All women, including pre-born baby girls, are created in the image of God. Discover the true war on women. www.godloveswomen.com That is www.godloveswomen.com Oh sovereign Lord, Please save us, oh Lord. Our Father in heaven. Please hear our cry. For the man of godliness ceases from the earth. And it feels like the righteous are no more. Oh, blessed Father. You know that the wicked prowl about with their flattering tongues and their lying lips. You know how they boast with their mouths and flatter with their tongues. How they wait to crush the helpless. How they pounce upon the needy. Oh, Sovereign Lord, please, for the sake of your afflicted, your persecuted children, please arise. Oh, Holy Father, arise for judgment to come down and rescue your beloved. We believe, therefore we speak. Our God will deliver us from death. Our Lord will rescue us. Oh Lord, it's an evil age when the wicked are those who rule the city and roam about the earth. But we thank you for every precious promise that you will come, that there will be an accounting, and every eye will see you, even those who pierced you. O Lord, all the nations of the earth shall mourn. O our God, we pray this morning that you would teach us the fear of you, because the fear of you is so good. Oh, glorify Your name, we pray. In us, O Lord, glorify Your name. In Jesus' name, amen. We begin this morning with Isaiah chapter 33. We'll begin with verses 1 through 2 and then verses 7 through 9. This is the word of the Lord. Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered, and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you. Oh Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be their arm every morning. Our salvation also in the time of trouble. And then verses seven through nine. Surely their valiant one shall cry outside. The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. The highways lie waste. The traveling man ceases. He has broken the covenant. He has despised the cities. He regards no man. The earth mourns and languishes. Lebanon is shamed and shriveled. Sharon is like a wilderness. And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits." Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. God is he who shakes our temporal senses of security. When disaster strikes, our senses of security are shaken to their foundations. Moreover, we know that God is not powerless, is not powerless to keep disasters from happening. And so we who believe are called to trust in God's sovereignty. and to cleave to God, even when He Himself allows all of our temporal securities to be utterly shaken. It's God Himself who shakes our temporal senses of security. He does it according to His good purpose and pleasure. For the Lord will not allow this wicked world to continue on without warning in its self-deceived senses of security. The land of Edom in the scriptures is deceived by the pride of its own heart, such that its inhabitants dwell in the clefts of the rock, living in security on high. And so Edom boasts in the book of Obadiah, verse 3, who will bring me down to the ground? The kingdom of Babylon in the scriptures is depicted as a harlot, and is given to pleasures, and is rich, and so dwells securely, saying in her heart, in Isaiah chapter 47, verse eight, I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children. Yet even the land of Israel in the scriptures boasts of this false security, being at ease in Zion and trusting in Mount Samaria. And so the people of Israel lie on beds of ivory and stretch out on their couches and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall and sing idly to the sound of their stringed instruments and drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest ointments. Yet God will not allow the wicked to continue on forever in their fornicating lusts and blasphemous securities. Therefore, God speaks through his prophet Isaiah and says to those women who live at ease in Jerusalem, even while the righteous of the land are undergoing persecutions, this is what God says to the women who are at ease. Isaiah 32, verse 11, tremble. You women who are at ease, be troubled. You complacent ones, strip yourselves, make yourselves bare and gird sackcloth on your waist. The Lord God shakes Jerusalem. He shakes the senses of security held by the wicked in order to warn the wicked of the coming judgment. Yet God also does this with the righteous. Even in the case of a righteous man, God will shake his temporal senses of security. For example, in the book of Job, the man Job is a righteous man, but it is God who initiates the chain of events that will shake greatly Job's own senses of self-security, even to their foundations. Job 1.8, then the Lord said to Satan, God initiates this. Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? The same is true with New Testament believers. God allows trials to shake our temporal senses of security, and He is sovereign over those trials. So 1 Peter 1, verses 6-7 speaks of believers being both grieved by various trials and tested by fire. In the 33rd chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah, Israel's temporal sense of national security is being threatened. Just as wicked King Ahaz shook in his boots at the looming threat of an invasion of his kingdom by a joint Syria Israelites army, That was back in the seventh chapter of the book of Isaiah. So now does righteous King Hezekiah shake in the face of an invasion from the Assyrians. The Assyrians have swarmed into Judah like killer bees and they have rushed towards the capital city like an overflowing river. reaching up to the neck of the little kingdom of Judah. They are now besieging the city of Jerusalem itself, and therefore the national security of Judah is being shaken to its foundation. Oh, precious Christian, are your securities all being shaken? Are your lips quivering for fear of your enemies? Do you feel alone in the world? despised and rejected by the world and even hated by the world and So very much vulnerable to the worst of the world's threats against you. Oh Precious Christian Trust in God and cleave to God For he who shakes the ground beneath your feet and is also He who carries you through the earthquake. He who wounds is also He who heals. And He who slays is also He who makes alive. Dear Christian, you are His child. And by His Spirit you cry out, Abba, Father. And so His love for you, through the new covenant in the blood of Christ Jesus, His love is always secure. The 33rd chapter of Isaiah tells us that God is against all of our false securities. He's out to consume them. And that's why he's ready to shake our temporal senses of security. He does it, first of all, as a judgment against every false security in our lives. Isaiah 33, one through two. Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered, and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you. Oh Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. So this is a statement of woe pronounced against Assyria, who has invaded Israel as this strong war machine full of military muscle. The king of Assyria finds security in his own size and strength. He boasts of plundering smaller nations and dealing treacherously with friendly nations. But God will cause his actions to boomerang back upon him. He has plundered. but he will be plundered. He has dealt treacherously, so others will deal treacherously with him. The Lord God will judge Assyria. He will consume Assyria with his own divine consuming fire. Isaiah 33, 10 through 11, here's the consuming fire of judgment. Now I will arise. says the Lord. Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift myself up. You shall conceive chaff. You shall bring forth stubble, your breath, as fire shall consume you. And the people shall be like the burnings of lime, like thorns cut up. They shall be burned in the fire. Here, you who are afar off, what I have done. And you who are near, acknowledge my might. Assyria is wicked. and she will be consumed by God's consuming fire. The false security of Assyria's military might is shaken by the prophecy of a great divine fire headed her way, which will consume her forests and burn up all of her lofty trees. And yet the Assyrians are not the only ones with these wicked false securities. There are also the hypocrites residing in the city of Zion. who have their own false securities. They have thought that their holy temple and their holy city were so sacred as to be completely immune from invasion. They have thought that they could eat, drink, and be merry in sin and still be secure because of the location of their residences, namely in the city of God. But the Assyrian invasion has shaken this false security at its foundations. The hypocrites living in Jerusalem, they too will have to deal with God as a consuming fire. Isaiah 33, 14, the sinners in Zion, in Zion, are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. And then they ask, who among us shall dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? The Lord shakes Assyria's temporal sense of security in her military might. He also shakes the sense of security of the hypocrites residing in Jerusalem, which has been built upon the sacredness, their false security has been built upon the sacredness of the temple in Jerusalem. In both cases, in the case of the Assyrian warriors, and in the case of the Jerusalem hypocrites, God will come as a consuming fire. His fire will devour all of the false securities of the wicked. That is to say, all of our own false senses of security are exposed as worthless in the heat and light of God's consuming fire. For example, in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses warns against the false securities of religious idols by telling the people that God is a consuming fire. Deuteronomy 4, 23 through 24, take heed to yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you for The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. It is, says Psalm 97, God's very nature to be a consuming fire. Psalm 97, one through three, the Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of Isles be glad. Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. A fire goes before him and burns up or consumes his enemies roundabout. Also the prophet Isaiah in the 10th chapter of the book of Isaiah already has prophesied, this is long ago, already has prophesied that a serious boasting in her own self-security is a vain boasting, for God will consume her with fire. This is Isaiah 10, 15 through 17. Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood. Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones, and under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. So the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his holy one for a flame. It will burn and consume his thorns and his briars in one day. So again, Assyria is full of these false securities and therefore God will consume them. He will burn them up. Isaiah 30, verse 30, the Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard and show the descent of His arm with the indignation of His anger and the flame of a consuming fire with scattering tempest and hailstones. However, Assyria is not the only one with false securities that would be consumed in the fire of God's judgment. Also, the wicked hypocrites of Jerusalem will be consumed. Their false securities, as they trust in their idols and perform pagan rites in the midst of their public gardens, also will face this fiery judgment from God. Isaiah 66, 15 through 16, for behold, the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind. To render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire, for by fire and by his sword the Lord will judge all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many. The Lord our God is a consuming fire and he hates the false securities that we build for ourselves. He shall burn them up. So he shakes our temporal senses of security and he does this in order to warn us of the coming judgment and to persuade us to turn from our false and idolatrous securities. And the New Testament preaches the exact same message. Jesus tells the parable of a man who had a bumper crop and decided in his heart to build for himself great barns in order to have his own sense of security. but it was a false security. That very night, God took his life from him. And also James, the brother of Jesus, warns against turning money into a false idolatrous security. This is what James says in James 1.11, for no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat, that is, it's like a consuming fire, than it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes, so the rich man also will fade in his pursuits. As Christians, born anew in Christ, we need not fear the coming judgment of the burning fires of hell. The wicked, however, ought to fear the coming wrath. They ought not to go to their graves thinking that their souls are secure. Rather, we must tell the wicked with tears that unless they repent of their wickedness and turn to follow Christ, there is this consuming fire of judgment awaiting them on the other side of death. There is no eternal security for the wicked. There is no security of salvation, even for those who profess Christ. but without the true fruits of salvation. Yet even for true believers, even for those who are truly born again, God shakes our temporal senses of security because he wants to remove from our lives all of our false securities. When he shakes our temporal senses of security, he disciplines us and teaches us to let go of those idols to which we have clung far too long. Remember that the invasion of Judah by the Assyrians threatened the national security of Judah. And yet today in America, there is much boasting about national security. Yet is America really secure? Is it not utter foolishness, biblically speaking, to call any nation secure, which legalizes the slaughter of little infants in their mother's wombs, which defiantly flies a rainbow flag in the face of God, in utter contempt of God's created order of male and female, and thus which calls good evil and evil good, despite the marvelous clarity and holy threatenings of the laws and the commandments of the Bible? Shall not God prove to be a consuming fire when he comes against all of the nations of the earth that defy his holy name? Oh, dear church, Our desire is that God would give us such faith in Him and love for Him that we would gladly cast away all of our previous very much temporal senses of security so that we might cling to Him and Him alone as our only security in all of life. We have said so far that God shakes our temporal senses of security in order to consume and burn up all of our false senses of security. God will be a consuming fire, both to the proud Assyrian soldiers and to the hypocritical residents of Jerusalem. But if God is our only true security, then how do we find security in God? Well, here we return to the opening section of the 33rd chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 33, verses three through six. At the noise of the tumult, the people shall flee. When you lift yourself up, the nation shall be scattered, and your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar. As the running to and fro of locusts, he shall run upon them. The Lord is exalted for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability, the security of your times and the strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. Isaiah promises wisdom and knowledge that will be the stability, the security of God's people amidst tumultuous times. This is God's treasure. Isaiah calls it God's treasure. The end of the sixth verse says that the fear of the Lord is his treasure. That is, our only source of security during frightening events is The fear of the Lord itself. This is surprising, but true. The more we fear God, the more secure we shall feel. This is our true security. The fear of the Lord is our treasure, our security, whenever we feel frightened. But what exactly is this fear of the Lord, then, that brings us so much security? Well, when we listen to the prophet Isaiah, we hear Isaiah describe the fear of the Lord as the kind of Christian justice and righteousness and holiness that necessarily proceed forth from salvation in Christ. So if we fear the Lord, then we practice these things, Isaiah 33, 14 through 16. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He who, and this is the man who fears the Lord, he who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil. That's the man who fears the Lord. He will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. Bread will be given him. His water will be sure. So there is much security for the man who fears God. And the man who fears God is the man who exhibits the fruits of salvation. His faith is not a dead faith, but a productive faith. As faith has taught him to fear God, so now he practices the fear of God. He practices holiness. He hates bribes. He always tells the truth. He turns his eyes away from unclean images. He is the one who dwells in true security. Psalm 15, verse 1, asks the question, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill. In other words, Lord, who may dwell in the security of your house? And the psalm answers its own question the same way that the prophet Isaiah answers the question. Namely, the man who fears God, who practices justice and righteousness, who lives in holiness is the one who shall dwell in security on the Lord's holy mountain. The fear of God eliminates all other fears. It offers perfect security. So Psalm 112 talks about how blessed is the man who fears the Lord. And then Psalm 112, verses seven through eight says of him, this is the man who fears the Lord, Psalm 112, seven through eight, he will not be afraid. He fears the Lord, therefore he will not be afraid. evil tidings his heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord his heart is established he will not be afraid until he sees his desire upon his enemies that is since he fears the Lord he will dwell in perfect security and peace the New Testament in turn warns us about false senses of security and those people in the church who lack the fear of the Lord so the Apostle Paul doesn't want false believers to have any sense of security in their own salvation if if it's not true. So he says in Second Corinthians 13, five, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? He Paul is saying that is only those who fear God. Who have Jesus Christ in them, and who demonstrate their saving faith by their works, who can have the secure knowledge of their salvation. And who are the ones who fear God in the New Testament? Who are those who need not fear the coming shaking of the heavens and the earth? Who are the ones who need not fear the cup of God's wrath and the fire of his condemnation? Well, the book of Revelation describes them in much the same way as the 33rd chapter of Isaiah has already described them. Namely, the ones who fear God are known according to their holiness. Revelation 14, 4-5, these are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They're the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Where do we go to find true security in God? Isaiah says the fear of the Lord is his treasure. We first learn to fear Christ. And then we find true security in Christ. And this means at least two things for us as believers. First, it means that we need to recover the goodness of fearing Christ in the church. Because there is an evil movement afoot in the evangelical church that wants to rid our vocabularies of the fear of God. following psychology rather than following Holy Scripture, this movement says that the fear of God is damaging to people's concept of God. People, they say, need a loving God, not a God who is to be feared. But according to the New Testament, this is anathema. 1 Peter 2.17 says very plainly, 1 Peter 2.17, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God. fear God, honor the King. And the angel of God in Revelation gives us this commandment in Revelation 14, 7, fear God and give glory to Him. Jesus taught us not to fear the one who can kill the body and afterwards then do nothing, after that do nothing, but rather to fear God who has the power to cast us into hell. In Luke 12, 5, our Lord says, yes, fear him. And so in the book of Revelation, the saints of heaven are described as this great multitude singing to God with a voice as the sound of many waters and as mighty thunderings. And these saints hear a voice from the throne of heaven saying to them in Revelation 19, five, praise our God, all you, his servants and those who fear him. Small and great. So we need to recover the goodness of fearing God in the church. For the fear of God is pure and lovely. To fear God is to tremble before his holiness in a way that opens up our hearts to the joy and bliss of seeing more and more of his glory. The fear of the Lord is more valuable than fine gold. It is God's own treasure. Second, the fact that our only true security is found in the fear of the Lord changes the way that we as Christians face threatening times. When we are frightened, when the enemy is invading our territory, the world tells us that we need to wake up in the morning and think of strategies to win. It tells us to wake up and immediately begin planning and saying, Well, I'll make allies with Egypt or I'll hire mercenary soldiers or the like. But the 33rd chapter of Isaiah says something quite different. It says that the fear of the Lord is our security. That is, instead of waking up in the morning and thinking of strategies to win the battle, the 33rd chapter of Isaiah tells me to wake up in the morning and focus on the call to holiness. demanded by the fear of the Lord. So when I feel threatened by an outside enemy, I still ought to wake up in the morning and think, the fear of the Lord is my security. So today I shall try to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. And today, whenever I speak to people on the phone or in person, I shall avoid all flattery and I shall not tell any white lies. I shall speak and act with integrity and all the while give glory to Christ who has saved me from the power of sin and death. This is the biblical way to face dangerous times. Namely, with holiness and uprightness in the fear of Christ. Why then does God actively shake our temporal senses of security? He does it to consume and burn up all of our false securities, but He also does it in order to teach us the only source of true security, which is found in fearing Him. In these tumultuous times, the fear of Christ is our only security. However, does this not leave us longing then for a more complete and uninterrupted and everlasting form of security? Are we not all very aware that our lives will be filled with dangers and trials to the very end? Do not our souls innately yearn for the kind of security that will have no end? So this then is the hope that beams so intensely at the end of the 33rd chapter of Isaiah. Into the darkness of tumultuous times, a light shines. It is the light of a distant future city. And this is the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, the very abode of God. Isaiah 33, 17, your eyes will see We'll hear that phrase again. Your eyes will see the king and his beauty. Where exactly will we see the king in his beauty? Well, this will only be in the heavenly Jerusalem. Isaiah 33 20. Look up. Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see. There it is again. But this time your eyes will see Jerusalem, a secure home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down. Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken. Do you hear the comforting promises of security nestled in this verse? The nomadic Israelites will never have to move again. Their tent stakes will never have to be pulled up again. They shall have complete, uninterrupted, everlasting security. There should be no more moving trucks and no more refugee camps. The future for those who fear Christ will lack both the need for burglar alarm systems and the need for missile defense systems. instead of cities with high crime rates and hospitals with dying patients, the heavenly city of Zion shall be a secure home, a safe abode forever. But mark that our security in heaven is based upon the forgiveness of our sins. Verse 24, the people who dwell in it, that is the heavenly city, will be forgiven their iniquity. And here is the cross of our Lord. For at the cross, Jesus felt no security at all. He took the payment for our sins upon his shoulders and in his body. The mystery of the gospel is that on the cross for a tiny, tiny single moment in eternity, Jesus felt no security. He who had lived in the security of his father's love for all of eternity past and who will continue in his father's love for all of eternity future felt abandoned by his father on the cross. He bore our iniquity for us. For the father looked down from heaven and saw our sin in his body and poured out the wrath of hell upon Jesus on the cross. and therefore under God's wrath, Jesus looked up from the cross and cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For a moment in eternity, Jesus felt no security, but only the wrath of the Father upon him, and he did this for us. He did it to forgive our iniquity. so that we might dwell in the heavenly city securely forever. Therefore, being in Christ, we shall dwell safely in the heavenly city of Mount Zion. And why is the heavenly city of Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem, so safe? It is because God himself dwells there. Isaiah 33, 21 through 22, But there the majestic Lord will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams in which no galley with oars will sail nor majestic ships pass by. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. This is a God centered vision of security. As Christians, our true security can never be shaken because our true security is God himself. He himself is like a shield surrounding us. God himself surrounds the city of Zion like an impenetrable wall. God makes heaven secure for us. Revelation 21, 1 through 4, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There should be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." What this means is that nothing, truly nothing in this life can take away our true security. Nazi soldiers in Germany who discovered that Christians were hiding Jews in their homes forced those Christians onto trains. and plunge them into concentration camps. Yet the Nazi soldiers could not take away the Christians' true security. They could force them to live in flea infested quarters and threaten them with the sounds of gunshots. But they could not take away their strong sense of security in the one true and living God. In the same way, nothing today can take away our true sense of security in God. Neither another great economic collapse, nor an Islamic invasion, nor persecution from our own employers or governments can rob us of our true security in God. They can do what they want. They can throw us into prison, but we still shall feel secure in God. They can threaten us with death. but we still shall find security in God. Nothing can stop us from yearning by faith for heaven. Wherever we are, whether traveling on the road or sitting still at home, whether living in peace or living in the worst of circumstances under the worst of persecutions, we shall feel secure whenever we remember that it is God himself who makes heaven secure for us. He is our judge who shall judge the wicked at the proper time. He is our lawgiver who has written his law upon our hearts so that no one can snatch it away. He is our king and his kingdom shall have no end. So whenever we look upon the face of Christ Jesus, where through the eyes of faith we see the glory of God revealed. We feel completely and fully secure. And so we shall dwell together in the perfect security of His presence. Days everlasting. Security uninterrupted. Perfect peace never ending. World without end. Amen. For us, this holy table, as we now come and remember the holy table, this is a table of security. And so as we come to this table, we come longing for the security of the Father's house. But as we come, we must remember that Jesus surrendered his own security for us on the cross so that he might bear our sins in his body on the tree. Before we come, here's the doxology. Praise be to God, our Father, who is a consuming fire. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is to be feared, since the fear of the Lord is his treasure. And praise be to the Holy Spirit, who writes heaven upon our hearts, since heaven alone is our everlasting security. Amen.