All right, let's look back in
Isaiah chapter 3, the portion of scripture that Brother Mark
read. My main text, as he said, is verses 10 through 11 of Isaiah
3. I've entitled this message, The
Righteous and the Wicked. The Righteous and the Wicked.
Several weeks ago, I began preaching in Isaiah chapter one. I've got
to tell you, it really wasn't my intent to say, well I'm going
to preach through the book of Isaiah. That's not a bad thing,
obviously. I mean, it's the gospel of Isaiah.
It's so appropriate to our day. But just to give you a little
background on my thinking as I went through this is, you know,
I got to thinking about our nation and the problems that we're having
and have had looks like we're going to continue to have people
talking about how we're not very optimistic about the state of
the nation. A few weeks back the president
gave the state of the nation address. Isaiah chapter 1 the
first probably 14 verses or so is his state of the nation address
to the people of Judah And that's where he brought in an indictment
against their sin and their depravity and their unbelief and their
idolatry. And I contend from scriptural
context that if you understand that passage, what Isaiah says
there, that he's not just talking about Judah, he's talking about
all of us by nature. And that's really one of the
mainstays of this message this morning. Talk about who are the
wicked. The Bible, when it talks about
the righteous and the wicked, if we ever come to see and believe
what the Bible teaches about who the righteous are and who
the wicked are, I'm gonna tell you something, it'll turn your
world upside down. It does. Talk about a new creation,
a new world, a whole new world. But anyway, I got to thinking
about those things, the state of our nation and the problems
we're having. Think about what the Supreme
Court did last year in their trying to play God and all of
that, thinking about it's an election year. I was asked, am
I going to tell you who to vote for? And the answer is no. I'm
going to tell you this, that I'll tell you first of all, we
all ought to be responsible citizens. And we ought to vote. And we
ought to vote our conscience. And we ought to vote at least
as far as we know, which is not very far at all, what we think
is right and what is best. But I'll tell you this much too,
ultimately there's only really one vote that counts. And that's
God's vote. Whoever God's gonna put in there,
they're gonna be there. But anyway, this right here is
the story of the rise and fall of a nation. here in Isaiah chapter
3 and that's what got me on to this thinking about these things
you know and of course Isaiah's main message now is the gospel
we need to see that Isaiah's main message is that God is going
to fulfill his promise to send salvation to his people through
the promised Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ and his message
to his nation is this look we're sinners we don't deserve anything
but God's wrath and judgment don't put your hope or your trust
in man don't do it don't put your hope and trust in the government
they're not going to save you they may be able to put a band-aid
on the situation for a little while but that's about it Don't
put your sissi from man, back there in Isaiah 2 and verse 22. Stop trusting in man and that
includes yourself. Man's religion won't help you,
man's economics won't help you, man's government, man's philosophy,
man's words of wisdom. In the eyes of God, man's words
of wisdom is foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1. So stop acting
like That man is your hope and your
joy and your peace and your salvation. Look to Christ. That's his message. Look to a righteousness that
man not only cannot produce but has really no idea of what it
is. Think about that. So here's what
he does. He describes the ruin and fall
of a nation here in chapter 3 because of their rejection of God's way.
their unbelief, their embracing of idolatry, and what he says
here is this, their physical state. He talks about some physical
state things here, such as what you read, Brother Mark, and he's
going to take away your water and all that, famine, lack of
food. Well, what God is showing here
is that their physical state is going to reflect their spiritual
state. You understand? The fact that
you have no physical bread is God's judgment upon you because
you've rejected the bread of life. Water, the water of life. And listen to what he says here,
verse one, for behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts. That's God
in control. That's God who is over an invincible
army that cannot be defeated. And you know who his army is?
It's himself. And he says, doth take away from
Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole
stay of bread and the whole stay of water. In other words, he's
going to take away the basic necessities to sustain physical
life. Bread and water. Why? Because they had rejected Christ,
the bread of life, the water of spiritual life. That's what's
happening here. God promised to send the Messiah. And everything in this nation's
existence, including their government, even the king, What was the office
of king in the nation Israel? It was a reflection and a type
of the king of kings to come. What was the office of prophet?
It was a reflection and type of that prophet who was going
to come, the Lord Jesus Christ and a prophecy of his word. What
was the priesthood in the nation Israel? The high priest was a
picture of Christ, the great high priest. Everything about
them was to reflect that, communicate that, and to witness that we
depend not upon ourselves, but upon God's covenant of grace
made sure by the blood of the coming one, of the Messiah to
come, the righteousness of another. And they rejected that. They
wanted to be like other nations. You remember when they first
wanted a king, you know how they stated it? Somebody said, well,
God punished them for just desiring a king. Oh, no. Because God,
years before that, had promised them a king. He said, the scepter
will not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. Does that mean a
king? And in the book of Deuteronomy, before they actually took possession
of the promised land, He gave them instructions for their king. But you know, when they desired
a king, you remember how they stated what was wrong with it?
They said, we want a king like other nations. You want that
kind of king? God has his king, and of course
we know that was King David, who was a picture of Christ.
King Saul, he was the people's choice. Boy, he would have made
a heyday today on TV, because he just looked the part. He was
the popular guy. He was the people's choice, and
the people's choice in those areas was always wrong. And I
tell you, whatever our choice is gonna be come November, there's
gonna be problems, aren't there? Be a lot of problems. Maybe more
so with some than others. We always talk about, we kid
about this, but it's true. We always come to an election
year like that, and we say, well, we gotta choose the lesser of
two evils. We just pray, Lord, let us choose the lesser. But
this is what he's saying here. I'm gonna take it away. In verse
two, look at it. He says, the mighty man, the
man of war, see, they trust in that. The judge, the prophet,
the prudent. What's the prudent? That's a
prudent person in the Bible is one who uses knowledge well,
who orders things well, who has some wisdom. And he says, even
that among men, that won't help you. The ancient, the elderly
won't help you. Supposed to be wise, get advice,
experience, but the ancient won't help you. The captain of 50,
the honorable man. Now listen to, now, now, you
know in the context and when he says an honorable man, he's
not talking about one who is honorable before God. He's talking
about one who's honorable in the eyes of men. He says the
counselor, the cunning artificer, that's the artist, the one who
can, who can do things that'll amaze you. Like Michelangelo,
you know, painted the Sistine Chapel. That's an amazing thing,
isn't it? That takes some cunning. What
he's talking about, that takes some skill and some gifts. The eloquent orator, the one
that can keep you on the edge of your seat, the one that can
keep you awake for 40 minutes, he won't help you. Because his
message is not in line with the glory of God. You see what I'm
saying? And he says in verse four, now
you see he's gonna deprive you of able leaders, that's what
he's saying. In verse four, I will give children to be their princes
and babes shall rule over them. Those who should be wise because
of age were leading the people in foolishness, so God makes
children their leaders. Verse five, he says the people
shall be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his
neighbor. The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient,
the base, against the honorable. Everything's going to be topsy-turvy.
See, oppression and chaos, all order and harmony removed. Verse
6, when a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of
his father, saying, thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler,
and let this ruin be under thy hand. In other words, they'll
find somebody they think can fix it, and they'll beg him to
fix it. And look at verse 7, in that
day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer. I can't fix
it. For in my house is neither bread
nor clothing, make me not a ruler of the people." I can't fix your
problems. Man can't do it. And then verse
8, look here. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah
is fallen. Now why? Because of their tongue. You know what tongue is? That's
language. That's their doctrine. That's
their message. It's a false gospel. Salvation
conditioned on sinners. How do you know that? Well, He
told them before, cease you from man. Stop looking to man. Stop depending on man. He says,
and your doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of His
glory. What is His glory? What is the glory of God in the
scripture? It's Christ. Salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when he instituted
the old covenant and he told Moses to build that and make
that tabernacle according to pattern and he gave specific
instructions in Exodus 25 about the ark of the covenant, the
holiest of all. And when it was finished, you
remember what happened? God descended there in his glory. That's all
a picture of Christ, his blood, his righteousness. That's what
it's all about. That's what this whole thing
centers on and he says your teachings, your language, your doctrine,
your preaching, your philosophies, your religion and your doings
are against God's glory. They don't represent God or right.
They don't speak the things that are right of God as God has.
How has God revealed himself to his people as a just God and
a savior? Through what? On what basis?
On the basis of the merits of the obedience unto death, the
righteousness, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his
glory. The glory of God. What does God show you when he
brings you in invincible grace to see Christ? He shows you the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And what Isaiah is telling them,
what you're doing is against that. And look at verse nine. He says, and what he's saying
here in verse nine, here's the main evidence of the problem.
Here it is. The show of their countenance
doth witness against them. Now what was the show of their
countenance? That was their expression. And what is he talking about?
He's talking about pride, it's a proud look. Remember Proverbs
6 says God hates a proud look. The look of pride. And he says,
and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Just as Sodom. Now think about
Sodom. Sodom, we have segments of our
society that's just the same way in the homosexual community.
Not only do they engage in that kind of behavior, but they do
it openly now and they're proud of it. They're not ashamed of
it. There's no shame. And what he's telling Judah and
Jerusalem is this, he's not saying now you're all a bunch of homosexuals.
That's not what he's saying. I'm sure they had that segment
of society there. It's been in every nation. But here's what he's saying.
He's saying, just as Sodom was proud and open with their gross
immorality, the Jews were proud and open with their religion,
even though it was an insult to every attribute of God's glory. You remember what Paul said in
describing himself before conversion? He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.
He wasn't ashamed of that. That was a point of pride, wasn't
it? Why was it a point of pride? Because he thought that recommended
him unto God. He thought that made up part
of what made him righteous before God. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
circumcised the eighth day. He was proud of those things,
but then when he saw the glory of God in Jesus Christ, the seed
of mercy and grace for sinners such as we are, he wasn't so
proud. In fact, he said, I count it
all but done that I may win Christ. You see how his world was turned
upside down? Has your world been turned upside
down? Boy, mine was. Remember what the Pharisee, the
court, the Sanhedrin said to the disciples? You've turned
the world upside down. Everything we thought was right,
you say is evil, and everything we thought was evil, you say
is right. Look at verse nine again, he says, he says, woe
unto their soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
They think they're being, they think they are earning the reward
of goodness. They think they're earning God's
favor, but they're rewarding evil. In other words, that's
what they're going to get. Well, here's how he says it, verse
10. Now here's what you say, Isaiah, prophet of God, preacher
of the gospel. Say to the righteous that it
shall be well with him. It is well with my soul. For
they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Verse 11. Here's what you say
to the wicked. Woe unto the wicked sorrow. Destruction. It shall be ill with him for
the reward of his hand shall be given him. There it is. Woe unto the wicked, well unto
the righteous. Now this is the issue, the message
of God's prophet. True preachers of the gospel
say to the righteous, now here's what we have to understand. Who
are the righteous? Exactly who are they? And when
we come to understand who they are, upon what basis do we say
that? Now, you could go out here and
take a survey in Albany, Georgia, or any town in this place, and
ask people that. Who are the righteous? Who are
the wicked? And you'll get a thousand, million,
probably different answers, and all wrong. Here's what we have
to understand. What does God say? And here's
what a person, I believe, has to be brought to by the Holy
Spirit. You look down there and you say,
well, he says, say to the righteous, it shall be well. Oh, that's
me. That's gotta be me. Isn't it? I mean, look, I was
born in the Bible belt. I was raised in church. I gave
my heart to Jesus and got baptized. That's gotta be me. What if it's
not you? Oh, that offends me to even consider
that possibility. Does it? You see what I'm saying? Say
ye to the wicked. Could that be me? Could that
be you? Could that be any of us? How can we know? Well, mama says I'm righteous
and not wicked and that's good enough for me. The preacher says
that, that's good enough. Well, I've got news for you. We're
talking about God's word, God's judgment, God's assessment here.
Who are the righteous? Who are the wicked? Because there's
two very different messages here, one to the righteous and one
to the wicked. Who are the righteous? Well,
here's the point. The first thing we have to understand
is that when the Bible talks about sinners, wicked, unrighteous,
evil, It is talking about every one of us by nature. As we are naturally born. That's what it's talking about.
You say, well, I don't believe that. I say, well, never quote
Romans 3.23 again. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What's the standard of it? The
glory of God. What does he say there? You provoke
the eyes of His glory. What is the glory of God? It's
Jesus Christ the righteous. Righteousness has to be measured
by Jesus Christ. If we fall one degree, one width
short of that standard, what are we? We miss the mark. That's
what sin is. That's the word for sin. We're
sinners. And what do sinners deserve? Death. The wicked, that's all of us
by nature, but here's the point. Here's the good news. In every
generation, God has a remnant, doesn't he? Remember back over
here in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 9? As he's describing all
of us by nature, he makes this statement. Except the Lord of
hosts had left unto us a very small remnant. We should have
been a Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. A remnant, a small part, a remnant
that God separates in His sovereign will, His sovereign good pleasure. And the issue here is not whether
you like that or not. You see, the issue here is not
whether you think that's fair or not. The issue here is that
it's true. God has a remnant. And you think
about that. A remnant, a small part. Could
it be, could it possibly be that I could be among that number
who are identified in the scripture as God's remnant? Is that possible? Well, what does the Bible tell
us about the remnant? Turn over to Romans chapter 9.
We looked at this a couple weeks ago. The Apostle Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to really quote from this exact passage
of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 1, here in Romans chapter 9. In verse 29 of Romans chapter
9, listen to it. He said, Isaiah, that's who Esaias
is, that's the New Testament version of Isaiah. Verse 29 of
Romans 9, and as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth,
or the Lord of Hosts, hath left us a seed, that's the remnant,
we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. Now
God, all of us by nature, born dead in trespasses and sins,
wicked by nature. And listen now, if you're going
to follow the scriptures, you've got to understand that that refers
to the best of us and the worst of us by nature. You could say in man's view of
things, now understand what I'm talking about now. You can say
in man's view of things, Israel, in their religion and in their
morality, represented the best of human beings by nature. You
could say Sodom, in their immorality, represented the worst of human
beings by nature. But here's the point. In the
eyes of God, by the standard of His glory, both were wicked. Both were sinners. Both deserved
damnation. Paul said that in Romans chapter
three, he said, the scripture hath concluded all under sin. Fallen in Adam, ruined, born
dead in trespasses and sin. Remember he said in talking about
the Jews, he was talking about the Gentiles and he said, are
we better than they? Are we religious Jews better
than the immoral Gentiles? He said, in no wise, the scripture
hath concluded all under sin none righteous no not one but
now think about this God has a remnant I don't know about you that sends
chills up my spine God has a remnant now who is this remnant are they
a bunch of folks who rose up above the the As one old preacher
said, the miry ooze of human depravity and separated themselves
by their decision or their goodness. No, look at it. Romans nine verse 30, what shall
we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness have attained a righteousness, even
the righteousness, which is a faith. Who are the righteous? Let's
go on. Verse 31, But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. They didn't make it. Why? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. That's Christ. As it is
written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of
offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I bear them record they have
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Now, back in
Isaiah chapter 3 verse 10, who are the righteous? Who is this remnant? It's a remnant
of God's electing grace. Chosen of God. They are righteous. The righteous are sinners saved
by the grace of God through the righteousness of another. They
have no righteousness of themselves. In fact, if you If you look at
them in themselves, they're really, in God's sight, by the standard
of His glory, absolutely no different than the wicked. That's right. But because of God's sovereign,
electing, redeeming grace, they stand before Him clothed in the
righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because they stand before
God in Christ-righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to them, God
sends His Spirit to bring them under the gospel and give them
life. And they believe in Him. And
that's the first evidence of being part of that remnant. Do
you believe in and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your righteousness? all your righteousness. How are the righteous made righteous? By amputation. God accounting
them. By reconciliation. God reconciles
them unto himself based upon what Christ did on the cross.
And he brings them to see that. And he says here, they shall
eat the fruit of their doings. Turn to Romans chapter 7 with
me. Now what does that mean, the fruit of our doings? Does
that mean, well, now that we're made righteous by Christ, now
we've got to work our way into God's favor or to stay in God's
favor? No. What is the fruit of the
doings of the righteous? Well, first of all, the fruit
is the doings themselves. Let me show you that. Look at
Romans 7 and verse 4. He says, Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law. Now to be dead to the law
means that the law cannot condemn us. It also means this. It means the law cannot require
anything from us as to attaining righteousness. We're dead to
the law. How did we become dead to the
law? Look at it. By the body of Christ. You didn't become dead to the
law by your doings or even your believing. You became dead to
the law by the body of Christ. It was Christ's death on the
cross under the law for our sins imputed to him that we who are
that remnant become dead to the law. He died for me. He was made a curse. He was made
sin. He drank damnation dry. He fulfilled
all righteousness. I'm dead to the law by the body
of Christ. Now, does it all stop there?
Is that all there is? No, there's the result now. In
order that you should be married to another, even him who is raised
from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. In
other words, being in Christ, dead to the law, righteous in
Him, there's life from the vine. We
don't produce fruit. We bear it. Look at verse 5. For when we were in the flesh,
that's when we were unregenerate. The motions, the passions of
sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. Now that works in one of two
ways. Either an abject rebellion against everything the law says
or false religion in trying to establish a righteousness of
our own. Either way, it's fruit unto death because it's going
to equal death. But now, verse six, we're delivered
from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we
should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the latter.
We're not legalist. We serve God by his power and
his grace motivated by the Holy Spirit through the word out of
love and grace and gratitude. That's fruit. That redounds to
the glory of God. It's not the fruit that makes
us righteous. It's the vine who makes us righteous.
That's Christ. You know what fruit is? It's
fruit. It's the result. It's our faith
in him. It's our repentance of dead works
and idolatry. It's our love to him. It's our
obedience to him. That's the fruit. None of that
makes us righteous. Christ is our righteousness.
That's who the righteous are. Say ye to the righteous, it'll
be well. You're in Christ. You're washed
in his blood. You're clothed in his righteousness.
Now say to the wicked, it'll be ill. You'll get the reward
of your hands. Look over at Revelation 20. Revelation
chapter 20. The punishment of the wicked
for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Look at verse 11, Revelation
20, Great White Throne Judgment. Listen to what it says. And I
saw a great white throne, Revelation 20, 11. And him that sat on it,
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there
was found no place for them, they can't hide from the judge.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and
the books, now the books there is plural, you notice that? The
books were open. And then it says, and another
book was open. Now that book is singular. That book is the book of life.
That's the Lamb's book of life. That's the record of God in his
mind and heart of all who stand before him in Christ, whose names
were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And it says the dead, that's
the lost, that's those who died without Christ were judged out
of those things which were written in what? The books, plural, according
to their works. And the sea which gave up the
dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them and they were judged every man according to
his works, that's the dead who are judged out of those books,
plural, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, that's eternal damnation. And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire. That's the reward of their works. What is our hope of salvation? Our hope is to be found before
God, washed in the blood, and clothed in his righteousness.
That's whose names are written in the book of life. That's the righteous. Let me
tell you something, if you're in Christ, I can tell you, this
is what we're talking about, speak in peace. If you're in
Christ, it's going to be well with you. Isn't that right? But
if you're not in Christ, it will not be well. It'll be eternal
death. All right.