Today's scripture is Isaiah chapter 3 verses 1 through 11. For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah, support and supply, all supportive bread and all supportive water. The mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skill for magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, everyone his fellow and everyone his neighbor. The youth will be insolent to the elder and the despise to the honorable. For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father saying, you have a cloak, you shall be our leader and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule. And that day he will speak out saying, I will not be a healer. In my house there is neither bread nor cloak, you shall not make me leader of the people. For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. For the look on their faces bears witness against them. They proclaim their sin like sawed them, they do not hide it, woe to them, for they have brought evil on themselves, tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds, woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him. For what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word. Always fascinated by people who make it out, you know those rags to riches stories, or those who are born into dire situations living and growing up in circumstances that seem insurmountable. But against all odds they are able to make it out. I'm currently listening to a memoir of a young girl who grew up under the oppressive rain and rule of the dictators in North Korea. In the book she describes the circumstances she endured as a young child and how she was able to escape. And as I'm listening to how she grew up and the difficulties and the oppressions and the challenges she faced, I just often am asking the question, well how did she survive? How was she able to make it out of such a plight? One word comes to mind. Hope. Hope. There has to be hope that tomorrow it will be better. There has to be hope that things will improve. You have to hope that one day you are going to make it out. Hope is the way people make it out of a seemingly insurmountable circumstance. Now it is one thing to make it out of poverty or even the oppressive rule of a dictator but the question is, the question that all humanity needs to answer is how does one escape under the wrath and judgment of a holy God? Can I give you the answer this morning? Hope. Hope. And not just any hope. Hope that comes from the just judge. That's where we are heading this morning on our trek through Isaiah. You recall the situation in Judah. The Assyrians have invaded the northern kingdom and are now threatening and on the verge of coming in and conquering those who live in the southern kingdom, what we know as Judah. So naturally the people of Judah and the capital city of Jerusalem are fearful of this impending invasion. They have heard the reports from the north and are therefore they knew about the wickedness and the brutality of the Assyrians. And so they are full of fear. And rather than that fear leading to faithfulness, it was leading to faithlessness. Rather than trusting God who had proven himself faithful, they were trusting in resources and men who had proven themselves faithless.
Fear has a unique way of breeding that temptation, doesn't it? There is impending danger or bad news on the horizon and our first response is to check our resources. We take stock of our abilities or our intelligence and we begin to assess our fortitude to deal with whatever may come. We do all that instead of doing what Psalm 112 and verse 7 says. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm trusting in the Lord. The temptation to trust in everything outside of the Lord when given or receiving bad news is real. And Judah had given way to the temptation and they were all in. Their fear had led to their faithfulness, faithfulness. It had led to their rebellion and now the nation it was in a bad place. It was in a bad place. Listen to the description of the city in Isaiah 1, 21 through 23. How the faithful city has become a whore. She who was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her. But now murders. Your silver has become dross. Your best wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless and the widow's cause does not come to them. In other words, the Lord is saying, oh Judah, oh Jerusalem, I had better things in mind for you. If you had been faithful, if you had continued in the way that I established for you, there would have been blessing. But oh, you have become a city headed for destruction. This was the condition of the southern kingdom and the Lord sent Isaiah with a message to them. A message. It was no doubt a message of comfort and a message of hope. But you do understand, it was also a message of judgment. Judgment. The word Isaiah was to give to the people was this. He was the word Judah and Jerusalem. Listen to me. The nation is in a bad place. And I am here to warn you that things are going to get worse before they get better. Things are going to get worse before they get better. A commentator helped me recall an illustration of this. See, I used to work for a gentleman that restored antique furniture. From time to time, we would get furniture in that had some damage to the finish or pieces were broken off and it was a quick fix. Then there were times when we get furniture that had severe water stains, veneer missing, a number of broken pieces. But it was in the right place, but it was going to get worse before it got better. It would require a full stripping away of the finish. It would require some sanding. It was going to get worse. But if it would just hold on, it was going to get better. That is the word Isaiah is going to give in chapter three. God was going to judge them for their waywardness and their rebellion. And unless anyone think the judgment wasn't warranted, Isaiah says this in Isaiah 3, 8 and 9. For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord defying his glorious presence. For the look on their faces bear witness against them. They proclaim their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to them for they have brought evil on themselves. Brothers and sisters, they have brought it on themselves. This was a godless, you understand? This was a godless city. Not that God wasn't present. Isaiah told us as much in verse 8. God's presence was there, but they are defying his glorious presence. Sounds like Romans 1, doesn't it? Romans 1 and 18, excuse me, 1 verse 18 says that men and women suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It's not that God's presence isn't there. We learned that. As he says, Paul says in Romans 1 and 20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse. When we say a nation or a city is godless, we don't mean that God's presence is not there. God is everywhere. The children's catechism teaches us that. What it means is that people fail to acknowledge God's presence and therefore are living like there is no god. And that's Judah. That's Judah. That's why the judgment of God that God will bring upon them will be just. People are without excuse. And so is Judah. Judah was going to be judged. And Isaiah 3 details what that judgment will look like. Judgment's coming. Here is what it's going to look like. Now in our mind, judgment has fire and blimstone notions attached to it. When we think of judgment, the judgment of God, we picture it in terms of cataclysmic type events. We think of events like the flood, the flood and rightly so. The flood was a judgment upon the earth because the sinful inclination of people's hearts. When we think of the plagues in Egypt, this too was the judgment of God upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians for how they treated the people of God. But you do understand. You do know that God doesn't always judge in cataclysmic type ways. He sometimes does so by stripping away blessings we take for granted or we misuse.
That is the type of judgment God was going to bring upon Judah. He was going to intentionally remove the blessings that his people were wrongly hoping and trusting in. The Lord was going to give them over to the consequences of making these things their hope. So Isaiah lays out the judgment. He lays it out for them. He says, listen, God is coming and he's going to judge you and he is going to start by stripping away the bare essentials. The bare essentials. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah, support and supply, all support of bread and all supports of water. Isaiah tells the people that judgment is going to come first come in the form of their provisions being dried up. The resources that had been plenty would no longer be in supply, no more bread and no more water. Perhaps you're thinking, I'm sure the people of Judah were thinking, but these are good things, aren't they? We talk about bread and water. How was this in an indictment on their trust system? Aren't bread and water bare essentials? One, we know this cannot live long without bread and water. We need these things. And yes, that's true. That's true. But because of that, there is an unhealthy relationship that people can develop with these resources. Sure, we need bread and water. But how quickly do we move from these items being things that we need to things that we trust in? We move them from things that we need to things that we trust in. This happened to the people of God in the wilderness. You remember when God supplied mana for his people? They were supposed to gather bread every day right for six days. And on the sixth day, God was going to provide twice what they needed, what, for the seventh day? Because on the seventh day, they weren't supposed to go out and gather. They were to rest in the Lord. They were to gather double portion on the sixth day, so they had something to eat on the seventh day. They weren't supposed to go out. But what did the stiff neck people do? Exodus 16, 27, 28. On the seventh day, some of the people went out together, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? Those people who went out on the seventh day were trusting in the mana, not in the God who provided it.
Brothers and sisters, we see, we don't realize how much we depend on physical resources or the things we quote, unquote, need until they are dried up. We assume that it is the bread and water keeping us alive. We assume that it is the bread and water keeping us alive until it's gone. And then we realize it was the one that was supplying the bread and the water that was keeping us alive. This was the temptation the devil tried to use on Jesus. You remember in Matthew 4, Jesus fasted in the wilderness and found his strength in his heavenly Father. Satan tried to tempt him with bread. Turn these stones into bread. Don't trust in your Father. Trust in this bread, Jesus. This is what Satan says to him. And what was Jesus' response in Matthew 4 and 4? It is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus knew that it was not the bread or lack of it that was sustaining him. His Father was. Judy, see, was trusting in the bread. They were trusting in the provision rather than the one who had provided them. So God was judging them by removing it. God was judging them by removing it. Brothers and sisters, sometimes the Lord removes things in our lives to show us just how much more we are trusting the blessing than the one who grants the blessing. Perhaps it's your job that you think is keeping you alive. Maybe you think it is your bank account that is sustaining you. Maybe it's the relationship that you are in that you think is giving you life. What if the Lord is a question? Just think about this for a moment. What if the Lord already has or he decides to move it, remove it from your life? Could it be him stripping away the blessing to show you that he is the one who is actually sustaining you? When it is gone, will you say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away a blessing? Be the name of the Lord. Your Heavenly Father is the one who gives you life. He is the one you can trust to sustain you. He is the one keeping you, not the bread and not the water. It's not the bank account. It's not the job. It's not the relationship. He is the one that is keeping you, sustaining you. Listen, if the Lord is not sustaining you, then the bread and the water won't do a thing. It will not do a thing. If the Lord is not sustaining you, Job 1210 says in his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. The Lord was going to dry up Judah's supply. But judgment wasn't just going to come in the form of the removal of provisions. God was going to strip away the leadership. He was going to strip away their leadership. Isaiah 3, verse 2 and 3. The mighty man and the soldier. The judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder. The captain of 50 and the man of rank, the counselor and the skill for musician and the expert in charm. Do you notice the diversified nature of the leaders mentioned, God was going to remove leadership from every sector of society. He was taking them away. He was stripping them away that the nation would be devoid of leadership. We know good leadership, brothers and sisters, is a blessing. But Judah's leadership was no longer a blessing because they weren't carrying out justice and they were failing to lead the people to faithfulness. But here's the thing, the people were trusting and hoping in them anyway. Trusting in these godless leaders, they believed it was the intelligence and the skill of these men that would protect them and save them from the Assyrians. And that was why the Lord was going to remove the leadership. That's why he was going to strip it away from them. God was stripping away the so-called power structure of the nation to show the folly of hoping in earthly leadership and the sisters. As we hear that and say, Amen. I hope we are not standing in judgment of Judah and Jerusalem regarding following ungodly leaders because we do not have a leg to stand on. Plaking our society today is an inordinate amount of hope and trust we place in our political leaders. We act like they are the ones that are going to save us. You know how I know we trusted them too much because of the response people have when you poke their political eye to I mean leader. Just mention the name Biden, just utter the name Trump and blood pressure start rising. Faces start twitching and we begin him and hawing and spewing opinions. We place too much hope in these people. At least in Judah, those civic leaders were supposed to be godly because they lived in a theocracy. What's our excuse? We don't live in a theocracy. Why do we think if we get the right person in office then they will lead us to becoming a Christian nation. We place too much hope and trust in ungodly leaders brothers and sisters. We are just like Judah. Judah is just like us. Placing hope in political structures believing they will solve our greatest ills and our greatest fears. But if they are not trusting in the Lord then the best they can do is provide temporary hope that is bound to fade. Bound to fail. We need leaders as as Proverbs three and five says that are going to trust in the Lord with all of their hearts and not lean on their own understanding. These were not the leaders in Judah and they are not the leaders in our day. Even though we should pray for this. Pray for godly leaders. But let's not hope in them. Let's not hope in them. God was going to strip away the leadership structure. But lastly judgment would come in the ultimate collapse of society. The Lord was going to remove. Listen here. God was going to remove the blessing of his common grace. The grace, the common grace that rested on Judah. You do realize that that's what keeps society's ordered. Common grace. It is the restraining grace of God. You do understand that we don't see more evil in our day. In our neighborhoods and in our homes and in in political structures. The reason it's not as bad as it could be is because the Lord is restraining showing us restraining grace. He's restraining evil. We see this in song. We know this to be the case in Psalm 81 11 through 12. That says but my people did not listen to my voice. Israel would not submit to me. So what did he do? So I gave them over to their stubborn heart to follow their own councils. Here is the Lord removing his common grace giving them over to their sin. God says Judah Jerusalem I'm coming and I'm removing my common grace. And you're going to feel it. You're going to feel it. You're going to see the effects. They were going to feel it in their neighborhoods. They were going to they were going to experience it in their homes. Judah and the capital city Jerusalem were going to digress into a society of chaos and disorder oppression and disrespect. Apathy and a laissez-faire attitude towards the evil and morality and it would ramp it in the culture. Good would be called evil and evil would be called good. Listen listen to the description of what the nation would become in Isaiah 3 5 and 7 and the people will oppress one another. Everyone his fellow and everyone is neighbor. The youth will be insolent to the elder and the despise to the honorable. For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father saying you have a cloak you shall be our leader and his heap this heap of ruin shall be under your rule. In that day he will speak out saying I will not be a human. In my house there is neither bread nor cloak you shall not make me leader of the people. This is what the society. This is what Judah and Jerusalem would degenerate into you. A community of disrespect and moral bankruptcy, lack of leadership, lack of provision, weight were children. It would be a society in disarray for Judah and Jerusalem. Things were bad. They were already a faithful city and Isaiah was telling them things are going to get worse before they get better. Your leadership structure is being stripped away. Your support and supply of brandy resource is going to be stripped away. Society is going to ramp it with moral decay, disobedient children, disrespectful people. This is bad news. News that no doubt struck fear in the heart of Judah. As we said when fear comes we can either respond with faith, lessness, or we can respond with faithfulness. And for Judah, for Judah, responding in faith was an option. Faithfulness was an option for Judah and Jerusalem and that meant there was hope. That meant there was hope. Brothers and sisters, if there is an option from God to exercise faith and faithfulness, that means there is hope. That means there is hope. In other words, if you have not yet been consumed then there is hope. Hope, the God who brings judgment is also the God who offers hope. Hope, hope in the midst of despair. For the news that was being shared with Judah would have no doubt brought despair. Remember things in the nation were already bad and the message was they are going to get worse. And I know that doesn't sound hopeful but in the midst of a society that was about to be judged in a devastating way, God was about to speak a word of hope to them. Isaiah 3 and 10. Isaiah 3 and 10 read it tells the righteous that it shall be well with them for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. The hope is that you can choose the path of righteousness. You can not just walk in the light but Judah, righteous, you can remain in the light. You can remain in it. Brothers and sisters, how many of you know the difficulty of doing right when everyone else around you is doing wrong? Do you know that feeling? Tell the truth this morning, we have all been there. Come on now. Everybody around me is doing wrong and I'm the one that is supposed to be doing right. You mean tell me I need to stick out like a sore thumb, upset the apple cart, get made fun of and ridiculed because I want to live right and everybody wants to live wrong. Brothers and sisters, that is difficult to do. Feel it. Even as a pastor I feel that brothers and sisters.
Feel it. It's difficult. It's difficult to swim upstream when everyone else is swimming downstream. Jesus knows this difficulty. Matthew 7, 13 and 14. He says, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy. That leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. Jesus saying, it is hard to do right when everyone is doing wrong. The way is hard at least to life, but that is the only way that rewards. That is the way of blessing. The Lord of hosts tells Isaiah to proclaim to Judah and Jerusalem that the structure is coming because they have rebelled because they are wicked and they are failed to trust him. But there is hope for the righteous for those who are walking in the light and for those who come to the light, they can remain in it. God's word for them is, you know what it is? It's keep holding on. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't join in with the crowd. You know what you're supposed to do? Hold to God's unchanging hand. That's what we sang this morning. Hold to his hand. God's unchanging hand. That's the message. Hold on. Keep walking in the light. Why? Because there's blessing. There is hope for the righteous.
Now the question is who are the righteous? Who are the righteous? Are they those who are perfect? Are they those who are without sin? Are the righteous those who look at the moral decay? And the wickedness of society and stand and rail against it in judgment? Are they the doctrine police and the theological heavyweights? Are the righteous those who can clearly and confidently articulate God's plan of redemption? Oh, no brothers and sisters, the righteous are those as have a cup to force as live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. Faith. The righteous are those who are trusting in God. Not trusting in provision, not trusting in civic, military or religious leadership, not trusting in their own morality. No, they are trusting in the God who never fails to hold and to keep them. Keep them. You see, the righteous realize that even as they struggle to hold onto God, they are not trusting in their grip. They're not trusting in their grip of holding onto the Lord. They are trusting in the fact that God is holding on to them, that God anchors them in the path of righteousness. Ain't nobody anchoring themselves. God is anchoring them in the path of righteousness. There is hope, hope for the righteous because the promise for the righteous is it shall be well with them. It shall be well with them. It shall be well with them. Now listen, the promise is not that we will be rescued or Judah or the righteous will be rescued out of the judgment that is coming to Judah and Jerusalem. Did you notice that? They will still suffer. The righteous will still suffer. The effects of the supply of bread and water being cut off. They will go hungry just like the wicked. They will still languish under a society devoid of leadership and live in a society bankrupt of morals and full of evil. God is not promising to rescue them from that, but the promise is that even though they will experience the effects of judgment, all is going to be okay for them. It shall be well and their faithfulness shall be rewarded. Psalm 112 and 6. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. That's the reward. Remembered by the Lord forever. It shall be well with them.
You know what brothers and sisters? This is not just the hope and promise to the righteous in Judah and Jerusalem. This is a promise for the righteous who inhabit our sin ravaged, godly leadership starved, morally bankrupt society. Our sin ravaged, godly leadership starved, morally bankrupt society. Perhaps as you have heard the description of the judgment coming to Judah and Jerusalem and you can't help but see the parallels with our society. Come on, I know I'm not the only one that did that, right? The trust our society places it in resources and material things. The trust we place in ungodly leaders. You turn on the news and you watch movies, you scroll through social media and morals and respect are nowhere to be found. Our society is morally bankrupt. Trying to live faithful in this godly society is hard and it is difficult. It is hard to do the right thing as we said in the midst of wrong. What do you know what we do? You know we do, we look at our society, we look at its ills and its wickedness and its more bankruptcy and we complain that our society is the worst society that has ever lived and therefore it is harder for us these days to be faithful followers of Jesus. It's a hard pastor to live right because we live in a time that nobody else has lived in. Can I let you in on a secret? In every society, in every generation since Genesis 3 there has been moral bankruptcy, evil, lack of godly leadership, idolatry, disrespectful children, strife between neighbors, dysfunctional households, brothers and sisters, it has always been difficult for the righteous to hold on. Faithfulness has always been hard. We do not have it harder or any worse than you did. In fact, I would argue that we have it easier because we have a more complete revelation. We stand and live on the other side of the cross. The righteous in Judah were looking forward in faith to the promise that was to come, we look back in faith to the promise that was fulfilled. I think we got it easier but in sisters. And therefore it's not about the evil society in which you live. It's not about the evil society in which you live. It's about who you are trusting to be your savior and your hope in the midst of an evil society. That's what it's about. However we look at the cross whether it was those who were looking forward or us looking back, the hope and promise while living in a society under judgment is always the same. It is. It shall be well for those who are trusting in the finished work of Christ. That's it. No matter what you are enduring now, it shall be well. It shall be well. Hold on. Don't give up. Don't give in for the sisters. It will all be worth it in the end. It will. It will. That's the promise by the sisters. That is the hope that enables us to endure. It's the hope that enables us to make it out. That's how we are able to remain in the light in the midst of a dark world because of Jesus, because of Jesus, the one who gives us his righteousness and keeps us. The promises for those who are trusting in him for his righteousness. It shall. Not it might. It shall. It shall be well with them. Will it be well with you this morning, but this is. Hold on. Hold on. It's all worth it in the end. It shall be well with you. Let's pray. That is fine.