Sermon

[8:00 a.m.] O Come, O Lord (Isaiah 11:3-5; Exodus 3:1-14)

Park Cities Presbyterian Church Weekly Sermon Podcast

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  1. Scripture reading is found in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter

    Isaiah 11 chapter mention

  2. 11. I'm going to read more of

  3. chapter 11 than you see in your bulletin and I'm not going to

  4. read The Exodus passage at all so I got permission to do that.

  5. You'll stand now for the reading of the word.

  6. There shall come forth, a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a

  7. branch from the root. Shall bear fruit.

  8. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of

  9. wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the

  10. spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and his Delight

  11. shall be in the fear of the Lord.

  12. He shall not judge by what his eye sees, nor decide to Spirits,

  13. by what his ears hear. But, with righteousness, he

  14. shall judge the poor and decide with the equity for the meek of

  15. the earth. And he shall strike the Earth

  16. with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips,

  17. he shall kill the wicked righteousness.

  18. Shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness.

  19. The belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the

  20. lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the

  21. calf and The Lion, and the fatted calf together and a

  22. little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall

  23. graze. Their young shall lie down

  24. together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

  25. Ox, the nursing nursing child shall play over the whole of the

  26. Cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adders Den.

  27. They shall not hurt or destroy in.

  28. All my Holy Mountain for the Lord shall be full of the

  29. knowledge. The Earth shall be full of the

  30. knowledge of the Lord as the waters, cover the sea.

  31. The word of the Lord, you may be seated.

  32. I just felt I needed to deal with a few things.

  33. Concerning the Advent season that might be helpful to us in

  34. our overall understanding of how to read our Bibles.

  35. When we say Advent, getting back to about as basic as we can get.

  36. It comes from the two Latin words means to come, And to, or

  37. toward the Advent? Is that time in which?

  38. Our Lord comes to us. In the parlance of the

  39. scriptures, the father sins the sun, the sun is a missionary.

  40. He is an emissary, he comes from the father to do, the will of

  41. the father, but from our perspective, we see his work as

  42. a coming and Advent. There are several words in the

  43. New Testament that are used to describe this.

  44. It's sometimes called a coming sometime.

  45. Times, it's called an appearance a manifestation.

  46. Sometimes it is even called in the Old Testament of visitation

  47. a, visitation of the Lord. So God visits his people.

  48. And the way he visits his people is through the Incarnate son

  49. through. Jesus Christ his son, he is the

  50. primary visitor in the Bible, and he comes to visit his

  51. people. When he comes to visit his

  52. people, he brings both judgment and blessing.

  53. So when you read your Bible, when you look at the old

  54. Covenant, the Hebrew scriptures Genesis to Malachi.

  55. There's often speech in there about the Lord coming and the

  56. Lord has a visitation day. That is an appointed day.

  57. He's going to come on an appointed time.

  58. He comes in the fullness of time, he comes precisely Nicely

  59. would God the father wants him to come.

  60. And his coming to Earth is seen as a visitation whereby, he is

  61. accomplishing the things that the father has called upon him

  62. to accomplish all through the Old Testament.

  63. There's an anticipation of that day that appointed day that

  64. visitation day when the sun will come to Earth.

  65. And principally, he's going to deal with two classes of people.

  66. He's going to deal with the righteous.

  67. That had been made righteous by his grace, by the way, and he

  68. will deal with the wicked. Who is everybody born in their

  69. sin? And he will deal with those.

  70. The way in each case, it needs to be dealt with over and over.

  71. The emphasis is that he will make a judgment.

  72. He will make a discernment. And when he makes a discernment,

  73. he will judge between the righteous and the wicked, and

  74. the righteous will be ushered into his Perpetual Eternal

  75. blessing. And the wicked will be consigned

  76. to his eternal curse. So, the coming of the Lord is an

  77. important thing. And in the Old Testament, we see

  78. the coming of the Lord, as a dad, a out there in the future,

  79. it's out there. We don't know when it is.

  80. We don't know how long it's going to be.

  81. Before he comes the prophets will lament.

  82. How long O Lord? Will you not come and save your

  83. people and vindicate them and and justify them, and destroy

  84. the wicked, and get rid of those people that are harassing us

  85. throughout the And the Lord Waits. and he tells the prophet

  86. to wait for the vision, it's going to come it'll surely come

  87. it's the sure word of Prophecy but you don't know when You

  88. don't know what he's coming. When is this day of visitation?

  89. When is it going to happen? The Lord talked to the Ancients

  90. about it, he talked to Abraham about it and Isaac, and Jacob.

  91. He talked to Moses about it, he talked to David and have talked

  92. to the prophets, giving them all kinds of visions and all kinds

  93. of indications about that coming day the day of the Lord.

  94. When will it come what will it be like?

  95. The scripture teaches that, in fact, in the fullness of time,

  96. the visitation took place. God sent his son, born of a

  97. woman made under the law, who was here to fulfill all that the

  98. father had promised, but the time between the promise of

  99. Abraham and the coming of Christ was 2,000 years.

  100. Two full Millennia 2000 years. Can you imagine living in about

  101. 1000 years in the middle of all of that and wondering?

  102. When is it going to happen? When is the Lord going to come?

  103. Lets it go to be, like, come quickly, Lord Jesus, by the way.

  104. King, David lived at about that time.

  105. Can you imagine living at the time, 500 years before, 500

  106. years before, say, when is he coming?

  107. What's it coming going to be like we hear about his coming.

  108. And then he came. and when he came, he begin to do the work

  109. that his father had given him to do and to accomplish all of

  110. those things, all of those things that had been promised by

  111. the prophets, But here's the strange thing.

  112. When he came, it was obvious that he had come in the fullness

  113. of time, but it also come at the end of time.

  114. It's called the last days in Scripture.

  115. The scriptures are divided between the former days, the

  116. days of Prophecy and the latter days, the days of fulfillment,

  117. and Jesus comes in the latter days.

  118. He comes in the last days. It is appointed unto man once to

  119. die and after death. He is he has given one

  120. opportunity to believe in his lifetime is the time of Faith.

  121. Now is the day of salvation Today is the Day of Reckoning.

  122. Jesus Christ came and he began to accomplish all of those

  123. things that the father gave him to accomplish to do two things

  124. to save his people and to condemn and punish and destroy

  125. the wicked. It's a pretty simple

  126. straightforward job description. But one of the things we learned

  127. when he was here, he said, if I go, I will come again.

  128. That was a real surprise effect Paul refers to it as as one of

  129. the great Mysteries that Christ came with revelation of God

  130. manifesting himself. There is a time for his coming

  131. and yet he leaves. He said it's expedient for you.

  132. That I go away. He said I'm going to prepare

  133. mansions and but he still continues his work and we are

  134. living now in a period of expectation.

  135. Again, when is he coming? Why is he going to do?

  136. What will it be? Like what are the indications of

  137. his coming? Why had it been long enough?

  138. It's been 2000 years. Same amount of time.

  139. God operated within the old coveted he's operating now with

  140. us Christ. Came, he came as a king.

  141. He came as a savior. He comes as a lord.

  142. He comes as the, all the Fulfillment of the expectation

  143. of is Rayul to be their Messiah. And we'll look at those as we go

  144. along through the Advent season this year of the, of the root of

  145. Jesse, and all the things that pertain to Christman.

  146. What I'm giving you now is kind of the big framework.

  147. We are now expecting another visitation, another coming.

  148. Another purusa, another appearance, another presence,

  149. we're expecting him to to come and we will see him and he will

  150. operate. In such a way that he'll be

  151. accomplishing the purpose that God gave him.

  152. And we are living now in What's called the inter Advent 'l

  153. period to get that the inter Advent.

  154. In other words, Advent means the coming of the Lord, the

  155. visitation, but we have his visitation to Earth, 2,000 years

  156. ago in Bethlehem. And then there is his

  157. visitation, his coming, his coming again his return, which

  158. we now anticipate, we're in no different place.

  159. Yes. with respect to the expectation than the prophets

  160. were The prophets heard the word of the Lord.

  161. Believe the word of God. Proclaim the word of God.

  162. Faithful to him. Waiting waiting waiting, and he

  163. came He did him what he needed to do, and he's gone.

  164. And he's going to come again. And the accomplishment.

  165. Of what the Messiah is going to do spans that entire range of

  166. time at his first coming. He did some things, he

  167. accomplished some things. At his second coming, or his

  168. second Advent, he will accomplish things as well.

  169. You'll get some things done, in fact, that second Advent, we

  170. anticipate will be the consummation.

  171. He inaugurated a kingdom, he will consummate that Kingdom and

  172. bring it into an absolute Eternal reality.

  173. That's what the Lord will do at his second coming.

  174. One of the things that we have difficulty with is we read our

  175. Old Testament, is the Old Testament.

  176. Prophets didn't see that. Scheme.

  177. Working out like that. They just knew there was a day

  178. when Christ was going to come, and when he did, he was going to

  179. take care of all the business. And so when they wrote their

  180. prophecies, they mixed and mingled everything that Christ

  181. would do. At his first coming during the

  182. inter Adventist period. And the final Advent, the second

  183. coming, put it all in there. Together.

  184. This passage we just read as an example of it.

  185. Let me just, and I'll show you a couple of other examples.

  186. So you shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.

  187. That's his birth Branch from his roots, then the spirit of the

  188. Lord, rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding

  189. counsel, and might the spirit of knowledge, the fear of the This

  190. was his work and Isaiah 61 prophesied.

  191. The spirit of the Lord would be on him during his entire Earthly

  192. Ministry. His Delight shall be the fear of

  193. the Lord. He shall not judge by what his

  194. eyes. See, these are decide to speech

  195. by what his ear hears. But with righteousness, he shall

  196. judge. In other words, his first coming

  197. had to do with setting forth a judgment and he dealt with

  198. Mankind's singular issue. Sin.

  199. It's why the New Testament. Says, the second time, he will

  200. come without regard to sin. But he will come with regard to

  201. Salvation. Finishing his salvific work,

  202. accomplishing his purposes crowning and wrapping up all

  203. that he does asthma and bringing in that Eternal order that has

  204. been promised and you see it all mixed in here together.

  205. All the sudden in verse 6, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb

  206. and there's this beautiful description of the animals in

  207. the days of the new Heaven. And the new Earth.

  208. It's matched by other passages in Isaiah, And the beautiful

  209. thing is they shall not hurt or destroy in all my Holy Mountain

  210. for the Earth, shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as

  211. the waters, cover the sea. We see that in another passage

  212. of scripture, just back up a few verses, a few chapters.

  213. And in Isaiah here, Isaiah chapter 2, the word of the Lord.

    Isaiah 2 chapter mention

  214. That Isaiah, the son of a moth saw concerning Judah and

  215. Jerusalem. He says, 2:2, it shall come to

  216. pass in the the latter days. Okay, that's in the days of

  217. fulfillment. That's in the days.

  218. When Christ comes in the mountain of the house of the

  219. Lord shall be established at the highest of the mountains and

  220. shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall

  221. flow to it. And many people shall come and

  222. say let us come up to the mountain of the Lord to the

  223. house of the god of Jacob that he may teach us his ways that we

  224. may walk in his paths and it is out of Zion, shall go the law,

  225. the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, That's what's going

  226. on right now. That's the preaching of the

  227. Gospel. That's the going forth from

  228. Jerusalem, the word of the Lord, the Divine Law Goss, that's

  229. moving out of God's place in Jerusalem, in God's place of

  230. ancient Capital City to the entire world.

  231. Before long. You realize that the whole every

  232. nation is included. He's the king of all the nations

  233. and he's calling the nation's to himself, that was the nature of

  234. commission. He's going to all the I'll all

  235. the ethnic groups and disciple them and bring them in.

  236. All true worship of God goes up to Jerusalem.

  237. What is the crowning of Jerusalem?

  238. It is Christ himself. It is the work that was done

  239. inside the Gates of Jerusalem with his, with his arrest, his

  240. trial that which was done outside the Gates of Jerusalem,

  241. his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, all of these

  242. things have taken place, he shall judge between the nation's

  243. he shall discuss. Decide disputes for the many

  244. peoples. They shall beat their swords

  245. into plowshares and their Spears into pruning.

  246. Hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation.

  247. Neither shall they learn War anymore?

  248. This is the Prince of Peace, the king of all the nations, who

  249. brings about this. This, this very ideal pacifist

  250. situational House of Jacob. Come let us walk in the light of

  251. the Lord and just for the fun of it.

  252. In a few minutes that we have left, I want to just confine

  253. myself to nothing but the Minor Prophets.

  254. Now there's nothing minor about him.

  255. That's the last 12 books of Prophecy in the Old Testament

  256. and a couple of my won't hit on. I won't mention Obadiah, or

  257. Jonah, perhaps, but, but listen to just a small reading of what,

  258. what the what they talk about in in Hosea, let's just start Hosea

  259. Hosea, chapter 2, verse 16, In that day, declares the Lord, you

    Hosea 2:16

  260. will call me husband. That's Christ, and his bride.

  261. In that day, I will answer declares the Lord.

  262. I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the Earth and

  263. the Earth shall answer the green and wine.

  264. That's the Communion. I will have mercy on people that

  265. I said, I wouldn't have mercy on that is the Gentiles.

  266. I will say to my people. The Gentiles, You Are My People

  267. and he shall say, you are my God.

  268. Joel. You're familiar with the

  269. passages in Joel. Joel chapter 2, the day of the

    Joel 2 chapter mention

  270. Lord is coming, it is near. It's a day of darkness and Gloom

  271. a day of clouds and thick Darkness like Blackness their

  272. spread upon the mountains of great and powerful people like

  273. there has never been before Northern, will the be again

  274. through the years of all generations, fire devours before

  275. them and a flame Burns. And yet it turns out that

  276. there's like a Garden of Eden before them and behind them is a

  277. desolate wilderness. That's what the Lord's going to

  278. do. He's going to turn this earth

  279. into a Garden of Eden after he has burned it and purged it with

  280. fire thoroughly, once. He purged it with water, Next

  281. time, he purges it with fire. Joel chapter 3.

    Joel 3 chapter mention

  282. It will come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit

  283. on All Flesh, your sons and your daughter's shall prophesy, your

  284. old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see Visions even

  285. on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out

  286. my spirit. It shall come to pass that.

  287. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved for

  288. in Mount, Zion. And in Jerusalem.

  289. There should be those who've escaped as the Lord has said in

  290. among the survivors shall be Those whom the Lord calls

  291. Pentecost. Accomplished as it was given in

  292. those days. And at that time, chapter 3 in

  293. the at that day, I don't have time to go into every one of

  294. these, but they're really interesting.

  295. Here's Amos. I've got a passage out of Amos

    Amos 9 chapter mention

  296. chapter 9. In that day, I will raise up the

  297. booth of David that has fallen repair.

  298. Its branches and raise up its ruins and rebuilt it as in the

  299. days of old. And all the nations who are

  300. called by my name shall possess Remnant, declares the Lord, who

  301. does this? That's Acts chapter 15, that's

    Acts 15 chapter mention

  302. the Jerusalem Council, that's the passage that's quoted.

  303. When they were trying to decide what to do with all these

  304. Gentiles that had believed into the Jesus Messiah as the

  305. Messiah, the Jewish Messiah. And that's the passage that's

  306. quoting. They were enlarging the

  307. Tabernacle of David. The Lord is raising up that

  308. Fallen Kingdom that Fallen booth that Fallen Dynasty and

  309. restoring it to its full meaning and that's what is happening.

  310. In the church, all my life. Just see all these.

  311. I got I got to mention a couple of more for behold.

  312. The Lord is coming out of his place.

  313. He will come down and tread upon the high places of the Earth.

  314. That's that's Micah chapter one, chapter two force.

  315. In that day, they shall take up a taught in a song.

  316. And moan says, we were utterly ruined.

  317. He changes the portion of my people and he removes it from me

  318. to the apostate helots our Fields.

  319. This is the Judgment. This kind of preaching had this

  320. kind of effect in its day. Listen to what happened in Micah

    Micah 2 chapter mention

  321. chapter 2, Do not preach. One should not preach of these

  322. things. Disgrace will not overtake us.

  323. Should these be said, or House of Jacob, has the Lord grown

  324. impatient. And these Deeds, not my words,

  325. do good by him who walk uprightly.

  326. But lately, my people have risen up as an enemy.

  327. God's Own people. Have forsaken him and are

  328. denying his word and his law that's taking place in our

  329. denominational churches to day. All these things in that day,

  330. these things, they're being fulfilled now, In that day,

  331. declares the Lord. I will assemble the lame and

  332. gather this and he goes on about the lane.

  333. That's what happened in Acts chapter 3 when when Peter and

    Acts 3 chapter mention

  334. John healed the lame man. All the healing of the lame was

  335. a vivid sign that the era of the Fulfillment of the Messiah had

  336. come. And then the passage we just

  337. read a little while ago in Micah 5:2 To You O Bethlehem.

    Micah 5:2

  338. Shall come forth one, who is the ruler in Israel?

  339. Oh, I love this passage here in the rest of his brothers shall

  340. return to the people of Israel. He shall stand and Shepherd his

  341. flock. In the Majesty of the name of

  342. the Lord. They shall dwell secure and

  343. shall be great to the ends of the Earth and he shall be their

  344. peace. Well, this intensifies and you

  345. can see it really as it gets into the latter Prophecies of

  346. the of the Old Testament. In the book of Zephaniah over

  347. and over and over, it talks about the coming of the Lord in

  348. the Judgment that will take place as well as the salvation

  349. of Israel ended in Zachariah. You see the things that are said

  350. there. Some of these passages were

  351. going to run a cover later. A listen to this.

  352. The Lord will give salvation on that day.

  353. I will make Jerusalem on that day.

  354. Declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and every

  355. writer with Madness, on that day, I will make the clans of

  356. Judah like a blazing pot. In the midst of the word.

  357. The Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah, and the

  358. glory of the House of David. And the glory of the inhabitants

  359. of Jerusalem, may not pass that of Jerusalem.

  360. On that day. The Lord will protect the

  361. inhabitants of Jerusalem. you realize that Jerusalem is the

  362. church if you don't realize it, read the book of Revelation It

  363. is God's accomplishment, what he did in his first coming with,

  364. respect to sin and salvation, what he's doing?

  365. Now in terms of calling the nation's and what he will do,

  366. when he returns in terms of separating judging, we're out of

  367. time. But if you would read over in

  368. this, this book again, you'd find the one of the things that

  369. the Lord does is he brings everybody into a great valley.

  370. It's the valley of Jehoshaphat it means the valley of judgement

  371. judgement awaits. Everyone.

  372. It is appointed unto man once to die.

  373. And after that the Judgment, he will appear a second time

  374. without sin. But unto salvation Tommy, I'm

  375. way over you made to be real brief with this with this

  376. communion. Not too brief.