Sermon #78 Series: Isaiah

Title: Salvation and Strength

Text: Isaiah 30:15 - Reading: Isaiah 30

Subject: The Counsels Of God To His Elect About

Obtaining Salvation and Strength

Date: Sunday Evening - June 9, 1991

Tape #

Introduction:

Isaiah 30 contains a message which the Lord God gave to Isaiah to deliver to the people of Judah. It is one of those messages which God’s church needs to hear again and again. Therefore the Lord told Isaiah to write it on a table and record it in a book “that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.”

Usually, a message of great importance is inspired either by a great work of God, a great sin among his people, or great trouble in his church. This message was inspired by all three of these things. When the people of Judah saw the huge armies of the Assyrians, they were afraid. But rather than calling upon God and trusting him, Judah sought to make an immediate alliance with the Egyptians and their king. They thought - “There is strength in numbers. If we can get the Egyptians to join us, we can drive back the Assyrians. “Such an alliance with the world is foolish. It reveals a lack of faith. It dishonors God. It compromises the truth of God. And it always brings trouble to the church of God.

Let us learn the lessons of Isaiah’s sermon well - 5 Things

1. Unbelief always produces compromise!

Worldly alliances are always inspired by unbelief. There is always a pretense of worship, love, and advancement of God’s cause. But worldly alliances are always the result of unbelief. Judah did not believe God, therefore she did not seek the counsel of the Lord, but the counsel of men. Because she did not believe God she leaned not upon his arm but upon the arm of flesh - (vv. 1-2).

Unbelief needs the strength of the world. Faith trusts the power of God. Unbelief needs the approval of the world. Faith seeks the approval of God. Unbelief brings confusion and confusion weakness. Faith brings peace and peace strength - “Their strength is to sit still!” (v. 7).

2. Compromise is always costly (vv. 3-7).

Pharoah and the Egyptians required Judah to pay dearly for their alliance. They went through the temple and palace and gathered up all their gold, and silver, and jewels and gave all to Egypt, loaded it on asses and camels and sent it to Pharoah. In return they got nothing but shame, reproach, and confusion.

Alliance with the world will cost you everything and get you nothing but trouble. It is always the believer who has to give up his principles. The world has none to give up.

3. Unbelief and compromise always rejects the counsel of God and that always bring judgment (vv. 8-17).

When men and women are ruled by the flesh, guided by advantage, and determined to do things their own way they seek to cast off the rule of God, rebel against the Word of God, and despise the prophet of God.

Be warned - You cannot take fire to your bosom and not get burned. You cannot walk with the world and not compromise. You cannot lean upon the arm of the flesh and not fall. You cannot reject the counsel of God and not suffer.

4. But God is gracious (vv. 18-30)!

The Lord is faithful. And he will not suffer his faithfulness to fail. He will purge his church. He will refine his church. But he will not forsake, or destroy his church.

a. He will be gracious (v. 18).

b. He will hear your cry (v. 19).

c. He will teach you to walk in his way (vv. 20-22).

d. He will revive his people (vv. 23-30).

· He will pour out the rain of his grace (vv. 23-25).

· He will give abundant light (v. 26).

· He will heal his church (v. 26).

· He will give a song in the night (v. 29).

· He will cause his glorious voice to be heard (v. 30).

5. The Lord will destroy the enemies of his people (vv. 31-33).

The battle will be won, not by the horses of Egypt, nor by the armies of Pharoah, but by the praises of God. Compromise is needless!

Now, I want you to look at verse 15. Here is God’s message to you and me - “Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel - In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

Proposition: I want to talk to you for just a few minutes about Salvation and Strength. And this is the thing I want us to see - Faith, relying upon God alone, will bring us both salvation and strength.

I. First, let me address you who are yet lost, without Christ - This is what God says to you - “IN RETURNING AND REST SHALL YE BE SAVED.”

You have wandered far away from God. You are lost!

· Like the Prodigal.

A. You must return to God, and the only way to return to God is Christ (John 10:9; 14:6; Heb. 7:25).

· Christ is the Ladder that Jacob saw.

1. Come confessing your sin (I John 1:9).

2. Come acknowledging your guilt.

3. Come surrendering to Christ.

B. Salvation is to be found by resting in Christ the Lord.

1. Are you troubled by your sinfulness? Rest in Christ.

2. Are you grieved by your hardness of heart? Rest in Christ.

3. Are you vexed about the future? Rest in Christ.

Note: Your problem is not that you are too weak, but too strong.

Illus: The French king who gave an ambassador permission to pardon any felon in his prison.

II. Now, let me finish my message by addressing you who are the children of God - This is God’s message to you - “IN QUIETNESS AND IN CONFIDENCE SHALL BE YOUR STRENGHTH.”

Oh, what a blessed message! “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” The quietness and confidence of faith in Christ is your strength.

A. This applies to all the trials and troubles of this mortal life.

· Business Troubles.

· Personal Sickness.

· Bereavement.

· Domestic Difficulties.

B. Quiet majesty is the character of a person who lives by faith in Christ.

· Worry is weakening.

· Fretting is frustrating.

· Quietness is strength.

Illus: Tangled Thread is snarled by haste. It is untangled by patience.

C. The basis of quietness is the confidence of faith.

· In God’s Sovereignty.

· In Christ’s Atonement.

· In the Lord’s Providence.

D. Quietness and confidence shall be your strength.

· In witnessing.

· In facing opposition.

· In serving Christ.

· In leaving this world.

Bengel wrote: “I do not think there ought to be any scene making about death. We ought so to live, and so to die daily, that, when death comes, it will only be a part of life…just a natural closing of the whole scene…I should like to die just as I might retire from the room when, being engaged with company, a message is brought to me saying that I am wanted, and I go out quietly, and say nothing about it, and my friends presently discover that I am gone.”

Illus: “Where better could he have gone?”

The Robin’s eggshell.