In his sermon titled 'We Have a Strong City,' Scott Brown explores Isaiah 26:1-11, focusing on the themes of divine judgment, peace, and the significance of songs in a believer's life. The sermon highlights the notion of a 'strong city' as a metaphor for the Church and God's eternal kingdom, emphasizing the protective power of God's salvation as a fortress against life's adversities. Brown underscores the profound impact of songs on personal and collective spiritual health, warning against the detrimental influence of secular and morally corrupt music. He advocates for a life centered on godly songs that reinforce trust in God, especially during times of difficulty. The sermon also explores the fall of the 'lofty city,' symbolizing the eventual downfall of prideful and self-reliant societies, and stresses the importance of waiting for God's judgments with a heart steadfast in His truth. Through this biblical lens, Brown encourages individuals and families to prepare for future challenges by internalizing songs of deliverance that align with God's word and lead to lasting peace and righteousness.

The scripture for this morning's message is Isaiah 26, 1 through 11. In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Upon the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength. For he brings down those who dwell on high. The lofty city, he lays it low. He lays it low to the ground, he brings it down to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.

The way of the just is uprightness. All must upright. You weigh the path of the just. Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for you. The desire of our soul is your name and for the remembrance of you.

With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

Father God, Lord, we are here today with many expectations, and Lord, we come here to adore You and also to receive Your instruction and Your direction and also Your wisdom. Lord, we pray that as God comes to deliver this message, Lord, that you may anoint him with power and With the words Lord to fully communicate all that you have given to us today Amen Well, it's such a joy to bring this passage of Scripture this morning. Here Isaiah is bringing to us a song. This chapter pictures people singing, and they're living in a time in history where they had been given a song to sing. We know that in the context of what we've been dealing with over the last few weeks in this section, Isaiah 24-27 explains how God is going to judge the world and how his people should think about that judgment.

And we've been kind of getting what we've called an advanced degree in the judgment of God to understand it better, to think more rightly about the judgment of God. And this song in Isaiah 26 answers a question, a really important question, and that is, how should I prepare myself to endure a time of judgment or difficulty that might happen to me? When it comes, will I be prepared? Well, this song is a song that was designed to be sung in the midst of a time of social unrest, political collapse, and military destruction. And so this song has been given to us.

And in this song really is the secret of right thinking about when you're in a time of calamity or maybe the judgment of God is on your life maybe he's chastising you maybe you're you've endured a terrible reversal or maybe not maybe maybe you just have fears of all these kinds of reversals and and how should you think about it? Well God has given us this song and we're going to analyze this song over the next two weeks. Well it might take three but it will definitely be two weeks to analyze the song. Maybe you've analyzed songs before. You've not analyzed a song like this song before.

Most songs that we sing in modern times are far more simple, far more repetitive. This one is very detailed, it's incredibly profound, and it goes to the depths of many areas of the wisdom of God and the lyrics are really remarkable here. What you'll find also is that in this song, in the entire chapter, You'll find it has various elements. There are declarative elements. There are truths that are proclaimed in the song.

And then there are corporate elements where it's obvious that Isaiah is assuming that the whole body of people are saying these words together. And then there's also a very personal element, where it's clear that Isaiah is expressing his own heart in a song. You've sung songs like that, where sometimes you sing about we. We praise you, O Lord. You might say, oh, I exalt you, O God.

It's very personal. So he goes from, you'll find the first person singular and also first person plural in this song. You'll find the voice of God in the song. And you'll even find commands in this song. So it's a really rich and diverse kind of a song.

And the thing about songs is that songs usually define the way of a person's life. And it's just caused me to ask for myself and also for us as a church, what songs do we sing in our hearts? Because the songs that you sing in your heart tell you who you are and whose you are and what you love. Songs are very, very important. You know, it's it's always troublesome when a terrible song gets in your head.

You know, it happens to me all the time. I'm walking through a store and some horrible song that I know every word of from the 1970s is being played. And then I say, oh, God, get those words out of my mind, you know. And sometimes a silly song, it's so terribly silly and ridiculous and it gets in your mind and you keep saying and you think, help me to get away from this song. Because songs are very, very powerful.

And depending on the lyrics and the feel of the song, it can be an irritation or a curse to you. Or it can soothe your soul, it can make you happy, it can help you. The songs of God are designed for that, to think rightly about life. And it's so right for us to set our whole lives aside for the very best songs. Yesterday, I made the mistake of Googling the lyrics of the top songs of the week in the world.

Because I wanted to read what their lyrics were. I've been in these lyrics of this song, and I just wanted to just have some sense. I wish I hadn't looked. I was very sobering to consider the kind of life that can arise out of the repeating of lyrics like that and the destruction that can take place. It matters what songs you sing.

Now, further, As a pastor, I'm always very concerned about the songs that we are singing privately in our homes, as we go in our cars. As a shepherd of souls, it always matters to me what songs are being listened to and also what's being watched and how we're spending our time. This is what shepherds are supposed to do, right? They're supposed to say, go in this direction, don't go in that direction, and songs and images and activities, these are all things, Everything matters in this world. And I know it can be offensive for a pastor to say, you should listen to this and you shouldn't listen to that.

But I'm here to say that that's what shepherds are supposed to do. But here is a song that I would say, listen to this kind of song. It's a beautiful song. And there are songs that will destroy you. It mattered a lot to me when I was raising my children.

My children are all raised, as you all know. It mattered what kind of songs they listened to and I knew it would shape their lives, and I knew it would leave indelible marks on their souls. So it matters. It matters a lot what kind of songs you have in your head. And I know What happens to a generation that listens to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles?

I know. I know very personally. I know exactly what happens as a result of when you have those songs. You get 50 million aborted babies. That's what you get.

You get enormous, terrible cataclysms. I know what happens to men when they listen to rape rap. I know what happens to young men when they listen to modern country western songs. I know what happens to young women when they listen to the modern romantic songs. I know.

I know exactly what happens to them. And so as a shepherd, I'm here to say it matters. Parents, it matters. Children, it matters. I just want to take this moment to look every person in the eye and say, what are you listening to?

It matters. It matters so much. Does it soothe your soul? Does it build your faith? Does it glorify God?

Does it cause love? Does it cause you to care for the people of His church? Does it bring purity? What does it do to you? Because songs do something to you.

Absolutely. People say, well, I don't really listen to the words. That is absolutely the most ridiculous thing in the world. Songs matter. If they didn't matter, they wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry.

Because It matters. And it matters so much that there's a lot of money tied to it. So what happens in your thinking and in your emotions and in your actions when you sing the words of this song in Isaiah chapter 26? That's really the focus of it. Now let me just pull back for a moment.

We're in this section of Isaiah chapters 24 through 27 where in chapter 24 we saw how God will judge the world. In the previous section we saw that God was going to judge all the nations of the world. Now Isaiah is moving in. How is he going to judge the world? And that was chapter 24.

In chapter 25, Isaiah praises God that he's going to judge the world. And at the same time, he speaks of just the faithfulness of God to his remnant. And then when we get to chapter 26, when you consider that it's good that God would destroy evil in the world, it's good that God would care for His people and nourish them and cherish them with salvation, what do you do? You sing. And that's what you find in chapter 26.

When we get to chapter 27, we find that God is going to tell us about two things through Isaiah 27. First of all, he's going to destroy Leviathan. He's going to cut his head off and destroy him forever. Leviathan is the devil. And he's going to water his garden.

It's two remarkable pictures. He's going to slay the dragon and he's going to water his garden. That's chapter 27. I can't wait to get there. So again, you know, just to give ourselves a sense of it, in chapters 1 through 12, God is calling his people to come and reason together with him, though their sins be a scarlet, they shall be whitest and old." Chapters 1-12, you see a picture of the judgments of God upon a people who rejects him.

The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. There's nothing but bruises and wounds and putrefying sores. That's chapters 1-12. And then in chapters 13-23, after you've been told that judgment begins in the household of God, then in chapters 13 through 23, we see that God actually judges the nations on the very same measure that he judges his own people, and that is the Word of God. And then in chapters 24 through 27, we're given a vision of a greater judgment, of this judgment over the whole world.

So the house of God, 1 through 12, the nations, 13 through 23, and then the whole world from chapters 24 to 27. So that's the picture that we're working with. Now, as you can see on your outlines, I hope you have an outline in front of you. I have broken every rule of preaching that I was ever taught in seminary. You never give 14 points.

That you give only three points. Well, I'm sorry. There's so many points in this text. Now, I could have broken this up into three sections and made it easier, but I didn't do that, because I wanted you to see distinctly the lyrics of the song, the heart of the song, because it's a complex song. It's not a song with three points.

It's a song with lots of points. And we're only going to go through maybe half the song today. And so it could be divided up in verses one through four, where you see this vision of the strong city. It's a song about a strong city. We could break it up after that, verses 5 through 6, the fall of the city of the world, the rebellious city, and then finally the righteousness of God from verses 7 through 11.

However you want to break it up, there are, there are, the song does flow, but, but in the outline you can't really see how the flow is, because I'm just gonna pound away here at the lyrics, at each line of the song. So there is disagreement about how long the song is. I think it's the whole chapter. Some people say it's not the whole chapter. A lot of people say they don't know.

I don't see any reason why it's not the whole chapter. I just can't find it. There's nothing explicit to me in the text. You do find the various voices flowing through the text, but I don't think that necessarily means it's the song ends somewhere. It may end at the very end.

The last two verses might actually belong to the next chapter, if that's possible. But Anyway, so let's talk about this song. And I want to talk about it in terms of what you should sing. What you should sing in the time of trouble. What you should sing when the waves of doubt overwhelm you.

Somebody called me today, one day in the week. And this doesn't happen very often to me. He said, how are you doing? It was actually my son-in-law. I said, the black dog is upon me.

I was so discouraged that morning. And I was studying this. I was looking at this song. It just occurred to me, I'm not singing this song. I'm singing a different song.

And so I'm approaching this from the perspective of what you should sing, what you should sing in times, Not just of trouble, but in all times. This is a song for time trouble. Okay First of all you sing of the strong city This is the first thing in your outline Sing of the strong city when you're in a time of judgment a time of collapse a kind of time of discouragement or honestly I would just like to say in any time in your life sing of the strong city Go about singing of the strong city. Verse 1 speaks of this. It says, in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah.

Now he said the song will be sung at a particular time, in that day. You see that there in the text. In what day? In the day of judgment. Now It could be another time.

We've understood so far that Isaiah uses the word in that day in many different ways. He sometimes uses it at final judgment. Sometimes it's plain. He uses it of the invasion of Sennacherib in 722 BC. Sometimes he uses it of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.

He uses it at different times. Other times you think he's speaking about the final judgment. So he uses in that day in different ways. And so it's difficult to determine exactly what historical moment Isaiah is speaking about in each chapter. Here's my perspective on it.

This is a generic prophecy. It can be applied to many times in history. When the day of the Lord comes, and the day of the Lord comes in many shapes and forms in Scripture. And so I think It's a general prophecy of how God acts in history. So in that day, in times of difficulty and cataclysm, whether you want to choose any day in history or maybe in your own life, it matters.

In that day. Maybe there's a particular kind of day you're experiencing right now, a day of fear. Maybe there's something upon you that is troubling you, and this is your day. This is your day. And it says, it speaks of where it will be sung.

This song will be sung in the land of Judah Do you see that it's very clear what he's speaking. It seems that he's speaking to a people who are waiting for the judgment and how they should think about the judgment when it comes. And he gives them this song to sing until the judgment comes. And perhaps also when it comes. John Calvin said he thought the song taught people before they went into captivity, and that he composed the song before the calamities occurred so that they might be better prepared to endure it.

He also said that It would be very useful for parents to teach their children, to train their children to expect calamity so that they would have promises in their hearts. They would have a song to sing when the walls fell down. This is really an important thing. Your children need to have songs of deliverance in their hearts for when the walls do fall down. Maybe your children haven't experienced any calamity yet, but guess what?

It's coming. Every adult knows that in this room, that there will be times of difficulty coming into your life, that the storms will come. Prepare your children for the storm. I think Isaiah is preparing the people for a storm, and he's also preparing us as well. And so he's teaching the people a song so that their minds would be stayed upon Him and His truth and His commands and His beauty and His kingdom so that they would have some sense of strength during that time of calamity when everything was seeming to be just swept away, where the foundations were being destroyed.

There is a foundation from God. There is an everlasting city. When you're in the midst of that, you have to remind yourself of the reality that all that you see with your eyes is not really true and it won't prevail. But there is a kingdom in the heavens prepared for you. And Isaiah, I think, is speaking of this.

So while they see the collapse of their city and the walls broken down and the bulwarks and ruins, they'll sing this song. And they'll see that there's more than just the broken down walls for them to think about. Now maybe it's true for you, maybe that's all you can think about is your broken down walls. Maybe that's the only thing you're thinking about this morning and it's hurting you now. Maybe you were like me, like last week, when the black dog was all over me.

But you don't want to let that black dog hang around. And how do you get rid of it? Sing. Sing of the songs of deliverance. So here's my perspective on this song.

Sing it before the calamity. Sing it during the calamity. And then sing it after the calamity so that those who are facing calamity will have sung that song with you before the calamity came. Step and repeat. Now, Isaiah is writing this song for the church, And I'm very grateful for this song.

Now, it is a song about a strong city. What is that city? That city is the Church of Jesus Christ. It is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a type of the church.

The city is Jerusalem and this is code for the church. The church of Jesus Christ is what stands there. Now he could also at the same time be speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven. But we don't want to minimize the message of the church, the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which will stand. When you see trouble, remember that God's city cannot be broken down.

God's people will not be destroyed. God will always have the people on the earth. There will always be somehow seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal because he has an eternal city and this is a declaration of what God has done. You may feel very vulnerable amidst the fluid changes and difficulties that you're in, but God has a strong city. Remember, there are two cities.

There's Babylon. That's the city of self-sufficiency. Remember chapters 24 through 27 speak of the city, the two cities over and over again. And then there's Jerusalem, and this is the city of God, and it speaks of the sufficiency of God. You know, there are people who prepare for calamity today, they call them preppers, and they amass all kinds of resources to get them through the dark night and they're worried about the future but you know what some most of the prepper here's my experience most preppers don't even think about the church they don't think about putting the Church of Jesus Christ in their equation for protection.

But here, this strong city, I believe, does include the fact of the survival of the church and the remnant that exists in the world. This is part of that strong city. It's not just heavenly, it is also earthly in the sense that there is an earthly element of the kingdom of heaven. That's why Jesus said the kingdom of heaven has come near. And the kingdom of heaven comes near when the word of God is preached, when the people gather together to praise him.

We are a kingdom of priests and we form the building, the body of Jesus Christ and in one sense we are that city in one sense. So we sing of the strong city. Sing of the strong city. What happens to your thinking and your emotions and your actions when you sing, We have a strong city? What will happen to you if you sing that every day?

Well, here's the second thing that is sung. Sing for the reason it is strong. This is the second part of verse 1. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Well, what makes this city strong?

There's something that God does. He appoints salvation for walls and for bulwarks. So through salvation, He himself will be the defender of his people, and he will be like a wall. He will be like a bulwark. His salvation is like that.

It's like a wall that protects from enemies. It's like a bulwark that is designed to be an offensive tool in the face of danger. So there are these two protective characteristics of the city that are named walls and bulwarks. And these are the two things that are designed for the protection and the preservation of God's people. And of course, walls keep the enemy from overrunning you, keep the bad things out.

And bulwarks are positions on walls, typically, that are designed for protection. Uzziah introduced bulwarks in the city of Jerusalem. You can read about it in 2 Chronicles 16, verse 15. There's this fascinating disclosure of Uzziah. He must have been a fascinating person.

He said that he made devices in Jerusalem invented by skillful men. So there's Uzziah there in the city. There are enemies out there and he's bringing the skillful men together to design implements of war. And it says here in 2 Chronicles 26 that he brought these skillful men to invent things, to be on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. So he's got these implements of war.

He's hurling large stones off the bulwarks. It's a fascinating picture. He was so good at it, it says in the text, his fame spread far and wide. But the key here is the source of the strength God will appoint salvation it's it is salvation that is your wall it is salvation that is your bulwark it is the only enduring truly strong thing you have in this world. Everything else can be swept away.

Salvation is the only true strength that you can have. You can trust in your riches, forget it. You can trust in your own personality, forget it. There's only one strength, and that is God and his salvation. It's really the only thing of value that you really have.

It's the only enduring thing that you have. He says God will appoint salvation. The word salvation that Isaiah uses the word Yeshua. Yeshua, you've heard that word before. It's the same English translation of Joshua and Jesus himself.

And these names are interchangeable in Scripture, Joshua and Jesus. But God is going to appoint Yeshua, he is going to appoint salvation. You know, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. There is no salvation in any other name but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's saying here that your salvation is your strength.

So sing a song. When you're singing in the world, sing that salvation is your only strength. It's not your bank account, it's not your job, it's not your friends. That is not your strength. That doesn't make who you really are.

It doesn't provide your security, and yet we look to everything else but the salvation for our security. Salvation is stronger than wealth and armies and walls, and it's really your only truly strong and enduring protection. You may not live in a safe and strong city today, but you will. We were actually in a dangerous city last week in Bogota, Colombia. It's a dangerous city for different reasons.

But salvation is the safety of the people of God. So, you know, What happens to people? What happens to their thinking and their emotions and their actions when they sing, salvation is my strength? What happens to people who will do that? Or maybe they're singing, my pocketbook is my strength.

And there isn't that much strength there, so you're discouraged about it. No, this song is about salvation being your strength. Sing that song in the world. And then thirdly, verse 2, sing of the open gates. This is another thing that is sung here.

It's a song of the open gates. Open the gates that the righteous nation, which keeps the truth, may enter in. So here, this is a praise for the gates that have opened, for sinners to come in to a strong city, to be saved. And the imagery is very gripping. It's almost as if there's this picture of people, they're locked outside the city.

The gates are closed. They cannot get in. They're wondering about what safety is there. And the doors are locked. They're impenetrable.

But then they're opened and they're invited in. That's the picture here. Seeing of that, seeing of the opening of the gates that you might enter in. What was inaccessible became inaccessible. Do you remember what it was like before you were a Christian?

You tried to read the Bible, you didn't understand it at all. You could not figure out a word of it. It was totally confusing. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. God made you alive.

He opened up the gates. And then you saw the beauty of the city. And you entered in that city and you said, oh Lord, this is such a good city. And he changed your whole personality. He changed your whole way of thinking and living.

And you're a different person now. And here, the salvation here is by grace. The gates were opened. He says here that it's opened that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. So it's not anybody can go in, but It's those people who have found themselves keeping the truth.

No one is saved by keeping the truth. But you know you're saved because your heart desires to keep the truth and you are keeping the truth. Those who receive the grace and the love of God desire to keep the truth while not being saved by keeping any commandment. They keep the commandments because they are saved by grace. It's always been true that sinners are justified by faith and that faith works.

And it works in this way that he's spoken of here. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. How do you get into this city? You enter into it. Jesus said, I am the door.

This is the whole picture of entering in. I think this is imagery, typological of Jesus Christ himself who is the door. And you walk through the door when it is opened unto you. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 says, the unrighteous will not enter the kingdom of God. But here you have this picture of people, they long to keep the commandments of God, and they walk into the door, and it is a nation that keeps the way of the Lord.

That's a picture of the church. When you have a church that doesn't keep the way of the Lord, you don't have a true church. I think we probably understand that. If you have a church that doesn't desire to walk in the commandments of God, you don't have a true church. Because the true church is a nation that does this here, that keeps the commandments of God.

Of course not perfectly. Of course we sin. Of course we need to run to Him for mercy. Of course we need to confess our sins to one another because we're not perfect. And we need to forgive one another for the sins committed against us.

But here is this picture of the open doors and the righteous nation entering in. You know, what happens when you go around singing, I've entered into the gates of the strong city. What happens to you? I mean, there are a lot of songs you can sing. But if you can sing this song, I've entered into the gates of the strong city.

Oh, how I love thy law. What a beautiful thing to sing. And then the fourth element of the song is in verse 3. It's a song of peace. Sing of the peace of God.

And this of course is a declaration of the fruit of salvation. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Now that could have been the whole sermon, right? It was a great temptation just to do that. You know, here's a problem with us. We are a people of our favorite verse, right?

We want to read the Bible and just sort of zero in on that heartwarming, so encouraging. It makes me just feel so successful. It just sort of puts a smile. Well, the scripture is supposed to do that, but you don't want to read the Bible that. You want to read it in context.

Now, remember, this verse exists. Did you know this was part of a song? I mean, did you know that you will keep in a perfect peace whose mind was stated and was part of a song? Probably most people didn't realize that. You know, Deborah and I, many years ago, we had these vacation Bible school clubs in our backyard with Child Evangelism Fellowship.

This is one of their verses that we had everybody memorize. It's beautiful. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you. It's such a marvelous verse. But by the way, it exists in a context.

Did you know that this beautiful verse existed in a section of Scripture where God is teaching his people about how he is going to judge and destroy the world. That's the context. So when you sing this song now, when you say, you will keep me in perfect peace, remember what Isaiah is saying. You don't want to just rip it bleeding and screaming out of context. But this line of the song, it speaks of the mind that is settled on the Lord, you know, leaning on Him, counting on His promises, comforted by His words, you know, contented by His ordinance.

It's the mind stayed upon Him. He's saying sing, sing with your mind stayed upon him. Maybe the songs that you're singing don't cause your mind to be stayed on God. If not, get rid of it. Sing songs that make your mind be stayed upon God.

You'll be way better off. You know, what would be the impact of your life if that was the truth? My guess is you'd probably be happier, more fun to be with, healthier, you'd probably be holier. There'd probably be a lot of different things that would happen in your life. He says that it's about perfect peace, perfect peace.

Now, in the Hebrew, it reads shalom shalom, perfect peace, shalom shalom. And it means, you know, this term shalom has to do with a complete well-being. It's wholeness from the top to the bottom. It's a complete restoration of every part of your life, your relationships, your health, your mental frame, your social, everything. It's perfect, it's peace, it has to do with a complete makeover of your life.

And notice there are several things here that are really keys to this. The first is you. You will keep Him in perfect peace. That's the origin of peace. This is the grace of God.

God is the origin of peace. If you've ever had a moment of peace in your life, you better know where it came from. God. God is the one who keeps His people in peace. It's not man that gives you peace.

Quite the opposite. But He says, you. In other words, you see the origin of this beautiful peace of God. This is why Jesus said in John 14, 27, he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, I give unto you.

And then he says, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. My peace I give unto you. So when you read this word you, think of his peace. You know, peace is a grace from God. This is why the Apostle Paul said, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the only place you're going to find peace in this world. Accomplishment? No. Esteem? It won't do it.

But God, God will do that. Here's the second secret of peace. The first is God. Second is will. You will keep him in perfect peace.

This is the power of the grace of God to work peace in people's lives. It is an act of the will of God. This is a disclosure of the kind intentions of God's will toward you. You might think, what does God want to do to me? Where does God want to take me?

Well, He does have a will and it will not be defied. But it is, but God will keep those in perfect peace. And then keep, the third word, keep, the third secret of the grace of God in peace. You're kept in peace. And then the fourth word, perfect.

This is the nature of the peace. It's a beautiful thing. It's like nothing else that the world can ever give. And the fifth word, stayed. I love that word.

This is the longevity of the peace. You know, the opposite of having your mind stayed on the Lord is starvation of the mind. And this is the mind that is feeding upon God. You know, Spiritual starvation is probably the chief source of exhaustion and weakness and apostasy. And then the sixth word, trust.

This is the reason for peace, because he trusts in you. Because he trusts in you. Those are such beautiful words. And then finally, peace. Uninterrupted peace forever.

To keep your mind stayed on Him, literally the Hebrew, to lay upon, to put upon, to lean upon, to lie hard on, to rest upon. These are synonyms of this word, to be stayed upon. Lean on, lean on Him. You know, Proverbs says, lean not on your own understanding. You have to ask yourself, do you have a house of turmoil?

Do you have a home where there's no peace? Is it like what the prophet says? You say there's peace, peace, but there is no peace. And there's always a reason. And it's because the dwellers in that house do not have their minds stayed on God.

There you go. There's some counseling for you. Personal counseling. Lack of peace in your home? Problem?

You're not thinking God's thoughts after Him. You're thinking your own thoughts. You're nursing your offenses. This happens in churches too. You know why there's no peace in churches?

People's minds are not stayed on God. There's no unity. God is the one that unifies. It's His Word that unifies His ways. There's so many things that destroy peace.

You know, when you're stayed on your own selfish desires, when you are stayed on your own offenses, when you are stayed on your own disappointments, and you just stay there, and that black dog walks right in the door, and there he is, he's sitting there. You're stayed upon your own lusts. These are the things that destroy peace. I think offenses are probably the greatest destroyers of peace. Offenses, personal offenses, are the greatest destroyers of peace.

That's why Jesus says, if you're offended, if you're offended, or your brother's offended, go to your brother. That's what you do. You know that song. Stayed upon offenses, hearts are fully stressed. That's a song.

You know, you can just fulfill the devil's promises of perfect upsetness, you know, in that whole kind of singing. But there is something that brings peace when your mind has stayed on Him. You know, in this song, there's very little repetition in the song, but peace is also spoken of in verse 12. Look at verse 12. You know, most songs have all this repetition in it, almost no repetition in this song except for verse 12 and verse 3 where we read, Lord, you will establish peace for us.

You have also done all our works in us. So here it is. I'm just here to argue for filling up our minds with the things of God. That we as a church would have our minds stayed upon Him. This is our only hope as a church.

We will fracture, we will hate, we will dishonor unless our minds are stayed upon him." Well, here's the deal. God is at peace. That's also implied here. God is not troubled at all. But notice that it's kind of a collaborative work.

There are two parties. There's a human being and there's God. The human being lays his mind on God, and God gives him peace. At the same time, God performs this work in them, as verse 12 says. You know what this means?

We are really dependent on God. We should take action to set our minds on God. But also we should recognize how vulnerable we are, how dependent we are on God. That God would give us peace. That's why Jesus said, my peace I give unto you.

It's not like any other peace you can ever have. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. He says, be anxious for nothing, that in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ. You see, Paul agrees perfectly with Isaiah.

The doctrine is consistent. It is peace from God. The human element must be engaged to stay your mind upon Him. And your hearts are guarded through Jesus Christ. This is just a call to bring your mind to God, bring your turmoils to God.

What happens to a person who has their mind stayed on him in their song? Their songs cause their minds to stay upon him. You know, you could, thank you, You could replace song with all kinds of different things. Books, movies, meditations, whatever. Put whatever engages the mind.

It's the mind that matters. Many times I've chastised this church for watching worldly films and listening to worldly songs. I'm going to do it again because of this song. You will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you. If you have turmoil in your life, you can trace it back to the violation of this.

As a shepherd, I don't want that to happen to us as a church. I don't want us to be riddled with a peace-less, restless reality of life, but that our minds would be stayed upon God. Number five, here's the fifth thing to sing. After stating the basis for the peace, Isaiah now exhorts us to continue it with a command. Verse 5, or verse 4, Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah the Lord is everlasting strength.

So to this we just say, Sing of God's everlasting strength. Sing of God's everlasting strength. It's an exhortation. Trust in the Lord forever. You know, in singing We exhort one another.

Paul says this in Ephesians chapter 5. We sing to one another. We teach one another in our singing. When we're singing, we're not just singing to an audience of one. We're not.

We exhort one another in our singing. We sing to each other and to God at the same time. Here, this song is an exhortation. Trust in the Lord forever. So when you sing this song, you're exhorting one another as a church.

Trust in the Lord forever. That's the way we should sing. Trusting in His eternal strength that will not fade away. This is everlasting faithfulness. He says, for Yah The word is everlasting strength.

He is utterly faithful. He is absolutely strong. He's dependable. There's this idea of continuous unending indefinite strength, everlasting. Now this word everlasting is connected to many other things in scripture.

I'm going to just pound you with some of those things to help you understand the context of what God is saying when he uses this word everlasting. He speaks of the everlasting covenant in Genesis chapter 9 verse 16. He speaks of the everlasting possession of heaven in Genesis chapter 17. In Genesis 46 verse 26 he speaks of the everlasting hills and also in other places. In Exodus chapter 12 verse 14 he speaks of the everlasting ordinance.

In Exodus chapter 40 verse 15, there's the everlasting priesthood. In Leviticus 16, 34, there's the everlasting statute that will make atonement for the children of Israel for their sins. In Deuteronomy 33, one of my favorite connections to everlasting, is the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33, 26. There's the everlasting doors in Psalm 24.

There's the everlasting remembrance in Psalm 112, verse 6. There's everlasting righteousness in Psalm 103, verse 17. There's an everlasting foundation in Proverbs 10, 25. There's the everlasting father in Isaiah 9 verse 6 there's everlasting kindness in Isaiah 54 8 by the way Isaiah uses this word 18 times in Isaiah There's an everlasting sign in Isaiah 55 13. There's the everlasting God in Genesis 21 33 There's the everlasting name in Isaiah 56 5 There's everlasting light in Isaiah 60 verse 19.

There's the everlasting king in Psalm 145 verse 13. There's everlasting love in Jeremiah 31 verse 3. There's an everlasting dominion in Daniel 4 34. There are the everlasting mountains in Deuteronomy 33 verse 15. There's an everlasting home in Luke 16 verse 9.

There's everlasting consolation in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 16. There's everlasting power in 1 Timothy 6, 16. But on the flip side, there are also everlasting burnings in Isaiah 33, verse 14, for those who reject God. There's everlasting confusion in Jeremiah 20 11. There's everlasting reproach in Jeremiah 23 verse 40.

There's everlasting fire out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18 8. There's everlasting punishment in Matthew 25 46. There's everlasting destruction in 2nd Thessalonians 1 9. There's the everlasting gospel in Revelation 14, 6. There's everlasting joy in Isaiah 35.

And there's everlasting salvation in 2 Samuel 23. But here God is here speaking of His everlasting strength. His everlasting strength is shown across so many different other things that are everlasting, that are connected intimately with it. His joy, his consolation, his salvation, the burnings, the confusion. God is everlasting in everything that He does.

This world is not everlasting, but God is. And here is this singing of His everlasting strength to know That no matter what the moment that you're existing in now, there is everlasting strength that will never stop toward you or toward His own kingdom and His glory. You know, What kind of person do you find who sings that God is everlasting strength? What does that do to you when you sing that in contrast to the other things you might sing. Number six.

Sing of the fall of the lofty city. Sing of the fall of the lofty city. Now, you know, it might not sound very nice to you to sing about the judgment of the wicked, but actually God has in His songs the judgment of the wicked. People don't want God to be judgmental. God is very judgmental.

And here His people actually are to sing of the fall of the lofty city verses 5 and 6. For he brings down those who dwell on high the lofty city. Now imagine this is what the church is singing together this is what individuals in the church should sing as they go through the day. He's going to bring down the lofty city. All these things that are proud and lifted up, all these things that I am so afraid of, God is going to bring them down.

All the ways that I want to play to the lofty city, it's going to go away. I shouldn't try to be too popular with them, because it's going to come down. The question is, who do you want to be popular with? Popular in the city that's going to come down? Well, that's kind of what we do.

And we try to preserve our image and all this kind of stuff in order to have a good name in the lofty city. And compromises come from that. But anyway, the lofty city is coming down. He brings it down and we're to be singing of this. It will not prevail.

Now, we've already seen in Isaiah, loftiness is personified in Babylon and Moab and Philistia and Arabia and the nations mentioned in chapters 13 through 23. But what he's saying is woe to those who put their strength in their abundance, in their armies and their expertise. And when is this? It could be the time of Sennacherib in 722, it could be 586 In Nebuchadnezzar, it could be 70 AD, it could be the coming of the gospel when the powers and the principalities are disarmed. But whatever it is, this is what God's doing in the world.

You can count on it. You can trust Him and have peace in this world because God is going to bring down everything lofty. He is going to destroy the works of the devil. He's going to make every wrong that has been committed right. He's going to do that.

And how does he do it? At the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. The poor and the needy, the ones who are dismissed as weak and powerless and foolish, they will prevail. How about that? The proud and the lofty will fall at the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy." God turns everything around, doesn't He?

The first shall be last, the last shall be first. Not very strong, not very mighty. You know, the remnant is not described here as a mighty force. Did you get that? The remnant here is not all bowed up.

The remnant is poor and needy. You know, the remnant's always been small. Always. That's what Scripture makes it so clear. You know, we like gigantic numbers of flocking people.

We would like to see that like with John the Baptist and in Jerusalem, that great revival where 3, 000 or 5, 000 came. But the truth is the remnant in the Bible is always spoken of as small until you get to the end of the age. And it's multitudes upon multitudes. But it's the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. How could they accomplish victory?

Well, they can't. There are not many whys of this world. But what happens to a people? Like, what would happen to us if we were singing, the lofty city will fall, like if we walked around this world and we were so conscious of it, and we're with someone who is intimidating us and tempting us to fall into their world. And we have in our minds the song, the song that says, the lofty city's coming down.

And you can look that person in the eye, you know His kingdom is going to come down. And you're not afraid and you're not intimidated. And then number seven, sing of His uprightness. Verse seven, sing of His uprightness. The way of the just is uprightness.

O most upright, you weigh the path of the just. This is singing of his uprightness. Uprightness means straight. O most straight, straight on. Not varying, clear, distinctive, definitive, perfect, right in line, exactly what he appears to be.

He is straight. Sing of his straightness. Sing that his path is straight. That he makes the path of the believer straight and say, oh, most upright. He's not crooked.

He doesn't lead you astray. One of the things I love about driving around Bogota is that there are no lines. Everybody's just driving wherever. You know, a world with no lines. Everybody just sort of trusts each other that everything will turn out okay, but you see all these broken up cars, what's that all about?

Well, you know, with God it's not that way. Everything is in its line exactly as He says it will be. There's no variation or shifting shadow. He is most upright. He is not crooked at all.

He will never lead you astray. Now what happens to people who sing in the day, He is most upright? What happens to you when you do that? What happens to you when you do that? What happens to you when you walk in the world and you know His ways are pleasant ways, all His paths are peace?

That His Word is perfect and he preserves those who trust in him. What kind of person do you become when you sing, He is most upright? Number eight, sing of waiting in the way of his judgments. Sing of waiting in the way of his judgments. Seeing of waiting in the way of his judgments.

That's verse 8. Yes, in the way of your judgments, oh Lord, we have waited for you. Now notice In verse 8, Isaiah shifts here, and he's speaking of the first person plural. In the way of your judgments, we have waited for you. Now there's this corporate element of the song.

Lord, we've waited for you. This is a picture of the church saying, Yes, Lord, we're waiting. It's been a hard wait, but we're waiting, Lord. In the way of your judgments, God leads his people by his judgments. We've said that many times.

How does God lead his church? He leads his church through his word. And we wait for his word. We see it. We hear it.

We obey it. And we walk in the way of His judgments. To wait on the Lord is to have His judgments. In other words, to be content with His judgments, to wait on Him through His judgments, not our own ways. But to trust His judgments so completely that there may be so many things that we don't do or think or say, but we do think and say these things and we're waiting on Him to fulfill them.

We wait on your judgments. That God would be our guide in our whole life, that we would not stumble, that we would know His promises are fulfilled. We know that God has not gratified us with some smooth path. He hasn't done that. He has gratified us though with his peace in our hearts.

He hasn't, he's given us tumult and trouble on the outside. But here We learn that there is a waiting that's involved. There is a time of waiting. Remember in the book of Revelation, there are those who are slain for the Word of God, and they're crying out and saying, Lord, how long? How long do we have to wait until you avenge your blood?

How long, Lord? Well, that's the cry of the Christian. He's waiting. He's waiting for God's judgments. God's judgments will come in God's own time, not our own time.

But what happens to a person who sings in the day, my heart waits for you and your judgments? You know, going to the store, sitting in your office, driving in the car, walking, and you're saying, you're singing, Oh Lord, I wait for your judgments. I trust in you. Oh Lord, I know that your ways are all upright. I wait.

I'm so thankful that I'm waiting for you. And then number nine, saying of desire for his name and of his renown. Again, we're still in this, the plural here, The desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you. Sing of desire for His name and of His renown. That's the equivalent of the church standing and saying, Oh Lord, our desire is for you.

Our desire is that your name would be famous, not ours. That your name would be a name of renown, a memorial, remembered everywhere forever. It's the heart's desire of the soul for God's name. You know, Jesus says, if you pray in my name, it will be done. You know, to pray in His name, to desire His name, to desire His will, to pray in His name is to pray things that He's pleased with.

The desire for the things that He's pleased with, I think, is what He's getting at here. And for the remembrance of You. You know, it's not enough for us to read our Bibles through once. We need a constant remembrance of His name. Just as we need daily food or our bodies will droop and our eyes will grow dim and weak and will perish.

We need the constant remembrance of God. He keeps us from sinking. And then also in verse 9, the corporate soul, the plural, gives way to the personal. There's no corporate faith in Israel without individual faith. And so in verse 9, Isaiah shifts to the first person singular.

Do you see that? He now talks about himself. He was talking about the people's desire together collectively. Now he speaks of his own desire in the same way that songs do that. They speak of we and then they speak of me.

It's a legitimate way to sing. So he has spoken of the desire of our soul, now his own personal soul desires. And he sings in the night and in the morning, with my soul, verse 9, I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early. So now he speaks of his own soul at night and in the morning.

This is desire for God. When? In the night and in the morning. With my soul I desire you in the night and by my spirit within me I will seek you early." He's just saying from morning until night. This is the symbolic imagery of Isaiah's desire for the Lord.

When he sits in his house, when he walks by the way, when he lies down, when he rises up. His desire is for the Lord. This is the best thing that a father or mother can ever do is have this desire in their hearts so that their desires drive their whole family life. You know, hey, there's usually a reason why families don't have family worship and bring the Word of God as central. It's because there's no desire.

That's it. That's the reason. You don't desire it enough. But here, the desire rises from the morning until the evening. You know, when my kids were little, I would teach them verses of scripture about the morning and the evening, because some of them had trouble in the morning, some of them had trouble in the evening, and I wanted them to have the Word of God to guide them about how they get up and how they go to bed.

And all of our children had to somehow learn this. The scriptures anyway, let me hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Teach me the way in which I should go, for unto thee I lift up my soul. Well that's the morning. Okay, now, we're not at verse 11 yet.

So I'm going to stop, and we're going to pick it up next week. But I want to wrap this up with some applications before we stop. We're going to stop there at the end of verse 9. I'll pick it up because there's more to say. But I want to bring some words of application here.

Let's just think about our own life, our own world. Is America under judgment today? I think America is. I mean, if you consider moral collapse a sign of judgment, if you consider spiritual apostasy a sign of judgment, if you consider the disfigurements of manhood and womanhood and the destruction of family life, a sign of judgment. If you consider unqualified leaders a sign of judgment, if you consider that if the church is indistinguishable from the world, if you consider that a sign of judgment, then America is under judgment.

And we should think Christianly about what you do when your nation is under judgment. And this passage is helping us to think Christianly about that. We sing. When your nation is under judgment, sing. Sing, sing, sing these songs in that time.

Here's another application. How do you prepare your children for the future? Give them a song. Give them a song. How do you prepare them for marriage?

Give them a song that they'll sing every day in their marriage. Can you imagine what the impact might be on a marriage, just on a marriage. If the father and the mother sang this song every day, can you imagine what kind of family you would have? How do you prepare your children for the workplace? Can you imagine what it would be like for your children when they walk into their workplace and they're singing these songs in the backdrop of all their happy, their fearless?

There's nothing more valuable than a happy, fearless worker who is full of integrity and knows that God is upright. There's nothing more powerful in a business than that. How do you prepare them to meet the economic challenges that they'll have? Give them a song. Give them a song to sing in the time of their dark moment.

Give them a song when they're being disappointed. Give them a song when their love did not come to pass as they hoped. Give them a song when they lose everything that they ever had. Give them a song where their dreams aren't being fulfilled right now. Give them a song to sing.

How do you prepare your family for the future? Give them a song. How do you have a happy home? How do you have a balanced perspective on the trials of life? How do you build a godly culture in your home?

How do you keep healthy thoughts in your home? How do you keep from slipping into despair? How do you keep from just living in this constant energy drain of destructive thoughts. How do you do that? Give yourself a song.

Sing this song. This song is a hiding place. What songs are you listening to? The songs of the kingdom of God? Whatever songs you're listening to make you who you are.

They make you think what you think. They make you do what you do. They make you feel what you feel. That's just an unbreakable law of God in the world. Nobody ever beat the system.

I'm always concerned and I will always be concerned about what the people at Hope Baptist sing and what they hear. Here's what Isaiah is trying to teach us, to sing. To sing these things, that we have a strong city, that salvation is your strength, that you've entered in the gates of the strong city, that your mind has stayed on Him, singing that God is everlasting strength, singing that the lofty city will fall, singing that He is most upright, singing that your heart waits for God in His judgments, singing of your desire in the night and in the morning, singing of all these things. God is so kind to give us a song. He's done it here.

I pray that God will fill our hearts with songs of deliverance as we go into the week. Let's pray. Lord, Lord we thank you for for giving us such detailed and helpful and beautiful songs. These words are like no other song, and I praise you for them, Father. I pray that you would fill our hearts with these songs.

Amen.