In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the decline of the nation of Judah during the time of Isaiah's prophecies. He emphasizes the importance of righteousness and moral values in a nation, stating that when a society honors God, it is exalted, but when it becomes godless, the nation becomes weak. Pastor Chuck highlights the need for the United States to address its humongous national debt and stop deficit spending. He also reminds listeners of the importance of sitting at God's feet and pouring out love to Him.

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 who wish to follow with us in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter 3, beginning with verse 1, as we continue with an in-depth message entitled, The Day of the Lord. One thing is needful, O my Father One thing is needful, O my God 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. During the time of Isaiah's prophecies, there began that decline of the nation of Judah that was to ultimately bring the death of the nation there being carried away into captivity to Babylon. It wasn't to happen during Isaiah's lifetime, but the seeds were to be planted, and it was gradually going down. There would be moments when it would level off, even come up a bit under Hezekiah's reign. Things improved, but upon the death of Hezekiah, his son Manasseh took the nation to its deepest depths of depravity. So, Isaiah is prophesying concerning the judgments that were coming upon the nation during the time that Ahaz was the king in chapter 3, who was a very wicked king, a very poor leader. It was through him and during the time of his reign that they were besieged by their enemies. 200,000 of them were carried away captive into Israel and the northern kingdom, and they began to experience a real drought of strong leadership. So, he begins chapter 3 by declaring, For behold the Lord, there is Adonai, Lord as a title. The Lord of hosts, there is Yahweh, the name of God. So, Yahweh is Lord. He's the Adonai, but His name is Yahweh. So, behold the Adonai, Yahweh of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and Judah the stay in the staff. Now, the stay in the staff are the same Hebrew word, only one is in the feminine and the other is in the masculine. And they are translated differently just to indicate that there is a slight difference between the feminine and masculine gender. But the word is supply, and in using both masculine and feminine gender, it is speaking of the complete supply. It's sort of an emphasis. And so, the Lord is going to take away from Jerusalem and Judah their whole supply of bread and their whole supply of water. There will come a drought. The drought will lead to the slack in the production or in the growing of their wheat, and thus there's to be a shortage of water, which will bring upon the shortage of bread. But not only will there be the shortage of bread and water, the basic staple of life, but mighty men, or the mighty man and the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the wise man, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, the honorable men, the counselors, the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator, the craftsman actually, the cunning craftsman, and the eloquent orator. Now, God is speaking of this gap that's going to take place in leadership, the real lack of good, strong leadership, the mighty man, the powerful leader, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the prudent, the ancient, or the wise and the ancient. And even there will not be a man who is able to command fifty men. The captain of fifty would be an army captain who had a platoon under him, and even that man will be taken away. The man who is capable of leading fifty. And I will give instead, he said, children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The idea is that they will be ruled over by inexperienced novices, men who know nothing about real leadership. And the people will be oppressed. That is always the case when you have poor leadership, it brings, and they bring oppression upon the people, because they begin to use their power for their own benefit, and for their own personal gain. And when a person has a position of power, but he perverts that to his own personal gain, then you have oppression by the people who are being ruled. They are being oppressed. And so the people will be oppressed, every one by another, every one by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. You're going to have problems with juvenile delinquency, you're going to have a problem with the children, you're going to be having a problem with the wicked people, because they're going to rise up against the honorable or the honest people. So a condition of anarchy is going to sort of take over, and there will be a lot of lawlessness, there will be a disregard for the laws, and a chaos that always results from anarchy. The streets will not be safe, there will be those who will prowl the streets, making it unsafe for others. There will be such a leadership gap, that they'll be looking for anyone to stand up, and to lead them against the evil. A man will take hold of his brother, of his own house, and of his father, and he'll say, you have clothing, you be our ruler, and you take charge in trying to stem the ruin of the land. And in that day shall he swear saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing, don't make me a ruler of the people. No one wants to take responsibility at this point. Things are going to be so bad, that no one is going to want to take the responsibility for what is happening, and what is going to happen. This seems to be much the condition that we're facing right now, at the present time in the United States, as they know that something has to be done. We have come to the place of complete desperation, as far as government is concerned. Something has to be done, concerning this humongous national debt. We cannot any longer continue this deficit spending by the government. It's got to come to a stop. And they realize that. And they also realize that the only way that they can cut the deficit spending, is to cut out some of these programs of government spending, on non-essential things, and perhaps some essential things. But there has to be a real cut in our spending, plus, we're going to have to increase taxes. Now, nobody wants to be responsible for cutting, and nobody wants to be responsible for the increasing of taxes. The Democrats are insisting on all of these welfare spending programs. They're unwilling to cut those. But they are also unwilling to take responsibility for the raising of taxes. And yet, it has become a necessity for survival of the government. And no one wants to be responsible. So they're saying, you cut! You know, so that we can say, look, the greedy Republicans have cut the welfare for you old people, and they won't give you the Medicare and all anymore. And you make the cuts. No, you make the cuts. You increase the taxes. No, you increase the taxes. And so no one wants to take responsibility for the cuts, or no one wants to take the responsibility for the tax increase. And so this is the kind of situation that was existing in Israel at this time, as they were going down the tubes. No one wanted to take responsibility for leadership. Don't lay that on me. I don't want the responsibility of this. I don't want to take the responsibility of making those necessary kind of decisions that are going to create unpopularity. And so, as they're trying to get anybody to step forward, grabbing his brother and saying, look, you've got clothing and all in your house. You become our leaders. No way. I'll not be a healer, for in my house I have neither bread nor clothing. Don't make me a ruler over the people. Now, Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen. There is really national calamity and disorder. And the Lord tells us why Jerusalem is ruined, and why Judah is fallen. Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. We read in the scriptures that righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Now, that's sort of a grid that you can put over history, or any period of history. And you can see that in nations where there is a righteousness, where there are moral values, where there is an honoring of God, that nation is exalted. Where a society is a godless society, you will find that the nation is weak. It's a reproach. Sin is a reproach to any people. And so the nation of Judah, which was God's people, they were to be God's witness upon the earth. They were to be a light unto the Gentiles. To show the Gentiles the benefits that will accrue to a nation that has God at the center of national life. A nation that will honor God and worship God, will be blessed of God, and that was to be the beacon to the world of a nation honoring God, but they had turned from God. And thus they became the example of what happens to a nation that turns its back upon God and tries to rule God out of its national life. In the beginning of the nation, when God brought them out of Egypt, they were so excited about God. He was at the heart and the center of the national life. The tabernacle that was built was put in the center of the camp, and the twelve tribes were encamped all around about the tabernacle. But the tabernacle was in the center of the camp, and all of the openings of their tents was towards the center of the camp, so that when they walk out of the tent in the morning, they would see the cloud above the tabernacle, and they would be conscious of the fact that God was in the center of the nation. And they were excited about what God was doing for them. They were excited about the establishing of a nation under God. They were excited about the land that God had promised to them, that He was taking them, that they might inherit this land that He had promised unto Abraham. And it was a nation that was focused and centered in God. And God said that you wrote upon the walls, you wrote upon your tents, and you hung little things on the camels that said, Holiness unto the Lord. And you were excited about worshiping God and serving God. But as they were established in the land, as they began to prosper in the land, a land that was a fertile land, a land that valleys were filled with grain, the mountains with trees, a land that was well watered, flowing with milk and honey, producing abundantly as they began to be prosperous in the land, they began to lust after other things, they began to turn to other gods, and they forsook the true and the living God, and they began to worship the other gods, the gods of sensual pleasure, the gods of intellectual pursuit, the gods of power and possession. And thus, they began to speak against God. Their tongues and their doings are against Yahweh. First of all, their tongues, they began to speak against God, and soon it was followed by their actions. They, in their actions, turned against God. Again, I would recommend to you a book, The Light and the Glory, in which you get a true perspective of the beginning of our nation. The first attempts at colonization of the New World were utter failures, because those who came over to colonize had come over for wealth and for riches, to sort of rape this new land, and it ended disastrously. It was not until the pilgrims came over with a totally different motivation. They were motivated to establish a nation under God, in which they would be granted that total freedom and liberty of worshiping God after the dictates of their own conscience and not after the dictates of a government. They did not want a government church or a government regulated church. They wanted to worship God as we worship Him in freedom and in truth without the government dictating to them which church they should go to. But their basic desire was to get a place where they could worship God freely. That was their motive of establishing the colonies. And thus, in the framing of the Constitution, that was one of the paramount issues in establishing this government, that they establish it in such a way that always would the religious freedoms be exercised in the ability to worship God after their own heart and after their own conscience. Now, they weren't seeking to establish the freedom to smoke marijuana as a religious ritual. You see, in England, they were burned at the stake, because they dared to speak out against the abuses in the church. Because they dared to make a translation of the Bible into English. Because they dared to speak forth the truth. They were persecuted, they were put to death, they were burned at the stake. And thus, they wanted to establish a nation where you could speak the truth without suffering from it. And thus, the freedom of speech. But they weren't thinking the freedom of using every kind of foul, filthy word. That was not at all the idea. That wasn't the intention. That wasn't in their mind or heart at all when they established that Bill of Rights. And established the freedom of speech. It was the freedom to speak out against the evils of our society. And to speak the truth of God. 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 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. Now may the love of God and the peace of Christ and the sweet and blessed communion of the Holy Spirit be with you as you go. And may our hearts be open to the work of God and to the call of God and to the promptings of God upon our spirit. And I pray that God will raise up from among this body people who will get desperate before God in intercession, that it will not be said of God concerning our day and our city that there was no one to intercede, that He sought for a man to stand in the gap to fill in the hedge, but He found none and thus the judgment proceeded. May God really call us unto prayer and may we obey and respond to that call of God that we might see a real spiritual awakening, a move of God's Spirit and a return unto the Lord. May the Lord be with you. Bless and keep you through this week. Amen.