Jerusalem is ruined and Judah
is fallen. Jerusalem is ruined and Judah
is fallen. That's the message of Isaiah
chapter 3. Let's read these 26 verses together. Just hold your Bibles open on
your lap and hear how God the Holy Ghost declares, Jerusalem
is ruined and Judah is fallen. Jerusalem and Judah in Isaiah's
day were the professed church and people of God. Among them
there was a great multitude, a chosen remnant, a people who
truly believed God and of people who trusted the Lord Jesus, of
people who viewed the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law as
they were given by God to be pictures of the Redeemer who
was to come, of people who truly worshiped the Lord God. But the
vast majority of those in Jerusalem and Judah who professed to be
God's people, who professed to be worshipers of God, were as
vile, as base, as superstitious, and as idolatrous as the rest
of the world around them. Yet, even among those proud idolaters,
there was an elect redeemed remnant, a people who must be saved by
God's grace. And so God preserved those people,
Judah and Jerusalem, because among them, he had a people whom
he would save. Some of God's chosen are found
among the corrupt of this world, the utterly irreligious. Some
of God's people are to be fetched from the profane. Some of God's
princes are to be called from the Pharisees. Some of God's
redeemed fetched from the religious. And many of his bought ones are
still in Babylon and must be brought out by the hand of omnipotent
mercy. Let's see how Isaiah describes
this marvelous work of God's grace for his chosen. in his
providential judgments upon Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be so foolish
as to imagine that anything comes to pass except by the hand of
God. The fires have been raging in
Tennessee and North Carolina, even in Eastern Kentucky and
West Virginia in the last few weeks. Those fires set by the
hand of God. and moved as they moved exactly
in the direction God ordained. But preacher, wicked men did
that. Set by the hand of God, wicked men don't wiggle or breathe
except by God's direction. Satan doesn't wiggle or move
except by God's direction. Don't ever imagine that those
things that we look upon as providential evil, tragedies, horrible things,
things that we would naturally seek to avoid and avoid for others. Don't ever imagine those things
are somehow beyond God's control. Providential judgments are always
warnings of judgment to come. But providential judgments, like
all other things that God does, are always absolutely just and
right and righteous. God always deals with his creatures
in justice. He will not deal with his creatures
except in justice. The Lord God Almighty does right. That which he does is just. That
which he does is true. God always acts in justice, both
in the everlasting salvation of his elect and in the everlasting
destruction of the reprobate. God acts in justice when he saves
his people. God acted in justice when he
made his son to be sin and punished him for sin. God acts in justice
when he sends the wicked to hell. And God acts in justice when
he takes the righteous into glory. God always does what he does
in strict justice. We're about to read a very solemn
word of judgment. Judgment poured out upon men
and women by the hand of God. And we're about to read this
judgment and see that it is a matter of divine retribution. It is
poured out upon proud men and women because, look at verse
eight. Here's the reason for it. Always
mark the because. Their tongue and their doings
are against the Lord. to provoke the eyes of His glory. Their tongue and their doings
are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of His glory. When we look at this passage,
and I spent a lot of time studying and reading and studying and
reading and praying over and meditating on these 26 verses. There are just some shocking
things here, shocking things. but how blessed it is to see
our text open like this. For behold the Lord, the Lord
of hosts. Behold the Lord, the Lord of
hosts. Isaiah begins this word of solemn
warning, this word about divine judgment, by calling our hearts
away from ourselves to the Lord God, our Savior. The last verse
of chapter 22 is a commandment from God, cease ye from men.
The Lord says, quit looking to yourselves. Look out of yourselves. Look away from your circumstances.
Look away from the arm of the flesh. Look away from the world.
Look away from Egypt. Quit trying to find comfort,
peace, understanding, satisfaction, stability, quit trying to find
it in the flesh. It's not there. But look to the
Lord himself. Look to the Lord alone. He says,
behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts. Notice that the words
translated Lord and Lord. The spellings are the same, but
the written different. The first word Lord is written
in lowercase letters. The second written in uppercase
letters. Now the reason is obvious or
it should be obvious whenever you read the scriptures. The
first time you read the word Lord, the word is Adonai. Adonai, one of the well-known
names for our God. It means the cause, the support,
the stay, the strength. Behold the cause, the support,
the stay, the strength who is our God. The second is the word
Jehovah, the name by which the Lord God made himself known to
Moses. The Lord our God, Adonai our
stay, is Jehovah our redeemer. So Isaiah immediately begins
the passage by calling our hearts, our minds, our faith away from
ourselves, away from our circumstances, away from what our eyes see and
our ears hear and our emotions sense and feel, away from our
experience to the Lord Adonai. stay. Adonai, our Redeemer, Jesus
Christ our God. The Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah
Jesus, God who redeems and saves. God, our savior, he took on himself
our nature and came into this world in our humanity. And by
his obedience unto death as our substitute, saved his people
from their sins. And now he who is God in our
nature, sits upon the throne of glory. So stay yourselves
upon him. Stayed upon Jehovah. That's what he's calling for.
Stay yourselves upon God in the midst of difficulty, in the midst
of trouble, in the midst of heartache, in the midst of divine judgment.
Stay yourselves upon God. Look unto me and be you saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Jehovah Jesus bridged the gulf
between God and man, and he saves his people from their sins. He saves them by divine purpose,
by divine purchase, and by divine power. Jehovah Jesus is God overall
blessed forever. And that man who is God overall
blessed forever, that one in whom resides all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, man and God, a man able to know your
need and God able to do something about it. Man able to know your need. and God able to help. Oh, thank God for him who is
Adonai, our Jehovah. Adonai, the Lord of hosts. Adonai, our Redeemer who controls
everything. Our Lord Jesus Christ, though
he had no sin of his own, was made sin for us. And when he
was made sin for us, Finally, he experienced everything humanity
can experience of pain and sorrow, everything. He's the man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. He knows what it is to be bereaved. He knows what it is to have friends
betray him. He knows what it is to be misunderstood
and slandered. He knows what it is to be hungry
and thirsty. He knows what it is to be exhausted,
just worn out. He knows now when he was made
sin for us and bear our sicknesses in his body on the tree. He knows
what it is to be wrapped with pain and burning
fever. And he knows the filth. The filth. Oh, the horrible filth
of sin. And the pain. He knows like we can never imagine
the pain of guilt before God. My guiltiness, O God, thou knowest,
was his cry. He knows the torments of the
dam as he was abandoned by his father when he was made sin for
us. Child of God, be assured, whatever
it is that touches you has touched him. He knows what you feel. He knows the pain that crushes
your heart. which no one else can understand.
What is your trouble? What is your sorrow? What is
your burden? Tell it to Jehovah Jesus. He is a friend who understands
and a God able to help. Bear one another's burdens and
I want to bear your burdens. I want everybody in this assembly,
the youngest to the oldest, I want you to feel free to call me any
hour, day or night, in any circumstance, and let me help you carry your
load. But when you do, I tell you ahead
of time, there's not a thing I can do to help. Not a thing I can do to help.
All I can do is cry with you. All I can do is lay my head on
your shoulder and you lay your head on my shoulder and we can
weep together, but I can't help. He who is the Lord, Adonai our
stay. Jehovah, our Redeemer, He is
God in humanity. God touched with the feeling
of our infirmities and God able to help. After calling us to
behold our God and our Savior, specifically to behold His hand
in all things, God's prophet describes Jehovah's obvious judgment
upon his generation. Look at verses one through eight.
Like us, Isaiah lived in an apostate religious world, a world obviously
under the judgment of God. And as you read this third chapter,
if you should lay it down beside this morning's newspaper, you'd
think that Isaiah was giving a report of the day in which
we live. God's judgment upon the people
in Isaiah's day was the consequence of sin, just as it is in our
day. God never sins undeserved judgment. Look what it says. For behold,
the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem
and from Judah the stay and the staff. the whole stay of bread
and the whole stay of water. Bread and water are common staples,
necessities of life. And these stays of life God removes
from those who despise his goodness and despise him. Certainly that's
true with regard to physical famine and pestilence and drought
brought upon men by judgment. If you read about drought and
famine in some of those African nations, you read about famine
and drought brought upon men in circumstances that just seem
unexplainable. They're very explainable. There
are people who refuse the light of God, even in creation and
conscience, and God sends judgment, warning of judgment to come.
But we must not fail to see the far more dreadful judgment that
comes when God sends spiritual famine. Hold your hands here
and turn to Amos chapter eight. Amos chapter eight. Like Isaiah, we're living in
an apostate religious world. That's a fact that can't be disputed
by anyone with any spiritual perception and understanding
of divine truth. The New Testament plainly teaches
us that before Christ comes, as this dispensation draws to
a rapid conclusion, there will be a general, universal, wholesale
departure from the faith of the gospel. A departure from the
gospel by people who profess to believe it. A departure from
God by people who profess to believe it. a departure from
Christ by people who professed to follow him. Nothing is so
evident to me as the silence of God in this generation. Thank
God he yet has 7,000 prophets who've not bowed to Baal, but
they're scattered far and wide. This is a day of spiritual famine. Amos chapter eight, verse 11. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I will send. Underscore those as you read
the text. I will send. This is God's work. 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. And they shall wander from
sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, They shall
run to and fro and seek the word of the Lord and shall not find
it. That's the famine I'm talking
about. God has done what he said he would do. Oh, what a famine
he has sent. The religion of this age, is
the religion of Antichrist. Now, I keep repeating this and
I keep saying it as loudly, as boldly, as firmly, as plainly
as I possibly can, because I know how reluctant you are as I am
to recognize it. We don't want to acknowledge
it, but the religion of this age is the religion of Antichrist. Never before in history has all
professed Christianity in this world. So openly denied the gospel
of Christ as in our day. Now I'm not talking about Islam,
Judaism, Hinduism, or the hundreds of other religious systems outside
what's commonly called Christianity. If you never had something, you
can't lose it. I'm not talking about them. And I'm not even
talking about the apostasy of Rome. Romanism has always been
apostate. Papacy was Antichrist from the
beginning. But in our day, the children
of Rome are rapidly running back to their mother, Harlot, maybe
not in name, but in belief and in practice. The major tenants
of the religious world around us, the major tenants of the
whole religious world around us and their actions are merely
Roman, pagan, Roman Catholic mischief and darkness, free will
salvation, works justification, the separation taught by men,
just asceticism, the idea that somehow evil is outside us, not
in us, so if you just live in a monastery or in a convent or
you separate yourself from the world, then you'll be a good
fella. The idea of rewards or loss of rewards based on our
works is nothing but Roman doctrine of purgatory. This is precisely
what God told us would happen in these last days. You can read
it in 1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 3, and 2 Thessalonians 2. 400 years ago, John Owen made
this statement, 400 years ago. The time will come when a faithful
minister of the gospel will be more scarce and precious than
a bar of gold. And to those who have sense enough
to see what's going on around us, a faithful gospel preacher
is truly more scarce and precious than a bar of gold. These are
perilous times, perilous times. The apostate religion of this
day is God's judgment upon the age. It is the result of God's
judicial reprobation. It is God sending a strong delusion
that men should believe a lie. Ephraim is joined to his idols,
let him alone. Reprobation is God's work by
which he fixes it so that men and women who will not believe
the gospel can't believe it. Children of Israel had the word
and oracles of God given them and they said, we won't hear,
we won't hear. This is the son, let's kill him. And God said,
all right, have it your way. Have it your way. Blindness is
on you now. Deafness is on you now. Darkness
engulfs you now, and it's been that way for 2,000 years. It
is Christ himself who turned Satan loose to deceive the nations
of the world in Revelation 20. It is God the Holy Ghost who
ceases to restrain and lets loose the powers of darkness in 2 Thessalonians. It's God the Father who sends
a strong delusion upon wicked men who would not receive the
love of the truth that they might believe a lie. I can't imagine
anything more solid. God Almighty will not trifle
with those who trifle with his Son and trifle with his Gospel. In the light of what we read
here, oh, how great praise and thanksgiving we ought to lift
to our God when we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ who is
truly the bread of life and the water of life to our souls will
never be taken from us. God's given us bread, he won't
take it away. He's given us water, he won't
take away. That bread and that water is
our blessed redeemer. Even in these days of darkness,
if God's given Christ to you, you'll never lose him. If God's
given you faith, he'll never cease to work faith in you. But
read now, beginning in verse two, as the prophet describes
the depravity and sin that brought the judgment of God upon Jerusalem,
that by which Jerusalem was ruined and Judah fell. Read what he
says. The mighty man and the man of
war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent man and the ancient,
The old wise man. Oh, what a dark, dark day. When
darkness, ungodliness, sin, rebellion engulfs the state house and the
church house, the streets and the sanctuaries. Having forsaken
the rock of ages, men and women put their confidence in Egypt
and they adopt the ways of Egypt and this is what happens. Verse
three, the captain of 50 and the honorable man, the counselor
and the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator. God says,
I will give children to be their princes and babies shall rule
over them. You mean God's gonna cause folks
to have little boys be rulers and little babies to be presidents? Not exactly, though he did that.
Though he did that, I will give you men who have the childish
behavior of little children, babies, selfish, petty little
things to rule over you. I told you you could read it
in the newspaper. If you don't get that, I pity you. Verse five. And the people shall be oppressed,
every one by another, every one by his neighbor. The child shall
behave himself proudly against the ancient. Children disobey
their parents, dishonor their parents, disrespect the parents.
Everyone living in riotousness. Read what Paul said would happen
in this day in 2 Timothy and in 1 Timothy and in 2 Thessalonians. The child shall behave himself
proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable.
That's exactly what the Spirit of God tells us is happening
in our day. Look at verse six. When a man
shall take hold of his brother, of the house of his father, saying,
Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under
thy hand. And in that day he shall swear,
saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread
nor clothing. Make me not a ruler over the
people, for Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen. Now look
at it, because. Because. But Brother Don, this
was in God's purpose. We read about it before in the
prophets, that's true. Everything's in God's purpose.
But the cause of Jerusalem's ruin, the cause of Judah's fall
is in Jerusalem and in Judah. And the cause of judgment is
in man's rebellion. They've fallen because their
tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes
of his glory. Though the brother of nature
can neither heal our souls, nor give us the bread of life, nor
clothe our spirits, nor rule our hearts. Thank God, the God
of all grace, there is another brother. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our brother born for adversity. His name is Jehovah Jireh, the
Lord who will provide. He is for our souls the bread
of life. His name is Jehovah Zekinia,
the Lord our righteousness, the garments of salvation of his
making. His name is Jehovah Rapha, the
Lord who heals. He makes poor sinners whole. Look at verse nine, verse nine.
Reprobate men and women. whose tongues and doings are
against Jehovah, provoking the eyes of his glory are described
here. And the description fits people of every age and in every
place. Paul speaks of them in Philippians
3, saying their God is their belly and their glory and their
shame. The show of their countenance
doth witness against them. And they declare their sin as
Sodom. Like the Sodomites. You would
think they would blush with shame for anybody to know they were
sodomites. Used to. Used to. When I was a boy, nobody
told about it. Used to. They'd blush with it.
But back yonder in Genesis 19, they said, what? Give us those
men. Give us those men. I said, take
my daughter. They said, give us those men. Glory in their shame. Read on.
They hide it not. Sodomites. in the last 40 years,
50 years maybe. They're the only people I've
ever known about in history who brag in public about what they
do in private that's shameful. Brag on it. And now fornication
and adultery. Folks, they laugh about it. They
talk about it. They defend it. They declare
it openly. They hide it not. Woe unto their
soul. Woe unto their soul. for they
have rewarded evil unto themselves. They've earned hell and they're
gonna get it. As reprobate men and women, do
not blush to declare their shame. Children of God, let us not blush
to declare God's gospel. As reprobate men and women, never
blush to declare their shame. Let us never blush to declare
the grace and glory of our God in Christ Jesus the Lord. Read
verses nine, 10, and 11, and understand this. Again, I repeat,
God always deals with people in strict justice. God never
bends his law. God never compromises his holiness. God never relaxes his righteousness. God never violates his justice. God never denies his truth. The
reprobates reward evil to themselves, reaping only what they've sown. And no matter what the circumstances
are in which God's elect find themselves, hear what God says
to us in the midst of this reprobate age. Verse 10, say ye to the
righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit
of their doings. God says to Isaiah, Isaiah, you
tell my people and you tell the righteous. You tell my people
and tell my servants to tell my people. Say to the righteous,
no matter what you read in the paper, no matter what you see
in your circumstances, no matter what emotions you feel, no matter
what you go through, it's well with the righteous. Well with
the righteous. They will always eat the fruit
of their doings. Who are these righteous ones?
None by nature, only men and women made righteous by the grace
of God through Jesus Christ in Christ and with Christ. Made
righteous in free justification so that as Alan just read to
us in Romans chapter six, we are dead to sin. a lie to God, freed from sin,
justified from sin, made righteous by the doing and dying of the
Son of God, and made righteous in sanctification. sanctification
regeneration God comes in grace and puts Holiness in you that
new man created in you Christ Jesus the Lord in righteousness
and in true holiness All is well with the righteous all the time
Because they eat the fruit of their doings How can I say this and not be
misunderstood by anybody? Merle Hart, all the bounty of God's mercy,
love, and grace flows to you in endless, infinite abundance
all the time because you fully deserve it. You fully deserve it. You eat
the fruit of your doings. Wait a minute, Brother Don, that
can't be right. We're saved by grace. We don't deserve anything.
In yourself, nothing but wrath. But in Christ, we've obeyed God,
kept his commandments. You read it back there in the
office, Rex. God just requires us to walk perfectly before him,
that's all. And that's what we've done in His Son and satisfied
His justice in the sacrifice of His Son. And as the result,
the Lord Jesus sits upon the throne of glory and the triune
God has given all things into His hands. And we sit in Him
and God has given all things into our hands. So my soul, It
doesn't matter how painful the present trial and circumstance
seems. It doesn't matter how dark my
day is today. It doesn't matter what sorrow
breaks my heart. It doesn't matter what sickness
plagues my body. It doesn't matter what goes on
in me or around me. It's well with my soul. Because Jesus Christ is Jehovah
Sid Canu. the Lord our righteousness. And
he gives me his name and his record and his nature and says,
your name is Jehovah Sikinyu, the Lord our righteousness. But
with the wicked, with the reprobate, with the
unbelieving, all is ill and shall be ill forever because the just
reward of your hands shall be given to you. Verse 11, woe unto
the wicked, it shall be ill with him. It shall be ill with him. No
matter how good things seem to be, no matter how happy he seems
to be, no matter how much wealth he gathers around him, no matter
how healthy he is, no matter how large and happy his family
is, it shall be ill with him. Everything he experiences in
time, ill with him forever, for he shall have the just reward
of his doings. The reward of his hands shall
be given him. Now look at verse 12. Here the
prophet speaks of Jehovah's care for his own. Even in such days
of darkness, as this chapter describes, he who is our Adonai,
Jehovah Jesus, undertakes and pleads the cause of his people,
even in the darkest times, even when we, failing under oppressors,
err from him and his ways. As for my people, as for my people,
my people, my people in Jerusalem and Judah, my people among all
those who profess to know me and follow me, children are their
oppressors and women rule over them. Oh, my people, they which
lead thee calls thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths. Now watch this. The Lord standeth
up to plead and standeth to judge the people. When you get home
and you read through this chapter again, be sure to turn back to
Zechariah chapter three and see how the angel of the Lord stood
by as Joshua, who had defiled himself in Babylon, stood before
the Lord in filthy garments and the Lord took away his filthy
garments and cleansed him of his sin in one day. Now, read
on. verses 16 through 26. I have
to acknowledge this gave me a lot of difficulty, a lot of difficulty.
What's he talking about here? What's he talking about here?
He's talking about lewd, lascivious, ungodly women. But he speaks
of them as his own. These lewd, lascivious, immoral,
ungodly women. walking the streets like common
harlots, dressed like harlots, having the peering eyes of harlots. Who are they? These are God's
elect, chosen. How do you know? He calls them
daughters of Jerusalem. Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are haughty. They're haughty, proud, proud.
They walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes. They strut down the street and
say, look at me, I'm somebody. And they look at folks and look
at men and allure them with their eyes. Walking and mincing as they go
and making a tinkling with their feet. Therefore the Lord will
smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of
Zion. and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day,
in the day when the Lord alone is exalted, in the day when the
pride of man is brought low, in that day when God comes in
his grace, he will take away the bravery of their tinkling
ornaments. You won't be quite so proud or
quite so brave, quite so confident. about their feet and their claws
and their round tires like the moon. Verse 19, the chains and
the bracelets and the mufflers, all the rich, gaudy, fancy attire
that you think is so attractive to you. Those things that make
you feel so good about yourself and other people look at you
and praise you for your wealth and your beauty. The bonnets
and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets. Tablets. Who on earth wears tablets? It's talking about a bottle.
A bottle worn around a chain or something hanging about the
neck, hanging between a woman's breast in which she would put
spices and fragrances. A perfume bottle, something to
make her smell good. Smell pretty. Smell pretty. Now,
you ladies don't get the notion of Pentecostal folks. You say,
well, we won't wear any smell pretty stuff. You ladies go ahead
and make yourself smell pretty. That's all right. That's not
what it's talking about. Talking about something else. Men take
their religion and their religious deeds and they take their morality
and this makes them smell pretty to others, smell pretty to themselves.
and the earrings, the rings, and the nose jewels, the changeable
suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping
pins, and the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and
the veils, and it shall come to pass that instead of the sweet
smell, there shall be a stink. Oh, when God comes in grace,
he comes to bring the haughty down, and he'll make everything
that you thought smelled so pretty stink, and you'll stink in your
own nostrils. Instead of the girdle of rent,
instead of the well-set hair, baldness, scabs and ulcers and
sores and leprosy, and instead of the stomacher. This is the
only place in scripture where that word is used. It's really difficult to determine
exactly what it refers to. This is probably what it refers
to. An outward garment ladies would wear who were capable of
purchasing such. A garment of silk, embroidered. They would wear it over top of
their other clothing and display their wealth and superiority. Instead of your stomacher, a
girding of sackcloth. and burning instead of beauty,
thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty men of war. Mighty
men in the war. God's gonna come and take away
all your strength. And her gate shall lament and
mourn, and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Oh, God do that for you. God
do that for you. God do that for you. For those
whom the Son of God pleads, all the daughters of Zion shall be
brought down by God's omnipotent grace in repentance and faith. Down in the dust before him.
Oh, what grace, what mercy, what goodness. God, our Savior, makes
our misery the backdrop for his mercy. He makes our sin the occasion
of his salvation, so that where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound through Jesus Christ our Lord. And as sin abounded
unto death, Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ. Oh, God give you Christ. And with Him, He gives you everything. Believe on the Son of God. Come
down, come down, come down, come down. Quit looking at your feelings
and your emotions and your experiences and your knowledge. Come down! Down in the dust. And behold
the Lord, the Lord of hosts, God our Savior, and life eternal
is yours. Amen.