The Gift of Judgement
Series: A Christmas Worth Waiting For
Theme: Every believer should accept Christ on His Terms because of 3 Surprising Verdicts.
There is a children's book with a chapter titled "God Loved Adam and Eve". The chapter reads:
God punished Adam and Eve.Adam and Eve did not obey God. But God was good to Adam and Eve. He punished Adam and Eve. But He loved Adam and Eve. God punished Satan. God did not love Satan. Satan did not love God. God loves us. He is good to us. We want to love to love God. We want to obey God. We want to obey God all the time.
I found the contrast odd: God loved ... God Punished
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
If discipline is God's love...this love was packed with love.
- Floods in Washington
- Shooting in Omaha Mall (http://www.irishcalvinist.com/?p=1082)
- Funeral for Jack Sadler
- FOX news is reporting that a gunman entered the YWAM training center in Denver, Colo. and killed 4 people this AM
Looking back, can we say "This week was a gift?"
Sometimes when God gives us gifts, we have to look past the wrapping, the outer circumstances.
• This is especially true when it comes to the meaning of Christmas.
• By now we all know that the Ultimate Gift of Christmas is Salvation given to us by the Lord, secured in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
o The question we need to ask ourselves, and what Isaiah raised in Isa. 65, is:
o HAVE WE TRIED TO PUT SALVATION IN A NEATLY PACKAGED BOX OF OUR OWN MAKING?
Most likely, we all have
But salvation is a messy business, but we like it neat and comfortable.
The message of Isaiah 65 is IF WE DON'T CHOOSE GOD ON HIS OWN TERMS, THEN WE HAVEN'T CHOSEN GOD AT ALL!
Accepting God's gift of Salvation also and always means accepting God's gift of Judgment!
Verdict #1 The Verdict of Separation
Law & Order - First part is the police, second part are the prosecutors making the case before the judge.
• The Lord God has gathered the evidence
• The Lord God is the Prosecutor
• The Lord God is the Judge
A. God's Case vs. Humanity
1ST CONDEMNATION: DEFYING GOD'S STANDARDS (V.2B-3)
a) God's Standard of Worship = in Temple
Place was very important
b) Israel's Rejection
(1) In Gardens - A place where people worshiped Pagan fertility gods
(2) Brick Alters - God commanded natural stone
Ex 20:25 - If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it
Same with Tower of Babel, they used brick (Human invention) instead of stone (God's provision)
God is a "Nit-Picker" over worship
• If we ignore the small items, it easily leads to ignoring large items, even ignoring God
• This is just like slapping God in the face
2ND CONDEMNATION: DEFYING GOD'S MESSAGE
a) God's Message = Open Welcome for all to come and be embraced by His holiness
v.2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations
That is God's continual posture: Pleading/ Prayer
Isa 55:1 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
? How was this message sent?
Hebrews 1:1-2 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
b) They Ignored God
v.2
Walking away from God in ways "Not Good"
• They obstinately chose their own paths rather than His and sunk deeper and deeper into pagan superstition and uncleanness, foolishly regarding them a superior to wholesome, simple trust in the Lord.
• Too sophisticated for simple faith
• Too cultured for reliance on the old ways and old Truth
• Instead, they clung to flashy, modern revelation, consulting with the dead and hanging out in graveyards
• V. 5 "Keep away, don't come near me, I am too sacred for you!"
o Spiritual superiority
APP - The Golden Compass
Phillip Pullman
"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak . . . the people - mainly from America's Bible Belt - who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven't got enough in their lives. Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God"
• Pullman's tale tells of John Calvin assuming the papacy and moving the headquarters to Geneva, thus combining the Catholic and Reformation traditions into one.
• The most direct attacks upon Christianity and God do not appear until the last book, The Amber Spyglass, in which Lyra and Will (a boy her age who first appears in the second book) eventually kill God, who turns out to be a decrepit and feeble old imposter who was hardly worth the killing.
o The aged being could only weep and mumble in fear and pain and misery, and he shrank away from what seemed like yet another threat . . . in the open air there was nothing to stop the wind from damaging him, and to their dismay his form began to loosen and dissolve. Only a few moments later he had vanished completely, and their last impression was of those eyes, blinking in wonder, and a sigh of the most profound and exhausted relief. Then he was gone: a mystery dissolving in mystery. (Amber Spyglass p.431-432)
• Part of the motivation for the book has to do with sexual liberation
o As Phillip Pullman told Hanna Rosin of the Atlantic Monthly, "Why the Christian Church has spent 2,000 years condemning this glorious moment, well, that's a mystery. I want to confront that, I suppose, by telling a story that the so-called original sin is anything but. It's the thing that makes us fully human."
o Kids with Daemons that change shape until puberty
Pullman on Narnia
o He told Hannah Rosin that Lewis's famous work is "morally loathsome" and "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I ever read." Narnia, he said, "is the Christian one . . . . And mine is the non-Christian."
o When the first Narnia film was released in 2005, Pullman described the books as "a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice."
3RD CONDEMNATION: DEFYING PERSONAL HOLINESS
a) God's Standard = Ethical Trickle Down Theory
• Theology Worship Activity at Home Work Play (every aspect of life)
b) Their Rejection = Compartmentalization of the sacred and secular
• Theology = Don't eat pork/unclean foods
• Practice = Who Cares? It's the other white meat!
6 days, they were moral pagans
Sabbath = a good show
• This wasn't just about Food
• It was a continual attitude, a fire that burns all day
• Yet, In the middle of all this hypocrisy, they were praying for God to deliver them from Babylon!
B. What was God's Verdict?
1) Guilty as Charged on all Accounts
2) Sentence = God Will Come, just like they've been asking
N.B. - To call on God to rend the heavens and come down is to invite his Judgment as well as salvation.
God gives them what they ask for.
Verdict #2 The Verdict for God's Servants (v.8-16)
Despite the behavior we just mapped out, everyone who lived in Israel considered themselves to be God's Servants, simply because of their ancestry to Abraham. But that's not the case, for God's draws a very sharp distinction between true and false servants.
3 Distinctions
A. God's Servants are Few, rather than Many
1) This is a theme in Isaiah, but in v.8-9 we see it clearly.
This is what the Lord says: "As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, ‘Don't destroy it, there is yet some good in it,' so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. (v.8-9)
• God ALWAYS preserves for Himself a Remnant
o 1 Kings 19
o Elijah says: I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.
o God replies: ... I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."
• This is God's work
• Implied is the fact that if God didn't take action to protect this group and preserve them, there would be no remnant
2) Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of people chose paths other than God's highway to holiness.
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Ill- Pilgram's Progress - Christian meets Hypocrite and Formalism
• Our culture likes to say that all paths lead to God, as long as you are sincere.
• God says: DEAD WRONG! You must be sincere to HIM and accept the Lord on His Terms!
B. God's Servants Seek Him Rather than Disregard
V.10 - FOR MY PEOPLE SEEK ME
? What does it mean to seek God?
- It's a paradox
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
• No one seeks God until God seeks them
• Our Seeking is a response to God's invitation (cf. v.1-2; 45:22)
Isaiah 45:22 "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
ILL - Bill Hybles and family, "Hi, we're seekers!"
How Do We Seek God? With Faith and Action / Faith in Action
• A true servant can be seen by his behavior and the choices that he makes.
• A False servant can also be seen by his behavior and the choices that he makes.
V.11
John 14:15,21 If you love me, obey my commandments. ... Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each one of them.
C. True Servants Find their Name/Identity in God, not in Themselves
Read v.15: You will leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse; the Sovereign Lord will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name.
1) GOD GIVES HIS PEOPLE A NEW NAME
• Through biblical history, when God encounters people, He renames them and changes their identity
• Abram - Abraham (Father of Many)
• Shaky Simon to Peter (the Rock)
• Jacob (Lit - Heel Snatcher) to Israel, the chosen name for one who strives with God
2) God Gives His Servants a New Name and with that name, all the benefits of a New Identity
Isaiah 65:13-14 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit.
3) God Gives Us a New Name Too!
Galatians 3:26-29 So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians you are one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you. (NLT)
Verdict #3 Verdict of Salvation
[T.S.] Now that God has identified the behavior he will not accept and has drawn a sharp demarcation line between true and false servants, in v.17-25 He lays out the hope and joy of salvation.
Isaiah 65:17-19 Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
A. New World Order
1) All Political Structures will be transcended by God's Kingdom
2) All of Creation is Reborn
3) All the Works of the Devil will be smashed, completely unraveled
4) All of the World will be the Promised Land, not just Canaan
B. New Center of Worship
v.18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
Jerusalem, the original center of worship, will be restored.
? Do you know what that NEW JERUSALEM is?
US
1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• No Longer do we have to go somewhere!
• Worship is not/ cannot be contained!
• God is With Us - the Spirit's Indwelling
C. New Way of Life
This is what life should look like
This is what Heaven WILL look like
1) Joy (v.18)
2) Abundant Life (v.20)
3) Immortality - Life without death
4) Peace (v.25)
5) Life Without Sin
6) Rewarding Work (v.22b)
7) Intimate Fellowship with God (v.23b-24)
Conclusion
Revelation 21:1-4
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
That's the Ultimate Verdict, the gift of Salvation that God is offering us.
• It is worth accepting God on His terms, for as Isaiah shows, forcing God into our own gift boxes means we've rejected God and His Gift
God's arms are open! He is seeking His people.
As Jesus cries out at the end of Revelation, we must accept Christ on His own Terms.
Revelation 22:12-16
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.