Scott Brown's sermon 'When Beauty Dies' focuses on Isaiah 3:16 through 4:1, where the prophet Isaiah speaks about the haughtiness and vanity of the daughters of Zion, symbolizing the people of God. Brown emphasizes that the root problem is pride, which leads to the loss of true beauty, both in individuals and the Church. The sermon discusses how the inner person of the heart is key to genuine beauty and holiness, contrasting the outward focus of vanity with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Brown warns of the judgment that comes from pride and the collapse of societal and spiritual structures when true beauty is lost. He interprets the passage as a broader warning to the Church globally, urging believers to focus on inner transformation and holiness. The sermon concludes with a message of hope, highlighting God's ability to resurrect true beauty and holiness within His people through humility and reliance on His grace.

The reading for our text this morning, Isaiah 3, 16 through 4, 1. Moreover, the Lord says, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walked with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet. Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will uncover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans and the robes. And so it shall be, instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench, instead of a sash, a rope, instead of well-set hair, baldness, instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty.

Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach. Let's pray. Oh Father, we exalt your name today because you are great, because you are fit to sit on your throne, to be worshiped by all creation.

And Lord, let us worship you now as we sit to hear your word explained father would you grace us with your spirit would you grace Scott with your spirit Lord to explain the word and to preach in such a way that it would stir our hearts towards loving you, loving our neighbor. We pray this in your name. Amen. Well, as you can see from the title at the top of your outline, When True Beauty Dies, we're speaking of a subject that should be very, very important to all of us. And again, I always wonder why it is that wherever in a passage of Scripture, under the providence of God, he would bring before his people something like this, about true beauty.

Isaiah was alive and he saw something. He says that these are the things which he saw in Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, he saw things. He saw things happening, and they were visual elements that he observed personally. And what he saw was a destruction of the beauty of the daughters of Zion. This passage of Scripture is broader than you might think.

You won't want to make the mistake of just applying this to women in their pompous dressing. That would be a huge mistake. Because the passage speaks of how the inner person of the heart is the key to life, and how Christianity works from the inside out. That in the kingdom of heaven God begins on the inside. On the other hand, in the kingdom of man you begin on the outside.

This passage is about the loss of beauty. It's about the absence of the beauty of holiness in the church. But even more importantly, it's how a circumcised heart is really at the center of everything in the Christian life. And so that's why I've titled this, When True Beauty Dies. You can see that this message extends into chapter 4, because there really were no chapter divisions in the original.

The thought concludes in verse 1 of chapter 4. And just by way of reminder, where we are in terms of the context here, this is the second sermon of Isaiah. We're almost at the end of his second sermon, which we will conclude next week. And this sermon is constructed with bookends. Last week, I believe I called it the bookends of God's grace, where you see at the beginning of the sermon in chapter 2 a vision of the beauty of the people of God, wanting to be with God, wanting to be in His mountain.

And they want it so badly they say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord it's that same heart desire that you have when you get up in the morning and and you desire to cry out to him and you you might want to take your wife or for your friend to go and see the beauty of the Lord because your heart longs for the mountain of God. It's about genuine heartfelt desire for God. That's the first book in. But then in the middle section are really the ashes of apostasy. In chapter 2, verses 7, up to chapter 4, verse 1, where we'll continue today, is a disclosure of what it looks like when a society is in collapse when a society is rejected God but when the people of God have actually rejected God.

And then finally, the sermon ends in chapter 4, verses 2 through 6, where the Lord will create beauty. He will restore the beauty of His holiness in His people. It's really a very beautiful sermon that begins with a glorious vision of heaven and then drops down into the smoke and the fire and the blood and the troubles of the earth that have come as a result of sin. And then He raises us up again, raises us up again to new life up into heaven. It's really constructed the way that a sermon should be, and it's a very beautiful one.

In the prophecy here, we know in chapter 2 verse 17, the loftiness of man will be brought down. This is the primary principle in this section of the ashes of disobedience and apostasy. That God brings down the lofty. He will destroy pride. And the judgment begins in the house of the Lord, in verses in chapters 1 through 12 here.

And then the judgment is extended to the nations later on in chapters 13 and following. But this attack against the pride of man is seen in many, many different places. It's exemplified in Lucifer, first of all, in eternity past, when he said, I will, I will, I will. This is really the heart of the matter for the Daughters of Zion. It's very much like Eve, who said, I want something better than God.

I really want something beyond what God has given me. I'm not satisfied with the wisdom that he has. I want something way more interesting than God." And then it continues in the Tower of Babel when they said, let us make a name for ourselves. This is the whole problem with mankind, is that he wants something different than what God has either commanded or what he's pictured in his kingdom. And when we want something different than what God commands, we just have to recognize what happens.

Ashes, destruction. And that's what he's speaking of here. In chapter two, verse 12, I'd like you to actually look at chapter 2 verse 12 because you see this whole attack against the pride of man. And we recognize from this that nothing will ever stand up against God's almighty wrath against the pride of man. And it's an impossible task to hold yourself high and lifted up and hide from the truth.

For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up and it shall be brought low upon the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon the oaks of Bation upon the high mountains upon all the hills that are lifted up upon every high tower upon every fortified wall upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops. These are just representative categories of the pride of man. The way he has pride in the place that he lives and the protections that he's made around him. And then he says, The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought low. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, But the idols he shall utterly abolish, they shall go from the holes of the rocks into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.

In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each for himself to worship to the moles and bats, to go to the clefts of the rocks and into the crags of the rugged rocks. From the terror of the Lord, from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily. Sever yourselves from such a man whose breath is in his nostrils. For what account is he?" And so this is just an appeal from the Lord to recognize how hopeless it is to run with proud men, to be with those who are exalting themselves. And so this is the first, this is the judgment that really is held out there.

And then after that, after declaring the impossibility of escaping the judgment of God against the wrath of man, then God begins to describe what it looks like when he judges, and how he causes a dearth of leadership in men and also in women. And so, you know, last week we saw a full color 3D moving picture of what happens when manhood dies. What does it look like? That men don't have anything to say. They have no counsel, they have no judgment, they cleave to lies.

And what happens is that all supports are removed, the wise leaders disappear, the lower levels of leadership disappear as well. Relationships of authority break down, and there's anarchy. But the Lord stands above it all, and He is judging. So this is all a picture of what His judgment looks like. And now, here, we see how sin just destroys the beauty of the daughters of Zion.

And so that's the basic principle that is here. And so in the previous section, The judgment of God is demonstrated in that men have become passive and irrelevant and even effeminate. They do not change the world, but rather they are being changed by every turn of culture. And then now we see in this text, the daughters of Zion are turning to a different form of vanity and uselessness. And so this speaks of the turnings of the daughters of Zion.

Now, I want to give you an interpretive key. You see this in your outline here. This is very important. As we go through this, we should recognize that you can understand this passage on two levels simultaneously. First of all, he is definitely speaking of women as the female gender and particular things that he saw in the women in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

He saw things happening in the women here. And the second thing that you have to consider when you're reading this is that he is also speaking of the bride of Christ, the Church. He is speaking of His people. The daughters of Zion, more broadly, and the physical picture of the women of Israel that Isaiah saw with his own eyes during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Those things he saw in the women are a picture, they're a type of the church.

The physical is a picture of the spiritual. This is perhaps the most important interpretive key, and I just want to make sure that we lay that groundwork so that we understand how to think about this term, the daughters of Zion. And so when Isaiah prophesied this, he was without doubt speaking of the real daughters of Jerusalem and Judah that he saw with his own eyes during the reign of four kings. That's absolutely correct. But it is not limited to them.

And so it is very important that the Church, that we, the Church, pay attention to this, because it also applies to the Church. And that means that it applies to you and me. It applies to Hope Baptist Church. This is for us. You men here, just make sure you do not make the mistake to think, oh yes, this is all about women.

Do not make that mistake, because it is also about men in the Church. It's about the men and the women in the gathered Church and how they present themselves and what it means in the way that they present themselves. So we should pay close attention to that. When the term daughter of Zion or daughters of Zion appears in the Bible, it almost always refers to the people of God, not a woman or a young girl. The phrase is used in many, many places.

It's sometimes spoken of Jerusalem, But it is mostly spoken of the whole Church. These references to the daughter of Zion are numerous. I'll give you just a couple of examples. Isaiah 62 verse 11, Indeed, the Lord has promised to the end of the world, say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him.

Here in this passage, he's speaking of the salvation that comes to the people of God. So the Daughters of Zion refers to the people of God. And this passage of Scripture here, I think, may be the only reference that really connects with the historical women in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah as a picture of the Church. In Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 14 we read, Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice, with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. So it does, the term daughter or daughters of Zion, we should be very clear about what it means.

That it is almost always used more broadly than the context of women and what they do in their peril. So that means that they are for all of us here today. And while it is appropriate to ask, how are the women of our day like the women in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It is appropriate to ask that, but it is even more appropriate to ask, what does that mean for us as a church? And I mean for us as a little church here, but what does it mean for the church worldwide as well, as we are part of the body of Christ worldwide?

Because it really is a picture of all that. Okay, so do you get that? I just wanted to make sure we understood the groundwork here. And what my appeal is to us today is that we would have such a life together that Peter spoke about for women, that it would be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of the gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. Yes, this is directed to females, but it applies to males just as well, as this passage does.

So let's begin here. We see a picture of womanhood in collapse. Chapter 1 begins with the word behold, and now here in verse 16 we have the word moreover. And that should help us to understand that Isaiah is continuing to speak about common and similar things. He speaks about the root of the problem in verse 16.

The root of the problem is haughtiness. He says, moreover, verse 16 says the Lord, because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And this has to do with being high and lifted up. We spoke of the pride of man and the haughtiness, the lifted-up-ness of mankind. It has to do with thinking much of yourself, desiring to exalt yourself. And it's connected with conceit and arrogance and haughtiness and loftiness.

The Hebrew word for pride means to be high and lift it up, To desire to lift yourself up above, to sort of expose yourself as something so special, to present yourself as just something so unusual by your way, your look, to set yourself above others in some way, in the way that the Corinthians were puffed up. But we know that the danger of this is extreme. In James 4, we know that God gives more grace, James 4.6. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." This is the whole matter of the dangers of pride. When we talked about pride in detail from the previous passage a few weeks ago, we noted that there were two major problems with pride. First of all, it's hard to detect in yourself, and it's hard to kill. And we read Richard Baxter who said that it's a deep-rooted and self-preserving sin.

That it's harder to kill and be rooted up than other sins because it hinders the discovery of itself. It will not allow the sinner to see his pride when he's reproved. It will not allow the sinner to even notice the pride in himself. So it's a dangerous sin. And we spoke about how many marriages have been destroyed by pride, how many churches have been destroyed by pride, how many businesses have been destroyed by pride.

We talked about the fact that if sin were blue, then all your words would have a tint of blue. But if pride were yellow, then everything we've ever done would have a yellow tint to it. But if beauty were to die, what would it look like? It's death would be hidden under an outer appearance that deceives all who look upon. It would look so good on the outside, but inside there would only be death.

And it's really a picture of what Jesus spoke about when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And so he speaks here of the dangerous proposition of pride in your heart, because God resists the proud. This is why the Apostle Peter, when he spoke about women, he really spoke about the opposite of haughtiness. He calls women to humility. In 1 Peter 3, wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some of them do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives.

When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear, Then he says in verse 3, Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel. Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." This is a dramatic contrast between the daughters that are like Sarah, the daughters that Peter referred to, and the daughters that Isaiah is referring to. Two completely different kinds of daughters are profiled here. And it brings us to the reality of this problem of pride, this root problem of pride.

It's rooted in fear. There are two kinds of fear. There's the fear of God, and there is the fear of man. There's the humility that comes from the fear of God, and there is the pride and the ostentation and the outward focus that comes from the fear of man. And he's speaking here of how women focus on outward things and the arranging of their hair because of fear.

That's what Peter is talking about. These outward appearances are often put on women because they're afraid, they're frightened by fear, and so they go to great lengths to make people praise them by their apparel. But we know that this is so dangerous because God judges pride, because the lofty looks of man shall be humbled. And He says, sever yourselves from such a man. So, he speaks of the root problem.

It is haughtiness that is causing the collapse. And then he defines the haughtiness beginning in verse 16. And Someone mentioned to me that this is very much like what we read in Isaiah 1, from the sole of the foot even to the head. The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, there's no soundness in it. And Isaiah saw things in the women of his day where there was just no soundness in it, from the bottom of their feet to the top of their head.

It was only fake. It was only a desire for attention. This is a picture of women calling attention to themselves. I think it relates somehow to Isaiah 5, 18, where Isaiah says, Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity. Draw iniquity with cords of vanity.

To praise yourself, what iniquity would be drawn by vanity? That's the question here. And he pictures here proud women. And I think he's saying that proud women are more interested in being beheld for their beauty than they are in beholding the beauty of the Lord and walking in the beauty of His holiness. To have His holiness be really the center of their whole being rather than their outward appearance.

To bring attention to themselves and to make the greatest part of life what people think about you as women. And remember, remember, as I'm speaking, please operate on two planes at all times. We are speaking about the women that Isaiah saw in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We are talking about that. But we're not only talking about that.

So please continue to operate on both planes here. It's so critical that we do. Well there are many expressions of this as he defines it. First of all, the way they hold themselves, verse 16, and they walk with outstretched necks. So they want their necks to be so proudly lifted up and haughty.

They're African peoples who wear neck rings called the dazila, that's a sign of marriage and wealth, and it holds their necks up so high, so in a contorted, awkward, strange way, in order for women to hold their heads so high. But they hold themselves in a particular way as they walk. It just shows us that when true beauty dies, there's ceremony, but there's no reality. There might be a lifted up head, but there's no reality within it. And it really hearkens to the hidden person of the heart, the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

And then secondly, the way they use their eyes. Verse 16, an wanton eyes. The word that Isaiah uses is speaking of a seductive glance. It can mean to blink or to wink or to paint the eyes. It can mean seductive ogling of some kind.

It's reminiscent of Proverbs 30, Oh, how lofty are their eyes. How many products are there available today to decorate the eyes? Thousands of them. Jezebel painted her face for the same reason you can read about it in 2 Kings 9, verse 30. You can read about this subject in Jeremiah 4, verse 30 as well.

But eyes, attention on the eyes rather on the hidden person of the heart. I don't personally believe that this means that a woman can never wear makeup. I do not believe that. But there is a reason that a woman might wear makeup that would be consistent with this. In order to subvert the hidden person of the heart, the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God, to be deprived of the beauty of the Lord, to worship Him, and the beauty of His holiness is deprived of women whose eyes are thinking about these things primarily.

And then the way they look when they walk. Number three, walking and ninsing as they go. You know, women can be trained how to walk in an attention-getting and in a luring way. There is a way that a woman can walk gracefully and properly, you know, not like a truck driver or not like a duck. That is appropriate.

But there's a way of walking that's different. It's the way of the runway model. It's the way of walking that's intentionally desiring to attract attention to the body and how the body moves along when it walks. This is what he's talking about. And all of this just declaring that when true beauty dies, there's ceremony, but there's really no reality.

Or the hidden person of the heart, or the things that are precious before God. And then number four, the way they sound. This has to do with their walking, making a jingling with their feet. Commentators have suggested different things, but it was a way to draw attention to the footsteps of a woman. Perhaps her feet were bound together with some kind of anklets or something, and they were just able to walk with little mincing steps or something like that.

But the whole purpose of it was to draw attention to them and their walk, to draw attention to them rather than to God, from the hidden person of the heart, from the beauty of holiness. Ezekiel 16, though, speaks of how God desires his daughters to be beautiful. And he even lists some of the same things. It's a very long passage, but what we see in Ezekiel 16 is that God is not against the beauty of the daughters of Zion. God beautifies the daughters of Zion.

And of course, it is also figurative as well, But he speaks of jewels and coverings and things like this that God has given to His people. He covers them with silk. He adorns them with ornaments in Isaiah 16. He puts bracelets on their wrists and a chain upon their neck. And he speaks of all these different things that God does to beautify His people.

So God is not against beautifying His people with clothing or even jewelry. That's not the point that Isaiah is making here. This is not an argument against jewelry at all, because the daughters of Zion actually are bejeweled. Is it figurative? It is definitely figurative that God does deck his church with beauty.

But what is the beauty? It really is the beauty of His holiness. It's the works that He has done. But God is not against beauty at all. But He is concerned, primarily, with the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

And then we see the judgment of God against the haughtiness of women. In verse 17, first of all we see that they're stricken with sickness and he says, therefore the daughter, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head to the daughters of Zion. And so he brings a scab. There's something that comes out and becomes physical in its appearance, and it defiles. And this kind of defect would not allow a person in Israel under the ceremonial law to come into the presence of God to worship Him.

That physical defect would deprive them from the worship of God. It's symbolic. When God causes sickness to fall, Matthew Henry says it like this, loathsome diseases are often sent as the just punishment of pride and are sometimes the immediate effect of lewdness, the flesh and the body being consumed by it." So there's the removal of this natural covering of hair and scabs on the head, one of the most loathsome things that could happen to a woman. Women are concerned about their hair. I think everybody understands that.

But when it's a scab, it's a tragedy that has happened. And then their nakedness is uncovered, verse 17, and the Lord will uncover their secret parts. And my perspective is that there are two ways to understand this, and that God will lay bare, He will expose them for who they really are. He'll show their pomposity. He will demonstrate their vanity and their emptiness, their irrelevance to the world.

He will display that. And there will come a day when they'll look at their idols of self-exaltation and self-adornment and self-adoring, and they'll take their idols and they will be embarrassed for them. And they'll take their idols and they'll throw them to the ground, you know, to the bats and into the caves, into the moles, they will hate them, they'll despise their vanity. When they stand before God, they'll gnash their teeth at their foolishness that they trusted in such a shallow, irrelevant thing. And God will expose them, He will lay bare their irrelevance and their vanity.

That's one way to understand this. And secondly, that He will make them expose their own nakedness. There's some indication by the language here, we'll get to it in a minute, that this has to do with immodesty. In their rebellion and their being under judgment, they'll uncover their nakedness shamelessly. You know how different this is when a woman trusts in the robes of righteousness alone and she does not even need or desire to gain attention by any worldly means.

In Revelation Chapter 3, God says to the Church of Laodicea, �Do you not know that you are naked and blind?� That�s the first kind of uncovering. The second kind would have to do with this other matter of immodesty. Which is why Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, In like manner let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works." That's the heart of it. True godliness, a true profession of godliness, that's accompanied by good works. And then the finery is taken away, number three, verses 18-23.

This is sort of the longest block of thought, I think, here. In that day, the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling anklets, the scarves and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets and the veils. Now notice, these are the things that Isaiah saw. He saw these things in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He saw all these things.

You know, we tend to think that we live in this modern society where beauty and vanity has been so exalted. No, it's never been, Every society has always been the same. They use as much technology as they possibly can to exalt themselves. But he continues on, the headdresses, verse 20, the leg ornaments and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses, and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes. So this is the extravagance of their pride, And he's explaining these outward expressions of it, but again, don't just think on one plane here.

Think about it in terms of the Church as well. The ways that the Church tries to present itself so powerfully, so winsomely, and yet there may be nothing inside. Or you might even think about your own life like that. How many things have we done to exalt ourselves? What around us we can just trace directly to our desire to be exalted?

Well, that's what he's speaking of here. There are many outward manifestations and all this finery is taken away. You know, Peter has a much shorter list than Isaiah, there are these different attention getters that are there. You know, I don't know if you've ever visited the Biltmore Estates out in Nashville, in this remarkable building, and all the things went on there. But at the Biltmore Estates, when it was in its heyday, the women spent really most of the day changing their clothes.

They would get up in the morning for their tea and they would have a certain clothing for that, and then they would change again, and they would change again. They would change again to go outside in the morning hours, change again for lunch, change again for afternoon tea, change again for dinner, change again for after dinner. It was insane. But it was a perfect picture of this. Just designed to present oneself in a particular way.

There's the element of fine linen. We could dissect each one of these, but I don't think it's really important to do that. But just a few of them, the fine linen, it's translated sheet and most people believe that it was either worn as your garment at night or an outer garment over something else, but it was sheer, it was linen, you could see through it, you could see the form. He's speaking of a woman who's wearing things that can be seen through, apparently. That's the modesty part of this whole proposition.

And then, fourthly, the beauty is replaced with ugliness in verse 24. And they're drawing attention to themselves, but there's a change that takes place, which is why the idols will be cast down to the moles and the bats, and there would be such embarrassment for trusting in them, from a pleasing aroma to stink. Verse 24, and so it shall be, instead of a sweet smell, there shall be stench. A stink is the King James terminology. The word is both Sam, where we get our word Balsam.

And you know one mark of womanhood is, I think it's obvious, that they seem to like to smell better than most men seem to like to smell. And you know I don't know how many men's colognes there are, but there are a lot more women's perfumes, I can guarantee you that. And women care so much about, but what they care so much about will be deprived of them. Oh, is this an argument against wearing perfume? I don't think it's an argument against wearing perfume, But it is an argument for wearing perfume for a certain purpose and for a particular reason.

And then from flair to plainness, verse 24, instead of a sash, a rope. And then from well-set hair to baldness. And then from luxury to deprivation, instead of a rich robe, A girding of sackcloth. You know, what women would despair of, that they would be dressed in sackcloth. You know, even today, you know, I think women think if they believe in God, if they trust in God, God will have them wearing, you know, burlap bags or burkas or denim jumpers and tennis shoes or something like that.

If you obey God, somehow He's going to punish you so badly. But When a woman or when the church does this, God will bring them from luxury to deprivation. And then branding instead of beauty. This has to do with burning, branding, you know, going to an extreme measure to mark the body, to make it more interesting, alluring, different than what God provided. That's the principle that's here, that women want to do something to themselves that God has not provided, even to the point, even to the extreme measure of burning themselves.

And you've seen different expressions of this, of cuttings and scarring that modern people do, and typically in tribal societies where there is actual burning of the skin to make marks for particular purposes. Here it's interesting the women are doing this. Usually it's men for warlike imagery that men do it in societies of our time. But it's so tragic when men and women tamper with the creation order, When they step out of who they're supposed to be and who they really are. When you mess with the creation order, when you mess with manhood and womanhood, society collapses.

We saw how society collapses when men are not men, where they don't have counsel, they don't have judgment. It's so tragic. And then when women disfigure their role in the world and it's all based on outward apparel, society collapses. It's so tragic when you mess with manhood and womanhood. When you tinker with that, you're tinkering with the creation order, and there are so many tragedies as a result of that.

I was reading just this week of gender change operations and What happens to most people who have gender change operations, that terror strikes them, the disappointment, the sorrow. And just very recently there was a man in the Netherlands who had a gender change and he was so despondent, he became so overcome with grief. He saw what a monster, what a freak of creation he had become and he happened to live in the Netherlands and he called for the euthanizers to come and put him to death and they came and they killed him because of his sorrow, because he was messing with the creation order. And this is what happens when we mess with the design of God for womanhood or manhood. But it's the same thing that happens to the Church when we mess with the design of the Church and when we reject the things that ought to be.

And then, you see in verse 25, the men are killed. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground. It's interesting that in verse 25 and in 26 there seems to be a very clear change from the women that Isaiah saw with his own eyes in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah to a broader corporate sense of the people of God. It's very clear.

Her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground." So there's both literal and figurative here running together in this passage of Scripture. And what we find is that These women who worked so hard to draw men with their alluring apparel, there will be no men to draw anymore. Everything they hoped for will be deprived of them. They won't get what they wanted. And the husbands, there'll be a change from having husbands to widowhood, because these men have fallen by the sword.

Turn to chapter 5 verse 13, and here's a picture of this, Because this is literal, this is what happened. The men were actually killed. You know, we've seen this in modern times, particularly with the ravages of AIDS, where you have large percentages of parents being murdered by AIDS. And you can go into certain African villages and there are no parents. There are orphans everywhere Because the fathers and the mothers have been killed or when there are great genocides, like in Uganda and some of the more recent genocides, you end up with a vast population of orphans.

But here what we find is that the men are killed, and it causes widowhood. That's the issue. Verse 13, Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore she all has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure.

Their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness." And this has to do with men falling in war. They're going to be killed by the armies who will come and invade. And there will be no men.

And thousands of them will be taken away to Babylon. The very best men will be deported. And what will the women do? Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in the war.'" And so there's, from rejoicing to lamentation, "'Her gates shall lament and mourn.'" And then the women are desolate, verse 26. This is from a life of community, a life of someone to care for you, a husband, to a life of desolation.

And she shall be desolate and shall sit on the ground. She's alone. And now there's no one left to impress. The men are all gone. I think this is prophesied in Deuteronomy 28, verse 56, the tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta, which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears.

For she shall eat them secretly, for lack of everything, in the siege and the desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at your gates. If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God. Then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, great and prolonged plagues, and serious prolonged sickness. Moreover, He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you, and every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of the law. And you shall be left few in number, for as you were as stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God." And then finally we see such an extreme expression of the desperation of women in chapter 4 and verse 1.

And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach." This is such a strange situation here. It's almost as strange as the situation that you found among men in the previous passage, where two brothers are contending together, and one brother says, You be my leader. That is so strange. Brothers do not do that. Brothers do not, a brother will not go to another and say, you be my head and my leader.

It's such an odd and aberrant situation. It's just so unnatural. And something happens as unnatural with the women. You know, Women do not normally want to share their men, correct? Do we all agree with that?

But it shows how desperate the times are, the same kind of desperation that there was among the men. And they're grasping for identity, they're grasping for protection, they're grasping for someone to take care of them in a way. We learn what Proverbs 31, 30 said, Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. It's interesting that word charm is often translated acceptance or favor or being well favored or being having the favor of acceptance and this is what happens to women who desire the favor to be drawn to them rather than to be drawing from the holiness of the Lord, the beauty of His holiness, the things that are precious in His sight, the inestimable value of a gentle and quiet spirit. And in all of her longing for significance and attention, her desire for charm, for favor, she loses it all.

And now her problems are worse. One man has seven women, and all they want is a name. Why? So they won't be embarrassed. They want a man who really doesn't do anything.

The effeminate men are wiped out anyway. The masculine men are left desolate. And the vanity and the emptiness create such a vacuum, and there's nothing but desolation. The desolation that you do not choose, it comes upon you. And it's a punishment for the sin of vanity.

And it is the vanity of the daughters of Zion that Isaiah saw in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. But it is also the desolation that comes upon a church where all she cares about is her outward appearance. All she cares about is what people think about her. And she does everything she can to protect her own reputation. But it's really impossible to protect before Almighty God.

They're willing to come at no cost, these women are, just to wipe out the shame of their singleness. They say, we'll eat our own food and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by your name. They just want the reproach of their single life to be taken away from them. Somebody made a really interesting observation. I can't remember who it was in our Bible study on Tuesday.

One of the men, I think, made a very keen observation about this text. He observed that the first thing that is mentioned that is taken away is hair, and then clothing, and then a husband. Leaving a woman without the pictures of help that she has. Her hair, her clothing, and her husband. Things that women hold so dear.

And they ought to, in a way, because they are the things that God has provided for them to tell them something about Himself. He has provided hair for them for a reason. He's provided clothing for them for a reason. The purpose of clothing is really to declare, to declare the glory of the mercy of Jesus Christ that He's clothed you with robes of righteousness. That's the purpose of clothing.

When God gave clothing, first of all, in the garden, He did it to clothe the shame of the daughters of Zion. But then clothing begins to be misused by women. Not to declare the glory of God and the beauty of His holiness. Not to be covered in order to declare that their iniquities have been covered. This is the purpose of clothing, is to declare that your iniquities have been covered.

Which is why nakedness is such a contradiction, and why modesty is important, but there's something greater than outward modesty. It's the hidden person of the heart from which modesty ought to flow. Okay, so here's some applications. Okay, so here are some applications. I don't think that we should fail to speak specifically of the sins of women.

My wife and I were having a conversation about this some months ago and she said to me, she said Scott all you ever talk about are the sins of men. You know How come you don't speak about the sins of women all that much? And I wasn't quite sure how to answer that, and I'm not really exactly sure, except I know men, I'm a man, I know my sins, I speak of those things. I always, you know, when I'm preaching, I'm speaking of my sins and every man's sins. But what about the sins of women?

This passage does really, it brings to the surface the sins of women, particularly the desire for attention, the desire to be well thought of because of the way that they dress. And so, you know, Women live in a very difficult time today with all the role models that are presented to them. It's a time of extreme danger, especially for young girls. The popular females are so wretched, the Miley Cyrus's, the Lady Gaga's of this world, who are absolutely the most popular people in the society today for women. They are.

Not maybe among you, but they are absolutely the most popular women among the young girls of the world. And Their desire is to be well known by flaunting. Their desire is to be well known. And there's such a vanity. Here are some of the sins of women.

Vain glory, an over-concern of outward appearance and an under-concern for the inner person of the heart. They stand in the mirror and they think only of themselves, not of the glory of God. Not how can my clothing be an extension of the robes of righteousness, the beauty of holiness. Domineering. Here's another sin of women.

They talk and they talk and they don't let their husbands talk. They constrain their husbands. They wield too much power. They often rebel. These are some of the sins of women.

They often move conversations to things that cause unnecessary division. They may talk about questionable things, they may make too big a deal about matters that are really beyond their expertise. They may talk to their women friends about the failings of their husbands. They may be filled with covetousness. They see another lifestyle or another husband and they wish their husbands were that way instead of the husband God gave them.

Then there's sexual manipulation, withholding, not loving, not caring, being self-obsessed. These are some of the sins of women. But we've just seen the vainglory of women dissected in a really remarkable granularity. So we have to recognize that. It should be an opportunity to speak directly to the women of our Church and to speak of the beauty of holiness, the things that are precious in the sight of God, just to remind us all of that.

What a beautiful thing it is for a contented, humble woman. It's such a beautiful thing. Who trusts in God alone, whose strength is in the Lord and the Lord alone, whose all of her confidence rests on God. Not on her husband, not on the way she looks, not on her station in life. All of these things are passing away.

But a woman who really trusts in the Lord, who believes that God is sovereign over all things, her heart is at peace, she's contented, she knows that nothing can befall her unless God would somehow present it for his own glory, because he does cause all things to work together for good, that nothing can stay his hand, that he does his will for his own pleasure. I'm quoting scripture here. He does everything that he does for his own pleasure. But there's nothing more beautiful and life-giving than a woman like that, who completely trusts in God and not in her outward appearances or the things that would shine on her to give her favor in the eyes of men. There's nothing more beautiful, there's nothing more powerful than that, by the way.

There's nothing more helpful and life-giving in the world than a woman who trusts in God and in God alone. And it's a beautiful thing. It is the beauty of holiness. There is an outward beauty, yes there is, that will pass away, but there's an inward beauty that does not pass away. It is incorruptible and it is precious in the sight of God.

You know, I'm looking at so many young girls here out in this church and I just, you know, my heart goes out to you because of the pressures upon you in a society that we live in and how difficult it is. It breaks my heart. It's not so difficult with men in this area. It is difficult in a particular way, but it's different, I think. It seems to be more intense toward women, and I think it's perhaps because of the way that women are built and their function, and the devil is attacking the beauty of holiness in women because of what it does in the world.

It causes so many things to crumble. So secondly, Take note of what happens to the Church when it turns to vanity, when true beauty dies. There's ceremony but no reality. What happens when the Church turns to social acceptability? You end up with vanity churches, churches that are designer churches, churches that desire to appeal to the culture, and they create all kinds of things in their vanity to try to appeal, to try to become like the culture.

You know, one of the interesting things about the times that we live in, we actually have thousands of pastors who are leaders of churches who grew up in children's church. And you know what they're doing now? Now they're 40 and 50 years old, and now they have gigantic children's churches that just cater to children and immaturity. They're just doing what they taught, what they were taught. Children's designer churches.

But when you lose the popular edge, then what do you do? What's left? When the outward beauty fades, what do you have left? The only thing that will be left standing is the inner beauty of the Lord. A glorious church from the inside out, a true church, a humble church, a church that desires to please the Lord Jesus Christ, A church that says, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord.

Oh Lord, take us to your mountain. A church that's humble in that way. And then, of course, we must ask, why are we here? Why am I here? I'm a leader of a church.

Why am I here? Why in the world would I have to deal with such a passage that is so pointed to the life of a church, and even what leaders do in a church, to humble us, to help us to examine ourselves for pride on the one hand, but also to see also to see the vision of humility, the beauty of the Lord, the true beauty. We're here, I believe, that we would turn to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope. That when we are trying so desperately to make a name for ourselves, we lose everything. And yes, I do believe it applies to us.

I don't think it just applies to the designer church out there. Every church has some element of designer church in it. Do you understand that? Do you understand what this church does too? Because people gather together for certain reasons, to look a certain way, to be a certain way.

And it can be so deceptive and hard to discern, you know? But this is an opportunity for us to discern truth compared to unreality, and the ways that we desire to make a name for ourselves rather than to be a true church, a humble church, with a gentle and quiet spirit, precious in the sight of God. There's so much hope for me in this passage because with every point there's a counterpoint. With every mark of vanity and pride and emptiness and desiring to draw attention to oneself that's here in this passage, it also speaks of something greater. In Isaiah 62, say to the daughter of Zion, Surely your salvation is coming.

Behold, his reward is with him. Or Zephaniah 3, O sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, be glad and rejoice. Or Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live in the flesh.

A life in which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Or Luke 9.23, when he said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Or John 12, 24, "...Truly, truly, I say to you, except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Or Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service." In Galatians 5, 24, "...and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and their lusts." So while there is a death of manhood, a death of womanhood, how there's a loss of true beauty in the world. There is also hope for resurrection among the repentant souls who return to Him for refuge. This is the day that we celebrate this more than any other day, celebrating on the Sabbath day the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And He has risen.

He has raised dead men and women from the grave so that they're no longer living in a state of death. He gives life. He transforms. He raises up to new life. God, out of the ashes of our broken manhood, our self-serving ways, even personally and in the Church, among the men and the women, God comes to save.

He comes to raise up to new life. And the marks of our fallen manhood and womanhood, they're nailed to the cross. And He is justified, and He has delivered His people, and He has buried them with Him in baptism to raise them up to new life. And there really is hope for our recovery. There's hope for breaking the chains of the downfall that may have come upon us in different ways.

It's the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ of the person who turns with the hidden person of the heart and says, Oh Lord, cover me with your robes of righteousness. Oh Lord, I trust in You alone, not in my outward appearances. O Lord, in our Church that we would trust in not one single outward appearance, but we would trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that we would trust in the holiness of Jesus Christ for all of our infirmities, and that we would quit trying to be so fantastic to the world. We would quit trying to impress one another, but that we would seek to impress God and God alone for His own glory, for a glorious Church. And so it is true that true beauty can die, But true beauty can be recovered in the people of God, one heart at a time, and corporately together.

I pray that we're a church who is willing to be humbled over and over as the years go by. That He would humble us and then He would fill us with the joy of His salvation. That we would know the greatness of His mercy more than anything else. But you can't know the greatness of His mercy until you see the sin that you have. This passage, I think, shows us both, but primarily it really serves as a warning to what can happen to a church and also what can happen to a girl or a woman, no matter what age she is.

So it's a helpful warning in a time where womanhood and the Church are being attacked in so many different ways. But God's laid this before us for a glorious church, that we would be a real, genuine, true church, humble before Him. Let's pray. Lord, Lord, these words are such terrifying warnings of what has happened and what can happen in any generation. But Lord, I pray that you would shine your mercy out upon your people, that you would give us hearts within us, so desiring to walk in the beauty of holiness.

Amen.