In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the blessings and prosperity that come from living a righteous life. He emphasizes the importance of sowing seeds in well-watered areas and living in accordance with God's will. Pastor Chuck also mentions the upcoming studies on the day of the Lord and Armageddon. He concludes by reminding listeners of the true meaning of Christmas and recommends resources that explain the gospel and the significance of Jesus' birth.

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 31, beginning with verse 9, as we continue with an in-depth message And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck. For in that day every man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. When you see the work of God, when you see the deliverance of God, then you will forsake your idols that you have made. Now it is true that the Egyptians did not help. It is also true that when the Egyptian army was defeated and they realized there could be no help, they did turn to the Lord. They did seek the Lord. There was a revival. There was a putting away of their idols, even as Isaiah predicted here. And God miraculously delivered them from the Assyrians. God wiped out the Assyrian army. We'll get that in a few more chapters, 37, 38. And we will also see the effect of the sinners in Zion when they saw what God's presence did to the Assyrians. Great fear came upon the sinners in Zion when they saw God's devouring fires that destroyed the Assyrian armies. So the prophecy of their getting rid of their idols that they had made, their idols of silver and gold, unfortunately as time went on, they went back to their idols. They returned to their idolatry and ultimately their idolatry was their ruin. Any nation that gets God or any nation that forsakes God and turns to idols, turns to materialism, begins to worship materialism or begins to worship pleasure, that nation is destined to go down. And those in Jerusalem did turn back to idols, the worship of the idols. And Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon. And the ruins of that city remained to the present day. You see, they had a custom of not rebuilding a city in the sense of you just come back and rebuild the houses and all. What they would do is just cover over the old city and build on top of it. And that is what the Tells are. The Tells are one city built on top of another through the succeeding years as the city would be destroyed. When they would rebuild the city, they'd just sort of cover over the old city and build on top of that. And thus, in some of the Tells, they're artificial mountains, you can dig down 17 different civilizations or cities that were built on top of another over the years of time. And you can count and you can look at the various layers. And so when they came back from the Babylonian captivity, they followed that same practice. They just covered over, they ruined houses that had been destroyed by the Babylonians and they built on top of it. But you can go back and you can dig down and find those houses. And they have dug down on the Hill of Ophel to the houses that were destroyed by the Babylonians. Actually, you can see a layer of charcoal from the fire when the Babylonians burned the city. But the interesting thing in the excavation of these houses in Jerusalem, they found hundreds, hundreds of idols. And it confirmed what Jeremiah was saying that the people had turned idolatry. And they're in the archaeological diggings. Another interesting thing, in the diggings, in one of the houses, they realized it was a house of a scribe because they found the seal of the scribe. And when the scribe would, sort of a notary public of sorts, and when he would, you know, attest to a document or whatever, they put the wax seal on it and he had this little imprint, clay kind of a pottery kind of a thing with an imprint, his own imprint, that he would press into it, much like we have our corporate seals today. And they found the seal of Shaphan, who is mentioned in Jeremiah. And that seal is now in the Museum of Natural History there in Jerusalem. But it's fascinating because it's the same fellow that Jeremiah spoke about. Just a few years ago, they discovered the seal that he used. I've been trying to get one of those enterprising Arabs over there to make up a copy of that, because, you know, those guys are clever. They can make copies of ancient coins and ancient little artifacts and all. And, of course, you have to be careful when you buy stuff over there because it looks like it's a thousand years old, but, you know, they just brought it from the factory that morning. And they're very clever at making antiques. But I said, if you would make a copy of that seal, because they do have it there in the museum now, if you would make a copy of that, I said, every Christian tourist that came to Israel would want to take one of those home, because it's so significant, mentioned in the Bible in Jeremiah. And here they found it just recently, this Shaphan, the scribe. So, in that day, they will put away their idols, and then shall Assyria fall with the sword, but not of a mighty man. The Assyrians will fall with the sword, but not the sword of a mighty man. And the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he will flee from the sword, and his young men will be taken captive. Interesting prophecy, and it was literally fulfilled. The Assyrians were slain, 200,000 plus, but not with the sword of man. The angel of the Lord came into the camp of the Assyrians and destroyed them. And those troops that did remain fled. The king fled back to Assyria, and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear. He passed back into Assyria, and his princes shall be afraid of the signs, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion. And his furnace is in Jerusalem. So, the fire of God, destroying and devouring the adversaries of God, the furnace of God in Jerusalem. We'll get to that in chapter 37, as they talk about this devouring fire of God. Now, in chapter 32, we again have one of those glorious prophecies concerning the Messiah. And it is a prophecy that looks ahead. Now, from a biblical scenario, the earth has at least seven years left. Maybe longer, but at least seven. For there were 77s determined upon Israel, of which 69 have already been fulfilled. The 70th seven remains to be filled, the seven-year period. That seven-year period will begin when God raptures the church. It will be a period in which the Holy Spirit will be again working directly with the Jewish people in the Jewish nation. The end of that seven years will end in a great tribulation in the last three and a half years. Great tribulation culminating in the battle of Armageddon, at which time Jesus will come again with his church and with his saints to establish God's kingdom upon the earth. He will set his foot in that day on the Mount of Olives. It will split in the middle. A river will flow from out of the temple that will go on down to the Dead Sea, and part of it will go over the Mediterranean. As it comes into the Dead Sea, the waters of the Dead Sea will be healed, and Jesus will reign there on Mount Zion in Jerusalem for a thousand years. And his church will live and reign with him for that thousand years in a renewed earth, in renewed bodies, in ideal perfect conditions. He will rule with a rod of iron. That is, it will be an enforced righteousness. People won't be able to be bad even if they want to. We will be in our renewed bodies or in our new bodies, our glorified bodies. And we will have capacities of the glorified body, one of which, I think, as we will be more or less enforcers of righteousness, we will be rulers upon the earth with him. We will rule, live and reign with him upon the earth for a thousand years. And in this righteous rule, we will be apportioned the area of the earth over which we will be ruling or controlling. And I believe that we will have the capacity of being able to know what is going on in a person's mind. There will be people who will live through the Great Tribulation, live into this kingdom age, will bear children and so forth, and will serve the Lord because they will be forced to serve the Lord. I mean, it'll be a righteous reign and a rod of iron. So I think that when a person is thinking, hmm, maybe I'll rip that off, that you'll be able to know what's in their mind, you say, hey. And so it will be an enforced kind of a reign. But it is going to be glorious in that the earth will be renewed. The animals will no longer be wild. They will all be domesticated. There will be no wars. There will be no fears. There will be no crimes. Every day will be a perfectly beautiful day. Ideal. God's reigning. So here is the prediction, and it tells us some of the things that we can expect. As we get to chapter 35, again, he'll talk about this reign of Christ in this kingdom age and some of the glories of the reign. But here in 32, he gives you some insights. Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes, that's you, shall rule in judgment. The King Jesus Christ reigning in righteousness, and the princes ruling in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, or from the storm, a shelter from the storm, and as rivers of water in a dry place, and as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. So Jesus will be the hiding place from the wind, the shelter from the storm, like a river of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And physical conditions of man. The eyes of them that see shall not be dim. Can I get rid of these glasses? Won't need them. The ears of them that hear shall hearken. You won't be losing your, you won't have the aging problems and defects. Perfect health, strong, healthy. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. No physical infirmities. And in that day, the vile person shall no more be called liberal. And the Bible says it. These liberal politicians, these liberal theologians, the vile person will no longer be called liberal. You call them what they are, vile. The churl is a person who is stingy, a person who is out for himself, gathers for himself, takes from others. The churl will not be said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak his villainy, and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. And the instruments also of the churl are evil, for he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. That vile person will be exposed for his villainy. And that churl person who takes advantage of the poor people to enrich himself, who devises these wicked devices to destroy the poor. But the liberal devises liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. So rise up ye women that are ease. Now as Isaiah is making these prophecies, these gals were probably just lounging around there and sort of, you know, treating the prophet in a rather snide way. And so he turns to them and says, rise up ye women that are at ease. Hear my voice, ye careless daughters, and give ear to my speech. So calling directly to these women that were just there making fun. Many days and years shall you be troubled, ye careless women. For the vintage fails. You're going to run into problems. There will be no vintage. The crops are going to fail. The gathering, the crops will not come. You're going to go through some hard times. So tremble ye women that are at ease. Be troubled, ye careless ones. Strip you and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. Times of sorrow are coming for you who sort of take lightly the warnings of the prophets of God. Now, you shall beat on your breast, a more literal translation, as a person is who is often diswrought over circumstances just, oh no, you know, the beating on your chest is what is meant here for the pleasant fields. As you look at what were once pleasant fields and you see the barrenness, you see the emptiness and the vines that were once fruitful that are now bare. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars. Yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. The houses of the city will be left desolate. The Jews will be carried away captive. Upon the land of my people where there was once crops, it'll just be weeds, thorns and briars instead of a fruitful field. And the palaces will be forsaken. The leaders will be taken away captive and houses empty. It'll be a very doleful place. The multitude of the city shall be left. The forts and the towers shall be for dens forever. That is, the wild beast, the foxes and so forth will occupy the forts and the towers. And the fields will have wild donkeys upon them until this desolation, until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, when the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field be accounted for the forest. And so this desolation until God pours out His Spirit and His blessing, then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness in the fruitful field. And I love this verse, one of my favorites. The work of righteousness shall be peace. That is always true. The work of righteousness is peace. Righteousness is being right with my fellow man. Godliness is being right with God. But righteousness is being right with my fellow man. That is, living with my fellow man as God would have me to live, living right, doing the right thing. And the effect of righteousness is peace. If you're living in a right relationship with your fellow man, which depends upon living in a right relationship with God, then you have peace. The effect of that is peace in your heart and in your life. And the effect of righteousness, the work of righteousness is peace. The effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. You know, if you're doing the right thing, you can just have that quietness and assurance. And I love that quietness and assurance that God gives to us when we've done the right thing. Well, you know, God will take care of it. I've done what was right. Let me see. 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-3256. Again, that's tape or CD number C-3256. Well, Christmas time is soon approaching, and it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, buying presents, decorating, cooking. The list grows longer every day. Without realizing it, we can easily forget the true meaning of why we celebrate our Lord's birth. For this reason, the word for today would like to present a booklet by Pastor Chuck Smith entitled, How Can A Man Be Born Again? And also an audio CD entitled, Why? By Pastor Chuck. That would be the perfect compliment for Christmas cards and gifts this year. Both resources share the gospel of Jesus Christ and explain the true meaning of Christmas and why a man born 2000 years ago can still affect the world today. And best of all, they contain a message leading people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. And remember the word for today would like to assist you this Christmas in spreading the gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and coworkers. 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'd 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. When it shall hail coming down on the forest and the city shall be a low in a low place, blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. That is, sow in an area that is well watered, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the donkey. So the blessings of living in righteousness, the peace, the assurance, and the fulfillment, the prosperity that one experiences when they live for God, doing the right thing. We'll continue chapter 33 next week and then chapter 34, we get into the day of the Lord and Armageddon. Interesting studies coming up. This program is sponsored by the word for today. The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.