Right Called Right

Amen. Please turn your Bible to Isaiah 32. We're going to look at verses 5 through 8 today.

Isaiah 32. I'll begin the reading of the

Scripture with the first verse. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.

The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable, for the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the

Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.

But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today, once again, eager to receive your word, but aware of our own weakness in receiving it, and so we ask you to open us wide, make us receptive, make our hearts receptive, open our ears, open our eyes, even as it speaks of in this passage.

And I ask that we would put aside all foolishness and all ungodliness, and that we would embrace the godly society that you would have for us.

In Jesus' name, amen. It is certainly an issue in our society that good is called evil, and evil is called good, and foolishness is praised as noble, and wickedness praised as right.

You see it everywhere. It's the case that there are many, many policies in the world that seek to redistribute wealth.

They're very greedy and designed to take money from some people and give it to others, and these things are praised as generous and good.

And then there are all kinds of sexual ethics that are against the word of God that are praised as authentic self -expression.

So all kinds of things that are evil that are called good. All kinds of good things are called evil.

This is all over the world. However, the promise of this passage is for a society where right is upheld, where evil is called evil, and good is called good.

Something that's very different than the world that we live in, but it is a society that God will create, not only will create, but has already created and is creating.

If you remember what we spoke of in previous weeks, specifically this last passage, where it says,

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness. Very frequently Isaiah speaks of restoring the throne of David to its earlier heights, of this king who will come, this branch from the root of Jesse, from the stump of Jesse, who will come and reign over the people.

Behold, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. All these prophecies speak of Jesus Christ, and that is the same here in this passage.

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness. As we spoke of the rest of this passage, the prince's ruling and justice.

The kingdom that God is building on this earth is found in his church. And so this speaks of the offices of his church, particularly the office of pastors.

And so, what this passage is talking about is a restoring that is happening of God's people in this particular kingdom where Christ reigns and where his rule is upheld by good princes.

And this speaks of the church. So this society that upholds good, upholds the right definition of both good and evil, exists here among us and is being built.

And so the Lord today is inviting you to be part of that society, to join with us in building that society, or rather, him building it through you.

It is indeed the case that the world is full of perverting good and evil, its definitions, but a good society is being built through God's church.

And the society upholds those definitions of good and evil. It calls good good and vindicates it, calls evil evil and pronounces it as such justly.

Now consider here this first verse. The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.

So this is what I have just spoken of, that fools are often called noble and scoundrels often called honorable.

What is a fool and what is a scoundrel? A fool is one who speaks things that reject the Lord. A scoundrel is one who does things in rejection of the

Lord. Now, maybe there's not a black and white, perfectly mutually exclusive distinction between the two.

There's a lot of overlap between the two, but I think this is one reasonable way of understanding these two terms.

The fool and the scoundrel, the one who speaks against the Lord and the one who acts against the

Lord. Now you may recognize some of the things that I've been saying as coming from Isaiah 5.

Isaiah 5 verse 20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

This is a society that Isaiah lived in, a society that changed the definitions of good and evil and swapped them right around.

It is very similar to the society that we dwell in. A lot of people claim that their definitions of good and evil are simply self -evident.

I would argue, and the Bible would argue, that unless you have a creator as the foundation of your ethics, you have no ethics at all.

You have no real foundation for good and evil. It is necessary to trust in the true

God to go to His word, trust in Him to have correct understanding of these things.

Now, the world would respond to that and they would say, you know, good and evil are self -evident.

If you need a God, if you need religion in order to know what right and wrong are, then you are the one who is morally bankrupt because it is so self -evident.

Well, there's a sense in which I have to agree with that. It is self -evident. The Bible says that this conscience that God has given us, that He has written

His law on our hearts so that we should know this truth. But in our unrighteousness, we suppress that truth.

And so, if it is so self -evident, why is it the case that believer and unbeliever disagree about what right and wrong are?

Well, it is not so self -evident that it cannot be suppressed and it is suppressed in unrighteousness.

And which group is full of unrighteousness? Every person struggles with unrighteousness, but the

Lord has provided that His people might have righteousness in Jesus Christ, might no longer suppress the truth, might have that truth, might understand good and evil with clearer eyes.

If you do not have a foundation in the Lord, if you do not have Him working on your heart so that you might understand these things clearly, you have no foundation.

If you do not believe in an absolute God, one who it is possible to offend, one who it is possible to please, then there can be even no good or evil.

Now, what would it mean for something to be good and evil without such an absolute personal God? If it were just the consensus of man, the consensus of man can change.

Good and evil can change. The only way there can be an absolute is if there is an absolute personal God. And without that, it is a slippery slope from saying that there is no

God to embracing all sorts of evil. It is not a slippery slope fallacy, it is a literal slippery slope.

And that is exactly where we find ourselves today in a world that has increasingly, at least in recent times,

I'm not claiming something about the scope of human history in general, but at least in recent times, further and further abandoned the

Lord. And this can be seen,

I think most especially, in literature. You know, if you look at literature, and by literature I just mean fiction in general, look at fiction.

Less and less there is clear right and wrong, clear good and evil. More and more there are anti -heroes, you know, the prostitute with the heart of gold, the thief with the noble sense of honor, all sorts of things.

You know, it's good to have realistic characters, and realistic characters aren't perfect, but the reason that a lot of fiction has trended in this direction is to reject absolute notions of right and wrong.

So you see it everywhere in our society, including and even the heroes that get praised.

Now, when it says the fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable, while these things have been the case, it is saying that there will come a society from Isaiah's time frame where this is no longer the case, where the fool will no more be called noble, the scoundrel will no more be said to be honorable.

And this, as I have said, has been established in the Church of Christ. We have here the king reigning in righteousness.

All these things are flowing from that. Do not miss the context here. All these things are flowing from the king reigning in righteousness.

Because the king will reign in righteousness, the fool will no more be called noble. The scoundrel will no more be said to be honorable.

Now, it is quite providential that we have excuse me, let me take that back.

The word fool and noble, there are two Hebrew words. One is nabal and one is nadeeb.

And they sound a lot similar, right? The fool, the nabal, is called nadeeb.

In English here, it sounds very different. Sometimes translations end up picking words that sound closer, trading a little bit of accuracy for more of the alliteration.

We don't have that here. But the fool will no more be called noble. The nabal will no more be called nadeeb.

The scoundrel will no longer be said to be honorable. These things will be established in God's church.

Now, how does God's church accomplish that? How has this church which Christ has founded and built accomplish these things?

It's very simply through establishing some what's and some who's about goodness and evil.

So the what is, what things are good, what things are evil, this is accomplished through the preaching of the word.

God has established his church so that the word might be preached in various societies across the globe and promote true sense of good, true sense of evil.

And we are called to go out into the world and take that message, not only inside these four walls, but to the world as well.

Now this is also true about those who are acknowledged as part of God's kingdom. He said that he was giving the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And we look at how those keys are exercised in Matthew 18, we see very plainly. They are exercised by the church gathering and deciding on its membership.

Those who will be removed later on in Matthew 28, speaking of those who are added, Jesus said, all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And there

I am with you to the end of the age. He is with them just as he was in Matthew 18, wherever two or three are gathered.

He is present, giving authority in one case to remove from the congregation, the other case to add to the congregation.

So the church has been given the authority to declare who belongs to the kingdom of God.

Not only what is true and what is false, according to God's word, to speak on his behalf, but also say who belongs and who doesn't belong to speak on his behalf in that way.

And so we do that through membership, through the ordinances, through discipline, through baptism in the

Lord's Supper. You know, so many people want to just declare these things themselves.

They don't feel that they need this good society that the Lord is building, but rather they can declare themselves to be good, or they can declare themselves even to be

Christian. Now, it is the case that any person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is following him and can be called

Christian in some sense, yet the Bible speaks of a special way that we are to declare these things, and that is by the church declaring them.

There are so many people, a lot of people are very jarred by the way we practice the Lord's Supper, for example.

For our Lord's Supper, we require that you be a member of the church. We don't believe that we have the authority, or rather the individual has the authority to just declare himself a

Christian, that a church must declare these things. God has given authority to his church to uphold these definitions of good and evil, these definitions of who belongs to his kingdom, who does not.

It's not something for the individual to decide by themselves. You know, have you ever seen merchandise that hasn't been licensed correctly, and for good reason?

You know, I remember my brother, one time we were in Ocean City, Maryland, and he bought a counterfeit

Pokemon card. You know, the Pokeball was upside down, that's how you could tell it was a counterfeit

Charizard. But maybe you've seen like a Mickey Mouse that just looks distorted, the eyes aren't quite right, the ears aren't quite right, etc.

Because someone can stamp on it Mickey Mouse, but that doesn't make it the real Mickey Mouse. You know, that's just somebody on his own authority declaring this is

Mickey Mouse. That is what it often looks like, when someone without any real authority, not knowing even what the standards of God's people are, just declaring themselves

Christian because they walk down an aisle sometime or something like that. This is not how one is declared a

Christian. God has established his church to uphold right and wrong, and you are called to be part of this.

And I would encourage you to. This is a wonderful way that God has given his people a framework in which to uphold right and wrong, to make sure that scoundrels are not called honorable, to make sure that fools are not called noble.

This is a wonderful thing he has given. So I would encourage you to not disdain the exclusivity that you might see, but rather be encouraged that God has given us a way to uphold such things.

It continues on here. For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the

Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the soul of the thirsty.

The fool speaks his foolish thoughts, says he leaves the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and deprives the thirsty of drink.

This is what a foolish ruler does. This is largely talking about the rulers over Israel.

This is in comparison to the king and princes that we saw, that we see in the first verse. The Bible says in Proverbs 28, 16, that a ruler without understanding is a cruel oppressor.

Now, I've always found that very fascinating. It's not the ruler who has extremely evil motives.

It's not the ruler who, you know, heart is bent on hurting others.

Rather, it's the ruler without understanding. It is the fool. It is the one who does not understand the Lord and what he is required, who is a cruel oppressor.

He cannot do what is right because he does not know what is right. And this is the case.

The role of people in a place of authority is to care for those who have been put under their authority.

And yet, the fool is either incapable or apathetic. One or the other.

Or both. And so he's unable to do these things. And once again, this is what we see all over society.

Consider just how many governments are bent on furthering their own interests rather than the interests of the people.

Not pursuing justice, but pursuing what they would like to pursue. You know, I recently went to a village meeting here in the village association.

And there was a presentation given by the mayor where he was explaining some of the priorities over the past several years and things like that.

One of the things he was explaining was that Sunnyvale is the only city in this area to not do any layoffs and to be able to still give raises during the difficult financial times of the pandemic.

And they accomplished this by cutting a lot of the services they were giving to the people. And he said this is a good thing.

It's not clear to me how that's a good thing. Now, I don't know a lot about what the repercussions would be for cutting staff or things like that, but the idea of building up your own set of employees and make sure you can give them raises, etc.

while depriving the people. Boy, that sounded a lot like what this passage is talking about. And yeah, you see it.

Teachers in schools, they deprive children often of what they need to be learning and teach all kinds of nonsense.

Parents today often deprive their children of what they need and withhold discipline, godly discipline from them.

And so that the folly that's bound up in their heart remains there because it's not removed by the rod of discipline.

Simply all over society. And then, of course, the one that should be of the most concern to us, false prophets.

There are all sorts of religious organizations teaching all kinds of foolishness. And this was the case even in Isaiah's own time that he was facing such things.

Now, it speaks here also of the heart. The heart is busy with iniquity to practice ungodliness.

You know, all these things, all these things are bound up in the heart. But Jesus corrects all this.

You know, Jesus, as it says in John 2, 25, he knew what was in the heart of a man.

The fact that these things are bound up in the heart makes them an intractable problem for man. But nothing is impossible for God.

And Jesus, the one who knows what is in the heart of a man, he is able to correct these things. Hebrews 4, 12.

Hebrews 4, 12 says that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Not only has Christ established a church with some offices and some regulations for regulating things, but he has given us, in greater measure than the people of old had, his word.

We have the New Testament. This is an incredible blessing. It is of incredible power in exposing wrong and vindicating good.

Consider that the Old Testament, while it is a good book, and many passages are very clear, much of it is not very clear.

It's hidden in shadows that the New Testament reveals. God has been most merciful to us in giving us his

New Testament through Jesus Christ and his apostles. This is part of what is being accomplished through this king.

He is giving the New Testament in particular to be able to expose error. You should spend a lot of time memorizing

Scripture, and it would not be surprising if you spent most of your time memorizing the New Testament. The Old Testament is very valuable.

I obviously value it, going to Isaiah. But the New Testament is of so much value.

It is like a scalpel compared to a bone saw. The Old Testament is like a bone saw.

It can do a lot, but for that precision, dividing between joints and marrow, you really need the scalpel of the

New Testament sometimes. Jesus, he, yeah, just the way he exposes evil.

One more passage to consider. In John 3, it says of him that he is light, comes into the world, casts away the darkness.

People fear because of this. He is the one who exposes evil. In the next verse it says,

As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.

Now, when it speaks here of the scoundrel,

I said this is the one who does evil instead of merely speaking it, speaks of his devices. His devices are evil.

Someone who is without understanding does not understand the Lord and the things that they should value. They will do anything to get the things they want because they don't understand what right and wrong are.

They'll lie, they'll cheat, they'll steal. This is what it's talking about when it's speaking of his devices. His devices are evil and he plans wicked schemes and he ruins the poor.

The word for poor may also be translated meek. In some translations it is.

Those who are self -restrained are destroyed by those who lack restraint.

Meekness speaking of restraint. This word speaking of humility and self -restraint.

He oppresses him with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. This is very similar to what was said earlier in Isaiah.

In Isaiah 29 it said, the meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord and the poor among mankind shall exult in the

Holy One of Israel. In a very similar context it says this too. Recall that in Isaiah 32 it had just said, the eyes of those who see will not be closed, the ears of those who hear will give attention.

That passage I just read in Isaiah 29 just before it said, in that day the deaf shall hear the word of the book and out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.

So Isaiah is repeating, this passage is repeating what was said in 29 in a different framework.

And it continues on here it says, for the ruthless one shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease and all who want to do evil shall be cut off.

Who by a word make a man out of an offender make a man out to be an offender and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

Who is the ruthless one? Who is the accuser? Is it not Satan the one who accuses?

Because of our sin it is possible for the enemy to accuse us and say that we are guilty before the

Lord but Christ has come and he has forgiven us justifying us, making it so that we can be defended from the evildoer, so that we can be declared just and right even though otherwise we would be cast totally to the power of the evil one to claim whatever he wanted about us both what is true and what is not true.

So the Lord will judge. Do not think for a moment that when you see evil going on in the world that it will not be judged.

Do not become impatient with this. Read Psalm 73 it talks about growing jealous of the wicked because the

Lord does not seem to punish them. Judgment will come. And do not think that there will not be vindication for those who do right because there will be vindication.

It is something that he is establishing in one form in his church but it is something that will be brought fully manifest on that last day when he returns as well.

And as we uphold it this message is in part a call for you to join fully part of this society and engage in a building up, establishing of right and wrong as it should be.

Part of that is discipline. Part of that is what Matthew 18 describes. If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault.

If he doesn't listen to you, bring one or two others. If he doesn't listen to them, bring them before the church. If you see sin in the congregation it is not the loving thing to do.

If it is something that needs to be addressed it is not the loving thing to do to unaddress it. Rather, it must be addressed.

This is how good is upheld by rooting out evil. And there is no reason to fear these steps that God has given us.

He has given them to us for our good. There are so many people who are afraid of the steps of church discipline because they are afraid it will bring division into the church.

The Lord has provided these means in order to keep his church pure. In order that good and right may be established and that evil may be separated and put over here.

So do not fear these things that God has given us. They have been given us for our good. It says here at the end, but he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

You know, this whole passage, if you notice the way the ESV chooses to translate it, it says the fool will no more be called noble.

These are future tense. And it says for the fool speaks folly. Present tense. Just a little note on Hebrew, and I'm no

Hebrew expert. I have taken a class. But I'm no Hebrew expert. Anytime, a lot of Hebrew grammar divides into either complete or incomplete.

You know, we have past, present, future, and a lot like that. They have complete and incomplete. So when it's past tense, you generally know it's past tense.

When it's present tense, a lot of times it could be future tense, and when it's future tense, a lot of times it could be present tense. So these times when it speaks present tense, especially when you get into poetic sections where it's not clear narrative that needs to be future or present, that kind of thing.

Just know that often when we get to these poetic passages, there's often a little bit of uncertainty as to whether or not they should be translated present or future.

One way to consider this is that it should just be rendered future throughout. The emphasis there would be that rather than, because these things are true, the king will take care of them, it will be the case that the king will expose these things to be true.

The fool will speak foolish things. It will be clear that he is speaking foolish things. A scoundrel will do scoundrelly things.

It will be clear. He who has noble plans, he who is noble will plan noble things.

On noble things, he will stand. This is talking, once again, from Isaiah's perspective, of this future time where nobility will be acknowledged.

Where true truth will be acknowledged. There will be a vindication.

There will be upholding of what is right. Those who are right will stand. Today, we have a pretty good illustration of that because we had an ordination to the office of deacon.

If you know 1 Timothy 3, what it says of the office of deacon is the one who executes this office well, the one who serves well as a deacon gains a good standing for themselves.

This is something that's true in the church. It's something that Christ is building in his church, an acknowledgement of those who ought to have a good standing.

And these things must be true. They must be true because Christ has come and dwelt among us.

He's dwelt among us and he has been called evil. He was called a blasphemer. He was crucified for his supposed sins.

And the Lord will not be mocked. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

If Christ has come and dwelt among us and he requires vindication, then certainly there will be vindication, not only for him, but all those who are in him, all those who have joined together with him, receive the benefit of that vindication as well.

And so we can rest assured of that vindication, not only because God has directly promised it in his word, because it is necessary for his son to be vindicated before the eyes of all who have blasphemed him and called him the blasphemer, when they are the ones who are blaspheming the

Lord. This assurance is given to us through the cross of Jesus Christ where he died on our behalf and established a way for us by his spirit to be joined together with him.

But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands. And so I'd ask you to consider what this speaks of, of this future relative to Isaiah's time, kingdom, this kingdom that is being built now.

If you are not a part of it, join it. If you have joined it, work in building it up.

And understand that one of its major purposes is to establish good and evil, to make that clear in a world that calls evil good and good evil.

Amen. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, we thank you for the rich mercies that we have in Jesus Christ.

We thank you that he is a good king who guides his people, who establishes definitions of good and evil and rules and justice and righteousness.

And we thank you that we are joined together with him so that we can have an assurance that there will be a vindication in the end and a judgment of all those who are wicked and have not turned to you in repentance.