All right, I'm going to read
from 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. Now Naaman, captain of the host
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was
also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians
had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out
of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's
wife. And she said unto her mistress,
Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for
he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his
lord, saying, Thus, and thus saith the maid that is of the
land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go,
go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And
he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six
thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he
brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this
is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came
to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he
rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive,
that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel
against me. And it was so, when Elisha, the man of God, had heard
that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to
the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him
come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet
in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots,
and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent
a messenger unto him, saying, Go, and wash in Jordan seven
times, and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt
be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold,
I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call
on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the
place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Parfar, rivers
of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Might I
not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned, and went away in
a rage. And his servants came near and spake unto him, and
said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great
thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather than
when he saith unto thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down,
and dipped himself seven times in the jording, according to
the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again, like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood
before him. And he said, Behold, now I know
that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now therefore,
I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said,
As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none.
And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said,
Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given unto thy servant
two mules burden of the earth, for thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods
but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardoned
thy servant. And when my master goeth into the house of Rimon
to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself
in the house of Rimon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimon,
the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing. And he said unto
him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little
way. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,
Behold, my master hath spared Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving
at his hands that which he brought. But as the Lord liveth, I will
run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after
Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running
after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and
said, Is all well? And he said, All is well. My
master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come
to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the
prophets. Give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two changes
of garments. And Naaman said, be content,
take two talents. And he urged him and bound two
talents of silver in two bags with two changes of garments
and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bared them
before him. And when he came to the tower,
he took them from their hand and bestowed them in the house.
And he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in and
stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, whence
comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went
no whither. And he said unto him, Went not
mine heart with thee, when the man turneth again from his chariot
to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money,
and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and
sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? The leprosy,
therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed
for ever. And he went out from his presence
a leper as white as snow. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight,
so blessed to be together. And Father, we ask that you give
Eric the words that you would have us to hear tonight. And
Father, open up our eyes and ears and our hearts. And Father,
we ask that you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. That would be a sweet thing if
the so-called preachers of Christ in our day would rend their clothes
and cry out like the king of Israel saying, am I as God that
I can heal a man of his leprosy? And realize that it's not what
we say or do that heals a sinner of their sickness and their sin
disease, but it's Christ. Christ alone is the one who heals
his people. All right, let's turn to Isaiah 3. Isaiah 3. I think we're only going to get
to the first two verses today, actually, so Isaiah 3. And the Lord begins in Isaiah
3 with a declaration of His sovereignty. God is God. He is the Lord. He is sovereign and does what
He pleases, and He's going to bring judgment upon the house
of Jacob here in our text. And if you look at the verse
just before in Isaiah 2.22, he says, He's saying, don't look
to man. Don't look to yourself thinking, how am I going to fix
this? and prevent this judgment from
coming upon me and my people that Isaiah is saying to us here
and now. He's saying, don't even try and
figure it out. You're not going to stop this. There's nothing
you can do that's going to prevent me from judging this people and
doing what I'm about to do. So he's going to shake and he's
going to judge the house of Jacob here. It's the Lord's doing.
In Isaiah 3.1 it says, For behold, behold, this is the sovereign
Lord, the Lord, the Lord of hosts that take away from Jerusalem
and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread
and the whole stay of water. So the Lord's going to judge
the people here by a great and a terrible shaking that's going
to remove those things that they're trusting in all their idolatry
that they think that they've built with their wisdom and their
strength and their riches and their power, the Lord's gonna
shake it, shake it terribly, and bring it to nothing, and
there's nothing that man can do to stop and prevent it. So it's the removal of things,
well, we see it in two ways, the shaking that's described
here in chapter two, we see it in two ways. The Lord removes,
he takes away certain things, as he says there in verse one,
the Lord of hosts doth take away And as we'll probably have to
see in another message, that he gives certain things, and
I will give, in verse 4 he says. So he's going to bring judgment,
he's going to shake terribly the earth and bring this judgment
to pass upon the people by taking away certain things and by adding
certain things to judge them and to try them. But what I want
to look at this evening with you is the removal and the giving
of things in light of what Christ has done for his people. All right, I want us to see what
the Lord has done for us so that by Christ, God removes certain
things and adds certain things to our benefit, for us, that
we would not be left to be partakers with the judgment and the just
wrath of God in that day, because in Christ, He bore all these
things. And in Christ, He works all these
things for us, so that Christ becomes all to us. He's everything
to us. So we're made righteous. And
what the Lord tells us is that it's going to be well with the
righteous. He says there in verse 10, say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him. for they shall eat the fruit
of their doings. And we're going to see how Christ
makes his people righteous so that they receive that word of
well and that word of comfort that don't fear, don't worry,
I'm bringing judgment. But don't you worry, I'm the
Lord. I'm not going to condemn the righteous with the wicked.
I'm not going to punish the righteous man when I punish the wicked
man. I'm going to deal with them. But you, you'll be fine. It'll
be well with you. I will take care of my righteous
people. And in verse 11 it says, Woe
unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward
of his hands shall be given to him, or given him. We're going
to be delivered from that woe that's coming upon the wicked
because of Christ, our Savior. We should never forget that. We'll see that. Our title this
evening is Judgment That Takes. Judgment That Takes. We're just
going to look at these two verses here. One thing to realize, as
we're looking here at Isaiah, one thing to realize is that
this judgment did come upon Judah. This was done in the land of
Judah when they went into exile to Babylon, these things came
to pass. the prophets also looking to
the coming of our Lord. And this judgment was also done
again to Judah and Jerusalem in AD 70 when the Romans wiped
them out in AD 70 there. And we know that these things
shall be done again. They shall come upon the earth
again when the Lord returns. And it will be done in a greater
measure, in a much grander scale, if you will, but they happen
throughout various times throughout history. There's always famines,
and there's always the removal of these things that we're going
to look at, and there's times when these things that are judgments
are given and brought upon people. So these things happen to varying
degrees throughout history. you know, we may, you know, we're
likely to see some form of these things physically and really,
whether or not it's the final one, I can't say, but we're likely
to see some degree of these things happening in our lives, in our
everyday lives or somewhere around the world or somewhere going
on, these things are happening because the wicked are being
punished. They're being shown and reminded
that what you're doing is walking contrary to me, so I'm walking
contrary to you, the Lord says. We'll see these things. So, the
Lord's going to teach us, though, through all these things, that
as we see these things, as we go through these things, that
the Lord always does that which is well for the righteous. He's
always going to take care of His people. He's not ever going
to leave them to Himself, so He's always going to provide
and sustain them, even if you're there in that place where these
judgments are occurring and being poured out upon the wicked, you
know, If we're the Lord, He's going to provide for us and protect
us even while He's dealing out punishment to the wicked. So, He's going to teach us and
we're going to have to learn because we've got to learn this
that Christ is all. He's all. He's everything to
the believer and Christ has delivered us from the holy wrath of God
and He shall continue to deliver us and even in that day when
the great and terrible day when the wrath The holy wrath and
the judgment of God is poured out. upon this world. So we're made righteous in him
and we're going to see his provision and how he provides for us over
and over. He's preparing us for that day,
whatever that day is that we see, whatever that degree is
that we go through. So what we'll see tonight is
this learning begins right from the beginning for us. It starts
right at the beginning of our life in Christ. It begins right
there in Christ. So first, How does he do that? Well, he removes the dead works
from our carnal nature. He removes the dead religious
works that are vain and aren't profitable to us. He removes
all these things that our our old man hopes in and trusts in
and relies on and looks to in the day of adversity. He's going
to strip those things from us. And then second, he's going to
give us life and salvation in Christ Jesus, our Lord and our
Savior. He's going to restore life and health and healing to
us by Christ. Not going to be by our wisdom
and our works that's going to do it. He's going to do it through
Christ and we're going to see and know that it's by Christ
that we are healed, by Christ that we are instructed, by Christ
he's our righteousness. So that Christ becomes all these
things to the believer and he does it in that new man which
he's created. He's not going to reform this
old man, he does this in the new man that he creates. And
third, he's preparing us for that day to stand before him. When this world stands in judgment,
Christ is making us fit and righteous to stand before Him. We are as
fit as we're ever going to be, but He's preparing us to stand
in whatever day of adversity is that comes upon this earth,
because we're going to know He's going to take care of us. He's
going to provide for us. So the Lord begins here in verse
one saying, for behold the Lord, which is the word Adonai, master,
Lord, the Lord of hosts, this is Jehovah, doth take away from
Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole
stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. So the sovereign
Lord Jehovah sovereignly brings these things to pass. As Paul
said, for of him and through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever. Amen. And then we understand
that this is the God who does all things, who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will, Ephesians 111. So we're
told here in our text that the Lord's going to remove the stay
and the stat, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of
water. Now that is the basic necessities
of life, right? Bread and water. These things
are necessities for us to to remain alive in the flesh. And
the Lord tells them that He's going to do this to them, that
if they walk contrary to Him, He's going to walk contrary to
them, and one of the things He's going to do is remove the stay
in the staff. Turn over to Leviticus 26, and
we'll see this. Leviticus 26 and verse 23. He says, And if you will not
be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me,
then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you
yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon
you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And when you
are gathered together within your cities, I will send the
pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand
of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff
of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven,
They shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and ye shall
eat and not be satisfied." So the bread is going to become
so lean in the city that we're going to have to ration it out
to you and you're not going to be satisfied. The Lord is going
to bring leanness into their souls so that they know that
they have sinned against the Lord, that this has come to pass
because God is done this. So it's happened in the past,
it'll happen again. It continues to happen over and
over again as the Lord pleases because constantly man is filling
up the cup of wrath with his sin and his abomination, just
constantly filling it up and The Lord is just patiently waiting,
because it's not that he's just waiting on the wicked, but the
Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any of his sheep
for whom Christ died should perish, but that they would all come
to repentance. So the Lord's patiently working through these
things, because he's calling out and bringing out his sheep
unto himself as it pleases him. So this world, too, you know,
this happened in Israel initially, because Israel was the one to
whom the oracles of God were revealed, but this whole world
has heard the gospel. It's gone out into all the quarters
of the world, and there might be tribes that haven't heard
it, But before it's over, the Lord will bring someone out,
that's a relative or someone from there, out from there into
a city or somewhere and they'll hear that gospel. So the Lord
is able to work it so that all peoples will hear it. All from
every tongue, tribe, and nation is going to hear it. And he's
calling out people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. He's
calling out his own people from all the peoples of the earth.
and bringing them to a knowledge of Christ and a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this world's heard it by and
large and so that's why it's no problem that the Lord is going
to judge this whole world. He's bringing that to pass. It's going to happen that the
Lord's going to bring this to an end one day when it pleases
Him. Whether we're around to see it, I don't know, but the
Lord is going to bring it. But again, we'll see it in varying
degrees to some degree. What I really want to do, though,
is just show how Christ has become to us spiritually everything
that God removes from us in the flesh so that God gives everything
necessary to us through Christ, everything necessary for life
and godliness. Everything that we need, Christ
is going to supply it to us so that we have everything we need
from him. So understand that Christ bore
that forsaking of God his Father. He bore the forsaking of God
and judgment for his people so that the Father will never forsake
us. He's never going to leave us
alone and we're never going to bear or suffer a judgment of
God. alone. We're not going to have
to go through that and look to ourselves to provide for ourselves
or sustain us. He's going to provide for his
people. Even though he brings judgment upon the earth, we're
not going to be left to ourselves. He's going to provide for the
righteous. because Christ bore that forsaken. He bore the judgment
of God, so we won't bear the judgment of God that the wicked
go through. So Christ was forsaken of his Father, and the Father
is to the Son the stay and the staff. He's the whole stay of
bread and the whole stay of water to the Son, our Lord. He's everything. Christ depended on God for everything. Even though he himself is God,
he allowed himself to for his Godhead, if you will, to be subdued
to where he was constantly praying to the Lord and looking to the
Lord and depending upon him for everything. And there was a time
when the disciples came back from the city and they urged
their Lord to eat. And it was at the well when he
was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, and they were
saying, Lord, now eat. And he said, I have meat to eat
that ye know not of. They're looking at each other
wondering, well, did somebody give this guy something to eat?
When did he eat? I didn't see him eat anything.
And he said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me
and to finish his work. And that's exactly what Christ
our Lord did. He finished the work that the Father sent him
to do. He was made sin for his people
so that he bore the sin of his people. He was made what they
are bearing all their sin, and when He was bearing their sin,
the Father forsook the Son. He turned away from the Son.
If Christ wasn't made sin, then God would never have forsook
Him, unless He was made sin. So He forsook the Son and removed
that stay in the staff, and Christ faithfully finished the work. He never sinned Himself. He never
sinned. He remained faithful, looking
to the Father, trusting that even though He was bearing the
sins of his people and that God forsook him, he trusted the Father
that he would find him faithful and just and would raise him
from the dead. That he would accept the sacrifice
that he made of himself in putting away the sins of the people.
And we know that he did it because on the cross there he said, it
is finished. He finished the work that the
Father sent him to do. and then God raised him from
the dead so that we know and are assured he accepted the sacrifice. We're confident, we trust, we
believe him, we know that he heard him because it's finished
and he raised him from the dead. So this our Savior did as the
mediator, the God-man mediator, when he reconciled the people
to the Father. He reconciled the people to God. And then our Lord, he fasted
40 days and 40 nights, so he knows what it is to have the
stay and the staff removed. because he fasted at that time. And then not only that, but was
tempted of the tempter when the devil came and said, if thou
be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And
yet he answered and said, it's written, man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth
of God. And brethren, that's a faithful
saying to remember. because whatever trial or tribulation
we go through, He's given us His Word. We have the indwelling
of the Spirit of the Word of God in us. The Spirit of Christ
dwells in us and He helps us to look to and believe that Word
that the Father has said, that He has spoken and promises us
that it shall be well for the righteous. Whatever comes upon
this nation or this world, it shall be well for the righteous.
Woe to the wicked, but it shall be well to the righteous. And
so Christ has shown himself faithful and we can depend upon him and
rest right there in his promise to take care of us. He is the
bread of life, so as the bread of life, we're going to have
to see that he is the bread of life. He does that by bringing
a famine into our souls. When we're dead in our trespasses
and sins, he brings a famine into our souls so that we We
see that we have no righteousness of our own and that we can't
do anything to make ourselves righteous and we can't make that
peace with God. He strips us of all that so that
we see that He and He alone is the bread of life. And He says,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness
for they shall be filled. So He blesses us to know true
spiritual hunger and true spiritual thirst so that we would learn
and see that He satisfies that hunger and He satisfies that
thirst because He is the righteousness of His people. He is that living
bread and He is the spring of living water that flows up from
within us whereby we live and are sustained by Him through
it all. And we'll see it worked out in
that Whatever comes to pass will be made to trust in Him. He'll
give us the faith and the hope to continue looking to Him in
whatever adversity we go through. Whatever ill comes upon this
earth, we have the one that shall provide for us. He said in Matthew
6, 31, therefore, take no thought saying, what shall we eat or
what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after
all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. You know,
I mean, I have no problem with people that store up water or
something like that, because you don't know, there could be
a storm or anything like that, you know, where that's not what
he's saying, that you can't have water or, you know, some amount
of food. But the reality is, don't trust
in those things, because a wind could come, knock your house
over, and all the stuff could fall right into the flood and be ruined
anyway, you know, or a fire could come, or somebody could break
in and steal it. So that's not where our hope is. Our hope is
in the Lord, the Lord shall provide, you know, because you could be,
have all those things that you trusted in wiped out, have to
be picked up and moved, you know, and, and go to some FEMA camp
and there the Lord provide for you and sustain you and your
family, you know, and, and, and provide for you and the place
where you were get overrun or some worse thing happened over
there. You don't know. You think, Oh, like what was
me and everything I was planning on is ruined. well, you know,
the Lord, but the Lord knows because he knows exactly how
to provide. So whatever comes to pass, even
if our things that we are trusting and get stripped away and taken
away and come to nothing, it'll be okay because it'll be well
for us. The Lord will always provide
and do well for the righteous. So you can be confident in that.
All right. Next in our text, we see Isaiah
verse two, three, two, the mighty man and the man of, of, of war. the judge and the prophet. He's
saying, I'm going to be taking these things. I'm taking away
the stay and the staff. I'm taking away the mighty man and the man
of war, the judge and the prophet and the prudent and the ancient,
the captain of 50 and the honorable man and the counselor and the
cunning artificer and the eloquent orator. These are all offices
that are a blessing. These are useful offices that
are beneficial to a society and to civilization. When you have
these things, it creates stability and peace. Governments and magistrates
and law and order, those are good things. We benefit from
that. We might get angry at our government
at times, but we benefit greatly from these things. And so when
the Lord removes that from a society, that's a curse. That's not a
blessing, but rather a curse upon those people. But here again,
we see how the Lord has made all these blessed occupations
for the people in that society, Christ becomes all these things
to us. He fulfills all these offices
to our benefit, and he works these things in us, in himself. He said in Ruth 2.1, we see that
Christ is our mighty man, that he is the mighty man whose precious
blood redeemed us unto himself. He delivered us paid for our
sins with his own precious blood, purchasing us with his blood,
so that we are now his purchased possession. We read in Ruth 2.1,
and Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth,
of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Boaz is
a type of Christ, and he's a mighty, wealthy man. He's a mighty man
who's wealthy, and that's exactly what Christ is. He's the mighty
man and his blood is of great value so that God accepted the
purchase of the people with Christ putting down his own blood for
the people. He shed his blood to purchase
us and to redeem us. And Paul shows us this in Galatians
3.13 when he said, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And then we read that when the
Lord's punishing the woe to the wicked, he'll remove the man
of war. But for us, for the believer,
Christ becomes that man of war so that he'll fight and protect
us and deliver us from the enemy that seeks to destroy us. When the enemies come out against
the people of the Lord, The Lord will cause us to cry out to him
and lift up our hearts and our voices to him and look to him
because he alone can help us. We'll see ourselves weak and
unable to do the job, but it says in Isaiah 42, 13, the Lord
shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall
prevail against his enemies. But then notice, The Lord, in
doing this though, he's humbling us and he's stripping us of those
things, right? Because naturally, we're mighty
men. Naturally, we're men of war and
we're fighting against the Lord. Naturally, we're enemies of the
Lord. It says that we are, in Romans
8, the first third of Romans 8, you see how we are enemies
of God. It says that we are enemies of
God. enmity against God. That's what we are in our very
nature so that we don't hear the things of God, we don't believe
the things of God, we don't see things the way that God sees
them, we don't believe him or trust him or want to rely on
him in any way naturally. So he's got to destroy that enmity,
he's got to break that enmity in us and he does that by conquering
us and by making peace with us and and reconciling us to God,
even when we were the enemies of God. He did all these things
for us. If you look over there in 1 Corinthians
2, in verse 14, We see how it enlightens that thought that
Christ breaks that enmity between the natural man and our Heavenly
Father. It says in 1 Corinthians 2.14,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but
we have the mind of Christ. And that's, we have the mind
of Christ, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in us. For if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of this. So he gives us his spirit, he
dwells in us, giving us life, destroying that enmity, breaking
the, you know, destroying those things and knocking those things
down so that we are at peace with God and reconciled to him. All right? And then the other
thing that he says that he'll remove are the judges, he'll remove
the judges. So before Christ revealed himself
to us, our judgment was false, right? We thought all kinds of
vain and and wicked thoughts about God. We listened to the
opinions and every wind of doctrine and every idea that people had
and, you know, brought in certain things and said, you know, that
sounds pretty good, that might be true. And we would listen to
all those things and what we judged was false and it was lies. And we didn't trust God and we
didn't believe Him and we didn't wait upon Him. Everything that
had to be done, we tried to do in the strength and the power
of our own hands. When Christ comes, he makes himself
known to the heart because he gives a new heart. Before Christ, we fear judgment
because we're in bondage to sin. There's that fear, that natural
fear that one day we're going to stand before God and I don't
know what's going to happen. and I don't know if I've done
enough or if some of the things I've heard are true or not. So
Christ is going to come and settle that all down and make himself
known so that we don't fear the judgment of God anymore because
he shows us that his blood is sufficient and his righteousness
is sufficient and that he did indeed satisfy the wrath of God
for us and he put away judgment for us so we don't fear those
things the way the world fears them anymore. And we see now
that Christ has been, the Lord committed judgment to the Son,
so that to whomsoever the Son gives life to, they have life.
And to whomsoever the Son judges and condemns, they're condemned
and they don't have life. But to us who have been given
life, and to know Him, and to seek Him, and have been made
to know the burden of our sin, and that we can't carry it, and
we can't correct it, and we can't make ourselves clean and free,
but that He is everything to us, that there's great peace
in that, and there's great joy in that. The Lord said in John
5.22, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. So when that resurrection
day comes, brethren, we don't need to fear because we're coming
to the Son, trusting in and looking to his atoning work. He's going
to receive us because we're coming trusting in Him. If we come trusting
in our own works, He's not going to receive us. But if we come
trusting in the work that He did, there's nothing to fear
because He did it. We know that He accepts that
work because it's perfect. And then we see that God's going
to remove the prophet and the prudent and the ancient. And
to the wicked, that again is to their punishment, to not hear
the word of God, to not have among them prudent men, to not
have among them the ancient. But what we see here is that
Christ has made to us these things, the prophet, the prudent, and
the ancient. And what we see is that Christ
is our prophet. He's our priest. and he's our
king. He's our prophet, our priest,
and our king, so that the Lord is going to shut our prophetic
mouth, so that we stop saying the foolish things that we once
said and the things, you know, the ignorant things that we spoke
of about the Lord. We lay aside our prudent ways,
the ways that we thought we were being cunning and crafty and
shrewd in our dealings. We lay aside those self-righteous
works and those things that we once trusted in and had a hope
in, though it was a very shaky and a false hope. And we've stopped
trusting in those dark paths and our dark ways and our vain
sacrifices that we make for the Lord and all of that foolishness. We've stopped looking to those
things. And then Christ also binds the strong man and delivers
us from the devil under whose power we once walked and under
whose power he was able to take control of us at his will to
do his bidding but the Lord destroys his works so that he can no longer
take control of us to do his will when he wants. We're now
no longer subject to the things of the devil and subject to those
things, but we are alone subject to the power of Christ, because
Christ has brought us into his kingdom. So as a prophet, he
teaches us by the prophet's tongue to speak so that We read that
what the prophets wrote concerning Christ in his word here, they
wrote by the Spirit of Christ. And it says in 1 Peter 1, verse
10, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching
what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was
in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. So, the Lord teaches
us through the Spirit of Prophecy that He is the one spoken of
throughout all the Scriptures. That everywhere in the Scriptures
it's revealing Christ to us. And that's what I'm really trying
to do here tonight is to show you that yes, all these things
are going to be stripped away from the wicked and it comes
to them as punishment. But that stripping that comes
to us, brethren, has been done in Christ. So that when that
day comes upon the wicked, it's not going to affect us. We're not going to be destroyed
by those things. They come to destroy the wicked
and God is righteous and just and won't destroy the righteous
with the wicked. He'll protect us because All
these things were done in Christ on our behalf. Christ has taken
the whole judgment of God for us, and that He has made to us
all these things so that we can stand in that day of adversity. Whatever adversity comes upon
us, He's made all these precious things to us that are a blessing
to us. He is all those things. And then in Prudence, we see
in Isaiah 52, 13, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. And the work
that he was doing there, when Isaiah is talking about that
in Isaiah 52, 13, it's the work when he was on the cross, when
he was putting away our sin, when he was bearing that sin
and bearing the wrath and the judgment of God, That's where
he was doing that prudent work, as it says in verse 14, as many
were astonished at thee, or turned to stone. It was so shocking
and so awful what they were beholding with their eyes. It says his
visage was so marred more than any man in his form, more than
the sons of men. That's when he was hanging on
that cursed tree. bearing all the sins of His people
in His body, all their diseases, all their sicknesses, all that.
We know what sin and diseases do to us. We know how they destroy
us, and Christ is bearing all of it of His people. Everything that His people were,
He's bearing that all in His body. And not only that, but
he's bearing the wrath of God in himself so that his visage
was marred. Whatever the Romans did to him
was nothing compared to what sin being laid on him and the
Father's wrath being poured out upon him did to his body and
to his form and to his visage there. So he did all that. to put it, to put away our sin.
That's where we see his most prudent and beautiful and wonderful
work, because there is where he accomplished the salvation
of his people and set them free. We go free now in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then as our king, we see
it in Daniel 7-9. I'll just read it. I think it's
one of the most kingly names I've ever read in my life. It says, Daniel 7-9, I beheld
to the thrones were cast down And the Ancient of Days did sit,
Whose garment was white as snow, And the hair of his head like
the pure wool, His throne was like the fiery flame, And his
wheels as burning fire. I mean, who is more awesome and
wonderful as our Lord? And He's called the Ancient of
Days. So that there is none more needful,
there's none that we could want to be with us in that day of
adversity than our Lord and Savior, who is the Ancient of Days, who
has all experience, and all wisdom, and all power, and all knowledge,
and is everything to His people. So brethren, He has the heart
of kings and governors in His hand, and He turns it whithersoever
He wills. So trust Him that if it comes
down to it, the Lord is able to provide and make a way to
deliver you from the wrath that's coming upon the wicked. So he does all these things for
us. But let me just summarize this.
The Lord is going to continue to bring upon this earth where
the people are just walking contrary to him. And we'll see this as
we go through chapter three. You'll even see things that are
going on in our day. You know, where they're just
so proud. They declare the sin of Sodom so openly, so freely
now, and they're proud of it. And you have to think, well,
if the Lord was angry with them then for doing it, why wouldn't
He be angry with us when we're doing it? And what's going on
in our nation? You know, this is a nation that
has heard the gospel. They have heard it. They can't
say that they haven't heard it. you know, why shouldn't we think
that the Lord won't deal with that wickedness, won't deal with
the wicked and bring these judgments upon them. So they have happened,
they shall continue to happen. We'll see them until the Lord
comes that final time, it's going to happen to varying degrees.
before our eyes, but he always brings us to pass all the stripping
and this giving of the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill all these things
in us. He does this in the hearts of
all his people. It's because we're not going
to receive that judgment. Christ has borne it all for us
and he's also simultaneously preparing us so that Christ is
all those things to us that are emptied and removed from the
wicked so that they're left to take that judgment all upon themselves. Christ becomes all those things
to us, all those offices, all that wisdom and that might and
that power and that wealth and that strength. He's everything
to us and we can depend upon him. It'll be well for us and
woe to the wicked, and it'll be so because he gives us a heart
to watch and to pray, and to watch and to pray, and not to
become dull of hearing and sleepy, he's told us. I mean, we get
so coddled and we think, ah, that stuff will never happen
here in America, or even if you do, the thing isn't about getting
worried about it or flustered about it or upset about it. whatever
the Lord is pleased to do, Christ has made all these things to
me so that I trust and believe him, that he'll provide for us,
he'll protect us, and we'll see him do these things, all the
while protecting and delivering us. And we'll see this, I mean,
you see it all through Isaiah in these early chapters here,
it's just a raising, it's just a cutting down of the fields,
he's just mowing it down, he's just pronouncing all kinds of
woes and tough days for Israel here, And yet, he shows you as
it goes through, it's called the Gospel of Isaiah for a reason,
because he shows us such sweet pictures of how Christ has made
all these blessed things to us, and that he's there to comfort
us, but he's going to do so in laying us low. We see it, he
lays us low, he strips us down of all these things and self-confidences,
and builds us up and exalts us in Christ. Everything's done
in Christ. that it's a sure foundation. It's a house built of Christ. It's on the foundation of Christ,
and it's not going to be moved. It's not going anywhere. So just
look to Him and trust Him. So let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we confess that in the flesh,
Lord, we don't like the thought of trials and tribulations, the
stripping of the stay in the staff and the stripping of wisdom
and thoughtful men or even thoughtful ideas in our own head, Lord.
But Father, we thank you that Christ bore the judgment of God
for us. Lord, that you do all things
well, that you know exactly how to take away and how to build
up how to strip down, and how to clothe. And Lord, you do all
these things, and you're wise and able. And Lord, we pray that
you would strengthen us in Christ our Savior, that you would make
him everything to us, and prepare us, and enable us to stand in
the day of adversity, whatever day that is, whenever it does
come, Lord, to whatever degree it comes. We pray this in Jesus'
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We're going to sing 300 more
secure is no one ever.