In this sermon, Pastor Chuck discusses the contrasting themes of judgment and hope found in the book of Isaiah. He highlights the corruption and oppression of the leaders of Israel, who used their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor. God pleads with the people to turn from their wicked ways, but if they do not listen, He will judge them. Pastor Chuck also warns against the influence of popular culture, particularly rock groups that promote violence and immoral behavior. He concludes by encouraging listeners to seek wisdom and guidance from the Lord in their daily lives and to share His Word with others.

Welcome to The Word for Today. The Word for Today is a continuous study of the Bible, taught by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old Testament. And for those of you following along in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah Chapter 3, beginning with verse 10, as we continue with an in-depth message entitled, The Day of the Lord, Part 3. 1 One thing is needful, O my Father, 1 One thing is needful, O my God, 2 That I sit at your feet and pour out my love. This thing is needful, O my God. And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. The nation's gonna go down. They're gonna be carried away captives by their enemies. But to the righteous, just say, it will be well with them. I will take care of them. I will watch over them. I will preserve them. Because they have held to me and held to my name, I will hold them in the hour of calamity that is coming. Say to the righteous, it will be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. The fruit of righteousness in a person's life, the fruit of it is good. It's sweet. To live a righteous life produces great fruit, pleasant fruit. It has its rewards. Living a good life has its rewards. The fruit of a good life. And God said, say to the righteous, you'll partake of the fruit of your righteous life. If you decide to live a righteous life, live for Jesus Christ, give your life to him, follow after him, the fruit of it will be good, it will be pleasant, it will be joyful. But woe, he said to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands will be given to him. The reward of the evil that he has done will be given unto him. So whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh of the flesh, you're going to reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit, then of the spirit, you're going to reap life everlasting. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the spirit is life and peace and joy. Say to the righteous, it's going to be well with you. You're going to enjoy the fruit of righteous life. Say to the wicked, woe, because you're going to reap the rewards of wickedness. But God goes on to say, as for my people, and the interesting thing, God is still calling them his people, though they have turned so far from him. God just has a hard time releasing a person. God's love is so great, he is very reluctant to let them go. And even in this condition says, my people. He said, children are their oppressors. Women rule over them. Oh, my people, they which lead thee to cause thee to err and to destroy the way of your paths. The Lord stands up to plead. And he stands up to judge. There are men that are leading you astray. They are leading you into the path of wickedness. And I look today at the forces that those people that have been put on pedestals, the stars, the rock stars and all, who lead the people to err, to destroy the way of your righteous paths. And these are the people that are molding the mores for the future. These rock groups that are advocating all of the violence, all of the sex, the incestuous relationships and these things. Don't get me on that. The Lord stands up to plead. Here is God pleading with the people, even in this condition. But if they do not hearken to the pleading, then he turns judge. And the Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof. For ye have eaten up the vineyard. The vineyard is God's people over in chapter five, verse seven. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold, there was oppression. And he looked for righteousness, but there was only a cry because of the unrighteousness. And so here were the leaders. They ate up the people. They took advantage. And the spoil of the poor is in your houses. They use their offices to enrich themselves. Their oppressive taxes they took from the poor to enrich themselves. And so the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by beating my people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of hosts? What do you mean by this? This oppressive ruling, beating down the people, grinding the faces of the poor. And now the Lord speaks against the daughters of Zion. You know, whether or not some of these social scientists want to admit to it, there is a difference between men and women. And if you don't know the difference, I feel sorry for you. There's a difference in our makeup. Boys are naturally drawn to mechanical things and little girls are drawn to dolls. I would be worried if my little grandsons were wanting dolls when we go to Toys R Us. They always go to one department and my granddaughters go to the other department. My granddaughters go where all the dolls are and my grandsons go where all the mechanical things are. The guns and, you know, these mechanical things. Because there's a difference. There's a difference. And for the most part, a man's nature is much coarser than that of a woman. Rugged, coarse, tough. Just man's nature. So we move in a rather narrow spectrum. We can be up, we can be down, but we're not very up and we're not very down. We sort of move in a narrow spectrum. We're coarse. Now, on the other hand, a woman has a very fine emotional temperament. Much finer than a man. Much more emotional. Lives more in the realm of emotions. And she is capable of emotional highs that are much higher than that of a man. But because of the broader spectrum, when she's down, she can be much lower than a man. And so she moves in this broad spectrum of highs and lows that is broader than the man. My wife is capable of much broader spectrum of emotions than I am. My kids never like to tell me something because I don't react. They like to tell her. They get a reaction. I say, oh, that's nice. She says, oh, really? Oh, that's wonderful. Just the difference. But when she gets down, she can get way down. I have to lift her up. Now, because of this, when women become immoral, they really sort of set the moral standards. A man is always, it seems, going to be pushing in the realm of sex. It's up to the woman to establish the lines, to draw the lines, and to create the standards. Hold the lines against this constant pressure of the man. But when a woman becomes immoral, loose, then they are capable of lower degradation. And when that happens, the nation is really down the tubes. And so God addresses the daughters of Zion who became immoral. Who walked, He said, they were haughty, and they walked with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go. They were walking just in as sexy a way as they could. And making a tinkling, they had the bracelets around the feet, seeking to draw attention to their ankles and their legs. Therefore, the Lord, He said, will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion. And the Lord will uncover their secret parts. Actually, what happened is that when they were taken captive, they were stripped of their clothing and they were led away naked. A shameful, embarrassing thing. In that day, the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, their earrings, the necklaces or their bracelets, with the crescents, little crescent ornaments, the chains and the bracelets and the necklaces, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs, the headbands, the tablets and the earrings, the rings and the nose jewels, their changeable suits of apparel, their mantles and wimples and their crisping pins, their mirrors and their fine linens, their hoods and their veils. And it shall come to pass that instead of a sweet smell, the perfumes, there will be a stink. Instead of a girdle, there will be a rope. Their clothes will not be the fancy girdles, but they'll tie you around with ropes. And instead of well-set hair, there will be baldness. And instead of the stomacher, the girding of sackcloth and the burning instead of beauty. Judgment will fall upon the women. But also thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war, and her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground. Judah is going to fall. And in that day, because so many men have been killed in war, seven women will take hold of one man saying, we will eat our own bread, we will wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach. In that culture, it was a reproach for a woman not to bear children. They looked upon the basic purpose of a woman is to bear children. And not to be able to bear children was considered a reproach. And so seven women would take hold of one man and say, we'll eat our own bread and all, but we want children. Take away our reproach. Horrible day was to come. Now, in verse 2 of chapter 4, he goes from this day of God's judgment and this day of calamity to another day, a day yet future. Suddenly, the whole scene shifts to another day, a marvelous day, a day that lies out in the future, a day of hope, a day of blessing, a day of glory. Now, this was always the promise of the scriptures. There is to be that ultimate glory for the people of God, for the righteous. God has prepared a glorious day in which the earth will be transformed, in which righteousness shall cover the earth as waters cover the sea, a day when the Lord himself shall reign and the glory of God will cover the earth. But before that, a day of judgment is coming, the fierce judgment of God against the unrighteousness and against sin. But they never spoke of those horrible days of judgment, but what they didn't look ahead beyond that dark day to the glorious day of the Lord that is going to come. This is true today. Things are rather dark right now, but they're going to get worse. We're going to go through a time of horrible carnage, horrible wars, horrible cataclysmic events, horrible judgments of God are going to come upon the earth, but it will be followed by the glorious day of the Lord that he speaks about here, the day when Jesus comes again to establish God's righteous kingdom over the earth. And so looking beyond the suffering and the judgment to the day that God has promised. And so in that day, far different than the day of verse 1, in that day, shall the branch of the Lord who is Jesus Christ, the branch of Jehovah. In several places in the Old Testament, the Messiah is referred to as the branch of Jehovah. He is referred to as the branch of David. And we'll be getting to this as we move on through the prophets of the Old Testament. He is the servant, the branch in Zechariah. Jerusalem is again to be overrun by the enemies. The Antichrist will establish his center of worship in Jerusalem in the rebuilt temple. He will make war against the Jews. They will have to flee to a place that God has prepared to preserve them in the wilderness of Jordan. But those that do survive, those that come through that great period of tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, the fruit of the earth then will be excellent and delightful for them that are escaped of Israel. It shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will become the religious capital of the world. Jesus will set up his headquarters in Jerusalem. There on Mount Zion and the earth will gather together, the people of the earth will gather together to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. And so when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning and the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining and the flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a covering, a defense. So that glorious day when the presence of God will be there in Jerusalem, the cloud and the pillar of fire, these were the symbols of God's presence among his people, the nation of Israel when he brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness there was that pillar of fire at night, the cloud by day so that they were constantly reminded of the presence of God. There within the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle that Moses built there was that Shekinah, the luminescence. It would be dark but it was illuminated by just the glow of the presence of God. The Shekinah is that glow of God's presence and it was there in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle and there was that cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night which was that constant reminder of a person from Israel go out of their tent at night, they'd see the fire of God above the tabernacle. They were reminded of God's presence in the midst of his people. What a glorious time of history that was for that nation. And so the Lord will create on every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of the flaming fire by night for upon all of the glory shall be a defense or that'll be a canopy over them. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covering from the storm and from the rain. God will protect his people. He will shield them from all storms and adversities and all. So a glorious day of the Lord in that day when the branch, Jesus Christ, the branch of the Lord beautiful and glorious through to the earth. Face to face, Lord, let me know. Face to face, Lord, let me see you. Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few closing comments. But first I'd like to remind you that today's message is available in its unedited form on cassette or CD. Simply write or call and ask for ordering details on tape or CD number C-3243. Again, that's tape or CD number C-3243. Well, it's that time of year again. It may seem innocent, but the symbols of Halloween like black cats, jack-o'-lanterns, and trick-or-treat all have roots in sorcery and Satanism. We would never knowingly get involved with anything related to Satan. But many Christians don't understand what's really behind the pagan holiday. The word for today would like to offer you a presentation hosted by Pastor Chuck Smith called Halloween Trick-or-Treat that traces the pagan origins and history of Halloween. This powerful movie uncovers the mystic rites and ceremonies of Satan and will forever change your opinion of Halloween. Every year as the end of October approaches, we are faced with the dilemma of family and friends pressuring us to participate in the celebration of this pagan holiday. This documentary will definitely challenge you to decide whether or not you'll continue to participate in this tradition. If you'd like more information on Halloween Trick-or-Treat, then simply write or call and ask one of our operators for the ordering details. Again, it's called Halloween Trick-or-Treat. And right now, if you place an order, the word for today would like to bless you with Pastor Chuck Smith's pamphlet How Can a Man Be Born Again? Absolutely free. Instead of just giving candy this year, the pamphlet is the perfect tool for Christians to share the gospel with loved ones and friends. Available in both English and Spanish. Again, it's free when you call right now. To order Halloween Trick-or-Treat, for yourself or for a friend, you can call the word for today at 1-800-272-WORD Or write to us at PO Box 8000, Costa Mesa, CA 92628 Once again, that number to call is 1-800-272-9673 And for those of you that would like to visit our website, you can do so at www.twft.com Or if you would like to email us, you can do so at info at twft.com Well, coming up next time on The Word for Today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his fascinating study through the book of Isaiah. That's coming up next time on The Word for Today. And now, with a few closing comments, here's Pastor Chuck. Now may the Lord be with you as we enter into another week. At your workplace, may the Lord's hand be upon you. Give you wisdom, guidance, and favor in the eyes of your employers. In the classroom, may the Lord put a shield and a filter over your brain so that the junk won't pass through and only that which is good will filter in. That you might grow in knowledge and understanding and with all of your knowledge, get understanding. And may the Lord give you opportunity of sharing His Word, His love, His truth with those that you work with and those that you study with. May it be a good week. One in which the Word of God comes to your heart and strengthens and rejoices your heart in Christ. God, let me love you face to face.