find my text this evening in
the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 8. We'll be looking at verses 13
and 14 of Isaiah chapter 8. Now this portion of Scripture
is we know is a prophetic word from God the Holy Ghost concerning
the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that one of whom
the scriptures speak, who would come and by his obedience unto
death accomplish redemption, ascending on high, attaining
eternal redemption for us by the price of his blood. Now we
know the passage is talking about Christ because God, the Holy
Spirit, who gave Isaiah these words, gave him this revelation,
tells us both by the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter that
this text speaks of our Redeemer. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him your dread. He shall be for a sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to
both the houses of Israel, for a jinn, and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Sanctify the Lord God, he says. Honor Him, and him alone as the
Lord of hosts. Let him be your fear, the object
of your reverence, your praise, the governor of your life, and
let him be your dread. Fall down on your face before
him and worship him, and he shall be for a sanctuary. This one
who is our sanctuary is to the unbelieving and the self-righteous
a rock of offense and a stone of stumbling. But to sinners
who flee to him for mercy, he is Christ our sanctuary. And that's my subject this evening.
May God by his grace use his word to persuade you this hour
to flee to Christ for sanctuary and take refuge for your soul
in him. The Lord Jesus is our sanctuary
for safety, salvation. He is our sanctuary for worship
and he is our sanctuary for life. Let's look at those three things.
First, the Lord Jesus Christ is our sanctuary for safety,
that is, for everlasting salvation. He is the place of refuge for
guilty sinners. He is our hiding place, our ark
of safety, our sanctuary from the wrath of God. Now, we use
the word sanctuary just this way all the time. Many cities
or areas within the city are called bird sanctuaries. That
means it's illegal to kill a bird in that sanctuary. I had a friend
who some years ago, I was visiting with him, and they had bought
one of these big owls and set it on the backside of the porch
and turned it this way and that because they had the same problem
my wife has. Birds, robins particularly, love
to get in the, lights right above the door and build their nest.
She fights them all spring long, just constantly tearing the nest
down. And these folks called to see
what they could do about the birds. And somebody said, don't
you touch them. Don't you touch them. You'll be arrested if you
do. That's a bird sanctuary. You have to put up with them
because they're protected. There are certain places that
have been set aside as game sanctuaries up in In New Jersey, where Brother
Clay Curtis lives and his family in Pennington and Princeton area,
they have a real problem with deer. They're all over the place,
but you're not allowed to shoot them. They're protected in the
area. You dare not hunt them under penalty of law. so it is
we gain refuges and the like. In the Old Testament scriptures,
the Lord God commanded Moses and Moses commanded Joshua when
they settled in the land of Canaan to set aside six cities of refuge,
cities of sanctuary. places within a day's walk from
any place in the land where a man who was guilty of manslaughter,
a man who was working with someone and the axe head fell off and
he killed him, he could flee to that city for refuge. And
though if he were caught outside the city, the near of kin, the
avenger of blood had every legal right under law to kill him.
Take eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. He had that right. But once he got inside the city
of refuge, there the manslayer was completely safe. Protected
by the life of the high priest within the city of refuge. That's
what Christ our sanctuary is. Listen to the scriptures. Turn
to Hebrews chapter six, if you will. Our Lord Jesus is a refuge, a
sanctuary to every sinner who flees to him for refuge. The moment a sinner believes
on the Lord Jesus, did you hear that? if right now you believe
on the Lord Jesus. From this moment forward, you
are forever perfectly safe. You could not be safer if you
were in the arms of Christ on his throne in heaven right now. For in fact, you are. Christ
is our sanctuary. That means the wrath of God cannot
touch you. God, our Savior, suffered and
died in our stead so that we fleeing to him for refuge, for
sanctuary, are safe, safe in life, safe in death, safe in
judgment, safe to all eternity, Here in Hebrews chapter six,
the Lord God, because he could swear by no greater swear by
himself and made a promise. He said, I will be your God and
you shall be my people. Look at verse 18, that by two
immutable things, the oath and promise of God, God who cannot
lie by these two immutable things in which it was not possible
for God to lie. we might have a strong consolation,
a strong comfort, a strong peace, a strong moderation, a strong
gentleness, a strong security, a consolation stronger than anything
that might otherwise shake. We have fled for refuge to Him, to lay hold upon the hope that
is set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the
veil. The psalmist said, Lord, thou
hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Believers
have in all ages fled to Christ for sanctuary, a dwelling place
of safety, a refuge. We have it pictured for us in
that ark that God commanded Noah to build for the salvation of
himself and his family. Noah built the ark and the ark,
God shut them into the ark and the ark bore all the brunt of
the fury of God's wrath, poured out upon all the world because
of sin and the anger and just wrath of God. But Noah and his
family in the ark went through the flood of God's wrath and
were not at all injured. So you and I in Christ Jesus. shall never be injured, not even
by the wrath and judgment of Almighty God against our sins,
let alone by anything else. Faith in Christ gives sinners
refuge and sanctuary in Him. If you believe Him, If you trust
his blood and his righteousness for all your acceptance with
God. If you cast away all confidence in self, all confidence in the
creature. Brother Allen read back in the
office from the book of Obadiah and we read here in Isaiah chapter
eight about the people of God, those who profess to be his people
making a confederacy. Gathering helpers around them.
Gathering helpers around them. That's what men do by nature. When trouble comes, they gather
helpers around them. Or if they're going to assault
someone, even you wanna assault somebody's character and you
wanna ruin them, what you do is you gather some helpers around
you because that gives you strength, that gives you confidence. The
Lord God says, don't lean on your confederacy. Don't trust
your confederacy. It'll do you no good. Your confederacy
will only ruin you. But if you trust Christ alone,
put your confidence in Christ alone, for your salvation, yes,
for your redemption, yes, for your righteousness, yes, for
your acceptance with God, yes, but for all things. Trust Him and you have a strong
consolation, a good hope that declares nothing shall harm you. No sin shall be laid to your
charge. No condemnation can be executed
upon you. Nothing can ever separate you
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hold
your hands here in Isaiah and turn to that very familiar text
in Romans the eighth chapter and read it with me one more
time. Romans the eighth chapter. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. And if God be for us, the apostle
raises the challenge, who can be against us? Look at verse
32. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Lots of folks would. Nobody can
before God. It is God that justifieth. And
if God has justified me, nobody will change his mind. Who is
he that condemneth? Many would. Nobody can. It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again. who is even at the right hand
of God, this Christ of God, who died and rose again, who sits
on the throne of glory, who also maketh intercession for us. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, all of these
things Satan would use to separate us from the Savior's love. All
of these things are things by which we are inclined to think
that the Savior has forgotten us, and they were separated from
His love. But it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things, these very things that
we fear and dread and would never gladly participate in, these
things we would never willingly bring on ourselves, in all these
things, We're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded, this man after some experience of God's grace,
he said, I stand fully convinced. I am absolutely convinced. My God, I am absolutely convinced. I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do you ask, Brother Don, how
can faith in Christ give me eternal salvation? It's right that you
should ask such a question. You see, true faith is not a
leap in the dark, as I've heard many describe it. True faith
is walking in the light, in the light of divine revelation given
in Holy Scripture and given in the experience of God's grace
as you trust the Savior. I want you to know why you must
believe on the Lord Jesus. want you to know what faith in
Christ is. God is angry with man because
of sin, justly angry. That which we call sin and God
calls sin, that which we look upon as evil and God looks upon
as evil is the violation of God's Holy Law. It is man's rebellion
against God as God. It is man saying to God, you've
got no right to be God. And the violation of God's law
requires death. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die, is what God declares with regard to all transgressing and
all iniquity and all sin and all sinners. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. There's no escaping the judgment
of God. But the Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, Our blessed Savior interposed himself. In old eternity, he
stepped in on our behalf between the thrice holy God and our guilty
souls. And the blows of vengeance when
he came into the world to die in our stead fell upon him when
he was made to be sin for us and the debt we owed to God. justice required, whatever infinite wrath and vengeance
required, whatever holy retribution required from God on His throne,
Jesus Christ, my substitute, paid it all. Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. He bore that we might never bear
His Father's righteous ire. Now hear me well. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
in our place the wrath of God. And if he did, as the scriptures
declare he did, we cannot ever be called upon to suffer the
penalty of God's law or to suffer the wrath of God in any area,
to any degree, to any extent, for any reason. It can't be done. It can't be done. If Christ paid
our debts, our debts are canceled and we're no longer in debt.
If Christ became my substitute and died in my place, then God's
justice will not allow me to be punished for sin, past, present,
or future. When he died as my substitute
and satisfied the justice of God for me, all my sins were
still future. The Lord God Almighty has accepted
Christ's sacrifice and says that's enough. Payment God cannot twice
demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand and then again
at mine. Now I stress this with good reason. This is our only hope. I stress
this with good reason. This is the vital issue of the
gospel. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we, for whom he died, might receive the promise of the Spirit.
But for whom was this great sacrifice made? For whom did the Son of
God suffer and die? For whom did he shed his precious
blood? Let me answer the question briefly
and clearly from the Word of God. Christ did not die for anyone
who suffers the wrath of God in hell. That's not a remote
possibility. But he did die, he did die for,
he did suffer for, he did redeem God's elect. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He, with his own blood, entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. When he came into this world,
he passed by the fallen angels, and he passed by all the human
race, except for he took on him the seed of Abraham, God's covenant
people, and for them, he suffered and died. But who are these who
are called God's elect? Who are these men and women for
whom Christ died as a representative and a substitute? They are all
who believe him. I want you to turn to a very
familiar text of Scripture, John chapter 3. You can all quote
it, but let's turn there and look at it. John chapter 3 and
verse 16. Any sinner in the world who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ is God's elect. Any sinner in the world who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not any sinner who says, I believe
in Jesus. Not any sinner who's had a little
religious experience. Not any sinner who believes in
one of the false Christ erected by man throughout history. But any sinner who believes that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ having accomplished everything
God said the Christ would accomplish. Any sinner who believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ is God's elect. And your faith in Christ is the
fruit and the evidence of election, redemption, and effectual calling. I know that my name is written
in heaven because I trust God's Son. I know Christ died for me
because I trust him. I know that I had been called
by God the Holy Ghost, born again by God's spirit, given new life
in Christ Jesus because I believe him. I know that Christ liveth
in me and I in him, not because I feel so close to God. not because
of any experience I've had, not because of anything I've done.
I know that Christ lives in me, Merle Hart, because I believe
Jesus Christ. Oh, it is wonderful. It is blessed.
It is delightful to have sweet experiences of communion when
the Savior makes himself known to you. It is wonderful, it is
delightful, it is joyful to our hearts to have Him speak to us
and move our hearts by His Spirit, to have Him clearly manifest
Himself to us. But whether that happens today
or not, it doesn't change a thing. I know I'm His and He's mine
because He's given me faith in Him. Look here, John 3, 16. For
God so loved the world Now most everybody in the religious world
stops right there and interprets the whole Bible by that statement
taken completely out of its context, ignoring everything else said
in the verse. Read the verse in the light of
Holy Scripture. For God so loved the world that
much, no more and no less, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. God's love and Christ's sufferings
and death, God's grace and Christ's atonement, God's mercy and God's
salvation, God's intent to save and Christ accomplished redemption
is limited to whosoever believeth in him and includes whosoever
believeth in him. If you don't trust Christ and
you die in your unbelief, the death of Christ has nothing to
do with you. The love of God has nothing to
do with you. The grace of God is not yours. The mercy of God is not yours.
You are not objects of God's favor, but objects of God's wrath. God loves none but those who
have believed on his son and shall believe on his son. Christ
died for believers, believers and no one else. But for every
sinner who believes on him, the Lord Jesus Christ made atonement
and has borne the wrath of God for you. And God cannot in justice
punish any sinner for sin, if you're a believer. Christ died
for you if you're a believer. Christ paid your debt if you're
a believer. Your soul is secure before God
and always has been and always shall be if you're a believer.
We read our names in the book of life by faith in Christ. We prove our election by faith
in Christ. We know our redemption by faith
in Christ. I know I've been called when
I believe on God's Son. To believe Christ is to hide
in him and find sanctuary in him. Fearing God's anger and
God's wrath, God's justice and God's vengeance, I take refuge
in God's Son, trusting the blood of his cross to protect me from
the wrath of God. justice itself, now listen to
me, justice itself puts a canopy, an impenetrable canopy over my
soul. Justice will not allow a ransom
sinner to be slain under the wrath of God. It can't happen. That's called
Larry Brown substitution. And that's the very essence and
heart of the gospel. Christ is a sanctuary from the
wrath of an angry God. And Christ is a sanctuary from
fear. For the believer when you think
of your sins, past and present, failures, past and present, the
sin of your hands and the sin of your heart. Hang your head with repentance,
but not in fear, not in dread. Rather, cast your soul upon Christ
and take sanctuary in his precious blood from all fear. Oh, what fear sin conjures up
in men who are sensitive to it. Christ is a sanctuary for sinners
who need to be kept from Look to Him and walk with the peace
of assurance. We've had a good many folks just
recently to die. And some who don't know God brace
themselves and bravely face death and think everything's going
to be all right. And some who don't know God, convince themselves
that they, since they've seen a vision of Jesus, everything's
going to be all right, or they've seen a vision of somebody they
love and they thought was a saint, everything goes, oh, I know I'm
all right now. I know I'm all right. For the believer, there's
one thing that will prevent the fear of death. And you won't have to brace your
soul against fear. You won't have to So it's gonna be all right. But
rather, you can anticipate that hour with joy, because Christ
is my sanctuary. She and I were having our coffee
in bed this afternoon after I had a nap, and she would have me
tell you that she has a horrible problem with arthritis. She said,
I wonder if my hands are ever gonna get better. I said, soon.
Everything's gonna be all right real soon, real soon. This life
is full of trouble and pain and sorrow as it should be because
of sin. And as we need it to be, lest
we be overly attached to it. Christ is our sanctuary. But
you gotta face God in judgment. That's not a problem. That's not a problem. Christ
is my sanctuary. What are you gonna offer to God
in that day? The same thing I offer God now,
his son, whom he's already accepted. And all the fears that come in
life, Christ is our sanctuary. He is the anchor of our souls. And the Lord Jesus is a sanctuary
from all our cares. For believers, I think I can
say this with accuracy. For believers, the greatest trouble
of our souls, Lindsay, is our sin. Our sin. Not even the sickness
of a darling child compares with it. The greatest trouble of our
souls is our sin. Oh, what cares we have. The Lord Jesus told Peter, said,
before this night's over, you're gonna deny me three times. And Peter seems not to have even
heard him until the cock crowed and Peter denied him the third
time and the Lord looked on him and Peter went out and went bitterly.
But our Savior's next word to his beloved child who had sinned
so grievously was, Peter, when this happens, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. This is what he says. This is what he says. Did you
ever have your son or daughter really get scared and just come
trembling, running into your arms and you take them in your
arms and you pat their backs and you say, honey, everything's
all right. Everything's all right. flee to Christ our sanctuary. He pats your back and he says,
honey, everything's all right. Everything's all right. Why?
Because I'm your sanctuary. I'm your sanctuary. None of us
live without trouble, worry, anxiety, fretfulness, and fear. They shake us, even the most
unmovable of men. No man is so strong that it doesn't
know the meaning of fear. No way. Bodily pains, troubles
of soul, an aching heart are things we all know. But Christ
is our sanctuary, our refuge from all care. There's only one
sanctuary for your soul, and that's Christ. He is very accessible. He says, Come boldly to the throne of
grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of near. He's very near. He's God at hand
and the way is clear. Faith, believe me, trust me. Second, the Lord Jesus is our
sanctuary for worship. I often hear people, and you
do, talk about holy places. They get on television and sell
cruises to the Holy Land and it's going to be such a wonderful
spiritual experience if you go with us. And they talk about
holy things, a holy desk, a holy house. They talk about holy lands
as though one place is nearer to God than another. Sometimes
people speak of church auditoriums like this as sanctuaries. Sanctuaries. Such talk is just a relic of
Jewish ceremonialism or a relic of Roman idolatry and superstition.
Christ is our sanctuary, our only sanctuary in whom, by whom,
and with whom we come to God and find acceptance with God
and worship God. Our Savior said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto God, unto
the Father, but by me. We come to God only in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. All true worship is spiritual,
not carnal. It is Christ-centered worship,
not flesh-centered worship. It is worship of God, not frivolous
religious experiences. Christ is our ark. Christ is
our altar. Christ is our mercy seat. We
will not have another ark. We will not bow at another altar. We will not look to another mercy
seat. Christ is our sanctuary for worship. That means you and I, who are
God's priest, live continually like the priest
of the Old Testament. Always in and upon the sanctuary. We always live in the holy place
where God made himself known. In the holy place where God meets
with men. The Apostle Peter says, ye also
as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. sacrifices. These are sacrifices
of praise, of worship. We offer to God, not on a church
altar, but on the altar of Christ Jesus. Lord, take me. Receive my praise. Receive my
prayer. Receive my worship. Receive my
gift. Receive my service. Because of Christ, through his
merit and his blood. So we pray in his name. We gather
to worship in his name. We render service to God in his
name. He's our sanctuary by whom we
approach to God. Look at one more text. Hebrews
chapter nine. Hebrews the ninth chapter. I
alluded to this just a moment ago. You can't approach God in
any way except that way which he has ordained. Hebrews 9 gives
us a picture of that which took place in the Old Testament, the
Old Testament tabernacle. In the Holy of Holies, in the
inner sanctuary, the place of God's presence symbolized our
Lord Jesus Christ, our sanctuary. Hebrews 9 verse 1, then verily
the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly
sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made
first, and that whole tabernacle representing Christ and redemption
accomplished. The first wherein was the candlestick
and the table and the showbread, which are called the sanctuary.
And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the
holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the Ark of
the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden
pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables
of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing
the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. The golden
censer. represents Christ our intercession
for us. The mercy seat represents Christ's
propitiation. The golden pot that had manna
is Christ, our bread of life. Aaron's rod that budded is Christ,
the power of God. And the tables of the covenant,
the broken law of God covered by the mercy seat is Christ the
Lord, our righteousness. Christ is our sanctuary for safety. and Christ is our sanctuary for
worship. One more thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
sanctuary for life. I read it to you a little bit
ago. Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. The name of the Lord is a high
tower. The righteous, I love this word,
runneth into it and is safe. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower. And all who are born of God run
into the tower and there I'm safe. I have learned and try to always
practice the best possible counsel to God's saints in time of trouble.
No matter what the trouble is, no matter what the trouble is,
there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do to
ease yourself of the trouble, but Christ can. Go home and bury
yourself in this book. and flee away to Christ your
sanctuary, and you will find safety for your soul in Him. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. So I will say of the Lord, he
is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him will I trust. Back in 1810, there was a man
born to a very wealthy family in Ireland, 1819, excuse me. His name was Joseph Scrivitt.
Scriven was provided the best things in life. He graduated
from Trinity College in Dublin. After graduating, shortly after
he graduated, he fell head over heels in love with a nearby young
lady. Just the day before they were
to be married, Scriven and his fiance were riding some distance
from one another, but riding together, and she fell off her
horse, crossing a bridge, and drowned in the waters below,
and Scriven could do nothing but helplessly watch from the
other side. In an effort to overcome his
grief, he began to wander. He made his way to Port Hope,
Canada, and he became highly regarded by the folks in Port
Hope. He tutored some of the local children in their schoolwork,
and he met another young lady, and they again fell in love and
planned to be married, had exciting anticipation. But she too, shortly
before they were wed, died of pneumonia. Scriven spent the
rest of his 66 years on this earth as a bachelor and a handyman. He stayed in a poor place called
Port Hope, Canada, where there were a lot of widows and orphans
and sick children and folks who were poverty stricken. And he
just, he had the means whereby he could do so. He gave his life
to helping those people, tutoring them, doing odd jobs, usually
without any pay at all, often giving his own clothes to folks
who were less fortunate. And just a year or two before
he died, being himself drowned in a river nearby, Scriven became
ill and a friend walked in his room, visited with him for a
little while, and he noticed on the table beside Scriven's
bed, a poem he picked up and read it. And he said to him,
Joseph, who wrote this? And Scriven said, the Lord and
I. He had written it for his mother. He called it originally,
pray without ceasing, hoping to comfort his aged mother who
still lived in Dublin, or in Ireland. And this poem was never
intended to be seen by other eyes, but you all know it well. We sing it very often. It's become
cherished to troubled souls who know Christ. What a friend we
have in Jesus. sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. He shall be for a sanctuary. Oh God, make Him a sanctuary
to you. Make Him a sanctuary to your
soul in every time of need. God make Him a sanctuary to me,
that I may continually run into this strong tower and find safety. Amen.