If you have your Bible, be turning to chapter 3 of the book of the prophet Isaiah. And as you're getting there, I would mention that song we just sang, Behold Our God, is really the beckoning of the prophet Isaiah to behold the Lord God who is our King and our Lord. In fact, we'll see that very clearly in chapter 6 as he comes before the throne of Almighty God, if you will, and sees, in fact, Christ, as John tells us in his gospel, upon the throne. And so, we want to recognize that what we're just saying is really very much the message of the book of the prophet Isaiah. As we come to the third chapter, we recognize that we come to a difficult text. Ben just read it for us, so you heard it. It is a difficult text. It is a text of judgment. It's a text speaking of the ills that are about to befall the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. And those are not easy to hear and they're not easy to preach, to be honest. But it's in the Word of God. And if we're going to preach the Word of God, we need to preach the whole counsel of God. And that means every part of it. And as we come to Isaiah 3, we find here this word of judgment that is coming soon upon the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. And as we think about it for a moment, we recognize that so far, as we've set the stage in Isaiah through these past three previous weeks, we've seen that the message is of a judgment coming. Chapter 1 we see it. Right off the bat there is immediately the mentioning that God is not pleased with His people. They are a covenant people set apart by God as a nation unique, unlike any other. And they are in a covenant with God that is a particular covenant, a special covenant. It's a covenant with one particular people. He's made them this special people, and yet as we see, they are not living up to the covenant. And part of the conditions of that covenant are judgment for a lack of obedience. If they do not do what God has called them to do, then there are certain things that shall come to pass. Judgments. And ultimately, as they are told, an exiting of the land. that their ability to stay in the land is as a people who are in that covenant, and God has given the means not only for what they are to do, but also for how they are to cleanse themselves, if you will. Not their conscience, but their outward self according to the law, and we looked at that in Hebrews. But now we realize as we continue forward, there is a message that they have not done those things that God has called them to do. In every sphere, We're going to see today, even in their leaders, they are not godly men. But we recognize that even earlier this has been hinted at. Religiously, they are not doing the things that God has called them to do. They are not coming before Him properly. They are not coming with reverence. They are not coming with a contrite spirit. They are coming boldly, not in the sense that we are told in the New Testament and the New Covenant that we can come boldly. They're coming boldly because they say our sin doesn't matter. We're going through the motions and God has given us kind of like the chalkboard eraser to just erase them. And God says that it was never that simple. That what God is looking for is a change of heart. Ultimately that should lead to a change of behavior, but it's a change of heart. And their actions show or betray their true heart, which is a wicked heart, a heart that just runs through the motions before a holy and righteous God. We'll see quite a difference when we come to Isaiah chapter 6 of how Isaiah enters into the presence of Almighty God. As he comes into the presence of God, he is doing so with fear and trembling. And woe is me. They come and say, oh, God, He's our buddy. You know, we don't need to come before Him with any kind of trembling or fear or reverence because we've got the means of appeasing Him by just going through this religious system. And God says, stop coming. That's chapter 1. As we continue through chapter 2, we saw a brief message of hope. set before the people of a Jerusalem one day that will not be like the Jerusalem that now is. Of a glorious, eschatological Jerusalem in which the nations will flood to its city. And then we saw last week that there are many things for which they should be ashamed. Their worship of idols, their desire to be like the other nations. They are rejecting God's call and mandate to be a unique people, not like all the other nations. We're going to see today that charge continues in chapter 3. We've already heard it, but I do want to read it quickly again so we have it in our minds as we tackle this text. He says, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, the counselor, and the skillful artisan, and the expert enchanter. I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor. The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable. When a man takes hold of his brother and the house of his father saying, you have clothing, you be our ruler. And let these ruins be under your power. In that day he will protest, saying, I cannot cure your ills. For in my house is neither food nor clothing. Do not make me a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. Provoke the eyes of his glory, the look on their countenance, witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them, for the reward of his hand shall be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. The Lord stands up to plead. The Lord stands to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment. and the elders of his people and his princes. For you have eaten up the vineyard." The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor, says the Lord God of hosts? Moreover, the Lord says, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab. the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms, and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel, and the mantles. the outer garments, the purses and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes. And so it shall be. Instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench. Instead of a sash, a rope. Instead of well-set hair, baldness. Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth. And branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword, and you're mighty in the war. her gait shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach. Amen. As we think about this word today, I want to say immediately before I even give you the outline, which you already have, that we recognize this is a specific word to Judah, to a nation. And it is about Judah in its circumstances. But I think the Bible tells us that judgment falls upon all nations. If there's any lesson in Jeremiah 18 in the potter's house, that God says the potter at his will can do what he wants with any clay. And so the Lord can do with any nation what He wills. And those nations that He fashions to bring disaster upon, He can form them and bless them. Or those that He had formerly gave a word of blessing to, if they turn and relent of what they are doing, then He will have the right to smash them down. And so I think we can see there is a pattern of how God judges nations given to us over and over again. It's not just Jeremiah 18. Daniel tells us that the Lord raises up kings and he brings them down. He raises up nations and he brings them down. My friends, when we behold our God, we behold a mighty and righteous God. And so as we come to this text today, we want to look at these three points. First of all, a shaking of structures. Second of all, a corruption of morals. and third a display of desperation. And I think we'll see very quickly all these are things you will notice in a nation that's falling under the judgment of God. Beginning first with the shaking of structures In thinking about this, I note a lot of us think of God's judgment in very specific, noticeable, and less than subtle ways. We think of God's judgment in terms of things like earthquakes and tsunamis, and I'm not saying God doesn't work in those ways, but it's not the primary way that he tells us in his word that he works to judge nations. He tells us over and over again that his means are far more subtle than that. So subtle it's almost like the frog in the pot of water that the temperature is slowly being turned up on and they can't even notice when it begins to boil. And my friends, we'll see that in today's text because in fact the judgment that God brings against Judah and the conditions He brings that judgment for are very closely related. So that you would think, oh, if they don't change their ways they are going to be judged and we would say, no, God's telling us that those very things are already His judgment falling upon the nation. I think we'll see that as we look through this. One commentator said that sin brings forth a natural fruit, although a rotten fruit. It has its own consequences. This is the you reap what you sow principle of scripture. And yet in this text we see from the very beginning that the Lord is claiming this isn't just naturalistic consequences of their behavior. He says here, Isaiah begins, for behold, My friends, anytime you see behold, the prophet is speaking prophetically here to say, notice what's about to happen. This should get your attention. How do we know that Isaiah in chapter 7, which we'll get to in the Christmas season, is not simply a prophecy only about a young woman of childbearing age giving a child? For what reason would Isaiah say, behold that miracle, if that's all it is? That's why from even the days before the New Testament, they recognized, and the Septuagint translated that this behold must be in reference to a miracle. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child. So my friends, whenever you see behold, it's speaking of something dramatic that's about to happen that should gain your attention. And immediately we see who the agent of this is, the Lord. And not just the Lord, although that's spectacular language enough, But the Lord of hosts, the Lord of all the angelic armies of glory, this one, the mighty King, the mighty Lord God is speaking. And he begins to talk about the consequences that he will bring. And I mentioned this first one is a shaking of structures. You'll see that every social structure that we care about is going to be shaken. Going to be shaken. Notice he begins immediately with the stock and the store and the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water. Now we can limit that, if you will, to just economic concerns. There's going to be a lessening of supplies and we know the principles of supply and demand. Prices are going to go up and all that sort of thing. Yes, judgment falls in those kinds of ways as well. But this is also about security. your supplies, those things that you need to live, bread and water. Notice he didn't say, you know, wine and grapes or some things that might be beyond necessity and might be a luxury. He says, even the fullness of the bread and of the water will be taken from you. You'll have nothing to eat. This picture's famine. And over and over again, we see famine in the scriptures as a judgment, don't we, on wicked kings and wicked nations. He says that's what will happen. Bread will be scarce. Water will be scarce. You will not have the things you need. Immediately, I would ask us to notice the dynamic we're going to see throughout this chapter, which is of the very things that you put your trust in, God's going to take them away. You put all your hope in the supplies you've built up, they're going to be taken from you. Now, please don't take this to be an anti-Proverbs message, right? God tells us to be smart, to plan, to save, to all these various things. He just means don't put all your hope in that. Don't be the foolish person that would say God can do nothing to me. I've got a year's worth of bread and water, whatever it would be, supplies. There's nothing that could happen to me. You may remember they said the Titanic, even God himself couldn't sink that ship. They found out pretty quickly. Let's refrain from such comments, right? And same thing here. Don't put your trust in bread. Don't put your trust in supplies. It might be smart to have a supply of water. It might be smart to have these things. But if that is your whole hope, you'll find it will fail you in the day that you are in need. So the Lord says, put your trust in that. I'll take it away. What else does he take away? You're a mighty man, the man of war. There's no one left to fight for your nation. There's no defense for your people. Your nation has given itself over to being defenseless and helpless against its enemies. And enemies will be coming. And yet you're not prepared to defend yourself against them. Because you no longer have mighty men and men of war. Again, the weakening of your ability to defend yourself is a sign of God's judgment. But it's not just that. Look what continues from there. Leaders. Leaders can't be found. Good leaders can't be found. Think for a moment here of the judge. What is a judge's job in culture and society? It's to settle disputes. That's ultimately what a judge does. He intervenes in disputes and settles them. And the idea is if we have a problem, rather than it coming to blows or rather than coming to a head and violence against each other, we can go to a court and have a third party settle it. This happens every day, right? Our courts are backlogged. This happens every day. And legal disputes are often settled this way as well. Only you can't find a judge. You can't find a good judge, to say the least. The Bible shows us that. All the picture of Isaiah is all the men who hold positions of authority are corrupted. So the judge makes his decisions on who's gonna pat his pocket more than the other side. That's not justice, right? That's corruption. But he's saying there's even a day beyond that where no one wants to be a judge. There are no judges. There's no one who has the wisdom to decide disputes. What does that mean? I think, again, prophetic language is important, right? Prophetic language is important. Isaiah is asking you to think what the consequences would be for a culture if there are no more judges in fighting. Right? Turning against each other. Battles amongst the people. A division in society that begins to emerge because there's no one left to settle disputes. As you move beyond that, you'll see the prophet. This picture is the word of God being proclaimed, prophesied to the people. They will be taken away. There will be no more prophets. There will be no more word from God. Now we see this elsewhere. picture of God's judgment is what? A famine in the land, not of bread or water, but of the Word of God. The lessening of the preaching of the gospel in a culture is itself a sign of God's judgment against the culture, particularly if that had been there before. It's a sign of judgment upon a nation that the Word of God begins to disappear And notice, not only the Diviner, which would be interesting to delve into, but I want to get to Elder for a particular reason. These are your local leaders. They don't exist anymore. Nobody is standing up and taking leadership of the community. And therefore, each man does what is right in his own sight, as has been the case in Judah and Israel since the beginning, except in times where God raised up godly men to lead the people. My friends, what it's picturing here is chaos. Chaos. The downfall of a culture and society is being pictured for us here. If you go on, you'll see the captain of 50. This is a military term again. There's no leaders in the military. And what else? The honorable man. It's hard to find an honorable man. Maybe some of you have read Socrates and you remember that he famously went through the streets of Athens with a lamp during the daytime and people would say, what are you doing? He'd say, I'm looking for an honest man. I'm looking for an honest man. I think the same thing here. You will not be able to find honorable people. They'll be rare. They'll be rare. The way a culture chases after celebrities, they should be as excited to see an honorable person because they're going to be rare in that day under the judgment of God. The counselor? We're not talking about a lawyer here. We're talking about one who gives wise counsel. I think you can think of for a moment in David's life as David finds out that Ahithophel, his most trusted counselor, has betrayed him and gone to side with his son against him Absalom. He makes this prayer in the Kidron Valley, God turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. My friends, I think what we're being pictured here is a day when the word of counselors and advisors is foolishness. There's no real counsel to be found. The wisdom of a culture has become foolishness. Again, that's a sign. If you think, what a foolish age we live in and what is passing as wisdom today. My friends, you're not moving toward God's judgment. God is telling you in his word, you're already under his judgment. We need to recognize these important things. As we think about this, We see that the society is collapsing to such a degree that they can't find anybody who's even willing to lead. Well, what are they going to lead? Look at what it says in verses six and seven. When a man takes hold of his brother and the house of his father saying, you have clothing, you be our ruler. You're a little better than I am. You be our ruler and let these ruins be under your authority. What are you going to be king over? A trash heap. That's what you're left to be king over. And even then they say, as great as it is to be the leader, they say, no, I'm not fit for this. They aren't fit for it. But there's no one fit in this day. You can't find a good leader anywhere. There's nowhere to be found a leader who is capable of leading the people for their good. Every ruler is ruling for their own good and not for the nation. And so my friends, we recognize what's being said here. This is a disaster. And as you begin to think about the consequences of this in any nation, it is not going to be good. It also mentions that there is oppression. Oppression certainly from government, that was normal in those days. You had a king. You had a king. And the Lord warned his people what would happen if they chose a king. He said, if you have a king, he'll be like all the other kings of all the other nations. He'll tax you to death. He'll send your children off to fight his wars, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And the people didn't listen. So that's normal, that's par for the course in the world in which we live. But notice here, it says they're not just being oppressed by their king, they're being oppressed by their neighbors. When you live in a culture where everybody's trying to lord it over each other and oppress those around them, it's a sign of judgment. It's a sign of judgment. So my friends, I think if we begin to see this pattern, what we see is, that structures are collapsing, good leaders are disappearing, there's a lack of security, there's a lack of moral discernment, there's a general increase in societal corruption and foolishness. These are all signs of God's judgment on a nation. Maybe earthquakes too, I don't know, but these are the ones to look for. These are the ones to look for. And that brings us to our second point, a corruption of morals, because it's not just structures that begin to change. And I think the text has already been pointing to that. But there is a corruption of morals. And by the way, that itself is both a condition of judgment and the judgment itself. Such that it's hard to speak about these things because it's hard to discern what is the condition that led to judgment and what is the judgment itself. They're so closely tied. Why are there no honorable men to lead or to fight the nation? Is it because the leaders have been corrupted by sin? Or is it God's judgment? And the answer is yes, right? This is what's difficult, it's yes. It is they are corrupted by their own sin and it is the judgment of God upon them and upon the nation. And so my friends, we have to wrestle with this text as we come to it and think about what it's saying. Now, before we leave the first seven verses of this chapter, you may have noticed there's something said here that would fall very much under morality and the corruption of morals. In verse 5, in the oppression of each one by his neighbor, the next line is, the child will be insolent toward the elder. Think about that for a moment, right? There's a breakdown of the structure as God has said it. right, those who are the elders, or you might even think about this as like a parent-child relationship, right, that children are to obey their parents, to respect their parents. In fact, Paul says in the last days children will be disobedient to their parents. We talked about a couple of weeks ago what the last days is. But again, it's a sign of a sinful world in which we live that there is rebellion. And you notice here what he's saying clearly is that those who are in a lesser position will be resisting, and even worse, insolent toward the elder, the aged. The child will not show respect to the elders. That's something, in my generation, you were taught very seriously, you show respect to your elders. As a child, if you mouthed off to an adult, you got in trouble pretty quickly, right? So again, we see here this flip of what would be expected, but notice the next line. The base, or dishonorable, insolent toward the honorable. Those that are worthy of condemnation themselves condemn those that are honorable. I think this is Isaiah's way of saying here, right, a society that calls evil good and good evil. That those people who are those that should be chastised for what they're doing are the ones chastising those who are doing what God would have them to do. So again, Isaiah's showing us a flipping of the script. Things are exactly backwards from the way they're supposed to be. Moving on just a little bit beyond that, as we come to verse 8, you'll see that this continues. Why has all this happened? Well, notice what he says. Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen. Well, how? How have they stumbled? How have they fallen? Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. They sinned against God in action and with their mouths. And in doing that, they provoked His eyes of glory. I think this is just saying God's glory. They've provoked a reaction from a God who sees all things and is glorious. Well, you can see there a further description in prophetic language. The look on their countenance witnesses against them. They have a haughty look on their face. They look proud and arrogant before God. Their own actions bring judgment upon them. They declare their sin as Sodom. A prideful culture is a dangerous thing. Beyond that, a sinful culture is a dangerous thing. Notice what he says in that next line. They do not hide it. They do not hide it. When you get to the point where you're not ashamed of your sin any longer, you're at a very dangerous point. a very dangerous point. In fact, if you think about kind of extrapolating this point out, as woeful as sin is privately, right, and sin private is woeful, it brings judgment. When sin is paraded in the culture, when sin is accepted in a culture, it is far worse, this is telling us. Because God says, I'm standing at the door of judgment coming upon you. Why? Because you are a sinful people and you don't even hide it any longer. You're not even ashamed of your sin any longer. And what does he say to let us know the weight of severity that's coming upon this nation? Woe to their soul. Woes are powerful words, right? It's of God's judgment falling upon a people, for they have brought evil upon themselves. My friends, as you wrestle with this, I pray you recognize here the importance of it and also something that it would point to that, again, as bad as private sin is, we ought to be thankful if sin isn't public and accepted publicly. And we also ought to recognize something else that's important here, that the church does have an important function in culture to preserve culture, right, to be that salt and light in a culture. You think for a moment, judgment may befall any nation today if the church isn't there, right? We can see examples of this as Abraham walks and is negotiating with God how many righteous people need to be in a city to save it. We can see this idea, the very people who hate churches may themselves be kept from a national judgment by the placement of churches in those lands. And no one even thinks about that. And so my friends, A. A. Hodge once wrote, true religion is what keeps a nation from chaos, from falling asunder like uncemented sand. Uncemented sand. So God's speaking about judgment. A. A. Hodge is as well there. But God is speaking about judgment in this text. And whether we like it or not, judgment falls upon a nation that provokes God's righteousness. Provokes His righteousness. And we need to hear that. Yes, this is to Judah particularly here. But you just have to read the scriptures to see there's a general principle. We talked a few weeks ago about Habakkuk when he's asking about, will judgment fall upon us for our sinfulness? God says, yes, by the Chaldeans. And he says, that makes no sense. The Chaldeans are worse than us. He says, I know. And I'm going to bring judgment upon them, too, for exactly those reasons. So we see this principle. If we continue really quick to 13 and 14, you see the Lord giving this message. He stands up to plead. This is standing up at the bar in the court and stands to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes. They are primarily to blame, the Lord says, the leaders. Notice at the end of the previous verse 12, Oh my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. Bad leadership is dangerous. It's dangerous. Immoral leadership is dangerous, my friends. And so we need to recognize, first of all, to pray for our leaders and to pray for good leaders. But the Lord lays judgment first upon the leaders. They are the ones who have erred. They are the ones who have led their people into paths of wickedness. And I want you to see the charge he very specifically gives against the leaders, if you will. He says, for you have eaten up the vineyard. Now, some of you know the term leitmotif. This is found in literature and music. It's kind of a theme that recurs. You see it over and over again. Vineyard is a very important leitmotif in Isaiah. Vineyard will represent the people of God. And those leaders have been raised up to do what? to tend that vineyard, to take care of that vineyard, to prosper that vineyard, to cultivate that vineyard. That is the purpose of leaders. Not to destroy the vineyard. Even where they might take actions that would seem at first like, wait a minute, you're harming it there. You're trimming these branches off. We know from John's gospel that that's part of the cultivation process. part of the cultivation process. But that is not what's happened with these leaders. He says you have devoured the vineyard. You didn't cultivate the vineyard for God's glory. You didn't cultivate the vineyard for the good of the people. You cultivated the vineyard and destroyed the vineyard for your own glory, for your own good, for your own sustenance and extravagance. You have robbed from this nation to pad your own pockets. Go back to what God told Samuel. Right? Government tends to do this. Steal from the people to pad their own pockets. It's amazing to me how you can go to government, doesn't matter what party you're in, you go to Washington, you'll go there with very little net worth and just a handful of years you're there, you're suddenly a multimillionaire on $130,000 a year salary. How does that work? How does that work? I think we see the principles here of how it works. They don't cultivate the vineyard, they rob the vineyard for their own glory. We see this. He says it very directly. The plunder of the poor is in your house. If I wanted to look for all the goods of the vineyard, where will I find them? In your palaces. In your palaces. What do you mean by crushing my people? And grinding the faces of the poor, says the Lord of Hosts. This is a terrible message of judgment for these leaders. My friends, this is the reason the Bible says, and leaders should take seriously the warnings, to not even be quick to be a teacher in the church, right? Because God holds us to a higher standard. But this tells us He holds leaders in general to a higher standard. All these people that elevate themselves into offices, my friends, they need to recognize that the Lord says for this, there is great reward in doing those things if you do them well. and great judgment if you do them poorly or to the disadvantage of the people. Moreover, the Lord says, and I want to get to this because actually I'm jumping ahead of myself here, but I want to say before we close out the second point that He's going to turn now the talk to this picture of the daughters of Zion, the daughters of Zion. These are the daughters, the young women or the women who live in Zion in Jerusalem. And he's doing two things here. I'm going to get to this in my next point. But I just want you to recognize this represents both the true women of Jerusalem the women who live there, but also in a way represents Jerusalem herself as the city, the she that is Jerusalem. They are kind of a manifestation, if you will, of her. But here speaking of them in terms of truly being the women of Jerusalem, notice how they are described. They're not described morally or as chaste. They're described as what? Haughty. They're described as having outstretched necks and wanton eyes, and a lot of this stuff may not make sense to us. But these are ways of seduction. These are walking in ways of seduction. They've gussied themselves up, they've put on things to draw the attention and attraction of men, and this is how they find their value in society. By attracting men and gaining a man who will give them security. Now we recognize that is a real concern in culture, right, for women oftentimes. But notice here for a moment, he says they've gone too far. They act like harlots. They act like their neighbors. All these things that they do make them like the women of the other nations who do not fear God or do not know His ways. He says all that is left to do is for God to humble them as well. Oftentimes people have struggled with that last little phrase in chapter 17 because they don't see the double nature of the way Isaiah is speaking of the women here, both as Jerusalem and as women. And it says, the Lord will uncover their secret parts. And we understand that's a pretty graphic statement. But what he means is they're going to be exposed. They're going to be shamed. They're going to be put to shame. And so is the city of Jerusalem. It'll be uncovered. It'll be shown bare for what it is. It will be humiliated on this day of judgment because it is not trusted in the Lord. And that brings me to my third point. And final point, and it is short, is a display of desperation. My friends, this entire text is about taking away the things that you find comfort in. You take comfort in having plenty of food and water? Taken. You find comfort in having a military that can protect your city? Taken. You find comfort in having good leaders? Taken. You find comfort in having moral people in your culture? Taken away. One after the other, taken away. Wealth? Utterly removed. All that at the end of the chapter about all the fineries that the women adorn themselves with, they're taken away. They're no more. The wealth of the nation is gone. For the nation is fallen." And it pictures here a picture of desperation. All that you've counted on is taken away. I want you to look at verse 24 as it tells us very clearly the result of that. We've talked about upside down things in the culture. The children treating the adults dishonorably and the base treating the honorable dishonorably. But there's some reversals here. There once was a sweet smell of perfume, now there's a stench. Used to have a fancy perhaps silk sash to tie your clothing together with, now there's simply a rope because you're being detained, right? You're being captured. Instead of well-set hair, baldness, shame. You're, instead of, excuse me, and a rich, instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth, a rich robe, excuse me, instead of nice clothing, you're wearing sackcloth, which is the sign of mourning and branding instead of beauty. And those men that you sought once to attain, to beckon, to allure and seduce, they're dead. They're all dead. Your men shall fall by the sword, and you're mighty in the war." Now, we're not left, as Isaiah's audience is, to try to wonder how all this is going to play out. We recognize there's a man coming named Nebuchadnezzar. And the city will be destroyed, and the men killed, and artisans carried off. All these things will befall. But he says, in that day, these women who found their comfort in alluring and seducing men will now find themselves battling over who gets the couple of men that remain. Notice verse 1 of chapter 4. In that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name. This is another reversal. Right? In traditional cultures, we recognize in marriage, the idea is the man is the one who provides the food. The man provides those things that are needed. And yet what we see here is an exact reversal as the women are bargaining because seven women want this one man. They say, listen, let's enter into negotiations. I'll provide my own food. I'll provide my own clothing. I'll provide everything I need. Just accept me as your wife. The one thing that was once their comfort also taken away. You see, the message here that's given to us is of judgment and of what will happen in that day when there is nothing but lamenting left. And nobody has the things that they once found comfort in. It all has fallen away. And all those who once found reason to shake a fist at God and act haughty and proud before him have been humbled, brought to their knees. My friends, it is better to humble ourselves than have the Lord humble us. And so we need to recognize that. But in closing this morning, it's important that we understand the dual nature of what we're seeing here. You'll notice in the previous chapter, it was the Day of the Lord that I mentioned to you then. The Day of the Lord pictures, yes, that last day of judgment. But Isaiah is saying that in one sense that Day of the Lord is appearing even now, as God makes His judgment manifest and clear even in the present age, picturing forward to that eschatological day of judgment. You see it here. All of this judgment that follows right after the speaking of the day of the Lord has these kinds of words. Look at chapter 4, verse 1, which we just read. And in that day. Now, again, we can think, well, he just means that day of Nebuchadnezzar. And he does. But he's clearly tying it in the text to that day of the Lord he spoke about in chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar is an instrument of God's judgment. He's a preview of eschatological coming attractions. as is Assyria, right, as is many nations. But the Bible tells us those nations too will fall. Daniel tells us of a kingdom that is coming like a rock that will smash the idolatrous nations of the world. And it will never be replaced. And we should praise God for that. But as we think about this text, I want us to realize in the midst of all this judgment, and it is, I know it's a lot, It's a lot. But in the midst of it, there's always a ribbon of grace with Isaiah. Isaiah always wants to remind us of what he said in chapter 2, 1 through 4, of that glorious Jerusalem and how God doesn't forget His people. We see it in this chapter, chapter 3 and verse 10. In the midst of speaking of the evildoers reaping the fruit of what they sowed, he says, before that, say to the righteous that it will be well with them. It's going to be okay with the righteous. There'll be some on that day who it will turn out better for. On that day of Nebuchadnezzar's judgment, some will be carried off into Babylon. As bad as that is, It isn't being run through by the sword. And God will continue to use them. And He will preserve a remnant through all that. I'm getting ahead of myself. We need to get to chapter 6. But the point is this. For the righteous, it will be well with them. And that leads us to ask the question, okay, who are the righteous? Clearly there are some righteous there, as God terms it. Because he's saying, tell these righteous ones they will be okay through all of this, preserved. So who are the righteous? And the Bible answers that question throughout its pages. Those who are right with God, those who are justified before God, are those who have faith in God. We learn that from as early as Abraham. Abraham believed God and was accounted unto him for righteousness, right standing before God. Who are the righteous? Those who put their faith in the promises of God. The New Testament helps us to understand the fullness of that gospel. Those who are right before God on that day or any day, that future day of judgment, will be those who put their faith in Christ by God's grace. It is those who believe the gospel message. That God sent His own Son, His only begotten Son into the world who went to Calvary's cross as the spotless Lamb of God and gave His life as an atonement for sinners. It's those who believe that by God's grace that He died and He rose again and He stands now or sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for His people. It's those people who will be counted right with God. We spent a whole semester in covenant theology in the spring, speaking about how those things even apply to those in the Old Testament who put their faith in the promise of God. So my friends, the point here is this. God tells us, trust in Christ. Believe in Christ. And as terrible as these things are, and we may befall them on a national level, whatever, tell the righteous, it shall be good with them. It shall be well with them.