Bringing the light of Jesus Christ into a sin-darkened world. This is the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. Hello, my name is Ben Fordham, and I invite you to join us now as we study God's Word together. Welcome to the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and thank you for tuning in. As we look to the word of God today, I would like to draw your attention to the book of Isaiah, chapter 33, as we look at verses 20 through 24. We are continuing through this chapter and coming to the conclusion we see in the final verses a poetic end to this summary of the Lord's dealings with Assyria and Judah. We see the Lord's blessings on and preservation of Judah, and we are shown this by an interesting metaphor. While Judah had been guilty of seeking refuge in other nations and in other gods, the Lord had arranged for judgment and brought them to repentance. Now, having turned to Him with contrite hearts, they would be blessed, and specially so. The Lord Himself would be their provision and their protection. The Lord would make them secure in Zion, where they had been at ease in Zion. Why had they been so terrified of this Assyrian nation, this army, or gathering of nations? Why had they looked for security in other gods and other nations? They had forsaken the Lord, and in kind He had forsaken them and judged them. The judgment that had been meted out upon them was a judgment that they had brought upon themselves. They had declared, by their actions and by their words, that they wanted nothing to do with God, and all that resulted was upon them. God our Father is good, merciful, and gracious. He is a Father, and His purpose in chastisement is to reconcile His children to Himself. He is not a cruel or unjust God who is waiting for us to mess up so that He can take pleasure in chastening and judging us for our sins. Rather, we understand that He is holy. and he cannot abide sin without consequence. And so with sin, there come consequences, and reconciliation requires some sort of payment for sin. The passage before us shows the result of that reconciliation. The glorious Lord establishes a tabernacle that is secure. It is more secure than any city walls you can imagine. The glorious Lord provides Himself as a place of blessing and provision. Knowing these things, I ask again, why would men look to anyone else for anything? We must look to the Lord, and look upon Zion, which He has gloriously preserved, with our hopes set, not upon the place so much, but upon the God who has established and preserved it. we will see that this is going to be a tabernacle that will ever be there. The use of forever in the scriptures is not without some modifications. When we think forever, we think relatively. We use that in our everyday language. When something lasts forever, we are prone to use that as a means of describing a very long time, not eternity. So let us not get lost in the proverbial sauce there and think ourselves as wise and think this applies to places that it doesn't. Although we may make application. This is a temporal blessing with permanent shadows. Maybe that makes sense, maybe it doesn't. Let's look to our text and see what we may learn from these things. the text. Isaiah 33 verses 20-24 Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down. Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed, they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail. Then is the prey of a great spoil divided, the lame take the prey. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. We look again at verse 20. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities, thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. The language we see ending chapter 33 is poetic. The summary chapter of all that will happen with Assyria and Judah here draws to a glorious close by the Lord being magnified in His glory and the promise of peace and blessing. The previous verse, verse 19, had indicated that the Jews would no longer see a people of deeper speech than they could hear or perceive, and of a stammering tongue that they could not understand. Here the Lord tells them what they will see and what they should look upon. The commandment is to look upon Zion. They had seen the work of the Lord in judgment and mercy, and now they are called to turn and look to Zion, the place the Lord had blessed, the place where they had held their solemn assemblies, the city of their solemnities. This is about Jerusalem. We will make application later that tells us this applies as well to the new Jerusalem, that is, to the church. Looking to Zion, they shall see a quiet habitation, a place of peace. This was not so when Assyria was bearing down upon them. They were looking out in fear, and they were not looking to the dwelling of the Lord or to the Lord himself, but to other gods and other nations for help. Now their call is to see the peace of the Lord and keep their eyes upon him. Jerusalem, we are told, will be a tabernacle that will not be taken down. This language indicates a sure tabernacle, a place not to be taken down by the tempest of Assyria or other nations. The stakes in the ground that hold it are not going to be removed, and the cords that secure it to the stakes are not going to be broken. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace. The Lord is a sure refuge, the only sure refuge, and he can make that which seems like it should be easily moved, like a tabernacle, as though it is immovable. This brings to mind the promise of Zechariah in Zechariah chapter two, verses four and five. And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited, as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. The sure tabernacle, the only sure tabernacle, is the place where the Lord is the glory in the midst. So we make a note here about this everlasting, supposedly everlasting tabernacle. There is one everlasting tabernacle, and that is the church, and that is because God has established it, and he is the glory in the midst of it. The Jerusalem they would look to would eventually fall. And why is that? Because they did not have the Lord in the midst. More on that to come. Verse 21. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. The description of the peace of this sure tabernacle is now given with another metaphor. The great cities in the ancient world were all port cities, or cities on rivers or near rivers. Think Tyre and Sidon and even Babylon having a river flowing through it. The great commerce value of these cities made them great targets as well for their enemies, and the water access, the same waters, that made them rich also made them somewhat vulnerable. The great lushness supplied to land by such a river or water source would be an advantage. And the great wealth to be gained by ships that are able to navigate and go to and from these places would be theirs. The second half of our verse tells us that there will be no galley with oars and no gallant ship able to pass through these waters. But you ask, why do we have broad rivers and streams and say that we can be made wealthy if no ship can pass through? The sense of this is that no ship that intends to harm them will be able to navigate there. Because the Lord is going to be to them a place of broad rivers and streams, he is also going to be their protector. It is by him that blessing will come and by him that no enemy shall pass to do them harm. The overflowing river of Assyria could not overcome the river of the Lord. Verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our law giver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. How would they find safety from those who would come against them? How would they, though like a tabernacle, be made sure? How would they, though surrounded by hills and far inland, have all the benefits of broad rivers without the risks or dangers? They would know, by the Lord's right hand of judgment upon them and upon their enemies, that the Lord was the true and just judge. He is a righteous, holy judge, and yet He is merciful to His people. The Lord is their lawgiver. We read in Deuteronomy 4, verses 5-8, Behold, I have taught you My statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded Me. that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great that God, who hath God, so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? The source of their strength, their sure foundation, and all their blessings, is the Lord, their judge, their lawgiver, and their king. Rightly, the prophet proclaims, he will save us. This is given in the sense that to the ones that look to the Lord, that look to Zion, to his truly repentant people, he is their judge, their lawgiver, and their king. In some sense, we also may say that he is the judge, lawgiver, and king of every single being. But the sense given here is that He is the Savior, the Lawgiver, the Judge, and the King of His redeemed in a special way. He will save His people. Verse 23. Thy tacklings are loosed. They could not well strengthen their mast. They could not spread the sail. Then is the prey of a great spoil divided. the lame take the prey. The enemy that had attempted to sail in with a gallant ship, that is, Assyria, had been turned away. The tacklings of the ship, or cords, that held the sails to the mast, were loosed, so they could not gather wind or steer as they desired. Their mast was not strong enough and not able to hold the cords and could not be strengthened in a way to spread the sail and carry them all the way through Jerusalem. The Assyrian army and Sennacherib had been made like a ship that took to water with no sail and no means of steering, rudderless and unable to set their own direction. They, as all are, were at the mercy of the river. That is to say, they were at the mercy of the Lord. Their end was like a shipwreck, where all the spoil was left on the beach to be plundered. The spoil was so great that the Scriptures say not only was it divided, but even the lame made it a prey. That is to say, there was so much abundance of it. that even those who were lame would have time to get to it. Those that would struggle to get to it and struggle to carry it away would prey upon it as well. That this was done is quite fascinating. This tells you how much the enemy of God's people is decimated, how utterly they are decimated. God blesses his people and gives them the spoil of their enemies, and he blesses the strong all the way down to the lame. Verse 24, and the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven of their iniquity. The sense of these words seems to mean that the inhabitants of Jerusalem are not going to be too sick to plunder. Rather, they will be invigorated and participate in taking of the spoil. God is going to bless them specially to be able to receive the blessing from the defeat of their enemies. There is a physical recovery that goes along with the spiritual recovery of the nation. The people that dwell in Jerusalem are going to be forgiven of their iniquity. The thought here is reminiscent of Jesus' healing of the paralytic man. You remember he was brought before Jesus, and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. The scribes muttered to themselves and called him a blasphemer. Jesus says to them, wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, Matthew 9, 4, and then going through 9, 7, for whether it is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. And he arose and departed to his house. Jesus did both. He both forgave their iniquity, or his iniquity, and made him physically whole. And so we find in our verse as well that the inhabitant is going to be made whole physically and also forgiven of iniquity. Truly it is greater to be forgiven for our sins than it is to be healed of any physical infirmity. What a glory that Christ does both. What a glory that the promise is of both in this verse for those in Judah who had long battled and had seen the spoil of their enemy and the redemption and recovery of their nation. Some lessons for us. The church established and provided for. In the text before us, the Lord tells us where we can look or where we are to look and what we will see. For Judah, they are promised in verse 19 that they will no longer see the Assyrian coming with intent to destroy them. In verse 20, they are told to look upon Zion, which is the place of the solemn assemblies, the place where the temple is established, the place where God is worshiped. Where is the place where God is worshiped today? This place will be a tabernacle and will have a permanent setup. The stakes and cords of that place, that tabernacle, are never going to be broken. One can hear Jesus speaking to Peter in Matthew 16, verse 18. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We do not read this like Catholics. We know that the rock upon which the church is established is not Peter, but the Lord Jesus Christ. We also know that the promise here is that whatever man or devils may achieve, whatever their desires, The church is firmly established, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. If you're looking around today, you might think the gates of hell look like they are prevailing, but they are not. We've seen times in history where the church flourished and times where it floundered. I'll leave it to you to figure out which time we're in today. We can recall many times, as Chesterton once said, where the church has seemingly died, but it has always been brought back to life, because it has known, and does know, a God, the God, who knows the way out of the grave. Whether flourishing or floundering, the church is firmly established, not because the church is the church, but because the church has God in the midst of her. Jesus Christ is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. Christ is the head of the church. And so the establishment of the church doesn't rest upon us, it rests upon Christ. When her eyes are fixed upon the bridegroom, her Lord Jesus Christ, the church is going to flourish and be greatly blessed. When she looks out at the world and takes her eyes off of Christ, she will flounder as she has for some years now. Looking to a confused world with a voice she does not perceive in a stammering tongue, the church has become confused and faltering. What is needful now is to heed the instruction that is given in our verse 20, to look upon Zion and see the Lord in its midst. This is the only way to be established as a tabernacle that will not be moved. I am reminded here of Peter walking on water, having bid Jesus to tell him to come, to him. Do you recall that Peter looked out at the winds and waves, and the tempest, and he began to sink? Having seen Jesus and walked on water to go to him, Peter looked away from him and began to sink. Looking unto Christ is a sure foundation, so sure that a man once walked on water doing so. Looking elsewhere, we may expect, as he did, to flounder and sink. What makes the tabernacle a place of refuge and shore? It is Christ. With all of this water, I want to look at the second metaphor of our passage. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall a gallant ship pass thereby. There is, that is in Zion, the tabernacle, the church. The glorious Lord is going to be to that church, to us, a place of broad rivers and streams. The church established will have a source of living waters, that is Christ himself. Recall the Gospel of John in chapter 4 with Jesus and the encounter with the Samaritan woman. Christ is the source of living water, John 4, 13-15. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. The Lord provides refuge for His people in the sure tabernacle, and He is the place of broad rivers and streams. The Lord is the sure provision that is the stream of living water for His people and the source of all of our blessings. So we need not fear an overwhelming flood in the form of any enemy. He will not allow the ships of the enemies to reach Zion and destroy her. Instead, the promise is not that enemies won't come, but that our enemies will be spoiled Their masts will not be strong and their sails will flail. The Lord will providentially bless His church and He will do so by giving us straight blessings of provision from the good waters, the living waters He provides. The promise is also that when enemies arise, He will spoil them and bless us with the spoil abundantly still. Why? For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. He will save us. The statement of verse 22 is true for everyone in all cases. Jehovah is the judge of all, Jehovah is the lawgiver of all, Jehovah is the king of all. So I ask why the statement is put to us in the scriptures as our. Jehovah is our judge, our lawgiver, our king. He will save us. This is the promise and statement of the Lord's people distinctly. Not that He is not the judge of absolutely everybody, but that we long and desire for Him to be our judge. The distinctive is the work He has done in us. Assyria wanted nothing of God, and they certainly didn't want Him to be their judge, lawgiver, or king. And neither did many of the wicked in Judah. But the faithful desire God to be their judge. He is our lawgiver, and we love His statutes. These are the statutes by which we may live, but the wicked desire them not, and kick against them. He is our King, and we desire to serve Him. But for the wicked, they have a spirit of rebellion and always will. The proclamation made in verse 22 should be understood then thusly. We love and desire Jehovah as our judge. We want him to be our judge, our lawgiver, and our king, that he is these things to us, and we desire him to be, and that he is our savior. What a difference, then, can we see that has been made? These were those who once looked for every other Savior, but now they have been brought to the only one who is their Savior and the only one indeed who can save. May the people of God look to the Lord. May the rebels repent. The line from that old familiar hymn seems appropriate. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. So what are we to do? Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and keep them there. He is our refuge and provision. He is our judge, He is our lawgiver, and He is our King. He will save us. Looking anywhere else for these, you are going to sink. When you do, look to Him and His outstretched hand to be your refuge and strength once again. And having done so, I pray that the Lord will bless us and give us more light. bringing the light of Jesus Christ into a sin-darkened world. This is the Lighthouse Radio Bible Study. The Primitive Baptists who bring you this program each week do so with the following conviction. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. It is our guide for what we are to believe, and it is our guide for what we are to do. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, and He is to be followed as Lord and Savior. And, we believe that His salvation is a free gift of God's sovereign grace, not dependent on any work that we do, but wholly dependent on His finished work done on our behalf. We present this weekly Bible study based on the premise of Psalm 119 verse 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. If you would like to contribute to the furtherance of this program, then please send your donation to this address. The Lighthouse P.O. Box 1317 Baxley, GA 31515. Again, that is The Lighthouse EO Box 1317, Baxley, GA 31515. Or if you would like to send a question or comment to us, you can also send your correspondence to that address. We also have a website where you can access our programs and other helpful information. It can be found at www.lighthousebiblestudy.org. That's all one word and with all lowercase letters. Again, that's www.lighthousebiblestudy.org. Until next week, this is your speaker, Ben Fordham, praying that God will light your world.