Doug McMasters: I'd ask you to take your Bible and turn with me over to the book of Isaiah, chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: We're going through the book of Isaiah on Sunday mornings and we are in this chapter coming up chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: In 1711, a long time ago the South Sea Company was established for the purpose of consolidating and managing the national debt of the British Empire, of consolidating and managing the national debt of the British Empire.
Doug McMasters: In return for taking on the debt, the South Sea Company was granted the monopoly of trade in the South Seas.
Doug McMasters: The government played a very significant role in that arrangement and for nine years everything seemed to go well.
Doug McMasters: In 1720, the South Sea Company proposed a scheme to assume even more of the debt in exchange for shares, and Parliament voted and approved their proposal, and that contributed to a mad rush on the South Sea Company stock.
Doug McMasters: It rose dramatically and people rushed in to get in as early as they could, because they could only see it getting better and better and better and better.
Doug McMasters: People believed that they'd receive massive profits by investing early.
Doug McMasters: People believed that they'd receive massive profits by investing early, and those who had invested early found themselves leveraging what they thought was their wealth and obtaining more debt in order to secure properties and places.
Doug McMasters: Everybody was connected to it, tied to it.
Doug McMasters: The success of it would have been fantastic for all, and at its peak the company was worth several times what it was just a few months prior.
Doug McMasters: Everybody was excited, but their excitement was just nothing but irrational optimism fueled by misleading information.
Doug McMasters: In truth, the company was all built on speculation.
Doug McMasters: It lacked any real earnings and within a few months from that peak in 1720, it collapsed and thousands and thousands of people went bankrupt in a day.
Doug McMasters: Thousands of investors, whether they were in the aristocracy, whether they were politicians or just common everyday folks.
Doug McMasters: They were brought to financial ruin in a moment.
Doug McMasters: This ruin caused widespread panic.
Doug McMasters: It disrupted the whole banking system of the British Empire and almost toppled the government.
Doug McMasters: Politicians were entangled with this and the public outrage grew and grew and grew.
Doug McMasters: The South Sea Company and the bubble that was caused by it stands as an emblem for us of the dangers of speculative excess, of investing ourselves in things that actually have no true value whatsoever.
Doug McMasters: So we come into Isaiah, chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is returning from his prophetic whip around tour of the nations To come back to Samaria, to the people of Israel, and back to Jerusalem, to the people of Israel and back to Jerusalem, to the people of Judah, to talk about them, about the foolish investment of their own self-reliance or in their alliances with the nations he's just spoken oracles of destruction about.
Doug McMasters: He's here to tell them, in this chapter, of the follies of putting themselves and investing in the wrong securities.
Doug McMasters: He tells them that their misplaced trust in themselves and their misplaced trust in their alliances are going to prove their ruin, and so he gives them a warning.
Doug McMasters: But he also extends to them some hope.
Doug McMasters: In the same chapter as he exhorts them about these dangerous activities, these dangerous investments, he tells them that if they would invest in the Lord and put their trust in him, that they would receive a reward far beyond their wildest dreams and imaginations.
Doug McMasters: The question is, how would they respond to this?
Doug McMasters: And as we think about that overarching question, it's a question that we have to ask ourselves also what are we investing ourselves in?
Doug McMasters: Where are our reliances, not only for time but also for eternity?
Doug McMasters: And could we be speculating, thinking that our investments secure in something when actually it holds absolutely no value whatsoever?
Doug McMasters: Or have we invested in something that may not on the surface look promising but in reality will open up into eternity to be the greatest value and weight of glory ever imagined.
Doug McMasters: We're going to compare these two contrasting investment schemes and strategies and see whether or not one is secure and the other one is not.
Doug McMasters: And I want us to ask ourselves and to evaluate ourselves where am I putting my trust in my investment?
Doug McMasters: Where are my securities, and will they hold value when the eternal day comes?
Doug McMasters: Well, the first scheme that we're going to look at is a crumbling capital investment.
Doug McMasters: A crumbling capital investment.
Doug McMasters: And it starts off with this cry of woe, the very first word of the chapter.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at it.
Doug McMasters: In verse one, woe, woe.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah jumps right in to tell us just how tragic this investment is, and he grabs a word from the realm of the funeral and begins to tell us just how dramatically sad and horrible this is.
Doug McMasters: The word woe comes from the places of weeping at a funeral.
Doug McMasters: It comes when we mourn over the lost loved one who's been snatched away from us.
Doug McMasters: It comes from that place of pained lament as we wail over the fact that our loved one is no longer beside us, that we're separated, that now life will be completely different.
Doug McMasters: And here Isaiah is taking up this language of the funeral to talk about the tragedy of this headlong destruction that the people of Israel and Judah are in by investing in their own reliance and investing in their alliances with nations like Egypt that are going to bring them nothing but ruin.
Doug McMasters: And so, as he unpacks this, he begins to talk about a crown and actually makes a contrast of crowns.
Doug McMasters: Look at the first few verses here.
Doug McMasters: You'll see this word wreath or crown show up In verse one.
Doug McMasters: Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim's drunkards and to the fading flower of its beautiful splendor, which is on the summit above the rich valley.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse three.
Doug McMasters: The majestic crown of Ephraim's drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
Doug McMasters: Verse four the fading flower and its beautiful splendor, which is on the summit above the rich valley.
Doug McMasters: Verse five on that day, the Lord of armies will become a crown of beauty and a diadem, a splendor to the remnant of his people, a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who repel attacks at the city gate.
Doug McMasters: Here is Isaiah contrasting crowns.
Doug McMasters: One crown is a wreath of everlasting beauty and glory, in verses 5 and 6.
Doug McMasters: And it is the crown that is the Lord himself, but the other crown, a wreath of flowers that partying people slip onto their heads as they dance around in their drunken revelry.
Doug McMasters: We'll discover more about the Lord's crown in just a moment, but take a look at this first crown.
Doug McMasters: It's described to us in verses one and four as the beautiful splendor which is on the summit above the rich valley.
Doug McMasters: And what Isaiah is referring to are the 10 northern tribes and their capital city of Assyria, or Samaria rather, and of its battlements, of its walls that protect it.
Doug McMasters: And so it's on top of a mountain, overlooking a lush and fertile plain, and there are this significant walled city with the center of it standing above and all of it.
Doug McMasters: And if you looked at it, you'd say that looks just like a crown, looks just like a wreath on top of someone's head.
Doug McMasters: And here Isaiah is saying that this battlement, this structure of defense, this fortified city, is really going to be trampled down.
Doug McMasters: It's going to be nothing more than fading flowers, a corruptible wreath that's going to be put underfoot and smashed to the ground.
Doug McMasters: And the people here are so secure in what they think they've got by having fortified their capital city that they're literally partying almost like people who stayed on the dance floor after being told the Titanic was sinking.
Doug McMasters: That's what these people are doing.
Doug McMasters: Their confidence is ruinous.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah, in order to get the point home, gets very graphic.
Doug McMasters: Actually Verses 7 and 8.
Doug McMasters: He talks about the priest and the prophets and the leaders, the political leaders.
Doug McMasters: In verses 7 and 8, he takes us into a realm that's a little unpleasant for us to hear, but boy does it communicate.
Doug McMasters: Even these stagger because of wine and stumble under the influence of beer.
Doug McMasters: Priests and prophets stagger because of beer.
Doug McMasters: They're confused by wine.
Doug McMasters: They stumble because of beer.
Doug McMasters: They're muddled in their visions.
Doug McMasters: They stumble in their judgments.
Doug McMasters: Indeed, all their tables are covered with vomit.
Doug McMasters: There's no place without a stench.
Doug McMasters: What a remarkable statement.
Doug McMasters: This is hardly the kind of table anybody would want to eat at and these people are hardly the kind of leaders anybody would want to follow.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah is saying that their confidence in these leaders and their confidence in themselves and their confidence in this walled city is well, what is it?
Doug McMasters: It's like watching a drunk at a party who has a lampshade on his head.
Doug McMasters: It's like watching him move around the room, bumping into people and saying ignorant words and offensive remarks, and then eventually getting sick and vomiting all over the buffet table, and the only thing more offensive and humiliating than that are the people who are grabbing their tongs in a plate and saying I think I'll continue to put some stuff on my plate from there.
Doug McMasters: He said this is pride.
Doug McMasters: This is how disturbing and disgusting and how degrading and humiliating pride is and arrogant is and self-reliance is, is and arrogant is and self-reliance is.
Doug McMasters: The only thing worse than this stuporous, staggering slosh who's chundered all over everything are the people who are trying to eat off of the table he just threw up on.
Doug McMasters: It's degrading and disgusting.
Doug McMasters: The smell is putrid, sadly in our day, there are people walking around offering advice and spiritual wisdom and instruction are no better than the prophets and the priests in this day who are spewing nonsense all over the airwaves and social media and television, and there's people taking their spiritual plates and forks and they're going give me some more of that and it's just ruinous and tragic.
Doug McMasters: And in verse four, god says it's going to be like this and he uses another picture it's going to be like that first ripe fig that shows up when all the others are still too green to eat, and you've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the figs to become ripe and you see that one that's just right there ready to eat, and you grab it and you eat it before you even take it home or wash it.
Doug McMasters: That's how fast Samaria is going to be gobbled up in judgment.
Doug McMasters: Assyria is going to come down and wipe them out in a heartbeat.
Doug McMasters: And in 721 BC that's exactly what happened.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah moves on to talk about this.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah moves on to talk about this catastrophe of an investment in self by moving to Judah in verses 14 to 22.
Doug McMasters: And there he takes up another picture of a covenant with death to make an agreement with destruction.
Doug McMasters: Judah's leaders were no different than the people in the northern tribes who were relying upon their walled cities.
Doug McMasters: And now he condemns the people of Judah for their covenant with death by making an alliance with the people in Egypt, thinking that Egypt would help them defeat the Assyrian onslaught.
Doug McMasters: He tells them look, god will take care of you, god will supply everything you need to stand firm.
Doug McMasters: You don't need to be disturbed in the midst of these troubling circumstances.
Doug McMasters: Your God can hold on to you.
Doug McMasters: But the nation rejected the Lord and they were thus put into a place where they had made a covenant with death, an agreement that you take care of me, I'll take care of you.
Doug McMasters: And they both died.
Doug McMasters: In verse 17, isaiah says that hail will sweep away this false refuge and water will fill up your hiding place.
Doug McMasters: A storm will come in and you will find yourself in your little hideaway, up to your throat in water, and you're going to get washed away in the surge that's coming.
Doug McMasters: And in verse 19 and 20.
Doug McMasters: He tells them Every time it passes through, it will carry you away.
Doug McMasters: It will pass through every morning, every day and every night.
Doug McMasters: Only terror will cause you to understand the message.
Doug McMasters: Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on and its covers too small to wrap up in.
Doug McMasters: When Assyria comes, you're going to find Egypt can't take care of you.
Doug McMasters: You're going to try to get in bed with Egypt and you're going to find that bed is not big enough for you.
Doug McMasters: You're going to try to cover yourself with the sheets of Egypt.
Doug McMasters: You're going to find that half of you is still left exposed.
Doug McMasters: This is not a safe place.
Doug McMasters: This is not where you find help.
Doug McMasters: And he says it's not until the terror comes upon you that you understand.
Doug McMasters: They could listen to the preaching of Isaiah and listen to the warnings that he had given and heard the promises that he provided.
Doug McMasters: But it wasn't until the judgment actually fell did they say.
Doug McMasters: You've made a tragic mistake when there's no place to remedy the mistake you've made.
Doug McMasters: I love talking to Sam as he raised his boys.
Doug McMasters: He told them one thing, told them a lot of things, but one thing that I remember him telling them is don't make a mistake, you can't walk back.
Doug McMasters: Don't make a mistake, you can't walk back.
Doug McMasters: These people have made mistakes that they never realized they should have never made until it was too late.
Doug McMasters: Now let's find out why.
Doug McMasters: Verses 7 to 10 tell us exactly why.
Doug McMasters: It comes on the heels of this disturbing illustration of the priest and the prophets and the political leaders who are overtaken by alcohol and staggering around and stumbling, confused and blurred vision.
Doug McMasters: I'm not going to repeat that sordid story and depravity anymore, but let's get behind it and see what's behind Israel and Judah's disturbing investments.
Doug McMasters: Verse 9 and verse 10.
Doug McMasters: Who is he trying to teach?
Doug McMasters: Who is he trying to instruct?
Doug McMasters: Infants just weaned from milk, babies removed from the breast?
Doug McMasters: Law after law, law after law.
Doug McMasters: Line after line, line after line, a little here, a little there.
Doug McMasters: What's this.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is quoting the drunken prophets and priests.
Doug McMasters: He's repeating back what they're saying about Isaiah's preaching.
Doug McMasters: These leaders, who are getting bombarded by the prophet with words of judgment and warnings to repent, who are given sweet and beautiful invitations if they'd only trust in the Lord, are listening to Isaiah and they're saying man, this guy just doesn't have it.
Doug McMasters: His message is beneath us.
Doug McMasters: His call to trust in God is simplistic nonsense.
Doug McMasters: It's just a silly message meant for children and to their ears.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's plain speech just doesn't fall nicely upon their sophisticated ears.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't satisfy their refined tastes.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't speak a message that moves them with profundity, and so they mock him.
Doug McMasters: And verse 10 is a little difficult to translate in the Hebrew.
Doug McMasters: But what I think is happening there is that Isaiah is using what sounds like baby talk to mock, as they're using baby talk to mock Isaiah's preaching Kisav Lasav, sav Lasav, kav Lakav, kav Lakav, just blah, blah, blah, blah.
Doug McMasters: Right, it reminds me of that house music song.
Doug McMasters: Yes, your pastor understands house music a little bit.
Doug McMasters: All we ever hear from you is blah, blah, blah, blah.
Doug McMasters: So all we ever do is go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Doug McMasters: We don't even care about what they say because it's all yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Doug McMasters: That's the prophets talking about Isaiah's preaching.
Doug McMasters: We don't even care what Isaiah says, because it's all just blah, blah, blah, blah, mocking the power and the protection and, yes, the spiritual profundity of Isaiah's message.
Doug McMasters: Looking at the word of God is worse than worthless just because it wasn't sophisticated enough for them.
Doug McMasters: And so verse 11 opens up in the NIV, particularly with the phrase very well then, they're going to refuse God's message.
Doug McMasters: Then he has something to say to them.
Doug McMasters: Very well then, if that's your determination about the message of the prophet, well, verse 13,.
Doug McMasters: The word of the Lord will come to them, law after law, law after law, line after line, line after line, a little here, a little there.
Doug McMasters: It will sound to you like blah blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll be the Assyrians speaking a different language to you when they drag you away from your country and bring you into captivity.
Doug McMasters: You're going to mock the word of God.
Doug McMasters: You're going to face the word of God.
Doug McMasters: You're going to face the consequences of that mocking voice.
Doug McMasters: What Isaiah is saying here is real, and every Sunday, when the word of God is proclaimed, there's someone in the pew saying boy, I've never understood the word of God like this.
Doug McMasters: This is sweet.
Doug McMasters: I can't wait.
Doug McMasters: I wish we didn't have to close.
Doug McMasters: I would love to write more in my notebooks.
Doug McMasters: I'm gonna take this home and read God's word more deeply and with a fresher sense of understanding.
Doug McMasters: I love God's word, and then there's someone who listens to it and says this is dumb God's word.
Doug McMasters: Why can't God's word say something up to my level?
Doug McMasters: Same message, different impact.
Doug McMasters: When the Bible's opened up, you have to ask yourself is it sweet to your soul or is it sour to your tongue?
Doug McMasters: Or is it sour to your tongue?
Doug McMasters: Do you receive it as if it was a rich and satisfying drink, or do you spit it out because it tastes like swamp water?
Doug McMasters: You see, it's not the Word of God that's under judgment, it's us.
Doug McMasters: We are here.
Doug McMasters: The Lord is offering rest to the weary, but if they continue to resist it, if they continue to mock it, if they continue to speak against it with such haughty speech, they're going to face judgment and get back in their face what they're blurting out in derision.
Doug McMasters: They're just going to hear a bunch of foreign words in their ears as they're dragged away and never returning to their homes.
Doug McMasters: Paul quotes this passage of scripture, by the way, in the book of 1 Corinthians, and what he means to say there is that incomprehensible messages are not how God speaks to his believing people.
Doug McMasters: That kind of speech is left for those who don't have the heart to hear the truth.
Doug McMasters: Who don't have the heart to hear the truth.
Doug McMasters: Let's jump down a little bit, because there's a message to people who are making poor investments and there's a message of hope here.
Doug McMasters: You see, you don't have to come to complete ruin before you return and find welcome in the Lord.
Doug McMasters: There is a place of repentance and there's an invitation at the end of this section, verses 23 to 29.
Doug McMasters: In verse 23, it says listen and hear my voice, pay attention and hear what I say.
Doug McMasters: And then verse 29,.
Doug McMasters: This comes from the Lord of armies.
Doug McMasters: He gives wondrous advice, he gives great wisdom, and to those who have made a rather tragic and destructive investment, he says before you go any further, why don't you just stop and listen to the Lord instead of mocking him?
Doug McMasters: And so he calls into this invitation some wisdom from the farm, an example of why God should be heeded.
Doug McMasters: And he asked two questions about plowing and planting.
Doug McMasters: The first question in verse 24, does a plowman plow every day to plant seed.
Doug McMasters: Does he continually break up and cultivate the soil?
Doug McMasters: No, no, of course he knows when to plant and he knows when to stop plowing.
Doug McMasters: And then the second question, verse 25,.
Doug McMasters: When he's leveled at surface, does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?
Doug McMasters: He plants weed in rows and barley and plots with spelt as their border.
Doug McMasters: Does he know when to plant and when to plow?
Doug McMasters: To plant and when to plow, when to stop plowing, when to stop planting?
Doug McMasters: Of course he does.
Doug McMasters: Yes, the farmer knows all of that.
Doug McMasters: Where does that understanding come from?
Doug McMasters: Isaiah asks us to consider.
Doug McMasters: It comes from God.
Doug McMasters: The farmer can follow the instructions that come from God's common grace in this world that has patterns in its seasons, and we can discern this because God is a God of order who has made this world work for the purposes of granting life.
Doug McMasters: So the farmer, even though they may not even understand it to be God, who's granted them this understanding, recognizes the signs of the seasons and knows when to plow and when to plant and when to harvest.
Doug McMasters: And if he can do something simply for the purposes of attaining an ordinary crop of cumin that we can put in our curries.
Doug McMasters: How much more should we listen to this God who tells us things of eternal consequence?
Doug McMasters: Should we not invest in his wisdom and then receive his instruction?
Doug McMasters: This is what he's saying.
Doug McMasters: And if this farmer can find himself reaping a harvest at the end of the year, having paid attention to the signs of the seasons, how much more would an investment in God himself and trusting him alone bring with it?
Doug McMasters: Something far beyond what we could ever gather if we simply relied upon ourselves.
Doug McMasters: You see, there's a lot more at stake than a good or bad harvest.
Doug McMasters: For the people of Israel and Judah, what was at stake was the danger of a mighty Near Eastern Empire called Assyria wiping them away.
Doug McMasters: But for us there's something even bigger than that.
Doug McMasters: There is the enemy called sin and the eternal destruction that that will bring to us, because it'll enslave us forever.
Doug McMasters: And God is saying take refuge in me, don't take refuge in yourself, don't lean on your own abilities to get you through eternity.
Doug McMasters: So there's one investment scheme, and it's a crumbling capital investment.
Doug McMasters: It falls into nothing.
Doug McMasters: But there's another scheme, and this one is a concrete capital investment, because it's an investment in the Lord himself.
Doug McMasters: For the people who are reading this, in their day, things could have been so much different.
Doug McMasters: And so let's just retrace our steps very quickly as we go through this chapter and see what the dividends are for putting our trust not in ourselves, but in God, for those who would humble themselves and hear what Isaiah is saying.
Doug McMasters: What does the person who trusts the Lord find?
Doug McMasters: Well, the first thing we find is a crown.
Doug McMasters: We started with crowns.
Doug McMasters: The bad investment scheme had a crown or a wreath of flowers that was going to get trampled underneath, but what about the crown of those who trust in God?
Doug McMasters: Verse 5, chapter 28.
Doug McMasters: On that day, the Lord of armies will become a crown of beauty and a diadem of splendor to the remnant of his people.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, the first crown is a fading crown, it's a worthless crown, but this, the Lord himself, is, to his people, a crown of glory and of splendor, one meant to beautify the wearer, one that intensifies and glorifies the person who puts it on, because that crown is the Lord himself, with all of his love and all of his investment, of all of his person in the one who puts him or herself in his hands.
Doug McMasters: Yesterday, when Kevin and Jessica were married, ephesians 5 came into the discussion, as it should Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Doug McMasters: And wonderful instructions Kevin received.
Doug McMasters: But listen to it, apart from the marriage aspect, and just take in who Jesus is to his people marriage aspect and just take in who Jesus is to his people.
Doug McMasters: Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to do what?
Doug McMasters: To make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word and he did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that Holy and blameless.
Doug McMasters: What happens to those who trust the Lord?
Doug McMasters: They become the bride of Christ.
Doug McMasters: They become this one who receives Jesus' full attention and his full care and his full investment in them in order to bring them to a place of honor and glory that they could never bring themselves.
Doug McMasters: What a glorious thing this is.
Doug McMasters: This is Jesus calling out a people to himself and giving them all that he is.
Doug McMasters: If he's a king, his people will be his queen.
Doug McMasters: If he reigns in heaven, so will they.
Doug McMasters: If he's heavenly, his people will bear the image of the heavenly.
Doug McMasters: If he is incorruptible and immortal, they will be incorruptible and immortal If he is at the right hand of the Father, so they shall sit with him in heavenly places.
Doug McMasters: This is Christ and his people.
Doug McMasters: This is the crown, who is God himself.
Doug McMasters: But it doesn't stop there.
Doug McMasters: It could easily and we've already seen the weight of this investment far excels the destructive, ruinous investment in ourselves.
Doug McMasters: But it goes on.
Doug McMasters: Verse six he's going to give to the remnant of his people a spirit of justice, to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who repel attacks at the city gate.
Doug McMasters: Solomon, you're going to be a king.
Doug McMasters: Solomon, you're going to be making decisions for the people.
Doug McMasters: Solomon, you're going to have to think about what's equitable and what's righteous and you're going to have to make judgments that are going to be for the benefit of the people.
Doug McMasters: Solomon says I need wisdom, I don't need money, I don't need my looks, I don't need money, I don't need my looks, I don't need anything but wisdom.
Doug McMasters: Because he knew he didn't have it.
Doug McMasters: The responsibility was beyond him.
Doug McMasters: What does a person who sits in the place of justice need?
Doug McMasters: They need the wisdom to make judgments that are just and right and equitable.
Doug McMasters: What does a soldier need when he's standing against the enemy at the gate?
Doug McMasters: Well, give me some reinforcements and give me a larger ability to repel the enemy.
Doug McMasters: In the place of our lack, there is the supply, and this is that picture that Jesus, that the word of God is giving us, about God granting to those who trust in him.
Doug McMasters: Where do you feel a weakness, where do you feel a lack within yourself, where do you feel an inability of strength?
Doug McMasters: It's in those very places God will operate.
Doug McMasters: Paul said this treasure, we have it in earthen vessels that the excellency might be of God and not of ourselves.
Doug McMasters: And he said we're afflicted in every way, but not crushed.
Doug McMasters: We're perplexed, but we're not in despair.
Doug McMasters: We're persecuted, but we're not abandoned.
Doug McMasters: We're struck down, but we're not destroyed.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because Jesus is with me Through all the places where I feel my utter inability, he steps in and he has everything to keep me going, everything.
Doug McMasters: And then he says this and we know that the one who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with him.
Doug McMasters: The place where I feel the weakest, the most in the face of death, where I can't tell it no, come back tomorrow.
Doug McMasters: He's there and I can go into the grave knowing that through Jesus Christ's resurrection, I will also come up out of the grave because of him.
Doug McMasters: So here, what are the dividends of investment in God and not ourselves?
Doug McMasters: A crown, the conquering victory and confidence.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 12.
Doug McMasters: He said to them this is the place of rest, let the weary rest, this is a place of repose.
Doug McMasters: But they wouldn't listen.
Doug McMasters: The Lord is telling us that he himself is the place of rest, that he himself is the place where the weary and the weak can find that needed recreation and recovery and they can lie down without fear.
Doug McMasters: We'll look at it in a few chapters, but in Isaiah 32, verse 17,.
Doug McMasters: The results of righteousness will be peace.
Doug McMasters: The effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever, and my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure dwellings.
Doug McMasters: What a glorious picture that is.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to be afraid when the lights are turned out.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to wonder if there's some enemy sneaking around the backyard.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to turn the alarm on when you leave the house.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to lock your car.
Doug McMasters: There's no danger.
Doug McMasters: That's the image of what it means to find rest and repose and security and confidence and safety in God.
Doug McMasters: There's nothing bigger than him and there's nothing going to take you down that he's not already got an answer for.
Doug McMasters: Take you down that he's not already got an answer for.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden.
Doug McMasters: And he said he will give us rest Because he is that place where our very soul can lie in repose.
Doug McMasters: How confidence building.
Doug McMasters: That is, polycarp of Smyrna, who lived from 69 AD to about 155 AD, was drugged before others who were mocking his faith in Christ, calling on him to abandon Christ and to call Caesar Lord.
Doug McMasters: And he said this right before they killed him.
Doug McMasters: 80 and six years I've served him and he has done me no wrong.
Doug McMasters: How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?
Doug McMasters: He was ready to die for Christ because he had lived under the safety of giving himself wholly over to this Lord Jesus who had taken care of him for 86 years.
Doug McMasters: But there's more, one more, actually almost two, but one Verse 16.
Doug McMasters: Look, verse 16.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, the Lord said Look, I've laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
Doug McMasters: The one who believes will be unshakable.
Doug McMasters: He repeats himself three times here, with three different phrases, in order to get the point across that if you rely on God, you've got an eternal security in that investment.
Doug McMasters: It's a precious cornerstone.
Doug McMasters: It's an unshakable foundation.
Doug McMasters: It's a tested, proved, reliable place to put your trust.
Doug McMasters: It's not the South Sea Company and it's not the housing crisis of 2008.
Doug McMasters: Because if you trust in Him, he will uphold you through everything.
Doug McMasters: God's building will stand in times of trial.
Doug McMasters: The Assyrian conflict, god will take care of.
Doug McMasters: There's no need to be afraid or dismayed because of the enemy that's in front of you, because God's cornerstone is dependable and trustworthy More dependable and trustworthy than Egypt, and certainly more dependable and trustworthy than your ability to sort of stifle your fears or to make it through on your own or to pick yourself up and say I'll do better next time.
Doug McMasters: What is this cornerstone?
Doug McMasters: Again, the New Testament picks this passage up actually in several different places.
Doug McMasters: It's a significant prophecy that's echoed in the New Testament picks this passage up actually in several different places.
Doug McMasters: It's a significant prophecy that's echoed in the New Testament.
Doug McMasters: It's found by Peter in 1 Peter 2, verses 6 to 8, where Jesus Christ himself is identified as that cornerstone.
Doug McMasters: When we put all of ourselves and invest everything that we are for life and eternity into Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: We are standing on top of this secure foundation, this tested place.
Doug McMasters: It's a concrete investment place.
Doug McMasters: It's a concrete investment.
Doug McMasters: The hope of redemption that Isaiah, chapter 28, is talking about, is fulfilled ultimately by our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: His death and his resurrection secure our salvation and our reconciliation with God and give us the promise that we'll be with him.
Doug McMasters: Jesus himself picked up these words and talked about himself.
Doug McMasters: We read about it in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, about Christ is the only foundation.
Doug McMasters: And in the book of Romans, in chapter 9, paul says this about the contrast between the bad investment and the right investment.
Doug McMasters: And he said this.
Doug McMasters: He said Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.
Doug McMasters: Thinking that they can be righteous by doing the things that God demands, they find that that thing actually reveals sin to them rather than grant them the righteousness that they were trying to attain.
Doug McMasters: Why is it?
Doug McMasters: Because they did not pursue it by faith, but, as if it were, by works.
Doug McMasters: They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, and he quotes Isaiah 28.
Doug McMasters: Look, I'm putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over.
Doug McMasters: And the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.
Doug McMasters: Paul explains there's a bad investment, a ruinous effort and endeavor, being preoccupied with the righteousness that comes from your abilities or righteousness that comes by simply believing on the righteous one, christ himself.
Doug McMasters: And the investment in Christ is the one where you'll never feel ashamed.
Doug McMasters: You'll step into eternity and there won't be a single moment in the eternal day that you'll say I wish I hadn't done that.
Doug McMasters: You'll never be ashamed.
Doug McMasters: And if Paul were alive today, he would say if you're planting your eternity and your investment of your never dying soul in your own abilities, he said you're no better than putting your assets into the hands of Bernie Madoff.
Doug McMasters: You're going to say why did I do that?
Doug McMasters: I'm ruined.
Doug McMasters: You see, telling people they need to be better and do better or think that they can go to heaven because they are better, is a sweet deception that just seems to ring well in all of our ears.
Doug McMasters: But it's a lie.
Doug McMasters: And Paul is telling us here that there's one investment, and one investment alone, that makes all the difference.
Doug McMasters: And it's not the collapsing capital investment, it's the concrete capital investment.
Doug McMasters: Who is the Lord Jesus himself?
Doug McMasters: We'll conclude with this Prince Oscar Bernadotte was born in 1859.
Doug McMasters: He was the second son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Queen Sophia, and he was titled initially the Duke of Gotland.
Doug McMasters: But his life took a remarkable turn.
Doug McMasters: In 1888, he married a lady named Ebba, who was a commoner, and he did so without the required royal consent.
Doug McMasters: So what did he do?
Doug McMasters: What did Prince Oscar do?
Doug McMasters: He renounced his royal titles.
Doug McMasters: He renounced his succession rights because he'd rather have Ebba than to have the title of prince or king.
Doug McMasters: Oscar and Ebba shared together a deep Christian faith.
Doug McMasters: It was a very central part of their lives together as a couple, and he was actively involved in a lot of organizations the Swedish YMCA, a number of different conferences and conventions.
Doug McMasters: It was just wonderfully used of God in that part of the world.
Doug McMasters: And he wrote the lyrics of a song in Swedish that have been attributed in English to a lady named Rhea Miller.
Doug McMasters: You might know the song I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.
Doug McMasters: I'd rather be his than have riches untold.
Doug McMasters: I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
Doug McMasters: I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hands than to be king of a vast domain or to be held in sin's dread sway.
Doug McMasters: I'd rather have Jesus than anything, anything this world affords today.
Doug McMasters: Amen, let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, thank you for this word, a word that is striking in its imagery, a word that pierces our very hearts.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for warning us, before we step into eternity, about the awful investment of self.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for the sweet invitations of life and the guarantee that comes by your very person, because you can swear by no higher.
Doug McMasters: You swore by yourself and gave us a security that our investment will never fail by putting ourselves in your hands.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for granting us a savior, jesus Christ, one who delivers us from ourselves and our own destruction.
Doug McMasters: And, father, I want to pray for anyone who's here, anyone who, maybe today for the first time, has asked themselves that very serious question when are my securities lying?
Doug McMasters: Who am I trusting?
Doug McMasters: Where's my reliance?
Doug McMasters: Oh, father, I pray that today would be the day that they bow to the true King, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, because you tell us in this that our glory is in you, that we find justice in you, that we find strength in you, that we find composure and rest, we find victory in you, because you are that cornerstone.
Doug McMasters: You promise us a never fading wreath of glory.
Doug McMasters: You grant us our wisdom and justice beyond imagining and strength that endures through the test of time.
Doug McMasters: Father, thank you, thank you.
Doug McMasters: Move them and move us.
Doug McMasters: We pray to be in the Savior and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.