Isaiah chapter 32. If you have one, you can put
a marker there in your Bible. I'll be coming back to this chapter. Isaiah chapter 32, beginning
with verse 1. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. And princes shall rule in judgment,
and a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place,
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall
understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak plainly. The vowed person shall be no
more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak
villainy, and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy
and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry,
and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments
also of the churl are evil. He devises wicked devices to
destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right. But the liberal deviseth liberal
things, and by liberal things shall he stand. Rise up, you
women that are at ease. Hear my voice, you careless daughters. Give ear unto my speech. Many
days and years shall you be troubled, you careless women. Now he's
talking to the church here. For the vintage shall fail. The gathering shall not come. Tremble, you women that are at
ease. Be troubled, you careless ones. Strip you and make you bare and
gird sackcloth upon your loins. They shall lament for the teats,
for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. Upon the land
of my people shall come up thorns and briars, yea, upon all the
house of joy and the joyous city. Because the palaces, the churches,
shall be forsaken. The multitude of the city shall
be left. The forts and towers shall be
for dens forever, a joy of wild ashes and a pasture of flocks,
until, something's gonna happen, until the spirit be poured upon
us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field and the fruitful
field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in
the wilderness And righteousness remain in a fruitful field, and
the work of righteousness shall be peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet
resting places, when it shall hail coming down on the forest,
and the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that
sow. beside all waters that send forth
thither the feet of the ox and the ass. I invite you to turn back with
me this morning to the book of Isaiah. This chapter is so full of gospel
cheer that you could feed from most every verse in it. I preached
on one of the latter verses up in Missouri the other day, but
this particular verse, verse 2, I couldn't, I felt like I
needed to preach on it also. It's just a wonderful joy and
security to the believer. Isaiah was a prophet of God. His lot in life was to speak
for God. Let that sink in. This man's
lot in life, his whole life, the reason his name is in this
book The reason we're reading his writings this morning is
because his lot was to speak for God. God singled him out
from among all men. And he said, you're going to
be my testimony to this work. You know, my nephew, one time
I was visiting with him and he asked me a lot of questions.
I thought they were pretty good questions. But one of his questions
was this, how do you know that there is a God? How do you know? Well, if I look to my natural
senses, I don't know. I don't know. I've never seen
God. I've never seen God's Son. But I believe that there is a
God because I believe what is written in this book. And I look
at his creation and the things that he says about it and the
things concerning his gospel and the things concerning his
son. And I see a harmony here written across thousands of years
by men of all walks and trades. Some were shepherds, some were
doctors, written in all kinds of different lands and times,
and there's a perfect harmony from front to back. I don't know
any author, any man who's ever written any book that there's
harmony from front to back. Have you? I've never written
one. Never read one. But there is
in this book. I don't have any other evidence.
People looking for evidence and feelings and dreams and visions
and all this kind of nonsense, it ain't there. There's only
one evidence of God and that's right here in this book. Right
here in this book. Now his son is a matter of history. You got a problem with his son,
you're going to have to go back and do something about the historians
because they verified that he was here. that he came. But how do I know this is God's
son? Because these prophets like Isaiah
told us who he is, told us why he's coming, told us what he
was going to do, told us of the benefits of it. This man was a prophet of God.
His lot in life was to speak on behalf of God concerning the
promised redeemer. And you might not know this,
but the whole of Scripture is designed around a promised redeemer. The whole of Scripture. You think
Genesis is about creation. Well, before he created anything,
he declared that let there be light. And that light wasn't
the sun. He didn't do that for several
more days. That light was the light of his
son. His Son is the Creator. It was made by Him and for Him. He's in everything. Everything
in this creation works in some way to declare who He is and
show His glory. And the whole of Scripture is
designed around a promised Redeemer. The Law and the Prophets were
written to lay a foundation of hope and comfort for chosen sinners. based on the person and work
of one which he calls the Christ. The Pharisees got disgusted with
him over in John 10, and they said, if thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you, plainly. You believe not, because you're
not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish. The law and the prophets were
written to lay a foundation of hope and comfort for chosen sinners
based on the person and work of one he calls the Christ. And God's book opens as the Spirit
of God moves in power and revelation, giving light upon all that is
to follow. John tells us that all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made, and in Him was life, and the life was the light of
men. He's the firstborn of all creation,
every created thing. He's the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and by Him all things consist. In Egypt, they had a language
years ago. And for whatever reason, that
language went into a deep mystery. Nobody knew. It was a pictorial
language. And it got kind of just lost
in the shuffle. And they would go into these
old tombs and they'd see it. They called it hieroglyphics.
And they could see it. And they could speculate on what
it meant, but nobody knew what it meant. And one day a scientist
found a stone, and that stone was the key to hieroglyphics. It's called the Rosetta Stone.
Christ is the Rosetta Stone concerning the things of God. Apart from
him, you can't understand anything in this book. John said, and we know that the
Son of God has come. and given to us an understanding. Huh? What kind of understanding? That
we may know Him that is true. Now watch this. And that we're in Him that's
true. Even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. And God delivered me from
turning the testimony of Christ into anything other than what
it was purposed to be. This book is a hymn book, H-I-M. The Old Testament Scriptures lay
the foundation of the coming Redeemer. He's pictured, typified,
and prophesied throughout the whole of it. You can't make any
sense out of any of those things in there other than Christ. Why
in the world would he talk about a brass socket? Why would he
talk about badger skins for a covering on a tent? Why would he go in
such detail with stuff? Because he's telling you about
Christ. He's picturing Christ and his
work. He's pictured, typified, prophesied
throughout the whole of it. He's the seed of woman. Woman
don't have a seed. Well, she did. And that seed
was Christ. He's the sacrificial lamb. He's
the ark. He's the refuge. He's the mercy
seed. He's the year of Jubilee. He's
the Sabbath of rest. He's meat for hungry sinners.
He's a sovereign king. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek without beginning of days or end of life. And as
I studied to prepare the message today, I read this written by
a man who's yet ignorant of Christ. He's a writer and most of us
preachers read him, but he don't know God. He said, though Isaiah's
words are only perfectly fulfilled in Christ Jesus, it was not concerning
Christ that they were spoken. Oh, I beg your pardon. I beg
your pardon. My friends, everything God says
in this book concerns the person of Jesus Christ. That young preacher got up and
he preached, and boy, he was miserable. He finally went over
and sat down, and after the service, he asked the pastor, he said,
well, what did you think? He said, well, I didn't think
much of it. And he said, well, was my illustration bad? Oh,
no, he said, your illustrations were fantastic. Oh, he said,
was my outline messed up? Did it leave people hanging?
No, he said, there wasn't anything wrong with your outline. Why
wasn't it any good? He said, there wasn't any Christ
in it. There wasn't any Christ. Well, he said, Christ wasn't
in my text. Oh, he said, Christ is in every text. It's in every
text. Everything God says in this book
concerns the person of Christ. And apart from him, there's nothing
but a damned universe. All doom. It's all doom apart
from Christ. The great black hole into which
everything is being swallowed up, that's not in Christ. He's
the embodiment of hope and our hope is not in a system, it's
in a person. No person, no hope. What's your
hope? Well, there was a man named Calvin. That ain't my hope. or any other preacher, or any
other writer. That's not my hope. Well, you
see, there's a system. No, that ain't my hope either.
My hope's in a person. He's been my hope before I knew
everything about him. And I still don't know everything,
but I know something. But back then, I didn't know
a whole lot. Well, how much did you know? Enough to trust my
soul to him. How much is that? I don't know.
Might be different for you than it is for me. But I know that's
what faith is. Faith lays at his feet themselves. Here I am. Here I am. If you
will, you can make me clean. And every man that'll say that,
from his heart, he's gonna hear the same thing that leper heard.
I will. Be thou clean. No person, no
hope. No person, no help. No person,
no future. No peace, no joy, no rest. Isaiah was a prophet who was
prophesying about a person. According to 1 Peter 1 11, he
had the spirit of Christ in him. Is that right? Ain't that what
that said? He had the Spirit of Christ in him, enabling him
to testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. Well, who knows that? Those who
preach this gospel by the same Holy Ghost who inspired him to
write it. That's what Peter tells us. They're
now reported unto you by them that preach the gospel unto you
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. They take the things
revealed in these old prophets, and by the same spirit of revelation,
they preach them unto you. And that's my desire, my prayer,
and my hope for today. That God the Holy Ghost would
use this pitiful excuse as a man to set before you the glorious
Son of God. I don't care what you see in
me, I care what you see in Him. Seein' me ain't gonna do nothin'
for you. Seein' Him's eternal life. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved. Oh, listen to this. Our text
in Isaiah 32.2 says a man shall be as a hiding place. Is that
where you hide? Oh, he's my hiding place. He's
a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest. As the rivers of water in a dry
place and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, this man
is all these things. And I wonder as I search my own
soul and as I look on the faces of you that are gathered here
today, are we aware of our need for Christ? Do you wake up in the morning
aware of your need for Christ? What have you got apart from
Christ? Nothing. Nothing. Do I truly understand? Am I sensible
of what I am without Him? Could I just stop for a moment
and evaluate and consider the value of Christ? What is he worth
to my soul? Isaiah said, there's a coming
king who shall reign in righteousness. And righteousness certainly means
in rightness. Not a political figure rising
to the top, whatever it takes to get him there. We're talking
about a king now coming into power, not a figurehead put there
by some corrupt parties with their own interests. A righteous
king. Put there by a righteous God
to reign in righteousness. Why? Why? Because there is no reign
to benefit the sinner except a reign of righteousness. God's
not going to accept anything else. God's not going to bless
anything else. Man's a fallen race. We're all
under sin. We're under the curse of it,
the influence of it, the power of it, the consequences of it.
None righteous, no not want. He's not even righteous in his
potential. No potential of righteousness
in him. Righteousness is not even in his concept. There's
none that understand it. Paul prayed for the Jews to be
saved because they ignorantly worshiped God and would not bow
to the righteousness, would not receive the righteousness of
God in Christ. Righteousness is not even in
his desires. There's none that seeketh after
God. Well, how does a man become a
king in Zion? How does a man rise to sit at
the right hand of God? He must satisfy God. We're busy trying to satisfy
somebody, ain't we? Usually ourselves. But if not,
we'll pick somebody out and we try our best to satisfy them. If a man's gonna reign as God's
king, as God's king, and he's gonna have to reign in righteousness,
in righteousness. How does a man become king in
Zion? How does a man rise to sit at
the right hand of God? He must satisfy God, especially
God's righteousness. One cannot rule with God's pleasure
until he perfectly, completely, and continually pleases God. That's what's required of the
sinner, and he can't produce it. See, that's just it. You need
to do this, you need to do, oh, I know what I need. My needs
are like an ocean. I know what I need, but they
don't tell me anything. I can't do it. How does one do
it? One can't. Isn't that what scripture
said? Without me, that's what Christ
said, you can do nothing. That's what you can do, nothing. Oh, my soul, there's only one
who could do it, and that's Christ the Lord. Unto the Son, my Son, unto the
Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Now watch
this. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. He sits on the throne. And his
scepter is a scepter of righteousness. Everything he does is right.
How he saves sinners is right. How he forgives sin is right. Read Romans 3, 24 and 25. See
what that says. That he might declare his righteousness
in the remission of sins. Everything he does is right.
His choice of sinners is right. The way He saves them is right.
The way He controls them is right. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
That's Christ. That's who Isaiah is talking
about, a reigning king, an unchangeable king. A righteous king rising
into power and saving his people from their sins. And then he
tells us his princes shall rule in judgment. Who's his princes? That's his preachers. What kind of judgment? Does that
mean I stand up here and tell you you're out? No. That's not the kind of judgment
he's talking about. He's talking about the kind of
judgment that he talks about over in 1 Corinthians 2. It means
discernment. I can judge between truth and
error. I can rightly divide the word
of God. That's the kind of judgment that
he's talking about. His princes shall rule with discernment. Not the severe dividing transgressors. But even that kind of judgment,
judgment must begin in the house of God. Even that judgment comes
from discernment. How are you going to judge something
that you don't understand? The rule is the rule of discernment
and truth. Rightly dividing the word of
truth. Studying the word of God. Showing their approval of God. Now here's my text. And a man
shall be as a hiding place. Let me give you four things in
this passage which I hope and pray will be a help to you. And the first is this. A man. A man shall be as a hiding place.
Not a system. Not a church covenant. Not a
persuasion. A man. One mediator between men
and God. The man, Christ Jesus. He's not
like any other man. He has a similarity to Adam.
He's the only man he's ever compared to. And he calls him the first
man, and Christ the second man. And everybody in between falls
under one of them two categories. Is that right, Winston? You studied
Scripture. Two men, Adam and Christ. He's not like any other man except
Adam, and he's like Adam in only one way. He's the federal head
and representative of his people as Adam was. In Romans 5.18 it
said, therefore, as by the offense of one, Adam, judgment came upon
all men, that is, all men represented in him, two, condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men, all represented in Christ,
unto justification of it. For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. All men have to do with all as each are represented in the
heads of the people. All mankind or his posterity
are represented in Adam. We're just like our daddy Adam,
just like him. All God's elect are represented
in Christ. And the many who were made sinners
were the many sons of Adam, and the many made righteous were
the heirs of Christ. The Scripture says this, Jesus
Christ was born of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. And those who were under the
law are sons, and so by his work On the basis of his work, he
sent the Holy Ghost to them. He sent it to them that they
might call God their Father. They were represented in Christ.
And we see Jesus, Paul said, made a little lower than the
angels. crowned with glory and honor
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Not
every man born of Adam, but every man represented by him. And both he that sanctifies,
this is what the scripture said, both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all one. For the witch calls, he's not
ashamed to call them brethren. The only way he's going to call
you brethren is for you to be one with him. You see what I'm
saying? God looks at you, he sees Christ,
if you're a believer. He sees Christ, he don't see
you. That you that you have to live
with, this flesh, this sin, all those things were crucified on
the cross. What God sees in you is righteousness. Rightness. Holiness. You can't look in the mirror
and even say that word, can you? No, your mind tells you something
different. But we're one with Him. And as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself
likewise took part of the same, but through death. He might destroy
them that had the power of death, that is, the devil. It says He
took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the
seed of Abraham. What's that? What's that? Well, in Galatians 3.6 He tells
you, Now to Abraham and his seed, were the promises made. He saith
not unto seeds as of many, talking about the Jews or Israel, but
as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ. That's the seed. And by virtue of our union with
him, we're partakers of God's mercy and grace in Christ. We
have obtained and inherited being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. The man Christ Jesus. And what
of this man? Well, here's the second thing.
He's a hiding place. He's a hiding place. From what
are we hiding? I know people live in constant
fear, and you know some too. They live in constant fear Somebody's
going to come up. They're going to steal something
from them. They're going to break into the house. They're going
to steal their car. They're in constant fear all
the time. And so they live like they
live in a hiding place. Oh, from what are we hiding?
What do we fear? What threatens our souls? Why
do we live in this constant state of fear? Well, we fear a broken
law. You better fear it. You better fear it. Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. Cursed. Cursed of who? Cursed
of God. Therefore, because we're all
sinners by nature, by choice, and by practice, therefore by
the deeds of the law there shall no place be justified in his
sight. You're not going to come before
God and start telling him how much money you donated to the
church, how much of your time you donated to the ministry,
and all of these things. That's what the Pharisees thought.
And he depicted them and talked about them. And he told them,
he said, many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, he wasn't
their Lord. I mean, he was Lord in the sense
that he's Lord over all, but he wasn't their Lord. And they
said to him, Lord, had not we prophesied and we preached. Remember
us? We preached. We preached in your
name. We did many wonderful works in
thy name. What did the Lord tell them?
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I
never knew you. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin." Paul wrote to the Galatians.
These Judaizers, legalizers had got in there and they wanted
to be circumcised. They wanted to keep these old
things under the law. They wanted to bring them under
the law is what they wanted to do. And Paul said, oh, he said, ye
that desire to be under the law, do you hear the law? Do you know what the law demands? We need a hiding place from the
law. And secondly, we need a hiding place from a raging devil. The
devil's become a joke in our day. The comedian used to say,
become famous saying it. The devil made me do it. The devil is a raging enemy.
He's a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You no match. The angels are not a match for
him. When they disputed over the body
of Moses, the angels didn't even bring a railing accusation against
him. They said the Lord rebuked them.
Nobody can handle him but the Lord. Think how brilliant your first
parents were. How many confrontations did it
take to bring about their fall? One. And He takes men captive, it
says, at His will. What keeps you from being swallowed
up? What keeps you from swallowing all this mess they're preaching
hook, line, and sinker? Huh? The Lord. That's it. We need a hiding place from Him.
We need a barrier between us and Him. We need one to stand
in the gap between us and Him. We're no match for Him. Oh, how I need a hiding place
from this archenemy of Christ and of my soul. Satan holds captive
a whole world by deceit and enticing words of man's wisdom and by
man's lust for pride. You ever think about that? My
sister told me this before she died. She said, so what you believe
is you're right and the whole world is wrong. I said, yeah,
that's what I believe. That's exactly what I believe.
Now, I don't think I'm exaggerating the percentages. Over and over
and over, he tells us in the book, the world, the world, the
world. Satan holds captive a whole world,
and he holds them captive by deceit, enticing words of man's
wisdom, and he uses man's lust for pride, and he holds them
by power, by signs, and lying wonders, and by all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, and then they perish. He calls unrighteousness
righteousness. That's what that's talking about.
And then thirdly, I need a hiding place from a persecuting world. We live in a day of little persecution
physically. But in the past, they put you
to death. Read Fox's Book of Martyrs sometime. Slit them open, poured corn,
slit their stomachs open, poured corn there and turned the hogs
loose on them. Persecution, death, impaling. Believers. It made me sick. I put the book
up. I need a hiding place from a
persecuting world. And while we're despised by the
world, we're precious to God in Christ. And Christ is our
hiding place from the world. Oh, how sweet is His fellowship,
His promises, His love, His mercy, and His grace. He stands between us and the
world. If the world hates you, and they
will, if the world hates you, know this, He said, He hated
me first. And they don't really hate you,
they hate you because they hate me. And here's the third thing I
see in our text. I see a delightful refreshment.
He's the rock. We're going to hide in Him. Nothing
can penetrate the rock. He put you in the cleft of the
rock. God can pass by before you and no hill is going to harm
you. He's the rock. He's the smitten
rock. Brings forth the water of life. And now He moves on and He said
He is as rivers of water in a dry place. This world is a desert without
spiritual water. It's filled with those, Paul
said, who will not endure sound doctrine. Gather to themselves,
heap to themselves teachers with itching ears. They turn away
their ears from the truth. They're proud knowing nothing.
Doting over stripes of words, loves to dispute. being attested
to the truth. Where's the man who'll preach
Christ? Huh? Come what may, where's the man
that'll preach Christ? He'll preach Him when everybody's
shaking His hand and saying welcome. He'll preach Him when they all
walk out the door. Where's the man that'll preach
Christ? Christ on the throne has poured
out His Spirit on the church, gave evangelists and pastor-teachers,
raised up faithful assemblies, and they preached Christ. This
is the water of life and a dry place, not a drink, but as rivers
of waters. Huh? You don't get an occasional
drink of Christ here. My soul, I pour Him out like
rivers of waters. I tell you as plainly as I know
how to tell you. He's the water of life. There
is no water, no spiritual water but him. He said, whosoever drinketh of
the water that I give him, he'll never thirst. The water that
I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life. And he's like a shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Years ago, I helped build I-49
from Lafayette almost to Shreveport. And we were out there pouring
concrete in that 100 degree weather. Humidity about the same. And we was out there for hours
on end in that heat. Two or three times a week, I'd
take my employees down to the doctor with heat exhaustion. They'd pass out and I'd have
to take them down there. And when we could, when the truck
pulled out and there's a few minutes between that and the
next one, we'd go up on that concrete bridge. And I swear
it felt like that temperature was 40 degrees cooler there than
it was out in that sun. Like a shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. Oh my soul, how cool and refreshing
it was to sit in the shade. Christ is as a shadow of a great
rock, and oh what a rock he is. Our Lord said, upon this rock
I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against me. He's my rock. He's my hiding
place. He's my water. He's my shade. He's my rest. Oh, that the Lord
be pleased to do the same for you as He's done for me. Thank you.