Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 1. Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and that cover
with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin
to sin, that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked
at my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and
to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength
of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust of the shadow of Egypt
your confusion. For his princes were at Zohan,
and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people
that could not profit them, nor be in help nor profit, but a
shame and also a reproach. the burden of the beasts of the
south, into the land of trouble and anguish. From whence come
the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent? They
will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses
and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people
that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help
in vain and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning
this, their strength is to sit still. Now go, write it before
them in a table and note it in a book, that it may be for the
time to come forever and ever. that this is a rebellious people,
lying children, children that will not hear the law of the
Lord, which say to the seers, see not, and to the prophets,
prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way, turn
aside, out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus saith the Holy
One of Israel, because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression
and perverseness, and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall
be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high
wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. and he shall break
it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces. He shall not spare, so that there
shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from
the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. For thus saith the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall ye be saved, in
quietness and in confidence shall be your strength, and ye would
not. But ye said, No, for we will
flee upon horses, therefore shall ye flee, and we will ride upon
the swift, Therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the
rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five shall ye flee, till ye
be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an
ensign on a hill. And therefore will the Lord wait,
that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be
exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God
of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. For the Lord shall dwell at Zion,
I'm sorry, for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will
be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he
shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give
you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet
shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine
eyes shall see thy teachers. And thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when
ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Ye
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 menstruous cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, Get thee
hence. Then shall he give the rain of
thy seed, that thou shalt grow the ground withal, and bread
of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle
feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young
asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender which hath
been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall
be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill rivers and
streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the
towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun
shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days, in the day that
the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the
stroke of their wound. Behold, the name of the Lord
cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof
is heavy, his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as
a devouring fire. and his breath, as an overflowing
stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck to sift the nations
with the sieve of vanity, and there shall be a bridle in the
jaws of the people, causing them to err. Ye shall have a song,
as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart,
as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of
the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel. And the Lord shall cause
his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down
of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame
of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten
down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the
grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him,
it shall be with tabrets and harps, and in battles of shaking
will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old,
yea, for the king it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large,
the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Well, we are going to spend a
little bit of time thinking about one or two points from this chapter. And I want us to note that the
opening thrust of Isaiah's message in these opening verses is to
condemn the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem who chose
to seek help and deliverance from Egypt rather than to lean
upon the Lord in their time of need. Let me just give you a
little bit of context to this, if I may. Years before, Ahaz,
a previous king, had sought alliances with Assyria. And when that disastrous
union turned sour, Assyria became a threat to Judah. Now a new generation of leaders
were about to repeat the errors of the past, the errors of Ahas. They were about to add sin to
sin. Where Ahaz had sought an alliance
with Assyria and that had gone bad, now they were turning to
the south, to Egypt, to make an alliance with them. They were
soliciting help from Egypt and they were merely repeating the
sins of their forefathers. And this was a denial of the
Lord. Now I want to just pause here
for a moment and I want to ask again, as I have asked you before. So what? Isn't this just history? Isn't this just a chapter in
the lives of long dead and otherwise largely forgotten people? It certainly is that, but it
is so much more. There are lessons here. There
are examples given to us here. There are warnings wrapped up
in these chapters for us all. There is a relevance, there is
a pertinence for us today. from these verses, from these
prophecies, from these chapters. When the Lord declares woe against
these people, I want us to notice that he calls them rebellious
children. And I think there's significance
there. He is showing us that he did
not simply view them as all of the other nations. upon whom
he has been previously imposing these woes or these burdens or
these declarations of judgment. This was different. The Lord
had nurtured and blessed these people. These were the people
of David. These were the people of Solomon.
These were the people who had Moses and Elijah and Elisha. These were the people who had
the oracles of God. And now it is required of Isaiah
that he denounces the efforts of these people to cover themselves,
not with a covering that comes from the Lord, not with the defense
that the Lord can provide, but with a covering of human strength,
while neglecting the Lord, His goodness, and the spiritual power
that He had gifted to them. The application for us today
is spiritual because all these matters that we are reading about
in these passages are pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ and
we are to interpret and contrast the spiritual errors of Isaiah's
day with the evident rejection of the Lord in our own day. point is this, even although
this book contains history, it isn't just a history book, it
is a spiritual warning to our generation. It points to Christ
as the only Saviour and it parallels the rejection of God's way of
salvation in times past with the widespread rejection of God's
way of salvation in our present age. There is widespread opposition
to Christ in the world around about us today. There are many who claim to be
God's children. professors who identify with
the Christian faith, who follow its tenets, who frequent its
churches, who pay lip service to its truths, but they are like
the rebellious children of Isaiah's day. These rebellious children
of Isaiah's day sacrificed in the temple. Did you hear what I said there?
These rebellious children to whom Isaiah is writing, sacrificed
in the temple. They read the scriptures. They read the book of Moses.
They read the scriptures of the Old Testament, of the prophets. They exhibited All of the outward
trappings of faith revealed to them in the Old Testament. But
their hearts were far from the Lord and their trust was not
in Him. And we see that witnessed in
their actions. They called themselves believers
of the Lord. But when the time came to exercise
faith in God, They didn't trust him at all, but they leaned on
their own understanding and they ran off to Egypt to find safety,
to obtain a covering and to obtain protection that they felt that
they needed. And today, there are many like
these Old Testament Jews. who talk the talk of Christian
profession. But rather than rely on the promises
of God, the sufficiency of the finished work of Christ and the
quickening work of God the Holy Spirit, instead of resting their
soul's eternal well-being on the Lord in quietness and confidence,
They rather lean on their own understanding and they try to
produce their own righteousness and offer up works of the flesh
for a covering and a shield from the enemies of their souls. So my first point today is going
to be a little bit polemic. If you're not sure what polemic
means, then listen and you'll find out. However, after that
first point, I'm quickly going to move on because we have much
more comforting truths to speak about and think about and much
greater blessings to encourage ourselves with. But let me make
my first point first. Beware of false religion. I'm not speaking about Buddhism.
I'm not speaking about Islam or even Roman Catholicism. I
am speaking about professing Christianity. As we have seen
The rebellious children of Isaiah's day sang the same hymns, read
the same scriptures, sacrificed at the same tempo. Outwardly,
it was almost impossible to tell them apart from the faithful
children. The rebellious children and the
faithful children did the same things. Outwardly, you couldn't
tell them apart. In fact, It was only in the matter
of salvation and the object of faith that a difference could
be detected at all. But what a difference it was. One group of believers trusted
in the Lord for salvation and the other group trusted in their
own ingenuity. in their own efforts and in the
alliances that they could make with their neighbours. One group
placed their hope in God, the other placed their hope in Pharaoh. Now I don't imagine for a moment
that this second group, this pharaoh-leaning group, would
admit that what they were doing was trusting in their own works
for deliverance. I'm sure that's not how they
would interpret it. I'm sure that's not how they
would spin what they were doing. But that's how the Lord interpreted
it. That's what Isaiah is telling us in this chapter. And for this
reason, they and their faith is called vain and shameful. In God's eye, the matter was
clear and decided. There was a people who rested
in the shadow of the Lord and a people who rested in the shadow
of Pharaoh. and the Lord commended one and
condemned the other. The one found consolation in
trusting Christ and the other found confusion in their lack
of faith. Today, let us reflect on where
we stand. When spiritual enemies lay siege
to our soul, the world, the flesh, the devil, our own deceitful
hearts, when spiritual enemies lay siege to our soul, to whom
do we turn? When sin encircles us, when accusations
arise against us, when our own conscience condemns us, where
do we find relief? Let Pharaoh be whatever. The
scriptures are clear. In returning and rest shall ye
be saved. In quietness and in confidence
shall be your strength. Brothers and sisters, let us
remember Isaiah's subject is Christ. It is the Messiah that he has
in view and it is to encourage the people of his age that he
is setting before them an explanation of the troubles that they will
encounter but an encouragement to believe on the coming Messiah
nevertheless. It is in returning to Christ,
it is in resting in Christ that we will be saved. It is resting
in His finished work on the cross that all men and women and boys
and girls are saved. It is in quietness and stillness,
it is in ceasing from our own labours that we find true peace. It is in trusting the promises
of God and His grace that our strength is fixed and we are
able to stand in the evil day. The gospel of Christ's cleansing
blood and full, free justification by imputed righteousness is the
only gospel that delivers the souls of sinners from their enemies. And if a man says, well that's
not what our preacher brings, that isn't the message that we
hear each week in church, Isaiah explains the reason why. They
have changed the gospel. They have altered the truth. That's what he is telling us
here in verses 10 and 11. They have said to the seers,
see not. They have said to the prophets,
prophesy not unto us right things. Speak unto us smooth things. Prophesy deceits. Get you out
of the way and turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One
of Israel to cease from before us. That's Isaiah talking. 700 years before the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul puts it this
way. Centuries later, he says, writing
to his young friend Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 3,
The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth. That's the same message almost
800 years apart. That's the prophets of the Old
Testament and the apostles of the New Testament combining with
the very selfsame warning to the church. that here are a people
who sing the same songs, who sacrifice in the same buildings,
who follow the same scriptures, and yet they have said, turn
away the Holy One of Israel from us. Well, Paul was not such an apostle
and Isaiah was not such a prophet. The people said, cause the Holy
One of Israel to cease from before us. But immediately Isaiah brings
the Holy One of Israel afresh to their attention. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the Holy One of Israel. And that is why it
is incumbent upon us, as it was incumbent upon the apostles,
to preach Jesus Christ crucified. To preach the Gospel as the power
of God unto salvation. To show men and women that it
is only by the righteousness of Christ, it is only by the
holiness that He gives, it is only when He is made unto us,
justification and sanctification and wisdom and truth that we
will in any way have peace and any confidence before God. It is Christ who lived the holy
life. that we can never live. It was
Christ who washed his people's sins away in his blood. It was Christ, it is Christ who
grants us perfect holiness and righteousness in the sight of
God. It is he who opens the door to
God's holy presence for us. Men say, stop preaching only
Christ. Preach morality. Preach duty. Preach personal commitment. Preach obligation. Tell us how
we should live. Only cause the Holy One of Israel
to cease from before us. That, says Isaiah, I cannot do. That says the Apostle Paul, I
cannot do. That says all true preachers
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we shall not do. Isaiah preached
Christ to them again and how beautifully he did so. And that's
what we'll take up the rest of our time together today. Isaiah says, return and rest. in Christ. The Gospel call in
the book of Isaiah is simple and sincere. Return and rest
in Christ. Return and rest quietly and confidently
upon the covenant promises of God. Return and rest on the successful
accomplishments of Jesus Christ our Saviour. When the Lord Jesus
Christ died on the cross, when this Messiah came and set up
his kingdom by going to the cross as the substitute for his people,
he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's not an apostolic
phrase, that is Isaiah's own words. Jesus Christ bore our
griefs and carried our sorrows. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. That is apostolic. He became
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
all his covenant obligations, satisfied all his Father's righteous
demands, secured our pardon, won our freedom, paid our debt,
redeemed and delivered our souls, cleansed us from all unrighteousness. What can we add to that? What yet remains outstanding,
what contribution might we make? Not a thing. This is what Isaiah means when
he calls us to return and rest in Christ. When he says quietly
and confidently, wait upon the Lord, wait upon him for grace
and for mercy, The wise man said in the book of Proverbs, wait
on the Lord and he shall save thee. For the Lord waits to be
gracious. All Christ's covenant works are
complete. All his work is done. All that remains is God's perfect
timing when he shall reveal his grace in conversion, apply his
mercy in suitable seasons for his people's need, sweeten our
hardships with his presence, and deal with us lovingly according
to his wisdom and his tenderness and his goodness. The Lord is not waiting to see
if we will be willing to receive his goodness and his grace. That notion is foolish and false. He waits to do us the most good. He waits to reveal himself most
caringly and to supply our needs most completely and to exalt
himself in doing so. And I don't mean to imply in
any sense that God is frustrated by the wait. And yet the word that he waits
to do us good, that he waits to be gracious to us, carries
the sense of longing. You see, the Lord loves his people,
his children so much that he longs to do us good and he waits
eagerly to be gracious to his people. As we struggle with trials and
challenges in our flesh and the temptations in this world, and
the assaults that come against our soul, the Lord calls us to
return and rest in the completed work of Christ, because it is
in so doing, leaning on him quietly, resting on him confidently. that the strength of our God
and Saviour Jesus Christ will be most manifested in our hearts
and in our lives. Here's my third point, and with
this we'll be done today. I want to close by noting again
Isaiah's mention of the Gospel day in verse 26. He says, in the day that the Lord bindeth
up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their
wound." So here is a day that Isaiah is foreseeing. Here is
a day that he is relating to the faithful remnant. A day that
he is pointing to, yet to come, a long way off, yes? but a day
in which the Lord will bind up the breach of his people and
heal the stroke of their wound. The day that he's referring to
was the day in which our Saviour died. It was the day in which
he took our place as our substitute and made atonement and reconciled
us to God. That breach was caused by Adam's
sin. It is healed by Christ's death. And note that it is the Lord
that bindeth up the breach of his people. This is free and
sovereign grace. This is God's workmanship. This is the sovereign Jehovah
at work in his covenant purpose, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
to bring together, according to his love and mercy, those
good purposes of grace for the benefit and well-being of his
people. It is the Lord that bindeth up
the breach of his people. Reconciliation, atonement are
acts of grace and mercy whereby lost condemned sinners are recovered,
restored and reconciled to God. And it is accomplished in its
entirety by the death of Jesus Christ. The stroke of our wound
literally fell upon Christ. Isaiah says he was bruised for
our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Nevertheless, The Son of Righteousness
has risen with healing in his wings. He sends forth his gospel
to the ends of the earth and all his people will hear. and
all his elect will return and rest on Christ, who taketh away
the sin of the world, the sins of his people, not only the elect
remnant amongst the Jews of Isaiah's day, but multitudes in the apostolic
age from amongst the Gentiles. Brothers and sisters, our every
need is supplied by Christ. We rest easy in Him. We rest quietly and confidently
in Christ the Lord. Have we lost our first love?
Has our peace left us? Does Satan tempt? Does this world
distract us from dwelling contentedly under the shadow of God's grace? Are we running down to Egypt
looking for deliverance and help? Then return and rest. Look to the finished work. Understand the entirety of your salvation
in Christ, the perfection of our acceptance in the Beloved. He and He alone is our absolute
holiness. Our righteous standing, our present
grace and our future promised glory is all vested and centred
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The perfection of our acceptance
is in the Beloved. He is our absolute holiness. Rest quietly and confidently
in Christ. You can do no better. Oh, and
let me just mention, when we return and rest in quietness
and confidence upon such a Saviour, Our ears shall hear a word behind
us saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. And when we turn to
the right hand, and when we turn to the left, we will be in that
way, which is Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. May
the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.