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Stand Firm or Fall!
from sermon series
“Learning from Isaiah”
by
Pastor Dave Strem
Used by
permission
As I read Isaiah chapters
7-50, I almost feel like I am reading today’s
newspaper. Newspapers from 2,700 years ago would have
been filled with all kinds of bad news. Names and
places that are unfamiliar to us, events that were
threats to daily comforts and routines. In Isaiah’s day
war and rumors of wars were common. Violence was all
around them, closing in on their very lives. They were
about as destructive as 9-11 was in this country, about
as normal as a terrorist driving into an Army camp and
blowing it up and killing hundreds of people. Israel
had its problems; danger seemed to lurk around every
corner.
Isaiah chapters 7-50 take a
tour of the whole Middle East. Chapter 13 talks about
Babylon, which is Iraq; 15 talks about Jordan; 17 talks
about Syria; 18 about Ethiopia, 19 about Egypt, 20 about
Iran; 23 talks about the Palestinians; and 44 talks
about the Persians. And to each God promises His
judgment because of their rebellion. Despite their
armies and military power, all will fall. Reading
Isaiah 7’s reference to Ahaz, Rezin, and Pekah, all
rulers of nations, is like reading US News and World
Report, the international section, but the names
have been changed to Arafat, Bin Laden, and Saddam
Hussein. Those were big names in Isaiah’s day and most
of us have never heard of them. In a few years Bush,
Saddam Hussein, and Bin Laden, will fade from the
world’s political stage the same way Reagan, Gorbachev,
and Ayatollah Khomeni have faded. We have lost interest
in them. They mean little or nothing to us now. This
is a significant point. God asks, “Why are you afraid
of them? They are just men and I have My eternal plan
and your destiny in My hands.” God is forever, but men
are temporal on this earthly stage!
Isaiah 7:5 says, “Aram,
Ephraim, and the sons of Remaliah have plotted against
you saying, Let us invade Judah and let us tear it apart
and divide it among ourselves?” Anybody in the Middle
East want to do that today? Does that sound like it
could be tomorrow’s headlines of what they are
plotting? “Let us divide Judah and tear it apart and
divide it among ourselves,” they say, but God said,
“NO!, it will not. It will not happen.” God continues
in verse 8, “For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the
head of Damascus is Resin and he is just a man. Why
are you afraid of him? Within sixty-five years Ephraim,
too, will be shattered.” They are just temporary flesh
with temporary glory but God is forever!
Isaiah 7:1-9 follow a
familiar pattern in Scripture. A lesson is taught, a
truth is given, and an admonition calling for commitment
follows. After the lesson of the first eight verses,
verse nine is the commitment verse. “If you will not
believe, surely you shall not be established.” In other
words, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, then
you will not stand at all.” Amid the flurry of temporal
turmoil hold on to your eternal destiny! Amid all the
things you read in the newspapers, the reports, the TV
programs, 60 Minutes, let God secure your heart with His
eternal plan.
The chief lesson God wants
to teach us in Isaiah 7 and 8 is this: “Don’t worry
about them, you need to worry about me. For I am the
one who holds control of the earth and I am the one to
whom you are going to be held accountable. Stand firm
in faith or you will not stand at all.”
What does it mean to stand
firm in our faith? How do we accomplish it? First, we
must rest in God’s peace. If we are standing firm, we
have the peace of God, we have the security that He is
holding our lives in His hands. Remember the story of
Moses and the Red Sea. Egypt’s army is barreling down
upon them and Moses stands before the people and says,
“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the
deliverance the Lord brings to you today. The Egyptians
you see today, you will never see again. In fact, no
one will ever see them again.” They went down. If we
are firm in our faith, we will have God’s peace.
In America we have the best
military in the world, we feel we can rely upon that and
do not have to run away in fear. In fact, we are proud
of that. In today’s threatening times it is a blessing
to have a strong military. But where does your security
rest? Even with a strong military, do we still look to
God for help and protection? Isaiah 31:1-5 says, “Woe
to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely upon
their horses or trust in chariots because they are many
or horsemen because they are very strong but who do not
look to the holy one of Israel nor seek the Lord.”
America must never forget God. When we do, all the
military might in the world will not save us.
If you were king, and a
ruthless army was coming to capture, kill, and enslave
you, your wife, and your children, what would you do?
Run away or try to build alliances. The problem with
the king of Israel was not that he sought help, but that
he had no trust in God. It is the same way with
America. Whether it is horses or tanks or B-2 bombers
or stealth fighters, our ultimate trust cannot be in
these things. New dangers will arise. New weapons make
old weapons obsolete every year. Anthrax and poison and
‘dirty bombs’ all promise to hurt and kill us. We must
learn the lesson of Isaiah 7:9, “Stand firm in faith or
you won’t stand at all.”
“Thus says the Lord, as the
lion or young lion growls over its prey, against which a
band of shepherds is called out and he, being the lion,
will not be terrified at their voice, the shepherd’s
voice, or disturbed at their noise, the shepherds have
no effect upon these young lions. So will the Lord of
hosts come down” (Isaiah 31:4). The human shepherds
were useless, but God saved His people. He got involved
to fulfill His plan. If it is not within His overall
plan, it will not happen! David expressed it
beautifully in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I
shall not want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures.” He provides me what I need. He continues,
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod
and your staff they comfort me.” And the vivid, the
literal picture that is given here is not simply someone
who is dying, someone who is fearful of dying, but is
one who is going through a valley of extreme darkness
and terrors. Where predators are lurking, in the rocks
and the valleys. Their eyes are aglow hiding in the
bushes, in the middle of the night. They stare at the
sheep and the sheep have no place to go because they are
walled in. They cannot get away, they are bleeding,
helpless, but they realize they have nothing to fear for
the Lord is their shepherd and He will be able to take
care of them. David finishes in verse 6, “Surely
goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days
of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.” I am going to stay in His sheepfold because
that is the only place that is secure. I am going to
stay in the center of where He wants me. It is not
worth exploring other valleys. “Stand firm in your
faith or you won’t stand at all.” Stand firm in your
faith or you’ll be running for the rest of you life.
Secondly, stand firm in the
faith means we have God’s perspective on life. In
America we usually do not spend our time running from
things. Usually we consume our time running after
things. Israel had just experienced 50 years of
security and prosperity that lulled them into a sense of
invincibility and selfish materialism. But their land
was full of idols. Their trust was in other things
rather than God. Other things were at the center of
their attention. “Their land is full of idols. They
bow down to the work of their hands, to what their
fingers have made” (Isaiah 2:8). Standing firm in faith
means that you live according to God’s perspective and
values. You do not live to buy the next toy or work to
pay for the toys that you have already lost interest in,
but you get God’s perspective of what is truly
valuable.
Thirdly, standing in faith
means that you have God’s purpose in your life. As
Psalms 33 says, “The plans of the Lord stand firm
forever.” First Corinthians tells us, “My dear brother,
stand firm and let nothing move you. But always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you
know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Most
of our work, folks, is in vain. Most of the things we
strive after, most of the effort, the things we spend
our time and days doing, end up being in vain. They end
up accounting for very little. The raises we strive
after are soon eaten up by inflation. The promotions we
desire seem to just add stress to our life. The houses
we dream of having end up just becoming a big, long list
of chores and the cars we crave, they break down and
rust away. Stand firm in your faith and do not let
people or things distract you!
Does ‘standing firm’
describe you? Do you see yourself as firm in your faith
or is there room to grow in your life? Not simply in
your commitment to Christ, but in your commitment to
walk with God through each and every day. How do we do
it? How do we grow in our faith? How do we grow in our
walk with God? Standing firm, first of all, comes by
exercising commitment. Second Thessalonians says,
“Stand firm and hold to the teaching we have passed onto
you, whether by word of mouth or written letter.”
Ephesians 6 says, “Stand firm with a belt of truth
around your waist and a breastplate of righteousness in
place, and the helmet of salvation on your head.” We
must determine to let God’s truth direct our lives.
Without commitment, without taking His Word seriously,
you will be blown around this world like a feather in
the winds of change. Without commitment, you’re a
feather in the breeze blowing wherever the world would
like to take you. Be rooted, stand firm in Him, and
grow as he nourishes you.
Next, let His promises move
you to live courageously in this world. First
Corinthians says, “Be on your guard, stand firm in faith
and be men of courage. Be strong.” God told Joshua
numerous times, “Be strong and courageous for I am with
you. Moses is dead, but I am with you. The strength
was not in Moses, the strength was in me.” To live
courageously in this world means to do what is right no
matter the circumstances, to follow God wherever He
leads.
Nurture your commitment,
your courage, your connection and then God’s peace,
God’s perspective, and God’s purpose will overshadow a
frantic world. Let God’s good news dissolve the bad
news. And know in your heart that no matter what
happens in this world, only what is done with His
approval and partnership will last. Kings will come and
kings will go, but the Lord stands forever! Let us
stand with Isaiah when he said, “O, Lord, you are my
God and I will exalt you and praise your name for in
perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things,
things planned long ago.” To top of
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