Now our message today is taken
from Isaiah 3. Isaiah 3, and let me read verse
10 and 11 one more time. And I pray that the Lord would
bless His Word to your heart. Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him. God's servants are to declare
this message. Say to the righteous It shall
be well with him. For they shall eat the fruit
of their doing. But this is also true. We must
declare this as well. We must not leave this part off. Woe unto the wicked! It shall
be ill with them. For the reward of his hand shall
be given him. Now, I've entitled this message
for you this morning as it's found in verse 10. It
shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well with the righteous. And I do pray God's blessing
on us. Now, this promise of God is not
given to all men without distinction, is it? For the text does not
say that it shall be well with all men without exception. It doesn't say that, does it?
It says it shall be well with the righteous. With the righteous. It shall be well only with the
righteous. That is, those who are justified
before God. Those who are cleared of all
guilt. before the unbending, unyielding, holy law of God,
it shall be well with those justified in Christ Jesus. But God boldly
says in the next verse, woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with
him. And that word ill means bad. It won't be good. It will be
all bad. It will be all sorrow. It'll
all be distress. It'll all be misery. For the wages of sin is death. Those who live in unbelief, and
this is so, those who live in unbelief and rebellion against
the God of Holy Scripture will die as they live. Without God, without hope, and
without Christ. Our Lord said in John 8, if you
die in your sins, you cannot come where I am. Our Lord again
said through the prophet John in John 3 verse 36, he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. That's so. This is also so. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Those who die in their sin will
be raised in their sin. There is going to be a resurrection
of the just and the unjust. Those who die in their sin will
be raised in their sin and be eternally condemned and punished
throughout everlasting ages to come. Now, we must determine
two things in the beginning of this message. Who are the righteous? And how are they made righteous?
Now, who are the righteous? Who are the righteous? Now, I
thought about that when I wrote my brief outline as I started
thinking about this message. Who are the righteous? And I
put my pen down, pushed back my chair, got up away from my
desk and started coming out here as I do often, walk, take a break,
and I thought about this to myself. Well, just who are the righteous? How could you sum that up? How
do you answer that question, who are the righteous? Who are
those who were justified before God? Who are those? And that's
what it means to be righteous, to be justified before God. There's
only one plain, simple, and true answer. What's your answer? Who are the righteous? Those
found in Christ. That's it. That's it. Those found in Christ. The one
the Apostle Paul said, Oh, that I might win Christ and be found
in Him who is all my righteousness before God. The Lord Jesus Christ
alone is the believer's righteousness. Then the Word of God clearly
teaches that. Some of you may have listened
to the radio broadcast this morning, and the text was taken from 1
Corinthians 1 to 30. I would encourage all of you
to listen to that radio program, and encourage others to hear
it. But the verse is, But of Him are you in Christ, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and He is our
redemption. You see, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
everything God has provided for His people is in Him. He is the
Lord our righteousness. So how? Who are the righteous? Those in Christ. The second thing
we must determine is this. How are they made righteous?
Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it? They're not righteous
in themselves, of themselves. They're not righteous by what
they do or do not do. How are they made righteous?
How are they justified before God? Well, not by works. but rather by His sovereign purpose
and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world. For it's not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to His mercy He saved us. By the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. When the
Apostle Paul wrote back to the preacher friend of his, young
Timothy, he said, Timothy, it's God who saved us. God who called
us. Not according to our works, there's
the negative. Not according to our works, but
according to God's own purpose and grace given us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. So how are we made righteous? In Christ. In Christ. By His
doing and His dying. Not our works. Not our deeds.
Not at all. The Scriptures discount our works
in any measure as contributing to our salvation. For by grace
are you saved. And that is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God, not of works. There it is again. Not of works.
Lest any man should boast. Now, if salvation were somewhat
by our works, what would we do? As being fallen, depraved, wretched
creatures that are full of pride and arrogance, what would we
do? Pat ourselves on the back and
say, look what I've done. No, it's not of works. It's,
look what He has done for us. Look to Christ. Christ alone. God made Him sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. You see, the believer is no longer
ignorant of God's righteousness, of His character, nor of the
righteousness that's provided in the Gospel. No longer going
about to establish a righteousness of her own. but we're looking
to Christ. We're submitting to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of righteousness, for Christ is the end of the
law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth Him. Now, one old hymn writer said
this concerning the believer in Christ. 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. Upon, as my friend, Brother Scott
Richardson, always used to say, upon the doing and dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ, I rest all my hope. Now, listen to this. It is a
very interesting fact of Holy Scripture that I found most remarkable
over my years of study. God's Word, God's Truth. Now,
you listen to this. Put this in your mind somewhere or write
it down. Those who are truly made righteous
in Christ readily and confess themselves to be sinners before
God. I'll give you four examples.
We just read a moment ago in Luke 18, the publican cried out,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. God said he went home justified.
Job. God said he was a righteous man.
Here's Job's testimony concerning himself. God said he was righteous.
Job's own testimony said, I abhor myself. I repent in dust and
ashes. All those who are truly made
righteous declare themselves sinners. Isaiah. The prophet of God. Read Isaiah
6. We'll be over there in a few
weeks. He said, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean
lips, mine eyes have seen the King. He was a righteous, justified
man. He looked to Christ for all of
his salvation. You know the story of the Apostle
Paul. God justified him in Christ. He was a righteous man. God said
of him, he's justified. But the Apostle Paul's own testimony
is what? I'm the chief of sinners." He
said, oh, wretched man that I am. You see, those who are truly
made righteous by God's grace in Christ declare in and of themselves
to be what? What do you think of yourself?
Huh? I'm a pretty good fella. No,
I hope your estimation of your own self in your own eyes before
God is, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner through and through.
Now, here's the flip side. I've noticed this in reading
Scripture as well. Those who are truly wicked, without
hope of salvation in Christ, they claim themselves to be righteous. Did you ever notice that? We
just read a moment ago about the Pharisee. Prayed with himself,
oh God, I'm so good. I tithe, I do this, I'm not an
adulterer, I'm not an extortioner. I've done all these things and
God said he went down to his house Condemned. He thought he
was righteous. Those in Matthew 7, they thought
they were righteous. Do you remember? Matthew 7, where
they came before the Lord and said, Lord, we preach in your
name. We've done many wonderful works in your name. We've cast
out demons in your name. Look at us, we're righteous.
What did the Lord say to them? Depart from me, you workers of
the You see, they claim themselves to be righteous, but in reality,
they died without Christ. And here, I think, is a chief
example of those who are truly wicked who claim themselves to
be righteous. Those who are truly wicked, yet
who claim themselves to be righteous. In John chapter 8, when the Lord
exposed those Pharisees for what they really were, They said,
well, Abraham is our father. We've been not born of fornication. We're not born in sin. We're
not like others. Remember what the Lord said to
them? What were they saying? They were
saying they were righteous. Remember what the Lord said to them? You
are of your father the devil, who is a liar, and you're his
child. You see, they claimed to be righteous by their doing.
And truly, they were not. Isn't this so with you who believe
the gospel? Isn't this our experience of
our heart? You know that the only hope that you have before
God who is holy is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Don't you
find delight in His truth? in His Word and in His Gospel. Don't you find sweet delight
and comfort resting in Christ alone? Is He enough? Is the Lord Jesus Christ enough?
God says He is. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him. I'd say that's
enough. Being complete in Christ, is that enough? Oh yeah. That's
enough. We are the true worshippers of
God who worship God in spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus,
who have no confidence, none in the flesh before God. Say to the righteous, it shall
be well. God instructs me as His servant
to tell believers that it shall be well with them. In Acts chapter
13, you remember, in this man is preached through this man
in the Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin,
and by Him all that believe are justified from all things which
it could not be justified by the law of Moses. It shall be
well with the righteous those who believe Christ. It is so
well, now listen to this, it is so well that it cannot be
any better in this life for the believer. It's so well. Now you
consider this with me. The believer is well fed, for
he feeds abundantly upon Christ who is the bread of life, Christ
who is the water of life. He said, I am the bread. He that
comes to me shall never hunger, shall never thirst. The believer
is well clothed, well clothed. For he wears a garment of salvation
tailored by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's clothed us with the garments
of salvation. He's clothed us with a robe of
righteousness. He's well-housed. He lives rent-free. He will never be evicted from
the household of faith. He's made us sons of God in Christ
Jesus. And the believer is well-married
too. He's well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed, well-married. See
what I'm saying? Can't get any better in this life, being one
with Him. Well-married, for the church
is married to Christ and that eternal covenant of grace. You
know over here, turn to Isaiah 54. You know it calls the Lord
Jesus our husband? He's our husband. Isaiah 54,
verse 5. Isaiah 54 verse 5, you want to
mark these two verses. For thy maker is thy husband. We're created in Christ Jesus. He's our maker. Thy maker is
thy husband. I'm married to Him. The Lord
of hosts is His name. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called. For
the Lord hath Call thee as a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit,
and a wife of youth when thou was refused, saith God." The
Lord Jesus Christ married us in that covenant of grace. So it shall be well. It shall
be well with the righteous. Now, all grace now, and all glory
forever it shall be well with the righteous. But God also instructs
me to warn you with this, it shall be ill. Ill. Woe unto the wicked. Woe unto
the wicked. Now, I have two points. Number
one is this. You probably guessed what it
is. It shall be well with the righteous. That's point number
one. So let's consider that. I have
four things under that first point. It shall be well with
the righteous. It is well with the righteous
always, always, in all times and all seasons. Not just some
days, but all days. There's no time included, so
all time is included. There's no occasion singled out.
It doesn't say it'll be well with the believer in the morning.
It doesn't say that. says it shall be well with the
believer. No occasion is singled out, but
upon every occasion, upon every occasion, the saying is true.
From the first of the year until the end of the year, it shall
be well with the righteous. The steps of a righteous man,
Psalm 37 23, the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. Aren't you glad He orders your
steps? from the rising of the sun until
the sunset, in young age, old age, no age is included. It shall be well with the righteous." Oh God, give us ears to hear
that. It shall be well with the righteous. I can boldly repeat
what God has already declared in His blessed Word. It is well
with my soul. It is well with the righteous. He is a river forever flowing
and flooding His people with all spiritual blessing. For He
is a river of water in this dry and thirsty land. He is the river
forever flowing with all spiritual blessing. He has blessed us with
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He is an ocean of never
failing delights. An ocean. He's the ocean of never-failing
delights. The psalmist writes, Delight
thyself in the Lord, for He shall give thee the desires of your
heart. He is an ocean of never-failing
delights. I remember reading a story years
ago about a poor little widow woman who lived over in England
somewhere. She didn't have much all of her
life. Died poor and bankrupt. Didn't have much. And one day,
she had never been to the ocean, and one of her sons said, Mom,
I want to take you and let you see the ocean. And they came
to the beach on the ocean shore, and she looked out over that
vast... It's just overwhelming, isn't
it? As you look at the vastness of that water. And she remarked
to the son, Oh, I'm glad to see something that there's plenty
of. And do you know what he said? Mom, you're just seeing the top
side. There's a whole bunch underneath. Oh, he's an ocean of delight
to his people. He is a mountain of endless abundant
mercy. For goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. He's the mountain of endless
abundant mercies. He's plenteous in redemption.
Now consider this bare outline, four things on this point. It
shall be well with the righteous. That's so, isn't it? God says
it's so. It's not so because I believe it. It's so because
He says it. Whether I believe it or not,
it's so. It's so. It shall be well with the righteous.
Those in Christ Jesus. Four things. Our sin being dealt
with and put away through the glorious blood sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we can say, it is well with the righteous. It is well with my soul. The songwriter said, my sin not
in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord, O my soul, for
it is well with my soul. Our sin being dealt with in Christ
being crucified, for He bare our sin in His own body on the
tree, considering our sin as against God. We can say, because
of that glorious sacrifice of Christ, it is well with the righteous. He put away our sin. You remember
back in chapter 1, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, you remember the
glorious words there? Come now, 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. Sin put away. in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
studied just recently from Psalm 32 about who is the blessed man. You remember? Some of you were
here. Blessed is a man whose transgression is forgiven. Blessed
is a man whose sin is covered. Blessed is a man to whom the
Lord will not charge impute sin. He has appeared once in the end
of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Considering
our sin, is against God. And considering the Lord Jesus
Christ has fully made full payment and atonement for the sin of
God's covenant people, those sins charged to Him, every believer
resting in Christ can say, considering our sin, it is well with our
soul. He has put away our sin. So much
so, that he said their sin and their iniquity, God said, I will
remember no more. Now it doesn't get any better
than that. This shall be well with the righteous.
Consider this now, secondly, in a day of heartache, in a day
of trial, trouble's coming. Trouble's coming. The promise
of the gospel is, We know that all things work together for
good to them who listen, to them who love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. In the day of trial and heartache,
it shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well. For listen
to this promise, 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for our light affliction
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more and exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. Our trials, our heartaches that
God sends our way, doesn't work against us, it works for us. And he calls them light affliction
anyway. They're just for a moment, and
then they pass away. Our Lord said in John 16, These
things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.
For in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome. You see, we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us and washed us from our sin in His
own blood. Now, in a few moments we are
going to turn in our song book to number 256. And our closing
hymn today is written by a man. His name is Horatio Spafford. And long about the mid-1800s,
long about the mid-1800s, he was a practicing attorney in
Chicago. He had a wife and four children. And they were going to travel
Europe. Well, business detained him, but he sent his wife and
four daughters on a steamship overseas. And on that journey,
the ship ran into another ship and sank. And most of the people
on that ship died. His wife was rescued and when
she got back to the countryside, she sent a telegraph and she
wrote these two words, Saved Alone. So that told Mr. Spafford that his four daughters
He perished. Can you imagine the heartache?
Can you imagine the pain? Can you imagine the grief? He
penned these words from that tragedy. When peace like a river
attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever
my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul. I like even better what Job said.
Job lost much more than Mr. Spafford lost. Job lost all of
his substance. Job had seven children and God
sent a wind, crushed the house and killed all of his children.
God took his health. His wife turned against him and
said, why don't you just curse God and die? Job wrote this. Job arose and
ran his mantle. Oh, he was grief-stricken. Shaved his head and fell upon
the ground and worshipped God. And he said, naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. You see, the believer is not
free from trouble. But God has promised grace for every trial.
God has promised grace for every trial. He said His grace is sufficient. 2 Corinthians 12 declares this,
He said, For My grace is sufficient for thee, Paul, for My strength
is made perfect in weakness. And then He said, Most gladly,
therefore, will I rather glory in My infirmities, that the power
of Christ may rest upon Me. The believer does have trials,
but faith, true faith, endures patiently, looking to the hand
of our loving Father, who sends the trial our way. Love accepts
them, seeing they come from the hand of our Father, whom the
Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receives. The believing heart says, He
does all things well. and the bleeding heart in the
midst of heartache, toil, and trouble in his soul, he says,
it is well with my soul. Considering our sin, it is well
with the righteous. He's put away our sin. In a day
of trial, it is well with the righteous for He upholds us. He sustains us. He gives us grace
to help in time of need, doesn't He? Thirdly, thirdly, in a day
of death, In the day of death, now we're going to die. Let's
just face it. This body is one step closer
to the grave. This day brings me one day closer
to this body going to the grave. David said, though I walk in
the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for thou art with
me. In the day of death, it shall
be well with the righteous." Who says so? Who says so? Is that just my philosophy? God
says so. It shall be well with the righteous.
Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they do comfort me.
Now listen to these Scriptures. And these are familiar to all
of you. I pray the Lord to burn them into our soul. Psalm 116. Blessed, precious in the sight
of the Lord, is the death of His saints. That's precious to
Him. Revelation 14, blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord. Blessed day. Philippians 1.21,
for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. In the day of death,
for the believer, it shall be well. 2 Corinthians 5, 8, "...we
are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the
body, and to be present with the Lord, to vacate this body." That is what happens at death.
Death is a separation. It's a separation of our soul
from this earthly tabernacle of flesh that must go back to
the dust. You see, death to the believer
is not punishment. It's promotion. It's graduation. It shall be well with the righteous
in the day of death. My friends, don't weep for me
when I die. Weep for yourself, but don't
weep for me. It will be well with the righteous
in the day of death. Fourthly, in the day of judgment,
in the day of judgment, it shall be well with the righteous. In the day of judgment. Day of
judgment. He'll gather all nations before
Him, and He will gather the sheep on His right hand. He'll divide
the nation and the goats on His left. And He'll say to them in
that last day, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. It will be well
with the righteous. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. It shall be well with the righteous
in the day of considering our sin, in the day of trial, in
the day of death, and in the day of judgment. It shall be
well. Look back at the text. Isaiah
3 verse 10. The last part of that verse.
Did you catch that? The last part of that verse.
It says, for they shall eat the fruit of their doing. Now under the old covenant, covenant
of law, under the old covenant, national Israel was promised
earthly prosperity upon the observance of the law
and penalty for not observing the law. You can read that all
the way through the Old Testament. But under the covenant of grace
in Christ Jesus, every believer is fully and eternally rewarded
upon the fruit of his doing, his doing, not ours, through
his righteous obedience and by his dying obedience unto death. Christ has purchased for us unnumbered
blessings. For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, And Adam all died, for by the obedience
of another, the obedience of another, the Lord Jesus Christ
shall many be made righteous in him." So here is one obedience
unto death. So we can say, we shall eat the
fruit of his doing. Oh, it shall be well with the
righteous. Now here's the flip side. Misery
of the wicked, eternal misery. Woe unto the wicked, it shall
be ill with them. For the reward of his hand shall
be given. Payday is coming. The wages of
sin is death. We can go back over these same
four points that we just gave and boldly say that it shall
be not well, It shall be all bad news for the unbeliever. Woe unto the wicked! To face
your sin with no atonement, no sacrifice, how eternally dreadful!
It shall be evil with the wicked. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Our Lord said, These shall go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous unto eternal
life. To face your sin with no atonement, Secondly, to endure
trial, heartache and grief with no comfort, with no comforter,
with no grace, no faith, no hope in trial. Everything that comes
your way works to your eternal damnation. Not good. That's right. It shall be ill with the wicked. In the day of death, to die without
God, without Christ, with no Mediator, no Savior, Oh, my soul,
how dreadful! How dreadful! There is one God
and one Mediator between God and sinners. I want Christ to
stand between me and God, don't you? I want that Mediator. Those who die without Christ
have no Mediator. Our Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. in the day of judgment. It won't be well with the righteous,
not in the day of judgment, to stand before a thrice holy God
and hear Him say, depart from Me, I never knew you. It shall be ill with the wicked
in that day. In closing, may the Lord our God Be pleased
to convict all of us. Beginning right here. Beginning,
starting right here. All the way back there. May the
Lord our God convict all of us and show us our great need of
the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us grace in our
heart to continually flee by faith unto the Lord Jesus Christ. For grace, mercy, forgiveness,
salvation. May He give us great love for
Him. And may we say with the Apostle Paul, I count everything
else ruined, dung, lost, that I might win Christ and be found
in Him. Now, the promise of Scripture
is this, in Hebrews 4 verse 16, Seeing that we have a great high
priest that is entered into the heavens, that is seated on the
right hand of God, Our great God says this in Christ Jesus,
by Him, come boldly unto the throne of grace. Come boldly,
boldly with confidence that we may obtain mercy, find grace
to help in time of need. My friend, it shall be well with
the righteous. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. For
He said, I am God, a just God and Savior. There is no other.