Isaiah chapter 3 verse 11. Woe unto the wicked. Tonight is the clear theme of
this. You'll see it as we read it.
And I'll tell you that it may sound very negative. This is not Psalm
23, this scripture here. You'll see what I mean, but we
learned so much about the character of God and. And it ought to make
us so grateful for his grace to see what where we ought to
be where we would be. If it was left up to us, thank
God it's not up to us. Verse 11 woe unto the wicked,
it shall be ill with him. For the reward of his hand shall
be given him. As for my people, children are
their oppressors, and women rule over them. Oh, my people, they
which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy
paths. The Lord standeth up to plead
and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment
with the ancients of his people, the princes thereof, for you
have eaten up the vineyard. The spoil of the poor is in your
houses. What mean ye that you beat my
people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor, saith the
Lord God of hosts. Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth
necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making
a tinkling with their feet. Therefore, the Lord will smite
with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion.
and the Lord will discover their secret parts. And that day the
Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about
their feet and their calls and their round tires like the moon,
the chains and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets
and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets
and the earrings. the rings and nose jewels, the
changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, the wimples,
and the crisping pins, and the glasses, and the fine linen,
and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass that
instead of sweet smell, there shall be a stink, instead of
a girdle, a rent, instead of well-set hair, baldness, and
instead of a stomacher, a girdling, a girding of sackcloth, and burning
instead of beauty thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty
in the war and her gates shall lament and mourn and she being
desolate shall sit upon the ground the Lord pronounced woe upon
the wicked in verse 11 and in the rest of that chapter he elaborates
on it doesn't he this is the woe that's coming And as I said,
this doesn't read very pleasantly, but we learn much here about
ourselves, about God, about His mercy. And these are the themes
of all of Scripture. Whether the language is positive
or negative, we see these same things. I say mercy, we learn
about His mercy here because in the context, as we've seen,
God has revealed that He has His remnant. And he's talking
about his people here in the midst of all this. They're being
oppressed and mistreated. But also there's a gospel call
in the context to come and have our sins washed as white as snow. And in verse 10, those who are
white as snow, it's gonna be well with them. If you come to
God and your sins are dealt with in such a way that they're washed
as white as snow, You see, it's not about overcoming your evil,
turning over a new leaf. He never says that in this language.
Have you noticed that in all of our study in Isaiah? Never
does he say, you need to turn it around. No, you need to come
and be washed. That's what you need to do. That's
the remedy. There's a big difference. But in these verses, we do see
the darkness of our own nature. and the judgment of God against
sinners. Notice first the word reward in verse 11. The word
reward, the evil, the wicked are gonna be rewarded. This corresponds
with the language of Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. And it's not just God's gonna
kill you physically. It's in these things, spiritual
desolation. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Notice that the word reward is not used with regard to the righteous
in verse nine. They're gonna eat, but it's not gonna be a reward.
Not here now because this is an important teaching, the contrast
between the reward and just enjoying the good. is seen here. In other places in Scripture
now it does say that we will be rewarded, that we will be
crowned. That's in a different context. Here we see the contrast
between the wicked being rewarded for what they did. They're going
to get what they deserve. But we're just going to eat.
Now it's the fruit of our doings it says, the fruit of their doings
that they're going to eat. And there's an important truth
taught that. What does he mean by that? Well, I used to hear,
I've heard two or three times, Scott Richardson, when I heard
him preach on tape or in person a couple of times, he used to
say, our righteousness is not a pasted on righteousness. It's
not pasted on. We're righteous. His deeds are our deeds. His
righteousness is our righteousness. It's real. It's not just pasted
on. So I take Christ's righteousness
and kind of put it on. You know, it's pictured in the
putting on of a garment. And it's here that shows that
it's his righteousness, but God is going to judge us on whether
we are righteous or not. And the only way we can be righteous
is in Christ. That's not God pasting a righteousness
on us. He is our righteousness. It's
a real righteousness and it's mine. It's his. It's not by my
doing, but it is mine. His doings are my doings before
God, now where it counts. But there's no reward or recompense
mentioned here in the case of the, and I'll show you why, Romans
4, Romans chapter 4, verse 1. What shall we say then? That Abraham, our father, as
pertaining to the flesh hath found. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. He's
not justified by works. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace,
but of debt. God owes you something. That's
what the word reward there with regard to the wicked has to do
with. They're going to get what's coming to them. They're going
to get what's coming to them. But that's debt, not grace. That's not grace. But to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. If God imputes righteousness
to you, even though you have no works of righteousness, it's
because of grace and not dead. He doesn't owe you anything.
Saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. To impute just means to give
the credit for. He doesn't give you the credit
for your sin. He gave Christ the credit for
your sin. He imputed your sins to his son and murdered him for
it, killed him for it, destroyed him for it. But none to you. But it has nothing to do with
your works. It's of grace and not of debt. And so that's what
we're talking about here. Now we need to establish again
who the righteous are and who the wicked are because this world
has it upside down. The world would say that that's
talking about good people and bad people. That's talking about
the bad people are the ones who do bad things. That just makes
sense, doesn't it? The good people are the ones
who do good things. The Bible says that we're all bad people.
And it's not because we do bad things, it's the other way around. Who then is righteous? If the
world says there's good people and bad people based on what
they do, and the Bible said we're all bad people, then who's righteous?
There's a real clear answer for that, a thousand answers for
it in the scripture, but this one's so clear, Romans 3, 24.
Being justified freely by God's grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Justified means counted righteous,
not guilty, no charge, no guilt, no sin. We're justified freely. Now think about what that said.
We're finding out who the righteous are here. Who are the righteous?
Those who are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. In other words, we are righteous
simply because God wants us to be righteous. That's the freely
part. Grace. Grace, that's sovereign
grace. God wants me righteous. He just wants me, in spite of
the fact that there's no reason in us to consider us righteous.
That's what freely means, without a cause, without a cause in us.
He saw nothing in me that caused him to declare me righteous.
He declared me righteous freely just because he wanted to. And
he wanted to because he loved me. But how is God able to just
consider us righteous? Can he just wave his hand and
say, you're righteous? No, God can't do that. He would
cease to be God. He must do right. He must call
sin, sin and righteousness, righteousness. So how in the world can he consider
me righteous? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Because of the redemption wrought
by the Lord Jesus Christ when he shed his precious blood for
our sins. So you see that? God on the basis of and by virtue
of the shed blood of Jesus Christ freely declares me righteous
just because he wants to. Isn't that beautiful? That's
who the righteous are. It doesn't have anything to do with me.
There's no difference between me and the wicked, none. That's
pretty clear, isn't it, too, in Scripture? No difference.
But God makes a difference. So we're about to see our nature,
and it's not pretty. It's how God sees those who are
outside of Christ. Now, he'd see us all this way
by nature, but because we're righteous in Christ, he doesn't
look at us, he said, I beheld no iniquity in Jacob, his people,
his sheep. But this is how God sees those
outside of Christ, and we're gonna see what God's gonna do
about it. And as I said, it's not pretty. Verse 12, as for
my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over
them. Oh, my people, they which lead
thee cause thee to err. and destroy the way of the paths
we already saw in verse four that part of God's judgment upon
the earthly nation of Israel and any nation upon whom he pours
out his judgment this is what God's judgment looks like wherever
it's found part of that was that he would make children their
rulers and here we see what we would expect to see when children
are rulers oppression that's that's kind of expected in If
a child is ruling, there's going to be oppression. Here's the
thing about children, and this is the thing. It's not that young
people were their rulers. Toddlers were ruling over them. This is talking about a mindset.
Children. And here's the thing about children.
They're ruthless, aren't they? Have you noticed that about children?
Maybe you don't see that in your own. Maybe you have to look at
somebody else's to see if they're ruthless. They're selfish. They're naturally cruel to one
another, aren't they? And that's what the Lord is portraying
here. You don't have to teach children
to be that way. You have to teach them not to
be that way. There's a reason for that. And I know that your
children sometimes display good behavior. That's because you've
taught them different. You've taught them better. You've taught
them there's consequences for declaring everything yours, you
know. It's not yours. What's yours is yours. You have
to teach them to share, don't you? They want everybody else
to share, but they don't want to share. That's just our nature.
And that's the thing now. Selfish and ruthless and cruel
and unable to make good decisions. That'd be a pretty good indication
of a ruler that's a child in mind and heart, according to
God. Can't make a decent decision.
You have to make decisions for your children, you know that?
Well, I like to let them decide for themselves. You're a fool.
And I feel sorry for them. That's why God trusted them to
you, to make decisions for them. I'm gonna leave it up to them,
whether they wanna come to church or not. Really? Oh boy, that's bad. That's bad. And that's just an example. You
know what I'm saying, don't leave it up to them. That's why they
have parents, to guide them, to correct them, according to
the scriptures. Now your opinion and my opinion
are about equal on that, but what God said is not equal with
our opinions. And I don't want to get off on
that, but you see what's being taught here. Children are, and
they're oppressing you. Of course they are, they're children.
And the general message of this verse is that a huge part of
the problem, if not the main problem, is with the leadership. Do you see that in the verse?
Your problem is your leaders. Isn't that true in just about
every aspect of life? You know what the problem is
in most homes? There's not any leadership. There's not any godly
leadership in homes. Or as it says here, the woman
is in charge. That's not a slam against women,
that's just not God's way. It's just not God's way. And that's in the verse too,
as you saw. It's just simply not God's way and it will not
prosper. You can do things your way if
you want to, but don't expect God's blessing. You're not gonna
have it. And I blame much of the spiritual
condition of our nation on who? The preachers, the so-called
spiritual leaders in this country. Wow. Effeminate and spineless
and anti-Christ. No wonder this is a Christian
nation. No, it's not. And a big part
of it is the leaders. That's what God said. Your leaders
are your problem. And I was gonna go into other
things, and let me just say this, it's just a good illustration
of it. Black people, do you think things are better, what they
call racism, race relations are better in this country than they've
ever been? Or worse? You know what the problem is?
Part of the problem, who are the black leaders? Think about
who's leading the black people. And I say, those who deem themselves
disenfranchised in some way, feel like they need leaders,
you know, for themselves, and look who they are. There's your
problem. It's true in every aspect of
life. The leaders, that's what the Lord points out here. Leadership
is important. And part of God's judgment is
taking away good leadership. You saw that in our last lesson.
He takes it away now, because he's the one that gave it. He
gives and he takes. He sets up one and puts down
another. Thank God if there ever is a good leader anywhere, if
you can find one these days, thank God for him. And always
have a mind to the spiritual lesson in this study. Now we've seen these earthly
illustrations of that. And beware of being led astray.
And all of these things, spiritually speaking, and thank God for godly
leadership. Now verse 13, the Lord standeth
up to plead, and he standeth to judge the people. The Lord
will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and
the princes thereof, for you have eaten up the vineyard. The
spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that you
beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor,
saith the Lord God of hosts. God is on the throne. The Lord
standeth up. Did you notice that? None of
this is happening without God's awareness and perfect control.
Looks like God's kind of turned his back, you know, and not paying
any attention. Oh, he is. He is. Much more than
we even realize. And there will be consequences.
In fact, we are reading the consequences. They have bad leaders because
God said in verses one and two, I'm gonna take them away because
of your sin, because of your pride and your rebellion, I'm
gonna take them away. The mighty man and the judge
and all the good leadership that I gave you. We read the headlines
and watch the news, you know, and we think, oh, God's gonna
judge us for our evil. But much of the evil is God already
judging us. But it's gonna be well with the
righteous. I should just say that after every sentence I say
tonight. It's gonna be well with the righteous. Look, this is
dark language, but it's gonna be well with the righteous. Our country's in trouble, but
it's gonna be well with the righteous. This world is in trouble, but it's gonna be well. And religion
is not the answer, like many are saying now. Religion, read
chapter one again, religion's the problem. Romans 121, because that when
they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened,
and you know the judgment of God fell upon them because of
that. They knew God. You think down the street here
where they're preaching heresy, they don't know God? They know
some things about God now. You can't hate somebody you don't
know. But they're not going to give
him the glory. They're not going to give him the glory. That's
the problem. And there are consequences for that. And that's what we're
seeing. The evil men and women of this world, they will not
glorify God as God. That's what we just read. God's
going to stand up. And this is not good. Not for
the wicked. He lets things go for a time,
but they don't go unnoticed. When God stands up, look out.
And the word plead here doesn't mean what it sometimes does.
Doesn't mean he's gonna beg, that's what they're saying. You
know, God's begging you now, God's pleading with you to do
something for him. The word plead there, it means
to state the case. He's gonna declare What's going
on? He's going to tell it like it
is, you see. We can't see that. In all of our evil down here,
we think we're doing the right thing. Just ask people. The most ungodly and horrible
crimes are considered just doing the right thing. But I'll tell
you this, God's going to call us out. He will declare it. He
will state the case. It's not going to be a mystery
why you're being judged when you're judged. God's going to
make it real clear. Let's look at that also in Romans
1. Let's turn over there this time.
I want you to see this. Verse 28. God's going to stand up and he's
going to state the case. I believe he's doing that by
the voice of a few in this country now. Of course, he did then. He had
his prophets then. He always has his witness, his
voice in this world for whoever will hear it. Whoever has ears
to hear, let them hear now. Because God tells it like it
is. There's no confusion in what
God says. Look at verse 28 of Romans 1. Even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. That's why, you know, murdering millions of babies seems like
the right thing to do. Oh, we can't infringe upon the
rights of women. Reprobate mind. That's what that
is. among many other things, just
like that. To do those things which are
not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. Disobedient to parents
without understanding covenant breakers without natural affection
implacable Unmerciful does that describe this world? Who knowing
the judgment of God you see what we're talking about God's gonna
stand up and state it like it is it's not gonna be a mystery
to you why God's judging you you know the judgment of God
and you know that such things are worthy of death and But you see, you've manipulated
the truth to where you benefit from it. It's not the truth anymore
because you've perverted it. But you know what's true. I'm sorry. People just do. They just do it anyway because
it suits them. You mark it down. Oh, well, they
really, they're sincere about that. No, they know it's murder. They know it's ungodly. They
know it's repulsive to God. They do it because it suits them.
That's what God said. They know the judgment of God
against that. They know that God ought to put them in hell
for it, but they do it anyway because it suits them. They not
only do the same, but they have pleasure in them that do it.
They're going to get together and have a big party about doing it. They're
going to march down the street and declare that they're doing
it. You see what God's saying here? He's going to be clear. And He describes what they're
doing here. Look at verse 16. Moreover, the
Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk
with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing
as they go, and making tinkling with their feet, Therefore the
Lord will smite with a scab. That's what we were just talking
about. They're gonna march down the street. We saw in the previous
lesson, they don't hide it anymore. They flaunt it. They openly,
just openly happy about their evil. Therefore the Lord will
smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of
Zion and the Lord will discover their secret part. Nothing's
hidden from him. He knows the heart now. They
say it's for the good and we just don't want to treat everybody
right. God sees in secret. And he's
going to show. He's going to lay it open. The
word haughty identifies the problem. There's the problem. The reason
men and women do not glorify God as God, as we saw in Romans
1, which goes right along with what we're talking about tonight
in this book, in this chapter, The reason they don't glorify
God as God is because they consider themselves to be God. That's
called being haughty. Mincing means a skipping walk. They're just as happy as they
can be to be vile and wretched. Happy and carefree and they're
evil. They tinkle as they go along. They've got little bells
on their ankle. They're joyful. That's a picture of joy. They're
joyful about it and they want everybody to know it. They draw
attention when they walk down the street. And this while the
poor are being oppressed, while God's people, he said, are being
mistreated. And these are the true people of
God, he's talking about there, the godly, of course, are oppressed
because God is hated, so they're hated. And this has been true
physically at more times than others, but all of the expression
of evil In a land, what is it? It's defiance against God. And
those who hate God hate his people. As I've said to you before, I
go preach this in Times Square, there are going to be a lot of
people wanting to kill me. And it's just the truth. But God's gonna take it all away.
All of their so-called, all their joy and their skipping and their
tinkling and all of that. The hair of a woman is called
her glory in 1 Corinthians 11, 15. God's gonna take it, they're
gonna be bald. God knows how to, how to put man's glory to shame
now. This is a clear picture. He'll strip the wicked of all
their adornments. All of their pride, all that
makes them happy, all that they display in their haughty rebellion
and oppression of all that's good. What did God take away
from Pharaoh? Pharaoh was haughty, wasn't he?
Who is your God? Why should I listen to him? I'm God. I'll do as I
please. God left him just like this.
What a picture. This woman is sitting in the
dust. Desolate at the end of this chapter. Just desolate with
nothing. No pride, no dignity, no possessions,
no comfort, no anything. That's where God left Pharaoh
and killed him and threw him in hell because of his rebellion. That's what's happening here.
What did God take away from Saul of Tarsus? Oh, you remember what
Job said? He's taking the crown off my
head and put me in the dust. God did the same thing to Saul.
He left him in the dust, didn't he? He knocked him down, blinded
him, and put him in the dust. Everything that Saul had, you
know what he declared? Well, Saul wasn't desolate, you
know, he was a wealthy man and all that and highly respected.
No, not anymore. He said, everything I had was
a loss to me. Everything I was and everything
I had, it was a loss. That's desolation right there. And here's the thing, one was
in judgment and one was in mercy. And here's the deal, whether
in judgment or in mercy, we're coming down. You and I are coming
down one way or the other. We're going to be desolate in
ourselves. In verse 18, it talks about the bravery being taken
away, their bravery. That's what they're bold in their
rebellion against God. In verses 18 through 23, we read
it a while ago, it describes all manner of adornments that
they have and improvements to their appearance. You know, the
crisping pins it said was a way to set their hair to make it
curly and stuff like that. You know what I'm talking about.
Here's what it is. They wear their pride around
their neck, their comfort in their rebellion around their
neck and on their heads, their smug confidence in their hatred
of God. And they're noticeable when they
walk by, aren't they? They're openly in defiance of
God and they want everybody to know it. That's the picture there. But I want you to notice what
all this is. Look at verse 24. It shall come to pass that instead
of sweet smell, there shall be stink. And instead of a girdle,
a rent, and instead of well-set hair, baldness. Instead of a
stomacher, a girding of sackcloth, and burning, instead of beauty. Instead of a sweet smell, there's
gonna be stink. God's going to make you realize
what you are and everybody else is going to know what you are
too, sooner or later. We like to hide it, don't we?
And there's a physical, very clear illustration here, this
thing of the smell. I like to smell sweet. I like
it when you smell sweet. I don't want to smell you as
you are. You know what I'm saying? You
don't want to smell me either. But you know what it is? It's
artificial, isn't it? It came out of a can. You don't
really smell like that. And guess what? I'm going to make a confession
tonight. I don't either. I don't smell like that. I put
stuff on that smells good. Because I don't want you to smell
me. That's what we do before God.
That's what this is talking about. And all these adornments and
things, they're artificial. You weren't born like that. The
jewelry and the ornaments and the things that make you look
the way you want to look, God didn't give me curly hair, so
I'm gonna curl my hair. And that's fine, but you see
what it pictures. I'm not against that. But you
see what's being pictured here. It's not real, it's artificial.
We need to understand that. That's not you. And God's gonna
have to take it away, spiritually speaking. He's gonna take it
away. And we're gonna smell like we smell. And we stink. We stink, we don't smell good.
And whether in judgment or mercy, as I said, in the case of Pharaoh,
it was judgment. God said, I raised you up to
put you down. I gave you a throne so that when I threw you in hell,
it would be obvious that there's really just one throne. Okay? But then with Saul, he left Saul
desolate too, but then he lifted him up out of the dust. But whether
in judgment or in mercy, now, you're going, you're headed to
the dust. And you're gonna be naked before God, no ornaments,
no artificial anything, and you're gonna stink before God before
it's over with. Whether in judgment or in mercy.
You see the teaching there? It's real clear, isn't it? Real
simple. And when he does this in mercy, it's to show us our
need of a covering. Read there, where is it? In D
and Ezekiel chapter 16. I don't wanna mislead you. But
he said, I'm gonna put some ornaments on you. You're gonna be beautiful,
but you're gonna be beautiful through my comeliness, not with
something you came up with, not with something you bought on
QVC. It's gonna be my beauty, my comeliness. You see the spiritual
application there? He shows us our need of a covering,
something that he provides, and of a sweet-smelling saber before
God. We must have that. If you stink,
God is gonna not have anything to do with you. What smells good to God? I don't want God to smell me,
but what smells good to God? No perfume that man can mix up,
I'll tell you that. You know what smells good to
God? Let me read it to you. In Genesis 8 20, this is the
first time I think, I believe, that this is mentioned, the sweet
smelling savor. Listen to it, Genesis 8 20, Noah
builded an altar under the Lord. This is after God had delivered
him, after God's judgment fell upon the ark instead of falling
upon Noah and his family. Substitution, safety in Christ,
redemption. You remember it was pitched with
atonement. And he took of every clean beast
and of every clean fowl and he offered burnt offerings on the
altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. God, Noah said, in doing
that, he worshipped God because God can only be worshipped through
an innocent blood sacrifice. And he's saying there, I know
why I'm standing on this earth now and it's dry and I'm safe
and I didn't perish in the flood. I know why, it's because of Christ.
That's why. And so he offered that offering.
And the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's
sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth. Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as
I've done. Do you know what the Lord smelled there? He says he
smelled a sweet. You know what he smelled? He
didn't smell burning animal flesh. He smelled Christ crucified. He smelled the incense that the
priest came in with. He brought a censer into that
Holy of Holies after the veil was lifted and he went into that
most holy place and he brought a censer with incense in it and
the smoke rose up. That's the intercession of Christ.
That's the difference between life and death. That's, Peter,
Satan didn't sift you as wheat and grind you up and destroy
you because I've prayed for you. Wherever you read in the scriptures
about God smelling something sweet, you will find that it
is referring to the blood sacrifice that he ordained. Every time,
it's Christ. Whether in picture or in direct
reference to him, as in Ephesians 5 too, listen to this. Walk in
love, Paul said, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. That's what smells good to God.
The offering of Christ. Verse 25, thy men shall fall
by the sword. You gotta always think now, what
does this represent? Your men, your mighty, thy mighty. Verse 25, thy mighty. Well, that's
your defense. That's who defends you against
enemies. They're gonna fall. You're not
gonna have any defense against God. The spiritual lesson here,
he's gonna put you in the dust. That's where Job came to. He
said, I'm gonna lay my hand on my mouth. I've got no defense. I've got nothing to say. I'm
gonna shut up now and see what God's gonna do. That's where
you're coming now. Whether in judgment or in mercy,
you're not gonna have any defense. And her gates shall lament and
mourn. Blessed are they that spiritually mourn in mercy that
God causes to mourn over their sin. You know, everybody mourns over
the consequences of their sin. That's what Judas did. He was
sorrowful because he got busted. That's not repentance. Blessed
are they that mourn over their sin. God, look at me. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? That's the mourning that God
blesses. And that is the blessing of God. Let me say that the right
way. That's the mourning that is the blessing of God. Your mighty men, she being desolate,
she'll sit upon the ground. Your mighty men in the war, that's
all of your defenses, all that makes you confident and makes
you feel safe in your opposition to God. It's gonna fall by his
sword now. What's his sword? The word of
God, it pierces and divides. It's mighty, isn't it, Paul said.
I believe it was Paul. It's mighty to the dividing. It'll lay you bare. It'll strip
you. It'll put you in the dust. It'll
kill all your defenses before God and all your confidence and
boasting, bravery. All men and women, there's this
picture, she's just gonna sit down. Finally, she's just gonna
sit on the ground, desolate, with nothing. Desolate means
you've lost everything. All men and women are desolate
and destitute before God. He's just going to show us that
sooner or later. All that you wear, and all before
God to look, you know, the way you want to look, and all that
you think you own, and all of your defenses and natural confidences,
they're all imitations, they're all artificial, and they're all
a bunch of illusions. That's all they are. And God's
going to reveal that. Before God, they're all taken
away and you will either face God naked and stinking and without
defense or clothed in that white robe
washed in the precious blood of the Lamb, Revelation 7, 14.
Before you can be clothed in that robe, though, you gotta
be stripped. You gotta become desolate. And you'll either stand before
God in your own stink, or there's going to be a sweet smell by
the sacrifice of the Savior, an offering made unto God for
your sin. And for a defense, you're going to be defenseless
and have nothing to say. When God, when you say, oh, but
look at our wonderful works, and God says they're works of
iniquity, what are you gonna say about that? When God says
they're sin, when God said the best you did was evil, what are
you gonna say about that? You know what I'm gonna say?
Absolutely nothing. For my defense, I have an advocate
with the Father. He's gonna speak for me. To all those who are in Him,
I say to you, it shall be well. It shall be well. Let's pray.