Timmy? Thank you. Okay, well we're going
to look at Isaiah chapter 3 and my text is in verses 10 and 11
and I've called this message, Well or Ill? Well or Ill? We often in life
have to have medical tests. I don't know if any of you have
had a medical test. I had a couple of medical tests within the last
three or four weeks and you wait for the result to be pronounced
and you're waiting to see what it will say. Is it well or is
it ill? We have a relative at the moment
who has had some very bad news concerning his health and he
has been pronounced very unwell with a very poor outlook for
his future. Well or ill? But even when the
medical people tell us, oh, it's well with you, you're all clear,
you know, they say those suffering from cancer, oh, he's got the
all clear, he's got the all clear, even when it's well, it's only
a temporary stay of execution, isn't it? Think about it. Oh,
isn't he being morbid this morning? I'm being realistic. As young
as you are, as old as you are, even when the doctors say, oh,
it's all well, it's good, you've got the all clear, it's only
a temporary stay of execution. It's appointed to us all to die
once and then the judgment. You see, trusting the very best
of men is very limited. Cease ye from man, says verse
22 of chapter two, whose breath is in his nostrils. He's no more
alive than that. He's no more strong in his own
strength than that. He's only alive as long as he's
breathing in his nostrils. And that's so temporary and so
vulnerable to being stopped. He's limited, very limited. Wherein
is he to be accounted of? Don't put your trust in him.
There's nothing reliable there. A man is, without wisdom from
God, any man, and when I say man, you know I mean women as
well, you know I'm, you know, this silly nonsense about splitting
and dividing. Of course I mean both sexes.
Mankind is without wisdom from God, naturally, and as such,
he is altogether Vanity. Turn back a couple of books.
Ecclesiastes. Vanity, vanity. All is vanity. In what respect? Man has vain
ideas about life. Vain ideas, silly ideas about
life. Even the cleverest of men, even
the brightest of men, even the most renowned scientists and
the most renowned philosophers have got vain ideas about life. They don't understand what they
see around about them. Why? Because they refuse to accept
God. They refuse to acknowledge God.
when it comes to their religion, man's religion, even the best
of it, even that which calls itself Christian, all over this
world, is beset with superstition. Every aspect of it is superstition. Man is unstable. Man is weak. At his end, he vanishes like
a vapour. Who can Who can tell it? You know, it's
just so fragile, so frail. Cease from man. Cease from man. No man can save your soul from
its just condemnation. That's what Psalm 49 tells us
in verses 7 and 8. It says no man can redeem his
brother. No man can make the payment that
is necessary to redeem his brother. Peter, can I just get you to
turn those blinds because it's making the picture bright in
the middle. No man can redeem his brother. No, it says he doesn't
have the wherewithal, it's far too costly. It's not that one,
it's another one, must be another one. I don't know, I don't know
where it's coming from. I'm sorry about this if you're
listening to this, we've got light shining in and it's putting a
big patch on my shirt. I don't know where it's coming
from, is it? Okay, never mind, we'll just continue. So we need
to learn true wisdom, learn true wisdom. Ecclesiastes 12, 13.
Nearly at the end it says, fear God and keep his commandments.
That's true wisdom. What is it to keep the commandments
of God? It's an awesome thing, isn't
it? Isn't it so hard? Who can keep the commandments
of God? Ah, the New Testament says the commandments of God
are not grievous. They're not grievous because
they're gospel commandments. They're commandments in the Lord
Jesus Christ. No, cease from man. Where do
we need to look? Look in verse one of chapter
three. Four, behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts. Behold the
Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, et
cetera. Now, you just skip over those words there. Behold the
Lord, the Lord of hosts. Is he saying the same thing?
The Lord, the Lord of hosts. Look at the way it's written.
Can you see the first one is written in small letters, L lowercase
O-R-D, and the second one is written in capital letters. These
are two different names. The first one is Adonai, one
of the names of Christ, the mediator. It's the name which says he is
the stay and support of his redeemed. He is the one upon whom his redeemed
lean. And the second one is that name
of God which the Jews would not pronounce because it was the
unknowable God. Jehovah, we put it in our language. The unknowable God who is sovereign
over all, dwelling in unapproachable light. And this is the mystery. of God. Here, God, who is unknowable,
yet God who is revealed in Christ, cease from man, for behold, there
is a God with whom we have to do. The mystery of God. Who can know God? Who can know
anything about God? We who are sinners, who can know
anything about God? But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the mystery of God is made manifest in him. For, we read in Colossians
2 verse 9, in him, in Christ, dwells the fullness of the Godhead,
bodily. the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
the Word of God who is God, the Word of God who is God, who speaks
heavenly truth, who has accomplished eternal salvation for his people. What do I mean by his people?
I mean that elect company of people which was the gift of
the Father to the Son before the beginning of time, before
the world was created. That People, the elect of God,
that innumerable multitude that he says, no man can number them,
they're just so many of them. The innumerable multitude, that
gift of the Father to the Son, this Jehovah Jesus. This is the one, this is the
one, Jehovah Jesus. This is who's declared here,
the Lord, the Lord of hosts. You see, this book, the Bible,
is his word. And He is that Word. He is the
Word of God. And this written down before
us is His Word. That's why I don't like Bibles
that have red text for the words of Jesus when He was walking
this earth. If you've got one, don't worry, keep it, but just
bear this in mind, all of this is the Word of Christ. All of
it. All of it is the Word of Christ. There's not the words
in the New Testament, oh they're extra special because they're
words of Jesus. Jesus spoke all of this. Christ, the second person
of the Trinity, the manifestation of God to his people, he spoke
all of this Word. It's his Word. Will you listen
to it? We have it here, in our midst.
God, who made you, is speaking eternal truth. So what does he
say? The first point I have is that
in this chapter we have pronounced clearly judgment on sin. Judgment on sin. In verses one
to nine we have judgment on sin. You can see it there. There's
going to be a famine, the stay and the stuff, the whole stay
of bread. He's going to take it all away. There's going to
be famine. And then society is going to become dysfunctional.
All the people with wisdom are going to be taken away and you're
going to have children who've got no wisdom ruling over you.
Though talk to the society in which we live and half the time
people are bowing down to worship children more than they are people
who are supposed to be wise. But anyway, this is what it says.
It's a sign of judgment. And the reason for it all is
in verse 8. Look in the second half of verse
8. Why is it that God judges? Why is it that God brings about
judgment? It's because their tongue and
their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his
glory. That's it. It's because of sin. Their doings are against the
Lord to provoke the eyes of His glory. The show of their countenance
doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Blatant, blatant
sin. Blatant sin is the problem. And
judgment is pronounced on Jerusalem and Judah. Remember, in the context,
800 years before Christ came, this was the people, of all people
on earth, who had the oracles of God, the word of God. When hordes and hordes of people
across the planet had no truth of the true God, all they had
was the witness of nature. This people had the witness of
the true God. in the gospel of his grace. How
do I say that? You say the gospel didn't happen
until Christ came and, you know, how can you say that they had
the gospel? They had the gospel in the temple worship. For in
temple worship was portrayed vividly, in all the sacrifices,
in the priesthood, in everything that they did, the gospel was
portrayed. How can a man be just with God? And the Old Testament
worship and the standards and everything about it there in
the Old Testament was declaring the gospel of God's grace. These
were privileged people and yet they walked away from God. Yet
they turned their back on the truth. Yet they were unfaithful
to that truth. Unfaithful. They didn't believe
it. They were unfaithful to it. And whatever is not of faith,
as Romans 14.23 tells us, whatever is not of faith is sin. How do you sin, boast before
God? Whatever is not of faith is sin. They committed spiritual adultery,
unfaithfulness. They committed spiritual whoredom. If on those who were so close
to the truth, these Jews in Jerusalem in those days, what about the
rest of mankind without Christ? You know, we were thinking a
few weeks ago about the righteous being scarcely saved in 1 Peter. And we're saying, if the righteous,
if God's people are saved with difficulty, what about the rest
who have no thought for God? You see, there is a doctrine
that is clear in Scripture. And it's the corollary of election. And it's the doctrine of reprobation,
which is absolutely clear. And what is it? It's a doctrine
that men and women absolutely hate and recoil against. And
they set up their idol gods because they say they will not have a
God who is a God who has a doctrine of reprobation. How can you possibly
have a God who has a doctrine of reprobation? The God of the
Bible has a doctrine of reprobation. Reprobation, this is how Don
Faulkner put it, Reprobation is the work of God fixing it
so that those who would not believe the gospel cannot believe the
gospel. Oh, beware. God fixes it so that
those who stubbornly will not believe the gospel cannot believe
the gospel. We'll see it in a couple of chapters
when we get to it. Scripture calls all who will
not believe the gospel. Do you know what it calls them?
Unbelievers? No, it calls them wicked. Wicked. The wicked. The wicked. Verse
11. Woe to the wicked. The wicked
throughout Scripture are those who will not believe the gospel.
That's what biblical wickedness is. And it shall be ill with
them. It shall be ill. Look there in
verse 11. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for
the reward of his hands shall be given him. He'll get his just
desserts for his sin. Woe to the wicked who doesn't
believe the gospel of grace, it shall be ill with him. He's
earned his wages. Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin
is death. When you do some work, you expect
to be paid. Ah, when you do the work of sin,
you will be paid. The wages of sin is death, and
God will pay those wages now in this life and in eternity
to the full. And in here, in this chapter,
he declares there will be a famine. Do you know he still declares
that there will be a famine? We say we don't have famines,
we just go down to the supermarket and we buy what we want. If you
listen to Amos chapter 8, You will read about another sort
of famine that God declares that he will bring on those who stubbornly
refuse to believe him. Behold, this is what the prophet
Amos says in chapter 8, verses 11 and 12. Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. And
God has said that about this land. I will send a famine in
the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord. Did you get that? He'll send
a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander
from sea to sea and from the north even to the east, and they
shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall
not find it. This generation, that shakes
its fist in the face of God and says we will not have this man
to rule over us who says no God for me this generation will find
that God will remove and has removed in many many places he's
removed all trace of his word there is no truth you can go
to religion up and down this country of ours and I know throughout
the United States and throughout Europe you can go to religion
which is there thriving in its religiosity But you look for
the true word of God, the gospel of grace, the God of scripture,
and you will not find it. You will not find it. Why? Because
God has done what he said. He's removed it. He's removed
it. He's removed. They'll look for
it and they won't find it. They'll start to hunger for it.
They won't be able to find it because God has fixed it so that
those who would not believe the gospel cannot believe the gospel. It's never been more true than
it is in this day in which we live. There are churches all
around, but look at the apostasy that there is. Even in those
that claimed once, not long ago, to proclaim the truth of the
gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption, and look
how wholly and completely they have gone over to falsehood.
They've raised up Baal in the place of God in their pulpits.
They've raised up a God of the imagination of the religious
folks in their superstition. They've raised up a God that
the people like, and not the God of the scriptures, as he
has declared. That's what it's like in the
day in which we live. But don't be afraid, for as God
said to Elijah, he always has his 7,000, his perfect, complete
number that have not bowed the knee to the false gods of this
age. No, he brings judgment. In this
chapter we saw it, a dysfunctional society. And then there's blatant
sin. both in the professed church,
because he's speaking primarily to the professed church of his
day, but society in general. In verses 16 to 23, look down
there. Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are haughty. I don't know if you noticed as
we were reading that, but it was a particular, particular
indictment against the women of the day. And oh, how it's
true today. The wanton eyes the parading
of that which should be kept private. The parading of that. God says he will uncover it.
God says he will bring... I was walking into town yesterday,
and there were two teenage girls in front of me. Quite frankly,
the way they were dressed, they might as well have been walking
into town with no clothes on whatsoever. People were stopping
and looking and staring. They couldn't believe what they
were seeing. This is what this passage is talking about. I tell
you, don't for one minute think that the God of the universe
is indifferent about it. He is not. He is not. It's sin. It's sin in society,
and he pronounces against it. But you know something? Let's
not get protest banners out and go and start to have a moral
rearmament of society. That used to be a movement that
was around. Society's getting in a terrible mess. Let's have
moral rearmament, and let's go back to basics, and let's try
to become a pure society again. You need to bear in mind, believer,
bear this in mind. It's not, oh, terrible, God can't
stop it. It's what God has sent. What
we see is a judgment from God. It's God judging our society
in all its aspects, because what is the nature of his judgment
or the nature of the punishment he's bringing is to withdraw
his word and withdraw all restraint. God has fixed it. so that the
pig that prefers the mire can do nothing other than wallow
in the mire. So that those who flout his law,
that those who, as other parts of scripture describe like this,
they trample the blood of Christ underfoot, that they continue
on their way. And where does that way go? It's
the broad way, and it leads to destruction. That's what he does. In Revelation 20 we read of God,
before the end, releasing Satan. who has been restrained for a
thousand years, a symbolical thousand years, and he releases
him to deceive the nations again, and I believe that we're living
in those days. I believe the symbolical thousand
years where the restraint of Satan's deception of mankind
was in existence, he has been released for a season and now
we're seeing it at its full and it's the judgment of God. Hear
what 2 Thessalonians says, chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, for this
cause, God shall send them, these are the people who fly in the
face of his truth, God shall send them strong delusion. Doesn't
what God want them all to be saved? No, God sends them strong
delusion. That's what the scripture says,
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness.
That's the doctrine of reprobation. Philippians 3.19, whose end,
these people, whose end is destruction. Not annihilation, destruction
in the judgment and in hell. Whose God is their belly, themselves,
what they can get, what they can do with it. Whose glory is
in their shame. They glory in that which God
hates, who mind not heavenly things, but earthly things. God
is angry with the wicked every day. it shall be ill with them. Woe to the wicked, it shall be
ill with them. Now and in eternal judgment. Turn over a page in Isaiah to
chapter 5 and verses 24 and 25. Therefore, as the fire devoureth
the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall
be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because
they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised
the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the
Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his
hand against them, and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble,
and the 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." You see there, this judgment, judgment. And it is
perfectly just and fair, because as verse 11 says, the reward
of his hands shall be given him. It's absolutely just. Absolutely
just. The wrath of God is here now,
but there is much more to come. There is much more to come. Flee. Flee. Flee from it. I don't like
preaching like this, but it is God's word. I cannot deny it,
I cannot avoid it. If we're true to God's word,
we have to declare, this is what God says. God is a God who will
judge and punish sin, absolutely. But, and I love the fact that
there are buts in scripture, but God, but God is a God of
mercy and grace. This is what he calls himself
again and again. I'm glad that I don't have to leave it as just
condemnation. There are those out of all mankind,
look at verse 10, say ye to the righteous. There are those out
of all mankind that God calls righteous. And on them, he pronounces,
it shall be well with him. The righteous, it shall be well
with him. So this is my second point. God's
saving grace and its fruit on his people. In God's reckoning,
basically, there are only two divisions of mankind, the righteous
and the wicked. Oh, you say, well, there's good
folks, there's clever folks, there's not so clever folks,
there's black folks, there's white folks, there's brown folks,
there's yellow folks. There's all sorts of differences.
There's men and there's women. No, as far as God is concerned,
in the reckoning of God, the only thing ultimately that matters
is that you're in one of two divisions, the righteous or the
wicked. And on the day you die, I guarantee
to you, I don't care who you are, that is all that will matter
to you. Are you amongst the righteous,
those that God calls righteous, or are you amongst the wicked?
We see the division throughout biblical history. Right at the
very beginning, at the fall, in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis
chapter 3, we see the seed of the woman that was promised,
Christ, and all in that line. And on the other hand, the seed
of the serpent. They're children. The first parents'
children, Abel and Cain, Cain the older one. Abel was in the
line of the seed of the woman, righteous, and Cain was of the
wicked one. Cain was of the wicked one. We
then see, as populations grew, we see the sons of God, those
who were in the line of the seed of the woman, who knew the truth
of God in the gospel of grace, and they were intermingling and
marrying with the daughters of men. Daughters of men? are those
without any knowledge or care for the truth of God. We then,
it comes to a culmination, and we see Noah's family versus the
rest of the world. Noah alone found grace in the
sight of the Lord. Noah and his family, just eight
of them all together. If ever we think that we're a
very small number meeting here, it's always good to remember
that's all that Noah had. Noah just had his eight. Noah,
his wife, three sons, and their wives. That was it. They were
the only people that were saved alive when God brought the judgment
of flood on the earth. And the rest of the world, everything
in which was the breath of life, if it wasn't in the ark, it drowned.
God made that distinction. There was Israel's firstborn
in Egypt versus Egypt's firstborn. There's the precious versus the
vile, as Jeremiah 15 calls it. that which is precious, that
which is to do with the truth of the gospel of grace, and that
which is vile, which is to do with error and the falsehood
and the theories of man. What determines your classification? What determines whether you're
wicked or righteous? Wicked, I've already said, is
marked by unbelief of the truth. It's marked of rebellion against
the rule of God. an ignoring, a knowing ignoring
of what God's word has said by choice and by practice. Whereas
the righteous, how are the righteous righteous? Oh, they've been very
good people. No, that's not what the scriptures teach. Not at
all. Not of works, lest any man should boast. No, the righteous
are the work of God. The work of God. What must we
do that we do the works of God? The Jews asked Jesus and he said,
this is the work of God that you believe. on him whom he has
sent. That's what it is to be righteous.
Righteous is to believe the gospel of grace, not because you do
it, it isn't your act of believing that makes you righteous, it's
your act of believing that proves that you have been made righteous,
because we are made the righteousness of God in him. It's a work of
God. He makes his people righteous.
He makes his people willing in the day of his power. He is the
one who satisfies justice on their behalf and makes them righteous.
He is the one who in sovereign grace, in sovereign electing
grace, who does this. How do I know that? The scripture
says it so clearly again and again. Romans 9 16 summarizes
it. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. quickening,
making alive. Where you were dead to the things
of God, He makes you alive to the things of God. Giving repentance,
that which the natural man does not have. He might have remorse
over what he's done and the punishment that's coming his way, but he
doesn't have genuine repentance, which is a genuine sorrow for
the way in which what he is and what he has done has offended
the nature and the character and the principles of the things
of God. And he gives faith, which is life, to trust, to believe,
to see. And what is it that divides?
What's the dividing line between the righteous and the wicked?
It's one thing, and one alone. It's the blood of Christ. That's
it. Because it's the blood of Christ
that makes the difference. It's the blood of Christ that
justifies. It's the blood of Christ that
makes his people righteous. You see, there are none righteous
in themselves. There is none righteous. No,
not one, says Romans 3, quoting one of the Psalms. None righteous,
no, not one. They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. In Isaiah 64, even the best things
we try to do, all of our righteousnesses, do you try to be good? All of
our righteousnesses are but filthy rags in his sight. If we are
to be righteous, In God's strict judgment, according to His justice,
we must be made righteous by God. The one who is the Lord
our righteousness, Jeremiah, do you remember this? Jeremiah
23 verse 6. His name, speaking of Christ,
His name is the Lord our righteousness. as one whose name is the Lord
our righteousness, and he makes his people, his people, his bride,
his bride, his church, he makes his people righteous. Jeremiah
33 verse 16, 10 chapters further on, this is the name by which
she, his people, shall be called, do you know what it is? The Lord
our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. Even
now, when a woman marries a man, according to the principles of
Scripture, she might be Miss Jones or whatever, and she marries
Mr. Smith and she becomes Mrs. Smith
in that marriage ceremony. And so the Bride of Christ becomes,
can I put it this way without being irreverent, she becomes,
the Bride, the Church, the people of God, becomes Mrs. the Lord
our righteousness. It's by eternal union with him,
being placed in Christ in the electing grace of God before
the beginning of time. He is the substitute, the surety,
the legally responsible husband for all his people, and because
of what he is and what he has done, his people are made the
righteousness of God in him. because as 1 Corinthians 1 30
tells us of him of God you are in Christ Jesus who of God is
made unto us wisdom how we need wisdom from God and righteousness
there you are you're made righteousness in him sanctification and redemption
current 2 Corinthians 5 21 he has made him a to be sin for
us. He who was without sin made him
sin, the sins of his people who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Now then, this is not
pretend righteousness. It's not that you're justified,
it's just as if you didn't sin. In the reckoning of God you didn't
sin. You are made righteous in Him. It's actual righteousness. Romans 5, 19, As by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. He is a just God, says Isaiah
45, about verse 22. He is a just God and a Savior. He never, never changes his standards. The justice of God is never compromised,
and yet he's a saviour. How does he do it? In the person
of his Son, who takes the sins of his people, and perfectly
satisfies the justice of God, and puts those sins away, and
thereby justifies his people, and makes them the righteousness
of God in him, As Romans chapter 3, the end of it says, verse
26, just and justifier. He remains perfectly just, but
he is the justifier of his people. As Romans 4, 8 says, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. There's a people
to whom the Lord will not charge sin. There is therefore, Romans
8, 1, now no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Because of Christ. Romans 8, 33 and 34. Who shall
lay any charge, anything to the charge of God's elect? God's
justified them. God's justified them. Who is
going to bring a condemnation, a charge that will stick in the
court of divine justice? Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that has died. Why is this person before me
in court, says God the judge? He says, the penalty's already
paid. Christ has already died. Rather,
he's risen again. Not only legally made righteous
by the substitutionary work of Christ, but given a righteous
nature. 1 John 3, 9 says this, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. There's a new nature. Yes, we've still got the sinful
nature of the flesh. His seed, God's seed, remaineth
in him. And he cannot sin because he is born of God. There's a
new nature that is born of God. There's a new nature that, as
Peter tells us, makes us partakers of the divine nature. And so
I can quote again Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 7, which
is, In the midst of it all, by faith, go thy way, and eat thy
bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for
God now accepteth thy works." Being in Christ, God accepts
us as we are. It's well with Him. Say ye to
the righteous, made righteous, it is well with Him. And it's
a simple, unqualified statement. It's not well with Him when such
and such a condition exists. It is well with Him. It is well
with Him. Romans 8, 28, what works together
for good to those who are the called of God? All things work
together for good to those who love God, who are the called
according to his purpose. When everything seems as though
it isn't all right, it's still well. We have times when we think,
oh, woe is me, it's dreadful, it's an awful thing. Isaiah is
going to say those very words in a couple of chapters. Woe
is me, I am undone. But do you know something? It
was never more well with him than at that time when he saw
his true state and when he saw the redemption that God had purchased
in Christ. When Jacob was in a terrible
state, fearing his brother and fearing destruction, it was well
with him. When Joseph was in the pit and
then in prison in Egypt, it was well with him. when different
saints down the ages have been in providential hardship, when
John Warburton, that preacher of a couple of hundred years
ago in Trowbridge, was in terrible hardship, it was well with him.
In temptations and in trials that come upon us, whatever our
state, it is well with the righteous. In weakness, bodily weakness,
physically, health weakness, in weakness, it is well with
us because God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
When we sin, it's well. Not that we should sin, but when
we sin, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. It is well with us throughout
life. It is well with us in death.
Death. We all, naturally, in the flesh,
fear death. We fear the moment. It's a time
of uncertainty and of fear and of lack of knowledge. But the
death of his saints is precious in the sight of the Lord, says
Psalm 116. That death is precious to God. Why? Because he's taking
his child home to eternal glory. In the judgment, it is well with
the righteous. It is appointed to man to die
once and then the judgment. To the righteous, it is well
with him. Why? Because you will hear these words.
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. How can I inherit
that? Because you've been made the righteousness of God in Christ
by all that he has done. And in eternity, no more tears,
no more crying, no more death, no more pain, for the former
things are passed away. It shall be well with him. I'm
going to close. Will you by choice, if you are
not a believer, will you by choice continue in the camp of what
this passage calls the wicked, or will you seek the Lord while
he may be found and call upon him while he is near. That's
what Isaiah 55 verse six says. Amen.