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.