CHFC - Week 3 (Isaiah 66:18-23)

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

So I know normally I'll say a few words to introduce the text.

I'm not going to do that today. We're going to dive right in.

So if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to Isaiah

Isaiah 66 · chapter mention

chapter 66. It is the last chapter of

Isaiah. We won't read the whole thing,

but we're going to read enough to get the idea.

We're going to read 15 through 24, which is the end of the

chapter. Again, Isaiah 6615 through 24.

And we read this in Jesus name. For behold, the Lord will come

and fire, and his Chariots like the whirlwind, to render his

anger and fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword

with all flesh. And those slain by the Lord will

be many, those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the

gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh in the

abomination. And mice shall come to an end

all together, declares the Lord. For I know their works and their

thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and

tongues, and they shall come, and they shall see my glory.

And I will set a sign among them, and from them I will send

survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, to pull to Lud, and

and who and those who draw the bow, Tubal and Javen to the

coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my

glory. And they shall declare my glory

among all of the nations. And they shall bring all your

brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on

horses and in Chariots and in litters, and on mules and on

dromedaries, to my holy mountain.

Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their

grain offering in a clean vessel to the House of the Lord.

And some of them also I will take for priests and Levites,

says the Lord. For as I knew heavens, and a new

earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so

shall your offspring in your name remain.

From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath.

All flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord,

and they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men

who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die,

their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in

abhorrence to all flesh. Here ends the reading of God's

Word, and Merry Christmas. Nothing like a little fire in

judgment to get the Christmas season really ramped up.

I got to tell you, if you're not on your heels a little bit after

listening to that, I suspect you weren't listening at all.

It is a strange thing that we would consider fire and

judgement during the happiest time of the year, as they would

say. It's it's, it's a unique thing

that that we get to read that now.

I think the burning question, burning fire, that's hilarious.

I think the burning question is why today?

Why would we read that today? Well, here's the thing.

I know that it's, it's, it's exciting to think about baby

Jesus and there's some level of peace and, and some comfort to

that. But we really can't talk about

Jesus coming to the earth in the form of a child if we don't also

consider when He comes again. Because the first time He showed

up, that was for a very specific purpose.

It was to live amongst us, It was to dwell with us.

It was to give His life to forgive sin.

But the second time He comes, which we have to consider, it

will not be to die. It will not be to forgive sin.

The second time He comes, He will come to judge.

And when He comes to judge those who are found without faith in

Him, they will be put out to darkness, the outer darkness,

the Bible calls it, to the place where there's weeping and

gnashing of teeth and fire, as the Bible describes it.

And yet for those who are found in Christ, who are found in

faith within him, it's a totally different story.

He takes them to a new heavens and a new earth, a paradise

where there's no more sickness or disease or pain or death.

All of these things rendered in judgement.

Now I get, I get it, it, it does feel like a heavy topic.

And even as I gosh, some people in this congregation, you know

that like I've been struggling with this all week, you know

that. And that's not to point the

spotlight on me. It's to point out the fact that

there are some hard words that the Bible tells us that we don't

need to be cute about them. We don't need to be clever about

them. We just need to take them in as

they are. We just need to hear them let

that hardship and sometimes those difficult things, let let

them just kind of settle in. I, I don't particularly like

being uncomfortable, whether it's on this stage or anywhere

else. But then again, maybe that's the

point. Maybe the point sometimes is to

let God do his best work through our discomfort.

And in doing that, we have a real chance.

We have a chance to do what? We have a chance to be honest

with people that some might come to faith and believe and be

saved. So with that in mind, here's how

I'd like to kind of look at the text that we just heard.

We're going to do this in three ways.

This is typical for me. We're going to see that God's

judgment is justified. We'll explore that briefly, but

we're also going to see then what reconciliation looks like.

This text gives us that as well. And then finally we get to

understand that there is a home in which we get to remain that

will not be taken away from us. So there we are, friends, we're

going to get into this fun stuff.

You ready? Yes.

Well, you have to be, because I'm going to keep talking

anyway. It's fine, don't worry about it.

So why don't, why don't we start with this?

Why is God so angry in the first place?

Because you know this text, it says and fire and Chariots and

whirlwind and anger and fury and rebuke flames the fire and

judgment and all against those who have rebelled against me.

Why is God so mad? Well, I'll tell you this, I, I,

I learned how to frame this this week and I can thank our men's

group for that because there was a discussion we had on Thursday

night during our men's group that really actually gave me

some strange insight into God's judgement.

And so let me share that with you.

As we talked as a group of men, we were talking about kids and

discipline and we were talking about situations and, and how

then did we react as fathers? As a father, how do I react when

my kids mess up? Well, I can tell you that they

have a lot of influence as to how I'm going to react.

And all the men in that group agreed.

You see, there's, there's two different ways you can go about

this. When you mess up kids, just

listen, take notes. Two ways you can go about this.

You can be contrite, you can be sorrowful, you can be honest.

You can just admit what you've done or you can be prideful, you

can be arrogant, you can deny, deny, deny all day long.

It wasn't me, it was me, right? You can do that, but you will

get 2 very different reactions from your father based on which

way you go, right? So I, I can tell you quite

personally, when my kids have failed, when they've messed up,

whether that was on purpose or not, when that happened, when

that has happened to them, man. And they come to me and they're,

you know, I kind of feel bad thinking about it, but like,

they're kind of dad and man, you know what?

That that just breaks my heart almost.

It softens my position. Even if I have every reason in

the world to be angry, it really softens my position.

And instead of coming down hard with a hammer on them, I'm kind

of like, oh, OK, let me take a step back here.

Let me check my anger for a second.

Because there's something happening in their heart that I

need to recognize. However, I've absolutely also

had occasions in my household where I know you did a stupid

thing. And you know you did a stupid

thing, but you're not going to be willing to say it or you say

it, but you're like, yeah, but here's the reason.

And you try and justify it, and it's terrible.

And you know what that does? It just sends me through the

roof. It really does.

Moms, dads, I'm sure you've been there.

When they try to deny it, when they're dishonest about it, it

just makes you want to crush them.

Maybe that's aggressive. Sorry.

Good thing you didn't grow up in my house, huh?

But here's the thing, Parents, as we do that, as we react one

way or the other based on their reactions to sin, man, you know

what we're doing? We're actually mimicking God.

We're mimicking Jesus. Because all this talk of

judgment, you have to ask, is it necessary?

Why does it come about that way? So let's take Jesus, for

example. Let's look at a couple different

things. Gosh, the tax collector, Jesus

tells this story, this moment about a tax collector who sits

in the back of the synagogue and, and, and he doesn't try to

justify himself. He just, he pounds his chest and

he's so upset with himself. He, he sees the sin of swindling

people and it breaks him. So he comes before God.

He is sorrowful. He can't even lift his head to

heaven. And Jesus says that man walks

away justified. And then there's the woman who's

caught in adultery. She's scared, she's sorrowful.

She, she would do anything to take it back.

And you know what Jesus does with her?

You know, the attitude, the posture he takes towards her as

she expresses her sad state. Those other people would love to

condemn her. He does not.

He does not condemn her. He looks at her with love and

care and he justifies her and lets her walk away.

And then last example that I'll give you is, gosh, there's a

woman in Luke Chapter 7 and it says that she was a woman of the

Luke 7 · chapter mention

city. Most scholars believe that means

that she was a prostitute. And what does she do?

Jesus is hanging out with some some people and he's had this

really important dinner. And she comes and she cries and

her, her tears start to wet Jesus's feet and she takes her

hair and she dries off Jesus's feet and all the really

important self-righteous people around her.

Like if you knew who was touching you, you'd have the

heebie jeebies you'd get out of here.

But that's not it at all. Jesus loves her and he forgives

her sin in front of all those super important people who

wouldn't be within 10 yards of her if they didn't have to be.

But then there's the other side, right?

There's a side where we're not contrite, where we're prideful

and we're arrogant. Consider the the scribes and the

Pharisees who who in their self-righteous, I know

everything. I followed the law perfectly.

What does Jesus do to them? He openly in public condemns

them to their face with everybody else watching.

How embarrassing for them. And then the people who turn

God's temple into a place of profit in, in anger, in real

righteous anger, This guy, he takes the tables and he, I'm not

actually going to do it. He, but he takes the table and

he flips them over. And then he, he's got a, a whip

made of cords and he's whipping people out of that temple.

And then one more, just in case you're not getting it, the the

disciple Peter, Peter tells Jesus, because Jesus kind of

says, here's the game plan friends.

And, and, and Peter's like, no, that's not going to happen to

you. How does Jesus address him?

Get behind me, Satan. You've got the things of man in

mind, not the things of God. So do you see it?

Here's the point. The Lord's anger is absolutely

justified and his judgement is absolutely justified when he

judges us. But do you understand that his

judgement of us is not even necessarily going to be about

the sin that we've committed? It's not about that.

Maybe it's about our reaction to the sin.

Because just like a good father, just like a good mother, His

reaction will match our reaction when we are sorrowful, when we

are contrite, when we are humble, when we confess our

sins, God meets us with grace and with mercy and with love and

total forgiveness. First, John 19 right?

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to, to, to

forgive us of all of our sins and purify us from all

unrighteousness because he is a merciful God.

Yet when we are hard hearted, when we refuse to own our sin,

when we refuse to come to Him, and we refuse to speak the truth

in humility and own our stuff, His reaction is going to be that

of a very good parent. He is going to come with the

hammer. He is going to come with the

law. He is going to come with

judgement. Which version do you want to

meet? Do you realize that the version

of God that you will meet is based on your reaction to your

sin? Hold on to that.

That matters Now as we continue, we have to talk about

reconciliation too, because if we are going to come to God with

humble and contrite hearts and we're willing to, to be honest

about our sin, well, there's going to be a period of

reconciliation. God is just, he's doing this

glorious task and he's even doing it right now.

All over the world. God is reconciling people left

and right. He's bringing families back

together through peace and through the gospel and through

good news of forgiveness that knows no bounds.

Now, I can tell you that there are dividing lines that we feel,

and I think they're mostly fairly obvious in the West.

It's usually red or blue, conservative or liberal.

In other parts of the world, it's Israel, it's Hamas.

And there's all this strife and there's all this anger and

frustration. And if you want to bring this

really home and you want to make it really personal, it's

Christmas. You are probably going to have

to be around people that you don't even like.

Don't say their names. Don't do that.

But you've got them in your head, right?

You're going to be at whatever gatherings, whether that's a

work gathering or, or in somebody's home and and man,

you're going to have to be around these people that you're

just actually not cool with. But it's Christmas, we're all

wearing the sweater. So put on a smile and shut up,

right? That's how that goes a lot of

times. But what if, what if it didn't

have to be that way? Now as I think about this, I

have a laundry list of things that just drive me nuts about

people that stop reconciliation from happening.

And I'm going to speak generally, but maybe some of

these things will hit you. You potentially have the nosy in

law that you will meet at this time of year who just refuses to

shut their mouth. Maybe.

Or maybe it's the the cousin who just like, man, their whole life

is drama and they want to give a little bit of it to you.

They want to get you somehow involved in that.

Or maybe you have a parent who just always passive, passive

aggressively mistreats your spouse.

So that's really fun when you're opening the gifts.

And worse perhaps is you have the sibling who looks at all

this and he sees it, the ticking time bomb, and they're just

always pressing the button because they want to see the

reaction. They just love to stir

everything up because man, isn't it fun to watch them argue.

These are some of the people that you may run across during

the Christmas season. And it's really hard to be in a

home and to feel reconciled and to feel loved and to feel joy

and care and peace and all those things that we're supposed to

take in during the Christmas season.

It's hard. It's difficult with people like

that sometimes. And So what do we do about that?

How do we actually create a sense of reconciliation?

Well, I want you to consider something.

Have you considered it's not about them and maybe it's about

you maybe, maybe in order to have some reconciliation, to

have some peace during the holidays, it's going to require

you not not, not not them changing.

Maybe it's going to require you changing.

Have you considered praying for that?

It's a challenge really is what I'm giving you.

I'm challenging you. I'm begging you because I'll, I

know I'll hear stories if you do it.

I'm begging you to pray for God to not change their hearts, but

to change yours. Because that's the thing, we

often times we look at these people who drive us nuts and

maybe we only have to be around them once or twice a year, but

we dread it. Well, gosh, have you ever

thought about asking God to peel away the layers of contention

that exist in your own heart? Have you thought about that as

an option rather than thinking about how terrible and annoying

they are? The thing is, as we pray that

prayer, it's dangerous. It's dangerous because it means

you might end up putting up with some things or, or you know,

turning the other cheek when normally you would just let them

have it because they deserve it. But here's the thing about

making a prayer like that, a prayer for reconciliation, a

prayer for our own hearts to change.

Here's the thing, when we do that, God is going to be

faithful. He is going to be faithful.

And that's why it's dangerous and that's why it's challenging

because as you pray for your heart to change for these

people, God's going to do some work.

I'm going to do some real work in you.

Now, does that mean that prayer will take this, this home, this

these gatherings and make them perfect?

No, I am not selling you a bill of goods that won't work because

guess what? You're going to pray and they're

still going to be stupid. It's going to happen.

But but how will you receive their stupidity?

Because in wisdom, God. Who is changing your heart?

Because that's what you're begging for, man.

You know what he's going to do. He's going to give you a level

of discernment. A level of discernment to know

when to speak the law. In other words, when to give the

hard truth. And then a level of discernment

when to give grace and when to give mercy and when to show care

despite their flaws. That's how God's going to do it.

So I'm going to encourage you. Pray the prayer.

Do it, do it, and then you know what you do after you pray that

prayer, you leave it alone. Leave it alone.

Go get a good night's sleep and just see what God will do with

all that. Come back and tell me about it

later, maybe. Now let me get to kind of our

last point here that Isaiah is pointing at in verse 22 and 23.

This is what he says. For as the new heavens and the

new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord,

so shall your offspring and your name remain.

From new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh

shall come and worship before me, declares the Lord.

I read these verses and I'll be really honest with you.

Like it actually makes me a little sad.

And that's, that's not the point of these verses, but it makes me

a little sad because I have often, I have often times felt

like in my life that the best things that I get to experience,

all the things that I know are really good, they just don't

remain as long as I want them to.

And that's difficult to process. You know, the best vacations

I've ever been on, all the places I get to, I I've had the

opportunity to travel to. Yeah, that's that's come and

gone. That's that's over.

That didn't remain. I didn't get to stay there.

You know, the money, the money in my account, it goes out at

lightning speed. That doesn't remain.

My kids, Lord bless them, they are young adults now.

They did not remain small, which means that I can't just pick

them up whenever I want to and hold them because they're living

their lives as we have built them to do.

They haven't remained. And then, you know, my body.

It also reminds me often, especially when it's really

cold. I don't know if anybody else

feels that when it's really cold.

I can tell I'm getting older. I have not remained the person

that I was and relationships, they've been fractured and

broken. Even at my best efforts, the

relationships didn't remain where they were either.

Now I understand it sounds like I'm kind of cynical, kind of a

Debbie Downer. Merry Christmas again.

And I don't, I don't mean to be that way.

So what's the hope? How does this actually work?

Well, I think these verses, even upon initial reading and even

though they they they push something in me, they also, they

do give me hope. And they should, they should.

Hopefully when we walk out of here today and we see these

again, they will give us hope and they will give us joy and

peace. Knowing that there is a space

where which God is guaranteeing a home of love and peace and

joy. A place where none of those

things ever have to leave. A place of no contention, no

contention whatsoever. Only a place where we look at

each other and we can honestly say, brothers and sisters in

Christ, whom I deeply love. Now, how does that work?

How, how are we going to get there?

Well, I can tell you how we're going to get there, how we're

going to be able to remain in that home kind of by telling you

a part of the Christmas story. That's how we can figure this

out. So God was not content to let us

live without hope or live without freedom.

He was not content to leave us where we were, praise the Lord.

But because he was not content to do that, He told his son, You

are no longer allowed to remain with me in heaven.

I need you to go dwell with them.

And dwell with us He did. He was born in our likeness.

He was born in our shape. Yet He was different, wasn't he?

Because The thing is that sin that so deeply affects us and

messes up our relationship and causes us not to be able to go

to God in honesty, all those things, all those schemes of the

devil, he remained faithful to God.

He remains sinless in all of his work, in all of his days, so

that he might take our place. And, and in that he, he remained

steadfast as they beat him and they cursed him.

He remained steadfast in that, and he remained strong as they

were nailing him to a cross. He remained faithful to the call

of God in his life. And then even as God turned his

back on him, his own father, he remained in love because they,

they chided him. They told him like, hey, come on

down, Savior, why don't you go ahead and do it?

And He could have, but He didn't.

He remained on the cross for you and for me.

And then here's the best part of all of it.

He remained God by coming out of the tomb three days later.

He has remained God even in death.

He has brought himself back to life.

He lays down his life of his own accord and he picks it up of his

own accord. That is Jesus Christ our King.

And because he has remained God through life and through death,

that means we get to come home and we get to remain with God.

We get to remain in a place where sin and death no longer

kill and destroy us. It doesn't break our

relationships. It actually gives us a home to

stay in permanently. This is what God does.

It allows us to remain because He left.

Praise the Lord, it is so good that He left so that we can stay

friends. I'm telling you this Christmas

season like I man, I want you to remain in peace.

I want you to remain in joy and all of those things happen not

because of our outside circumstances.

They all happen just so when we, when we remain in Christ, Amen.

Let's pray our Father in heaven, it is so good to be in your

presence. It is good to be in your word.

But all the more, Lord, it is better for us that you are in us

through your Holy Spirit. Father, I pray this morning that

Your Word would dwell richly in us, that we would take it with

us, that it would impact our heads and our hearts and come

out through our mouths, especially during this time of

year when we have opportunities to speak to people and to talk

to people about You or don't. Give us safety.

Give us boldness and courage to speak Your truth about judgment,

but also to speak Your truth about grace and mercy that is

extended through your Son Jesus Christ.

Father, in all these ways we trust you that you will do your

best work in and through us for our good and for your glory.

So Lord, we pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Thanks for listening to ERC Sundays.

To support the work God is doing at Emmaus Rd.

Church, visit emmausrdonline.org/giving.