Isaiah 32, 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. Stop reading with just those
two verses. Notice in verse 1, it said, Behold, a king shall
reign in righteousness. It is said of several Old Testament
kings that they did right in the sight
of the Lord. But that did not mean their every
action and deed and word and thought was right. They did not
reign in righteousness. But we read here, behold, a king
shall reign in righteousness. How can a king reign? in absolute
righteousness, except that King be in himself absolutely righteous. He can't. Therefore, this King,
in verse 1, is none other than he whom John describes as Jesus
Christ the righteous, or the righteous one, or Jesus Christ
the one and only one who in himself is righteous. A king shall reign
in righteousness. Then verse two, this is the verse
we want to look at this morning and trust the Lord will help
us with it for a few minutes. And a man shall be as an hiding
place from the wind. A hiding place, a refuge. It would not seem strange to
us if these things were said of God, and they often are. Deuteronomy
33, 27, the eternal God is thy refuge, thy hiding place. Psalm
46, 1, God is our refuge. God is our hiding place. But
notice carefully the words here. It says a man shall be as a hiding
place. A man shall be a refuge. Now that sounds strange in light
of other scriptures which tell us not to trust in man, not to
put your confidence in man, but here a man shall be a hiding
place. There can be only one explanation.
Again, the man in view here is the man Christ Jesus. None other
could it possibly be. He's the king that reigns in
righteousness. He's the man that is a hiding
place. Isaiah uses language familiar to those who are acquainted
with the dangers of a barren desert in those eastern countries. A wind, I understand, could come
up almost suddenly create a twister-type motion and pick up sand and create
almost a solid, huge column of sand speeding across the desert. And like being hit by a speeding
vehicle or anything solid, it was almost certain death. This was one of the dangers,
this was one of the fears of desert travelers, was a tempest,
the awful windstorm, sandstorm, fear of the desert, the wind. Now, the fears and dangers to which all men are subject,
you and I, are basically of two kinds, temporal and eternal. And we confess we are frequently
distressed in fear of temporal things, temporal evils, things
in this world that can often and do often go wrong, things
concerning our families and children, fears in being a parent, fears
in being a provider, fears over the finances, fears in connection
with our physical health, fears of being a burden to others.
That's one kind. But the other kind, the far more
important kind of fear, is the danger and the fear of facing God in His wrath. The fears of a terrified conscience. The fear of having to reap eternally
what we have sown. The fear of facing an angry God
with no excuse for being what we've been and no excuse for
living like we've lived. The fear of our deliberate sins
against light The fear of our continual sinning through years
and years of warning, after warning, after warning that the wages
of sin is death. Now, contrary to religious opinion,
it is only God's elect who are much acquainted with this type
of fear. The rest of humanity plunges
on headlong toward hell. And they have the words written
on their shirts and on their bumper stickers and in their
minds. No fear. No fear. We're not afraid of
God. We're not afraid of dying. We're
not afraid of anything. But I'm telling you this morning,
God's children fear. Fear. And the thrust today of most
religious teaching is nothing more than positive thinking.
Think positive. Think pleasant thoughts. Don't
bother to ever consider that you might be deceived. Because
you're a good person. You're better than the average.
And God's really proud of you. That's the idea. No, you remember when he told
his disciples, One of you will betray me. And they started to
ask, the Bible says all of them ask, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? This is men that
had walked with Him for three and a half years. And the question
this morning is frightening. Would any of us be so deceived
as to rest in our religious reputation. God forbid. God forbid. But this fear, Paul calls it
godly fear, is in the hearts of the Lord's people. Jesus said in Matthew, he said,
fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul. He said, rather fear Him which
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So what a marvel of grace it
is when God is pleased to quicken the heart of any sinner and to
make that heart to fear. The great old songwriter John
Newton had it right, "'Twas grace that caused my heart to fear. That's not what today's generation
of religionists will tell you. They'll tell you, oh, if there's
fear, that's of the devil. You need to just join in the
party, make your profession, and hoop it up, and you don't
have anything to fear. Oh, but my dear friend today,
you know, you know, you know, you know, there's enough garbage
in here to send you to hell 10,000 times. You know that. Fear, fear. And it is with this fear that
the words of our text here in Isaiah 32, 2 become precious. A man shall be as a hiding place,
a refuge, a shelter from the storm of God's wrath. from the
great tempest of his anger over sin. A man shall be as a hiding
place. And not just one man, not just
any man, but there is one, one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. He was appointed before the world
was created undertake this great work of satisfying the Father
for the sins of His people. He came into this world, He suffered
and He died, the appointed sacrifice, the Lamb of God, and all for
whom He died are accepted with God in Him. Not made acceptable,
but accepted. Accepted. It is this one in whom
the father is well pleased, his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it is to him that we look
this morning. He is our hiding place. I'm not hiding behind any reputation. You won't have to ask far for
that to be shot all to blank. And I'm not looking at anything
I've done or could do. And I'm not trying to pull the
wool over anybody's eyes. I'm telling you this morning,
the only hope I have is in this one I'm talking to you about. He's my hiding place. He's my
hiding place. I dare not plead with God on
the basis that I'm better today than I was yesterday. For one thing, I'm not that much
better. I dare not plead with God on
the basis that I'm better than some people. Oh, no. My hiding place is in this King
who reigns in righteousness and I am represented in Him. My hope
is in Him. I said in Him, in Him. That's
a prominent New Testament phrase. Men use a lot of good sounding
terms that are not exactly right. Noah wasn't preserved by the
ark and him outside of it, no. He wasn't preserved through the
ark and him somewhere else. He was preserved in the ark,
in the ark. And the term salvation by Christ
sounds pretty good. Salvation through Christ sounds
good. But I will tell you, salvation
in Christ is my hope. It's not in me. It's outside
of me, but it's in Him. He alone, in His perfect righteousness,
is my hiding place. It's not me and Him. It's not Him and me. It's Him. It's Him. And if I'm wrong, I'm
ruined. If I'm wrong about Him, hell
is my lot. But I'm not wrong about Him.
He is who He says He is. He relieves my fears of the coming
storm. Because He is my hiding place. So many people say, oh, I have
nowhere to turn. I have no way to turn. And I
say that most of the time. Oh, but He is my hiding place.
He is my hiding place. He's not my working place. He's never asked me to get in
there with Him and work it all out and do a lot where me and
Him both will come out looking good. No, He's done come out
looking good. All I have to do is hide, hide
in Him. He's my hiding place. Christ
is my refuge. Then the second thing in this
verse, continuing on, Christ is my refreshment. Oh, how thirsty, how dry, how
parched our tongues in this desert we call life. But we read here that this same
man who is a hiding place, is as rivers of water in a dry
place. The only value of a river in
the desert is for thirsty souls journeying through that desert. And that's who God's children
are in this world. Now, this sin-cursed world is
not a desert to all men. Seems to be paradise to some. Seems to be heaven to the unregenerate,
but it's a desert. It's a barren wilderness to God's
pilgrims. So many think themselves so rich
and so increased with goods and have need of nothing. so dead in trespasses and in
sins that they never thirst for Christ. Thirst is an evidence of life. And for pilgrims, for God's children,
for God's little sheep, journeying through this desert,
there's a continual thirst. Thirst, thirst for Christ, for
the water of life. And so then is the scriptural
invitation to the thirsty. Not to the dead, but to the thirsty.
Isaiah 55, 1, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. John 7, 37, If any man thirst, Let him come unto me. Revelation 22, 17, let him that
is a thirst come. Dead people never get thirsty. Oh, but for God's children, pilgrims
journeying through this sin cursed desert, thirsty and dry. This man, this King who reigns
in righteousness. who is our refuge. He is also
our refreshment as rivers of water in a dry place. Some of you came to church this
morning because that's what you always do on Sunday. But your mind's not here. Your
heart's not half here. You're distressed. You're troubled.
You're tore up over all that went on last week how on earth
you're going to be able to do anything about it this coming
week. You're probably not. Oh, we've got to change this.
We've got to make this work. We've got to make this happen.
No, you better be looking to this refuge, hiding place, the
one who reigns in righteousness. And you better be looking for
a measure of refreshment He is as rivers of water in a dry place. And I promise you, He knows how
dry and how dusty and how choked you are in the circumstances
of your life this morning. He alone, He alone has what you
and I need. Oh, that the Holy Ghost would
teach us to resort to this river daily. Refresh ourselves in the person
of Christ alone. I get so low, I'm telling you,
sometimes. I'm not going to talk about that.
I shouldn't talk about that. But it is amazing how the Lord
Himself picks me up time after time after time After time, after
time. Flee to him! Flee to him. Ye who are in fear, ye who are
thirsty, flee to him. No, we're so busy trying to sustain
ourselves with a little sip of this and a little sip of that. Baptist Kool-Aid. Independent Gatorade. No, the water of life. Water
of life. Always say, if I can make this
happen, if I can just get that to work out. When all the time,
Christ is our river of refreshment. One other thought in this precious
verse of scripture, and I'll be through, Isaiah 32, 2. Christ is our rest. He's our
rest. And it says this man who is our
refuge, a hiding place in the storm, and our refreshment as
rivers of water, he is also our rest. Look at it. It says he
is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The picture is that of a desert
traveler. where there's not a single tree, there's not a bush, there's not
a speck of shade from the hot and unbearable eastern sun. And so many have died in the
desert from the heat. And finally, out
in the middle of nowhere, a great rock. Those desert travelers know where
those rocks are. And depending on the time of
day, that rock hides a little area behind it from the sun. And it casts a shadow over that
spot, making it considerably cooler than being directly exposed to
the sun. And it is on the backside of
the rock, that shaded area, that the traveler sits down to rest
and cool off a little while. Well, this verse says this same
man, our refuge or hiding place, our refreshment, rivers of water,
he is also our rest. Christ is the great rock casting a shadow for our comfort
and our rest in this weary land. It's a weary land for God's children.
The world never tires of a lifetime of sin, but God's pilgrims do. it becomes a weary land. We're tired. Tired. And I'm not saying what you think
I'm saying. Contrary to most religious thinking today, we're
not tired of sin and sinning in the sense that we can cease
from it totally. Sadly, we don't even strive for
that as we ought to. But what I'm saying is we're
growing tired of what sin is doing to us and what it's done to our lives
and our families. It's sin that's wearing us out.
It's sin that's killing us. And it's sin that will finally
take us on out of here. And I'm not talking about any
specific action. or habit or offense. I'm talking
about the very nature of sin. That the wages of sin is death.
That it's appointed unto us to die. It's wearing us out. But while we're here, I have
the consolation of this verse. Christ is my hiding place. He is as a river of water. And He is our great rock in this weary land. Flee to Him is the answer. The old songwriter said it so
well in the old song. Let's turn in the red hymnal
to number 337. 337, stand with me. We'll sing a couple of verses.
First and last verse. Look what he said about this. Probably this song may have been
written meditating upon the very scripture we've looked at this
morning. Here we go. The Lord's our rock, in Him we
hide, a shelter in the time of storm. Secure whatever it'll
be tied, a shelter in the time of storm. in a weary land, a weary land,
a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. You know what the scripture
said? Sing the last. weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock
in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. Amen. That's who He is. That's
who He is. None of us need any more religion
than we got. We don't need a whole lot of
things. Oh, we need him today. We need
him. Bless his holy name.