What Happens When Trust Happens?

Isaiah chapter twenty eight through chapter thirty one. All right,

so twenty eight through thirty one, that's four chapters. I've

titled this what Happens when Trust happens? That sounds positive,

actually meant it to be ambiguous, because these four chapters

are very much focused on the idea of trust. But

with this kind of perspective, it leans in this direction,

what happens when people trust not God but other things?

What happens when people trust not God but other things?

What can you expect? This is four chapters of dense

Hebrew poetry, and we've got thirty minutes and so as

a as a garden that these four chapters may be,

and it's a pretty dense and mixed garden. Let me

tell you we are not going to be able to

walk through and pick every tomato and every pepper. Instead,

what I'm going to do is kind of go to

the top of each row and give you a sample.

These are the kinds of tomatoes you're going to find

and the kinds of peppers you're going to find throughout

these four chapters to convey this basic message, what can

you expect to see when people trust other things instead

of God? Here's what our sampling will show us. When

people trust other things instead of God, what you can

expect to see is judgment and grace. Judgment and grace,

which is a pretty important thing for us to consider,

considering the fact that we are a room full of people,

full of strugglers. There's nobody in this room who doesn't

struggle to trust God instead of trust yourself. Who doesn't

struggle to trust God instead of other people or other things.

So these warnings, these words of judgment are for us.

They're warnings to heed. And these words of grace are

also for us to take as comfort and to appeal

to the Lord. How might I see your grace as

I struggle to trust? Get into it? Two words of judgment,

two words of grace when people trust other things instead

of God. The first word of judgment that we would

find in these four chapters are is the word of

judgment towards those who trust in themselves, towards those who

trust in themselves. Right at the top in chapter twenty eight,

Isaiah speaks to them those who thought of themselves is

too sophisticated to trust God's word. Isaiah calls them the

proud crown of Ephrieim. They are so classy, they are

so sophisticated, they are so wise in themselves. They are

the glorious beauty. He says, they are there and prophet

of Ephrium. But his favorite title for these who think

of themselves as too sophisticated to trust the simple word

of God is the drunkards of Ephrium. He says, you

guys are so classy, you're like a dinner party with

vomit on the table. He says, God has spoken to you.

You can see this in verse twelve. I have given

you the simple message from the Lord, who said, this

is rest, this is repose. The fundamental message that I

have brought to you from the Lord is one of rest. Yes,

yes we have to hear from the Lord about obedience

and righteousness, but his fundamental messages you can rest in me,

you can find and repose in me. You can trust me.

But you wouldn't hear it. In fact, the way that

these sophisticates handled Isaiah's message was to mock him. You

can see this in versus nine and following they say,

they say about Isaiah, who's he gonna teach? He's so simple,

He's so basic. It's like baby talk. He is he

gonna teach babies? Is he gonna teach those who are nursing?

Because when when you listen to him teach God's word,

it's line by line, precept by precept here little they're little,

it's so like blah blah blah. And Isaiah says, listen,

you thought yourselves above God's word when it is simple,

and you wouldn't hear it. It sounded like baby talk

to you. And so here's what you can expect for

trusting yourself. There is going to come a word from

the Lord when at one time his word to you

was rest and repose, it was foundationally, you can trust me.

There is going to come a word from the Lord

in the mouth of foreign invaders. It's going to be

a message that you cannot not hear, and it's going

to sound like baby talk because you're not going to

understand a word they're saying. They're going to be speaking

a foreign language to you. It's going to be blah

blah blah, but you're not going to miss it. It's

going to be very simple. It's going to be lying uponline,

recept upon precept here, a little there, a little when

at once God's word to you was basic, rest and repose.

Trust me. Now will come a word that you cannot

not hear, and it will be this fallen, broken taken.

There were others, others who trusted in themselves that mere

appearances were the actual equivalent of real righteousness. You see

that sort of thing in Chapter twenty nine, verse thirteen.

The Lord says this, people draw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are

far from me. Their fear of Me is a commandment

taught by men. These were people who thought that they

could hide from God, that they could just avoid obvious

sin on the outside and let their hearts run with

envy and greed and lust. And they are like, God

can't see us, He can't see our ways. And God says,

you've got it completely upside down. You might not be

able to see all my ways, but I can see

all of your ways. And by playing this game, this

is what you can expect as you pretend that I

can't see your ways. Here is my judgment on you.

You will no longer be able to see my eye ways.

Your blind eyes will become blinder. Still, your hard heart

will become harder Still, when we fool ourselves into pretending

that God is blind, we become all the more blind

to God's ways. And then then what what do we do?

If God has given us up to blind eyes and

a hard heart? What can we expect when we trust

ourselves instead of trust God we trust, this is what

we can expect to end up hearing a word that

we cannot not hear, and to be given over to

our blindness and a hardness of heart. That is a

word of judgment that we should take as a very

serious warning. That's the first word of judgment that you'll

find in these four chapters. Here's the second word of judgment.

Second word of judgment comes to those who, instead of

trusting God, would trust other things or other people for

their refuge, for their security. See God had told the people,

do not trust in foreign alliances. When you feel threatened,

trust in me. I will be your refuge. This is

for your good. Don't trust in those who are going

to let you down. We hear say very similar things

toward to us in the New Testament as well. Don't

trust in other things, trust in me. Don't run to

sinful things for your satisfaction. Come to me. Don't rely

on sinful relationships. Trust in me, even things that would

be legitimate in their own place. God says, don't trust

in money, trust in me. Don't trust in the approval

of others. Trust in me, and we see what we

can expect to see. In verses fifteen through sixteen and

chapter twenty eight, you have you have Jerusalem, they say

we've made a covenant with death. In other words, we've

made an arrangement with people who are going to save

us from the threat that we're seeing from the Assyrians.

We've made a covenant, We've made an agreement, and when

the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come for us.

We've made lies our refuge in falsehood. We've taken shelter.

You see something similar, but huh, sorry, let me just

point out. Let me just point out they have taken

refuge in trusting other people and other things. Even though

look at the very next verse, even though the Lord

had said, behold, I am the one who has laid

a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a

precious cornerstone of sure foundation. I have my plan to

save you. You can trust in me. I am your refuge,

I am your protection. Even though I have given you

a trusted foundation and a cornerstone, you have gone to

build your own refuge, and it's a refuge of lies.

It's going to let you down. You see something similar

I was about to say in chapter thirty. In verse one,

for instance, the Lord says, awe stubborn children, declares the Lord,

who carry out a plan, but not mine, who make

an alliance, but not of my spirit. Even though verse

fifteen he had said, in returning and rest you shall

be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength,

but you were unwilling, and you said, no, we will

flee upon horses. They made their own plans. They didn't

consult the Lord. They refused to trust in the one

who said, in rest and returning will be your strength.

In quietness and trust will be your salvation. I've got you,

And they said no, We're gonna figure out another way

to feel secure. What are the results? What can you expect?

Well we see a sample of the results. In twenty

eight seventeen, God says, hailed will sweep away the refuge

of lives. Waters will overwhelm the shelter. Your covenant with

death will be an old when the overwhelming scourge passes through,

you will be beaten down by it. These things are

gonna let you down. It's not gonna work. And he

uses several metaphors throughout these four chapters of what it's

like to trust in other things and other people instead

of God, and how they're going to let you down.

He says, here's what it's gonna be like. It's trusting

in other things instead of God is like having a

bed that's too short to stretch out on. It's gonna

let you down. And then when you curl up, the

blanket's gonna be too narrow to cover you. He says,

Trusting in other things instead of trusting the Lord is

like a wall that has a bulge in it, like

a brick wall with a bulge. And he's like, it's

gonna give, it's gonna go. That wall is not stable,

and it falls apart like most things fall apart, little

by little, then all at once, says you. You said

you didn't want to find your security and me and

rest in returning and trust and quietness. So you said, no,

we're gonna get horses, We're gonna run. And he says, okay,

if that's your choice. If you run, you're gonna keep running,

and you're gonna run, and you're gonna run until you're

going to be like alone horseman on a hill all

by himself. You're gonna look like a flagpole on top

of a mountain. That is the life you've chosen by running,

by trusting other things instead of trusting me. What I

had for you was rest, and you wanted to run.

There are many ways in which we place our trust

in other things and other people, going to sinful things,

sinful relationships that you know God doesn't have for you,

sinful satisfactions that you know that God doesn't have for you,

or even things that would be legitimate in their place,

but they become a place of ultimate trust, and they

will let you down. Financial planning for your future a

the legitimate thing in its place, but if it becomes

your ultimate trust, it will let you down like a

bulge in a wall, little by little, and then all

at once. The approval of other people in your community

hey legitimate in its place. A good name is to

be valued above riches, but if it becomes a place

of ultimate trust, it will let you down. None of

these things deserve your trust when he has laid a

precious stone. He has laid a sure foundation in Christ,

and walking with him and trusting in him, your life

in his hands. All things can be built on that,

and he will not let you down. Expect every sinful

refuge to be swept away, and even those things that

would be legitimate in their place to benefit you only

in so far as they are built on Christ. Well,

these are the two warnings. These are the two words

of judgment that we can sample from these four chapters.

But we also see two words of grace, two words

of grace. Here's the first one. What can we expect?

What can we expect when others, when when we trust,

when we see people, when when we ourselves trust in

other things instead of God, we can expect God to

have his own wise timing and discernment and process for

every person and every situation. Here's what I mean. It's

an easy mistake to make that, in looking at all

of these things, that you would think of God as

sort of unobservant or undiscerning, as if he paints with

a broad brush all kinds of people in every situation,

when surely some are mistrusting and misplacing their trust in

different ways than other people, right, I mean, there's no

one here who isn't struggling. But at what level does

God just mechanically treat everyone the same? And Isaiah says, no,

that's not like God at all. God has his timing.

And you see in verse twenty eight, Oh sorry, chapter

twenty eight, verse twenty four, there's really this whole section

from twenty three to twenty nine. He says, does he

who plows for sowing plow continually? So Isaiah is comparing

God to a meticulous farmer, and he's saying, you know,

the farmer he plows the ground, he breaks it up,

but he doesn't do it forever. He knows when it's

time to have having done that work, to plant the seed.

And he knows. He has his own sense of timing

in every person's life and in every people's group. He

knows when it's time. God knows the time of his

work in every life, and not only the timing. He

has discernment from person to person. Look at verse twenty five.

Does he not scatter dill so cumin? Put it in

wheat and rose barley in its proper place emmer as

the border. In other words, God knows how to treat

people according to who they really are. He doesn't treat

everybody the same? Is everybody the same? Does God not

know and discern more than a farmer does how to

plant his field. God knows how to work through his

own timing and discernment, depending on who you are, and

he has his own process. Look at verse twenty seven

and following. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sled,

nor has a cart wheel rolled over cumen, but deal

bill is beaten out with a stick and cumul with

the rod. This is more agriculture than I've ever learned.

Does one crush grain for bread? No, he doesn't thrust

it forever. When he drives his cartwheel over it with

his horses, he doesn't crush it. This also comes from

the Lord of hosts. He is wonderful in counsel and

excellent in wisdom. In other words, God knows his process

and his work with every person. He isn't random, he

isn't mechanical in his judgment or his discipline. He's more

precise and discerning than the most meticulous gardener. And that's

a grace, because who amongst us doesn't struggle when it

comes to trusting ourselves or trusting other things instead of

trusting God, or even fooling ourselves into thinking that we

can pretend in front of God. Can we trust that

God will handle his disciplining work with care? Absolutely. He

knows his timing for you, and he knows his process

for you. That's what we can expect even as we

struggle in putting our trust in other places. Here's the

second word of grace. What can we expect as trust

is placed in other things instead of God. We can

expect God to make a way to display his grace.

We can trust God. We can expect him to make

a way to display his grace. One of the things

that's the most prominent in these four chapters is that

it's completely mixed with God's warnings of judgment and discipline,

and also God's promise says that there's going to be

a display of his grace. There's going to be a

display of his rescue. Almost a whole first half of

chapter twenty nine is God's description of the enormous turnaround

that's gonna happen with Jerusalem. He's like, Okay, Jerusalem, here's

what's gonna happen. You are going to get beat down

to the dust. You're gonna be surrounded. You're gonna be

so beat down that your face is like in the dust,

like you're only gonna be. I won't get down on

the floor here, but that's where your face is going

to be when you talk, like the dust is going

to splatter. That's how low I'm taking you in my discipline.

But I am going to turn it around for you.

And I'm gonna your enemies are going to become like

the dust, and I Am going to scatter them like

the dust. I'm gonna turn it around. I'm going to

make a way to show my grace. Similarly, he says

this in twenty nine eighteen. In that day the death

shall hear the words of a book. Out of their

gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see,

the meek shall obtain fresh joy. In the Lord verse

twenty four, those who go astray in spirit will come

to understanding. Those who murmur will accept instruction. God will

make a way to show his grace, to put his

rescue on display. The question that has to be running

through all of our minds and all of our hearts

is how do I become like those whose who are

the display of His grace. How do I become a

trophy of his rescue? How do I become those whom

God loves to show mercy to? Well, For one thing,

it says the meek will obtain fresh joy in the Lord.

But here's another place where he puts it in a

way that's just so beautiful. Chapter thirty, verses eighteen and following,

he says this, The Lord waits to be gracious to you.

He exalts himself to show mercy to you. Read this,

He will surely be gracious to you at the sound

of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he

answers you. God's call to trust in him is motivated

by our good. His discipline is for our good. He

loves to show his grace and rescue. It's his prerogative

to do it. He knows his timing, he knows his process.

But we can't manipulate his grace. We can't force God

into rescue. But listen to what the word is here.

He exalts himself to show mercy as soon as he

hears it, he answers your cry. Do you want God

to show his grace and rescue to make you a

trophy of his grace, a display of his mercy. Cry

out to him, not in pretense. We can get on

our knees on the outside and be standing straight up

on the inside. Likewise, we can be standing on the

outside yet kneeling inwardly. God says, here's what you can expect.

Here's what you can expect. I exult in myself to

show mercy to you. So cry out to me. Put

your trust fully in me. I have made the way.

I have provided all of the righteousness that you need

to stand before me. I've provided it in Jesus Christ.

He has taken all of the wrath that I have

for sinners. He's taken it. Just cry out to have

it on your behalf. He exults himself to show mercy.

That's his character. If you cry out, that's what you

can expect. That's what happens when trust happens.