Well, the answer to that is very
simple because God commands us to look. So I tell you, on the
authority of God's word, you look to Christ and keep looking
to Christ. And the best illustration of
that I can think of is when the children of Israel were in the
wilderness coming to the promised land. You remember how they rebelled
against God. God sent all those fiery serpents
among the people and the people were dying because that bite
was always fatal. But God, in his mercy, provided
a remedy. He provided a remedy that's a
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. God told Moses, make a serpent
of brass, just like those fiery serpents that are biting the
people. It looks just like those serpents, but there's one difference.
That serpent doesn't have any venom in it. It's made of brass.
That's a picture of Christ. Christ was a real man. He looked
just like us. He was a real man with one difference. There's no venom in him. There's
no sin in him. And God told Moses, you lift
that brazen serpent up. That serpent doesn't have any
venom in it. You lift it up on a pole and everyone who looks
will live. If they look, they'll live. And
that's a picture of Christ. The man without sin lifted up. You look to him and live. Well,
now I can just picture Moses. I mean, I'm sure that serpent
wasn't very big. He lifted up on a pole. Well, there are many,
many people. They're way too far away from
where Moses was to see that serpent. There are three million people.
Some of them are a long way away. I mean, I don't know that I've
ever seen three million anything at one time, but I know three
million people is a big crowd. There are people so far away
from Moses, they couldn't even see him. But if they looked,
they lived. There are people who were blind.
Maybe their eyes were already swollen shut because that venom
coursing through their body. They couldn't see, but if they
looked, they lived. You see, looking to Christ is
not looking with these eyes. Looking to Christ is turning
our heart to Christ and trusting Him. Looking to Christ is simply
trusting Him to save you because He said He would. He said He
saved sinners. Looking to Christ is trusting Him. Now, I know
we can't look to Christ unless God gives us eyes to see in the
new birth. I know that, but God still tells us, look. And if
you don't have eyes to see, if you can't look to Christ, I'll
tell you what I'd do. If I was you, I'd ask God to
give you eyes. Ask him to give you life. Ask
him to give you eyes so you can see. Ask God to be merciful to
you. Part of this woe pronounced on
Israel is, is they would not seek the Lord. They wouldn't
look under the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Well,
then seek Him. Seek the Lord. If you would seek
the Lord, there's a couple things you can do. You can be here when
the gospel is preached. Now, you can get in your car
and you can be here. If you can't, call somebody, they'll bring
you. You can be here to seek the Lord when the gospel is preached.
He reveals Himself through the preaching of the gospel. Well,
if I seek Him, He might be where the gospel is preached. You can
read the Bible. Now, I know you can't understand
it unless God gives you understanding, but you can open and read it
Seek the Lord and this is the Word of God. Seek Him where He's
found, this is His Word. You can pray, you can beg God
to have mercy on you, that's seeking the Lord. Look over Deuteronomy
chapter four. And when you seek the Lord, do
it diligently. Seek the Lord like your life
depends upon it. Because it does. Now here is
when God is getting ready to bring Israel to the promised
land. He already knew what they'd do. He knew they'd rebel and
they'd turn to idolatry, you know, very quickly. But even
though the Lord knew that, look what he told him in verse 27.
He said, you're going to go into idolatry. And when that happens,
the Lord shall scatter you among the nations and you should be
left few in number among the heathen, whether the Lord shall
lead you. And there ye shall serve God,
ye are going to serve idols, the work of men's hands, wood
and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor sleep. I mean, it just doesn't get any
worse than that, does it? But if from thence thou shalt
seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with
all thy heart and with all thy soul. If you seek him diligently,
God said you'll find him. Now let me ask you a question. Why not seek the Lord? Why not
seek Him? He said, if you seek Him diligently,
you'll find Him. Why don't we seek the Lord? We
either need Christ or we don't. I mean, let's get this issue
settled. We either need Him or we don't. We either need Christ
to save us or we can save ourselves some other way. I tell you, trust
Christ. Quit relying on this flesh, on
anything we can do and trust Christ for everything. Why not
trust Him? Why not rest in Him? God has
promised salvation in Christ, hasn't He? Then why not trust
Him? God has promised to defeat every
enemy through the work of Christ. Then why not trust Him? God has
promised to defend His people from every enemy hidden in the
person of Christ. Then why not trust Him? Well,
the only reason I can think of not to trust Christ is we either
don't think we're in trouble or we think we're in just a little
bit of trouble and we can help ourselves. Or thirdly, we don't
think Christ can save us. It's got to be one of those three
as far as I can figure. I'm telling you, trust Christ.
Trust Him. 100%. Not 99.999%, 100%. Trust Christ, rest in Him. I
want you to look at how Isaiah describes our defender in the
rest of this chapter. And we see these characteristics
of our defender. You have to trust him. First
of all, Christ our defender is wise, verse two. Yet he also
is wise. will bring evil and will not
call back his words, and will arise against the house of the
evildoers and against the help of them that work iniquity."
Now, you ask these Israelites here in Jerusalem, you think
the Egyptians are wise? You know, I look at, I watch
the history channel and the, some science channel, you know,
they're always showing, going down into the pyramids of Egypt
and looking at how, you know, come up with what they think
Egypt used to look like in its heyday. Those people were wise. I mean, they were wise. The buildings
that they built and their armies and their governments, I mean,
they were wise. I mean, you think they're wise?
Well, who gave them all that worldly wisdom to be able to
build pyramids and towers and, you know, get 10,000 pound rocks
from 100 miles away over here? Who gave them the wisdom to do
all that? Well, God did, didn't he? And
what did those Egyptians use all that worldly wisdom that
God gave them? What'd they use it for? They used it to work
iniquity. They used it to worship idols.
They built those giant pyramids because they said this man, they
called him Pharaoh, that sat on that throne was a God. They
did all this for idolatry. Their wisdom is foolishness.
And that's the wisdom of all flesh. But God, our defender,
is all wise. Now he's wise. The very name
of Christ is wisdom, isn't it? Our defender has the wisdom to
know how to defeat every enemy. And to go with that wisdom, our
defender has the power to defeat every enemy. Now our greatest
enemy, let's start there. Our greatest enemy. It's our
own sin. It's our own selves. And that
sin will surely destroy us, won't it? Israel was afraid of Sennacherib. Sennacherib, nothing compared
to our sin. I mean, he just, he doesn't even,
he pales in comparison to what an enemy our sin is. Now salvation
is being saved from sin. And it, God's wisdom and God's
power in salvation is who? It's Christ, isn't it? Look at
1 Corinthians 1. God's wisdom And God's power
and salvation is Christ himself. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 19. You know, you think the Egyptians
are wise? You think all these religious
people, they got all this smarts? Verse 19, for it's written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I'll bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by its wisdom
knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ. We preach Christ crucified, under
the Jews a stumbling block, under the Greeks foolishness, but under
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. There's Christ, our defender.
He himself is the power of God and he is the wisdom of God and
the salvation of his people. But Israel, they didn't look
to him, did they? They look to Egypt. They want to make a treaty
with Egypt. You know, we get in trouble. You come up here,
all your horses and your armies and chariots, you help us. Well,
Israel is going to find out Egypt is not going to honor that treaty.
When the rubber meets the road, when it really gets hard, they're
going to go back on their word. God, our defender will never
do that. He'll never go back on his word. He says here, he will not call
back his words. God's going to keep his covenant.
Now, if he said it, he's going to do it. He said he's going
to save and defend his people. Then brethren, He will do it. It's done. Then seek Him. Then trust in Him. Rest in Him.
He said He's going to defend His people. Then rest in Him.
Christ, our defender, destroys every enemy with His wisdom and
with His power. Look at verse 3. Now the Egyptians
are men and not God, and their horse is flesh and not spirit.
When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth
shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall. They'll fall down
and shall, and they shall all fail together. Now these enemies
that we're talking about here, you know, aren't earthly enemies,
they're like snack wrap. They're just flesh. And all they
can touch is the flesh. And I'm not really making light
of that. I mean, all they can touch is the flesh. But now that
can still be painful. I mean, you know, I'll just be
perfectly honest with you. I don't ever want my enemies having anything
to do with my flesh. You know, I don't like pain.
But all my enemies, no matter where you find them, they're
all stronger than me. But like I said, if you look
at all the trouble that we face and all the adversity and all
the traps and things that are out there, you can get scared
to death. But you want to know what will put an end to all those
fears? Quit looking down here and look to Christ, our defender. I know I'm not making light of
our problems. They're big problems. They're
real problems. Our enemies are real enemies,
but all of them put together, nothing compared to our defender.
He's got all wisdom and all power. They're just flesh. Christ, our
defender, is spirit. He's God, He's Spirit, come in
the flesh. And when He stretches out His
hand against those enemies, nobody can help them. They're all going
to fail together. And I'm thankful our defender
is Spirit. You know, we talk about these
problems we have in the flesh. And I'm not making light of it.
But our greatest enemies, our real problems, are not enemies
and problems of the flesh. They're spiritual enemies. They're
spiritual problems. And all we are is flesh. Well,
the flesh can't warp the spirit. We can't go into that realm because
we're just flesh. But our defender can. He's spirit. And Christ, our defender, has
defeated every spiritual enemy. Look over Ephesians chapter 6. He's defeated sin, that's a spiritual
enemy. He's defeated Satan, defeated
death, spiritual enemies. He defeated them all. So his
people are defended and safe in Christ. Ephesians 6 verse
10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And that's not just in
high places, that's in us. But Christ our defender has defeated
them all because he is spirit. He has both the power of God
and the wisdom of God. Now look to him, trust him. Secondly,
Christ our defender defends his people as the sovereign king.
Look at verse four. For thus hath the Lord spoken
unto me, like as the lion, a young lion, roaring on his prey, when
a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not
be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of
them. So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount
Zion and for the hill thereof." Now here's the picture Isaiah
is painting. Imagine a lion, you know, there's a pasture there
and the shepherd's got his sheep out there. And you know, there's
weeds and jungle and forest or whatever around, you know, there's
a lion out there. He's been stalking, you can't
see him, he's hiding down in those weeds. And finally he sees
one, he jumps out and gets it, kills that thing. And he's just
laying there, eating that lamb, he's just killed. Well, you know,
the shepherd's mad about that, so he goes and gets all his shepherd
friends, and they come out against this lion. Now, they stay about
10, 15 yards away from him, because really, they're defenseless against
this lion. You know, they got shepherd stabs, and they got
some slingshots, but that's it, you know, and here's this lion.
And they start yelling, making a lot of noise, you know, waving
those sticks and waving their coats around and yelling and
making all kinds of commotion, trying to scare the lion off.
Now, that lion, He's the king of the jungle. I mean, you know,
he's not impressed by those guys. He just looks at them and says,
who are you? I mean, you think I'm, I'm not
even gonna pay any attention. He just growls at them, you know,
and just keeps eating. He's just completely unaffected
by them. You're not getting that lamb out of the jaws of that
lion. This is a done deal. That lamb's a goner. He's already
dead. For the Lord Jesus Christ, our defender, is the lion of
the tribe of Judah. And He came from heaven to this
earth to seek and to save that which is lost. And when Christ,
our Defender, finds one of those sheep, He calls them to Himself. He has them in His hand, in His
bosom. Brother, He's not letting them
go. You're not going to get them out of His hand. All these false
shepherds, they come out there, they make a bunch of commotion,
they make a big show trying to scare Him off, trying to scare
you off from Him. But our Defender, is not going
to debase himself to be scared of these fellows, to be affected
by them at all. He just looks at them like, who
do you think you are? You're just flesh. I'm God. Just like no one can get that
prey out of the jaws of that hungry lion, God's elect are
even more secure than that because no man can ever pluck them out
of the hand of our defenders. Our defender has come to fight
every enemy his people have and to have his people in his possession. And we're safe, because our defender
is a sovereign king. No one can stand against him.
Third, our defender defends his people in love. Verse five, back
in our text, Isaiah 31. As birds flying, so will the
Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending also, he will deliver
it, and passing over, he will preserve it. Now there are a
few ways a bird can defend the young in its nest. It could be
like an eagle. You know, I read that when an
eagle, is that they got chicks in the nest and she's out hunting
and doing whatever. She always has an eye. She's
not far enough away, she can't see that and she can always see
that nest. She can always hear those young.
And if something happens, you imagine the swiftness that eagle
comes back to that nest. I don't know if it's true. It
makes it makes a good picture, doesn't it? Well, Christ, our defender,
he comes with swiftness. You imagine the swiftness that
God Almighty comes to drive away enemies from his people. And
why does he come so swiftly? because he loves his people.
Nothing else matters to him. Nothing's going to delay him.
Nothing else is going to get his attention. He loves his people.
So he comes swiftly to them. Then a bird can defend her little
ones like a mother hen. She's out there in the barnyard.
That mother hen, she sees that hawk circling. She calls all
those chicks, and they get up under her. She gets them up under
her wing. She gets, you know, all up under. And she just sits
on them. She just hunkers down. Now, that hawk might be able
to hurt her, but that hawk's not getting to those chicks because
they're safe up under her. But that's Christ our defender.
He's our defender as our substitute. And He called His people, you
come hide in me. And everything our sin deserved
fell on Him. And He sheltered us from all.
He took it all so that there's none left. And we're defended
from God's wrath. There's no more wrath left in
God for any of His people. It's all poured out on Christ.
Now, why would He do that? Why would He suffer like that?
Because He loves His people. He defends them in love. And
then I like this one, a third way a bird can defend their young. It's by deceiving the enemy.
When someone, maybe an enemy or just anybody, approaches nearby
where that nest is, you see this a lot of times, a bird will make
a bunch of commotion, a bunch of racket, and then fly away.
You know what he's doing? He's drawing attention away from
where that nest is, drawing attention to him. He's trying to draw people
away from it, come after me. And if the enemy doesn't follow
him quickly enough to suit him, you know what that bird will
do? He'll be laying down on the ground and he'll limp around
like he's got a broken wing. Draw him to him thinking, oh,
we've got him now, you know. And then right before they get
there, that bird will fly away. And they never did find the nest.
They all, you know, just got so confused, they completely
forgot about that nest and don't know where it is because the
bird used deception. In a way, that's what Christ
our Defender has done for his people. When the enemy drew near
in the Garden of Gethsemane, what did our Savior, what did
our Defender do? He came out to meet them. He
said, I told you I am. They all fell backwards and they
got up and he said, who are you looking for? I told you I am. If it's me you seek, let these
go their way. That the scripture would be fulfilled
of all that God gave them. He lost none. He said, he drew
all the attention to himself. He said, take me. And you know,
their sinful nature deceived them. They thought they captured
the Lord because he was weak. They thought they could beat
him and scourge him and crucify him because they thought that
Jesus was weak. They thought they had all the
power. They were deceived, weren't they? What was really going on
is our Lord had all the power. The only reason they could take
him at all, the only reason they could put that crown of thorns
on his head, the only reason they could scourge his back,
the only reason they could nail him to that tree is because of
his power, because he had all power, because only he has the
power to save his people from their sins. Only he has the power
to make his people righteous, but he's going to do it through
his death. So he gave himself to them, not because he was weak,
But because he has all power, I think even Satan was deceived,
thinking, now I got him. Now I got all his people and
I got him, I'm putting him to death. He was deceived, never
realizing all he was doing was bruising the heel of the Savior.
And the Savior is actually crushing his head. The Lord Jesus Christ
allowed those enemies to take him. He allowed himself to be
crucified. So his blood would be shed because
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. What's
going on here is Christ is winning the victory for his people. He's
defending his people from their sin and he's doing it by his
blood. Christ, our defender, won and
defended his people, not by living for them. but by dying for them,
and then rising again. He defended his people by the
blood of his sacrifice. And after he rose, just like
that bird who pretended, you know, like he had a broken wing,
flew off, our Savior ascended on high, where nobody ever touched
him again. And they'll see him again, but
they'll not touch him again. He's going to come back. He's
going to judge those people, and he's going to gather his
people to themselves. But the point of all this is, is they
were deceived. They thought they were winning the victory over
Christ by putting him to death, when in fact, they lost the war
when they put him to death, didn't they? And Christ, our defender,
is going to defend his people. It's with his blood. And Isaiah
gives us a hint of that. He says at the end of this verse,
and passing over, he will preserve it. And he's referring there
to the Passover. Christ, the avenger, he passed
over his people. who were safe under the blood,
and he destroyed everybody else. He destroyed every other enemy. Now, the only reason that you'd
shed your blood and you'd give your life so that someone else
could live is you love them. Christ, our defender, defends
his people in love. Now, if our defender, he's defended
us from sin, he saved us from our sin, You can rest assured
all these other smaller enemies, they're gonna be taken care of
too. Christ has already saved his people from their sin. It's
the greatest enemy we could ever have. He's delivered us from
Satan. Well, he's not gonna suffer the embarrassment of some pipsqueak
taking you. He's not gonna do it. He's gonna
defeat every other enemy the same way he did all of our spiritual
enemies. So I ask you again, why wouldn't
you turn to Christ? Why wouldn't you turn to Him?
The commandment of God is to repent and to turn to Christ. And I'll give you an awful good
reason to turn to Him. Fourthly, Christ our defender
is so gracious. It's His grace that causes us
to turn to Him. Look at verse six. Turn ye unto
Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
Now this shows you how much we need God to give us repentance.
Sin is not a light thing. We make light of sin because
we don't have any concept what a horrible corruption and filth
sin is. Sin is never referred to in scripture
as a light thing. Isaiah calls it here, not just
revolt, he calls it deep revolt against God. Now we're guilty
of deep revolt against God. And understandably, that deep
revolt brings God's fury upon us. Yet God is so gracious. The one that we have deeply revolted
against has provided a defender. He has provided a hiding place
from His fury. And that hiding place is not
something He built over here. It's His own Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now that's grace. What grace
that the one we've revolted so deeply against would command
us. Come to my son for safety and
refuge. Come to my son for salvation.
Come to my son for the forgiveness of your sin. Turn from your deep
revolt and hide in Christ. The only place we'll ever find
safety and defense from God's fury against our sin is in Christ.
And God graciously commands us to come. Now come, come hide
under His blood. Well, when will a sinner repent? You know, I can tell you all
day long. When will somebody here repent? Want me to tell
you? When God speaks. That's why I
said earlier about the verse in that song. When God speaks,
somebody's gonna turn. When God calls in power and in
grace, somebody's gonna turn. Look at verse seven. For in that
day, every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols
of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for sin. Now
in the day that God speaks in power and in grace, we will repent
of our sin. And repenting of our sin It's
not just repenting of what we've done. It's repenting of who we
are. That's the issue. It's our nature,
repenting of who we are. And in the day God speaks in
power, that's the day that we'll turn to God from our idols. Now,
what is idolatry? You know, I mean, it's easy to
see people that are falling down and saying prayer to a golden
or ceramic statue and say, well, that's an idolater. But idolatry
is much deeper than that. Idolatry is anything we've made
with our hands. Idolatry is anything we think
we can do to make God pleased with us. That's idolatry. Now, when are we gonna repent
and turn from that? When we see Christ. Repentance
is turning to Christ. It's turning away from all those
things that we've done, and it's throwing away as far as we can
throw them away from us. Look back in chapter 30. Isaiah
verse 22. I think it's verse 22. Yeah. You shall defile also the
covering of thy graven images of silver and the ornament of
thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as
a minstrel's claw. Thou shalt say unto it, get thee
thin. You're going to say, get out
of here. You're going to throw it away. Someone who's repented and turned
to Christ from their idols. They're not somebody sitting
on a fence. They're not somebody hedging their bets, you know.
They're wholly leaning on Christ. Now God has given his son to
be the defender of his people. Why wouldn't we throw away every
man-made defense and rest in him? If you look at verse eight,
you'll see that It's Christ who will defend us from every enemy.
He's not doing this with help from us now. He's gonna do it
by himself. Verse eight. Then shall the Assyrian
fall with a sword, not of a mighty man. See, you know, you and I,
we just send some mighty man, you know, come and defeat the
Assyrians. That's not the way God's gonna do it. The Assyrian shall
fall with a sword, but not of a mighty man. And the sword not
of a mean man shall devour him, but he shall flee from the sword.
and his young men shall be disconfitted." Now, if you look over 2 Kings
19 again, what is this sword? It's not the sword of a mighty
man, not the sword of a mean man. Well, whose sword is it?
The Sennacherib Pachan. Israel was so worried about him,
his army, his power, you know, they wanted that mighty ally
in Egypt. But Egypt didn't come help him.
They were delivered, but it wasn't by a man at all. Their deliverer
was God. Their defender was Christ, the
defender of his people. That's who delivered them. In
2 Kings 19 verse 35. And it came to pass that night
that the angel of the Lord went out. Now who's that angel of
the Lord? It's Christ. And he smote in the camp of the
Assyrians 104 score and 5,000. And when they arose early in
the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." His army is
dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
departed. He went and returned. He went
right back the way he came and went to Nineveh. And it came
to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his
god, that Adamelech and Sheazar, his sons, his own sons, smote
him with the sword. And they escaped into the land
of Armenia, and Esargon, his son, reigned in his stead. Now,
who was it that smoked that whole Assyrian army that night? Who
was it that made Sennacherib go back the way it came? It was
Christ, our defender. He's the angel of God, and it
was the sword of a lowly man that took Sennacherib's life.
But that sword was still the sword of the Lord. It was the
sword of the Lord directing his sons to do that. But the point
of all that is this. Israel was saved. And Bobby never
fired one shot. Not one. Christ did it all. He went out there and wiped that
army, wiped out that army, and Israel didn't supply a thing.
That's salvation. Brethren, Christ did it all.
He's already done it all, and we didn't supply a thing to it
except our need of a Savior. And we're delivered from the
sword of God's justice because God plunged that sword into our
substitute, into our defender, and we're free from worry of
it. Now, verse nine. Here's some comfort for God's
people. And he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and
his princess shall be afraid of the incense, saith the Lord,
whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem. Now that
enemy Christ is defeated, he's going to be running so scared,
he's going to run right past Christ the refuge. He's so scared
he doesn't see it. He's blind, he can't see Christ
and he's going to run right past that only refuge and he's going
to be left without any hope, without any defense. But I want
you to look where Christ our defender dwells. It says here
whose fire is in Zion. Now the place where you have
your fire, that's where you live, that's where you dwell. This
fire, whose fire is in Zion, its furnace in Jerusalem, that's
the wall of fire about us that devours every enemy and keeps
God's people safe. In that wall of fire about us,
God defending his people. But that fire, now it reminds
us of how it is we're defended. That fire reminds us of the burnt
We're kept safe because Christ is our burnt offering. We're
kept safe because Christ is our sacrifice. Then this furnace
he keeps in Jerusalem. That's the fire of trial. That
fire of trial being put in that furnace, it purifies God's people.
It burns off the draws. And that's not something pleasant
any of us want. But I'm telling you, that's a
defense. Anything that burns off the draws and makes us depend
more completely on Christ, that's a good defense. Anything that
makes us depend upon Christ. But he's got this fire and this
furnace in Jerusalem. That's the home fires. Now the
home fires is where you live. What does that say there? Christ
lives with his people. He dwells in his people, keeping
his people safe and warm with this fire. Brethren, then we're
defended. If Christ is in you, you're defended,
aren't you? Why don't we turn to him? I hope,
I pray that the Lord will enable us by his grace to turn to him,
rest in him, and trust in Christ our defender. Let's bow in prayer.
Our heavenly Father, how we thank you that in your mercy and your
wisdom and your grace that you provided for your people Your
own blessed son to be our defender, our savior, our deliverer. Father, how we thank you for
the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the rest
and trust and peace that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
done it all. He's accomplished it all. We're
safe in his hand. No man can pluck us out of his
hand. Father, we're thankful. That you'd give such a glorious
blessing to sinners like we are. That you'd defend us from your
wrath by punishing Christ as our substitute. That you'd wash
us free from our greatest enemy, our own sin, in the blood of
your own darling son. Father, we're thankful. I pray
that you'd cause each of us here to turn to Christ. to rest in
Him, to enjoy in Him all the blessings of who He is and what
He's done for His people. And those that don't know Him,
Father, give them eyes to see Christ, turn their heart to Christ,
that they might run to Him and find Him to be their all-sufficient
Defender. It's in the name of Christ our
Defender, for the sake of and for the glory of His name, we
pray, Amen.