Bob Burkholder in prayer to undergo
surgery tomorrow for cancer. Also, Diane's mother, Ms. Blake, had a heart attack yesterday
while they were having lunch together apparently. She'll have
catheterization tomorrow. You remember her in prayer. If
you'd like to pick up a copy of New Focus, I have some extra
copies that were sent in today, several extra copies, so if you
can pick those up, and use them at your leisure. I believe I've got a message
for you tonight if God will help me to deliver it. Isaiah chapter
three. Here's good news from God for
you. The Lord God Almighty has sent
me here to tell you that it shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well with the righteous. Actually, I have a word from
God for every person here, a message both of comfort and of warning. Here in Isaiah chapter 3, verses
10 and 11, The prophet of God gives us a message of comfort,
a word from God for his people. He says, say ye to the righteous
that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat of the fruit
of their doings. And then he gives a word of warning.
A word of warning from God to every rebel, to every unbeliever,
to all who will not bow to and trust the Lord Jesus to all who
dare live in defiance of God. Woe unto the wicked. It shall be ill with him. For the reward of his hands shall
be given him. Are you righteous or are you
wicked? Only two categories. There's
nothing in between. Either you are righteous or you're
wicked. Not partially righteous and partially
wicked. Either you are righteous or you're
wicked. If you're without Christ, you
are wicked. Everything about you is wicked. Every thought of your mind Every
passion of your heart, every act of your hand, every step
of your feet, every word of your mouth, every thought of your
mind is wicked. If you're in Christ, you're righteous. Perfectly righteous. Here's a
word from God for the righteous. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. Here's a word from God for the
wicked. Woe unto the wicked. It shall be ill with him. I repeat,
there are just two classes mentioned in our text because there are
just two classes in this world of men and women. All of us fall into one of these
two categories. You're either righteous or you're
wicked. That's the way it has always
been, and that's the way it is now, and that's the way it shall
be until time is no more. Some are of the seed of the woman. They belong to God. They're his
elect. Some are the seed of the serpent. They're reprobate. Between these
two, there is a great gulf fixed, and one shall not pass over the
gulf to another. In the first family, there was
a righteous man named Abel and a wicked man named Cain. In the
days of the flood, God Almighty destroyed all the wicked in his
wrath. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Abraham had two sons, a child
of flesh who was wicked, his name was Ishmael, and a child
of promise who was righteous, his name was Isaac. Isaac had
two sons, a wicked man in whom the Lord God set the world. His name was Esau. He was reprobate
and he's in hell. And Isaac had another son called
Jacob. And God said concerning Jacob,
Jacob have I loved. Throughout the ages of history,
God has separated the precious from the vile, the righteous
from the wicked. It is not God's intention that
the two should ever be mixed. The flood came upon the earth
because the sons of God married the daughters of men. An unholy
mixture, an unholy alliance was made between the church and the
world. And that alliance provoked God
to anger. and he destroyed the earth in
his wrath. How much more boldly, glaringly, clearly can
God Almighty make us to hear and see that he will not have
such an unholy alliance? Because the sons of God married
the daughters of men, God destroyed the earth in the flood of his
wrath. Separation is demanded by God. He says to all his people, come
out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord. Be
not conformed to the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. The language of Scripture
is crystal, crystal, crystal clear. Children of God, we must
not, we dare not form our alliances with men and women who hate God
and the gospel of His grace. Now if you do, you're a fool. Did you hear me? If you do, you're
a fool. If you choose for your companions
and choose for the companions of your family, of your sons
and daughters, men and women who hate God and hate the gospel
of God's grace, you're a fool. You're bringing into your family
the influence of folks who hate God and the gospel of his grace. You are a fool and you are a
rebel in doing so. We must not choose our companions
among those who are the enemies of Christ and the gospel of God's
free grace in him. God would have us to maintain
a clear distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between
the precious and the vile. I'm not just talking about ungodly
folks who are drunks and thieves and whore mongers and idolaters
and all that nonsense. I'm talking about folks, religious
folks who despise the gospel. Form your alliances, your friendships,
your family friendships among God's people. Spend your time
with God's people, trying to influence them for good and being
influenced for good by them. God divided the light from the
darkness. The light he called day and the
darkness he called night, and he would never have us call light
darkness and darkness light. The Jews of old were not allowed
to grow corn and beans together. It's against the law. They weren't
allowed to do that. Why do you suppose? Is there
something wrong with growing corn and beans together? No.
No. As a matter of fact, if you've
got a good stalk of corn and you're too lazy to stake your
beans, you can plant the corn first and plant the beans beside
them and grow good beans and good corn at the same time. Nothing
wrong with that. But God forbade it in the Old
Testament law. The Jews were not allowed to
plow with an ox and an ass in the same yoke. They weren't allowed
to do it. Oh, boy, that must be some terrible
moral evil. Oh, man. I'm not allowed to. Did you see Lampent? He put an
ox and an ass together and he's out there playing. He'll steal.
Oh, let's send him to jail. What's wrong with that? What's
wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with that. But God and his law forbade it.
The Jews in the Old Testament were not allowed to wear a garment
that was a mixture of linen and wool. You couldn't put them together. Well, why did God make such laws? To teach us something. Those
things were ceremonially forbidden under the law because God was
typically ceremonially forbidding any unhallowed mixture of righteousness
and wickedness, of truth and error, of light and darkness. It's not to be mixed. It's not
to be... Balaam led the children of Israel
in idolatry, not by teaching them to abandon the worship of
God, but by teaching them to incorporate the worship of idols
with the worship of God. The two must never be mixed.
God will have a seed to serve him and fear him. These who are God shall come
without the camp, bearing the reproach of his son. and they
shall be a distinct people from the seed of the serpent. What's
the distinction? The clear crimson line of distinction
is the blood of Christ. What's the distinction? The distinction
is the grace of God. What's the distinction? The distinction
is Christ our Redeemer. We're His, lock, stock and barrel.
Those who believe God Those who trust Christ, those who walk
with God as they grow in faith and commitment to Christ, the
distinction between them and the world become more and more
apparent to them and to the world. Which are you? Are you among
the righteous who believe God, who trust Christ, washed in his
blood and robed in his righteousness? Or are you among the wicked?
The wicked, those who believe not, those who look upon the
blood and righteousness of the Son of God as something to be
despised and trampled beneath your feet. May God, the Holy
Spirit, make you to know your condition before Him. If you're
among the righteous, I've got a message of comfort for you.
And I'm going to spend the bulk of my time there. If you're among
the wicked, I have a word of warning for you, and I'm going
to give that to you before I'm done, the Lord willing. First,
here is a message of comfort for you who are righteous. Say
ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall
eat of the fruit of their doings. What an astounding statement.
Tell James Jordan, it's going to be well with James, because
you're going to get what you deserve. They shall eat of the
fruit of their doings. Right in the middle of a message
of judgment, severe judgment, condemnation, and doom, the Lord
God calls for his prophet to declare a message of comfort
to his righteous ones. And he carefully words this message
of mercy. God's about to bring upon the
nation of Israel great calamities, famine and war and pestilence.
But he says to the righteous among the wicked, it shall be
well. There shall no evil happen to
the just. He's warning Israel of that time
when Babylon would invade and destroy the land. They would
be turned upside down and he would take away the very staff
of life, bread and water from them. And the strong men perish
in their midst. But it says, say ye to the righteous,
it shall be well with him. Look at the context. In verse one, the chapter opens
with the a declaration of the consequences of sin upon the
nation. God was going to cause the land
of Israel to be overwhelmed with idolatry, moral perversity, decadence
and famine of every vein, deep, vile imagination. He's not just
talking about physical things, but spiritual things as well.
He says in verse one, 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 and then
in verses two through seven he declares that he will make children
rulers over the nation make children rulers over the
nation But if you read this in its context, it doesn't appear
that he's talking about young eight-year-old Josiah. One of
the greatest blessings God ever gave to Israel was to make Josiah
king. That young boy, that's not the
kind of children he's talking about. Have any of y'all been
paying attention to what's been going on in Washington the last
few weeks? Anybody not aware of what's going
on in Washington the last few weeks? It'll give you children
to rule over you. silly, peevish, self-serving
children. Children who desire nothing but
their own pleasure. Seek nothing but their own desire. That's exactly what he's talking
about here. Not only to be the political rulers in Israel, but
the spiritual rulers. He'd give children, wicked children,
to rule over them. Morally perverse, rulers in the
church and in the state. These are tokens of divine judgment
upon society. Look in verses eight and nine.
You can read it in more detail in Romans chapter one. For Jerusalem
is ruined and Judah is fallen. because their tongue and 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 well unto their
soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. When sin,
like a disease, ruins a people, when it ruins through nations
and societies, when it runs through the professed church of God,
two things are always prominent. Always. Idolatry and immorality. Idolatry, adultery, fornication,
pornography. homosexuality. Those things we're
warned of again and again and again throughout the histories
recorded in the Old Testament. We're warned of again and again
and again throughout history as it's written in our history
books. And we don't have enough sense to realize it. In every
age in history and in every society, the contempt of God, when those
who wear his name in profession, look over chapter 5, Verse 24,
when those who wear his name in profession cast away the law
of the Lord of hosts and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel. Do you see that? You can mark
it down. When folks cast away the law
and despise the word of God, you can mark it down. Idolatry,
immorality, Adultery, pornography, fornication, homosexuality will
follow in Not only just follow but be promoted and defended
and in your face with it We have it. They shall be violent like
those of Sodom in this place. Do you remember how the Sodomites
were? They violently would break into Lot's house just as it is
this day, in your face with things that ought to be their shame,
in your face promoting it and demanding that it be accepted.
Woe unto their soul! They have rewarded evil unto
themselves. We read in verse 9, And so it
is in our day, having forsaken the rock of ages, Men will take
refuge and worship anything except God, our Savior. They will trust
the reeds of Egypt or they will trust the myths of Greece or
the spirits of Africa or the mystic gods of India rather than
worship the God of glory. Blessed Lord Jesus. Oh, my God. Preserve us by your
spirit and grace from that which surrounds us in this age. God's declaration of evil, however,
has only scratched the surface of things so far. Read verses
13 through 24 of this chapter. The Lord God speaks of the daughters
of Zion looking and dressing and walking and talking like
common harlots. When fathers and mothers cast
away God's word and God's way, they lead their children to hell. I want to take mamas and daddies
by the hand, pull them aside and say, do you realize what
you're doing? Don't you have enough sense to
know you're leading your children to hell? You're leading your
children to hell. Children of God take heed to
the glaring testimonials before you of utter ungodliness. What a reproach it is to the
name of Christ for those who wear his name to behave shamefully. To behave shamefully. Now, I'm
not about to set nor suggest dress codes. It's not going to
happen. But I'm a father. As a father
in my house, you folks were here to see it. I control the way
my daughter dressed. I controlled what she did no
matter what she wanted. And it didn't matter what the
other kids did. And it didn't matter how they dressed. You
young ladies, if you want to be treated like a lady, dress
and behave like a lady. If you want to be treated like
a whore, dress and behave like a whore. That's too plain. If you want to be treated like
a lady, dress and behave like a lady. If you want to be treated
like a whore, dress and behave like a whore. Read this chapter
and see what's said. Read it. That's exactly what
it's talking about. Not among God's people. Let it
not be named in death. What a reproach it is to any
man for his wife and or daughters to dress indecently and behave
such. What a reproach to any parents
for their sons and daughters to behave reprehensibly. I I'm getting too old to do this,
because somebody's going to knock my head off my shoulders one
of these days. I will often say to fellas, I see some fella wearing
earrings, and he looks like he's, nah, I'll get in trouble. I say, I bet your daddy's proud
of you. Oh, don't you make your mama
proud. What a shame. What a reproach. And yet this is what happens
when men and women cast away the law of the Lord of hosts
and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel. Those are the things that describe
the judgment of God upon our nation and upon the church of
this decadent hedonistic age. Still, right in the midst of
this, Right in the midst of this terrible denunciation of woe,
the Lord God says to me, His servants say ye to the righteous,
it shall be well with him, for they shall eat of the fruit of
their doings. Who are these righteous men and
women? Who's he talking about? The righteous. Who's he talking about? They're
non-righteous by nature. Read the third chapter of Romans.
There are none who are capable of doing or producing righteousness,
not even all the religious works and devotions and sacrifices
we offer to God to make us righteous. That man who's righteous before
God is one who's been made righteous by God. Made righteous by the
righteousness of Christ being made ours in free justification
and in free sanctification. Just as our Lord Jesus was made
sin and being made sin had our sin and our guilt imputed to
him So we are made the righteousness of God in him and being made
the righteousness of God in him His righteousness is imputed
charged to us so that we're righteous before God legally But I'm going
to tell you something This business of salvation and righteousness
and grace is not just a fine point of legality. It's real. Bobby Christ really was made
sin. And he really did bear the wrath
of God. He really did die as our substitute. And he really did make us the
righteousness of God in him. It's real. Can you get a hold
of this? Not only are we made righteous legally, judicially,
and justly before God through the sacrifice of our Redeemer,
but made righteous by His grace when His Spirit comes in regenerating
operations of grace and puts Christ in you. In the new birth,
God Almighty comes and takes up residence in you. Christ in
you, the hope of glory. The Spirit of God dwells in you. You live now in the Spirit and
walk in the Spirit. People talk about life in the
Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit.
Do you know what that is? That means saved by God's free
grace. That means trusting the Son of
God, resting in Him. Christ in you. They were made
partakers of the divine As he is so are we in this world if
any man be in Christ? He's a new creature old things
are passed away behold all things become new so that in Christ
We are made the very righteousness of God so much so that his name
is called Jehovah's Atenu the Lord our righteousness and if
you read Jeremiah 33 16, he says that's our name and This is the
name of his church. Jehovah said, can you the Lord,
our righteousness? He's righteous. And we're the
righteousness of God in him. That's the reality of things.
That's how God declares it. And that's how God reveals it.
And that's the way it is. Now, look at God's promise, but
God's promise. What does God here promise to
the righteous? He says it shall be well with
the righteous. Now listen to me. Joe, are you listening to me?
Listen to me now. Read that statement just as broadly
as your heart will allow you to read it. Stretch it just as far as your
mind will go. All across the space of time,
all through the ages of time, all the days of your life, and
all the circumstances of your life. He says, it shall be well
with the righteous. When all seems to be ill, it
shall be well. When it is ill to everyone else
and God sends ruin to Jerusalem and famine in Judah, When God
sends judgment upon the earth and engulfs the earth around
us with idolatry and indecency, it shall be well with the righteous.
There was a poor widow in the midst of starving people, and
God provided meal in her barrel and oil in her barrel, oil in
her cruise that never ended. When temptation comes, it should
be well with the righteous. When trials come, blessed is
he that endureth temptation, endureth trial. Trials are things
blessed of God to his righteous ones. Satan buffets, still it
shall be well with the righteous. When you're weak, it shall be
well with the righteous. When we sin and when we fall,
it shall be well with the righteous. Turn to Micah chapter 5 for a
minute. I'm sorry, Micah chapter 7. I'm
anxious to get to this. Verse 8. Rejoice not against
me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be light unto me. So long as we live in this world,
children of God, it shall be well with the righteous. In the
hour of death, it shall be well with the righteous. In the day
of judgment, it shall be well with the righteous. The Lord
Jesus says, Come, ye blessed in my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And to eternity
it shall be well with the righteous. God promises us that it shall
be well with us because God Almighty would have us to know that it
shall be well with us. Oh God, teach me to believe you.
Graciously teach me to believe you. What's the basis of this? Pastor, I see the promises there,
but how can I be sure that it's so? Let me give you seven things. I'll wrap this up. Seven solid
pillars upon which you can be assured of this. First, your
greatest trouble is over. Your sins are gone. Second, your
greatest enemy has been defeated. Satan. had been crushed beneath
the Savior's heels. Third, your indwelling sin, that old
man of flesh, is doomed. Bless God, I shall drop this
flesh. I shall not forever have within
me this fallen, depraved nature. I shall not forever have within
me this corrupt heart of flesh, I shall not forever live with
this warfare in my soul. Fourth, God who made the promise
rules all things. And fifth, we live upon the bank
which never can be broken, the bank of God's free grace. And
he bids us come boldly to the throne of grace. That we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He tells
us my grace is sufficient for thee. So dominary whatever comes. Whatever comes from hell beneath
or earth below your feet. Whatever it is, God's grace is
sufficient. God's grace is sufficient. Sixth. It shall be well with the righteous,
because you're not alone. David, he said over and over
and over again, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake,
no matter what, no matter what. And here's the seventh thing. The very justice of God demands
that it be well with the righteous. Now watch this. For they shall
eat of the fruit of their doings. They shall eat of the fruit of
their doings. What Christ did, you did in Him.
His doings are your doings. His merit is your merit. His
just reward is your just reward. Is it right that all is well
with Christ the Lord? Yes, it is. Then it's right that
all is well with Larry Brown in Christ the Lord. Justice demands
it. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. It shall be well with the righteous,
they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. Children of God,
get hold of this blessed, blessed word from God. It shall be well
with the righteous. But there's a dark side to this.
Woe unto the wicked. The curse of the law, the judgment
of God is upon the wicked. It shall be ill to you who are
wicked. Always, at all times, and in
all circumstances, and all things, shall at last bring you down
to hell, and pronounce your judgment just, and make hell all the hotter
for you. Your eternal woe will be the
just retribution of divine justice upon you, for the reward of his
hands shall be given him. The wages of sin is death. What can I do? Believe on the
Son of God. Charlotte Elliott was a talented
lady, talented lady. She was a poet, a songwriter,
had no interest in the things of God, though her parents were
both believers. When she was 30 years old, her
health was completely broken. She became a complete invalid.
And she became bitter, horribly, horribly bitter. Her mom and dad had invited a
guest preacher in the community from Switzerland, from Geneva,
Cesar Millan, to come home and visit with them. And her mom
and her dad was talking and this preacher, Millan, who was also
a hymn writer, talking about the things of God, mom listening,
talking about the love and mercy and grace of God. And suddenly
Charlotte Elliott, in just an outburst of rage, She said, if
God's so good, why has he treated me like this? And the parents were just embarrassed.
They got walked out of the room. But the preacher stayed behind. He had known this girl a long
time since she was a little girl. And he said, Charlotte. You're
bitter. And angry. And you're striking
out against God and you hold on to that bitterness and that
hatred because there's nothing else for you to hold to. And
she was a little softened and she said, what am I to do? He
said, come to Christ. She paused a little bit and she
said, come to Christ just like I am. He said, come to Christ
just like you are. And she did. Fourteen years later, she wrote
a hymn, one of the best hymns in our book. Just as I am without
one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou
bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I call. Come to
Christ and live forever. Come to Christ and it shall be
well with you today and tomorrow and forever. Amen.