This evening we're going to look
at Isaiah chapter 3, and let's read two verses, verse 10 and
verse 11. Say ye to the righteous that
it might be well with you. They to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. It shall be well with him. For they shall eat the fruit
of their doings. Our doings are the doings of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His obedience has been reckoned
to our account. His faithfulness has been reckoned
to our account. So say to the righteous, it's
well, it's well with my soul. Woe to the wicked, saying to
the wicked, the unbeliever, those not in Christ, it won't be well
with you, it'll be ill. Two opposites, well and ill,
well and ill. For the reward of his hand shall
be given him. Now, I'm taking the title with
a message from what is said. Obviously, what is said in verse
10, it shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well with
the righteous. Now, this blessed promise of
God, promise of God's gospel, is not given to all men without
distinction. For the text does not say that
it shall be well with all men without exception. It doesn't
say that, does it? There's a qualifier. Though not
at all, it shall be well only with the righteous. It shall
be well only with those in Christ, those who are justified before
God, cleared of all guilt before the unbending, unyielding holy
law of God, It shall be well with those who are justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember when we studied through
the book of Romans, chapter three, verse 24, I said that's one of
my favorite verses in the book of Romans. Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're justified freely by his grace. That's how we're made
righteous. That's the only way that God said it shall be well
with those who are righteous. How righteous are we? We're as
righteous as God. You say, well, that's bragging. No, that's not presumption either. That's believing God. He's made
unto us righteousness. God boldly says in the text,
it shall be well with the righteous, but it also says it shall be
ill, bad, sorry, and misery for those wicked men. Any man who's not a believer
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wicked man. Now,
all of us are that by nature. All of us are that ungodly. All
of us by nature. None of us are believers by nature. We're only believers by the grace
of God. It shall be ill with those not found in Christ, for
the wages of sin is death. Those who live in unbelief and
live in rebellion against God will die as they live. Without God, without Christ,
and without hope. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I am, you shall die in your sin. And the Lord said,
if you die in your sin, you cannot come where I am. Remember in
John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, shall be well with the righteous, everlasting
life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God. abideth
on him. That'll be ill, won't it? That'll
be bad. That'd be a horrible thing to
die, to die in your sin, to die without hope, to die without
Christ, to die with no righteousness. Now, we must determine two things
in the outset of this message. Who are the righteous and how
are they made righteous? Now, none of us, none of us are
righteous by nature. All of us are born in sin, shapen
in iniquity. All of us, we have to confess,
as it says in Isaiah 64, all of our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags in his sight. You remember from our study in
the book of Romans chapter 3, where the scripture said there's
none righteous, no, not one. So we're not righteous in ourselves,
are we? So who are the righteous then?
Who are those who are justified before God? There's one plain,
simple answer, those who are found in Christ. That's why the apostle said when
he described everything he was, a Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, all these different things, he said concerning
the law, touching the law, he said, I was blameless. But when
he met the Lord Jesus Christ, he said he counted all that but
dung, ruin, and loss, that he might win Christ and be found
in him who is the Lord our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ alone,
alone now, I emphasize that, alone, the Lord Jesus Christ
is all our righteousness before God. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus who of God is made unto us. He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The Lord Jesus
Christ is all of our righteousness before God. Now, we're not made
righteous in and of ourselves. Never make the mistake of saying
that our morality is our righteousness. Our morality, the best we can
do, the best we can do, God said, away with it, is vanity. Vanity
is best state. At your best point, your best
day, your best thought, God said, it's vanity, away with it. That
we're not made righteous by anything we do. However, we made righteous
or just before God, not by our works, not by our morality, but
rather by his sovereign grace. You remember Titus 3 verse 5,
where it said, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy he saved us. God made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Blessed is the man to whom God
imputeth righteousness. That's the blessed man. The blessed
man is that man who has the righteousness of God imputed, reckoned, and
charred to his count. That's what it says in Romans
4 at least 10 times. At least 10 times. Blessed is
that man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without works. I like what one old hymn writer
said. He said this, upon a life I did not live, upon a death
I did not die. Another's life, another's death,
I rest my hope eternally. By one man's disobedience, remember
Romans 5, 19, many were made sinners. So by the obedience
of another, shall many be made righteous. Who's that other?
The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the other man. And Adam
all died, and Christ shall all be made alive. And Adam all sinned.
In Christ, all those found in him are as righteous as Christ
himself. Now, one of the interesting things
we see when we study Holy Scripture that I think is most remarkable
in the 40 plus years I've been studying the Word of God, those
who are truly made righteous in Christ readily and quickly
confess that in themselves they are wicked. Those who are truly
made righteous in Christ, they readily confess in and of themselves,
in their flesh dwelleth no good thing. Some examples. The publican
cried, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Job said, I've heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear. Now my eye seeth thee, wherefore
I abhor myself. I hate myself. I repent in dust
and ashes. In Isaiah chapter 6, you remember
when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the messengers
from heaven said, our God is holy, holy, holy. What did Isaiah
say? Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips. You see, those who are really
made righteous in Christ, they confess in themselves that they
are sinners before God. How about the Apostle Paul? You remember Romans 7? Oh, wretched
man that I am. Not used to be. Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. And then we're going to study
In a few weeks in 1 Timothy 1 verse 15, the apostle Paul called himself
not only a wretched man, but he called himself the chief of
sinners. I have to tell him to move over. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the chief of sinners. Only
those who are truly wicked without hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, those who are truly
made righteous in Christ, they own themselves to be sinners.
And those who are truly wicked, without hope, without Christ,
they claim to be righteous. You ever notice that? In Matthew
7, they said, Lord, we preach in your name. Lord, we've done
many wonderful works in your name. We've cast out demons. We've done all these things.
You remember what the Lord said to them? Depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew you. And then in
Luke 18, the Pharisee prayed with himself, saying, God, I
thank you I'm not like others. I'm certainly not like that old
rotten publican over there. I'm just a little bit better.
You see, He thought he was righteous, but really, he was wicked, wasn't
he? Had no righteousness of his own. And then those Jews in John chapter
8, when our Lord said, if you were
Abraham's children, you'd believe me. And they said, we are. Abraham is our father. We're
the sons of Abraham. Remember what the Lord said to
them? You are of your father the devil. You see, they thought
they were righteous, but in reality, they had no righteousness. They
were wicked before God. Isn't this so with you who believe
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't this the experience
of your heart? When you know, you know the only
hope of our salvation, the only hope of salvation is in Christ.
Don't you delight In God's truth, in His Word, that we are the
true Israel of God, which worship God in the Spirit, that rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. So then God instructs his ministers to say to those
who are in need of salvation, who are seeking mercy and salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, who are resting in him, looking
to no other place, it shall be well with the righteous. It shall
be well with those who are believers of the gospel. The Apostle Paul said this in
Acts 13, Be it known unto you men and brethren that through
this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him
all that believe are justified from all things which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. It is well with the believer
in this life. It is well. It can't get any
better. except when we depart this body
of flesh and go to be with the Lord forever. But right now,
we're so blessed. The believer's well fed. He feeds
abundantly upon Christ, the bread of life. He's well clothed, for
he wears the garments of salvation tailored by the Lord himself.
He's well housed, for he lives in the household of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation We'll never be evicted from this
house that He's provided for us. The believer's well married,
for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is married to the Lord
Himself. He's called our husband. God
also instructs His ministers to say to the believer, To the
righteous, it shall be well with him. But God also says to his
ministers to say this as well, woe unto the wicked, it shall
be ill with him. There is no hope of salvation
for those who not resting in Christ alone. It is well with
the righteous always at all times and all seasons, not just some
days, but in all days. I was thinking of this story
when we went through 1 and 2 Kings. In 2 Kings chapter 4, you remember
the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman who had a son who died? That son was promised by Elisha
that she would have a son, and God blessed her with a son, but
the son got sick and the son died. Well, she, knowing Elisha
to be the man of God, went and searched him out, saddled her
horse or her beast, and went and found the prophet Elisha.
And Elisha came and said to her, is it well? Now, her child had
just died. And you know what she said back?
You remember the story? She said, it is well. It is well. I want to be like that, don't
you? It is well. It is well. It is well with the
righteous always in all times and all seasons. Not just some
days, but all days. We may have some rough days,
some rough waters, but it's well with our soul. There's no time
included, so at all time is included. No occasion is singled out. Because
upon every occasion the saying is true, from the first year,
from the first day of the year to the end of the year, from
the rising of the sun until the sunset in our young age, old
age, all ages included, to the believer it shall be well with
the righteous. It's well with my soul. I can
boldly repeat what God has already declared in his word, that in
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is going to be okay. It's well with
the righteous. He is a river forever flowing,
flooding his people with all spiritual blessings. The Lord
Jesus Christ is an ocean of never failing delights. Delight thyself
in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of the heart.
Psalm 37. He is a mountain of endless and
abundant mercy. It is of the Lord's mercy that
we are not consumed. Now, consider for a moment this
statement, it shall be well with the righteous. And I can think
of three or four or five things that we see in the Word of God,
where he says, it shall be well with the righteous. Our sin,
first of all, being dealt with and put away through the glorious
blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin being put away
when we consider our sin and that it is against God, Through
the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and our sin being
put away, when we consider our sin against God, we can truly
say, it shall be well with the righteous. Because in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we have no sin. He's put away our sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. Turn just one page back to Isaiah
chapter 1. Our sin being put away by the
blood atonement of Christ, we can say it shall be well with
the righteous. Isaiah 1 verse 18, Come now and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it." He made us willing in the day of His power to bow
to His sovereignty. It shall be well with the righteous,
the Lord Jesus Christ, considering our sin, It shall be well with
us. Our sin has been atoned for. The ransom has been paid. We're
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. So we can say, when
we consider our sin, and our sin is against God, we can say,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity. It shall be well with the righteous. Secondly, in the day of trials
and trouble for the believer, In the day of heartache, in the
day of trial, we can say, it shall be well. It shall be well
with the righteous. It shall be well with the righteous. In the day of heartache, in the
day of trial, 2 Corinthians 4, we read, for our light afflictions,
which are but for a moment, worketh for us a far more and exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. All things are working together
for good to them who love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. Our Lord said, these words have
I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In this world you shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have conquered. I have overcome. We sang a moment ago of that
song by Horatio Spafford. He wrote it in 1850 upon the
loss of his four daughters at sea. His wife sent a telegraph
to him, and it said two words, saved, alone. And he wrote, when peace like
a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it's well with my
soul. My sin, he writes, O the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross. I bear it no more. Praise the
Lord. O my soul, it is well with my
soul. I like even better what Job said. God's servant Job, upon the loss
of his children, upon the loss of all of his substance, his
riches, his cattle, his land, his crops. Scripture said in
Job 1, then Job arose and rent his mantle, shaved his head,
fell down upon the ground and worshipped, worshipped. And said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, naked shall I return there. The Lord gave,
the Lord hath taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord. I want
to live like that. I want to die like that. The
believer is not free from trouble. But God had promised grace for
every trial. And he said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. It shall be well with the righteous."
It shall be well with the righteous. The believer does have trials,
but by faith we overcome, by faith we persevere, seeing they
come from the hand of our loving Father. Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Remember
the story of Joseph, the younger son of Jacob's 12
sons. Benjamin was the youngest, then
Joseph. Remember his brothers envied
him and hated him. Jacob had made him a special
coat of many colors and the other brothers were jealous. And they
devised a scheme to put him in a pit and put some animal blood
on his coat and take it back to Jacob and say, well, a vicious
animal killed him. Well, they decided that wasn't
such a good story, so they sold him off to merchants headed down
to Egypt. They sold him and they went back
and told their father that he had been killed. Well, you remember
what happened? God blessed Joseph. Everything
Joseph did in Egypt, God made it to prosper. And eventually
he ended up on the throne of Egypt in charge of all the food. And God sent him there to bless
Israel. When those brothers finally came
before Joseph and didn't know at first that he was their brother,
And when he revealed himself to them, they were scared to
death. They said, he's going to get vengeance on us, he's
going to kill us, he's going to take care of us. Remember
what he said to them? You meant it for evil. And they
did. They hated him. You meant it
for evil, but God meant it for good to save much people alive
this day. Israel was blessed because Joseph
was in charge of the storehouse. They had all the grain they'd
stored those seven years of plenty. When the seven years of famine
came, Israel had plenty to eat. You meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. It shall be well with us when
we consider our sin, because Christ has put it away. It shall
be well with the believer in the day of heartache and trial,
knowing that God's working all this for our good and His eternal
glory. The third thing is this, in the
day of death. How will it be for the believer
in the day of death? We can say it shall be well with
the righteous. It shall be well with the righteous.
Who says so? God says so. God says so. Listen to these Scriptures. You
know them. Psalm 116, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints. You remember Revelation 14, 13,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. And then the Apostle
says, while he's in prison there in Philippi, he writes to the
people of Philippi from a Roman prison cell, he said, for me
to live is Christ to die, That gain, he wrote to the Corinthians,
we're confident, I say willing rather to be absent from the
body is to be present with the Lord. Death to the believer,
as I've often said to you, is not punishment, it's promotion.
It's promotion. It's the answer to the Lord's
prayer. When a believer dies, Remember our Lord prayed in John
17, Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be
with me where I am that they may behold my glory. Every time
a believer is called home, that prayer is answered. He said,
I will, and it shall be done. So it shall be well with the
believer when we consider our sins against God that Christ
has made atonement for us. It shall be well with the believer
in the day of trial and heartache, for he sends these things our
way for our good. It shall be well with the believer
in the day of death, for to be absent from this body is to be
present with the Lord. Fourthly, in the day of judgment,
in the Day of Judgment, pointing to the men who want to die and
that's the Judgment. How will it be for the righteous
in the Day of Judgment? Will it be well? It shall be
well with the righteous. We read Matthew 25. He said, Come ye blessed in my
Father, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Come and inherit. We've been
made heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
been blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It shall be well. He presents
us to the Father, holy, unblameable, unapprovable in His sight. I'd
say that's Well, isn't it? It shall be well with the righteous
in the day of judgment. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It shall be well. It shall be well with the righteous.
But as often time, God sets forth his great truth, and he does
so by way of contrast. In Isaiah 3 verse 11, Those who
are unbelievers, those who are not resting in the Lord Jesus
Christ, woe unto the wicked. Woe unto the wicked. It shall
be ill with them. It won't be well. It'll be ill. It'll be bad. It'll be bad. For the reward of his hand shall
be given. The wage of sin is death. Death. Misery of the wicked. Woe unto the wicked. It shall
be ill with them. We can go back over those same
four points that we just gave and boldly say, it shall be bad
news, bad news for the wicked. Woe unto them. To face your sin with no atonement,
no sacrifice for sin, how eternally dreadful that will be. We can
say it will be ill with the wicked. Our Lord said, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. To die in your sin, without God,
without hope, and without Christ, it's going to be a bad day. And
it's a bad day forever. We read again in Matthew 25,
these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into everlasting life. Secondly, to endure trial and
heartache and grief with no comfort, with no comforter, with no grace,
no faith, no hope in trial. But everything that comes your
way works to your eternal ruin. It doesn't work to your good.
It only works together for good to them who love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. So to endure trial and
heartache and grief with no grace, no faith, no hope for trial,
no help in trials. It'll be ill with them. Thirdly,
the day of death, to die without God, without hope, without Christ,
with no mediator, no savior. Oh, that'll be a dreadful day,
won't it? It shall be ill with the unbelieving wicked. One of
the most difficult things for a pastor to do is to be called
to preach a funeral for someone who was not a believer. That's difficult. I've had to do that several times.
It is much more pleasant, not that it is a pleasant task, but
for a believer to die and to say to his family that that dear
loved one is resting in Christ, and that he's now with the Lord.
We're going to put his body in the ground, but that's not him.
He's with the Lord. He's with the Lord. But in the
day of death, those who die without Christ, with no mediator, no
savior, no advocate, no intercessor, it's going to be a bad day. In the day of judgment to stand
before God, the thrice holy God, and hear Him say, Depart from
Me, I never knew you, and to be ill with the wicked. That's
why He says, Woe unto the wicked! Woe unto the wicked! It shall
be ill with them. Now in closing, let me give you
this thought. I'll send you home with this.
May the Lord our God convict all of us in our heart and show
us our great need of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us
grace to continually look to Christ, come to Christ, flee
to Christ, rest in Christ for all of salvation. Preacher, what
part of salvation are you trusting Him for? Everything. Everything. I'm trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ for everything in salvation. May he give us
great love for him. May he give us faith in him. And may we say with the Apostle
Paul, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. He is our righteousness. He is
our righteousness before God. Read the text one more time.
Isaiah 3 verse 10, say ye to the righteous. Who are they? How are they made righteous?
In Christ, that it shall be well with him. For they shall eat
the fruit of their doings. And our doings are his. But woe
unto the wicked. be ill with him. For the reward
of his hand shall be given him. The wages of sin, the wages of
sin is death.