Well, we're coming back to Isaiah
and Isaiah chapter 5. We all, I think, have a very
strong sense of justice, don't we? Whatever we might do ourselves,
we have a strong sense of justice. Even children, especially children,
you watch them in the playground at school. Children have a tremendous
sense of injustice. You know, the injustice if the
guilty goes free. Somebody that's done something
wrong gets away, oh, that's outrageous. They got away with it. He did
such and such a thing and he got away with it. Or when the
one who didn't do something, perhaps more, when the one who
didn't do something and got accused of it and got punished for it
perhaps, oh how unjust that is, that they got punished for something
that they didn't do. No, we all I think, at times,
believe that there are laws that we don't think are fair. You
know, there's famous cases of famous people caught fiddling
their taxis because they didn't think the tax laws were fair.
Or people breaking motoring laws because they don't think the
motoring laws are fair. But there's still laws which
we have to obey, and for which the law says we will be punished
if found guilty of breaking them. Well, what about God's laws?
Oh, I don't believe in God. It makes no difference. It's
like you saying, I don't believe in the government of the United
Kingdom, therefore the government of the United Kingdom cannot
punish me for not paying my taxes. It makes absolutely no difference.
You're a citizen of this country, and you are bound to pay the
taxes that are due. You are a citizen of the creation
of God, and you are bound to pay the penalty due for your
breaking of his law. God who is, God who is revealed
in his word. You know, we see him all around
in creation. We see evidence of him all around
in us ourselves. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. All around in creation we see
evidence of God. I heard once somebody, some famous
person, he was so famous I can't remember his name now, but never
mind, saying he didn't believe in God. And the question was
put, well, why don't you believe in God? And he said, not enough
evidence. And I would say, open your eyes. Just open your eyes. Just look around. You cannot
explain it. Oh, well, the scientists say
this. The scientists are fools. The scientists are fools for
saying that. They're fools because they do not want to retain God
in their knowledge. That's the only reason that they
say that there's no God who made these things. The evidence is
all around, and He's revealed in His word, and He's revealed
in His word, whatever else you might think His word is clear.
He is holy, He is just, He is righteous, and every violation,
listen to me, every violation of the perfect purity of God's
character and standard must receive the exact, just, penalty, punishment,
death that it is due. We have all broken God's law. We have all, every one of us
without exception, offended His holiness. We have all earned
the wages of our sin. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin
is death. We have all earned it. That's
the wages. The soul that sins, it shall
die, says Ezekiel. And death doesn't mean annihilation. Death means eternal separation
from the life of God. But you say, but I'm not a bad
person, really. I'm not as bad as many. And maybe
comparing yourself with others, that might be true. You're not
as bad as many. But what if you compare yourself with the standard
that God demands, not the standard that others demand? You see,
to go back to the example of the law and fiddling your taxes,
to say lots of other people fiddle their taxes doesn't justify you
fiddling them, does it? Not in the slightest. To say,
oh, why was I pulled up with speeding? Everybody else was
speeding. You were speeding, and you got caught. You cannot
argue against it. So it is with the law of God.
and His justice. We must all bear the penalty
that is due for our sin. And listen to me, you will either
bear it, every single one of us without exception, you will
either bear it in a fitting substitute, or you will bear it personally
and eternally in hell. You say, that sounds very harsh. Surely God is a God of love.
Isn't God a God of love? Yes, God is love. But a God of
love, little g, a God of love who is not also the God of strict
and perfect justice, that God is an idol of your own imagination,
and no God at all. Oh, my God isn't like that. Yes,
your God might not be like that, but your God is an idol, if that's
the way you think. To the law and to the testimony,
we will read in a couple of chapters, to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there is no light
in them. The very being and nature of God, in every aspect of his
being, it calls for praise from his creation, and that includes
you and me. And it calls for praise for everything,
including his strict justice. I've called this message praise
for divine justice. Most people would say, oh, I'll
praise him for all the good things that I like, but I'm not praising
him for the fact that he punishes sin, that's a bit harsh. No,
praise for divine justice. Psalm 7 verse 11 says, God judgeth
the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. This
is the God with whom we all have to do. God judges the righteous. Look at Revelation chapter 19. And again, as usual, if you can't
get there, don't worry, I'll read it out to you. Revelation
chapter 19 and the first verse. After these things, after all
that has gone before, I heard a great voice of much people
in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God. There's the redeemed of the Lord
in heaven praising him. Oh, that we be among that number
of people, that much people in heaven. And look what they say.
Look what their song of praise is, true and righteous are his
judgments. And he hath judged the great
whore, punished her, brought down condemnation on her, which
did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged
the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said,
hallelujah, praise God. Why? Because he's judged sin.
Praise God because he's judged sin. And her smoke, the smoke
of the great whore, the false church, false religion, her smoke
rose up forever and ever. And the people of God in heaven
praised God for it. The four and twenty elders and
the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the
throne saying, Amen, Alleluia, Alleluia. Praise God for that. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. You see, they're praising God.
Why are they praising him? For his judgment, his condemnation,
his punishment, his just punishment of sin. They're praising him
for it. The voice of great multitude,
the voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thunderings,
saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let
us be glad and rejoice." So there we have it. In heaven, God is
praised for the justice of his judgment and the punishment of
sin. So with that in mind, we come
to Isaiah chapter 5, where God is praised for his divine justice. And I'm going to take it not
in the order it appears in the chapter, but I'm going to take
it in a slightly different order. In verses 8 to 23, we see strict
justice declared. Then in verse 16 and verses 24
to 30, we see God's holy character demanding and implementing the
exact penalty. And then in verses 1 to 7, we
see a warning to those who claim to be the people of God, not
to presume, not to presume, but to beware. And finally, in verse
17, we see an assurance of the accomplishment of grace. So the
first point is then strict justice declared, verses 8 to 23, strict
justice declared. Let's be clear In these days
where anything, it seems, anything is acceptable, whatever you want,
the new morality of the age in which we live is that if it suits
you and makes you happy, you go and do it. That's what you're
entitled to do. Let's be clear what God cannot
tolerate. Ought we not to listen to that
as the creatures of God, as creatures made by God, accountable to God? What is it that God cannot tolerate? Verses eight to ten. Woe unto
them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till
there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst
of the earth. In mine ears, said the Lord of
hosts, of a truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall
yield one bath. A bath of wine, he's talking
about. What's that? Hardly any. barely worth bothering. Ten acres of vineyard, hardly
any wine worth bothering about is what it produces. And the
seed of an homer, and we all know, we don't know what homers
and ifas are, but take it from me, what this means is that a
large amount of seed shall hardly yield anything that was worth
the bother of sowing the seed. That's what it's all about. What
that is talking about is that God cannot tolerate It's completely
against the character of God for people to cover the things
of this world, to be bowing down in their adoration of the things
of this world that they must have. Think of it carefully. This is what God cannot tolerate.
As far as God is concerned, that is sin against His character
and His holiness. In verse 11, He says, Woe to
them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow
strong drink, and continue until night, till wine inflame them. And the harp, and the violin,
the tabret, and the pipe, and wine are in their feasts, but
they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation
of His hands. therefore my people are gone
into captivity, and so on. God says in other places that
for his people, he gives them oil to make their face shine,
and wine to cheer up their heart. These things are good, but when
they're abused for fleshly pleasure and sensuality, they're an offence
to the living God. God says he cannot tolerate that
obsession with fleshly pleasure and sensuality. Verse 18. Woe to them that draw iniquity
with cords of vanity, and sin, as it were, with a cart rope,
that say, let him make speed and hasten his work. You know,
bring it on. If you say you're going to do
this, come on, bring it on. Let's see it. We don't believe
it, that we may see it. and let the counsel of the Holy
One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it, because
we don't really believe it. Blasphemous unbelief. Who is
this God? Who is He that's going to tell
me what to do? There is no God. I don't know why I was... There
happened to be a Daily Mirror newspaper in front of me yesterday
morning, and I just happened to be flicking the pages, and
there was some vile blasphemy from one of the column writers
in there. Vile blasphemy against the God of heaven. saying, why
do we bother with this nonsense anymore, this pack of fairy stories,
why do we bother with it, vile blasphemy against the God of
heaven, God will call that to account. Verse 20, woe unto them,
when God says woe you better know, he means woe, woe unto
them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own
sight. those that, sorry, woe unto them
that call evil good, and good evil, and put darkness for light,
and light for darkness, and bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Is that not exactly the day in which we live? In our day today,
That which 40 years ago was called utterly evil is now called absolute.
Oh, what a good thing. And that which 40 years ago was
called good is now called utterly disgusting and despicable and
absolutely vile and to be avoided. Because why? It's the kingdom
of Satan. It's the kingdom of Antichrist.
No. God hates these things. Moral
and spiritual perversion that turns good on its head and makes
it evil and the other way round. Verse 21. Woe unto them that
are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Pride
in self. Pride and self-righteousness. These are things that God hates
and will not tolerate. They're an offense against his
character and his law, and he will judge it. Oppression, verses
22 and 23. Woe to them that are mighty to
drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which
justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness
of the righteous from him. You see, they oppress others.
Me first, whatever the cost. God hates these things. And God
will justly punish all such offence against his holy character and
against his law. He will pay the wages due. The wages of sin is death. Romans 6, 23. And don't think
that if you claim to be a Christian and that Christ has paid the
debt of your sin at Calvary, that God will tolerate these
offences in you. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9. You see, Paul kept raising this
objection that many who claim to be Christians would say. They
say, let us sin. You see, Christ has paid the
debt of sin, therefore let us sin. We can sin all we want,
because grace will abound, to put it right. Grace will cover
it over. We can do what we want. We can
commit adultery, we can rob and steal and defraud one another.
We can do it because Christ has paid the penalty for sin, therefore
let us sin that grace may abound. And what does Paul say every
time to that suggestion? God forbid. God forbid. Now look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9. Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Yes, this is God's word,
21st century Britain. and America, this is God's word,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind." Oh,
how harsh of you to say that. To the law and to the testimony.
If they speak not according to this word, there is no truth
in them. Nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners. I don't care whether they say
they believe Christ and he's covered their sin. They shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. They shall not inherit. Those
who we sin, we all sin. All believers sin all of the
time. We know, the more that we know of the truth of the gospel
of grace, the more we know that in this flesh there dwells no
good thing. The more we go on with Christ,
we don't sense that we're getting better and better. We have a
deeper sense of what we are outside of Christ, and that is lost.
that is sinful. As Paul said, I'm not worthy
to be called an apostle. And then he went on and he said,
I am the chief of sinners. The more he knew, the more he
knew he was the chief of sinners in the flesh. And that's what
happens to us. That's the way it is. But those who claim to
be believers and habitually live in these heinous sins as if the
blood of Christ covers them all and we don't need to bother,
It's quite clear, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
and such were some of you, he says to these Corinthians, but
you're washed, are you? I believe you are, you are washed,
come on, you are sanctified, you don't behave, have nothing
to do with it, is what he's saying, and down in verse 20, you are
bought with a price. If you're Christ, you are bought
with a price. You're not your own. Glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God's. No, there is no place
whatsoever for thinking that we can get away with these things.
When we see all this from God's perspective in the judgment,
as everybody without exception will. Everybody that's ever lived
will. All will vindicate God and acknowledge
the rightness of his justice. The word of God tells us that.
All of these people, that woman writing the column in the Daily
Mirror that I read yesterday, she will acknowledge this. She
will bow, her knee will bow before the throne of Christ. It will,
the scripture says it will. Every knee shall bow and acknowledge
that God is Lord to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, all
will vindicate God and acknowledge the rightness of His justice,
and His people, His people, redeemed from the law's curse by Christ,
who has made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the
law, all of His people, redeemed from that law's curse, will give
Him praise. As we read in Revelation 19,
earlier on, He will give him praise for his perfect justice,
for his perfect punishment of sin, and they will look to that
The theme of glory is God punished our sin. If we're in heaven with
Christ, he punished our sin in Christ. But God was vindicated
in his justice. All sin, without exception, was
punished, either in Christ for his people or in the people themselves. You will either go into eternity
when you die, bearing your own sin and responsibility for it,
or you have looked. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is no other.
There it is. Look. Why will ye die? Why will
ye die, says God? There it is. Look. Look unto
me. His people will praise him for his perfect justice and will
give eternal thanks that what was due to them, to his people,
fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the next point. You see,
God's holy character demands and implements the exact penalty. This is a song. Now will I sing
to my well-beloved a song. This is God's song via the prophet. The next part of this song that
we're looking at is verse 16, and then verses 24 to 30. Verse
16, the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God
that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. God's character
shall be vindicated in this. His holy character demands, and
it implements the exact penalty. Now look at verse 24. As the
fire devours the stubble, And as the flame consumes the chaff,
this is when you're harvesting, and it used to be the case, when
I was a kid, when we'd done the harvesting up in the north of
England, and we'd cut the wheat, and the barley, and we'd shaken
all the grain off with the machine, and then it left stubble, short
bits, the bits below where the blade of the cutter cut it. And
to get rid of that, you just used to set fire to the field.
Well, they've done things to stop that now, so you're not
allowed to do that. The farmers have to re-plough it into the
ground. But this is what this is talking about, the fire devouring
the stubble, and the flame consuming the chaff. The chaff is the waste.
When you've separated the grain from the husk, the bit you really
want from the husk, the chaff is the stuff that's left to be
burned. And their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom
shall go up as dust. Why? because they have, you see
he's talking metaphorically about the people that claim to be his
people. He's talking about the fire of judgment coming because
they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and have despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel. That's how, that's why the anger
of the Lord is kindled against those who call themselves his
people and he stretched forth his hand against them and has
smitten them and the hills did tremble and their carcasses were
torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Why? Because
he will exact the full penalty due. He doesn't stop it short. If the penalty, exactly what
is required, he will produce it, and they will bear it. You
see, don't think these are idle threats. How could a God of love,
say people, do that to basically nice people? They don't believe
Him. They don't believe Him. They
shake their fist in His face. They defy Him. It's unbelief. They call God a liar. And God
uses instruments to exact His punishment. How is He going to
punish me then? God uses instruments to exact
His punishment. With the Jews of 800 years before
Christ, in Isaiah's day, with them, it was Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar came and took
them into captivity. And later on, for their continued
rejection in A.D. 70, after Christ had come and
returned to glory, after they had finally rejected the Christ
of God that He promised and that He sent, and they crucified Him. According to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, they crucified Him, but
it was with wicked hands that they did it, and after that The
Romans came in and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple
in A.D. 70 after rejecting Christ. It was the Romans who destroyed
Jerusalem. Do you know there's never been
a temple in Jerusalem since A.D. 70? It was taken away. God said
he would do it, and he did it, and it stays to this day. It's
in accordance, as we read in verse 16, with his holy character. The Lord of hosts shall be exalted
in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. In doing all of this, God's holy
character is honored. Remember Revelation? Do you remember
we saw in Revelation, in all those chapters, we saw the seals
on the book, the scroll that was sealed up with seven seals? And then, as those seals were
open, the judgments of God on this creation went forth. all
to frustrate Satan's purpose to set up his own kingdom of
false peace and false assurance, of an eternity without the Christ
of God and without the justice of God. And God sent forth all
of those judgments to frustrate the purposes of Satan, first
in those seals of the horses, the four horses of the apocalypse,
and the other seals that were opened, and then that issued
forth in seven trumpets, and the seven trumpets brought seven
more things upon this world that frustrate the ability of man
to live upon it. These are God's judgments that
he sends because of sin. And then finally the vials of
wrath are poured out right up to the very end. At Armageddon
the vials of the wrath of God finally punish all sin. It's
strict, It's exact, it's complete, and there will be nowhere to
hide. But we who say we believe the gospel and have trusted Christ,
we're okay, aren't we? It doesn't need to bother us,
does it? Well, in a very strong sense, no, it doesn't. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. Look and be saved, all ye ends
of the earth, but beware of presumption. People of God, beware. Look at
verses one to seven. Let me read it to you again.
I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, and gathered out
the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes, inedible grapes,
sour grapes, not decent fruit. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah, 800 years before Christ, judge, I pray you, betwixt
me and my vineyard, you tell me, what could I have done more
to my vineyard than I've done? Could I have done any... You
tell me, you tell me, what more could I have done? Wherefore,
when I looked, that it should bring forth grapes, brought it
forth... Why did it bring forth wild grapes, sour grapes, inedible
grapes, useless grapes, no fruit that was of any use to me? Why
did it do that? I'd done everything for it, that
it should have brought forth good fruit, and it didn't. And
now go to, I will tell you what I will do. I'll tell you what
I'll do to my vineyard, that vineyard that claims to be my
vineyard, that has been treated so well, I'll take away its hedge,
and it shall be eaten up and broken down and overrun. And
the marauders came in, and the invading armies came in, and
they destroyed it, they laid it waste, because God used his
instruments to lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged,
and there shall come up briars and thorns, and I will command
the clouds that it rain, no rain upon it, for the vineyard of
the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the men of Judah
his pleasant plant, and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression. He looked for justice and righteousness
and obedience, and he found nothing other than sin and oppression
and a cry. So there it is. The Jews of Isaiah's
day were very presumptuous of divine. They said, aren't we
the children of Abraham? God's got to look after us, we're
okay. We can live as we want, we've
got the temple here in our midst, we've got this nice land that
does everything for us, so we can live exactly as we want and
get what we want. We've got God's favour on our
side. Hear what God says in case any
of us who say we believe are presuming on God's favour like
those Jews, because it's perfectly possible. for those who claim
to be in the good of all that Christ has done, to be in the
same presumptuous position as the Jews of Isaiah's day. Firstly,
how well God dealt with Israel. the picture of the vineyard.
He says, I've got this vineyard, and you know, you don't want
the wild boars to be running across it and rooting up the
vines. So you put a wall around it, and you fence it, and you
protect it. And you live there, and you watch over it, and you
look after it. And God said he'd done all of that. And the stones
that would make it hard for the vines to grow. the stones of
human idolatry and of human ignorance that is common amongst the peoples
of this earth in their flesh without the truth of God. God
says, I removed them. How does He remove them? With
us. He removes them by His Word, by His Word and by the preaching
of the gospel of grace. He removes the stones of human
idolatry and ignorance from us. Whereas the others He left to
themselves. Oh, how gracious He's been. And he gave them choice
seed. He gave the influence of the
choicest seed, the choicest vine. And for them, what was that?
The patriarchs, Abraham, and Joshua, and David. He gave them
these choicest vines. And he built a tower in the midst
of it, with a winepress. What's that a picture of? It's
the temple, temple worship. He showed them how men, how should
a man be just with God. God showed them through all of
that, the temple, the priesthood, the gospel pictures, the wine
press. Wine press in scripture, often in Revelation, the wine
press speaks of judgment. What was the wine press in the
temple? It was the altar. where the sacrifices shed their
blood as he had ordained. Because why? Why were there animal
sacrifices? To say that only by the shedding
of blood. Whose blood? The blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For there is none other good
enough to pay the price of sin. He alone, all they were pictures,
he is the reality. The winepress That winepress
was the blood being poured out, showing this is how God atones
for sin. All of that was pictured there.
The gospel was there in the midst of these people. And God complains
that despite all that he'd done, they produced wild grapes. Not
the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22-23, love, joy,
peace, patience, self-control. Instead, hypocritical fruit.
If you turn back to chapter 1, And verse 11, the very first
thing that God said to these people, to what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto me? You go through the motions
of religion. You go through all the practices
and the external appearance. He said, I've had enough of it.
I'm full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks and of lambs and
of he-goats. You just come out of hypocritical religion. Your heart is not in it. When
you come to appear before me, who's required this of you? I
don't want you turning up if your heart's not there. Bring
no more vain oblations. No more incense. It's an abomination
to me. You're keeping a feast. I can't
stand with them. You're calling of assemblies. I cannot abide it, away with
it. It's iniquity. Even your solemn
meeting, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates
them, says God, because it's hypocritical religion and it's
not the truth. I am weary to bear them. You
see that? All he got was wild grapes, inedible
grapes, fruit that was of no use whatsoever. Now, you judge,
he says, verse 4. You judge for yourself. How do
you respond? Look what they did. They're looking.
What have we done with what God's done for us in giving us his
word? What advantage is there to the Jew? Much every way, says
Paul. But what had they done with it? They trampled it underfoot,
effectively. What have we done? with the gospel
truth that we have before us, the words of eternal life that
we have before us. Let us judge ourselves. Verses
5 to 7, he judges them. Was not God perfectly just in
doing what he did to them? He finished them as a nation.
He did. He really did. I know there are
Jews today, but not one of them can trace their lineage back
to any one of the tribes. of Israel, God finished them
as a nation. He really did. Absolutely. A.D. 70, He took it away. He sent
His grace to a people who were Gentiles in the main. In the
main. Obviously, there are Jews and
Gentiles, people of every tribe and kindred, but beware those
of us that think we stand. Romans 11 verse 20 says this,
well, because of unbelief, they, the Jews, were broken off. And
thou standest by faith. You Christians, you believers,
be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural
branches, but broke them off, take heed, lest he also spare
not thee. Has God done all these gospel
things for us? Then beware of despising it.
of treating it with presumption, of saying, let us sin that grace
may abound. I'll turn you, and we're going
to be finishing very soon, but I'll turn you to Proverbs chapter
1 and verse 24. Listen to this warning. This
is in the word of God. And he's speaking to the Jews,
his covenant people of the Old Testament. Because I have called,
and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at nought all
my counsel. Ye have regarded it as if it
was nothing, and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh
at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh,
when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated
knowledge. and did not choose the fear of
the Lord. They would none of my counsel. They wouldn't have
it. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear and evil. You see, grace and salvation
is entirely of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Entirely. If you get to heaven, all praise
will go to God for his grace. But if you go to hell, willful
unbelief and neglect, carelessness and presumption will be your
own fault, will be your own doing. And when you get to hell, you
will have nobody else to blame for it but yourself. So beware.
If you're cast away like those Jews, it is entirely your own
fault for careless presumption. but praise God. His purposes
according to election, the election of grace, cannot be thwarted
by unbelief. And with this we'll close. Look
at chapter five. Sorry, where am I? Back in Isaiah
chapter five and verse 17. Then shall the lambs feed after
their manna, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers
eat. This is exactly what Ezekiel
says in verse 14. I will feed them, his people,
his elect people, in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of
Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good
fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. This is talking about the gospel, rejoicing in the
gospel. I will feed my flock, and I will
cause them to lie down. Rest, rest in the Lord, saith
the Lord God. This is his word to his people.
He will In the end, save all his people from their sins, but
beware lest we presume. Where are we? Are we among those,
like those Jews of old, who presumed and got the just judgment that
was due to them? Or are we determined to follow
Christ? Many hundreds of years before
Isaiah wrote that, when the people came into the promised land back
from Egypt, and it was Joshua that led them in. And Joshua
knew how fickle were these people, even though they'd seen all the
workings of God. And he said to them, Joshua 24,
he said to them, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. And so therefore, each of us,
there is a choice to be made. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. whether the gods of this land or the God of Israel,
the true God, the God of his people. As for me and my house,
he said, we will serve the Lord. Amen.