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 and verses 1 through 6. The verses before us today give us a picture of God's justice, mercy, and grace. We see something called poetic justice, that is, the fact of experiencing a fitting or deserved retribution for one's actions in this passage. The Lord has made a world that has sowing and reaping in it by design. Galatians 6, 7, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The Lord is going to reward his people's enemies in kind. We have seen this before and may rest assured that the Lord will protect his people, defend them, and even prosper them in the face of their enemies. This chapter is a summary of what the Lord will do with Assyria and Judah. He will bring Assyria to justice and show mercy and grace to his people in Judah. What is the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is not receiving the punishment you deserve, and we, along with Judah, have certainly been shown mercy. Grace is receiving something, blessings or rewards that are not earned. These meet together with justice in Jesus Christ. Justice was done, and God's holiness was satisfied by his death for our sin. Mercy and grace were given in him as well. Mercy in that we do not receive the punishment we deserve, Isaiah 53 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. We receive grace in that we are given life eternal. reconciled to God and the promise of the resurrection in a glorified body. We are blessed with the Holy Spirit to indwell us as an earnest of that inheritance. What a glory. And what should our reaction to this be? Our enemies, justly punished, we should rejoice and praise the Lord for dealing with them for us. We should be thankful for the mercy and the grace shown to us, for we were once his enemies and at enmity with him, but we were chosen, as the nation of Judah was, to receive this grace and mercy. Should we not have a continual song of praise and thanksgiving upon our lips? Ought we not feel drawn to worship Him at every turn? Have we considered the sowing and the reaping? What have we sown, and what should we expect to reap? And what lessons does this summary of judgment, mercy, and grace have for us? Let us look at our text. Isaiah 33 verses 1-6 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. And when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. O Lord, be gracious unto us, we have waited for thee. Be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. At the noise of the tumult, the people fled. At the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered, and your spoils shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar, as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them. The Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth on high. He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. Woe to thee that spoilest, thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously. and they dealt not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. This is a repetition of verse one. And when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. Our passage tells us that Assyria had it good for quite a while. They were the victors and to the victors go the spoils. They spoiled other nations and seemingly they just couldn't lose. They were the spoilers who were never spoiled. They were the ones who could deal treacherously with other nations, but other nations would not get away with dealing treacherously with them. Judah had paid tribute to Assyria in order to keep them from invading. and to help them in their battle against Israel and Syria. But Assyria eventually turned on Judah and invaded anyway. It was in their heart to do this all along. Assyria took all their treasures, broke their agreement. Assyria said, go ahead, pay me to help you and I will come and hurt you. Assyria dealt with Judah quite treacherously. And so God pronounces a woe here upon Assyria and Sennacherib. They had taken all the cities of Judah, and not with any cause, but that it was in their hearts to conquer nations, not a few. Assyria loved to conquer, to spoil, and to deal treacherously. They, as we have seen previously, were in the spoil and treachery business, not for somebody else's glory, but for their own. Tiglath-Pileser, the king, did not honor his agreement with Ahaz in 2 Chronicles 28 verse 20. And Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came unto him and distressed him, but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria, but he helped him not. Tiglath-Pileser was glad to take the bribe, but did not honor the agreement. The promise of God is that there will be an end to this spoiling and treachery. This would not be a voluntary end, Assyria would not grow a conscience and look hard in the mirror and repent of this spoiling and treachery. God put an end to it by slaying 185,000 of the soldiers of the army of Assyria that were encamped around Jerusalem. And ultimately, he assassinated or directed the assassination of Sennacherib. The spoils would be left for those in Jerusalem to take. God is in heaven and has created a world where we reap and we sow, and inescapably, without mercy and grace, we will get the punishments we deserve and none of the blessings that we don't. God will reward the enemies of his people in kind for their spoil and treachery. Verse two. Oh Lord, be gracious unto us. We have waited for thee. Be thou their arm every morning. our salvation also in time of trouble. This is a prayer of Judah, specifically those in Judah who are waiting upon the Lord, for the Lord is going to bless them, and they pray for that blessing, even though they have done nothing that merits God's blessing. These have waited upon the Lord and trusted in his mercy. We should do the same, for his mercy endureth forever. They are praying for deliverance from the Assyrians. God is gracious. You should trust his mercy, for it endures forever, and he saves many. Consider what is said of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18 verse 5. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. In our verse, we see a change in those who wait, saying, we waited for thee, and their arm every morning back to our salvation. We see this change in person from us to their to our. This seems unusual to us at first, but he is not praying for Judah collectively, then for Assyria's arm, and then for Judah again. That language may sound confusing and may point in that direction. Isaiah is offering a prayer first for all of Judah, including himself. So he uses that we pronoun. Then for Judah alone, so he uses their to describe them. And then for them, after that, he goes back to our, to together again. Consider for a moment your own prayers. Perhaps you pray for your church with you included. Lord bless us. Then you might pray for blessings upon them, your church collectively, but not with you in the mix, that the Lord be merciful to each of them. And then again, you might turn and say, be gracious to us all together. Isaiah prays for the Lord to be their arm of strength every morning. He is their protector and defender at the beginning of each day. He prays as well for the Lord to be their salvation in the times of trouble that they are dealing with. Verse 33, verse three. At the noise of tumult, people fled. At the lifting up of thyself, the nations were scattered. Here's what the Lord is going to do to spoil Assyria. He's going to create a tumult by the way of the angel of death coming in by night and laying waste to the army of Assyria, killing 185,000 in one night. At the tumult caused by this great and terrible event, the remaining army of Assyria fled along with Sennacherib. The confusion and upheaval caused by this great event must have been tremendous to say the least. The Lord raised up the lifting up of thyself and struck fear into the nations that made up the treacherous spoilers of Assyria. When the great light and glory of the Lord is shown, it causes the enemies to scatter. Verse four. And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar, as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them. Assyria had taken spoil of all their enemies, and now their spoil would be taken. With a large portion of their army dead, they fled and could not carry all of their spoil and stuff with them. Judah instead would gather this spoil, and they in that manner would be the spoilers of Assyria. This is reminiscent of the Egyptians being decimated by the plagues and the death of the firstborn, and in the end all the Egyptians giving their spoil to Israel. Exodus 12, 35 and 36. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians. The spoil would be like that of caterpillars on a plant. They would devour it nearly completely. It also is described as the spoil of locusts. You may recall the plague of locusts in Egypt, another link to that Exodus passage, where locusts decimated all of the agriculture of Egypt. Exodus 10, 15, for they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened. And they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, which the hail had left. And there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt." The Jews here are going to have all the spoils of Assyria. God not only was merciful to them, but graciously blessed them and did so with great abundance. And it is likely the very tribute that Judah had paid that Assyria dealt with them treacherously over was returned to the storehouse of the Lord. Verse five, the Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth on high. He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. There is none to be compared to the Lord Almighty. It is He who is exalted. When men do not glorify Him, or when they glorify themselves over against Him, you may be sure that He will deal with them and deal with them in kind. When enemies come against his people, he is going to be the Avenger. Forget the Marvel characters in the Marvel Universe, the Lord is the Avenger of his people. We do not need Iron Man or the Hulk. He is the one that dwells on high, and he is exalted above all. He alone is worthy of praise. He filled Zion with judgment. By ending the spoiling and treachery of these blaspheming invaders from Assyria, he wrought repentance and worship from his once fearful and unbelieving people. In other words, he turned everything upside down, or perhaps right side up. He raised up King Hezekiah, who would be a righteous king, far different from his father Ahaz. Hezekiah would go about ending the worship of idols and tearing down the high places where they may be worshiped, turning from idolatry and turning his nation from idolatry back to serve the one true and living God. Verse six, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times. and the strength of thy salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. The fear of the Lord, we are told, is the beginning of wisdom. And this is true. God's victory over Assyria would bring about a great revival in Judah. The once idolatrous and greedy people would repent for their sins and for a time serve the Lord with fear and trembling. The times would be stable in wisdom and knowledge brought about by the worship and fear of the Lord. This is the bringing about of peace through the spoiling of the enemy. All the idols in the high places, as we said before, would be removed. Hezekiah, who had led the people in repentance, would also be specially spared from death, being cured of a disease that was a disease unto death, and granted an additional 15 years of life. Note the lesson at the end of this section. Though the Lord had blessed and enriched them with the spoil, they would find their true treasure in the worship of God, their true strength, not in armies or contracted alliances, but in his salvation. This is another way of saying the Lord is where they would find their wisdom, strength, and refuge. And what evils could have been avoided had Judah done this in the first place? Some lessons for us. sowing, reaping, and the God of justice, mercy, and grace. I was sitting around a campfire many years ago and found myself discussing theology with a man across the fire, who is a dear friend now, and he asked an old familiar question. It seems to me that we are not the only people who pass out tracts and have standard answers to standard questions or standard questions to ask, to engage in some sort of evangelism. Atheists evangelize too. I think they must pass out tracts secretly with only this question on it. How can a loving God allow all of this evil to come to pass? How can this loving and all good God allow evil at all? How can he put men to death? What about suffering? Answering these questions is less difficult than many may think, but the answers are not easy to take. The first problem is us. We have to understand that man is, in his initial condition here, totally depraved. My first question, in beginning the rebuttal to this argument, is usually an attack on the first incorrect assumption of their line of questioning. They have assumed that man is basically good. So I ask, is man basically good with bad tendencies, or basically evil or bad with the occasional good tendency? I have yet to find the answer from anybody, except a good old Sovereign Grace kind of dude. The answer almost always is, yes, man is basically good. If an atheist asks the question, the answer is 100% of the time, they believe man is basically good. This is the first issue. They certainly do not see themselves as sinners who are subject to a holy God. They want God to be loving by their own definition, not by the true definition of love, and they certainly are not interested in understanding a holy God. So, we go to Psalm 14, and we find there is none good, no, not one. God has done the assessment. He's looked down upon all men and found that we are the ones who are lacking in the quote good department. This is a big reframe of the worldview that they have and it is often a sticking point with people who have not come to understand their own sin. Getting them to suspend their disbelief for a moment, we determine ourselves to move on. Man, in these questions, is exalting himself against God. As though man is the judge and God must answer for all of his deeds, God must answer for being loving and at the same time holy. They have been taught that God's preeminent attribute is love. But all of God's attributes are subject to His holiness. So His love is a holy love. His jealousy is a holy jealousy. His anger is holy anger, and so on. Their definition of love is skewed more than a bit as well. Their entire reality is skewed. God has made a world where sowing and reaping are true. where sowing and reaping are facts. They are not bugs, but features. And so, all of his creation is subject to these things. All of his creation is also subject to his holiness, his standards, his word. This is where things get interesting. Those who challenge the holy God on his goodness and love presume that he should not allow suffering or evil. But what basis do they even have for the challenge? There's no standard they're coming to God with except His own. They cannot borrow the standard from God and then rail against the standard. These same men believe they are good, but what is their standard for good? Their entire argument hinges on a standard they've borrowed from the God of all creation. They would say, there is no such thing as sin, so there's no need of a Savior. So, how do you explain the concept of sin to someone who does not believe in sin? I love the answer R.C. Sproul gave one time. He said, of such, if you want somebody to understand sin, steal his wallet. It all becomes different when viewed in the lens of our own personal property or our own person. It is here we get sowing and reaping perfectly. This is sowing and reaping. You cannot sin without consequence. Sowing sin, you will reap sin and death. This is justice. We call that getting what you deserve. We saw in our passage that for a long time, Assyria was actually being treated mercifully. They were spoiling and treacherous, but not getting what they deserve. and they were the instrument of God's justice upon many. But none who has sinned will escape a holy God's justice. So now, asking the right question, how can a holy, good, and loving God not destroy us all immediately for our sins, we must, you see, take away the idol of self embedded in the first line of questions. Those questions assume God answers to us, therefore, that we are the gods, and they presume to be more loving and compassionate than God, which we most assuredly are not. When our person is attacked, what do we do? We have sinned daily against the person of God, and what has he done? He has been merciful and gracious to us. Judah deserved utter destruction, but God was merciful and preserved them. Judah did not deserve the spoils of Assyria, the rewards for God's victory, but God gave them the spoil graciously anyway. We live in a sin-cursed world, one that God made that was very good and we've defiled. This means that we are the problem and not God. Viewed from that perspective, we might very well ask, why has God not executed His wrathful destruction upon us all? In a word, the word Jesus. God in His infinite wisdom, grace, and mercy sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, that we might be made holy in Him. God is holy and justice must be served, and it was served upon Christ. as the propitiation for our sins. God, in the sacrifice of His Son, was merciful and gracious to us, not punishing us as we deserved and granting us life eternal in Christ. The great shock or surprise should be not that God is loving and good, and all these bad things still happen, but that He is holy and yet, through Christ, He redeemed us who were worthy of nothing but death and utter annihilation. When the campfire grew cold, the fire in my friend grew hot. He is now a faithful minister, husband, and father. God is holy, loving, just, jealous, merciful, gracious, and wise. So many other attributes could be added to the list, but thanks be to God for his mercy and his grace. What are we to do? The Lord has surely been gracious and merciful to us, so let us be gracious and merciful to one another. Ought we not to consider what we deserve when we are ready to dole out justice? The Lord is our avenger, so let's leave that to Him. We must always balance these things, but we are always training our justice muscles, and it seems our mercy and grace have atrophied a bit. All three are good and loving and right, so let us exercise them all and seek wisdom from the Lord and His word in doing so. And in doing so, may the Lord 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.