Rejoicing in the Judge

Isaiah chapter thirteen through twenty four. Eh. Yeah, if you've

been with us for a little while, you know we've

been going through the Book of Isaiah. We've been generally

going through Isaiah at the pace of about a chapter

or two, usually two each week. And if you've been

tracking and you're like, we're getting to thirty seven before summer,

and when we take a break from Isaiah, how's that

going to happen? I don't see how that's going to happen.

This is how that's gonna happen. Here, we've been puddle

jumping two chapters at a time, and now we're about

to take a thirty thousand foot overview from thirteen to

twenty four eleven chapters of judgment. Yeah, let me let

me read to you. I think a helpful key passage

from these eleven chapters that will help us center our

our our focus on what this is all about. Turn

to chapter fourteen and let's just read together verses twenty

four through twenty seven. It's going to be a helpful sample. Okay.

Isaiah fourteen, starting in twenty four, says this, the Lord

of Hosts has sworn as I have planned, so it

shall be as I have purposed, so it shall stand.

Then I will break the Assyrian in my land and

on my mountains, trample him underfoot, and his yolks shall

depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder. This

is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth,

and this is the land. This is the hand that

is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord

of Hosts has purposed. And who will annul it? His

hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back.

That's a pretty helpful sample of eleven chapters of justice

that Isaiah proclaims and predicts that will take place across

multiple timelines throughout over thirteen different civilizations. I mean, you

can just look at the ESV headings here, like Judgment

of Babylon, Oracle concerning Moab. You've got oracle concerning Damascus,

oracle concerning Cush if you're flipping with me, oracle concerning Egypt,

and it goes. This is this collection of pronouncements regarding

God's justice. And here's the thing. The people who received this,

who heard this, who read this, received it as a

comfort and a joy. It's a little counterintuitive, perhaps to

rejoice over God's judgment maybe unless you have been someone

in a courtroom, and maybe you've seen video of things

like this, where a family is waiting in a courtroom

to see justice carried out on someone who has completely

wrecked and ruined their lives and their family and their

livelihoods and their health, and the judge drops his gavel

and justice is done, and the family bursts into tears

of joy over justice. Unless you've been there, unless you've

been crushed under injustice, it may be hard for you

to find comfort in or get excited about God as

a judge. I can tell you, as a young Christian,

I was pretty turned off by God's justice. I didn't

really get it. I sort of ignored it, didn't like it.

If I came to these eleven chapters, I'd probably skip them,

just you know how that is. When you're young. You're like,

I'm just into what I'm into. But I can tell you,

as I've come to understand scripture more, as I've come

to understand injustice more and understand the character of God more,

here's the conclusion I've come to. He is the judge

that we really want. He's the judge we really want.

His justice is worth rejoicing over. Now there's some reasons

why we might doubt that that he's the judge we

want that he is a judge worth rejoicing over. And

Isaiah deals I think with three major themes in these

eleven chapters, that as those themes come into focus for

us more clearly, we more find ourselves rejoicing in the

judgment of God. Not just the mercy of God, not

just the grace of God, not just the provision of God.

The justice of God becomes a joy to us. Let's

look at him three themes. Here's the first one, theme

number one, the wisdom of his justice. The wisdom of

his justice. We come to rejoice in God as judge

when it starts to come into focus for us, the

wisdom that he has as a judge. I mean, it's

kind of the main characteristic when it comes to judgment, right,

You want those who are executing judgment to be wise.

We understand a little bit about how complicated it is

to execute good judgment, how difficult, how dangerous it is

for someone's judgment to actually be the law. So I man,

we need a perfect judge then, and the Bible says

that he is. He is a perfect judge. And we

should rejoice over that. And one of the things that

the Bible shows us in terms of his perfection is

how much he actually hates wrongdoing. You hate wrongdoing, You

hate wrongdoing what it's done to you, and he hates

it even more. I mean, you see throughout these eleven

chapters things like from chapter thirteen, I will punish the

world for its evil, it says continually in the day

of his fierce anger in the day and throughout these

eleven chapters, God is zeroing in on the greed that

people give themselves to that causes them to mistreat others,

on the arrogance that causes people to think that they're

better than others and oppress them. Throughout these eleven chapters,

all of these examples of oppression one nation oppressing another nation,

or peace people within nations oppressing and crushing down others,

and God says, I hate it. I hate the way

my image bearers people are being treated by other people.

Which all of that might seem like long ago, but

I mean, just consider I mean, chattel slavery in the

United States was at its highest in like the eighteen

forties and fifties. In the nineteen forties and fifties, Stalin

massacred millions and millions of his own people. Talk about oppression,

and Mao took it further in China. This is in

nineteen sixty and nineteen seventies. And God, in his timing,

in his way, and importantly in his wisdom, continues to

set civilizations right where they have gone wrong, and that

resetting is a matter of his wise justice that we

should rejoice in. We should rejoice over the way he

executes judgment on the wrong doer. In fact, that's what

we see, for instance, in chapter fourteen, as people are

brought these reliefs, they how the oppression has ceased. It

just exclaim and release in relief and enjoy. If you

go look in Revelation the Christians in Heaven in the

Book of Revelation, they're rejoicing over two things, Jesus and Justice. Lord,

How righteous are your judgments? As you have brought justice

and for you, you should know that if you are

living under injustice oppression, If you have loved ones maybe

who are being controlled by an unjust boss or criminal elements,

if you hate wrongdoing, if you hate pain that's being

inflicted upon you or your loved ones. God hates it more.

And one of the things that the saints cry out

throughout all of redemptive history, we see it even in

here from time to time in these eleven chapters, is

how long, O Lord? How long, oh Lord? If you

are so wise and you are so just, why does

it seem like it takes so long for you to

set things to write? I don't think it's sacrilegious for

you to nod along with that question. I mean, how long,

O Lord? Is the cry of the saints, So we're

the saints, we can cry it. I think there really

are two answers to at least to get into this morning.

Two answers to the question of why does it seem

to take so long for God's justice to be executed?

And the first answer. Both answers have to do with

God's wisdom. The first one is true and biblical and unsatisfying,

but nevertheless needs to be taken seriously. And here it is,

God's wisdom is completely beyond our understanding. We cannot comprehend

the wisdom of God's justice. And that sounds like a

cop out, but it's true and it needs to be

taken seriously. Isaiah says it in chapter forty. Right, he says,

who has shown God his counsel, who has taught God

the paths of justice? Right? His wisdom is simply beyond

our ability to comprehend. We have to start there. I mean,

you know how complicated it is for just to sort

out one case for an earthly judge. I mean, you

just have one multi party bar fight in San Antonio,

and it's going to take months to figure out what happened.

If you have earthly judges and earthly lawyers who struggle

to figure out how to execute justice in a custody battle,

if you, as a parent, have ever tried to figure

out a multi party squabble amongst three or four of

your kids, you realize that takes wisdom. And here God

is executing justice over the cross of over the course

of history and the globe thirteen different civilizations, and we

feel like he has some explaining to do. But nevertheless,

I mean we have to admit it's a little bit

of an unsatisfying answer to say, well, God's wisdom is

beyond us, and yet think about it, that's worth rejoicing over.

I mean, if you're a Christian, if you accept what

Scripture is conveying about God. You can rejoice over a

judge that is wiser than you can comprehend. I mean,

what's the alternative. The alternative is a judge whose wisdom

is so shallow that you could track it line by line.

And if you're not a Christian, if you're here this

morning and you're like, I don't, I'm pretty skeptical about

what the Bible has to say, you still have to concede.

If God does have the wisdom to judge everything, you're

not very likely to grasp it. If he has the

wisdom beyond your understanding. If he has it, if it's true,

if what the Bible says about God is true, that

would be something worth rejoicing over. He is wise, and

the wisdom of his justice is what causes us to

rejoice over him as judge. It's not just something we

have to accept or assent to. We do have to

accept it, it's true, but we can rejoice over it. Well,

not only his wisdom, not only his wisdom. Well, you

know what I forgot. There's a second answer, right. I

don't want to just leave you with the one answer.

While his wisdom is beyond understanding there's a second answer

to why it seems to take so long for him

to execute justice. And let's not forget that. Here's the

second answer he can summon up in one word, forbearance.

Forbearance like part of God's character as a judge is

that he is patient. He says this about himself in

Exodus thirty four, I am slow to anger. I will,

by no means clear the guilty, but I am slow

to anger. In our passage in these eleven chapters, Isaiah

speaks of God's patience like someone waiting for a flower

to become a fruit. Right in other words, at the

fullness of time, as the flower becomes a grape, then

he comes and makes his harvest. He's not in a hurry,

of course. Those who are wronged want swift justice, and

those who are being judged want due process, and God

gives the perfect combination of both. Second Peter says, he

is not slow to bring his justice. Instead, he desires

all to repent. He waits for the fullness of time

so that grace may be shown. But their will come

a day. There will come a day. You know. Some

people will accuse God of having infinite patience. Patience is

not infinite. That's tolerance. Patience has an end. There will

come a day. These chapters speak of it in many

places elsewhere in the Bible speak of the Day of

the Lord, the day of the Lord, where God's forbearance

and his fierceness intersect, and he says, enough is enough.

We've found the fullness of time, and I am bringing

my judgment on wrongdoing. It always reminds me of a

line from Hemingway Hemingway. In one of Hemingway's novels, one

of the characters was asked, so how did you go bankrupt?

And he says, well, two ways, really gradually and then suddenly.

And I think the Day of the Lord is kind

of like that, Like God is waiting for the fullness

of time, but when it comes, the perfect intersection of

forbearance and fierceness. It's characterized throughout scripture with darkness and earthquake.

It's coming, and it's not a single day like the

Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is

an occurrence. It's a biblical event that takes place, takes

place in the prophecy of Joel. It takes place at

the as God judges Babylon, as God judges Assyria. You

see it in Revelation. There are times when God says

it's coming the day of the Lord. He's perfect in

his forbearance, He's perfect in his fierceness. But we also

see throughout these eleven chapters, and if you were to

study them closely, you would see so many nuances, so

many places where he says, I'm going to actually preserve

some of this, and in other places he says, actually, Judah,

what I want you to do as I bring judgment here.

I want you to provide a shade for them. I

want you to be a refuge to them. And another

place he says, these civilizations, I'm bringing judgment, but one

day I'm going to include them in my people. Like

there's so many nuances to the wisdom of God's justice.

We can rejoice in the fact that God as judge,

is perfect in his wisdom. He combines forbearance and fierceness.

He's perfect in his timing for repentance and restitution. He's

the judge we really want, but not just because of

his wisdom, also because of his power. Right, his wisdom

wouldn't mean much if he couldn't do anything about it.

I think it's really important to understand because there are

some people who want to let God off the hook.

There are some people who say, you know what I

see injustice and pain in the world, and I'm angry

about it. Good, you should be God's angrier. But I

want to trust his compassion. I want to trust the

heart of God. And so in order to hold on

to both the right anger I should have and the

right trust I should have, then I guess I'm just

gonna let God off the hook and decide, well, he

must not be able to do much about it. Well,

that's not how the Bible portrays him at all. That's

certainly not how Isaiah portrays him. I mean, we've read

that key passage from fourteen as it says God has

purposed who will annul it? And that has to do

with the big stuff. Like he says in chapter thirteen,

I'm stirring up the meads against the Babylonians or this

civilization tire. They're going to be forgotten for seventy years,

like God is. God's reach is across history and across

the globe. But it also has to do with the

small stuff, right. Richard puts it like this, All things

are his servants, from the greatest to the least. The

winds and the waves obey him. The stars move by

his appointment, and the hearts of kings are turned by

his pleasure. Yeah, even hearts. Hearts like Pharaoh. Right in

Exodus says God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. It also

says Pharaoh hardened his heart. So which one is it? Yeah?

I kind of have to do that every week. I

don't know. Yes, it's both. And yet though God, God's

reach is across history and the globe, every continent, and

every crevice and every heart. He's nevertheless never the author

of evil. He's not the author of evil. Is the

author of evil. And so you think, well, if God

is so powerful, then why doesn't he just like poof

away the pain I'm angry about He's angry about this,

I'm angry about this. Why doesn't he just poof it away?

It's not because of his inability, it's because of his wisdom.

It's because of his patience. Stephen Charnick puts it like this,

should God immediately remove all suffering, he would need to

remove all sin at once. Then who could stand? Then?

Who could stand? You want to be mad. He should

be mad, andn't be angry at injustice and in pain.

Like I said, God's angrier but pain and injustice. Its

source is sin, from the sin of the garden to

your sin and my sin, the sin of people across

the globe in centuries past, in a black tangled thread

that God, in his wisdom is working through for redemption

and restoration. In his grace, he is wisely untangling. And

if you want to be mad, don't be mad at God,

be mad at sin. Let's be mad. Let's be mad

about injustice and be mad at the source, which is sin,

and then go kill sin. But over God you can

rejoice because he's getting rid of the source of pain,

and he's doing it with a power that reaches every

continent and every crevice. He's perfect in his wisdom. He's

perfect in his power. But there's also this. Here's the

third theme that we see and the third thing that

helps us to rejoice in God as a judge, and

that is when we see the graciousness of his refuge,

the graciousness of his refuge. See all this talk about justice,

It kind of raises a problem. Even if even if

we understand that he's wise, and even if we understand

that he's powerful, we might nevertheless dread the judge because,

as one person said, if God doesn't establish justice in

the world, there's no hope for the world. But if

he does establish justice in the world, there's no hope

for me, because I can see as I look at

my own heart, a heart that deserves judgment. But God

says in his word that he has made a way

of hope. He's made a way of hope. You know

the day of the Lord that shows up throughout scripture,

and particularly here in Isaiah, the day of darkness and

of earthquake. This occurrence throughout redemptive history where God brings

judgment most often to entire groups. You know, one day,

the Day of the Lord arrived and his judgment was

poured out on one man. And during the death of

Jesus Christ, God darkened the sky and shook the earth

and poured out his decisive judgment on his son, who

didn't deserve it. First, Peter says, in him there was

no sin, so that in his justice he could still

be the justifier of any who would come to him

for refuge, like it says in Isaiah chapter nineteen when

they cry to the Lord, he will send a savior

and defender. He will make a refuge. And the refuge

that he offers you is himself. That's so key. What

he holds out to you is not just some idea

called grace. What he holds out to you is not

just some work called the cross. What he holds out

to you is himself. He says, come and take refuge

in me. I've bought your entry by my blood. I

grant you entry by my grace. Now will you hold

on to me? Will you come to me? Will you

be united to me? Will you trust in me? And

you say, well, yeah, that's called faith. You're not wrong.

You know what faith looks like. Faith looks like faithfulness.

Let me just warn you to those who say, well,

I am sort of hypothetically putting my refuge in Christ,

but I'm not actually living out my faith in a

way that looks like faithfulness. And James would say, you

may be flirting with disaster. You may be calling something

faith that's actually a dead statement. If your faith is

in him, cling to him. If your faith is in him,

then trust in him. If you're faith is in him,

then obey him. He's bought your refuge with his blood.

What he holds out for you is himself, and you

can rejoice. You can rejoice that you are in him.

You can rejoice that he is wise in his judgments.

You can rejoice that he is powerful to execute them.

You know, I think the most moving presentation about justice

I ever experienced. It was just a few years ago.

They're about one hundred, one hundred and fifty pastors gathered

in a room, and out on the platform came a

lowd to talk about justice. I completely tuned out because lawyer.

But as he started talking, he got all of our

attention because he started telling us about a guy named Raymond.

Raymond was a black man from Louisiana who was wrongly

accused of murder. The police in that jurisdiction wanted to

make a quick arrest and a quick conviction, and so

they selected Raymond. Their work was poorly done and racially motivated,

and the judge slapped a conviction on Raymond, who was

completely innocent, and Raymond was sent away to prison for

murder for decades. This lawyer that was speaking got a

hold of Raymond's file, looked into the circumstances of the case,

realized that this man was probably innocent, he certainly didn't

have justice served in his case, and looked into it.

They sorted through the evidence. At this point they were

able to test DNA, and nevertheless, it still took years,

years though he was clearly innocent to be released from prison.

Raymond and the pastors in that room, who like me,

had started not paying attention. By this point, we were lived.

We were livid. How could that be done to someone?

And then Raymond came out and sat down with us,

and he told us about how he had come to

Christ in prison, how he continues to go into prison

and share what God has done, not just for him, Raymond,

what God has done Now he is a man who

has been exonerated and enjoying the freedoms and the results

of justice. What about what about decades of injustice? Yeah,

but the joy and the comfort of justice finally served.

And there we were as pastors, just sitting there with

this tandem emotion of anger over injustice and joy over

a righteous judge. And in many ways that's similar to

what we're called to