message this evening is, fury
is not in me. I took the title straight from
verse 4, the beginning of verse 4, fury is not in me. When I
first read this chapter, I tried to read ahead a little bit and
think about what might be there. I first read this chapter, this
phrase just jumped out at me. I thought, boy, I'd like to preach
that. Fury is not in me. But this phrase is in the midst
of scripture that's full of God's judgment against sin. Isaiah
has been telling us over and over and over again, all these
preceding chapters, that God's going to destroy every enemy.
Seems like every message we've had has begun that way. God,
His wrath is coming against sin, going to destroy every enemy.
This chapter begins that way too. Look at verse one. And that
day, the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall
punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that
crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that's in the
sea. Now this serpent, Leviathan,
is Satan. Look over into Revelations chapter
20. You remember at the very beginning, Genesis, Satan took
the form of a serpent to deceive Eve. And all throughout scripture,
Satan is represented, pictured as a serpent. In Revelations
20 verse 1, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the
devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Now this serpent,
this Leviathan serpent is Satan. And God's going to destroy Satan.
He's going to destroy all of his followers. And a believer
finds comfort in this, that God's fury against his enemies will
be all-consuming because we know those enemies are too powerful
for us. I mean, you just picture in your mind what's pictured
here, a Leviathan, a dragon, and a piercing serpent. All those
things are too powerful for us. But our comfort is God's going
to destroy every one of them. And he's going to destroy them
with his great and strong sword. That sword is the judgment of
his mouth. God has all power. So the word of his mouth is always
done. If you're still there in Revelation
20, look at verse 10. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever. Now look back in our text, Isaiah
chapter 27. God's going to destroy Satan,
and he's going to destroy every enemy that follows Satan. Look
at verse 10. Yet the defense city shall be desolate, and the
habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness. There shall
the calf feed, and there shall lie down, and consume the branches
thereof. When the boughs thereof are withered,
they shall be broken off. The women come and set them on
fire. This is not a hard job. The women are going to do this.
Come and set them on fire. For it's a people of no understanding.
Therefore, he that made them will not have mercy on them.
And he that formed them will show them no favor. Now there's
a lot of fury there, isn't there? There's a lot of judgment of
God that's coming. So what does it mean in verse
four when he says, fury is not in me? This is what we're to
sing to the people of God to comfort them in that day. He
says in verse two, in that day, sing ye unto her. This is what
we're to sing to God's people. There's no fury in me. We're
to sing to God's elect that God's justice is not coming after you,
not coming after you to seek you and punish you for your sin.
This verse tells us there's no fury left in the father, not
against the sin of his people. Because He poured out all of
that fury on His Son. And He poured it out until it
was gone. The Lord Jesus Christ stood as a substitute for His
people. The Father made Him to be guilty of all the sin of His
people. He took all of that mass of sin
of His people into His body on the tree. And the Father poured
out all of His holy fury without any mixture of mercy. He poured
it out on His Son for that sin. And the Father kept pouring,
just kept pouring on His holy fury until that sin no longer
existed. The fire of God's wrath did not
consume the sacrifice. You know, normally in the Old
Testament, they offered a sacrifice, the fire consumed the sacrifice,
didn't it? That didn't happen at Calvary.
The sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ consumed the fire of God's
wrath. God quit pouring out His fury.
because the sin that was charged to his son was gone. The holy
wrath of God, his fury burned out because that sin was gone,
put away under the blood of Christ. The fury of God against the sin
of his elect was satisfied because the substitute died. The Lord
Jesus Christ died as a substitute. So there's no fury left in the
father for the sin of his people. It's gone. Now in God's justice,
every sin is punished. God doesn't overlook sin. Every
sin is punished. Every sin will be punished in
every rebel that's destroyed in judgment that we read about.
Or sin will be punished in Christ our substitute. And here's our
comfort. If Christ is my substitute, and
my substitute's been punished for me, God will never punish
me. If Christ is my substitute, there
is no fury left in God for me. Now there are four blessings
I see in this chapter that are the result of God having no more
fury against the sin of his people. And the first one's this. God
has an elect people and he set those people apart from this
world. They're his vineyard. He talks about that vineyard
in verse two. In that day sing ye unto her a vineyard of red
wine. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day." Now, you know, God has never had any fury towards
His people. He's always loved His elect in
Christ. He's always seen His people in
Christ. He's always seen His people washed
in the sacrifice of Christ. So He's never had any fury toward
them. The very reason God sent His Son into this world is to
redeem his people. Not because he was angry with
them, because he loved them. He didn't see them in wrath,
he saw them in love. And this vineyard here is God's
people. It's God's church. Look over John chapter 15. All
of God's elect are part of this vineyard. They're connected to
Christ, the true vine. That's how they become part of
this vineyard. John 15 verse 1. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the husbandman." Now down to verse four. Abide in me, and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth fruit. For without me, you can
do nothing. This vineyard here is Christ
the vine and all of his people connected to Christ, the branch,
the true vine. And this, the fruit of that vine,
if Christ is the vine, that fruit's gonna be good fruit because of
the vine. That's why this is called here
the Vineyard of Red Wine. And he calls it red wine because
red wine was considered the best. It was made from the best grape,
from the best fruit. This fruit, it grows in the vineyard
where Christ is the true vine, That's going to be good fruit.
And this vineyard is God's people. God has an elect people. He chose
them. He separated them out of Adam's
fallen race, that lump of fallen humanity. God selected some.
He separated them out. He said, that's mine. That's
what a vineyard is. Now, I've never been to a vineyard,
but I've seen pictures of them. and they're always separated.
There's a clearly separated place where that vineyard is. There's
a fence around it, there's area cleared all around it so no weeds
or nothing bad can get in that vineyard. A vineyard is separated
from the world. It's walled off so no enemies
can get into it. It's fenced off from the wilderness
so no wild grapes or weeds or something gets in there. That's
God's church. God has separated out his church.
He's walled them off from the rest of the world. He himself
is that wall. He's a wall of fire about them.
He's fenced them off from the wilderness. So there's no wild
grapes there. It's just the grapes have been
planted by him growing from Christ the vine. And here's our comfort. Now here's the vineyard. It's
separated from the rest of the world. God himself said, I'm
gonna keep that vineyard. Now is there going to be any
blight come in and destroy that vine? Not if God's keeping it,
it won't. Is any enemy going to come in
and destroy it? Not if God's keeping it, it won't. God said,
I'll keep it night and day. He that keepeth this or else
shall neither slumber nor sleep. This vineyard, God's church is
safe because of who keeps it. God's going to keep it. And he
said, I'll water my vineyard. And he'll do it in wisdom. He'll
do just the right amount of water. Not too much, not too little.
It'll be just the right amount. Now, we've got this little old
square thing in our yard. I don't know if you'd call it
a garden or not. We plant a few things in there. And you look
at that thing, you're going to realize real quickly, Frank,
no gardener. We get some stuff out of it.
I don't know. I don't do a very good job at it. This is not in
my skill set. But I do know this about a garden.
It's gonna be dead without water. You can plant that garden, boy,
it looks good at first. I mean, boy, it looks good. Well,
you don't water it and see what you got. You're gonna get a bunch
of dead plants and just a little bit without water. God says,
I'll water my vineyard. He's gonna water that vineyard
with Christ, the water of life. Christ comes to his church. He's
the water that gives us life. He makes us hunger and thirst
after righteousness, and then it's Christ, the water of life,
that quenches our thirst. He makes us see our sin and hate
ourselves for our sin. Then Christ, the water of life,
comes and cleanses us from our sin. Now, I know God uses pastors
and teachers to preach Christ and to water His church, but
now it's God that waters His church. It's God that makes it
effectual. Isn't that what Paul said? Paul said, I planted, and
Paul has watered. but it was God who gave the increase.
God's gonna water his church and keep it protected because
there's no fury in him for his people. He separated those people
out for himself. And second, since God has no
fury towards his people, sinners are commanded to come to Christ. Now man and Adam has declared
war on God. Now that foolishness, It's utter
foolishness to stay in this war and not surrender. When we've
already seen the Lord is going to destroy every enemy, then
why don't you surrender to him and beg for mercy? You can stay
in your rebellion against God if you want to. I can't make
you change that. But if you do, you're going to
be destroyed just as easily as thorns and briars are burned
up by a roaring fire. That's what he says here in verse
four. He said, fury is not in me. Now who would set the briars
and the thorns against me in battle? I would go through them. I would burn them together. You're
really going to just, you think your defenses, you set up these
briars and thorns, think that's going to protect you? God's just
going to burn right through those things. It's foolishness to insist
in this rebellion against him. All right, we've declared war
on God. His judgment's coming. What should
a sinner do then? We can't withstanding, we can't
fight against him. What should we do? I tell you what we should
do. We should come to Christ and
lay hold on him. That's what he says in verse
five. Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make
peace with me and he shall make peace with me. Now God can only
call sinners to come to Christ and lay hold on him if his wrath
against their sins gone. And God says, now, you can stay
in this rebellion if you want to and you'll be destroyed. Or
you could come lay hold on my strength. Not your strength,
my strength. Well, what's that? Well, God's
strength is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul
called the preaching of Christ the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved, it's
the power of God. Now look down at verse 23. But
we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto
the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom
of God. Now Christ is the power of God. Now you come lay hold on it.
And you come just as you are. You come as a sinner who needs
a Savior from all of your sin. Don't try to clean yourself up
and make yourself better before you come. Come just as you are. Don't hide any of your sin, any
of your fault, any of your rebellion. You come just as you are for
Christ to save you from all of your sin. It's not you and Him
that's gonna save you. It's Christ alone. So come just
as you are and He'll save you from your sin. God's fury against
the sin of His people has already been removed by the sacrifice
of Christ. God has reconciled. God did what
it took so that God's reconciled by the sacrifice of Christ. Now
you rebels, you come and be reconciled. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Isn't that what Paul says here? God's reconciled, now you
surrender to him and you be reconciled. Verse 18, and all things are
of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, by
his sacrifice, and has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit, namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we're
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We
pray you, we command you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. God's reconciled in Christ, now
you be reconciled. you be reconciled, surrender
to him. Now, remember I told you, God
uses a sword of judgment, that great and terrible sword, great
and strong sword to destroy his enemies. You know, God uses a
sword to conquer his people too, to conquer the hearts of his
people. It's the sword of his mercy. It's the sword of his
word. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit. The sword of God's word goes
right to the heart of the matter. It kills the flesh and gives
life to the spirit. It's the word of God. It's the
sword of God. And when that word's preached,
God's people surrender to him and they come to Christ and beg
for peace. Now it says here, let him take
hold of my strength that he may make peace with me. This is not
saying a sinner will make his peace with God. We don't lay
hold on Christ so we make peace with God. No, we simply lay hold
on Christ. Christ has already made peace
for us through the blood of his cross. What verse five is saying
here is talking about Christ our mediator. Christ who has
already made peace with God for his people. Christ is the one
who can come take hold of God. and take hold of men at the same
time and make peace with both parties. So a sinner has peace. Christ lays hold on us and we
lay hold on Christ. We have that peace with God and
we lay hold on Christ because he's already made it. Now come,
come to Christ and beg for forgiveness based on the sacrifice of Christ.
Now that's a good plea. God's already said he's reconciled
in Christ, hasn't he? Then isn't it a good plea to
beg for forgiveness based on Christ? Come beg God for peace. I know we started the war, but
beg God for peace based upon the sacrifice of Christ. His
blood made peace, then beg God for peace based upon the blood
of the sacrifice of Christ. That's just common sense. That's
a good plea. God said, I'm reconciled in Christ.
Then make your plea for forgiveness and peace, Christ. I know we
started the war. We smoked Christ first, but God
didn't strike his people back. He struck our substitute instead,
so we could go free. We slaughtered Christ. You know,
those, whoever it was living 2000 years ago, you know, people
want to argue about now, was it the Jews or Romans? That's
pointless. It's all of us. We're guilty.
We put Christ to death. We slaughtered him. But God,
in return, did not slaughter his people. Instead, he slaughtered
his son, our substitute. That's what he says in verse
7 in our text. Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote
him? Or is he slain according to the
slaughter of them that are slain by him? Wicked men took and slaughtered
God's son. He didn't slaughter him in return.
Their sin was forgiven because he slaughtered his son as their
substitute. So come to Christ. Lay hold on
him and be like Jacob. Don't let go. Lay hold on Christ
and cling to him like a drowning man clings to a life preserver.
Cling to him. Now I imagine. It probably is some, but I never
try to let a message go by where I don't tell sinners come to
Christ. I can tell you that every chance I get and Lord willing,
I will. But I can tell you when a sinner will come to Christ
and when a sinner is going to come lay hold on Christ. It's
when God calls them through the preaching of the gospel. Look
at verse 13. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the great trumpet shall be blown. Now what's that
trumpet? It's the gospel. It's the sound of the gospel
calling sinners to Christ. It's going to be blown and they
shall come. which were ready to perish in
the land of Assyria and their outcasts in the land of Egypt.
They're going to come and they shall worship the Lord in the
Holy Mount at Jerusalem. That trumpet sound is the gospel. Have you heard it? Now I know
with these ears you've heard it. Have you heard it in the
heart? If you do, I can tell you, you
know how you can tell if you've heard that gospel trumpet in
your heart? you've come to Christ. Everybody
hears that trumpet comes to Christ and they come because God has
no fury left for them. Third, since God's fury against
the sin of his people is gone, the salvation of God's elect
is absolutely sure and certain. Look at verse six. He shall cause
them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and
bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. Now God has
elected people. He planted those people in his
vineyard. He separated them out from the world, separated them
for himself. But you know, there's a lot of
work and a lot of planning went into this vineyard. God purposed
it from all of eternity. Like I said, I've never been
to a vineyard, but I've seen pictures of those things. Some fellow
just didn't go out there and randomly start planting a vineyard.
A lot of work went into that. Preparation and planning. God
purposed this vineyard from all of eternity. And God Himself
is going to make sure this vineyard is successful. The Father chose
the people. He chose them in His love and
His wisdom and His mercy and His grace. The Son came because
He loved those people and He died for them to give them life.
And the Spirit comes and quickens those people. Now those people,
God chose them. The Son died for them. The Spirit
gave them life. They're gonna take root. They're
gonna blossom and bud and fill the world with their fruit. God
will see to it. God's gonna be the one to make
this happen. How will His people come to Him?
God will see to it. He'll make them come. He'll draw
them and make them come to Him. How are they going to take root?
How are they going to have good, prepared, deep ground to take
root in? God's going to prepare it. He's
going to provide it. He'll cause them to take root. He'll feed
them and water them, make sure they take root. And He's the
one who will make them grow and bear fruit. That is an absolute
certainty because God will see to it. God will make it happen
for His people because there's no fury in Him for His people.
Then fourthly, God's fury against the sin of his people is not
in him. But now he's going to come to his vineyard and he's
going to gather the harvest of fruit and he's going to prune
that vine so that vine will bring forth more fruit. But when he
does, don't think he's doing it in fury. Now there's no fury
left in him. Look at verse 12. And it shall
come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat off from
the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt. and ye shall
be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel." Now, at
this time when they harvested a lot of different fruit, what
they'd do is they'd come shake that tree, or maybe they'd have
big old rods or something, they'd beat the tree, and they'd knock
the fruit off, especially with olives and figs, that's what
they did. Now, that's a violent process. I mean, you shaking
a tree hard enough, its fruit falls off, or beating it hard
enough, its fruit falls off, That's a violent process. Well,
that's what happens to God's people. When the Lord shakes
you, He shakes you so hard, you're shaken to the very core. And
when the Lord shakes you, I don't think He's shaking you in His
fury, because He's not. Fury's not in Him. He's not shaking
you to punish you for your sin. Your sin's already been punished
in your substitute. Then what's He doing? Well, there
are a couple of different times that the Lord shakes His people.
Both of them are in grace. The Lord first shakes His people
when He saves us. Now, before the Lord saved us,
what were we doing? We were trusting in something
other than Christ. We're trusting in an idol. Well,
that foundation has to be shaken so hard that it crumbles from
beneath us so that we'll turn to God from our idols. Look at
verse 9. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. When he
maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are
beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up."
Now, the stones of the altar he's talking about there are
altars to idols, that's the groves. That's always what refers to
idolatry. Well, we're in our false religion.
We're trusting in that idol, whatever it may be. and we see
Christ, we're shaken to the foundation. That foundation of false religion
is shaken, and that foundation crumbles. We see all those stones
of the altars that we used to build up, we see those are worthless
stones. All my works that I used to contribute
to that altar, they're worthless stones. Best thing you can do
with them is bust them up for gravel. That's what he's talking
about, the chalk stones there. Just bust them up for gravel.
They're no good. And we see Christ. Our false
religion is shaken. You know what we see? Those idols
can't stand up. They fall down. Well, then we
can't stand in them. If those idols can't stand up
their own selves, they can't make us stand. So we're shaken
away from our idols and gathered one by one, one at a time. Oh, children of Israel. So the
Lord shakes his people When he saves us, that is a, in conversion,
that's a shaking going on, isn't it? Well, second, in times of
trial, the Lord shakes his people, but now he's doing it in grace.
When the Lord shakes his people, he's not punishing us for some
sin. That sin's already been punished in our substitute. And
he's not taking out his fury upon us. Fury's not in him. Then what's the Lord doing when
he shakes his people? He's making his garden more beautiful.
Now, believers trusting in Christ, I can tell you without any fear
of contradiction, all of my hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. All
of my trust is in Him. I've got no other plea but Christ.
Don't you feel that way? You who believe, I know you do.
But that trust and that faith is mighty weak, isn't it? It
sure could be a lot stronger. Well, when the Lord shakes His
people, He shakes us so hard, we're shaken to our very core. But now that's a whole lot different
than being shaken when we're in idolatry. When we're in idolatry
and the Lord shakes us, what happens? We see that idol can't
stand. But when we're in Christ and
we're trusting in Him and He's all of our hope and we're shaken,
what happens? Christ stands firm. Everything
else is going to fall down, but Christ stands firm. So our faith
and our trust and our confidence in Christ is strengthened. Now
when we depend less on ourselves and more on Christ, God's garden
is made more beautiful because it brings forth more fruit. So
that shaking, it's for our good and for His glory. Then the Lord
comes to His vineyard. He comes to prune the vine. Now,
I don't know what it looks like when they're actually pruning
the vine, but I've seen pictures of those vines after they're
pruned. It looks like a violent process is taking place. It looks
so severe, you'd think the husbandman's killed that vine, if you didn't
know better. When the Lord comes and prunes
us, and cuts us back, cuts off that that's not necessary, it's
gonna hurt. it's going to be severe. But
don't think he's doing it in his fury now. Fury's not in him. Don't think he's coming and pruning
you to punish you for some sin because your sin's already been
punished in your substitute. Then what's the Lord doing when
he comes and prunes that vine? He's making it so it'll bring
forth more fruit. Now this is a vineyard of red
wine. It's the best wine because it's growing the best fruit.
Well, if we're going to continue to have the best fruit, that
vine has to be pruned. So we'll keep bringing forth
the best fruit. And when we're pruned way back, what happens? We're forced to depend even more
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we would depend more
on him, we bring forth more fruit. That's what he said in John chapter
15, in verse two, every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away. And every branch that bears fruit,
he purges it. Why? That it may bring forth
more fruit. Now the Lord chastens his people,
but he never punishes them in his fury. Our punishment has
already been poured out on our substitute. There's no fury left
in him. And this chastening is always
for our good. So we'll bear more fruit. Look
at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12 verse 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
or of all our partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But He, for
our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now,
no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. That's what the Lord's doing
when He comes to prune His vine, chastening us. He's doing it
so we'll bring forth more fruit, that peaceable fruit of His righteousness. So when the Lord comes to pull
weeds out of his vineyard, there's no reason for anyone to worry
if they're connected to Christ divine, because there's no fury
in him. God hasn't elect people. He's
called those people to Christ. Why won't you come? He said,
I won't cast you out. Why won't you come? God has commanded
his people to come and he'll never cast them out. There's
no fury in him. So the salvation of his people
is absolutely sure and certain. He's not going to pull up some
of his people by the roots and throw them away. He's going to
water them and protect them and make sure they bring forth more
fruit because there's no fury in him. Now he may be coming
to prune. He may be coming to shake off
some fruit, but it's only so we'll love him more. It's only
so we'll trust him more and we'll bear more fruit. That's the believer's
against the thought of God's justice against our sin. Yes,
I'm a sinner. Yes, I deserve God's fury. But there's no fury in him because
he poured out that fury on his son and he will never deal with
any of his people in fury because it's gone. That's our comfort.
All right, let's bow.