Okay, brethren, good to see you
all. All right, we'll be in Isaiah
24, and tonight we're just going to be looking at verses one through
four. Isaiah 24, verses one through
four. Now, I read at the beginning,
I read this chapter because it strikes a very solemn note when
you read it. It's very solemn and when you
read it, it reads largely in the present tense. You read it
and it's very present in its delivery and why that is, is
because it's very, it it covers all the judgments that
man has ever witnessed. It reveals, it shows God's hand
in every major judgment that man has seen. It easily shows
that. And yet, even though it fits
so well in past judgments, we see how it is very fitting in
describing that judgment which is to come in that great and
final day, the day of judgment when Christ comes. And so it's
a fitting word for the coming judgment of every man, woman,
and child outside of Christ. In Acts 17, at the end of verse
30, when the apostle was there declaring the unknown God to
those Greek philosophers, he said to them, God now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. Even now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. And that is were to be turned
from our vain religion, the idolatry that is so common to us, the
worship and praise of ourselves, the worship and praise of some
false god according to some dead religion that we trust in, that
we've heard of and have followed and think that it's going to
speak well for us. But God sent his own darling
son to be the very righteousness of his people, to put away sin
for his people. And in Christ's coming, it reveals
to us our need of salvation, our need of repentance, that
we cannot save ourselves by our own works. And he goes on and
says, because God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead. And so Paul's telling us we're
to look to Christ, be turned to Christ, hear what we're declaring
to you that God has sent his son for a purpose because man
cannot save himself and all men are going to be judged by this
God and we know this because God has raised this one from
the dead. He's declared that this is the
one in whom he's pleased, and by that same power that he raised
Christ up, so we too will be raised to stand before God, those
in Christ and those outside of Christ. And those outside of
Christ will have to stand there naked and ashamed in their own
works, trusting what they've done. So the prophets of God
have foretold of the judgment day over the course of man's
history. Over the course of history, they
spoke of judgment before Israel was even a nation, they spoke
of judgment while Israel was a nation, and they continue to
declare that there's judgment coming now that that nation of
Israel is no more. Now that we're in the day of
grace, Christ's Christ's reign, Christ's church, in His day,
we yet know that there's a coming judgment day for all men and
women. Alright, so the reality is the
Lord has been speaking of judgment the whole existence of man, pretty
much. And so man is without excuse.
He's heard that God is going to judge all men according to
righteousness, according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
who is the very righteousness of God. Now, the thing is is
that our God has revealed himself in mercy. He's foretold us of
the coming judgment and given us a heart and a will and a desire
to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for safety. That's mercy. Peter
tells us in 2 Peter 3 verse 2 that ye may be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment
of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. And he says in verse
7 that the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. And the apostles are telling
us this because they want us to know and be assured that God
shall punish his enemies. And his enemies are our enemies
because they hate those whom God loves and they hate those
who love the true and living God and speak and declare his
name. And so while it's a fearful thought,
the judgment of God, is a fearful thought for us who fear God,
who know him and see him and behold his glory and power, hour,
we have this blessed assurance. The apostles comforted us with
these words. Paul said to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 5, 4 and 5, But ye, brethren, are not in
darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are
all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are
not of the night, nor of the darkness. What the Lord reveals to us is
that we're saved by grace, not by our works. He doesn't threaten
us and say, now I'm coming. You better start doing right
and you better start doing all things perfect and well without
fault and be perfect or else you're going to suffer that same
judgment. No, he tells us we must be righteous
and perfect, but he tells us where we are made righteous and
perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking to the law, not looking
to our own our own works, but looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we find that it's all of
His power and grace and mercy that draws us, brings us into
the family of God. It's all through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Ephesians 1, verse
11, we'll see this. Ephesians 1. Paul has been speaking of the
adoption that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We that are
his people, that have heard his voice and follow him as our shepherd,
we are adopted into the family of God. And he now says in Ephesians
1.11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ." That's God the Father
who first trusted Christ. He trusted his people in the
hands of Christ. and put us there. In whom, verse
13, ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. which is the
earnest or the down payment that Christ has given to us of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto
the praise of his glory. Speaking of that time when Christ
will return to the earth and raise up our bodies to ever be
with the Lord in the heavens. Now, this is a glorious and a
happy day for the children of God, but what is to become of
the wicked? We know from the psalmist, Psalm
711, that says that God is angry with the wicked every day. He's
angry with the wicked every day, and so he's going to destroy
this world and all the wicked of this world when he destroys
this world. But the remnant has this most
glorious promise, that his judgment day, he's already been judged
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God has already put us in
Christ, and we've been judged in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
our ark. God put us in Him, and God poured
out His wrath upon His Son, so that you and I who believe and
hope in Him have no confidence in this flesh. You and I, looking
to Christ, we're in Christ. by saved by the mercy and the
grace and the kindness of God shown to us in Christ and so
that he bore that wrath and he bore the judgment of God being
poured out upon us and he took it all and suffered under the
wrath of God that we who hope in him will not have to pay that
debt. There's no more debt for us to
pay. Christ paid it all in full with the shedding of his blood.
And that's why Paul assures us saying, whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. So when we're reading Isaiah
24, this chapter, I can't tell you that these words only have
a spiritual meaning. I can't say that that's all that
we'll see. We certainly do see the spiritual
fulfillment of this in Christ. But when you look at every judgment
that's ever been in man's history, it always dealt with their physically
being judged and being brought into ruin. We see horrific judgments
being poured out upon men which cause them great pain and great
trouble and brought them to great ruin and just wiped out everything
for them. But we also see throughout history
the Lord's mercy and grace toward his people because the Lord has
always had a remnant that he loves and has separated out for
himself and has shown them mercy. and brought them through it because
we know this because he always had a witness of what he's done
and how he saved them and how he destroyed the enemies of God. So, unlike the wicked, for whom
these judgments come, we're reminded repeatedly of the blessings that
come for the righteous. It says in Revelation 20 verse
6, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,
on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And that first resurrection is
the believer's part in Christ now. when the Lord reveals Christ
to them and reveals salvation to them, giving them faith to
look to Christ, to lay hold of Christ, to trust Him and believe
that faithful work which Christ did for His people, to know that
He has saved them to the uttermost. That's the first resurrection.
And He says, they have no fear of the second death. Now, the
first death is when we lay these bodies down in the grave, we
all die and go back to the dust, but it's the second death that
we have no fear or worry of because Christ already put away that
death. He destroyed death so that we
won't be held with that, that when all the wicked are thrown
into the lake of fire and brimstone, that'll be their part. That's
the second death that we don't have to worry or fear. Because it speaks of that in
Revelation 21.8 when it says, but the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death. That's that second death that
he's talking about there. All right, now, this week and
next, we'll look at this chapter in order to understand, you know,
gain an understanding of the judgment of God against the wicked.
But we'll see, believers will see, how that in Christ, that
judgment's been fulfilled and that they have nothing. to fear
or worry about in that regard. You keep looking to Christ. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ
and he'll sustain you and keep you through it so that you bear
the fruit that he has purposed for us to bear. And him, trust
the Lord God because he knows the wicked. He knows how the
wicked trouble us. He knows how their works of darkness and the
evil that they cause. And he knows how to deliver his
people out of those works. All right, our title is Empty
Works. Empty Works. And we'll look at
first the empty works of man, and then at the very end we'll
see the purpose of God in Christ. All right, so the empty works
of man. Now, I'm gonna read verse one, and we'll focus largely
on the first half of that verse, and then we'll look, as we go
through the rest of the chapter next week, we'll see more of
the second half of verse one. All right, so Isaiah 24, verse
one says, behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste. and turneth it upside down and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." Now when I read this
chapter several years ago I thought about this chapter a lot and
I was struck with the the silence of the chapter. It's a very solemn
chapter. And you can hear the silence. There's so few men left in the
earth that it's very silent. And it's just a terrifying thought. It's a very solemn chapter. And you see the awesome power
and the authority of God to do this work. The psalmist wrote,
be still. and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. And one thing about the word
of the Lord is its timelessness. It's timely, and it is always
appropriate. It's a timeless word, and it's
suitable for the church in her age, the age that we, the local
church, find ourselves in. God's word is always suitable
to that time. Paul wrote to the Romans saying
in 11.5, even so then at this, present time. At this present
time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace." There's always a remnant. God always has a remnant. When Elijah saw the great terrible
time in his day, when it seemed like everybody was a worshipper
of Baal, the Lord told him, no, I have 7,000 whom I've reserved
for my name that have not bowed the knee to Baal. 7,000. And
when John, the Apostle John wrote Revelation, he wrote it to seven
churches, seven churches, right? It's not a lot, it's not a lot,
it's few, but it's always a perfect, always a complete number whom
the Lord has reserved for himself. And so she finds herself in this
age, and the Lord has a purpose for the church in her age, and
that is for her to be faithful to her Lord. Be faithful to the
Lord. Reverence the Son of God. Look
to Him. Seek Him. Worship Him. Trust
Him. Seek the Lord to love Him and
be thankful for the grace and the mercy which God shows to
you through His Son, Jesus Christ. It's as simple as that. Love
Him. Love the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
in the face of this impending or promised judgment, we're told
Who does this work? We're told who the one is that
is bringing this judgment upon the earth. It says, verse 1 there,
behold the Lord. The Lord. The Lord does this
work. All these things come to pass
because, verse 3 says, the Lord hath spoken this word. The Lord is doing this. The Lord
is bringing judgment upon the earth. Now Romans 8.28 Paul tells
us, we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. We have that promise. All things
work together for good according to His promise. And so God ever
has a purpose in the things that He does, and what He does is
for the good of His people. Therefore, we do well to remember
the promises of God given to us throughout the scriptures.
We saw In Isaiah 3 verses 10 and 11, and we've quoted it several
times that we've been going through Isaiah because Isaiah is speaking
of difficult times, of times of judgment that are consistently
happening to the church throughout their age at the time when they're
going through. And in those verses it says,
Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for
they shall eat the fruit of their doings. But woe unto the wicked,
it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall
be given him." That reward is that reward of sin, of judgment
rather, for their sin, for their hatred and rebellion against
God, because that's the wages of sin, death. They'll be judged
because they're sinners that have no love, no fellowship,
no cleansing, no covering, no blood to cover their sin. They'll
pay for their own sins. Alright, so the chapter, Isaiah
24 verse 1 begins, Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty and
maketh it waste. It's the emptiness of the earth
and it's being made waste. And this makes clear to us what
it's showing to us. The Lord's showing us the emptiness,
the vanity of man's works. All the things that man labors
in and works for and builds up for himself and glories in. And
in an instant, the Lord makes it empty and wipes it all away. And it's the vanity of man. So that we see here that man
is always looking to build up, always looking to strike out
on his own and to be free from God and to do what he will, and
he thinks that it'll be a glorious good time and that he's going
to do well and succeed in what he's purposing to do. But it
all has nothing to do with God. He wants God out of his thoughts,
out of his mind. He wants nothing to do with God.
And it began in the garden. And the Lord told Adam, when
Adam sinned against God, he said, I'm going to know the difference
between good and evil. I can be like God. I hear what
the serpent's saying. I can be like God. And the Lord
said to him immediately, in that day, he said, curse it. It is
the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life. And then in the next verse he
said, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.
And then in the next verse he said, in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread. And so man toils and labors for
his work and he's building it up. Sometimes we see how Men
and women build up these great kingdoms, and they have all these
goals and what they want to do with their kingdom, and they
die, they perish, they fall away, and so do their ideas and what
they wanted. Someone else takes over for them,
and they take it in another direction, and they go another way. So when
that person dies, all their goals and what they endeavor to do
die with them. Others still, they work and they
labor and they try to do what they can, but something comes
and wipes it out and destroys it. There's floods that wipe
away things and there's fires and damaging winds and hail and
thieves break in and things fall apart from old age. and all sorts
of things that just come and take away and destroy the works
of man. And you see this throughout the
various judgments that are listed here in the scriptures. I'll
just name a few. You know, there's the flood of
Noah. That wiped away everything. That just took away everything
there with the flood. And then there was Sodom and
Gomorrah. They're off doing their own thing,
and the Lord rains down fire and brimstone and destroys those
cities. Alright, when Israel was leaving
Egypt and the Lord brought them into the land of Canaan, how
about those people? who had farms and houses and
cities that they built up in their lives, and that all was
taken away and given to the Israelites. So all their works weren't even
theirs. They were taken away in an instant
and they were removed. They had to flee or died or became
slaves of the Israelites. And then you see the captivity
that Israel and Judah went through. a number of times in their existence. And then we had just seen all
the burdens that the Lord spoke of by the prophet, all those
burdens where you see cities and nations rising and falling. We see it all through the history
of the scriptures, these kingdoms and nations rising and falling,
coming and going. just coming to nothing. I mean,
there are cities to this day that were once great and flourishing
that aren't even inhabited now anymore. And so there's that,
and then of course there's the destruction of Jerusalem in 70
AD, so they're not even the nation that they once were. They're
nothing. They're just a political nation over there, but they're
not the people of God. They're not the Israel of God
anymore. That has been done away with. And our Lord said in Matthew
6, verses 19 through 21, lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves
break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven. where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And so the Lord, he judges the
earth, and it's to punish sin, and it's to bring an end to the
works of wicked men. And so it doesn't matter who
you are. All men are transgressors. Every one of us is a transgressor.
Every one of us is a sinner. None of us can boast that we're
better than the person next to us. We're all in need of God's
mercy and grace. And verse 2, in Isaiah 24 verse
2, it says, And it shall be as with the people, so with the
priest, as with the servant, so with his master, as with the
maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller,
as with the lender, so with the borrower, as with the taker of
usury, so with the giver of usury to him." And so the Lord, we
see here is that the Lord's not impressed with our stature, right? With what we've obtained and
risen to in our lives. It doesn't matter whether you're
rich or whether you're poor. It really doesn't matter to the
Lord. It doesn't matter whether you have a position of authority
or you're just the lowest servant on the totem pole. The Lord's
not impressed with those things. all our sinners, all are guilty
of sinning and breaking the law of God. And so the Lord humbles
men. He humbles them. And it's to
show them that they're not God. We're not God. We're not free,
though we think we are. He's God. He's our creator. He's our lawgiver. And He's the
one who tells us that we're to worship Him and look to Him alone. And so He's showing us our need
of salvation. He's showing men that, look,
you think that you can just strike off on your own and that you
don't need God, but I'm your provider and I'm your sustainer,
he's saying. You can do nothing apart from
God. He could strike us down with
sickness or illness or anything at any moment and we'd have nothing. He could take it all away in
an instant and we'd have nothing. And so the Lord shows us, one
of the ways that he shows us and humbles us and brings us
low is to show us the emptiness of our works and how quickly
our works come to nothing. How they're just drawn out of
anything that's good or lasting. Now Isaiah 24 verses 3 and 4
says, the land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled for
the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth
away. The world languisheth and fadeth
away. The haughty people of the earth
do languish." So that apart from Christ, we'll toil, we'll labor,
we'll build things up, and we'll think that we've accomplished
something, but they're all vanity and they all come to nothing.
and they won't speak well for us when we stand before God.
We're not going to be able to boast in those works that we've
done, whether it's something in the earth just to enrich ourselves
and to get us things that we like having, or if it's some
works of righteousness, some religious works that we think
God is pleased with these. He'll bring them to nothing and
show us the emptiness of those things, and it's the pride of
man. It's the pride of man that keeps
him from seeking God. It's the pride of man that causes
him to shut his ears up and not want to hear from the Lord, and
not want to hear that he's a sinner, not want to hear that what he
does day in and day out is sin against the true and living God. And so all his ways perish with
him. And it says, you know, in Proverbs
14, 12, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. And so the Lord shows himself
to be the Lord, to be the God, to be the creator of all on this
earth, and he shows himself in judgment. He reveals it to men's
hearts and shows them that God is judging them for their sin,
and they don't even lay it to heart. Many don't lay it to heart.
Some might think it to a degree, but usually they find some, you
know, cute way of saying, oh, Mother Nature's upset with us
now and she's unleashed her fury. They'll gladly blame it, you
know, attribute it to Mother Nature, but never to God. And
anytime someone suggests the Lord is judging those people
there, they get very upset and very offended by that. It could
be Mother Nature, but you can't say it's God doing that. And
really there's only one reason why man isn't entirely wiped
out and destroyed, and that's because God has a people. He
has a people that he loves and that he's determined to be gracious
to and determined to draw them out of their darkness, to make
them his trophies of grace. And so he's bringing all these
things to pass. The wicked, they don't lay it
to heart, they don't understand, but his people, they'll be humbled
by it. And they'll see and know the
Lord's hand is in this. The Lord's hand's in this. He's
doing this. It's the Lord who's bringing
it to pass. It's the word of the Lord that's
done this. And I'm humbled. And Lord, what can I do? You
know that I'm a sinner. You know I have nothing. And
he brings his people low in themselves to see that we're nothing, to
see our need of him. Because he won't let us go off
with the wicked of this world. He won't let us go back into
that city of the whore of Babylon. He'll keep us from going there.
Your feet may turn that way in the flesh, but the Lord will
always bring you back to seek your all, to find your all in
Him. And it's in mercy. Even if it's
judgment against this flesh, it's all in mercy when He turns
us to the Lord. To see and to know our all is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when you look at Isaiah
himself, back in Isaiah chapter 6, you could turn there, there
in Isaiah 6, if you remember, that's where Isaiah saw the Lord,
sitting enthroned there, glorious, with his robe, filling all the
court where he was, and it was a glorious, powerful sight. But
what had happened there? Well, at that time, remember,
Isaiah started his ministry when Uzziah was the king. Uzziah was
Isaiah's cousin. He was very close to his cousin,
his cousin Uzziah. And Uzziah started off as a great
king. He was a godly man. He did things
in the name of the Lord and he sought the Lord for a long time. And then it was towards the end
of his reign when he became puffed up and proud in himself and he
began to do that which was wicked and not right before the eyes
of the Lord. And the Lord humbled him by striking him with leprosy. And he wasn't healed from that
leprosy. He had to resign as king His son took over as king
and he had to go outside of the city as any common leper would
do. He was thrust out from the people
and that really affected Isaiah. Isaiah had a lot of confidence
and loved his cousin and was so thankful for his cousin and
he was humbled. Isaiah himself was humbled seeing
the humbling of Uzziah. And it caused him to see the
Lord God high and lifted up, not his cousin, but to see it's
God who rules and reigns over the hearts and wills of men. And so he was humbled. And it
says, It says in relation to what we're looking at now in
Isaiah 24, but he asked the Lord in 611, Lord, how long? How long am I going to be preaching
this to the people? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tent, and it shall return,
and shall be eaten as a teal tree, and as an oak whose substance
is in them, when they cast their leaves. So the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. So you see here that when the
Lord strips down people, when he brings a nation low, when
he brings a people low, it's for that holy seed. It's to bring
out that which is precious, that gold, that silver, that refined
precious metal, His people. It's to bring out His holy seed,
His people, and draw them out of their darkness, draw them
out of the pit with all the wicked. It's to bring them out to seek
the Lord God, to seek the living God, and to stop seeking their
own works, and to stop trusting in themselves. So it's for their
benefit, the glory of the Lord and the benefit of His people.
Alright, they're going to hear. Alright, now that was the empty
works of man. Now let me just touch a little
more in closing on the purpose of God in Christ. So we've been
looking at the works of man and the emptiness, the vanity of
His works and so it's God who removes the things that man trusts
in, just like we saw with the burdens, Israel was trusting
in all these wonderful nations around her. She was very impressed
with all these mighty kingdoms and kings and nations around
her. and he took them all away. He took away the glory and the
power and the majesty of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, of the Egyptians,
he took that away, of Tyre over here, he took that away, of all
these other nations, you know, whatever Moab had and Jordan
and all these other places, he took, he stripped it. So they
had nothing to trust in but the Lord. They could only look to
the Lord. And so the Lord does that. And so that's what we see
in the hand of the Lord. But let me take you to an account
of the prophet Jonah. Turn over to Jonah chapter 1.
Jonah chapter 1. You know, if you go to Daniel and then
Hosea. What is it? Amos and Joel. It's not too far
there. It's pretty early. particularly
in there. But Jonah's in a ship with these
men. And Jonah's disobeying the Lord.
He's fleeing from the Lord. He's not doing what he's been
called to do. But of course, the Lord's going
to bring him to do it. But there's these men that are
in the ship with Jonah. And the ship's in such a storm
that these seafaring men who know the seas, who know what
it is to sail, they're terrified because they see this is a this
is a terrifying vicious storm that even they're not used to
seeing and they are certain that they're going to die and they
find out that it's because Jonah is fleeing from the Lord and
so Jonah tells them if you're if you want this sea this raging
wrath that's come from the Lord if you want that to be quiet
and still throw me into the ocean and then it'll be peaceful to
you. But instead, this is what they
do in Jonah 1, verse 13, there it says, Nevertheless, the men
rode hard to bring it to the land. But they could not, for
the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them. And that verse
there is a good picture of our works as men and women. It's
our works, our labor. We labor hard. We don't want
to hear what God says. We don't want to hear that look
to Christ, trust Him. I've sent Him for this purpose.
We don't want to hear that. We want to do our thing. We want
to do our works. We want to do it our way, even
if it's hard and laborious and trying and destroys us, that's
what man is going to do. And just like these men, these
seafaring men that rode hard to bring it to land, but they
couldn't. The wrath of God was too fierce, too strong, too great
for them to prevail against it. It wouldn't happen. And so when
Jonah was eventually thrown into the sea, what do we read in verse
15? It says, so they took up Jonah and cast him forth into
the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. And that there, Jonah
there, is a picture of Christ, our Savior. And God provided
Christ that he would be the very perfection of his people, that
he would fulfill all the righteousness there in the law. Because we
can't do it. But Christ came and he fulfilled
it perfectly before the Father, and he went to the cross. And
there entered into that raging sea of wrath, of God's wrath,
that tempestuous wrath, which we can't work ourselves across.
We can't get across this sea of judgment against us. Our strength,
our works will never prevail for us. But Christ prevailed
for us. He bore that wrath and judgment
and went into that sea, just like Jonas was cast into the
sea, so Christ went into that judgment of God and bore the
darkness and the fierce wrath of Almighty God against Him because
He was bearing the sin of His people. to pay that debt, to
put away the sin of his people by the shedding of his own blood.
And he obtained justification. He made reconciliation. He atoned
for our sins so that now we are reconciled to God and that sea
is now a sea of glass. And that sea, that's what it
pictures, that sea of glass before the throne of God, that in Christ,
God is at peace with us. and it's still and quiet, so
that all the works of man are emptied out, all that raging
and wrath of man and what he's trying to do is all removed and
taken away, and there's only us standing before the living
God, made faultless to stand before His throne by the precious
blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, that has obtained mercy. and grace and peace and everlasting
life with Him. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and
10, Paul says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
Him. So, we're thankful, brethren,
that it's not by our works of righteousness which we have done,
as Paul said to Titus, but it's according to his mercy he saved
us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit washes us in the blood
of Christ, regenerates us, giving us life, enabling us to see what
Christ has accomplished for us, that He was judged for us, that
we would not have to bear that judgment in the end of days.
When the wicked are judged, they'll be destroyed, but we won't have
to fear that second death. And whatever judgment comes upon
this earth that we may be called to endure, to live through, or
to die, not in the judgment, but if it pleases the Lord that
we die during that time, you don't need to fear, because it's
the Lord's hand that does it, and He will always work good
for His people. Through that, whatever it is,
the Lord will call us to Himself, and we'll have that sweet, blessed,
blessed fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost through it all. He'll keep us and bring forth
those fruitful works, like it talked about there, you know,
with the oak tree and the teal tree, and then we'll see later
in this chapter where it speaks of the grapes and the figs, the
olives rather, that we bear, that we feed upon. Those works,
the Lord has a purpose in it all, to bring forth those glorious
works which he's ordained that we should walk in before the
foundation of the world, all in Christ. So, all right, I've
spoken long enough. I pray the Lord will bless that
to your heart, and we'll come back. Again, I don't want you
to be fearful of the judgment, but to look, to see how Christ
has put us in himself and carried us through that judgment. It'll
all be well for us. All right. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your word. Lord, we thank you that
you will not let our enemies Your enemies and our enemies,
Lord. You will not let them prevail. And You will not let them go
unpunished. But You will deal with them in
Your perfect time. And Lord, we know that You have
a way, a purpose for Your church in every age. And Lord, we trust
and know that You have a people yet to be called out, yet to
hear the voice of the Son of God, yet to know that He is their
shepherd. Lord, help us. Help us now, even
now, to be faithful, to preach and declare the gospel of our
Savior, Jesus Christ. And that, Lord, in your power,
As it pleases you, you would send that word out and that you
would attend that word with your spirit and bring it home to the
hearts of your people. Deliver them from death and darkness. Deliver them from the pit that
is reserved for the wicked. And call us to your Son, Jesus
Christ, in whom we pray and rejoice and give thanks. Amen.