Let's read together the 27th
chapter of the Gospel of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 27 will be my
text this evening. In that day the Lord with his
sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing
serpent, even Leviathan the crooked serpent, and he shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea. In that day, seeing 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. Fury is not in me who would set
the briars and thorns against me in battle. I would go through
them, I would burn them together or let them take hold of my strength
that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with
me. 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. 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? In measure,
when he shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth
his rough wind in the day of the east wind. 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. Yet the defense city shall
be desolate. and the inhabitation forsaken
and left like a wilderness. There shall the calf feed, and
there shall he 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, for it is 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. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of
the river under the stream of Egypt. And ye shall be gathered
one by one, O children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the great trumpet shall sound, shall be blown,
and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of
Assyria, and the outcast in the land of Egypt and shall worship
the Lord in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem. I call your attention
to that blessed, remarkable statement that falls from the mouth of
God in heaven to hell-bent, hell-deserving sinners on the earth in the fourth
verse of this chapter. Did you catch it? Did you hear
it? Fury is not in me. The God of glory, the holy, just,
and true Jehovah, God, the judge of all the earth, who must do
right, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, declares
fury is not in me. He who must and will punish sin
says concerning somebody in this world, fury is not in me. What an astounding statement.
Let's look at it in its context. How can it be that fury is not
in God? Fury is one manifestation of
God's essential attributes. We read of it throughout the
scriptures, particularly in the book of Nahum, God's fury is
spoken of. Here in this context, his fury,
his holy wrath, his unbending justice in this very passage
of scripture is set before us in the form of his indignation.
Back up to chapter 26, verse 20. Come, my people, enter thou into
thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as
it were, for a little moment, until the indignation, the fury
be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more
cover her slave. Then in the first verse of this
27th chapter, he speaks of God's judgment upon Satan and those
who were inspired by Satan to oppose his people. He says that
he will bring about the punishment of Leviathan, the piercing serpent,
and Leviathan, the crooked serpent, the dragon of the sea. The Lord
will come with his sore and great strong sword to punish them.
In the last verses of this chapter, verses 10 and 11, he speaks of
Babylon, the defense city, being destroyed in his fury. For the
wrecks read to us that passage in Nahum just a few days ago,
the mountains quake at him. And the hills melt, and the earth
is burned at his presence. Yea, the world and all that dwell
therein, who can stand before his indignation? And who can
abide the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. Yes, there is fury in
God. He must and will show himself
furious to all who are outside of Christ. He must and will show
himself furious to all his enemies who refuse to bow to his rule
and refuse to trust his son. But there is a people to whom
the Lord God says, fury is not in me. I want to be found among
those people, don't you? Those people to whom God says,
fury is not in me. How are we to understand those
words? How are we to interpret them? As always, we interpret
scripture honestly, only when we interpret scripture as it
is given in its context. And in its greater context, in
the context of the whole revelation of God. First, our Lord speaks
to us here about Israel. This is the first thing. God's
message in Isaiah 27 is plain and clear. It is this, Israel
shall be saved. I don't have to tell this congregation,
but I'll tell you because it needs to be firmly drilled down
deep in your minds. When we speak about Israel and
Israel's salvation and God's blessings on Israel, we are not
talking about that political state on the other side of the
world. We're not talking about that political civil nation.
We're talking about God's Israel, God's church, the church of his
elect, of which that physical political nation was only a type
and representation in the Old Testament scriptures. Israel
today is no more favored than Syria or Saudi Arabia. Israel today is no more favored
than any other nation on the earth. It is God's church, His
Israel, which is the object of His care. And God's church, His
church universal, His true church, His church, which is the body
and bride of Christ, is made up of all God's elect, Those
who have been saved, those who are already with Christ in glory,
those who are saved now, and those who shall be saved, all
held as one body in Christ before the world began, joined to him
who is our living head. Now understand this, Israel,
All God's elect shall be saved. Not one of the chosen shall perish. None of them are in danger. None of them are in danger. In
this 27th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, the Lord God declares
these two things. First, he tells us that he will
destroy all his enemies and ours. Leviathan, the crooked serpent. Leviathan, the piercing serpent,
speaks of Satan, the prince of darkness, the monster of hell,
the dragon of hell. He shall be destroyed by our
God and all those whom he inspires to oppose God's church and God's
people shall be destroyed. God's enemies and ours. All of
them shall be destroyed in the wrath and judgment of God Almighty. Those being that wrath and judgment
that's being continually executed throughout the ages. We have
a difficult time grasping this or acknowledging this. This is
a fact of revelation and you will not understand God's providence
until you understand this. All the events of providence
are either God executing his wrath in judgment upon his enemies,
or God exercising his mercy in the gathering of his elect to
himself. In every event of providence,
this is what God is doing. He is either judging the ungodly,
the reprobate and the rebel, or he is saving his people by
his almighty grace. Nothing else will explain and
give you any comfort and peace in the midst of turmoil and war
and darkness and famine and hurricanes and floods, all the judgments
of God in the earth. This is God's work. Nothing is
not his work. Second, the Lord graciously assures
us here. that all Israel shall be saved. He tells us in verse six, Israel
shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the whole world with
fruit. In other words, the Lord is here
declaring in absolute unmistakable terms that there is no reason
for you and I ever to be concerned about the welfare of God's church
and kingdom. Now listen to me. Write this
down, write it somewhere where you'll see it often and remember
it. All is well in Zion all the time. Oh God, seal that to my heart.
All is well in Zion all the time. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. That never changes. Here's the
second thing. The Lord God declares, fury is
not in me. That's the reason for what we
had at first. God's declaration that all Israel
shall be saved because fury is not in me. He has just told us
as we read in chapter 26 and in first verse of this chapter,
that there is great fury in him against his enemies. But with
regard to his elect, with regard to his church, with regard to
his vineyard, God has no fury. He is not angry with his chosen. He is not angry with his people
in Christ. Never has been and never will
be. He shows himself angry so that
he appears to be angry. But there never was a time when
God was opposed to us. There never was a time when God
was set on our destruction. There never was a time when we
were possibly under the wrath of God. Yes, we are all by nature
children of wrath. And consciously the wrath of
God is on men who believe not. But before the world was, Before
the world was, we were accepted in the beloved. The lamb slain
from the foundation of the world gave us eternal acceptance with
him as one with him. So that when God spoke these
words, there was no fury in him toward his people. None then. There is no fury in him toward
his people today. and there will be no fury in
him toward his people tomorrow. Not one, not one. All that God
does with us, all that God does with us, all that God does with
us, he does because fury is not in him. He does because we are the objects
of his favor. of His delight, of His pleasure,
of His acquiescence in Jesus Christ, His Son. Can you get
hold of that? God accepts us as He accepts
His Son because we are one with His Son. I repeat, sometimes
He appears to be angry. He seems to contend with us in
providence. He hides himself from us for
a small moment. He forsakes us for a brief time
in any manifest way. He does that only that he may
gather out of his vineyard briars and thorns and tares and wood,
hay and stubble to burn them and to purge his church. Turn
over to Matthew chapter 13, I want you to see this. The prophet Isaiah says, the
sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell in the
devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
the everlasting burnings? Here in Matthew 13, 24, the prophet
or the Lord Jesus gives us a parable. Another parable he put forth
unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But
when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, sir, Didst not thou sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest
while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with
them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. This purging of the kingdom of
heaven is God's work. No man has the ability to do
it. No man has the right to do it,
and no man should want to do it. Let both grow together. Leave the tares alone. Leave
the tares alone. I want a pure church. What I
think for you to do is get out of it. Leave the tares alone. I can't go to church with folks
like that. You have any idea how absurd
that sounds? I can't go to church with him. Leave the tares alone. Let them grow. In the end of
the age, at the time of harvest, in that day, as our text speaks
of it, in this gospel age, the Lord says, I'll send my reapers.
Other places he calls them angels, messengers. And they will, by
the preaching of the word, bind up the tares in bundles for the
burning, and gather his wheat into his barn. That's what gospel
preaching does. That's how God takes care of
his church, is by the preaching of the word. How is it that there
is no fury in God toward his people? There's no fury toward
his own because God's fury spent itself on his darling son, the
Lord Jesus. God's fury spent itself on his
son, the Lord Jesus, our substitute, our savior. Christ Jesus, when
he was made sin for us, when he bare our sin in his own body
on the tree, he took unto himself the flaming sword of God's unbending
infinite justice. And he swallowed up the sword. He swallowed up the sword so
that the justice of God is fully satisfied in the substitute and
seeks nothing from those for whom the substitute died. The
justice of God is fully swallowed up in Christ. That means, Bill
Raleigh, the justice of God seeks nothing from you. The justice of God seeks nothing
from you, for whom Jesus Christ bled and died at Calvary. In
the Old Testament scriptures, sacrifices were offered upon
the altar, and the fire of God's wrath consumed the sacrifice.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is offered, and God Almighty
poured out the fire of his wrath upon him, and he consumed the
fire of God's wrath. so that God looks at you, and
he looks at me, and he says to you, and he says to me, fury
is not in me. God never deals with moral heart
in anger, wrath, and fury. only in mercy, love, and grace. That's true of all his people. God never has a reason to be
angry with you who are his in Christ Jesus. Because his fury
was spit on his son, our Savior. Here's the third thing I want
you to see. Because there's no fury in God toward us, His church
and kingdom in this world is a vineyard of red wine under
his constant protection and care. Look at verse two. Not only does
he burn up the briars and thorns that come to the ground, he tenderly
cares for his vineyard. In that day sing ye unto her
a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it. They who
are kept by God are well kept. I will water it, watch this,
every moment. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. When God's judgments fall in
the world, there's no reason for the believer to be afraid.
When God is judging our enemies and punishing them, in the midst
of that judgment, he protects and saves his elect. God always
takes care of his own, always. The church is God's vineyard. It's compared, the kingdom of
heaven compared by our Lord to a vineyard. It's compared so
in the parables and he says, I and the vine, ye are the branches. The church of God is called a
vineyard of red wine here. Symbolic of the choicest best
fruit of the vine. Wine that gladdens the heart
and makes merry the downcast. A vineyard is a spot of ground
separated from everything else. And God's church is a vineyard
separated from the world. by election, by redemption, by
effectual calling, by preserving grace, it's separated from all
others. A vineyard is the property of
one person, and we are the property of God, the property of Jesus
Christ. A vineyard is fenced in and protected,
and it usually has many plants. And all the plants in the vineyard
are pruned and cared for by the vine dresser, the husbandman.
God commits the care of his vineyard, his church, to faithful pastors.
It's my responsibility to care for the vineyard. It's my responsibility
to watch out for the vineyard. It's my responsibility to water
his vine. It's my responsibility, but the
work can't be done by me. God works through instruments,
but his hand is the hand that cares for his vineyard. It's
a valuable, pleasant, and fruitful thing. The fruit of this vineyard
is all red. It arises from the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's fruit washed in that blood. And as the fruit of the vine
must be squeezed to give out its juices. So God in his providence sweetly squeezes the grapes of his vineyard. that
we may give out the juices that he's put within us, squeezed
and pressed by the hand of his providence. This venue, the church,
I repeat, is under God's care. Verse three, it's under his care,
his care. It's kept by God. The Lord himself,
our God, has undertaken to keep Israel. He that keepeth Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps. Because God keeps his vineyard,
none can hurt it. God keeps it at all times, by
night and by day. In the night of adversity, affliction
and persecution. In the day of peace, prosperity,
and joy alike, he keeps it vineyard. He keeps it amid the temptations
of the day and in the trials of the night, and he waters it. He graciously waters it with
the dew of heaven. Moses spoke of his doctrine,
the doctrine of the gospel, it descends like the dew. You'll
have your gardens out if you haven't already got them out
in a little bit. And the best thing for those gardens, the
best thing for those gardens is dew at night and sunshine
during the day. The best things for them. Sometimes
his vineyard needs a flood, but the floods are designed to wash
things away. We think about floods of grace
and the floods of mercy and the floods of the spirit, times of
what men call great revival, those high times. Nothing grows
in the flood. It takes the gentle dew of heaven,
the doctrine of the gospel, given by God, by his spirit, as the
assembly gathers to hear the word, and he waters his vineyard. by day and by night so that none
can hurt it. Here's the fourth thing. Because
there's no fury in God, he calls for sinners. Oh, would to God
I had a countless multitude of sinners before me now. He calls
for sinners, men and women who are his enemies. to take hold
of Christ and be reconciled to him by faith in the Lord Jesus. Verse five, or let him take hold
of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make
peace with me. Read verses four and five together.
That word or connects them. God says, fury is not in me.
who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle,
I would go through them, I would burn them together. If you wanna
fight against God, you don't have a chance. You take up your little shotgun
and you're gonna shoot God and kill him, drive him off his throne. That's like a bramble bush before
a torch. Or you can do something else.
Let him take hold of my strength. that he may make peace with me
and he shall make peace with me. The Lord is saying to you
who are by nature worthless bramble bushes, fit to be burned and
sure to be burned forever, if you set yourselves against him,
there is another option. You don't have to die. I'm a
God willing to save. I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. I delight in mercy, so let him
take hold of my strength. Lay hold of Christ, that he,
the Lord Jesus, mighty to save, may make peace with me, our daismon,
our mediator, our intercessor, our advocate, and he, Christ
Jesus, shall make peace with me. This fifth verse is a summary
of the gospel with which God continually waters his vineyard.
There is a quarrel between God and men. On God's part, it is
a right quarrel, but God himself urges sinners to lay hold of
Christ, his strength, and find peace in him, to be reconciled
to him. God promises peace to all who
lay hold of Christ in faith. If you lay hold of Jesus Christ,
there is no Fury in God toward you. If you lay hold on Jesus
Christ, there is no fury in God toward you. You remember how
the angel of the Lord met Jacob in his way and wrestled with
him that night? It wasn't that Jacob wrestled
with the angel. The scriptures are very plain.
The Lord Jesus wrestled with Jacob. And when the Lord Jesus
wrestled with Jacob, then Jacob laid hold on the Savior. And
he asked him his name, and the Lord said, you tell me your name.
You tell me your name. He said, my name's Jacob. I'm
a scoundrel. I'm a deceiver. I'm vile. I'm a wretch. I'm a cheat. I'm
a thief. My name is Jacob. And the Savior
said, Your name now is Israel, the prince, for you prevailed
with God. Sinners lay hold of his strength
and prevail with God. And when you do, he will break
your thigh, and you'll walk all your days with a limp of this
flesh, acknowledging that you are but Jacob by nature, but
a prince with God, one who has prevailed with God, who is his
strength, Christ Jesus the Lord. He was in Christ, reconciling
the world of his elect to himself. Now he sends preachers like this
one and says to you, be ye reconciled to God, quit fighting God, quit
fighting God, lay hold of his strength. And there's no fury
in me because I spent my fury on him who is the Senator Shireti. Look at this fifth thing, verse
six. Because there's no fury in God toward his elect, The
salvation of his elect is sure. He shall cause them to come of
Jacob. Them that come of Jacob. He will
cause them to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world with fruits. There are two distinct
groups of people in this world, only two. Esau's against whom
God is relentless and forever furious and Jacob for whom God
is relentless and ever gracious and there is no fury in God toward
Jacob All who are of Jacob, loved of God with an everlasting love,
chosen by him from eternity, redeemed from the blood of the
Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, shall come to God
by faith in Christ. They shall take hold of the Lord's
strength in the night that the Lord wrestles them to the ground
and they shall find peace. If you're of Jacob, you will
come. You will come to Christ, God's
strength. I, as a pastor, deliberately
take great care never to do anything to shortcut the process. I can't
shortcut the process. Most preachers try, or at least
act like they do. I preach the gospel to you and
I pray for you. I call your names before God
in prayer. I intercede on your behalf, and
I preach the gospel to you, and I wait, and I wait. If you're Jacob's, the Savior
will meet you in your night, and you will lay hold on his
strength, and you'll come to God by him. Only then will you
find out who you are, Only then will you discover the love of
God toward you. Only then will you have peace
with God in your soul. I can't give it. And nobody else can give it.
And you can't work it up for yourself. But Christ can give
it. And he will give it as you lay
hold on him who is Jehovah's strength. Here the Lord God promises
that all who come to him, he will cause to take root and flourish. Israel shall blossom and bud
and fill the face of the earth with fruit. He will cause you
to be rooted and grounded in Christ, in the love of God that
passes knowledge. He will cause you to blossom
and bud with the fruit of his spirit. And he will cause the
whole earth to be filled with the fruit of Israel and Jacob. The fullness of the Gentiles
shall be brought in. That is, God's going to gather
his elect out of all the four corners of the earth, a little
there and a little here, a few here and a few there, many over
here, but he will gather them one by one and the fullness of
the Gentiles shall be brought in. That is all God's elect scattered
among the nations through time shall be at last gathered to
Christ Jesus. And so all Israel shall be saved. The church in this world is a
growing church. You look here tonight and you
think where? All around the world. And when all have been gathered
in, it shall be a great and glorious church. There is a remnant who
must be saved, a remnant who shall be saved among the sons
of Jacob. He, the Lord Jesus, shall cause
them to come of Jacob and take root. This elect multitude shall
blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth like the mustard
seed. Small grows and finally the birds
of the air come and lodge in it. Look at verse nine. Because there's no fury in God
toward his elect, their iniquity shall be purged and their sins
taken away. 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. Is the Lord here telling us that
by Providential judgments and difficulties. Men are brought
to God and when you are brought to believe on the Lord Jesus,
then your sins are taken away? No, no, no. Faith in Christ does not make
atonement. Faith in Christ does not produce
righteousness. Faith in Christ does not give
one life. Faith in Christ is the result
of atonement. the result of life given, the
result of being made righteous by the obedience of Jesus Christ
unto death. But until you believe on the
Son of God, the wrath of God abideth on you. I have a very
dear friend, Brother Darwin Pruitt's pastor. I've known him a long,
long time. I've been preaching to Brother
Winston Warwick, my soul, how many years? Huh, nearly 40 years
I've been preaching to him. He's in his late 80s. He calls
me every now and then. And we were chatting the other
day. I preached a sermon some time
ago. And introducing the message, I asked the question, have you
ever been to hell? Has God ever sent you to hell?
And I made this statement, I promise you. If ever he brings you up
to glory, he'll send you to hell. He's going to show you your sin,
your guilt. and you will feel the glittering
sword of justice over you, about to seize you in terror, fearing
God because of your guilt. And then he comes and you take hold on
his strength. And you have peace because he
makes peace. He speaks peace to your guilty
soul. He speaks righteousness, justification,
pardon, free forgiveness. And he says, fury is not in me. I'm not angry with you. I'm not
angry with you. Fury is not in me. Because there's
no fury in God toward his elect. Because Christ has redeemed them.
Because he who is our God is a just God and Savior. We're
assured in verses 12 and 13, that all the children of Israel,
all God's elect, shall be gathered from the four corners of the
earth. And when the hand of God's judgment appears heavy, even
severe upon the earth, We need not be alarmed. I've never worked
in an orchard, just a little bit, worked for a friend who
owned an orchard, just helped him out a little bit. But you
go out in an orchard when the trees are full and you shake
them violently. You shake them violently and
the fruit falls to the ground. The shaking is not designed to
destroy the tree, just to gather the fruit. And God in his providence
shakes in judgment in the earth. And men fear and quake. Children
of God, no need to fear, no need to quake. God's just shaking
the tree, gathering his fruit. He says, fury is not in me. By everything God does in this
world, he is either punishing his enemies, the reprobate, or
he is gathering together his elect. And he says to his people,
fury is not in me. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved because fury is not in me. The trumpet is blown, the gospel
sounds, fury is not in me, and God gathers his own. I read a
story a long time ago, I don't have any idea whether it's true
or not, but it well illustrates what I want you to understand
who believe God. There was a little boy and his
sister, Johnny and Sally, who came from the city to visit their
grandparents on the farm out in the country. And the little
boy was given a slingshot to play with. And he went out in
the woods, and that city boy, he didn't know how to shoot a
slingshot, but he did the best he could, and couldn't hit anything.
Finally got disgusted, and he started back to the house for
lunch, and as he did, he saw his grandmother's pet duck, and
he just, all of a sudden, that duck hit that, that slingshot
rock hit that duck right in the head and killed it. And he looked
around, scared to death, terrified, shocked, and he grabbed the duck
and stuck it in a wood pile and hit it. They got in for lunch
and had their lunch. His little sister had seen the
whole thing. And after lunch, his grandma
said, Sally, let's do the dishes. And she said, Johnny said he'd
like to help with the dishes. And she leaned over and whispered
in Johnny's ear, remember the duck? And he got up and helped
with dishes, and Sally went out and played. And that evening
after dinner, before dinner, Grandpa was going to take Johnny
fishing. And Susan, Susan was going to stay, or Sally was going
to stay there and help Grandma get supper. And Sally said, Johnny
said he'd like to help in the kitchen. And she leaned over
again and said, remember the duck. And Johnny stayed while
Sally went fishing with her grandpa and helped in the kitchen. After
a few days of doing Sally's chores as well as his own, he had had
enough. And finally, he said to his grandma,
he said, Grandma, I killed your duck the other day and I stuck
it in the woodpile. I'm sorry. And grandma said,
I know you did, son. I was at the window and saw it.
I was just waiting for you to acknowledge it. I'm not angry
with you. And I just wondered how long
you're gonna let Susie keep you as a slave to her. Hear me, children
of God. When Satan accuses you and would
condemn you and drags you in despair, I don't know what your
past is. Remember Calvary and forget the
duck. Remember Calvary and forget the
iniquity, the transgression, the sin. Put behind you those
things by which Satan would torment you and walk at liberty with
God your Savior who says, behold my hands and my feet. Fury is
not in me. Oh, good news from the great
God. Fury is not in me. Amen.