Reading this morning's from the book of Isaiah chapter three Be reading verses one through 14 a of Isaiah chapter three So you come to this text. Let me remind you you hold in your hands this morning the very words of God See now the Lord the Lord Almighty is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support All supplies of food and all supplies of water the hero and the warrior the judge and the prophet the Soothsayer and the elder the captain of 50 and the man of rank the counsellor skilled craftsman and clever and chanter I will make boys of their officials mere children were government People will oppress each other man against man Neighbor against neighbor the young will rise up against the old the base against the honorable A man will seize one of his brothers at his father's home and say you have a cloak you be our leader take charge of this heap of ruins But in that day he will cry out. I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house Do not make me the leader of the people Jerusalem staggers Judah is falling Their words and deeds are against the Lord Defying his glorious presence The look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin like Sodom They do not hide it woe to them for they have brought disaster upon themselves Tell the righteous it will be well with them for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds Woe to the wicked disaster is upon them They will be paid back for what their hands have done Use to press my people women rule over them. Oh my people your guides lead you astray. They turn you from the path The Lord takes his place in court He rises to judge the people the Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his People the grass withers and the flower spade for the word of our God stands Forever thought maybe you're coming to pray Don't know you knew something. I didn't know
Let's return to the passage that we read with John a few minutes ago from Isaiah chapter three if you're visiting with us this morning We're glad you're here We have been in a study these last few weeks on the from the themes We find in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah Isaiah and Jeremiah were two of the greatest preachers that God ever gave to this world they prophesied they preached they wrote The their books the books of their preaching and their prophecies To Israel at a time when Israel was beginning to come under God's judgment Isaiah and in Jeremiah preached over a span of a hundred and fifty years between the two of them Isaiah first and just as he was fading away then came Jeremiah Isaiah the judgment had begun to begin his judgment of Israel with in in Isaiah's day, but Isaiah was more an introduction into that judgment the Southern he was a Prophet to the southern kingdom to Jerusalem to Judah the Israel was split in two nations at the time The nation didn't know what called Israel the nation of South Judah Israel in Isaiah's day before Isaiah's day that northern kingdom had already fallen so they had already seen the scenario lived out and God was sending Isaiah To Judah saying it's going to happen here too You're just a few years behind the northern kingdom, but your wickedness will catch up to you Isaiah never saw his prophecies completely fulfilled. He saw the beginning of the judgment He saw some hard times, but it was Jeremiah the one we call the weeping prophet who saw the Nation of Israel the southern kingdom completely fallen Jerusalem destroyed He saw Jeremiah saw Jerusalem in ruins. He saw the prophecies come to pass Now you may ask What in the world are what why are we doing this? I mean Isaiah and Jeremiah lived twenty six or twenty seven hundred years ago Why are we taking time to look at what these two great preachers said? We're looking because their culture was almost an exact parallel to our culture in these last few weeks just reading Jeremiah We have seen that you know Technology's different, but we're very much like they were and what is happening in this country was happening then Or what was happening then is happening in our country today also I Challenged you to read the book of Jeremiah I know that many of you are because you've come to me and said I didn't believe it I can't believe I can read this Old Testament prophet and understand it and it's so very real It's just like the morning paper face. That's the book of Jeremiah You're going to choose between the two which one to read read Jeremiah So little easier read and I'll tell you what he writes is as fresh as the USA today The Wall Street Journal and the commercial key appeal all from the end together We'll only be here for two more Sundays this Sunday and the next Sunday this Sunday We're going to look at the signs of God's judgment. How at the beginning in the beginning Isaiah Said here's how you will know that God is judging you here the signs of God's judgment What were those signs are they relevant to us today? We're going to look at that in just a moment Next week we will look at the prophet Jeremiah And ask the question how do we then live if we know this and we understand it in this As God called us to be Jeremiah's What what how do we live in the midst of a world where God is bringing his judgment? How do we live in the middle of a nation like that That will be our subject next week Today the signs of God's judgment Before we come to this third chapter of Isaiah Let's pray and ask the Lord to take these words and plant them deep into our souls as ask him to speak to us Just as he spoke to Isaiah and Jeremiah let's pray Our Father that is indeed our prayer our Father I cannot speak so that the hearts of these people will be affected Father I cannot Teeth say that it will make any difference whatever
So we look to you and we ask you Father to speak to us Give us ears to hear what you say Father give us give us supernatural ears to hear what you say Give us a supernatural heart to receive
What you're saying other I pray that you'll profoundly affect our individual lives and our families in Jesus name Amen Isaiah and Jeremiah in the 21st century the gathering storm You know, this was not the only time that Jerusalem fell Jerusalem fell after that it fell right after Jesus ascension fell and about 70 AD Jesus spoke of that time and it is the verse that I've recorded in your bulletin as the text it's from Luke 12 54 and 56 Jesus ministry, you know, we think don't think of Jesus ministry this way that Jesus in his ministry prophesied just like Jeremiah prophesied just like Isaiah that Jerusalem was going to fall That Jerusalem would be destroyed and on one occasion he said to the crowd He said to the crowd when you see a cloud rising in the west immediate you you say it's going to be hot And it is you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky How is it that you don't know how to interpret the present time You can tell what the weather is going to be by the sign how come You don't understand what's happening around you. How come you're not warned About what's happening around you? Why can't you interpret the signs of the time That is what amus and Isaiah and Jeremiah were saying to Israel and then to Judah and Jerusalem They could have said those words when you see a cloud rising in the west immediately say it's going to be hot You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky how is it you don't know how to interpret the present time In God sent Amus and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the prophets to interpret those times He sent Jeremiah and Isaiah and Amus saying I'm going to judge And here are the signs Here's how you'll know just as you can see the signs and tell what kind of day it's going to be here the signs of my judgment Here's how you know this is my judgment Isaiah as I said was more at the beginning of God's judgment and in chapter three of Isaiah He lays out these signs God as he tells what's going to happen over the next hundred to hundred and fifty years See lays it out These are the signs this is how you will know Let's see what those signs were they have much to say to us He said you'll know it's a time of judgment when you see the removal of wise Confident in the tour leadership look at chapter three Verse one See now the law of the Almighty is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support Also flies the food and also flies water now look the hero and warrior the judge and the prophet the suzerain elder the tech Captain of fifty and the man of rank the counselor the skill craftsman and clever and shatter I will make boys their officials Myrrh children will govern them This is a thing that ran through the writings of all the prophets that ran through the writings of especially Isaiah and Jeremiah Know that God has come to judge When you see who are political statesmen God will remove your will remove your wise component The two are military leaders God your judges God will remove your wise confident builders What is built in your land and what is built in your society will not have the excellence that it once did Thanks this is so plain Isaiah told Israel God judgment is coming up on the land here is one of the signs here is what he's going to do You know in the end? Israel had no one to lead him no one to lead them politically No one to lead them economically no one to lead them militarily and no one to lead them traditionally He says you will look it's not that you'll throw the leaders away You will look for people to lead you in fact you'll realize what's happening You'll say where have all the leaders gone and you be our leader look at verse six A man will seize one of these brothers that his father's home and say you have a cloak you think our leader take charge of this heap of ruins But in that day he will cry out. I have no remedy I have no food or clothing in my house do not make me the leader of the people
scary, isn't it? So where are our leaders today? Fred Smith not our Fred Smith here in Memphis, but a business leader in Dallas, Texas made this statement a couple of years ago It is a real tragedy that many athletic heroes win at their sport, but they lose in life Life goes beyond the winning touchdown or a home run. It involves character Now read that to you. I think every one of us knows what Fred Smith is saying and we would agree with it I personally believe You know we look every week. Not a week goes by that someone does not mention to me We love sports in this church. I love sports and and we talk about the lack of character and the lack of role models Among our professional athletes in every sport I believe if you want to see what has happened to the leadership in this country That you just have to look at the lives of our professional athletes I don't think the lives of our professional athletes are that much different from the lives of our other leaders I believe that senators and representatives and CEOs and the general leadership of our society resembles the Selfies show me the money character less Professional athletes. I think they resemble those athletes more than they want to admit
What's happened What to get what what's happened to the character of our leaders Remember when one on a rider just a few weeks ago was Found guilty of stealing That the the verdict was was came down and and after the verdict in the courtroom The prosecutor was seeing talking with one on a rider And they they talked back and forth and afterwards the reporters asked the prosecutor Well, what was that about? What what was that conversation and the prosecutor said I won't go there We were just having a personal conversation And she seemed to intimate that it was just a Two ladies having a conversation And then the prosecutor added this telling statement She told the reporters and I quote this verdict was about one on a rider's conduct It was not about her character I know of no statement that describes what we've done with leadership in that country then this country better than that statement It says it all that kind of thinking pervades the way that our society thinks about political and business leaders We've separated conduct from character We said character has to do with a person's success at what he or she does We picture character as being synonymous with success as long as the CEO makes the company successful His personal conduct is ignored as long as a president or senator keeps the economy flourishing his personal conduct is ignored Character has to do in our society with image and success not with conduct not with moral uprightness not with nobility
We see it in the professional athletes We see it in our leaders But you know it's all too easy for us to say looks what's happened in government Can you believe the lack of leadership in every area?
Charles Coulson warns us that the leadership in any culture is just a mirror of that culture He's written a wonderful book entitled against the night it's a it's a small book short books not hard to read I would commend it to your reading if you want to understand the culture and what's happening in our country country right now Read against the night by Charles Coulson He makes this statement listen to it However, let's we air in blaming the problem solely on the government We must remember that in a democracy people get the government they deserve if political processes seem cynical and selfish these days It's because many citizens are cynical and selfish if there's a loss of higher purpose among politicians It's because there's a loss of transcendent values among the electorate If politicians placate special interests is because many of their constituents see only their own special interests He goes on to say American politics simply mirrors the loss of character in the American people If citizens are not willing to put the civic good above their own They can't expect their leaders to do it for them and in this way by eroding our sense of societal responsibility Radical individualism pays the way for the death of the community Now I wouldn't go to read that until I got to that last phrase the death of the community You see Coulson looks around and he says you know our community in this country our society Our culture is dying and he says it's dying Because we don't have a leadership and we dare not point the finger because the leadership Simply mirrors the character of the people
Isaiah said god how are we not? And god says you'll know when you see the removal of wise competent mature leadership What's the second saying by the way? I haven't listed all of them there's four We could have listed 10 I tried to take the major ones in the theme in the major ones that are repeated over and over again All for both books The second sign of god's judgment to Israel and I believe the sign of god's judgment today The rise of arrogant cynical disrespect Are we so could say just the absence of civility Look at verse five the last part of verse five the young will rise up against the old the base against the honorable The King James version. I think as the best translation it says the child will be insulin Toward the elder now this may seem like such a small thing what in the world what in the world could
Errogates in in cynical disrespect have to do with the existence of a nation Well, I thought it's about economy and about things like that may seem such a small thing, but think about it Think about it for a moment Where does one learn to respect age and elders and authority and school teachers and governmental leaders it that it's not in school It is learned in the home as we are taught We're taught to respect our pairs. No fact. We're directed and expected to respect and obey our parents inside of a godly home Now this is important folks You can't lay anything that God says just easily aside And expect there to be no consequences God God demonstrated the importance of this if you just think about the commandments now They're given the first four commandments are about our relationship to God and the Lord your God You shall have no other gods before me You should not make into you any carved images of me or any other gods You shall honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy You should not take the name of the Lord your God and vain. I got those reversed Didn't he come to the fifth way the last six all last six commandments are not about our relationship to God They're about our relationship with each other our relationship inside the society The laws of culture and the laws of a thriving that a thriving society must have what was the first one elisted Honor your father and your mother before murder before stealing before anything else Honor your parents God was saying that the family was the cornerstone of every civilization and that respect for your parents was the cornerstone of the family and society
So did when you say The child will be insulin toward the elder you're saying Family's broken down You're saying society is beginning to break down. There's not the respect for parents. There's not the respect for teachers There's not the respect for authority in any place What's been one of the major social controversies that All across our country for the last 20 years? What has been one of the great questions that we've argued about in our culture What is the definition of the family? What's the definition if any of the wind and we used to think mother father jump. That's the family J.O. Christian view of the family Well a major tactic of our society As we have moved away from scripture has been to redefine words and reinterpret history To make the words in history fit Our moral condition fit what we want it to to be and say to fit our moral climate for instance Abortion used to be a sin that used to be a crime not only a sin, but a crime in this country And we no longer call it abortion. We call it what pro Choice we're not only we don't talk about about sexual promiscuity anymore except in pulpits What do we call it? An alternative lifestyle we change the words and we change history to redefine To and redefine the words So that we can say well our moral climate is just fine So we as the family has disintegrated we've redefined the family down to fit the disintegration You know it can be Three men and a baby for women and a baby and you just define the family anyway you want to Charles Kosen observed it is much easier to redefine the family than to restore it The classroom where we were taught civility 101 Has been destroyed You know somehow we think that this is innate in us. It's just kind of automatic that respect and And honor and and nobility in that sort. That's just in bored into good people. It's not fake Dr. Albert Siegel spoke about this he this was written of all places and in A publication from Stanford University Dr. Albert Siegel wrote when it comes to rearing children every society is only 20 years away from barbarianism 20 years is all we have to accomplish a task of civilizing the infants who are born into our midst each year These savages picking the infants these savages know nothing of our language our culture our religion our values our customs Interpersonal relations the infant is totally ignorant about communism fascism Democracy civil liberties and the rights of the minority is contrasted with the parogodies and majority The infant is totally ignorant About respect decency honesty customs of convention and manners the barbarian must be tamed if civilization is to survive Thanks, it's not automatic and we're destroying the classrooms where it's tall And the family is the cornerstone in the civilization it makes sense doesn't it the family follow civilization falls the family falls disrespect Errogates and disrespect and incidents rise
Civility disappears. How will we know? Isaiah sent a message hear the signs or gods in a message through Isaiah hear the signs the removal of wise competent mature leadership the rise of arrogant cynical disrespect or the absence of civility thirdly You said you'll know Because of the increase of unusual calamities sent by God to warn the nation Look at verse one of Isaiah three see now the Lord the Almighty is about to take from Jerusalem And Judah both supply and support all supplies of food and all supplies of water Wow, how will he do this? By famine by drought By war by economic depression Now these two prophets keep repeating it over and over again And I'm convinced that one reason they keep repeating it is because there's a prophet who had gone before them a prophet Both of them knew in a prophet both of them read it was a prophet Amos the northern kingdom had already fallen And I want you to read I want to read to you what Amos had written to the northern kingdom just a few decades before It's found in Amos chapter four It's found beginning to read with verse six listen to these words I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread and every town yet You've not returned to me he clears the Lord. I also now this is the Lord speaking the Lord said I would tell through I also would help rain from you when the harvest was still three months away I sent rain on one town and withheld it from another one field had rain another had dry had none and dried up People staggered from town to town for water, but did not get enough to drink yet You've not returned to me declares the Lord Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards. I struck them with blight and mildew Locust devoured your fig trees and olive trees yet you've not returned to me declares the Lord I sent plagues among you as I did the Egypt. I killed your young men with a sword along with your captured horses I filled your nostrils with a stench of your camp yet you've not returned to me declares the Lord I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah You were like a burning stick snatch from the fire yet you've not returned to me declares the Lord Therefore, this is what I will do to you, O Israel, because I will do this prepare to meet your God
Isaiah and Jeremiah wrote how you know what are the signs of God's judgment The increase of unusual calamities sent by God to warn the nation The whole object of these smaller warnings was turn around you're going in a dangerous direction turn around He was trying to call to the nation But you know what's happened? They didn't turn around Jeremiah wrote about this later 100 years later Jeremiah Saw some of this happening and he wrote you struck them and Jeremiah 5.3 he's talking to God and it says God you struck them But they felt no pain you crushed them, but they refused corrections They made their faces harder than stone and they refused to repent in the same chapter he said That the culture Jeremiah said the culture has said the prophets have lied about the Lord They said he will do nothing The culture said he will do nothing no harm will come to us. He will never see we will never see the sword or famine You see they were saying the same thing in their day that we're saying in ours We say a calamity an unusual calamity
God did have anything to do that Yeah, just this week. I was listening to a minister An evangelical minister of all things And he was talking about And he said God didn't have anything to do with 9-11 God our God doesn't do things he obviously didn't have the God of God of Jeremiah and Isaiah and mine did he Because here is here. Here's Isaiah saying see now look at it see now the Lord the Almighty is about to take from Jerusalem God is doing this You know, this is what Israel failed to realize they thought their war was with a Syria A Syria was the army was the nation that conquered the northern kingdom They thought their war was at back with babbling babbling was the nation that conquered the southern kingdom Their war wasn't with a Syria Their war wasn't With that Their war was with God Spurgeon The great probably At least you can say this one of the greatest preachers one of the three or four greatest preachers that lived outside of New Testament times He wrote a devotional it's a classic devotional It has sold more as a devotion so more copies than any other and it's an entire year of devotional writings It has a devotion for every morning a devotion for every evening. It's called morning and evening And that the devotional for July the 24th in the evening is about God the warrior He writes this just listen to it. It's just it's very short just a paragraph Spurgeon is speaking to his soul and he says this Considered my soul the mineness of the Lord. He's a man of war. Jehovah is his name The powers of nature are all subject to the absolute control of the creator Stormy wind and tempest lightning and rain and snow and hail come and go at his decree Earth see and air in the places under the earth are the barracks for Jehovah's Ray armies When he goes forth to war famine ravages the land did you get that when he goes forth to war famine ravages the land pestilence smipes the nations Hurrah can sweep the sea tornado shakes the mountains and earthquake makes the solid world tremble as for animate creatures They all own his dominion and from the great fish which swallowed up the prophet down to all manner of flies Which flagged the fields of Zoan all are his servants and like the Palmer worm the caterpillar and the canker worm Our squadrons of his great army For his camp is very great My soul see to it that you be at peace with this almighty king for the war against him is madness Seven was unusual wasn't it When has that happened before in our land and yet all across our country People stood up and said God couldn't have had anything to do with this
Dr. Harold O. J. Brown Earned four degrees from Harvard University and Harvard Divinity School He also studied at the University of Marburg, Germany and the University of Vienna when I'm telling you that this man Is world renowned as a scholar in these messages I've tried to quote a tried to quote different people people like Alexander Nitson that you just can't throw away as some I rate preacher In the puppet Harold O. J. Dr. Harold O. J. Brown wrote in the 90s It would take someone with a supernatural gift of prophecy to tell us the number of days or weeks or years The American commonwealth can be expected to endure without being overthrown But it does not take a supernatural prophetic gift to see that disaster on a national scale is inevitable
You see some people are looking around and they know they've seen it and they say the removal of why they see the removal of wise Confident mature leadership. They see the rise of arrogant cynical disrespect or the absence of civility They see an increase of unusual calamities sent by God to warn the nation And they see a nation that's not listening Fourthly the fourth sign and last one will see this morning is the abandonment to our own sins That God abandons the nation Just to its own sins look at verse 8 Jerusalem Staggers due to his falling their words and deeds or against the Lord defying his glorious presence The look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin like Sodom They do not hide it. There's no shame in they called good evil remember and they evil they called good Well to them they brought disaster on themselves. What's God is saying? He's saying I'm just simply going to turn them over to their own sins Just let the nation go its course. It will rot from the inside You know, it's one thing for us to abandon God in our sin But folks it's quite another for God to abandon us to our sin And that's the very worst That God would simply turn his back and walk away and say you want to go in the direction you're seeing I will let you have your sin with no restraint and let you have everything that goes with it That folks is God's judgment It's not us walking away from God. It's God abandoning us removing all the restraints I'm gonna take away all the restraints you want to go this direction all that you go that direction Turn with me to Romans 1 and this will be our last scripture Paul talks about this Romans 1 and look at verse 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another Let me read it again. Therefore God gave them over in sinful desires to the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity Look at verse 26 because of this God gave them over to shameful lust look at verse 28 Furthermore since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God He gave them over to the praised man to do what ought not to be done When a Jewish man was writing and wanted to repeat something it didn't underline it didn't put an asterisk by it When it wanted to emphasize something it's simply repeated Here we see it repeated God gave them over God gave them over God gave them over He's saying this is important Finally God will just forsake us to our sins Let me read someone else to your Russell Kirk Don't think about him as being a Christian certainly not a minister may have been a Christian I do not know he died in 1994 many of you enjoyed reading his political commentary. He was a philosopher political commentator This is what he said about our nation A good many people fret themselves over the rather improbable speculation That the earth may be bluntness under by nuclear weapons the grimmer and more immediate prospect is that men and women may be reduced to a subhuman state Through limitless indulgence in their own vices With ruinous consequences to society What was he saying? Just going to say he was saying we're just going to rot in our sin You see it's not in a vacuum. We can't say we can't just reach out and embrace all matter of sexual promiscuity No matter what it is whether it is it is adultery or whether it's homosexual we can't reach out and embrace that And say oh there's no consequences
Great Ray Steadman was talking about this and he said God allows us to experience the full effects of our attempts to satisfy our hunger's and our cravings and our desires without him God forces us to harvest the crop we insist on sewing We like to sew our wild oats but then they begin to sprout and the results begin to appear We want to abandon the field and run to another one and just keep sewing our wild oats but God says you can't do that You're going to sew our loaves in this field you got to live in this field And you're going to reap what you saw We're planning in this country We're planning Sin upon sin upon sin upon sin upon sin and we're calling it good. We're saying to sin grew up and we're saying hey look what a wonderful crop we have Does that sin come from the rest? We're going to say God I'm ready to go to another field God's going to say no you're going to live in that field And what's more in that field there will be no churches and there will be no word of God And all the restraints will be lifted and you can live with the results of your sin Well, that's it. Thanks the removal of wise compliment to our leadership the rise of arrogant cynical disrespect the absence of civility The increase of unusual calamity sent by God to warn the nation the abandonment to our own sins Now you may hear that today I've just told you the signs didn't you may hear that today and say hey I don't see the other things happening you may say that I would question that I would say take a look good look around you. I'd say the words of Jesus You know how to interpret this appearance of the earth and sky housing that you don't know how to interpret this present time Why did I say in Jeremiah come and bring this message? They came and brought this message Not gleefully not happily in fact Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet They brought this message trying to save their land Trying to save their families trying to save the land in the city that they loved It wasn't that they were gleefully prophesying the fall of the land. They were trying to save the land You know that's so typical of the gospel isn't it? The Bible doesn't come to us and say you're okay and I'm okay The gospel is that you're a center and I'm a center and we need the cross of Jesus Christ
If you want to know what to do about this that's the first thing you do If you're here this morning and you're not sure about what you've heard let me tell you this Ask God to show you your own personal sin Ask him to show you the gospel why did we heard Ethan tell us this morning why Jesus came Ethan said Jesus came to save me from my sin that means that Ethan says you know I have seen him my life. I'm in bad bad trouble And I'm going to the cross. I'm going to Calvary You see the good bad news is the latest to the good news
You want to be convinced of this Get close to Christ Ask Christ to show you the sins of your own life The sins of your own family ask him to save your life by his cross Ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior and to save your of your family That's where it begins For those of you and our Christians that know Christ. What do you do with this? Someone came up to me after the first message of business man And I never pictured him as being someone that said this He looked at me He never does say much but this time you looked at me and he said John Don't back off This is not a tan for me in the back off
People if there's ever a time to stand And proclaim the gospel And get everything we have from our children To our energy to our money everything we have Because every time To go forth and preach the gospel with everything we have is right now Our hymn is