Bank on God's Good Promise

BANK ON GOD'S GOOD PROMISE

Here is an excerpt from the sermon "Hope in the Lord! An Exposition of Isaiah 8:4-20a":

"Second, Isaiah makes it clear that he is banking on God’s promises. He says, “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face form the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.” (Isaiah 8:17) For people who can’t see farther than some pundit’s spin on the most recent event, the Lord’s hiding – the Lord’s apparent withholding of blessing – seems to confirm their unbelief. The governorship has switched hands; the House of Representatives has flipped; Washington, DC is a madhouse; activist judges are overreaching; the southern border is a mess; the country is morally bankrupt – ‘oh no!’ cries the unbelieving heart. You must learn to have very low expectations of people who remain dead in their sins – which frankly is where most people are at. At the same time, you must learn to have very high expectations of God’s purpose, even when you can’t discern the details – which frankly is most of the time. The king of Assyria was no saint, and yet he was a tool in the hand of our God! (see Isaiah 10:5-19)

"For true disciples who have the Lord’s Word in our possession and recollection, we are not tossed back and forth on the tumultuous waves of circumstance, uncertainty, and affliction. We know the Lord God, we know that He will come through for those who believe in Him, we know that setbacks and sufferings don’t have the last word, we know that His purpose shall stand and every promise shall be fulfilled. Therefore, we “wait for the LORD,” we wait for Him to act (Isaiah 64:4), we wait for Him to settle the matter in His own time and in His own way, and all our hope is in Him, because we know that He is good. Are you among the ‘we’ who put our hope in the Lord?"