Alright, take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 3. A text will be found in verse
10. Say you to the righteous. Say you to the righteous. It
shall be well with him, for they shall eat of the fruit of their
doings. Now, in this chapter, this is
really the only bright spot in the whole chapter. The whole
chapter is centered around the forsaking of Jerusalem and Judah. God forsaking this nation because
they have left off the worship God, they have forsaken God,
they have forsaken His worship and followed after the gods of
other nations. And God is here telling them,
warning them of His wrath, of His wrath. And the reason for
their leaving was not trouble. That's not the reason they were
leaving. It was prosperity. They were in the midst of great
prosperity. And they left off the worship
of God. This is true of them as it is
spoken in that parable of our Lord in Luke chapter 14. Those
that were bid to the wedding feast, remember, they made each
one of them an excuse. An excuse for not to come. What
was the gospel message? All is ready. What a message. All is ready. Christ is the bridegroom
and all is ready. Come to the feast. What do you
bring? Nothing. All is ready. And what? They began to make excuse. Why?
One says, well, I've got a field. I hadn't seen it yet, but I've
got a field to take care of. Who buys a piece of property
they've never seen? But I tell you this, this is
what the wicked do. They buy into happiness that they never
have seen. They haven't seen it yet. But
they give their whole selves to it. They make excuse why they
will not come to Christ. The other one, he bought an ox
that wasn't proven. How many go to God by their own
works and can't find any proof of anyone being accepted by their
works? The other one says, well, I got
family, I got things to take, I got responsibilities. How many
neglect Christ and the gospel, the things of this world? Now
in the first eight verses, the Lord gives an example for us,
a very clear picture of what a fallen nation, a rejected nation
looks like. You want to know what a God-forsaken
nation looks like? In the first eight verses, He
gives us a very clear picture. A nation, a people that have
forsaken the worship of God, He clearly describes them. Look
at this in verse 1 through verse 3. He says, For behold, the Lord,
the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from
Judah the stay and the staff. The whole stay of bread and the
whole stay of water. What's the first thing that God
takes away? He takes away the gospel. What
is this whole stay of bread? A stay is the necessities. That's
what it means. He said, I'm going to take away
your necessities. Food and water. But this is spiritually
speaking in this sense that the first thing is removed is the
gospel. The gospel is removed. The stay
of bread. Christ said, I am the bread of
life. And the second thing, look at
this, he says, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge
and the prophet, the prudent and the ancient, the captain
of fifty and the honorable men, and the counselors and the cunning
artisopher, and the eloquent orator. What does God do? He takes away all the just rulers. Anybody see that lately? Anybody
see that in your own nation? He takes away the honorable men.
He takes away the men of valor. He takes these rulers. Now, I'll
tell you, a nation that's blessed has just judges, just rulers,
wise counselors. But when God leaves a nation,
believe me, He takes away the just men. He takes away the just
rulers, the honorable men. And notice what he puts in place
of these honorable men. He said, I will give children
to be their princes and babes to rule over them. And the people
shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every man by
his neighbor. And the child shall behave himself
proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable. What does God do? He gives children
to rule over us. Children. And the result of this,
instead of honorable rulers, we have children and babes ruling
over us. The evidence of that is the oppression
of one another. The people oppress one another. Every man against his neighbor.
The young men become proud against the ancients. The older, the
wiser people, the young people, The base men, the vile men, open
sinners, oppose honorable men. Is this not happening with us?
Do you not plainly see it? Do we not see that there are
no more men of valor in this nation? There are no more men
of honor? Our rulers are like bickering
children. You listen at them and you look
like you got a couple of 12 year olds ruling. The judges are corrupt,
calling evil good and good evil. It's not so. The prophets of God are few and
the false prophets are many. It's just not so. Free will works,
religion runs rampant in this nation. False religion is taken
as a given. Now, it's just... But there are very few gospel
preachers. The young generation opposes
those of great wisdom, those elderly who have wisdom, those
that sacrifice nothing speak evil of those who have sacrificed
everything. Listen, the people that started
this nation, most of them were not what we would not call Christian. They called themselves that,
but most of them were not. Most of them did not believe
the gospel. Yet I'll tell you, they did sacrifice many, but
how many are speaking in our day who sacrificed nothing against
those men who sacrificed so much? God said this is evidence of
a nation that is forsaken of God. The vile Fornicators, adulterers,
homosexuals speak out against virtuous people as though that's
an evil. Look at verse 12. It says, As
for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over
them. And my people They which lead
thee, cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy past. He not only gives children, but
women to rule over us. What does this mean? They're
ruled by emotion. You not see that? They're not
ruled by logic or reason. They're ruled by emotion and
passion. Fourthly, this, no one takes
responsibility for the ruin. Nobody takes responsibility.
Look at that in verse 6. He said, When a man shall take
hold of his brother, of his house, of his father, saying, Thou hast
clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy
hand. He said, Let this be your fault.
Won't you take charge so I can blame you? You not see that? You don't see this happening?
Right in front of your eyes? Our rulers come together with
policies that fail and are horrible and what do they do? They blame
someone else. This is just the way of a fallen nation, friends.
It's just evidence. And notice this in verse 9. The
wicked walk proudly and have no guilt of sin. They said they
show their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare
their sin as Sodom. You remember Sodom? When the
angels came to Sodom to deliver Lot and his family, you remember
when they came and they desired those men, they wanted those
men. They burned in lust after those angels, and the angels
blinded them. You know, they didn't cower down. They didn't run back to their
homes. They pressed toward the door. Pressed toward the door. A nation
that's ruined, listen to me, no amount of calamity will turn
it around. You could drop a nuclear bomb
in the middle of this country and it will not change one thing
about the wicked. It won't. No amount of suffering
will change the wicked. They proudly set their face to
sin. There is no fear of God in their
eyes. They do not even hide their sin
anymore. Who would have thought 20, 30
years ago that you would have such a thing as gay pride? Is there anything to be proud
about? Yet they strut as though they should be proud. What is
that evidence of? That God has left this nation.
Now if you want to, he's gone. The nation is abandoned. It's forsaken. You can see it. You see the scripture tells you
right there that they declare their sin as proudly as Sodom. They don't hide it. And what
is God's declaration then to such a nation, to such a people,
to such sinners? What is it? Woe unto their soul. Woe unto their soul. Friends,
this woe of God is this, he will by no means clear the guilty. Men try to make up, make the
vile men look like the victim. Have you found that out? That
the vile and the wretched sinners, they try to make themselves look
like a victim. No one forces them to sin, they do it on their
own. But I promise you this, Every sin will receive a just
recompense of reward. Every sin. The law of God, friends, is not
flexible, nor does it change with the culture. The law of
God is immutable and the holy justice of God is firm. Ezekiel
7, 9 he says, And mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have
pity. I will recompense thee according
to thy ways and not abominations that they are in the midst of
thee. And you shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth. And why is this that God will
smite them? Because they have neglected his
covenant. They have neglected his gospel. They have neglected
his son. He says, Ezekiel 17, therefore,
thus saith the Lord, as I live, surely mine oath that they have
despised and my covenant that they have broken, even it shall
I recompense upon their own hands. I want you to understand this,
sin is the only thing we own. It's the only thing you can't
blame God for. Your sin. And no man will be able in that
day to blame God for anything. Let him blame Him now, let him
point the finger, say it's your fault, do what you will. God
will have a just recompense, a reward. If you deny His covenant,
if you reject His Son, you will pay the price. You will pay the price. And just
as Jerusalem is ruined, so is the sinner. What a picture of
us by nature. This ruined nation is surely
a picture of man by nature. That's what we are. We are ruined.
We are ruined by the fall of Adam, wherefore, as by one man's
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. And so the scripture here declares
woe unto the soul that sinneth. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. That's without question. Those who have cast the word
of God behind their back, woe unto them. Those who have cast
the covenant of God, which is salvation by Jesus Christ, woe
is unto them. And so then, if you have sinned,
is there any hope? Is there any hope for the sinner?
Now listen, there may not be hope for this country, but I
want you to understand there is hope for a sinner. There's
hope for a sinner. The hope for the sinner is found
only in verse 10. You see what God has done to
a wicked nation, the woe that is pronounced upon the sinner.
But here is a blessing. Here is a pronouncement of blessing
upon one group of people. Say you to the righteous. It shall be well with him, no
matter what happens in his country, no matter what takes place in
his nation, no matter how many have fallen, no matter how they
are oppressed. Listen, it is well with him. No matter what happens, it's
well. You that are righteous, you that
are righteous, listen, God says it's well. Well, how then can you who have
sinned be righteous? We know this, that in ourselves
we have sinned, that we are not righteous. How can one who has
sinned please God? How can one escape the holy justice
of God who has sinned? What are we lacking to please
God? It is simply this, you are lacking
righteousness. And this is true of us all by
nature. We lack righteousness. But here is hope. If you are
righteous. God says everything's all right.
Everything's all right. Well, who are the righteous?
That's what I want to know. Since it's well with him who
are the righteous. Who among us can claim to be
righteous? You know in Psalm 24 it says,
Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand
in his holy place? Listen to this. He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart. Go ahead, raise your hand. Who
is that? Any among us? Anyone dare say
I have clean hands and a pure heart? I tell you, there is only
one who has ever had clean hands and a pure heart, and that is
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. He is, my friend,
the righteous man. He, by nature, was righteous. None of us, by nature, are righteous
and can claim this, but behold the grace of God in this, that
God doesn't call righteous people. but sinners to repentance. Sinners. He said, come unto me, who owe
you that labor and are heavy laden. If God ever gives you
a sense of your need, the first thing we do is we begin to labor
to try to find a way to please God. When God puts it on a man's
conscience, he's not going to stop until he's able to find
some peace, some rest. But listen, there's no rest in
the law. There's no rest in your works. That's why Jesus said,
Come unto Me, you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Rest from what? Works. Rest from
the law. I'll give you perfect peace in
this. I will make you righteous. We come to Christ, that's what
we come for. We come because he alone can make us righteous. This is the gospel of God. It
is the gospel of righteousness. It is a gospel to show us how
God can impute righteousness to the unrighteous. How God can
impute godliness to the ungodly. That's the gospel message. Stop
and wonder then at the work of Jesus Christ. Because this is
the only way. It's the only way. It's a very
narrow way, isn't it? It's narrow and this is very
singular. There's only one way. There is no other way to be righteous. There's only one way. It is by Jesus Christ. You remember in the covenant
of grace, before the world began, God chose a people, he said,
according as He had chosen us in Christ Jesus, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. How? By Jesus Christ. How should the elect be holy?
How should they be acceptable sons? By Jesus Christ. This is the covenant of God. Behold the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, God, to send the Lord Jesus Christ And he came
to preach, he came and preached this message, I came not to call
the righteous. Well, good. Isn't that good?
To you that are unrighteous? He said, I came to call not the
righteous, not the self-righteous, because there really is no righteous
people. He said, I came not to call them,
but one group of people, sinners. To what? Repentance. Therefore, woe unto all who will
not come to Christ, because there is no other way to be righteous.
There is no other way to be righteous. How then should a sinner come?
He should come with humility. If a sinner is ever going to
be righteous, he must come to Christ in absolute humility. Humility. Peter says this, God
resisteth the proud. Really, what have you got to
be proud of? What are you going to bring to
God and say, look at this? What? Name it. Find it. There's nothing. God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God and he will in due time exalt you We
who are guilty must come confessing this that all we are and all
we do is sin If you're ever going to be righteous, you must know
this about yourself that you are not righteous You must come
confessing that all I have is unrighteous and And so then, because of this, all we do is mixed with sin. All we do is mixed with sin.
Therefore, we cannot work or earn this righteousness. God
says, say you to the righteous, it shall be well. But listen,
you'll never earn it. You can't earn it. And so you must come confessing
that you can. Therefore, how can it be well
with us only if we are made absolutely and perfectly righteous? I'm
not talking about a pretend righteousness. I'm talking about a real righteousness. It is well only for the really
righteous. Not just pretend righteous. Those who only profess to be
righteous, that's not it. Not partially righteous, those
who are perfectly righteous. Only to them it is well. Now
this righteousness that God gives is not partial. It is not somehow
a mixture of our works with His righteousness. This righteousness
does not come by man's will, man's power, or man's obedience. It only comes by the will of
God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the obedience
of Jesus Christ. That's the only way this righteousness
comes to a sinner. And so then everyone who comes
to Christ, listen, we are made We are made righteous. We are
given the righteousness, the full, absolute and complete righteousness
of God. Go to Romans chapter three. Look
at this. Romans chapter three. I know this in modern religion,
men want to hear about themselves. They want to hear about their
own problems or their own troubles or their own difficulties specifically.
That's why you have so many groups. They get over here and you get
the divorce group and you get over here and you get the, you
know, the alcoholic group and you get over here and you get
this other sinner group and they got each individual groups of
sins. When God's Word speaks to us,
He lumps us all together. So you put all the divorced people
and the alcoholics and the drug addicts, you put them all in
with me. Because God puts them all together with us. Listen
to what God says about man. Look at verse 10. As it is written,
there is none righteous. No, not one. As though saying none was not
sufficient enough. He had to overemphasize it. None. You know what that means?
No, not one. Not one. They are There is none
that understated, there is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. And so then he concludes Because
of that, in verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is what?
The knowledge of sin. You're not going to know any
sin except the law of God that's written on your heart and written
on those tables of stone. You won't know sin. But God wrote
it there, you do know it. And what does it do? It only
convicts me. The law only convicts me. I was
talking to a man, he was really bad alcoholic and he's ruined
his life and everything like that. And you know what? He went
to a class on the law. I said, You've got to be kidding
me. How'd that help? How'd that help
you? You've broken every one of those,
and it only convicts you. It can't help you. It can't save
you. It can't make you righteous. By the tease of the law shall
no flesh be righteous. No flesh be justified in the
sight of God, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
now, listen, the righteousness of God without the law. Righteousness
without your obedience. That's what I need. That's what I need. I need righteousness
without my obedience because I don't have any. I can't produce
it. Nothing I can do. Righteousness
without the law is manifest. It's witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God. Well, how is that produced? Because
that's what I need. Say you to the righteous, it
shall be well with him. Only to the righteous. I need
righteousness. So how is it produced? How is
it made? Tell me, tell me, how's it made? By faith of Jesus. See how righteousness is made? Son of God became a man and by
his own obedience sewed together the robe of righteousness for
us. By his own hands. He made the
righteousness of God for us. By the faith of Jesus Christ,
listen, unto all and upon all them that believe, there is no
difference. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. They're being justified freely. That's the only way you're going
to be righteous freely. If God freely gives it to you.
You're not going to manipulate God to give it to you. There's
nothing you can do to manipulate God to give it to you. This is
what religion claims is that you can manipulate God. That
you can do certain things or you can feel certain things and
you can manipulate or move God to give you this righteousness.
No, if it's justified, you have to be justified freely by His
grace. Justified freely. By His grace. Through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, friends, listen. If you need
to be righteous, the only one to make you righteous is Jesus.
That's it. If you need righteousness, it's only His righteousness that's
going to cover your nakedness before God. That's it. There's
no other righteousness. Matter of fact, in Isaiah chapter
42, it tells us this, that He is well-pleased, that God is
well-pleased, listen, for His righteousness sake. When Christ
came, what did God testify? He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well-pleased. Who else is God well-pleased
with? Who else did God say that about? No one. Only Jesus Christ. In Jeremiah 23 in verse 5 and
6 it testifies of him. Jeremiah 23 in verse 5 says,
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up unto
David, listen, a righteous branch. I'm going to raise up a righteous
branch. A righteous seed from the line of David. And listen,
And a king shall reign and prosper. He shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days shall Judah be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name, whereby
he shall be called the Lord. Our. Righteousness. That's his
name. His name is the Lord, our righteousness. So if any man is to please God,
he must have that righteousness and that righteousness alone.
That righteousness alone. In Romans 10, Paul says this,
Christ is the end of the law for what? Righteousness. Righteousness. To who? Everyone that believeth. You
see now how this righteousness was made by Christ? And now how
this righteousness is given to you. Through faith. In Jesus Christ. Notice this
word alone. Very important word. Because
faith in Christ plus something you've done. Only defiles the
righteousness. In the Old Testament, God told
him, he said, if you're going to make an altar. I want you
to take stones. And I want you to stack them,
but I don't want you to touch him. Listen to this. He said the day you put your
tool to the stone, you've defiled offering. The minute you or I put our righteousness
to his, it's defiled. Got it. So true faith trusts
only in his righteousness. In his righteousness. So He's
the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believe in Him.
For with the heart man believeth unto what? Righteousness. And
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. All you that have seen the woe
of God upon your souls, listen, believe, simply this is, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be So. So then let us bow in humility. In faith in Christ alone, and
he will give us this righteousness. And you that believe I want you
to understand this is not a righteousness future. You have the righteousness
of God even now, George. When God causes us to be born
again of the Spirit of God, He gives us a new heart, a new nature,
and that nature itself is righteous. This is why He can really say
this, say you to the righteous, not the pretend righteous, but the righteous. It is well. It is well with him. Listen, why? For he shall eat
of, they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. What does that
mean? They're going to eat the fruit?
You know what? The wicked, they're going to eat the fruit of their
doings. That's why God says woe unto them. He says, matter of
fact, He says that Yeah, in verse 9 he says, for
they have rewarded evil unto themselves. They're going to
eat the fruit of their doings. But get this, you that are made
righteous by Christ, you are going to eat the fruit of your
doings. Oh, wait a second. Man, I don't sound good. I don't
sound good. Oh no, it's okay. Because your
doings are His doings. His doings are your doings. He is a representative man and
therefore all He did, you did. You gotta see this by faith. You ain't gonna look in the mirror
and see it. You can't look at your obedience and see that. You just can't. This is why it's
by faith. We see this because the Word
of God testifies. I wouldn't tell you such a thing
if the Word of God didn't testify of it. Listen to what He says.
I just told you what He said in Jeremiah chapter 23, but if
you looked at Jeremiah chapter 33, listen to what He says about
you. He told him, the Lord our righteousness,
now that's His name, isn't it? This is the name whereby he shall
be called, the Lord our righteousness. Now look at Jeremiah chapter
33 and verse 16. It says in those days shall Judah
be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the
name whereby she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. So I'm going to eat of the fruit
of my doings, which is well. because they are his doings.
So everything my representative earned for me is mine. What is that? What did he? Righteousness? Yes. But notice this also. Pardon for seeing. Because I'm
I'm not pretending I really am a sinner. I know what I am. And if He threw righteousness
on me, what about my sin? God can't wink at my sin. He
can't slide my sin under the rug. This is also the work of
Christ, not just to provide us righteousness, but to atone for
our sin. To pay our sin debt to God. He bore our guilt and shame before
the justice of God, and on Calvary's tree He shed His blood for all
our sin. A-L-L, all my sin. Have you sinned enough? When
you leave here, are you going to sin some more? Anybody? Unless
you die, just a given, you will. Even that sin is already taken
into account and Christ is paid. He suffered. So God's not letting
me skirt by. No, I'm going to go to heaven
fully, completely righteous. You that are righteous, listen
to what God says about your sin. It's Jeremiah 50. I love this text. I don't like to misquote it.
And my mind is not all there, so... Jeremiah 50 and verse 20,
listen to what God says about your sin. In those days and at
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for, and there shall be none. The sins of Judah and they shall
not be found. So great was the offering of
Christ, that God can't find my sins. God can't find my sins. He searches. I can't find them. Because Christ really paid for
them. Therefore, you who are righteous,
You who are righteous. You who are made righteous by
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You whose sins have been atoned
by the blood of the Son of God. Listen to me. I don't care what
happens to you. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter
your particular trial or your particular situation. Doesn't
matter if this whole country is forsaken of God. It doesn't
matter. God says to you, it's all right, say you to the righteous, it
shall be well with him. That blankly covers everything,
doesn't it? I don't talk about specific sufferings. We each
have our own specific sufferings, don't we? As believers in Christ,
we do, we suffer. We have pain, we have hurt, we
have trouble, we have affliction in the body, in the mind, in
the heart. We're often struggling with our
own sin, our own selfishness, our own disobedience. But regardless of that, God says,
say you to the righteous, it shall be well with him, no matter
what. but I also must say it shall
be ill with the wicked. You that do not and will not
come to Christ, it is not well with you. It is not well. Oh, that you would come to Christ
now. And you that come to Christ,
how do you come? You come now, don't you? I come
now, I believe now, and now, and now, is all my righteousness. I pray God will bless us. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer. Heavenly Father, be merciful. Be gracious. Pour out your spirit on your
people. Let them know this, that all
is well. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our offering for sin. And we know this, that he constantly
ever lives as our high priest interceding for us We know that
he is sovereign and Lord and King over all things, doing all
things after the counsel of his own will. Therefore, we are sure
that all is well with us, that you have made righteous by his
blood and righteousness. I pray, Father, that you would
even now call the loss to yourself. They'd lay down their arms of
resistance against you, that they would bow humbly. and that
you would be gracious to say. I plead with you to do this.
In the blessed name of our savior and for his glory.