Read my text this morning for
our scripture reading. If you will open your Bibles
again to Isaiah chapter 24. Isaiah the 24th chapter. And just hold them open on your
laps. While I talk to you about the
subject when judgment day comes. Now let me help you if I can
as you read the scriptures and you seek to understand the scriptures.
It is a mistake, in my opinion, to limit a passage of scripture
to a single thing when it refers to events to take place. For
example, Matthew 24 and 25, throughout the history of the church, good
men, I'm talking about faithful gospel preachers, Good theologians,
good commentators. Some have said that's talking
about the coming of Christ in 70 AD. Others say, no, no, no,
that's talking about the Lord's second coming at the end of the
world. I have a tough time specifically saying which it's talking about.
It's clearly talking about both. The coming of our Lord and the
judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 AD, the utter destruction of
Judaism by the judgment of God outwardly and coming in that
way. But it also certainly refers
to our Lord's glorious second coming when he will gather his
elect to himself. Much the same can be said concerning
this 24th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is talking about judgment
coming, an appointed day of judgment. A day of judgment certainly that
the children of Israel experienced. A day of judgment God brought
upon the physical land of Babylon certainly refers to that. There's
also a day of judgment that comes to nations. comes by God's hand
of providence in various times. God brings judgment. God brings
judgment. Don't ever fail to recognize
God's hand of judgment in every providential catastrophe that
we see in this world. earthquakes, tornadoes, floods,
hurricanes, epidemics of disease, war. These things are but the
foretaste of judgment to come, but they are certainly works
of divine judgment. These things happen to nations
and they happen to individuals. And the scripture tells us judgment
must begin at the house of God. When the Lord God comes in saving
mercy, granting sinners life and faith in Christ, you will
experience God's judgment. You will find yourself cursed,
judged of God, condemned. deserving of hell, trembling
before him. God comes in judgment that he
may bring grace. And then in the consummation
of time, in the consummation of the universe, God will destroy
the universe and make all things new. Now, these things I know. I don't pretend to be an expert
about prophetic things. I don't pretend to have understanding
in such matters, but these things are clearly revealed in Scripture.
No man knows the time when Christ will come again. No man knows
that time, and no one has any indication as when that time
might likely be. Our Lord has so fixed it. I hear
folks all the time, this is a sign of the end time. No, it's not.
No, it's not. No, it's not. No, the end time
began when Christ came in his first glorious, in his first
advent and accomplished the glorious work of redemption. And we have
been living in the end time ever since then. John wrote in his
day, it is the last day. It's the last tick of the clock.
This is the end time. So that we have no signs to look
for, no physical things, not in the Middle East, not in Russia,
not in the United States, nowhere. that there are no signs to look
at for Christ's coming. We are to live continually upon
the tiptoe of faith, looking for our Lord right now. Oh God,
give me grace to do that. Wouldn't you like to live like
that? Every moment of time, looking for Christ to appear. What a
difference it would make in the way we live in this world. And
I know this, there is a day appointed when God will judge this world. Not just at death when you face
it, but there's a day coming when God will judge the world.
And when God judges the world in that day, there'll just be
two matters of concern. Just two matters of concern.
You won't be concerned about race and politics and economics. You won't be concerned about
this thing or that, this event or that. You'll be concerned
about just two things, your sin God's Son. Your sin and God's Son. And when all is said and done,
I'm here to tell you, nothing else matters. Your sin and God's
Son. And God has told us exactly what
He will do when judgment day comes. Let's look at Isaiah chapter
24, these 23 verses and see what God tells us about Judgment Day. Number one, when Judgment Day
comes, the earth will be destroyed. I don't care if you want to read
this spiritually and speak of it being destruction in your
own experience of things, but it certainly speaks of the reality
and certainty of it in a physical way as well. God once destroyed
this earth by a flood, and he is going to destroy the world
at last in fire. He's going to destroy this present
world at the last day with his fire that melts everything. What
a great conflagration that will be when God sets creation on
fire. Peter tells about it in 2 Peter
chapter 3. But here in verses 1 through
12, the prophet Isaiah tells us that God is going to destroy
this world and is right now in the process of doing it. As it
was with the original creation, soon the God of glory will make
the earth once again to be without form and void. That's what's
going on right now. All the frog kissers and tree
huggers in the world notwithstanding, God's going to turn this thing
into nothing. Behold, the Lord maketh. Do you see the tense of the verb? Right now, he is making the earth
empty. And maketh, right now, he's making
it waste. And turneth it, right now, he's
turning it upside down. And scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof. In the day of judgment, all earthly
distinctions of rank and state and wealth will be utterly meaningless. Look at verses two through four.
When God brings this thing to an end, age and sex and wealth
and poverty and rank and prosperity and power and social position
will all be meaningless. And it shall be as with the people,
so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master,
as with the maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer,
so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower,
as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied
and utterly spoiled, For the Lord has spoken his word. The
earth mourneth and fadeth away. The world languisheth and fadeth
away. The haughty people of the earth
do languish. The earth, the prophet tells
us, must be destroyed because man has defiled it. Verse five,
the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof. because
they transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant. And let's look at those statements
one by one. They transgressed the laws. That's
a description of man's sin. He's transgressed the law of
God. He's broken down the fence, trampled
on God's commands, said, God has no right to tell me what
to do. God has no right to be God. No, God has no right to
dictate anything. They've broken God's law and
God demands justice. They've changed the ordinance.
That is, they've changed the ordinance of God into sacraments. They changed the worship of God
into ritualism, ceremonialism. I was telling some of the men,
I was at the dentist this week, and he asked me, he said, we've
been having a Bible study, somebody's upset because rather than using
the word debts, they use transgressions, they use the word debts in saying
the Lord's Prayer. He said, what do you use? I said,
we don't chant the Lord's Prayer. And he looked at me like, Like
I had to pull my britches off standing there naked. This is
strange. Religion where they don't go
through ceremonies and rituals, that's not called the worship
of God. That's just ritualism. They've changed the ordinance,
the word of God, to suit the itching ears of men. So it is
in our day. God says it's not of him that
willeth. The man says it is too. God says salvation's of the Lord.
Man says salvation's, man's got his part to do. God says Christ
shall not fail. Man's religion says he might
fail. God says they shall never perish. Men in religion say they
might. God says they that are flesh
cannot please God. And man says God's got to be
pleased with what I give him. God's got to be pleased with
what I do. God says, you're not under the law. Man comes along
with his religion and says, no, you are under the law. God says,
it's finished. Man says, no, there's something
you must do. God's done his part, now you must do yours. They have
broken the everlasting covenant. How can that be? Strictly speaking,
no man can break the everlasting covenant. It was a covenant made
between the triune persons of the eternal Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, a covenant trusted to the hands of Christ
our surety, finished before the world began, nothing depending
upon us. Well, what does this mean then?
They've broken the everlasting covenant. Men break the everlasting
covenant in the sense that they cast it aside. despise it, and
seek to be saved upon the footing of something they do. Look at
verses six through 12. Therefore hath the curse devoured
the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. Therefore
the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. I believe I'd underscore and
star those three words, few men left. Blessed be God, there is
a remnant according to the election of grace, always upon the earth. A remnant who must and shall
be saved because they are chosen of God in eternal election, because
they're redeemed by God the Son in effectual redemption, they
must and shall be saved. And the reason, the reason given
in scripture, why this world is yet standing just this, there's
a remnant, a people to whom God will be gracious. There is a
people called the elect remnant, the choice of God, the people
of God who must be saved. And God is long-suffering to
us, not willing that any of that elect remnant should perish,
but that every one of them come to repentance and knowledge of
the truth. All the joys of this present world, however, are temporary
and shall soon cease. And God makes men experience
it day by day. Look at verse seven. The new
wine mourneth. The vine languisheth. All the
merry-hearted do sigh. The mirth of the tabrays seetheth.
The noise of them that rejoice endeth. The joy of the heart
seetheth. They shall not drink wine with
song. Strong drink shall be bitter
to them that drink it. The religions of the world, Babylon,
described in verse 10 as the city of confusion, shall be broken
down. And when the city of confusion
is broken down and every house shut up that no man may come
in, then all the things that men look at and look to for joy
and peace and stability and comfort, they're turned to bitterness,
turned to bitterness. And so the The city of confusion
brings men in their confusion into hopelessness and despair. So where there's normally reveling,
the reveling gives no peace. Where there's normally joy, the
joy gives no happiness. Where there's normally things
that rejoice the heart, there's no peace for the wicked. Men
find their religion to be useless, and they find life to be meaningless. And sooner or later, Everyone
who goes into the house of Babylon will find his freewill works
religion useless, utterly useless. The City of Confusion broken
down perhaps has reference to the scandalous religion that
we see in this world. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about Protestants or Papists, fundamentalist or reform, scandalous,
scandalous things. Rioting is then found in the
streets because nothing in the world brings poor sinners joy,
peace, and satisfaction. Verse 11, there is a crying for
wine in the streets. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. I have bought that statement
over a good bit in the past few weeks. and tried to fit it right
here where we live now. What a sad day, what a sad day. We live in a day when men and
women live to have a good time. Men work just so they can go
out to recreation. Men gather all they can just
so they can have fun while they live and they find no joy. where they've gotten everything
you could imagine having, still they're seeking for something
to give them some joy, some peace, some satisfaction. It won't happen,
it won't happen. The wealth and riches of the
earth will soon be consumed and flee away, verse 12. The city
is left, in the city is left desolation and the gate is smitten
with destruction. Now, these things, our Lord Jesus
tells us, are but the beginning of sorrows. The forewarners of
destruction. God's warnings of judgment. God began destroying the earth
as soon as man began to sin. Read verse one again. Behold
the city, the Lord maketh the earth empty. and maketh it a
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof. This is what God's doing all
the time. He's turning the foundations
upon which men build. Be they secular, be they material,
be they financial, be they spiritual, He's turning the foundations
upon which men build upside down. He's destroying the earth. Now,
here's the second thing, verses 13 through 15. In the midst of
God's judgment, when judgment day comes, God's saints rejoice
and give him praise. The prophet told us in verse
six, there are few men left. Here he describes those few men,
God's elect remnant, and how suitable it is that this remnant
should lift up their voice and sing of redemption. In the midst
of judgment, what mercy to escape it. In the midst of judgment, what
mercy to escape it. God sends judgment, God sends
darkness, God sends delusion. But God has not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ. In the midst
of judgment, While the world is universally cursed, how blessed
it must be to be the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. You who are gods in the joyous
exercise of faith now. And for you who yet believe not,
if you're gods, the salt of the earth. Salt, that which preserves. Salt, that which keeps things
from ruin. You have it somewhat around here.
Some of you folks enjoy country ham. Get a little further south
and we were kind of weaned on it like we were grits. Country
ham is real salty. Real salty. Shelby's dad used
to fix country hams, and he didn't have a place to smoke them, so
what he'd do is he'd take the ham off the hog when he'd slaughter
hogs, and he'd put it in a salt box, not quite as big as this
pulpit, about half as big, maybe a little wider, and just cover
it up with salt. And then they take it out and
hang it. And you can go out there and just cut you off a piece,
get it? You don't wanna eat it right now. You gotta soak it
overnight and it's still real soft tip. You have a developed
taste for it, but it won't decay because the salt preserves it.
Understand this, that which preserves this world, that which keeps
God's hand of judgment from utterly destroying the world, is the
fact that there are few men in it who yet must be saved. God's
providential judgments comes, and by these judgments in providence,
he sweetly, graciously gathers his elect to himself. Verse 13,
when thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people,
there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree and as the gleaning
of grapes when the vintage is done. I don't know exactly how
they gather olives from an olive tree, but obviously the shaking
refers to the harvest. They shake the olive tree and
the olives fall off and the harvest is gathered. God shakes the earth. God shakes the earth with things
that cause men to tremble. And in the shaking of the earth,
God's just gathering his elect to himself. God's providential
judgments are but the shaking of the olive tree. When he has gathered his harvest,
he'll cut down the tree. That's what Paul speaks about
over in 2 Thessalonians. Turn over there and look at it
for just a minute. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul speaks of our
Lord Jesus coming again in his power and great glory, but he
says, that day will not come until there's come a falling
away first, and the man of sin is revealed, and then Christ
will come in his glory. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 11, I
want you to see this. Let's start at verse 8. And then
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them a strong delusion that they should
believe a lie. Brother Mark mentioned this in
his prayer back in the office before service, that they all
might be damned. who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. God sends a shaking of the earth
in the delusions of anti-Christ religion. Men are deluded and
we see the darkness and we see the perversion and the confusion
of this world, but we're bound to give thanks all the way to
God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. and we will praise
his name and glorify him because of his excellent majesty as God
as he exercises judgment in the world. Verse 14, they shall lift
up their voice. They shall sing for the majesty
of the Lord. They shall cry aloud from the
sea, wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name
of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea. Glorify
him. for saving such wretched, worthless
worms as we are. Glorify Him in His providential
judgments upon the earth. God does right. Let us never be found. God give
us grace never to be found, even thinking ill of His hand of judgment,
let alone speaking ill of it. And then we will glorify Him
in the final overthrow of His enemies, as we're told in Revelation
18 and 19. Verse 16, just before judgment
day comes, there will be a time of great spiritual leanness.
We've already read about it in 2 Thessalonians 2, look at Isaiah
24, 16. From the uttermost part of the
earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I
said, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. The treacherous
dealers have dealt treacherously. Yea, the treacherous dealers
have dealt very treacherously. From the uttermost parts of the
earth have we heard songs even glory to the righteous. The sea
commonly refers to the Gentile world. That's talking about God's
elect outside the nation of Israel. God's elect scattered to the
four corners of the earth. And God's people in the sea give
glory to him, the righteous God and the righteous savior. But
I said by leanness, by leanness, woe is unto me. Some suggest
Isaiah here refers to personal leanness of the soul. And certainly,
it's rightly understood that way. I see God's judgment, and
I think what profound effect it ought to have on me that God
snatched me from such darkness, has given me life and light and
faith in Christ, and what leanness of soul there is in me. Some
say he's talking about the leanness of his people Israel, the spiritual
leanness of God's church. And certainly if you read Revelation
2 and 3, that's a proper application of the passage. Certainly it
is. How we ought to anxiously together
devote ourselves to the cause of Christ. I find it utterly
astounding that God's people, true believers, God's people,
need motivating and need encouraging and need to be inspired and told
and corrected and reproved and moved along and pushed, but they
do. We do. The only thing more astonishing
is that so do I. Oh, the leanness. How can we
be so thankless? so attached to the world, so
little attached to our Savior, so concerned for meaningless
things, so little concerned for meaningful things. But I think
the primary reference here is prophetic. It's referring to
the terrible spiritual leadeness of the world. Engulfed in these
last days of darkness, because of the treacherous, deceitful
false prophets standing where I stand tonight. Days when men
will wander from sea to sea, from north even to east, and
run to and fro to seek the word of God, but shall not find it. What beatiness, what beatiness
our God told us would come in these days. Look at verses 17
through 22. The prophet tells us that when
judgment comes, when judgment comes, when judgment day comes,
unbelieving men and women will be terrified, gathered into the
pit and punished forever. Fear in the pit and the snare
are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come
to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall
into the pit. And he that cometh up out of
the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare, for the windows
from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
The earth is utterly broken down. The earth is clean dissolved.
The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro
like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage, and the
transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall
and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones
that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth,
and they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in
the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison. And after many
days shall they be visited. Perhaps Isaiah is here referring
to that same thing that John speaks of in Revelation 6, the
opening of the sixth seal of judgment. The Lord God will at
last in that great day avenge himself and avenge his own elect. The sixth seal is open to introduce
the great and terrible day of judgment. In that day, there
will be a total dissolution of this universe. It will be a climactic,
not a gradual thing. God is right now making it, he's
right now making it desolate, but the day is coming when judgment
comes, and God will dissolve this thing. And the entire world
of reprobate men, reprobate rebels, will suddenly be seized with
fear. And that great and terrible day,
there will be a strange, strange prayer meeting. You read about
it in Revelation 6, 15, 16, and 17. We read about men praying,
but the men praying are not saved men, but damned men. They pray not to God, but to
the rocks. and to the hills. And they pray
not for life, but for death. Oh, how men must pray in the pit
of the damned to die. But the second death has no end.
And they will pray not that they may see Christ, but that they
may be hidden from him. And so it is with the damned
today and shall be forever. When that day comes, the door
of grace is shut forever. Shut, and there's no mercy. When
God comes in judgment, there's no mercy, no grace, no leniency,
no kindness, no forgiveness, no salvation to be given. And
then we're told in verse 23, when judgment day comes, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God, our Savior, will reign gloriously forever. Then
the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the
Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and
before his ancients gloriously. When God gets done, Christ shall
have all his foes as his footstool and he shall reign gloriously
in the new creation wherein dwells righteousness, and the earth
will be covered indeed with the knowledge of the Lord. When that
day comes, how will you stand before God? Christ is coming. Behold, he cometh, and every
eye shall see him. How will you stand before God?
Will you stand in Christ complete? Believe him and you shall. Or
will you stand alone? If you meet God out of Christ
in judgment, you will stand alone forever. Forever. We live in a day when many try
to find a way to deny the reality of hell and of judgment. And
I get notes every now and then, folks tell me I ought to preach
more about hell, fire, and damnation. I don't think I'll do that. I
don't like to think about it, let alone preach about it, but
it's real. And hell, is endless isolation
from everything and everybody, God and light included. Endless isolation in the crowded
pits for untold multitudes, stand face to face and elbow to elbow
in the pit of the damned, utterly isolated from one another. hating
one another and hated of one another. Burning with fires that
can't be quenched. Fire for which they cry, oh God,
hide me from the face of the lamb. I can't take this anymore. And God will sustain you to endure
the fire of his wrath forever. I bid you, you, who are yet without Christ, oh,
God help you, flee to Christ. They hold on Him, believe on
the Son of God. And you who are His, ask God
for grace every day and every moment of the day to give you
His Spirit that you may flee away to Christ from this perishing
world. Amen.