in the year that Tartan came
unto Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and
fought against Ashdod and took it. At the same time spake the
Lord by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, go and loose the sackcloth
from off thy loins and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked
and barefoot, And the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath
walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon
Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away
the Egyptians' prisoners and the Ethiopians' captives, young
and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered,
to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and
ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and of Egypt, their glory. And
the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, behold, such
is our expectation, whether we flee for help to be delivered
from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape? Let's pray together. Gracious Father, please tonight
impress your word upon our hearts. Give us eyes and ears, hearts
to understand your message. May we see Christ as always and
look to him alone for our covering, for our righteousness before
thee. Take away of our shame and guilt. May we honor him in our hearts,
in his precious name we ask. Amen. The affliction and destruction
of both Ethiopia and Assyria, resulting, remember, never forget,
resulting in the salvation of God's people from both, from
both nations, is written in the previous two chapters. The affliction
and destruction is recorded, but also. The salvation of God's
people in both nations, and that's why he does what he does. And
here both of those nations are mentioned together in Chapter
20. In chapters 18 and 19, we saw how that God smites and heals. He destroys and he creates. He
kills and he makes alive. He doesn't utterly destroy everyone
he destroys. And he doesn't heal everyone
he kills. But everybody dies in sin. And some, a few, a remnant, are
made to truly live in Christ. And here in this chapter, we
have quite a memorable picture of how God lays us bare in the
process of having mercy upon us. This is pictured in other
places, of course, in the Word of God. Some say that Isaiah
wasn't completely naked for these three years. I know what it says. I know what
the word naked in the text means. It means bare. Some say he wore
a different type of garment that was, you know. Here's what I think is important. Why do you think he wasn't? Here's what we need to understand.
If God says, take it all off, that's what
you do. And there's comparisons to this
inscription. Let me explain what I mean by that. Hosea and Gomer. Some commentators say that God
did not, this was just a, the story of Hosea is just an allegory. It's just a hypothetical that
God could never cause Hosea, a man of God, to fall in love
with a harlot. That just wouldn't be right.
That would be sin or at least condoning sin for him to do that.
Why do you say that? Because you see, if God can't do that, then he
can't save me. You see, I've got a problem with
that. If God can't have anything to
do with somebody like that, or tell somebody to have anything
to do with somebody, then he can't save me. If he can't love
a harlot, he can't love me. Why wasn't Isaiah naked? Explain
that to me. Because you see, nakedness, what
is it? It's before God. In the garden, we weren't naked
until God said we were. Until we had sinned against God. There was no shame until we had
sinned against God. And if God says you're not, then
you're not. You remember when the Apostle
Peter, he had that dream and the Lord said to him, Kill those
unclean animals and eat them. And Peter said, oh no, I've never
eaten anything unclean. I'm not about to start now. And
God said, don't call them unclean if I cleansed them. Don't say Isaiah is naked if
I've covered him. Don't say Gomer is unlovable if I love her. You see what I'm saying, why
I'm raising this issue? Isaiah had the best covering,
the best clothes you can possibly have. And I'm not saying that
believers can run around with no clothes on because, you know,
we're clothed by Christ. That's not it. This is a specific
special directive from God to show us something, to teach us
something. But here's what you don't do.
Don't question God. If God says you clean, you clean.
If God says you clothed, you clothed. Here in this chapter, what a
picture. When God has mercy on us, he
lays us bare. And as I said, we see this elsewhere
in scripture. I mentioned Adam and Eve. When
they sinned, they realized that they were naked. They were naked
all along, physically. Nothing was taken away between
the time that they were walking in communion with God in the
time they were shamed to be seen by God. But really, there was no such
thing. In a sense, there was no such thing as nakedness until
there was sin. So you see the picture here.
God is showing them what they are before Him. Shameful. When sin came, they
were both afraid. Remember? We were afraid. Adam
said we were afraid and we hid ourselves. And they were ashamed
of their nakedness. We see that in our text in verse
5. Look at Isaiah 20 verse 5. And they shall be afraid and
ashamed. You see that? Afraid and ashamed.
That's what nakedness is. That's what happened to Adam
and Eve. They were afraid and they were ashamed. And that's
what God is showing here. What was Ethiopia And Egypt ashamed
of. Look at verse 5. They were ashamed
of Ethiopia and Egypt. They were ashamed of themselves.
They were ashamed of what they are. What they had become. They
were laid waste. They were laid bare before God.
Destitute. Mighty nations before. But now
look at us. What are we, who are we ashamed
of? People say, well, I'm ashamed
of my sin. Well, what do you mean by that? What you're really saying and
what you need to be saying is I'm ashamed of me. I'm ashamed
of me. But people like to kind of divorce
their sin from themselves. The sin is like something that's
attached itself to me. I am sin. Egypt was ashamed of
Egypt. And Ethiopia was ashamed of Ethiopia. They were ashamed of what they'd
become. Look at us now. And that's where God brings us.
When he saves us, this is what God is showing these two nations,
two nations, we must remember now again that he declares that
he will have mercy on. We are told that out of the Ethiopians
in chapter 18, we were told that a present shall be brought unto
the Lord. The father said, I'll give you the heathen for your
inheritance. And that present is brought to the Lord out of
the nation of Ethiopia. And that a remnant of the Egyptians
in verse chapter 19, we're told shall return to the Lord and
he shall heal them as a result of his dealings with him, as
a result of him showing them their shame and their guilt. Some of the inhabitants of this
wicked world will die in their shame and they will stand uncovered
in the day of judgment and will have no excuse. Most will. Because brought is the way that
leadeth to destruction. But some are remnant according
to the election of God's grace, according to the choosing of
God's grace, will become aware of their nakedness in this life. They will put on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they'll stand before God
in the judgment. Perfect. No shame, no guilt,
no fear. Because they'll stand in Him.
God is showing them their sin, the nature and consequence of
their sin. And this is a very simple and
graphic picture of our condition before God. We have a reminder
of it every day that we live. When we wake up in the morning and we reach for our blue jeans
or You ladies pick out a dress to wear to work or something
to wear to the store that day. God has made it so in his providence
from the very beginning that we are afraid and ashamed to
be uncovered. And what a picture this is. What
a picture. Can you imagine? Can you even
imagine walking around for three years with nothing on? You're the only one. I'm glad
that God asked Isaiah to do that. He didn't ask him. He told him
to do it. I'm glad he told Isaiah to do that and not me. Three
minutes. Can you imagine three minutes?
Doing that for three minutes? Much less three years. And the preacher himself was
an example of what he was teaching. This is a lesson also. God's
preachers are naked just like you are. They can show you your
nakedness. And that's what he was doing
by Isaiah. He was saying, look at what, this is what's going
to happen to you. This was a prophecy of what would
happen. And that's what the preacher
does. He can remind you. He can be a constant, or every
time you see him, there's that preacher again. And everybody knew this was a
message from God, because Isaiah told them it was. Thus saith
the Lord, this is what you're going to be. And the preacher can do that.
He can remind you. He can warn you. But we're uncovered before
God, and we're afraid and ashamed because of our condition before
God by nature. And only He can clothe us. It's because of our sin against
God, that nakedness even exists, and only He can clothe us. The scripture says
in Psalm 146.3, and this is preachers, kings, politicians, anybody,
put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom
there is no help. There's no help. No help in you,
no help in me. David said in another place,
I'll lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord. In the garden of Eden, Adam and
Eve sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons to
cover their shame. What was the result of that?
God cursed them. God pronounced the curse upon
them. The works of their own hands didn't provide them a covering
in the sight of God. It still won't. And neither will our spiritual
works, the works of our hands, our religious works, our so-called
good works, provide us a spiritual covering before God. These pictures
are so simple, aren't they? It's so basic. God goes back
to the beginning. How many times have we seen that
in God's Word? When God would teach them of their condition before him
and warn them that he was going to expose it. Right back to the
beginning. What happened in the garden? We're uncovered. We're uncovered. afraid and ashamed. Sinful in the sight of God, hiding
ourselves from the true God. You say, people aren't hiding
themselves from God. They go into churches. God's not there. Not the God of this book. They're
going to their God, hiding from the God. And only God can cover us. So in the garden, again, a simple,
beautiful, plain, clear picture. God flew an animal, maybe two,
and made coats of skins from that animal or animals and covered
the nakedness of Adam and Eve, the first death ever recorded
in the word of God. to show that it will take the
blood of an innocent to cover the sins of God's people. To
provide a covering for the sinful shame of sinful men and women. You can still worship me, there'll
still be communion with me through blood, but you gotta be covered. You gotta be covered. And every time you go in your
closet, pick out an outfit for the day, remember what your true
covering is before God. These clothes won't cover us
before God. There's only one, and remember
this, too. Remember how much it cost. Remember what it cost. the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot if you have not Christ and be
not found in him and you are naked and shameful before your
God and under his curse because no
matter what kind of apron you fashioned for yourself. There's
just one covering before God. Now, if you have fashioned yourself
a covering before him, then you've got to cast it off. There's only
one thing to do with that, get rid of it. Before you can be
truly clothed before God, you must be stripped of all hope
in anything you've done. Your shame can't be covered any
other way. Well, I've done some shameful things, but I've done
some good things, too. That's not going to do it. That's not
going to get it done. That's not going to cover you before
God. You've got to be stripped of that. No covering of your
own making will be satisfactory in the presence of God. Your
church affiliation won't cover you. Your so-called good works
won't cover you. Your doctrinal system won't cover
you. Only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ can cover
you. Only his precious blood can take away your sin and shame,
and that's illustrated all through this book. The coats of skins,
the wedding garment that we'll talk about in a minute. Best
robe at the prodigal war when he came home. All through this
book, and we'll look at those. Only His blood can take away
your shame. Only if the Lord is propitious to you at the mercy
seat. That's what that publican, Lord,
be propitious unto me. Here I am at your mercy seat.
May that precious blood be applied to me. Only then can you stand in His
presence and be accepted. Why did that publican beat on
his chest and wouldn't live wouldn't as much as lift up his eyes unto
him He's ashamed. He's naked before God and saying
Lord cover me cover me in the blood When the Lord gave blind Bartimaeus
his sight You remember what it says. Let's turn to Mark chapter
10. I just want to look at some scripture tonight Mark chapter 10 verse 46 And they came to Jericho, and
as the Lord went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great
number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side, begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still
and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he,
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? And the blind man said unto him, Lord, that I may receive
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received
his sight and followed Jesus in the way. How necessary is
it that it says in that text he cast away his garment? Pretty
necessary. Pretty necessary. What a plain
picture. You can imagine what he must have been wearing. There's
a blind man sitting by the highway side begging. If he had a suit,
I guarantee he wasn't wearing it. He wasn't going to get no
change like that. He was wearing rags. Our very righteousnesses are
filthy rags in the sight of God. They've got to go. If we're going
to follow him, if we're going to be with him, if we're going
to be clothed by him, if we're going to have his righteousness,
we're going to have to be like Paul. I won't have my righteousness.
I won't have it anymore. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, because it's rags. It's disgusting. It's vile. It won't cover me.
It's as shameful as my sin. My righteousnesses are as shameful
or more so than my sins. There's no difference. You read Philippians chapter
two and three and you tell me that that's not what Paul did.
Cast off his rags. I counted all the dumb. It's a picture of us ceasing
to trust in ourselves or anything that we have done to make us
acceptable, to make us unashamed before God. We have another picture
of this, turn to Matthew 22. Verse one. And Jesus answered
and spake unto them again by parables and said, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for
his son. and sent forth his servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not
come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which
are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings
are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage.
But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm,
another to his merchandise." They're too busy. They've got
no use for the king or his son. And the remnant took his servants,
and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies,
and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then
saith he to his servants, the wedding is ready, but they which
were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways,
and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. So those
servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as
many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was
furnished with guests. And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. No excuse. The only reason for
not putting on the garment that the king provided for all of
his guests is you like your clothes better. Not good Because you see the reason the
wedding garment is provided because this whole thing is about honoring
his son The king does that to honor his son he does everything
he does to honor his son And you're gonna wear the wedding
garment Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Well, that sounds kind of extreme just for not putting
on the right clothing. We have to understand what's
being taught here. We can't stand in God's presence
without the robe that he provides, which is the righteousness of
his son. Otherwise, we're naked and shameful. For many are called, but few
are chosen. There is one acceptable covering.
And these are simple, simple now. There's one acceptable garment. If you're going to be one of
the privileged guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb,
you're going to have to have that garment on. And the king has provided it
himself. And the whole affair is about
honoring his son. Think of the contrast that this
presents for a minute. I just want to present this picture
to you because there's a great contrast that's presented here when you compare what's in our
text. God said to that preacher, I want you to show these people
what they are, their condition before me. So take all your clothes
off. And walk around town for three
years like that. What about preachers today? Isaiah
walked around bare and destitute to remind these people of their
true condition of humiliation and neediness before God and
preachers nowadays they drive black luxury cars and wear fancy
suits and say, God wants you to prosper. I'm not saying that God requires
preachers now to reflect our sin condition by what they wear.
No, this was a special directive. I'm not saying that. I'm simply,
that's not even the point. It's simply this, these two pictures
that are in great contrast to one another, It's what God teaches
as opposed to what man teaches. What Isaiah did picture by God's
design is not taught in any way in picture or in word today by
religious preachers of this world. Preachers of the health and prosperity
false gospel God would have his true word preached. And when it is, sinners are gonna
be laid bare and destitute before him. But the preachers of this world's
gospel picture what they preach. Haughty. And doing just fine without the
true God. My false God's taking care of
me. We call Him God. Turn to Revelation chapter 3. God called some of them on it
in Revelation chapter 3. This is God now speaking to one of His true churches. You know, in Revelation 3, 15,
imagine what he would say to the ones that are masquerading
as his church in this day. Verse 15, Revelation 3. I know
thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold, cold nor hot. I
would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because
thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You see
what I'm saying? It's not that preachers ought
to go around wearing sackcloth all the time. That's not it.
You know, I don't do that. But here's the thing. They picture
what they preach. that we're fine before God, we're
doing great, we're prospering. And they do that for filthy lucre's
sake, the scripture says. But God says, I see you as you
are. You're walking around, you know, like you're prospering,
like the Lord is blessed. They say, oh, but look how the
Lord's blessed us. But God says you're poor and wretched and
miserable and naked. And here's what he says to you,
I counsel thee to buy of me gold. Try it in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich. See what your prosperity will
get you from me. How much is it worth to me? Can
you buy anything? Can you obtain anything from
me with it? And white raiment, that's what
you need. You're naked. You're wearing a fine suit, but
you're naked. And if you're gonna get clothing,
you don't have to get it from me. And you're going to have
to have the price. You see what he's saying? Buy
it. I counsel you to buy it for me. How are you going to do that? That thou mayest be clothed and
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with acid
that thou mayest see. In other words, with what you've
produced, with what you've earned, with your prosperity in this
world, let's see if it'll buy you something to wear before
me in my sight. God says you're naked and the
shame of your nakedness is before me. This whole thing of nakedness
and being clothed, it shows that our problem is our condition
before God. Think about that, how basic this
is. We have no way of remedying it. Well, you can put some clothes
on, Chris, but yeah, but where are you gonna get them? Where
are you gonna get them? What are you gonna buy them with?
Our bodies have no way of covering themselves. I can't spiritually
cover myself either. That's what they said in verses
five and six of our text. They said it doesn't matter where
we run, how are we gonna, Where are we going to go? How are we
going to be delivered? It doesn't matter if I'm naked
here, I'll be naked there. I've got nothing. I'm destitute,
hopeless and helpless. No matter where we go or what
we do, we'll still be naked. Adam and Eve, until God covers
them, they're naked. The only one that has an answer
to the problem. Isaiah, let's go to the preacher.
Maybe he has a word from God. He does, but he's naked too.
He doesn't have anything for you to wear. We already go to
God's prophet, God's preacher, God's word, God's spokesman.
But all he can do is just be a reminder to you of your problem.
When you look to him, he's just going to remind you of our condition
before God. And that's good. God arranged
that, didn't He? Thank God for that. He'll remind
you of your problem. He can remind you that only God
can cover you. And he'll remind you how God
does that. What is a prophet or a preacher
but a voice that cries, thus saith the Lord? When the prodigal returned home, He was destitute. He ran out of his living. He ran out of what he had earned. And he had nothing. And he was ashamed of himself.
That's what making this picture, our shame for God. He was ashamed of himself, wasn't
he? He said, Father, I'm not even worthy to be called your
son anymore. I just want to be with you, though.
Make me the lowest slave in your house as long as I'm with you.
Just don't turn me away. What did the father say? Bring
the best robe and put it on him. when we do
see our condition before God, and we're ashamed before Him.
Paul said, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. I'm less
than the least of all the saints. Oh, but if I could just be found
in Him, not having my own rags, but the righteousness of God's
Son. Luke 15, 22, but the Father said, to his servants, bring forth
the best robe and put it on him. We don't even put on the robe
ourselves. He's got to put it on us for
us. Put it on him and put a ring
on his hand. Put a ring on his hand. You ever wondered what that ring
represents? We're not told. I guess we can't be sure, but
knowing something of the custom of then, I have a feeling it
had a family seal on it. It told everybody that saw it,
he's part of this family. Put the ring on his hand. And shoes on his feet. We don't
even put it on ourselves now, not till he puts it on. Paul
did say, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. But he's going to have
to clothe us first, isn't he? Thank God for a covering. Thank
God for the covering, the wedding garment, the best robe. We stand
in Him. We stand in Him. We stand in
Christ before God or we won't stand. If God should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? If God sees the shame of my nakedness,
as we read there in Revelation 3, who shall stand? Nobody. But we stand in Christ. And it
wouldn't have it any other way. Paul said where I was quoting
from a while ago, Philippians 3.8, listen to this language.
Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things. I have nothing. I don't even
have a shirt to put on my back spiritually before God. Destitute. But what I used to wear, Paul
said, I'll never put it on again. I'll be clothed in his righteousness
or I'll just stay naked. I'm not putting it on again.
I count it but done that I may win Christ and be found in him
not having my own righteousness. These things that he counted
but done, that was his clothing before. He walked around with
his heritage, proud of his works, his position. But now he's saying, oh, that
I be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God. by faith. There's the wedding
garment. That's the best robe, the only
robe. There's only one robe, and it's the best. We must stand
before God in humility, unashamed, because we're clothed with the
very righteousness of God's Son, without spot or wrinkle or blemish
or any such thing. And God says, I'm well pleased.
Thank God. Let's pray.