Isaiah chapter 28, and we'll
read from verse one. Woe to the crown of pride, to
the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,
which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are
overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty
and strong one, which is a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth
with the hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards
of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet. And the glorious beauty
which is on the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower,
and as the hasty fruit before the summer, which when he that
looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, he eateth
it up. In that day shall the Lord of
hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto
the residue of his people, and for a spirit of judgment to him
that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn
the battle to the gate. But they also have erred through
wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest
and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are swallowed
up of wine. They are out of the way through
strong drink. They err in vision and they stumble
in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit
and filthiness so that there is no place clean. Whom shall
he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? Them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little and there a little. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people. to whom he said,
This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. But the
word of the Lord was unto them, Precept upon precept, precept
upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little
and there a little, that they might go and fall backward and
be broken and snared and taken. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because
ye have said, we have made a covenant with death and with hell, are
we at agreement? When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place. and your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over,
by day and by night, and it shall be a vexation only to understand
the report. for the bed is shorter than that
a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it. For the Lord shall rise
up as in Mount Perizim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of
Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to
pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers,
lest your bands be made strong, for I have heard from the Lord
God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth.
Give ye ear and hear my voice, hearken and hear my speech. Doth
the ploughman plough all day to sow? Doth he open and break
the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face
thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the
cumin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley,
and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him
to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not
threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned
about upon the cumin. but the fitches are beaten out
with a staff, and the cumen with a rod. Bread, corn, is bruised,
because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel
of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh
forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel,
and excellent in working. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I have a question. What happens when a man who doesn't
know Christ preaches the gospel? What happens when a minister
who doesn't know the gospel presumes to minister peace to the souls
of men and women. Does he, or indeed in these days
increasingly she, does he do any good? Or does he do any harm? The answer to that question is
this. he does harm. Such preachers spread confusion. They instill needless doubt in
some of their hearers and they give false hope to others. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy,
They are preachers who give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils. They come speaking lies in hypocrisy. They cry, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. And they teach doctrines that
are agreeable to natural men and women with carnal minds They
teach doctrines such as the essential good of all men and women. They teach doctrines such as
the power of man's free will to choose God and to possess
salvation. They speak about the merit of
good works and they speak about man's ability to please God by
their own obedience and by their own will. They contradict the
truth of God and they do harm to the souls of their hearers. Now it is true that the power
of the gospel is not entrusted to the preacher. Earnest and
eloquent and enthusiastic as that preacher might be, A preacher
can try to convince men and women to trust in Christ, but he cannot
convert a soul, even a true preacher who preaches the whole counsel
of God. He cannot make a new creation. It takes a power greater than
a sinful man to make another sinful man whole. And we have
learned, I trust, as we have heard the Gospel preached, we
have learned, I trust, as we have heard faithful preachers
bring the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our ears and
to our understanding, that the power of the Gospel is vested
in the message itself, spiritually applied. The Apostle Peter calls it being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, not
of the power of man, but of that incorruptible seed, that word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. And it's this that is vested
in the message spiritually applied, that gives us a confidence to
preach that message, to preach the gospel, to take it to men
and women and boys and girls, and with Paul to be unashamed
to preach Jesus Christ crucified. And yet, that said and understood,
It is also true that the Lord has graciously called men to
preach the gospel and committed and authorised this word and
authorised the church to hold it forth to a fallen world. So Paul can say in Romans chapter
10, So this is the answer to my opening question. Remember what happens when a
preacher who does not know the gospel preaches or a minister
who does not know Christ presumes to minister peace to the souls
of men and women. They are running unsent. They are false prophets. They spread confusion and they
raise false hopes. What an encounter. It must be
when an unsaved church member meets their unsaved church minister
in hell. What do they say to one another
when they encounter one another in that dark place? And it is such men that Isaiah
has in view in our chapter today. When he writes, the priest and
the prophet ere envisioned, they stumble in judgment. In our chapter,
chapter 28 of the book of Isaiah, the prophet there, Isaiah, attributes
this erring in vision and stumbling in judgment, to drunkenness and
pride. We might enlarge that a little
bit and call it fleshy self-indulgence and self-righteousness. Because that's what the religious
leaders of Isaiah's day were guilty of. These men had no spiritual
understanding and they had no gospel message to the needy souls
of Jerusalem and Judah and even the wider, the broader land of
Israel, the northern tribes, the ten tribes. It is both the
northern tribes of Israel and the southern tribes of Judah
and Benjamin that are being spoken of in this chapter. And we discover
that both go into exile, one before the other, certainly,
one at the hands of the Assyrians, the other at the hands of the
Babylonians some time later. Nevertheless, we find that their
leaders, and particularly their religious leaders, did not have
the wherewithal to bring a message of hope or encouragement, bring
a message of salvation and deliverance to the people of their age. And that is not to say that they
had not heard the truth. They had. these false prophets,
these priests that could not help, who could not intercede
to, could not speak wise words to the people in need. They had
themselves heard the truth. We learn that in verse 10. They
had been given a faithful account Perhaps it was by Isaiah, perhaps
it was from previous prophets, but they had been given a faithful
account of the Lord's dealings with his people, of the Lord's
word. We read precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, from the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and Moses. These men of Isaiah's age, they
had heard David's Psalms, they had read the prophet's words. Elijah and Elisha and Samuel,
they knew the stories of the judges, of Gibeon and of Samson,
and yet they were ignorant of the way of salvation. They rejected
the truth. for a message that satisfied
their fleshy appetites and served their natural ambitions. And
in many ways things have not changed in the religious world
even to this day. It seems that Isaiah himself
had tried to teach these priests and prophets the true gospel
of grace because he says in verse 12 These are his words, to whom
he said, this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. He had given
these men the very words, the very message that would have
done the hearts and souls of the people good. This is where
the weary will find rest. This is where they will find
refreshing, but they would not hear. Isaiah set before these
men the truth. He set Christ before them. He
was faithful to his calling and he taught the true word of God
and he taught the doctrine of grace. He spoke about righteousness. He spoke about mercy. He spoke
about peace in Christ, whereby the weary find true rest and
refreshing. Words that the Lord Jesus Christ
himself echoed. in his own ministry many years
later, saying in Matthew chapter 11, come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest for
the weary and refreshing is found in Christ. The Lord was picking
up Isaiah's own words here, and he was taking them to himself. Isaiah pointed to Christ, and
Christ said, here I am, I have come, now you come to me. the
labouring and the heavy laden and find the rest that I can
give. It was true for Isaiah's generation,
it was true in Christ's day and it is true now. Coming to Christ
in faith for righteousness, for rest and refreshing is the only
way to peace with God in this world and the everlasting joy
that the Lord has laid up in the world to come. But these men in Isaiah's day
refused to listen and the Priests and the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the Herodians and many, many of the common people in the Lord's
own day refused to listen. And many still today refuse to
listen. They scorned Isaiah's gospel
message and they scorned Christ's words and they scorn the truth
still. Isaiah informed these people
of coming judgment. And yet they were unafraid. He
told them that the Assyrians were coming. He told them that
the Babylonians were coming. And yet they were unafraid. This
is what they said. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through. They were under no doubt that
what was warned was indeed likely to happen. But they said when
it does, It won't harm us. We're immune to it. It won't
harm. We will be okay. Yeah, I'm sure
there will be judgment. I'm sure there will be accountability. But when it comes, we'll be okay. Why? Because they had a wrong
view of their own righteousness. It won't harm us. Did they imagine
that they could broker a deal with these Assyrians? Did they
imagine that they could negotiate a peace treaty? Save themselves
by their wit and their wiles? Such was their pride that they
believed they had no need for the salvation and the refuge
of Isaiah and his God. It was as if they were saying,
we'll take our chances. You've got your gospel, you've
got your message, but we're not going to accept that. We are
happier with this message. We will take these preachers'
words and we'll attend to them. This will be the ground upon
which we will build our hope. we'll take our chances. And therefore
Isaiah sets out for his readers, for the elect remnant, for the
people for whom this was not sufficient, this was inadequate,
for people of faith, for people of insight, for people of understanding,
for people that had eyes to see and ears to hear, for those who
were weary, the remnant people in Israel of his day, Isaiah
sets out the true spiritual ground of faith and hope and peace with
God. And in verse 16, Isaiah speaks
to us of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, therefore thus saith
the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. he that believeth
shall not make haste. What a beautiful gospel text
that is. What a beautiful presentation
Isaiah has here given to the people who the Lord is pleased
to call his own. when so many were turning their
back, when the religious and the self-righteous, when those
who were full of pride were saying, we'll take our chances. Isaiah
says, but I've got a word of comfort. for the weary. I have
got a word of hope for the fearful. And for those who feel that conviction
of sin, and for those who feel the burden of their own unworthiness,
here is the Lord Jesus Christ set before us. Here we have Christ
typified as a rock, as a stone, in a manner not uncommon in scripture. Moses, you'll remember, speaks
of Christ as that water-giving rock in the wilderness. Remember
how Moses struck the rock and water came out to refresh and
to nourish and to sustain and to enliven the children of Israel
in the wilderness. And that rock went through the
wilderness with them. That rock was Christ. That rock,
pictured, typified, symbolised the Lord Jesus Christ and the
refreshing blessings, the life-giving power that is found in Christ. Moses spoke also of a defensive
cliff on Mount Sinai into which he was placed when the Lord passed
there to be protected. He spoke also of a sapphire pavement
which was emblematic of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel,
another prophet, says in 1 Samuel chapter 2, God our rock. David says, unto thee will I
cry, O Lord my rock. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence, I shall not
be moved. You see how the Lord had given
these pictures of Christ right from the very beginning, right
from the days of Moses all the way through. Here now was Isaiah
drawing on this rich vein, this heritage of revelation and pointing
out that the Lord God was going to lay in Zion, to lay for his
church, in his church, a foundation which was Christ the Lord. Isaiah could say therefore with
Bible authority from Moses and from Samuel and from David and
from any number of others that this Stone laid in Zion by the Lord
himself as the ground of safety and security was a tried stone. He was a tried stone because
he had been proved time and time again in the history of Israel
to be sufficient to the needs of the people in their day. A
tried stone, a saviour who had proved himself dependable. faithful, able to save and deliver
and refresh. And I want us to realise this. I want us to be aware of this. And now I'm speaking to you. I'm speaking about our day. I'm speaking about this activity.
I'm speaking about our needs as sinful men and women in this
world. I don't come to you today with
a fairy tale. This isn't my imagination. This isn't a fanciful notion. I come to you today with a message
of salvation that's been tried in the fires of affliction, that's
been tested in the wilderness of sin. that's been confirmed
in war, that's proved itself in times of peril, that's been
demonstrated in the midst of dangers, that's been justified
in the loneliness and abandonment that the Lord's people have felt
down through the ages of the church, and that has been vindicated
in the presence of holiness itself. Moses and Samuel and David and
Isaiah leaned on Christ. They found Christ to be faithful. They leaned on Christ the rock
and they found him to be true. He is a tried stone. It's a tried stone that has been
laid in Zion by the Lord. It is a hiding place. It is a
covert. It is a great rock in a weary
land. It's been proved time after time. So that we may well say, venture
on Him, lean on Him, trust in Him. Try Him and prove Him yourself. Moses tried Christ, Samuel tried
Christ, David tried Christ, Isaiah tried Christ, and all of them
found him to be a suitable saviour, suitable to their need. And you
can try him too, and you will not be disappointed either. I
repeat what the Lord said. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. I will
give you rest. Christ was a tried stone. And
Christ is a precious cornerstone. Precious, precious Jesus. There is no one in this world
more precious to a needy sinner than Jesus Christ. No matter
what you might think of your closest friend or your nearest
family, Christ is precious. Christ is precious to his Father
who loved him and yet gave him to be crucified as a ransom for
many. Christ is precious to his Church. We love him because he first
loved us and redeemed us from sin and death and hell and darkness. He's precious to every believer
whom he befriends, whom he comforts, whom he blesses in this world. And he blesses us with richness. He blesses us with all spiritual
blessings in this life and promises and hope for the next. He has
a precious name. His blood is precious, His death
is precious, His grace, His goodness, His spiritual gifts, they're
all precious to our soul and they are all suitable, they are
all meet for our condition and for our need. This is our Jehovah
Jireh, this is our great provider, this is the Lord Jesus Christ
and He is precious to us. He's the pearl of great price,
which to possess we would gladly give all that we have. Preachers
come and try and negotiate with people. They make an offer and
they say, take him, take him, take him, he'll do you good. We would never give him up. because
we found Christ to be precious when he has made himself available
to us and he has shown us our need. Why is he called a cornerstone? Why is he a precious cornerstone? Because the cornerstone measures
the whole building. The cornerstone brings the whole
building together. It makes it straight. It gives
it strength. It marks its dimensions. It joins
and unites its different parts. And this is what Christ has done
in the church. He has bound his people together
like the mortar and the cement binds the stones of a building. Christ has brought that all into
being. The church, the church of Jesus
Christ is a temple, it's a building and Christ is its cornerstone
and its foundation. The cornerstone sits at the corner.
The clues in the name. And down that wall are the Old
Testament saints. And along that wall are the New
Testament saints and they're joined in Christ at the corner.
Along that wall are the Jews and along that wall are the Gentiles
and they're joined in Christ at the corner. There are the
rich and there are the poor. Those are the young, those are
the old. There's the men, there's the women. They're all joined together at the corner. No matter who
we are and what we are in this world, we are built on Christ. It doesn't matter our nationality.
It doesn't matter when it was that we lived and when it was
that we died. We are built on this precious
cornerstone and He is all our hope. He is all our boast. He is all our blessing. He's a tried stone, he's a precious
cornerstone, he's a sure foundation. A foundation laid by God himself. Where will you find a better
foundation? Isaiah's protagonists said, we
have made a covenant with death. and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves. Let me ask you, are those the
people that you would want to align yourself with? Is that
the crew that you would want to identify yourself with? Would you dare put the eternal
well-being of your soul into a bag with those men? Would you attempt to make a deal
with the devil? make a covenant with death when
the Lord has founded a covenant of life and peace? A refuge of lies is a bed too
small and a blanket too narrow for a sinner seeking rest. But Christ is a sure foundation. He is firm. He is fixed. He is
constant. He is sure. He is immovable.
He is everlasting. When we speak of trusting Christ,
that's what we mean. We mean that He is dependable
to save. Trust Him. He is able to deliver. Trust him. He is our sapphire
paved highway to heaven. Now I don't wish to sound trite,
but if you can find a better option than that, take it. Take
it. But I for one don't envy Isaiah's
priests and prophets. and I fear they're in hell today. Isaiah tells us at the end of
this verse 16, he that believeth shall not make haste. What does
that mean? What is Isaiah saying there? Well, it tells us that the criteria
of salvation then, as now, is simply faith. There's a question again. How
do I know if I'm saved? The answer is, do I trust Christ? Do I trust Christ? How can a
man or a woman experience God's grace and peace? By believing. That's what Isaiah says. He says, he that believeth shall
not make haste. by believing. He that believeth
will not make haste to find another Saviour. Why? Because they've
found that this Saviour is a sure foundation. He that believeth
will not make haste to find another foundation. He that believeth
will not make haste to find another Christ. Rather they shall wait
upon the Lord. We shall be patient under his
providences. We shall persevere under trial,
even enduring such hardships as we are called to bear in this
life. We won't hurry away from them
because we know that the Lord is holding us in the palm of
his hand. with all loneliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, says the
Apostle. Peter and Paul, the Apostles,
give this little phrase, will not haste, a slightly different
twist in the New Testament, because they both quote from this passage. In 1 Peter 2, verse 6, Peter
says, he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Paul says in Romans 9.33, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There will be no confounding,
there will be no shame to those who trust upon that sure foundation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, there will
be a lot of confusion and shame in that day to come when the
Lord Jesus Christ comes in judgment against the wayward in this world
who refuse to believe and they choose rather to build on their
own foundation of sand. But I tell you this, upon the
authority of the word of God. No one who trusts in the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be confounded or ashamed in that day. In closing this chapter 28, Isaiah
gives us a little parable about a farmer farming his crops. He says, a good farmer manages
his land. A good husbandman protects his
crops. And it's as if to say, I'm giving
you a word of comfort to the remnant people, to the elect
of God. When you rest upon this foundation,
this foundation that is Christ's, that is Christ's, the Lord will
manage all your needs like the good farmer, like the good husbandman
that he is. He will provide for His flock. He will give His people what
they need. He will look after His church
with personal attention and with individual care. Listen, brothers
and sisters, the Lord knows exactly what you need here, right now,
today. And He is active in supplying
all your need according to His riches in glory. The Lord is
wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. For the complete
well-being and the eternal happiness of his people, we may be supremely
confident in trusting him. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.