gone across and been swamped
and disappeared. They were no more regarded as
a people because they were so intermingled, they were so intermingled
with the Assyrians and the Canaanites and so on and so forth that they
completely lost their identity as the people of God, as the
Israel of God. But there was still Judah in
the south, but even Judah kept having these fleshly fears not
trusting God and looking to other things when the Assyrians threatened
they went looking for other alliances and so it is chapter 30 verse
1 woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take counsel
but they seek advice but not of me they don't seek advice
of God and that cover with a covering oh they find themselves something
to cover them up but not of my spirit that they may add sin
to sin, they're already in sin but they just go making it worse,
that walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth
to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, not of God,
and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. You know in a couple of
chapters we're going to read about a shadow of a mighty rock
in a thirsty land. A man will be as a mighty rock
and speaking of Christ. But this is talking about looking
to Egypt to be that shadow of salvation and protection from
the judgment and from the wrath of God to come. And what they
do is they go walking down to Egypt they try and make an alliance
with Egypt and with Pharaoh even in those days although Egypt
was not the kingdom it had been in the days of Moses and earlier
although it was not like that yet it was still a kingdom to
be reckoned with and they'd gone down there trying to make alliances
so that they could feel safe from Assyria from the huge mighty
military power of Assyria. Now do you remember right back
I think it was chapter 8 or thereabouts that it might maybe not exactly
there maybe about 12 but it was a long time ago in this study
that there was a verse that stood out where God had said to the
people if you will not believe you will not be established.
If you won't believe, you won't be established. That was his
warning to them, and they wouldn't believe, and they weren't established,
and their doom was pronounced. Well, here it is again. They've
got this threat coming, but instead of seeking counsel from the Lord,
they go and try and make an alliance down in Egypt. Now, let's apply
that to the church in the day in which we live. you know those
that call themselves the people of oh we stand in the reformed
faith we stand uh... you know four square with with
what the reformers and our forefathers wrote and said and preached were
very very small in number so we better do things to try and
improve that before we utterly disappear churches are going
out of business this is going to utterly disappear look at
the compromise all around we better make alliances with other
things that are not quite so bad and they go off starting
to try and make spiritual alliances with all sorts of situations
it basically it's compromise to the thinking of the world
instead of saying whatever happens even if it's just me and one
only left we, you know, like Joshua said, as for me and my
house we will trust the Lord, the Lord helping us whatever
happens we're not dependent on numbers, we're not dependent
on popularity votes or anything of that sort we're just dependent
on truth to the truth of God and faithfulness to the gospel
of Christ. And these people that make these alliances, these compromises
with other things, they make compromises with that which is
distinctly not the gospel. It sounds like the gospel, it
looks like the gospel, but examine it. Examine what it's not the
gospel. And you say, well, aren't we
splitting hairs? Why does it really matter? We're going to
get onto this when we look at Ephesians 2, the first 10 verses
a bit later on. But the reason why it matters
is this. When you go on holiday to a foreign country, you go
to the Bureau de Change and you change your pounds, which work
brilliantly in this country, you go just any store you like
in this country, and with your pounds you can obtain, if you've
got enough pounds and you do the deal, you can obtain what
you need. It's got purchasing power. You turn up at Nebworth
Village shop with a handful of euros, let's say, or Japanese
yen, Euros, you never know, the guy might think he could do a
good deal and nip down to the Bureau de Change and work himself
some wonders. But you turn up there with a
handful of Yen, which is perfectly legal currency, in its own part
of the world, they'll tell you to go away. They'll say, it's
not worth anything here. It doesn't work here. It will
be like that. You know, we all have to stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. What currency are you going to
have? Are you going to have the currency of the salvation of
Christ? or one that you think is okay, you think it is, you've
compromised with all these other things and you think your currency's
okay, I tell you, this is why Jesus warned, many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we done all of these things in
your name? And he will say, you see, they think they're in the
truth. And he will say, depart from me, I never knew you. They're
the most severe words in scripture. To think, to think that you're
doing the right thing and yet to be told your currency's worthless.
Your salvation currency's worthless. And forming these alliances is
dangerous. It always, always leads to compromise. It always dilutes the truth. It always dilutes the currency
of salvation. So look at verses three to seven. Therefore shall the strength
of Pharaoh be your shame. You're trusting in Pharaoh for
strength to protect you from the Assyrians, but this will
lead to your shame. Shame is a word that's often
used in terms of the judgment. you know, then shall I not be
ashamed. Shame is that state of being
found wanting in the judgment when it came to the reckoning,
being found wanting. You go down to buy something
in the village shop with a pocket full of yen and you're ashamed
in front of everybody else because, you know, I mean, to make it
more appropriate, have you ever been in a queue to pay for something
and somebody in front of you has got a credit card or a debit
card and it's invalid? And they try and put it in the
machine and the guy says, I'm sorry, it's not accepting it.
And all of the eyes of the people in the queue are on, oh, you've
got a faulty card, it doesn't work, it's no good, it's not
buying you what you want. Shame, shame. He says, you go
down and make alliances with Pharaoh, that will be your shame. You trust in the salvation of
Egypt, the shadow of Egypt, you trust that they will protect
you from the Assyrians to come, and that will be your confusion.
For his princes were at Zohan, this is it, they went down to
these Egyptian places, Zohan and Hanes. And his ambassadors
came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people
that could not profit them. Nor be an help nor profit, but
a shame and also a reproach. Egypt couldn't help them. They
went running off there. They hadn't come to the Lord.
They hadn't sought counsel from him. They'd gone off to Egypt,
but it didn't bring any benefit. In actual fact, look what it
did, verse 6. The burden of the beasts of the
south into the land of trouble and anguish from whence come
the young and old lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent.
They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses,
and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people
that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help
in vain and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried concerning
this." Their strength is to sit still. Verse 6 is about the fact
that it cost Judah a lot of money. It cost Judah. This alliance
didn't come for free. Egypt exacted a hefty price for
it, and in the end, you know, you sometimes, you buy something
that costs a lot of money, and you say, well, there's no choice,
we just had to do it, it just had to be done. But isn't it
particularly painful when you pay out a lot of money for something
and then you find that it just didn't do the job anyway. It
was absolutely useless. It was a complete waste of money.
And this alliance was a complete waste of money. It took riches
from them. It enriched Egypt, but they got nothing back in
return. And so it is. God says, don't
go off in these alliances. The world of religion may look
at you and think you look poverty-stricken now, but that's just as it appears
to the eyes. In reality, it's not like that
at all. In reality, you're rich. In the Lord Jesus Christ, you
are rich. Don't go off with these other alliances. Don't think
that the thing, yes, we must aim to be at peace with all men,
but don't compromise the gospel for the sake of your peace and
your strength, because it won't come through that. God never
ever blesses compromise of his truth. Never ever does. Yes,
you'll see increased numbers, but what's their currency of
salvation? Is it any good? Is it worth anything? Now look
at verses 8 to 17. Now go, write it before them
in a table, and note it in a book that it may be for the time to
come forever and ever. See, this unbelief and this compromise
always rejects God's counsel, and so he's saying, write this
down that you might know it, that judgment is coming. He says
in verse 9, that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children
that will not hear the law of the Lord. You say, well, how
does that apply to them? They have the Bible, they preach
a gospel, don't they? Yes, what about, you know, you
hear me say this so often, Sovereign grace, oh yes, they'll say they
believe sovereign grace. Particular redemption, what about
that? Ooh, don't like that. No, we'll have Sun Tzu to preach
for us, and we know he's not a particular redemption, we know
he's a four and a half pointer. Remember what Dan Culver was
telling me at New Year in Ashland, I think it was Charles Pennington
told a guy who said he was a four and three quarter pointer, he
says, we round up in these parts, we round up to full five points,
because there's no such thing as a four and three quarter.
If you miss that out, you're missing out the vital. God chooses
his people, and he specifically in Christ saved those people. He didn't make it possible. You
know, four and three quarter points says that. Four and three
quarter points is fullerism. I'm going to have a little bit
of a rant about this later on in the sermon, and I hope it's
not a rant, but I hope it's what somebody who's preaching should
do, which is to warn about false doctrine, because it's quite
clear there in the book, in Ephesians, it's quite clear. This compromise
of the truth, this compromise of the truth of particular redemption,
that God saved a people in Christ, it's quite clear in those verses. And that's what is compromised.
They've got the law of the Lord, but they won't hear it. They'll
invent their own thing. They'll invent their own, another
one, particularly dear to my heart but also to Cliff and Elizabeth's
of late is the law and grace. The words are absolutely clear
but they will not have it and they will distort it and they
will invent a religion of their own so that they can control
people, so that they can have their position. They do it so
that they avoid what this book really says. They have the law
of the Lord, but they won't hear what it says. Which say to the
seers, the seers are the prophets, which say to the seers, see not. And to the prophets, prophesy
unto us right things, prophesy not unto us right things. Speak
unto us smooth things. Oh, we like him. He never says
anything controversial. Oh, I like it. I like what he
preaches. It's never, never, it's never
controversial. I mean, I can stand to listen
to that. That's, yes, but I don't want
to hear all of that stuff that you... Prophesy unto us smooth
things. Prophesy deceits. Verse 11, get
you out of the way. Turn aside out of the path. Cause
the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Let me put that
in modern language. Don't preach Christ to us. You
know, I told you about a man who is a pastor of a Reformed
Baptist Church today. I won't mention names, but I'm
telling you that years ago, it must be what, 23, 24 years ago
now, There was a place that needed
preachers to be supplied. And so they got a few of us together
to say, would some of us that could preach go and preach? Yes,
absolutely fine. What are we going to preach on?
And I said, well, just preach what you're led to preach. If
you can preach, just preach what you're led to preach. It's not
for us in committee to decide what to preach. Oh, no, no, no.
They wanted a standard theme. They wanted a theme, and I said,
well look, let's have pictures of Christ in the Old Testament.
What better theme is that? And this man who is a pastor
today, and I don't believe he's ever relented what he said, said,
I can't stand all this constantly going on about Christ. What we
need to do is to preach the law of God, and the justice of God,
and the terrible fear of the Lord. That's what we need to
preach to this church. He said, I can't, I'm fed up of all of
this Jesus, Jesus. This is a man who's recognized
as a pastor in a Reformed Baptist church today. And as I say, I
don't ever hear of him relenting on that point of view. Don't
preach Christ to us. Verse 12. Wherefore, thus saith
the Holy One of Israel, because ye despise this word, and trust
in oppression and perverseness, because that's what Egypt was,
it was oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, therefore,
this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready, a hole in
the wall. It's all gonna fall down. You know, if you want to
knock a wall down, then start somewhere and make a hole in
it. And once you've started, I used to really struggle doing
various DIY jobs, you know, when you've got to knock a brick out.
Boy, it's hard. You don't half have to hit it
hard with something heavy and something really strong metal-wise. And you hammer and hammer and
hammer. and then it gives, and as soon as there's a little breach,
it's easy thereafter, it all comes away. What he's saying
is, this is going to be like a little breach in a strong wall,
because once the breach is there, the whole lot will soon come
falling down. Verse 13, it will be like a breach ready to fall,
swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly
in an instance. And he shall break it as the
breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces. It
seems so good, so useful, the potter's vessel, but when it's
broken, what's it used for? Nothing. He shall not spare,
so there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to
take fire from the hearth. You can't pick, you know, in
this pot, you can't pick up a hot coal out of the hearth. You can't
put water in it to take it out of the pit. It's useless for
nothing. It's absolutely useless. For
thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. Here's a
pinnacle of salvation in amongst all of this warning and threat. Thus saith the Lord God, the
Holy One of Israel, not in all of these false alliances, but
in returning and rest he shall be saved. In quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength. and you would not. This is the
message of scripture, in returning and rest shall you be saved.
This is what God says to his elect, in returning and rest
you shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your
strength. If you're an unbeliever this
morning, If you're an unbeliever, this is a message to you like
the message to the prodigal son in the distant country, eating
of the pig swill in the trough and realizing the mud and the
filth and the deprivation that he's in and saying, I will return
to my father's house. In returning and rest shall you
be saved. In quietness and confidence shall
be your strength. Like the prodigal son, if you're
hearing this, and you're outside of Christ, and you're a child
of wrath even as others, believe what he says and come in returning
and rest. You shall be saved. In quietness
and confidence shall be your strength. And if you're a believer
this morning, all of us, if you're a believer this morning, fret
not because of evildoers. Don't be anxious. There's all
sorts of things that would make you anxious. Don't be concerned. In quietness and confidence shall
be your strength. Quietness and confidence in the
God who is sovereign over everything. The God whose greatest desire
is the good of his children. If it's his desire, he will accomplish
it. For nothing, nothing will be
lost. Of all that the Father has given him, he will lose nothing.
So there's a clear, in the midst of this pronunciation of condemnation
for them fleeing to that which cannot save, of making alliances
with that which is a complete compromise of the truth of God,
in the midst of it he still says this, to those that will hear,
you know Jesus said, to him that has ears let him hear. To him
that has eyes to see, let him see. If you have ears to hear
this message, hear it, and respond to it, and believe, and return,
and rest, and be saved. In quietness and confidence,
find your strength in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you said, No,
for we will flee upon horses. That's not quietness and confidence.
That's not returning and rest. We will flee upon horses. Therefore
shall ye flee. And we will ride upon the swift.
Therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. You know, we're
going to get away from the problem. We're going to outrun the Assyrians.
Oh no, you're not. Those that are following after
you, they'll be swifter than you. One thousand shall flee
at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke of five shall ye
flee. You know, it's not going to take much to defeat you. You'll
be easy prey. You'll be easy prey. Remember
whose servant Assyria was? Assyria was the servant of God.
Not because they were believers in God or followers of him, but
because they were his instruments of judgment. So he says, at the
rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon
upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill. Now,
verses 18 down to 30. But God is gracious. This is
the message. In amongst all of this, this
is hope held out for us. Look how strict and severe that
is. Can we do it? God is gracious. God is gracious to his people.
Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto
you. And therefore will he be exalted,
that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will
be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. When he
shall hear it, he will answer thee. You see, God is gracious. He is like the father of the
prodigal son. He is prodigal in grace. He is overflowing in grace. He
is wasteful in grace, if I can use that word. He is gracious. to you that he will and therefore
will he be exalted in that way in his grace will he be exalted
that's what Moses said to God show me your glory in this will
I be exalted in this will I be glorified I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious the people shall dwell in Zion at
Jerusalem they shall weep no more this is speaking of the
church and why will we weep no more we still live in a veil
of tears but we know really that we're truly in a place where
there is no more crying, and no more pain, and no more sorrow,
for we are seated in heavenly places in Christ. How do I know
that? Ephesians 2 tells me. He's seated
his people in Christ, because if you're in Christ, you're in
him now, and he is in heaven, seated in heaven. So verse 20,
God teaches his people to walk in his way. And though the Lord
give you the bread of adversity, often does, and the water of
affliction, yet shall not the teachers be removed into a corner
any more. But thine eyes shall see thy
teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying,
This is the way, walk ye in it. And when ye turn to the right
hand, And when you turn to the left, you'll hear it. In other
words, though, as Ephesians 2 says, you are dead in trespasses and
sins by nature, yet the Holy Spirit comes, and you will hear
a voice behind you. Verse 21, you will hear a word
behind you saying, this is the way. That which seemed foolishness
to you once will seem like the way. Lydia in Philippi. was a seller of purple, she was
a businesswoman, she was a religious devout person who didn't know
the truth. And one day she went to worship
in what she thought was the right way to worship and she heard
a man called Paul preach the gospel of sovereign grace and
particular redemption. And it wasn't the words of Paul,
but it was a voice behind her, a word behind her saying, this
is the way. for the Lord opened Lydia's heart
that she might believe the gospel. The Lord did that. The Ethiopian
eunuch. How can I understand unless a
man teach me? And Philip went up into the chariot
and what did he preach to him? Christ. He preached Christ to
him. And what forbids that I should
be baptized, said the Ethiopian unit? Nothing. If you believe,
you might be baptized. And the Philippian jailer says,
what must I do to be saved? Because in that moment, He'd
heard this word behind him saying, this is the way. What you've
heard Paul and Silas speaking about and singing about, despite
their wounds and the stripes from the beatings that they've
had, what you hear them singing about, this is the way. This
is the way, walk ye in it. This is the way, but everybody's
going the other way, I don't care. This voice is telling me,
this is the way of the Lord. Verse 22, you shall defile also
the covering of thy graven images, and the ornament of thy molten
images of gold, thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth.
Thou shalt say unto it, get thee hence. In other words, you'll
count like Paul says in Philippians 3. All that religiosity that
you put your trust and confidence in, you'll treat it as a pile
of dung. You'll treat it as rubbish. You'll
treat it as worthless, that you might win Christ for him. You'll
cast it away as you would cast away all of these things. Verse
23. Then shall he give the rain of
thy seed. Then thou shalt sow the ground
withal, and bread of increase of the earth, and it shall be
fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle
feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise, and the young
asses that ear the ground, shall eat clean provender, which hath
been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall
be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill rivers and
streams of water in the day of great slaughter, when the towers
fall. This is poetic language, but
it's talking about the fact that God gives his word to his people. He gives his revelation of truth
to his people. There shall be a rain, not a
rulership, but as a rain falling down from heaven, of grace. A
reign of grace. The knowledge of the Lord shall
be clear in the gospel of His grace before us. In this gospel
age, in this Zion situation, there shall be this reign of
grace. Verse 26, Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as
the light of the sun. You know it isn't. You know,
you look up at the moon and it's bright to light your way on a
dim night, but it's minuscule compared. It's a mere tiny little
reflection of the brightness of the sun. Tiny, tiny little
reflection of it. Gives enough light when there's
no other light, but it says the moon shall be as light as the
sun. Those places that seem dark shall be light. And the light
of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, perfect
likeness, seven speaks of perfection, in the day that the Lord bindeth
up the breach of his people. You see, he's going to repair
that which was broken with the gospel of his grace and heal
the stroke of their wound. And the light is the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the light of which is
being spoken, this light. Behold, the name of the Lord,
verse 27, cometh from afar, burning with his anger, and the burden
thereof is heavy. His lips are full of indignation,
and his tongue is a devouring fire. Our God is just. Our God
is a consuming fire, and his breath is an overflowing stream,
like we've seen lots of overflowing streams in world news recently.
It shall reach the midst of the neck to sift the nations with
the sieve of vanity, and there shall be a bridle in the jaws
of the people, causing them to wear. ye shall have a song as
in the night when a holy solemnity is kept and gladness of heart
and when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of
the Lord to the mighty one of Israel you shall have a song
his people shall have a song the Lord shall cause his glorious
voice to be heard he does it's not very often in the earthquake
wind and fire as Elijah was to learn it's not very often in
that but it is in the still small voice In that, he speaks, oh,
you know, oh that we'd been there when Spurgeon was preaching to
thousands. Well it just so happens that we're not in God's providence. It's not very often that that
happens. I think down the history of the church from the New Testament
onwards, I think since the age of the apostles, By far the most
common situation where the gospel of grace has been truly known
and preached is in little groups of a dozen or twenty or so just
meeting together with somebody that's been given the word of
God to bring to them. I really do. And I think the earthquake,
wind and fire of all of these things that the flesh loves,
more often than not, is not the place where God speaks. And so
you were still worried about your enemies, weren't you? Look
at verse 31. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian
be beaten down, which smoked with a rod. And in every place
where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay
upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps, and in battles of
shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old,
yea, for the king is prepared, he hath made it deep and large,
the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." In other words,
just in a nutshell, Don't trust in these alliances. The Lord
will defeat the enemies of the gospel of his grace and of his
true church. The Lord will do that. Just be
faithful. Seek counsel of the Lord. Stay
true and faithful to his word. That's the message of this chapter
of Isaiah. I know that was a taking a great
pace, breakneck speed, but I hope you've got the gist of it and
you can study it more in more detail for yourselves. Okay. Let's pray.