Isaiah chapter 24. This section in Isaiah, beginning in chapter 24, running through chapter 27, provides for us a section in Isaiah sometimes referred to as the little apocalypse. The imagery, the language here is such that it resembles other apocalyptic portions of God's word, most notably Revelation. And you'll see as we read the chapter that the scope is really very broad here. Leading up to this point in Isaiah, the nations have been singled out one at a time as being worthy of judgment and judgment being prophesied against them. And then we come to chapter 24 and the scope is expanded to include the whole world. So, we'll go ahead and read the chapter through, beginning in verse one, and with God's word open before us, let's seek the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to our hearts now through his word. Let's pray. Oh Lord, as we come to thee now with thy word open before us, we ask that we may hear from thee. Lord, thou hast heard from us already, in the raising of our voices in psalms and hymns. And now we pray that we may hear from thee by thy spirit and through thy word. I ask of thee, Lord, that thou wilt make me a vessel fit for thy use. And to that end, I plead the blood of Christ over my life. I ask of thee, Lord, based on the merits of that blood, that thou wilt use me Make me a vessel fit for thy use. Touch my lips with that coal from the altar. Purge me, and may it please thee to grant me strength of heart and mind, clarity of thought and speech. May I be sensitive to the spirits leading, and may it please thee to grant me unction from on high, so the message will be perceived not merely as a sermon crafted by a man, but as the very message God has for this people for this time. And may this time be used in a mighty way in our lives to prepare us for the remembrance of Christ. And we'll give thee the praise and the thanks for we ask these things now in Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah chapter 24, this is the word of God. Let us hear it. Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside down. and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master, as with the maid, so with her mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower, as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away. The world languisheth and fadeth away. The haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoiceth endeth, the joy of the harps ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song, strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down. Every house is shut up that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation and the gate is smitten with destruction. When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice. They shall sing for the majesty of the Lord. They shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore, glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. and it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare, where the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down. The earth is clean dissolved. The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth, and they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. Amen, we'll end our reading at the end of the chapter. We know the Lord will grant his blessing to the reading of his word, for his name's sake. I want to call your attention in particular to verse 16 from this portion we just read. We read there, from the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. Focusing especially on those words, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. Two timeless truths emerge from this chapter and from this section of Isaiah. There is the truth of God's judgment upon the nations that reject him, and there is the truth that the cause of salvation will prevail in the earth. We didn't take the time to read it, but if you jump down into the next chapter, chapter 25 and verse nine, We read, and it shall be said in that day, though this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us, this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So you have the doctrine of judgment, you have the advancement of Christ's cause, you have Christ's cause prevailing in the end, These two doctrines, you might say, stand in contrast to each other, just as sharply as night stands in contrast to day. And yet the two are related to each other. They're related in the sense that one leads to the other, or in other words, judgment leads to salvation. I find this to be an encouraging thought to reflect on. And I know I've said this, I've reflected on the times that Dr. Cairns has made the statement that judgment is never God's final answer. Judgment, rather, is a means to an end, the end being the triumph of God's salvation. In our text, we also find two very contrasting spiritual conditions. In the beginning of the verse, we have an allusion to the successful spread of the gospel, and hence the words, from the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. That's a song of triumph, that's a victory song. Some commentators take the phrase the righteous to be a reference to Christ. And I'm inclined to agree with him in that interpretation. Here, then, is the success of the gospel. Here is a new song indeed. Isn't it interesting that when the world writes its songs, it glories in sin and it sings of sin, but when salvation is brought upon the heart of the sinner, he is able to confess as the psalmist does in Psalm 40, he put a new song in my mouth. our God to magnify. Many shall see it and shall fear, and on the Lord rely." Even that psalm we sang earlier in the service. And as glorious as this spiritual condition is, it is not the personal expression of Isaiah's condition. And this is the contrast in the verse now. Note what could be called Isaiah's lamentation. when he says, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. Here is the confession of a man that is not enjoying the benefits of salvation. He's frankly admitting that while all the world may be rejoicing in it, he finds himself instead spiritually impoverished. Just as a starving man is reduced to the leanness of skin and bones, so must Isaiah admit that such an emblem, the emblem of a victim of starvation, depicts his own spiritual condition. Of these two contrasting spiritual conditions then found in our text, I wonder this morning which one can you more readily relate to today? Do you find yourself able to sing glory to the righteous? Or must you admit that here is at least one instance in which you can relate to one of the prophets of the Lord when you find that prophet crying, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me. The Lord's table is designed to take us from the adverse condition to the desirable condition. By rightly understanding and partaking of these elements, we can expect to be delivered from the cry of, my leanness, my leanness, and brought to the place where we can exclaim from hearts that are filled to overflowing the words of chapter 25 and verse one, O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things, thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. What I'd like to do then this morning in preparation for our time around the Lord's table is to examine the spiritual condition that is depicted by the prophet's cry with an aim toward overcoming this dreadful spiritual condition of leanness. You find yourself in that condition this morning? And let's face it, if we're honest, we all do at various times. Well, may the Lord's table bring us out of it and bring us to the joy that ought to be our portion. Let's begin then by looking at the condition itself as we consider, first of all, the need to overcome this leanness, the need to overcome it. My leanness, my leanness, the prophet cries, the word occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. The Hebrew lexicon gives it the meaning of wasting. And a different translation reads, I waste away. I waste away. Now, Isaiah is not alone in the sentiment he expresses on this occasion. There are others in the Bible that feel the same condition, although they may express it differently. So we find no less a man than Moses in the book of Numbers, complaining to God in chapter 11 that the burden he bore was too heavy. He felt a certain sense of helplessness and failure, and he had the feeling that he had fallen out of God's favor. So we find him experiencing an affliction that he considers worse than death itself. And in verse 15, he prays for the Lord to take him. Listen to what it says, Numbers 11 and verse 15. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness. Underscore those words, let me not see my wretchedness. This is the fate that Moses considered worse than death, having to face his wretchedness. I dare say this is the same spiritual condition depicted by Isaiah when he cries concerning his leanness. And what does such a condition depict? I dare say it describes a Christian who has become so faint in spiritual things that he feels only the weight of his carnal nature. We know, of course, from Galatians 5 and verse 17, that the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. For a Christian to complain of his leanness or his wretchedness is to complain, in effect, that the flesh seems to have gained the mastery. It's as if the flesh has prevailed and gained the upper hand in the struggle against the spirit. Spiritual sensitivity has all but vanished. We can barely detect the spiritual pulse. The image of this wretchedness becomes even more vivid when we see how another great character in the Bible uses it. We find in the New Testament no lesser a man than the Apostle Paul, making the same complaint as Moses when we read in Romans 7 and verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Underscore that phrase, it's an interesting one. The body of this death. You would think he would have said the death of this body. But no, it reads the body of this death. This is thought by some to be a reference to a practice used by ancient tyrants who would fasten a dead body to a murderer, the murderer's victim, and force the murderer to have to carry that body with him wherever he went. Eventually, the same forces that caused the decaying of that body would also prey upon the man having to carry the body, and it would quite literally become a body of death. Now, whether or not Paul had that practice in mind may be hard to say, but it certainly portrays a vivid picture of the wretchedness or the leanness that a Christian bears when he's subjected to such a spiritual condition. What a terrible condition to be in then. What a discouraging thing to have to bear. It's considered by these characters of the Bible to be a fate worse than death. This was the condition of soul that would lead the great prophet Elijah to beg God to take his life. It's this condition of soul that would have led the prophet Jonah to desire the same thing. Jonah, like Moses and Elijah, desired God to end his misery and bring him home. Underlying the spiritual condition is undoubtedly a sense of failure. Elijah felt that he failed when the revival on Mount Carmel proved to be insufficient to remove that wicked Queen Jezebel from the throne. Moses felt that he failed when he had to face the awful truth that the people he led out of Egypt were no nearer to God in the wilderness than they had been as slaves in Egypt. Jonah probably felt a certain sense of failure when he could not bring himself to desire the salvation of the very ones he was sent to preach to and mourn of judgment. And so we can carry such a condition forward to our own times and to our own lives. How often do we feel we're having to face our wretchedness when we feel ourselves to be failures as Christians, failures as ministers, failures as parents or as servants of the Lord? How often must we cry, my leanness, my leanness, when we feel the weight of the corruption of the flesh or we feel the alluring power of the world and our spiritual desires all but evaporate. You may take heart when you're forced to face your leanness. The very fact that such a condition eventually bothers you is a sure indication that you know that there's something better You know it's better by far to stay close to the Lord, to enjoy the light and the health of His countenance. The ones I worry about are the ones that seem indifferent to their spiritual leanness. I fear that their indifference springs from the sad truth that they may not really be saved. They've never really tasted and seen at all that the Lord is good, so they have nothing to contrast their wretchedness to. To those that know their leanness or their wretchedness, they know how much better they should be. They know that their chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and if they feel they're failing on both counts, or in other words, they're not glorifying God, they're not enjoying God, then they must cry like Moses, let me not see my wretchedness, or they must cry like Isaiah, my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me, or they must cry like Paul, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. Now, before I leave this point, let me show from the text in Isaiah where such leanness or wretchedness leads. Would you notice that after Isaiah complains of his leanness and pronounces woe upon himself, that he goes on to say, treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Leanness, you could say, leads to treachery. When spiritual wretchedness engulfs an entire nation and culture, then treachery becomes the order of the day. And don't we know it? And doesn't our own day prove it? Honesty vanishes when men are given over to the wretchedness. Faithfulness disappears and truth falls in the street and wickedness becomes the order of the day as each seek their own way to do what's right in their own eyes. This was proven, you know, when our Lord walked the earth. Such a day would have to be characterized as a day of spiritual leanness or wretchedness. How else can we account for the Lord Jesus Christ going about doing good? Only to be nailed to a cross in the end. And this leads to my next point then. We see the need to overcome our leanness when we face the nature of such a condition. Would you consider next the means for overcoming our leanness? There is a means for overcoming it. We find a strong emphasis on treachery in our text. The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, our text reads. Isaiah describes the consistency between what these dealers are and what these dealers do. They're described as being treacherous. Small wonder, then, that they would deal treacherously. But the prophet makes his statement even more emphatic by repeating it and emphasizing all the wicked and deceitful ways of such dealers. And so we read, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. I can think of no greater fulfillment of such a statement than what we find in the cross of Jesus Christ. Surely it can be said with regard to his sufferings that he was dealt with very treacherously. Another version reads, the traitors have betrayed. With betrayal, the traitors have betrayed. And aren't we at once reminded that Christ's passion entered its most intense period when he was betrayed? Christ, you recall, greeted Judas by calling him a friend. Judas greeted Christ with a kiss that signaled to his cohorts that this was the man they needed to apprehend. So in their treachery, they apprehended or laid their hands on Christ. You know, this is a point that I'm afraid is little thought of when it comes to the sufferings of Christ. In Matthew chapter 14, verse 46, we read, and they laid their hands on him and took him. I remember Dr. Cairns once drawing the contrast between this scene in Mark's gospel with the scene in 2 Samuel 6. We focused on this not long ago. where you have the account of David attempting to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. The Ark was placed on a cart, and when that cart began to tip, a man by the name of Uzzah put forth his hand to steady the Ark, and he was smitten by God for his error. Such was the jealousy of God for the honor of His Son that He would execute judgment on a man who unwisely, albeit sincerely, put forth his hand to touch that which only typified God's Son. Doesn't that give some perspective, then, to what God subjected His Son to and to what Christ voluntarily submitted to? when sinful men in the Garden of Gethsemane laid their hands on him and took him. And that was but the beginning of Christ's treacherous treatment. Before the night was over, he would be smitten and spat upon, while the Jewish Sanhedrin would decide he was guilty and then would search for the charge for their predetermined sentence. They had quite a struggle with that, you may recall. What could be more treacherous than such a mock trial? Especially when that treacherous action is contrasted to all that Christ did and said. He had taught them as one who taught with authority. He had done so many good deeds that John is compelled to say at the very end of his gospel that the world could not contain the books that could be written if every good deed of Christ was to be recorded. John 21, 25. Oh, it's no wonder that Isaiah would prophesy the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. But the treachery practiced upon Christ did not end with the mock trial of the Jews. Christ must also be subjected to a mock trial before Pilate. Then he must be examined by Herod. Then he must be subjected to Pilate again. And throughout these mock trials, Christ is scourged, and he said it not, and at last he's nailed to a cross when Pilate caves in to the treacherous mob's demand for his crucifixion. Oh, it's no wonder that Isaiah could write, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. What a sad commentary on the spiritual condition that prevailed in Israel in those days. The whole purpose for the existence of the Jewish race had been to bring forth the promised Messiah into the world. And now he had come, and he had proven himself many times over. But such was their wretchedness that they could do no better than to crucify him. And such was the wretchedness of the Gentiles that they could do no better than to go along with the treacherous plot. And so we see then in our analysis of our text that leanness leads to treachery. The analysis of our text is incomplete, however, if we only see in it how leanness leads to treachery. We also have to take note of the fact that the treachery unleashed upon Christ also provided the cure for leanness. There was more than treachery involved, you see, in the crucifixion of Christ. There was also God overruling man's treachery in order to bring about the greatest triumph of all time, even the accomplishment of our salvation. You're aware, I'm sure, of the statement in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, where he brings the two ideas together of man's treachery and God's determinate counsel. So he says in Acts 2 in verse 23, him, Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. You see how the two ideas come together? treachery, and determinate counsel. Such is the genius of divine wisdom that the most treacherous action of all time could be turned into the greatest accomplishment of all time through Christ's atoning death. On another occasion where we find the treachery of Joseph's brothers in the book of Genesis, selling Joseph into slavery, Joseph would sometime later say to his brothers in retrospect in Genesis 50 and verse 20, but as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Oh, you talk about a gospel text in the Old Testament. There it is. What a vivid and powerful foreshadowing of the cross where man's treachery was overruled and salvation was accomplished. And so we see what a dreadful condition spiritual leanness is. We see to what awful depth it can plunge us. It was because the Jews were spiritually lean and wretched and because they could make allies of the Gentiles who were equally lean and wretched that the treachery of Calvary's cross could take place. Leanness led to treachery, but in the goodness and mercy and grace of God, that treachery was made a cure for leanness. And so to complete our analysis, we have to consider finally the result of overcoming our leanness. We've noted in our study two contrasting spiritual conditions. There is the prophet's leanness, but there are also songs of praise, even glory to the righteous. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. Can you not detect in this statement the fulfillment of the commission that Christ gave to his disciples when he said to them in Acts chapter one and verse eight, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. I've always found it interesting to note that this verse in Acts is part of the answer that Christ gives to the question of his disciples, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And what is Christ's answer but that the kingdom had begun in Israel and from Israel it would go out into all the world? And the result of the worldwide spread of the gospel would be, as Isaiah indicates to us, that from the uttermost part of the earth, songs would be sung, even glory to the righteous. Here is a sure indication, then, that a soul has gone from a condition of leanness to fatness. He is able to sing a new song. He is able to rejoice in the Lord. He is able to glory in righteousness, especially as he sees his salvation in terms of God's righteousness. And that's so important to see. This is what the doctrine of justification by faith amounts to, seeing our salvation in terms of God's justice or God's righteousness. You see, based on the shed blood of Christ, it becomes a righteous thing for God to save a sinner. It becomes a righteous thing for God to forgive us our sins. It becomes an issue of righteousness for Christ to see us safely through and to land us at last on heaven's shores. I know that we often think of salvation in terms of God's grace and his mercy and his love, and those are all good ways and legitimate ways to view it. But don't ever forget the connection between salvation with God's righteousness. This is what makes our gospel credible. It is no sacrifice to God's righteousness that he saves sinners. Now, there is a sense, to be sure, in which we bear a certain dread of God's righteousness, especially when we measure ourselves by the righteous standard of God's law. How easy it becomes to see righteousness as an adversary when we are forced to confess that we come short of the glory of God. But the broken body and the shed blood of Christ assure us that righteousness is our ally. I used to love the way Ian Paisley described this. He would personify justice. Picture justice personified before God's throne and saying before God, if you would be true to me, if you would be true to righteousness, you must condemn that sinner. Oh, he may be trying hard to be righteous, but he comes short of your glory. If you would be true to me, to righteousness, that sinner must be condemned. But then Christ steps forth as our advocate, and he interposes his precious blood. And now justice personified goes from being our adversary to our advocate. And it's as if now righteousness declares before God's throne, if you would be true to me, if you would be true to righteousness, you must receive now that sinner. You must give him life. You must accept him. He's joined to your son. You must receive him and grant him life. Justice demands it. I love salvation from that perspective. Based on the broken body and shed blood of Christ, we are able then to draw assurance of our salvation based on God's love and grace and mercy and righteousness. And so you see how the text brings us full circle? We feel our leanness. We can readily relate to that dreadful spiritual condition that finds us weak and spiritually famished. This leanness can lead to treachery, even the kind of treachery that could take the holy, harmless, and sinless Son of God and nail Him to a tree. But in His overruling providence, God so ordained that through the most terrible treachery of all history, the greatest triumph would ensue, even the salvation of our souls. As we glory in this salvation, as we count it to be ours by faith, then we add our voices to the song that is sung, even glory to the righteous. These emblems that we'll partake of assure us then that these things are so. May we discover in our partaking of these elements a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined, May we indeed overcome leanness and wretchedness and be filled to overflowing in the love of our Redeemer as we pledge our faith in his atoning death. Let's close then in prayer before we distribute the elements. Oh Lord, as we bow in thy presence now and bring the study to a close, We thank thee that this spiritual condition is dealt with in thy word. For Lord, who can deny it? Who can deny that they felt it? It may be, Lord, there are people in this condition even here today. O Lord, look upon us and search our hearts. and grant that as we pledge our faith in the broken body and shed blood of thy son, that the Holy Spirit will minister the truth to our souls, that our sins have been atoned for, that we have been forgiven, that we are reconciled to our God. The Lord bless us now in our remembrance of thy son. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.