But if you would, open your Bibles
again to Isaiah chapter 3. The title of the message is,
The Lord Stands to Plead and to Judge. I had intended to move on to
Isaiah chapter 4 this evening, but these verses caught my attention
last week and I began looking at them Monday morning. And there's
the Gospels here. I couldn't go on without making
some comments on them. Last Wednesday, you recall, we
looked at God's promise of judgment and wrath against the sin of
Israel. He promised that that destruction will be complete.
He's going to take away every support man has. He'll take away
all of our righteousness. All of our hoarded resources
will be gone. He'll take away our defense. He'll take away
all the mighty men. He'll take away all the skilled men so we
have no ability left to please God. We've got no one to lead
us and no defenses, no skills. And that's what happened in Adam.
Adam was our leader. He's our federal head. And when
he fell, we fell in him. And if you look in verse eight,
when Adam fell, we lost everything. Jerusalem is ruined and Judah
is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against
the Lord. It's not just saying that they
did something wrong or something they ought not have done. Their
doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. So we understand verse 11, Woe
unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the word of
his hand shall be given him. But we also read last week verse
10, Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for
they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Now how can that be so? How can it be well with the righteous?
How can any man be righteous? How can that be so? Why will
some not be destroyed? When everything else and everyone
else will be destroyed because of sin. Well, if you look in
verse 12, it won't be in man's religion. I touched on this last
week. You know, man senses there's a problem. So they come up with
the salve, you know, to put on the problem. It's man's religion,
but it's not going to solve the problem. Verse 12, As for my
people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my
people, they which lead thee cause thee to err. and destroy
the way by paths. Now we looked at these children
last week. They're not children in age, they're adults who act
like children. They're selfish, they're self-willed,
they can't see past the end of their nose. They don't understand
or really even care about the long-term consequences of their
actions. And the people he's speaking
of here are leaders not in the church but in religion. These
are religious leaders. And they're not feeding the sheep.
They're not protecting the flock. Isaiah says they're oppressing
the people. And the word oppressors he uses there means taskmasters.
They're taskmasters. They use the law. They're constantly
driving people with the law. Just like a taskmaster. You know,
constantly driving the servant or the slave to do more. This
taskmaster is constantly driving the people to prop that dead
man up. Establish their own righteousness
When Paul talks about dead Romans, he means constantly trying to
prop up that dead corpse. It cannot stand on its own. And
that's just exhausting. Now, most of them are smart enough
not to exclusively preach the law. You know, it's hard to live
in our day and not have heard something about this man, Jesus.
Now, they know, at least historical fact, that Jesus lived. They've
heard something about the covenant of grace. They say, that sounds
pretty good. So they mix grace and works. They mix the covenant
of law and the covenant of grace. I heard a man say this just this
week. He said God has a covenant of grace. But just like under
the covenant of law, you've got to hold up your end of the bargain.
You hold up your end of the covenant and God will hold up his end
of the covenant. That's his definition of the covenant of grace. Now
that's a mixture of grace and works if I've ever heard it.
And he's a taskmaster. Constantly driving people. Hold
up your end of the bargain. Hold up your end of the bargain.
God's not going to be gracious unless you hold up your end of
the bargain. His understanding of grace is you hold up your
end of the bargain and God will do something for you. You do
right and God will be gracious to you. I wanted to write him
and ask him, well, if I'm doing right, what do I need God to
be gracious to me for? It's a mixture of grace and works. And they're
constantly driving people with that. I know you all know this,
but just in case, let me say this. The covenant of grace. declares that salvation is by
grace alone. Alone. Christ has already done
everything that's required. You don't have to hold up your
end of the bargain. He held it up. Christ held it all up. And He freely, by His grace,
gives salvation to His people. Now, anything other than that
is not grace. I don't care what name you want
to call it, it's not grace. And it'll exhaust people because
you're being a taskmaster, an oppressor. And then Isaiah says,
women rule over them. Now, he's talking about the church,
the religious people in our day, and women should rule over them.
Now, you know full well what Scripture teaches. Women are
not to have the rule in the church. Women are not to lead the worship
service. They're not to teach men. And
you know the teaching of Scripture from that. And when this happens,
when people do contrary to God's Word, just like it's so common
in our day, it'll be a disaster. Now, please listen to me. You women, I love our ladies
here. You know I'm not degrading our
women in any way. I've said many times, I do not
know where we'd be without our ladies. And I never view women
as a second-class citizen. God's Word doesn't teach that.
God loves His sons as well as His daughters. But it's God's
order. That men be pastors and elders
in the church. Just like it's God's order that
the husband be the head of the home. But by no means does that
make a woman less valuable than the man. It's just God's order.
And man's problem is this. From the garden, we have tried
to reverse God's order. From the time of Adam, this is
what we've done. We've tried to reverse the order
of God and man. We've tried to take God off the throne and put
us on the throne. We've tried to reverse His order.
The order of men and women in the home and in the church, we've
tried to reverse that order. And I grant you, often it's because
men advocate their responsibilities and women feel like they got
to do it. But now when you reverse that order, there's going to
be problems. It's just you can't help it. And this is what he
says here. This is not just my opinion.
I'm not giving you my opinion. I'm telling you this is what
God's word says in my text. When they do this, that when
your leaders do this, they which lead thee, cause thee to err.
You err doctrinally, you err in the truth, you err in conduct,
you err in the way of salvation. They cause you to go the wrong
way, in error. And he says they destroy the
way of thy past. Now look over in Jeremiah chapter
6. I want to show you two scriptures that will clarify this really
well, I think. They destroy the old past. Jeremiah
6 verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye
in the ways, and seek, and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way? And walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein. Now look over in Job chapter
30. They go further than just refusing to walk therein. They
destroy the path. Job 30 verse 13. They mar my path. They set forward
my calamity. They have no helper. These false prophets, they mar
the path. That combination of grace and
works, it destroys the path so you can't find it anymore. They
wipe it out. They've made the old paths unrecognizable. You can't find the way of salvation
in their message because the way of salvation is not there.
They refuse to walk in the way. And they do it for their own
gain. This phrase here in Job set forward, it means to profit.
They profit by destroying the old past. They profit by it because
people want to keep hearing that lie that tells them how good
they are, you know, and how they like to hear that lie. You're
holding up your end of the covenant and they pay to keep hearing
it. The flesh loves it, but it'll damn the soul and it'll cause
eternal calamity. They have no helper. There's
no Savior there. There's no way of salvation there.
They've destroyed the path. Now, there's so much sin here,
it's easy to see man's total depravity. Even in religion,
people ought to know better. They destroy the Old Testament.
They can't do anything but sin. They can't do anything righteous.
There's no Savior there. And their religion, they're religious. But they never point men to Christ.
They've destroyed the old path that points to Christ. Now, I
didn't point all that out in an attempt to make you and me
feel better by pointing out how bad somebody else is. That's
not why I did that. I point all this out to magnify
God's grace that we see in the next verses. Verse 12, we see
our condition by nature. But look at verse 13. The Lord
standeth up to plead. and standeth to judge the people."
Now, a few weeks ago, I brought a message from John 8 on the
two stoops of the Lord. Remember when those Pharisees
brought the woman taken in adultery to the Lord, and as he was dealing
with them, he stooped. He rode in the ground twice,
and we looked at that as a picture of salvation. Well, here, there
are two stands of the Lord that establish the salvation of His
people. Now, when you get ready to do
something important, Oftentimes, you'll stand. I have heard of,
I don't even know where they are, but I just heard about this
congregation. Whenever they have the scripture reading before
the service, the whole congregation stands, as the man reads, because
they feel like this is important. We're going to stand when God's
Word is read. If you take the oath of office,
you stand. Somebody doesn't take the oath
of office sitting down, he stands. If a dignitary comes in, a judge
enters the courtroom, he stands. If you're going to say the Pledge
of Allegiance or sing the National Anthem, you stand. What's described
in verses 13 and 14 is a legal proceeding between the father
and the son. And the son stands to conduct
this legal proceeding with the father. Now his first thing,
the Lord standeth up to plead. That word standeth is a different
word than standeth used later in the verse. He standeth to
plead means to establish. Now here's representation. Christ
is the believer's advocate. In this legal proceeding, He's
our advocate, and He stands to represent His people. Christ
is always the believer's advocate before the Father. We never go
before the Father on our own. It's always in our advocate.
And I'm thankful that Christ is the believer's advocate. I
can't deal directly with the Father. I might be destroyed
if I tried to deal with Him. God wouldn't hear me. Just like
in our court of law, the judge is not going to deal with you.
He's going to deal with your lawyer. He will not deal with
you. You've got to have a lawyer. He won't deal with you. God's
not going to deal with you either, unless it's injustice. He deals
with us and our advocate. And when I read this, I see the
beauty of God's grace. Despite all of our sin and all
of our rebellion, the Lord Himself stands up to plead for His people. And remember the word here means
to establish. God's elect don't have any righteousness.
So Christ stands for them and establishes their righteousness
for them, for his people. God's elect have no standing
before God. So Christ the Son stands and establishes a standing
with the Father for his people. We can stand before the Father
in the beloved. We're accepted in the beloved
because Christ established that standing. God's elect don't have
any plea before the Father except one. Guilty. Guilty as charged. So Christ came to make his people
righteous. He came to make them not guilty.
So they have a plea before the Father. He came to establish
his righteousness. Now I want you to look over in
Genesis 17. There's four or five things. I looked this word up.
Established. And I saw several things that
have been established by our Lord Jesus Christ. The first
one is this, God's covenant of grace has been established by
God the Son. Genesis 17, verse 7, And I will
establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after
thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be
a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Now, he's not talking
about Isaac there. I mean, he's referring to Isaac,
but you know who he, thy seed, which is Christ. Christ came
and established the covenant of grace. That covenant of grace
is an eternal, everlasting covenant because Christ is the eternal
Savior. Now look over in Exodus chapter 6. Christ established the covenant
of grace. Secondly, God's elect are going
to possess heaven because the Lord Jesus Christ established
God's covenant. Exodus chapter 6 verse 4, and
I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land
of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were
strangers. Now again, this is referring to that little bit
of desert over there in Jerusalem, but that's not primarily what
he's talking about here. That little strip of land over there,
they've been fighting over it for centuries. As far as I'm
concerned, they have it. It looks worthless to me. This
is talking about glory. by heaven, heavenly Jerusalem
where God dwells. God's people are going to dwell
there. They're going to inhabit that place because Christ established
a covenant of grace for them. That's where Christ rules and
reigns and that's where I want to be. Don't you? Well, we will. Because Christ established the
covenant. Next look in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Christ has established his kingdom
forever. 2 Samuel 7, verse 12. And when thy days be fulfilled,
and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom. Now, one more time, I know this
does make reference to Solomon, but God's primarily not talking
about Solomon. He's talking about His Son, the
Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all during our Lord's
earthly ministry, how many times does he refer to my kingdom?
My kingdom. My kingdom. My kingdom is not
of this world. Well, this is the kingdom he's talking about.
It's an eternal kingdom. And it's established forever.
And all of its residents are secure. Because the kingdom has
been established by Christ Himself. Now look at Psalm 89. Christ
is established. Faithfulness and mercy. Psalm 89, verse 2. For I have said, Mercy shall
be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. Do you have any faithfulness?
Are you proud of your faithfulness? I know you're not. Aren't you
glad Christ established faithfulness for you? Do you need mercy? Of course we do. Aren't you thankful? Christ has established mercy
for you. He's established it in the very heavens. Now look
over Psalm 99. Christ has established truth
and righteousness. Psalm 99, verse 4. The king's
strength also loveth judgment. Thou dost establish equity. Thou
executes judgment and righteousness in Jacob. Now I ask you again,
do you have any truth? Do you have any righteousness?
Of course you don't. Aren't you glad? Aren't you thankful
Christ has established truth and righteousness for you? And
last, Psalm 112. Christ establishes the heart
of His people. Psalm 112, verse 6. He shall not be moved forever.
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be
afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting
in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until
he sees his desire upon his enemies." Now, would you leave Christ and
fall away from Him if you could? If we could, we would, wouldn't
we? Aren't you glad? that Christ establishes the heart
of his people so that you can't leave him. Your heart's established.
It's fixed and you won't leave him because he won't let you.
So that's his first standing in our text. Christ stands to
plead. He stands to establish in representation. He stands to establish his people.
But now there's a second standing and standeth to judge the people.
Now, this word is a different word than he used earlier in
the verse. This word means to withstand. Now Christ has established
righteousness for His people. He made them not guilty. But
something's got to be done with their sin. God just can't ignore
that sin. He can't just take it off of
them and do nothing with it. That sin cannot be ignored by
the Holy Court. So Christ stands for His people.
He stands a second time. This time He stands in their
place. Because Christ can withstand that judgment. that his people
deserve. Now there's no doubt, salvation
is in the doing and the dying of Christ alone. Salvation is
a work of grace. It's a work of grace done for
us and it's a work of grace done in us. But before a work of grace
can be done in the hearts of his people, Christ had to do
a work of grace for us. Something's got to be done for
us before He can do this work of grace in us. And that work
is the subject matter of this legal proceeding that's before
us. This proceeding is a transaction that's done between the Father
and the Son. Nobody else is there. This is done between the Father
and the Son alone. Look at verse 14. The Lord will
enter into judgment with the ancients of His people and the
princes thereof. For you've eaten up the vineyards
The spoil of the poor is in your houses. Now Christ stands. He stands to plead for His people.
He stands to establish His righteousness and plead His righteousness for
His people. And He stands in our place as our substitute.
And the Father enters into judgment with the Son. Now we're on holy
ground right now. The Father enters into judgment
with the Son. Caiaphas and Pilate were not
the judges of our Lord. They had absolutely no authority
over Him. All they were was pawns. God
was moving around to accomplish His eternal purpose. They weren't
the judge. The Father was the judge. He
was presiding over the whole proceeding. This was done to
satisfy Him, to satisfy His justice and His holiness. And the Father
judged the Son for the sin of His elect. The Father does not
enter into judgment with His people. We'd be destroyed if
He did that. He enters into judgment, it says
here in our text, with the ancients. Well, who's that? That's Christ,
the Ancient of Days. The Father entered into judgment
with the Ancient of Days. Now, God the Son became a man.
The Lord Jesus was a real man. The Ancient of Days became a
Babe of Days, lying in a manger. Who can understand such a thing?
But he did that so that he could be our substitute. God the Son
can't be our substitute. He doesn't have the same nature
we do. He doesn't have the flesh that we do. He can't be our substitute.
So he became a man. So he could be our substitute.
And at Calvary, her father entered into judgment with the Son. The
ancient of days who'd become a man. And the payment for sin
that was transacted on that day was a payment between the Father
and the Son. It was a payment done for the
elect, but the elect didn't have anything to do with it. The blood's
not offered to you to see if you'll accept it. The blood's
offered to the Father, because the Father is the one who entered
into judgment with the Son. The Father didn't enter into
judgment with His people. It says here in our text He entered
into judgment with the Prince. Now the glorious, perfect, ruling,
reigning King of Kings took the place of His people. The Prince,
the Prince of Glory, stripped Himself of everything He was. Stripped Himself of all of His
glory when the Father entered into judgment with Him for the
sin of His people. Isn't that how they crucified
our Lord? They crucified Him as King. They mocked Him as King. He's the Prince. He's the King. And the Father entered into judgment
with Him. And when the father entered into judgment with his
son, he's not playing games. God's not like you and me. God
does not play games. There were times my children
did something that I've been corrected for and I turned a
blind eye to it. I guess maybe I was playing a
game. I mean, I don't know. It was wrong, I'm sure. But father
not playing a game when he enters into judgment with his son, the
Holy Father, He ignored the fact. That's my beloved son. He ignored
that fact. What did the father see when
he looked at Christ at Calvary? He saw sin. He was made to be
sin for us and that's what the father saw and that's what the
father dealt with. He didn't hold anything back
because that was his son. He poured out the full wrath,
the full penalty of sin upon his son. He entered into judgment
with the ancients. ancient of days. He entered into
judgment with the prince and Christ suffered the full penalty
of the broken law. God's vineyard, his own son,
was burned up. He says here, you've eaten up
the vineyard. That literally means burned in Jehovah's wrath. Now, who else can that be referring
to? It's referring to Christ. He burned in Jehovah's wrath
until the wrath for that sin was gone. The fire didn't quit
burning because the father got tired of punishing his son. The
fire didn't quit burning because God said, boy, I hate to see
my son suffer that much. I'm going to turn it off. No.
The fire of God's wrath stopped when sin was gone and not before. He burned in the fire of Jehovah's
wrath. Now, what would make God, the
Holy Father, He said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. He's one with his son. He loves
his son. They have the same nature, the
same purpose, the same will. What would make the father do
that to his son? Just one thing. That's the only thing. Christ
was made to be guilty of the sin of his people. The spoil
of the poor is in your houses. That's referring to the houses
of our bodies. The poor in Isaiah's day were
starving and their oppressors had fat bodies because they ate
everything they stole from the poor. All that spoil they took
was in their bodies. Made them fat and here these
other ones are, they're starving to death. Christ suffered the
wrath of God because the spoil of sinners was in His body. He
took our sin in His body on the tree. put it away. He actually bore that sin away,
never to be seen again. You know, we talk about our sin
being blotted out under His blood. And that's a good phrase. But
sometimes we get the idea, well, it's still there, it's just under
this blot, you know. No. It's gone. Gone as far as east is from the
west. But that was no small transaction.
That took unimaginable suffering. Look at verse 15. What mean ye
that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor,
saith the Lord of hosts? Now this great transaction that
took place between the Father and the Son, those three hours
of darkness, that was not for the eyes of man to see. And it
wouldn't have mattered if we could see it. We couldn't understand
what was going on there. But that's all right. It wasn't
for us. It was a transaction between the father and the son.
The father is the one who must be satisfied. And during those
three hours of darkness, the blood was offered before the
father. Christ went behind the veil with
his own blood and the sin was offered before the father because
he's the one that's offended by sin. And that was the sole
suffering of our Savior. But the Lord Jesus suffered physically,
too. Now, I don't know everything
there is to know about this, but those physical sufferings must have
been necessary for our salvation. They must have been. If they
weren't, they wouldn't have happened. I don't understand all that,
but they were necessary. And those physical sufferings
give us an idea of what the soul suffering our Lord was enduring
in those hours of darkness. And we all have a picture in
our minds of this scene at Calvary. And as we watch that scene, have you ever wondered, what
mean ye by this? Why are you doing that? Why are
those men doing that? Why are they grinding into powder?
They beat my people to pieces. Why are they doing that? I can
tell you. Because they're accomplishing
God's eternal purpose. That's exactly why they're doing it.
They're accomplishing God's purpose to save His elect through the
sacrifice of His Son. The Son and the sins of His people
are one. He's being beaten to pieces because
that sin is being beaten to pieces and being destroyed. This praise
to pieces, it means to allow oneself to be beat to pieces.
Christ had to go to the cross willingly. He had to. Nobody
could take him against his will. Nobody could take his life from
him. He went as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before
a shearer is dumb, he opened not his mouth. He went willingly. There are two reasons for that.
He went willingly. Because his love demanded it.
He allowed himself to be beaten for the sins of his people because
of how much he loved those people. This is the only way they can
be redeemed. I love them. I willingly suffer for them because
of my love for them. Secondly, Christ went willingly
because God's justice demanded it. Christ knew he was guilty. He knew he'd been made guilty.
The Holy One of Israel knew he deserved to suffer. He deserved
to be beaten because he had been made guilty of the sin of his
people. And the writer asked, why do they grind the faces of
the poor? Wayne read it for us earlier. They beat the face of our Lord. There He was, tied with His hands
behind His back. They blindfolded Him. They beat
Him with their fists. They took their open hand and
beat Him. I mean, these are Roman soldiers
who are experienced in the art of war. They're experienced at
putting men to death in hand-to-hand combat. And they're beating the
face God Almighty in human flesh. And they're making fun of Him.
Prophesy! Tell me who beat you. They're
grinding Him to bits. But worse than that, worse than
that, our Savior was ground to powder. This grinding refers
to the grinding of two millstones. Grinding the grain to powder.
The Lord Jesus Christ was crushed. ground-to-powder under the millstone
of God's justice. The face of the poor was ground-to-powder. God the Son is unspeakably rich,
but He became poor for your sakes. He became poor so those sinners
would be made rich. He was ground-to-powder so His
people would never taste death. They'd never taste judgment.
did all this so that his people would be redeemed. Two stands. What do we see in these two stands?
Well, if the Lord, God the Son, Jehovah, if He stood up to plead,
don't you think the case is going to be heard? Absolutely it will. The Father always hears the Son.
And since it's the Lord, God the Son, who stands to plead,
Isn't he going to win the case? Absolutely he is. He's going
to plead his holiness. He's going to plead his righteousness.
He's going to plead justice. He's not asking that the court,
you know, just give a suspended sentence or something. He's pleading
justice. God can't do anything less. He's
pleading justice. So since it's the Lord who stands
to plead, he's going to get everything asked for because he's pleading
his merit and his blood. The Father's going to give him
everything he pleads for. It's only right that he does, because
Christ has satisfied justice for his people. He's established
righteousness. And if the Lord, God the Father,
is the one who's entering into judgment, Earl, every sin is
going to be judged. He's not going to forget one.
He's not going to overlook one. He's not just going to accidentally
say, whoops, you know, we forgot. No. Our substitute was charged
with and judged for every sin of all God's elect. They're gone. There is no judgment left to
fear. If Christ died for you, you have
no fear of judgment because Christ has been judged for you. There's
no fear left. Christ stands to plead for his
people because he stood in our place as our substitute. And
that sacrifice for sin will not be in vain. His people are going
to be redeemed. The blood of Christ is going
to wash away every sin that was laid on Him and the Father will
be satisfied. That's the gospel. Two stands
of our Lord. I hope I've blessed you as much
as it did me. I've been studying this week.
Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, We dare only come into thy presence
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how thankful we are
in your mercy and your grace in giving your people an advocate
that we can come before your very throne of grace in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ accepted and boldly with confidence plead
for your mercy and your grace. How thankful we are that Christ
our Lord has stood to plead for his people. He stood to establish
a righteousness we could never have if he didn't give it to
us. He stood to establish a covenant. There's nothing left for us to
hold up. He's done it all. He's established his kingdom.
How thankful we are he's established the hearts of his people. Father,
we beg of thee a heart that worships Thee, that looks to Thee. We
beg Your forgiveness for when we don't. But even when we don't,
we have this confidence. We've been established by Christ
our Savior and we're thankful. And how thankful we are He stood,
our substitute stood to withstand the judgment that we deserve
so we never face judgment, never fear death because Christ has
died for us. Father, we are thankful. And
we beg of Thee that You cause Your Gospel to run well, to reach
the hearts of Your people, to comfort and edify them to point
us to Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. That in His precious
name we pray and give thanks. Amen.