In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the importance of family and the breakdown of the family unit in society. He uses the metaphor of a vineyard to describe God's people and how God watches over and protects them. Pastor Chuck emphasizes the need for families to come together and strengthen their relationships, offering resources such as his Marriage and Family Bible Study and the Christian Family Relationships resource. He also references biblical passages, such as Revelation chapter 12, to illustrate God's care for his people and the punishment that will come upon the forces of darkness.

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 if you're following along in your Bible, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 27, beginning with verse 1, as we continue with an in-depth message entitled The Refuge from Judgment. And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. Let's turn now in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 27, as we continue our journey through the Bible. Now, as you know, in the original, there were no chapters or verses. In fact, in the original, there weren't even spaces between the words. So, they had to, first of all, figure out where one word ended and the next word began. There were no, the letters were just written without any spaces between. They were first translated, and then later on, because people wanted to reference particular portions of the Scripture, they separated them into chapters and verses for convenience sake, so that you could look up a particular passage and say, oh, that's chapter 12, verse 19. And you could look up a passage because you had the passages divided into chapters and verses. And that's just for convenience of reference, rather than saying, well, it's about the middle of Isaiah, you know, and have to really search a long ways. It narrows down and helps tremendously. But though all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, I do not know that that holds true for the separation of the chapters and verses. That was something done by man in order to aid a person in their study of the Bible and in referencing various passages. Now, when we read in our Western mind, we're accustomed to reading a chapter at a time. And when we come to the end of the chapter, we think, well, that's the end of the chapter. And we're not thinking in consecutive order, as it was originally written, just continuing right on in a consecutive order. So our minds have the tendency of beginning now a new chapter, and we think that we're beginning a whole new venture or whole new thought. And we don't oftentimes relate it to the previous verses that we've just read. And a lot of times, because of this, it's hard to catch up speed when you start a new chapter. And tonight is one of those cases where without the last two verses of the previous chapter, just starting to read chapter 27, you can find yourself in confusion and wonder, what is he talking about? It seems like he's talking about two different things, and they don't quite line up. And that's exactly what he is doing. He's talking about two different things. And unless you have the key in the last two verses of the previous chapter, you don't understand what he's talking about. And so to begin chapter 27, we need to begin with chapter 26, verse 20 and 21, where God is saying to his people, enter thou into thy chambers, shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the tribulation or indignation be over. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. And the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Now throughout the Bible, it tells us of a period of time in which God's judgment is going to fall upon the earth. The book of Revelation devotes the majority of that book to this subject. There is a seven-year period of time that is yet to be fulfilled in which God will be dealing primarily and predominantly with the nation of Israel as far as reaching out to them for salvation. At the present time, the Spirit of God is working among the Gentiles. And blindness has happened to Israel, in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in. So God is working now among the Gentile nations. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, is working among the Gentiles. But God will work among the Jews once again. It will be a seven-year period of time. It will begin when God destroys Russia in their invasion of the Middle East, and especially the area of Israel. When they get into the mountains of Jerusalem, and God manifests His power and destroys this invading army, at that time He will put His Spirit upon Israel once more. And God's time clock, which has been shut down for almost 2,000 years, will begin to tick again. And God's final seven-year cycle will take place. Now, this period is divided into two segments, about halfway in each. For the first three-and-a-half years, the Jewish people will, for the most part, be deceived by the Antichrist. Because the first thing He will do is make a covenant with them, and no doubt, with this covenant, He will grant them the right to rebuild their temple. And thus, this will be the sign to them that He is the Messiah. And you talk to the Orthodox Jews today, and you'll find out that they are looking for their Messiah. They are waiting for their Messiah. And if you ask them, how will you know He is the Messiah? They will tell you, He will lead us in the rebuilding of our temple. And that's what the Antichrist is going to do. Jesus said, I came in My Father's name, you did not receive Me. There's another that is coming in His own name, Him you will receive. And so they will be deceived, but after the temple is rebuilt, and they begin the worship within the temple again, the daily prayers and sacrifices, three-and-a-half years after the covenant is made to rebuild the temple, it has been completed, and they inaugurate again the sacrifices, He will come to the temple of God, and He will stand in the Holy of Holies and proclaim that He is God, and He will demand to be worshipped as God. He will stop the daily prayers and the sacrifices, and He will set an image of Himself in the Holy of Holies. At this point, Jesus warned the Jews to flee to the wilderness, where according to Revelation, God has a place prepared for them, where God will watch over them and take care of them for three-and-a-half years. That is what verse 20 is talking about here in Isaiah chapter 26, where He said, Come My people, enter thou into Thy chambers, shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself, as it were, for a short while, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. Now this final three-and-a-half years of this seven-year cycle will be a time of great tribulation upon the earth, greater than the earth has ever known before, because God's judgment and God's wrath will be poured out upon the earth because of man's sin and man's rebellion against God. There are many passages of Scripture that relate to the things that will be happening during this time of God's judgment being poured out upon the earth. Daniel says it will be a time of great tribulation such as the world has never seen before or will ever see again. Jesus repeats what Daniel has to say as He talks about the great tribulation of this time. In the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter six, with the opening of the scroll with the seven seals and the corresponding judgments upon the earth, on through the trumpet judgments, through chapter 18, you find all of these judgments that will be poured out upon the earth in this three-and-a-half year period of time. There will be cataclysmic judgments. The earth will be shaken, the whole earth. It will be moved out of its place. There will be gigantic hailstones. There will be all kinds of calamities that will be transpiring upon the earth during this period of time, which you can read Revelation 6 to 18 and get the gory details of what will be going on when God's judgment is poured out upon the earth. For in verse 27, behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. So God is dealing with His protection for His people, the Jews at that time, but He's also dealing with the judgment that will be poured out against the nations of the world, the Antichrist, his forces, and those forces of darkness which control the earth today. And so as he goes into chapter 27, verse 1 is linked with the last verse of the previous chapter. And if you did not have the chapter distinctions, all of this explanation wouldn't be necessary because you'd just read the next verse, not stopping when you came to the end of the chapter. And you would have read where the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. And in that day, what day? The day that the Lord is pouring out His judgment upon the earth, punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. In that day, the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent. Even Leviathan, the serpent and that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. Now it is quite possible that this is a reference to the Antichrist and the false prophet and Satan, who all will come in for judgment during this period of time. The serpent, Leviathan, the crooked serpent, the piercing serpent and the dragon. And we know that these are all symbols for Satan. And we do know that during this period of time, the Antichrist will be in control of the worldly powers and that he will have a false prophet that will do his, actually sort of lead the people in the worship of the Antichrist. And we know that the power of Satan will be unleashed upon the earth during this period of time also. And so God is going to destroy these powers that have been destroying the earth. Now, in the previous verse, he was talking about his protection for his people. Come, my people, enter into this place, close the doors around you and wait there until this indignation be overpassed. In Revelation chapter 12, we read concerning Israel that God will give to her wings of an eagle to bear her to the wilderness place that he has prepared for her, where God will watch over and take care of her for three and a half years. So the Lord talking about the punishment that is going to come upon the forces of darkness upon the earth, but then he returns to his people. And again, he speaks of them in the figure of a vineyard. Now we already had this figure of the vineyard back in chapter six of Isaiah, where God likens the nation of Israel to a vineyard. And here again, we return to this idea of God's people being as a vineyard. And in that day, sing ye unto her, the people of God, that you a vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord do keep it. That is the vineyard. And the word keep is watch over or look over it, watch over it. In those days, their vineyards all had the watch towers. And during the time when the grapes were getting ripe, they would go into the watch towers and watch the vineyards. First of all, for people coming in and ripping off the grapes, and then also for the foxes that would come in and eat the grapes. And so the Lord said, I will watch over the people, my people, my vineyard, and I will water it every moment, lest any should hurt it. And I will keep it night and day. So God is talking about His people. He will be protecting them. He will be watching over them. He will keep them night and day. Fury is not in me. For who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them and burn them together. And so God talks about His strength and power. And if they try to withstand God, there's no chance. Or let Him take hold of my strength, that He may make peace with me, and He shall make peace with me. And now the prophet jumps to the, well he's actually not jumping to the last days, he's in the last days. But he's talking about these last day events in the nation of Israel. And he declares that He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit, or the face of the world. Back in the 1800s, the end of 1890s and so, there began what was known as the Zionist movement. At that time, God began to put the desire in the hearts of many Jews to return to the land that was promised to their father Abraham. Here in the United States, many of the wealthy Jews began to contribute to the Jewish fund. And with the money that was collected, they began to purchase property in the land of Israel. At that time, the plains of Sharon, which extend from the mountains of Ephraim to the Mediterranean, were swamp land. They were marsh swamp land, considered worthless. There were a lot of mosquitoes, malaria, and it was just swamp land. But the Jews came in and offered to buy the land from the Arabs, who thought those crazy Jews. And they laughed all of the way to the bank, thinking that they had really pulled one over on these. Jews are so anxious to own property in this land, they're willing to pay that kind of money for this worthless swamp land. The reason why it was swamp land is that through the years, the silt that was brought into the Mediterranean from the flooding of the Nile River had settled in sand dunes along the Mediterranean coast. And thus, there were these huge sand dunes all along the coast of Israel. And these sand dunes had actually dammed up all of the rivers and streams that usually flowed out to the Mediterranean. And thus, it created this whole swamp valley of the plain of Sharon. So once the Jews had bought the property, they then began to open up all of the rivers and the streams. They opened up the channels so that they could flow again into the Mediterranean. They removed all of these silt dams that had been built up, and they began to drain the swamp lands. They began to plant eucalyptus trees, which drink up a great amount of water. And then between the eucalyptus trees, they began to plant citrus trees. And the citrus fruit that grew in the Sharon Valley was some of the finest citrus fruit in the world. 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-3254. Again, that's tape or CD number C-3254. Well, as the holiday season is approaching, we'd like to bring to your attention a very helpful resource for families, knowing it's the time of year when families gather together. Undoubtedly, one of the most glaring signs that our society is in trouble is the breakdown of the family unit. Marriages just aren't making it today, and kids are suffering as they watch the breakup of their homes. The word for today would like to present Pastor Chuck Smith's Marriage and Family Bible Study. In this series, Pastor Chuck discusses basic principles designed to keep your family's love alive. Each member of the family has a different set of needs and responsibilities. And when you know and apply God's principles, everyone in your family can experience real peace, real joy, and unconditional love. And when you call and order Pastor Chuck's Marriage and Family Series, the word for today would like to bless you with a resource entitled Christian Family Relationships. Taken from the books of Ephesians and Colossians, this study reveals the secret to a solid and biblically-based Christian family relationship. And right now you can get it for free when you order the Marriage and Family Series. And remember, the word for today would like to assist you this Christmas in spreading the gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and co-workers. Please call our customer service department to help you in finding that perfect gift that will reflect the true meaning of Christmas. And if you call right now and mention this radio ad, the word for today will give you a 20% discount on any resource carried by the word for today. So call the word for today at 1-800-272-WORD. Or write to us at P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 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. The Lord, he is saying, has prepared and is looking for a harvest. And he uses discretion in his dealing with people. And with different people there are different ways. God doesn't work with us all as a mob. God respects our individuality and our differences. And he's very gracious that way. But the whole idea is God is seeking for fruit to come forth from your life. And thus he is working with you, preparing your life. That he might plant the seed, that fruit might come forth. But working with you individually has a plan and a purpose for each of your lives. And it's so important that we seek the Lord until we understand what his plan is for our lives. For when I get to the end of the road, there's only one thing that is vitally important. And that is the fruit that I have to offer my Master. Amen.