Good evening tonight we're in Isaiah chapter 33, and the Bible reads, "Woe unto thee that
spoilest, that was not spoiled, and dealt treacherously, they dealt not treacherously
with thee.
When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; when thou shalt make an end to
deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
O Lord, be gracious unto us, we have waited for thee.
Be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
At the noise of the two molts, the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself, the nations
were scattered.
And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of a caterpillar, as the running
to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
The Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth on high.
He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability
of thy times and strength of salvation.
The fear of the Lord is his treasure.
Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without.
The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth.
He hath broken the covenant.
He hath despised the cities.
He regardeth no man.
The earth mourneth and languisheth.
Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down.
Sharon is like a wilderness, and Baishan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
Now will I rise, saith the Lord.
Now will I be exalted.
Now will I lift up myself.
You shall conceive chaff.
You shall bring forth stubble.
Your breath as fire shall devour you.
And the people shall be as the burnings of lime.
As thorns cut up shall they be burned within the fire.
Here ye that are afar off, what I have done, and ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrisies.
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions
that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from the hearing of
blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.
He shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall
be given him, his waters shall be sure, thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they
shall behold the land that is very far off, thine heart shall meditate terror.
Where is the scribe, where is the receiver, where is he that counted the towers?
Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive,
of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand.
Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities, thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation,
a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be
removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams wherein
shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He will save
us.
Thy tacklings are loosed, they cannot well strengthen their mast, they cannot spread
the sail, then is the prey of a great spoil divided, the lame take the prey.
And the inhabitant shall not say, "I am sick," the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven
their iniquity.
Let's pray to the Lord.
God, just thank you first and foremost for this church you've given us, Lord, and allowing
us to be all here safely to hear your word, Lord.
Just please bless Pastor Mejia as he preaches your word unto us, Lord, and got him through
Isaiah, Lord, as he preaches tonight, and that you bless the service in every aspect.
Lord, we pray this all in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, we are continuing our Bible study on the book of Isaiah.
We are in chapter 33, and congratulations, we have officially arrived passing the midpoint
of the book of Isaiah.
And so 33 more weeks to go, amen.
And so we're officially in the midpoint here.
If you remember from last week in chapter 32, we saw that Isaiah was essentially rejoicing
over the fact that a king would reign in righteousness.
And we talked about the fact that this is representative of King Josiah.
And I give a couple of reasons why I believe it's King Josiah, he brought a lot of righteous
reform to the nation in their near future.
But obviously it's also a symbolic representation of Jesus Christ in his millennial reign, where
he will bring about justice and righteousness upon the earth because of the fact that Israel
and Judah essentially operate as a microcosm of the world in large.
And so we see that.
And then we spent some time talking about the fact that a king would reign in righteousness,
but then also that princes would rule in judgment and how that is also representing the believers
who will also rule and reign with Christ during that millennial reign.
Now in chapter 33 tonight, we're going to look at two things.
We're going to look at the assurance of judgment on the violent, referring to the Assyrian
army, and then the assurance of deliverance on the righteous.
So the first half is regarding the judgment on the violent addressing the Assyrians.
And then the second half will be focused on the deliverance of the righteous.
Now look at verse number one, it says, woe to that, to thee that spoil us.
And that was not spoiled and deal is treacherously.
And they dealt not treacherously with thee.
And now shall cease to spoil, thou shall be spoiled.
And when thou shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
Now obviously we know that the antagonists of this particular story are the Assyrians.
And he's saying here that essentially the violent known as the Assyrians will reap what
they sow.
Okay.
Because he's saying, you know, you're spoiling a nation, even though that nation didn't spoil
you.
You're dealing treacherously with Judah and of course they dealt treacherously with Israel,
even though they didn't deal treacherously with them.
And he's basically saying when you've ceased to behave that way, when you've ceased to
spoil, you've ceased to deal treacherously, it's going to come back upon you as well.
And so obviously the principle that's being taught here is what goes around, comes around.
And as the Bible would put it, you reap what you sow.
And the world knows this and the world has a tendency to kind of talk about karma or
whatever.
We know that it's just the law of sowing and reaping.
What goes around comes around.
And what Isaiah is addressing here is the fact that, you know, God is not mocked for
whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Someone who sows to the flesh, all of the flesh reap destruction.
He that sowed to the spiritual, the spirit reap life everlasting.
And so Assyria can expect to plunder, destroy Israel and try to attack Judah and not expect
anything in return.
And obviously this applies to just anybody in the world, but obviously it applies to
Christians as well.
It applies to believers.
And we need to recognize that, you know, we are also living by the law of sowing and
reaping.
We've got to be careful what we sow in this lifetime, whether in our relationships, at
our jobs, in our church, just in our personal lives.
Because at the end of the day, the seeds that you sow, you will reap more abundantly than
that what you've sown, right?
And so if you're sowing to your flesh, you're going to reap death.
You're going to reap corruption.
But if you choose to sow to the spirit, meaning that you're sowing righteous deeds, righteous
actions, you know, righteous acts of kindness towards others, according to the Bible, you
know, God's going to bless you for that.
And so the Assyrians are completely blinded to this concept.
They think that they're going to conquer these nations and overtake them and treat them violently
and mistreat them and bring them into captivity as though nothing's going to happen to them
in the long run.
But obviously we have the lawgiver, the one who brings balance to all of these actions.
And he's essentially telling the Assyrian army, this is going to come back to bite you
in the end, and this is why the Assyrians no longer exist today, because God essentially
punished them for their attack on God's people.
But the point that I'm making here regarding the law of sowing and reaping is the fact
that, you know, the Bible teaches us, whosoever dig at the pit shall father him.
And the Bible says that he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him.
We need to recognize as Christians that our actions have consequences.
You know, Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven and verse 12, therefore all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.
What's the Bible telling us here?
You know, if you want to be treated a certain way, you need to make sure that you're treating
treating people in that like manner, right?
Now, obviously that doesn't guarantee that just because you treat someone well, automatically
a hundred percent of the time, they're going to treat you well in return, right?
We're obviously dealing with people who have free will.
They make bad decisions.
And I think all of us can attest to a particular experience that we had when we did right
and someone didn't do right to us, right?
You know, we sow good seeds in our marriage and maybe those seeds weren't returned back
to us.
We sowed good seeds in a friendship and a relationship and it wasn't returned back into
us by the recipient of those, of those deeds, right?
That happens.
Okay.
You can override the will of a person.
However, that doesn't mean that you won't be rewarded by God though.
So even though you sow good seeds to a person who returns evil unto you, that's okay because
God sees that and God will recompense you and he will allow you to sow good things for
the good that you did to others in spite of the fact that they did evil unto you.
So don't let the will of man deter you from doing right.
You know, sometimes people think, well, I'm not going to help anybody else.
I'm not going to love anybody else.
I'm not going to do right to anybody else because I'm always being wronged every time
I do right.
You know, I'm giving, I'm giving, I'm loving, I'm blessing, I'm doing all these things correctly
and then I just, you know, people just screw me over.
They just do me wrong.
They just wrong me and they curse me and it just seems as though my labor is in vain.
But here's the thing, your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Okay?
Because God sees it all.
He sees the actions that you take and you are still to treat people as you would want
to be treated.
And in fact, when you do good unto others, you live righteously to others, you do good
unto others, even if they don't reciprocate that back, you will still receive that good
in return from the Lord.
Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not today, maybe not a week from now, maybe not even a couple
years from now, but you will receive it in return.
But in like manner, my friends, if you do bad unto others, just mark it down.
You will receive the bad that you've done.
Now obviously, again, we can't outrule the mercy and the grace of God, right?
Because that is still very much a present factor in the life of a Christian that when
we do wrong unto others, maybe somewhere along down the road, we repent, we get right with
God, we regret the things that we've done. Sometimes God doesn't allow us to suffer the
consequences of our actions and praise God for that. Or sometimes maybe he allows us
to suffer the consequences of our actions, but it's a very small percentage in comparison
to what you could have suffered if you did not repent. Okay? So it's important for us
to realize, you know, if I want God to bless me, if I want God to be good to me, I need
to make sure that I am expressing that to others. I'm showing others compassion, others
mercy, so on and so forth. Go with me, if you will, hold your place there. Go to Luke
chapter six, if you would. Luke chapter number six. This is why the Bible tells us, "Rejoice
not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleeth," the
Bible says. Now, specifically in that verse, it tells us why, and it says, "Lest the Lord
see it and displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him." So it's actually saying
in the Bible, "Hey, if you want me to keep punishing this person, don't get all happy
when he's being punished." Because if you get happy about it, you rejoice about it,
then God will just cease from punishing that individual. But in like manner, going back
to this principle, if you rejoice when your enemy falls, people will rejoice when you
fall. People will recompense that back upon your own head. And this is why the Bible tells
us, "Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, ye shall be
judged, and with what measure you meet, it shall," listen to this, "be measured to
you again." And obviously, this is a very difficult thing to do because of the fact
that in our sin nature, we have a tendency to maybe treat others maybe not necessarily
as good, or we don't give people the benefit of the doubt. We can mistreat people even
as Christians, and we don't realize it until it's too late. This is why it's important
for us to keep these things in mind, that we need to exercise Christian conduct and
conversation towards others. And here's the best place to start, in your marriage, okay?
In your marriage is the best place to exercise this principle of the law of sowing and reaping.
And here's the great thing is that sometimes when you sow good seeds in your marriage,
you will reap the benefits even by your spouse. But even when you don't receive it from your
spouse, you will receive it of the Lord because we do it, listen to this, as unto the Lord.
And so God does not allow that to go unpunished or unrewarded. But let's just talk about the
area of forgiveness, okay? And I'm obviously veering off the topic a little bit, but this
has a lot to do with it because God is punishing, he's going to punish a Syrian. He's saying,
you know, you're, you're, you're spoiling, you're plundering, you're dealing treacherously
and you're not taking into account that you are going to have to give an account for this
and you're going to suffer just as much, if not more because of what you've done. Okay.
Look at Luke chapter six, if you would, in verse 37, this is very similar to what we
see in Matthew chapter seven, but it gives a different application to it. It says in
verse 37, judge not, and ye shall not be judged, condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.
And here's where it kind of veers off the specific topic that we see in Matthew seven.
He says, "Forgive and ye shall be forgiven." So in Matthew seven, the judging not is basically
saying don't be a hypocrite when you judge, right? In other words, don't be guilty of
the sin that you are specifically condemning. Don't judge someone for the moat in someone's
eye when you have a beam clearly in yours. You're guilty of far more grievous sins in
your life. And yet you're judging those people by that standard. You're basically being a
hypocrite. Whereas in Luke chapter six, he's basically saying the same thing. The difference
is is that he's adding on there, make sure that you forgive people. And what you reap
from that is forgiveness. Forgiveness from who? Well, first of all, from God. Okay. And
in fact, look at verse 30, he says, give, give what forgiveness and it shall be given
unto you good measure, press down and shaken together and running over shall men given
to your bosom. Now people I've heard preaching from this verse so many times throughout my
Christian life. And most of the time they just kind of like apply it to finances, which
obviously you could make an application to giving in this regard, but this is actually
referring to what? Forgiveness. He's saying that you'll receive it. Good measure, press
down, shaken together, running over, shall men given to your bosom for with what the
same measure that you meet with all is shall be measured to you again. Now what is the
principle? God is basically saying here, "Hey, make sure you're conscientious about forgiving
people their faults." Why? Because you're going to need a surplus of forgiveness yourself
in the future and you want to be able to go into the bank account of forgiveness and say,
"Hey, I need to withdraw some forgiveness here from the Lord and from others." But
you know what? If you haven't been putting away your savings, so to speak, forgiveness
yourself, then you can't expect forgiveness in return. This is why, this is one of the
greatest motivations to quickly forgive. And obviously what I mean by that is that don't
hold grudges. Don't be bitter towards people. Don't be bitter towards your spouse. Don't
be bitter towards a brother or sister in Christ. Don't be bitter towards people in general
because of the fact that equality of Christianity is this matter of forgiveness. And you know
what? If you have a hard time forgiving people, then use this as a motivation to forgive.
You know, if you're like, "I can't forgive this person because they're just, they wronged
me so bad and they've done so much evil unto me." Just remember this, "Forgiven ye shall
be forgiven." You know, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall
men give into your bosom. And so a good motivation to forgive your spouse, to forgive your friends,
to forgive your brother in Christ is that you want to be able to obtain forgiveness
the day that you need it. Okay? And look, I don't know about you, but I want people
to readily forgive me. I want God to readily forgive me, speedily forgive me when I do
wrong, right? Cause I'm not perfect and I make mistakes and you know, I can be a
jerk sometimes to my wife or a jerk to a brother and sister in Christ because, you
know, I'm a sinful man and I have this flesh and so I can make a lot of
mistakes and I would hope that people would extend the same amount of mercy
and grace and forgiveness towards me. But if I'm going to do that or if
I'm going to obtain that, I need to make sure that when people wrong me
exceedingly that I just forgive them. And I'm not saying forgive them verbally
either. Just forgive them in your heart though. You say well in my
heart, I mean who's gonna hear it in my heart? The Lord will. You know, if you
forgive someone in your heart and you say Lord please forgive me, you know, or I
forgive this person and forgive me for holding a grudge against this person, you
know the Lord hears that and he puts that to your account, okay? What are we
talking about here? We're talking about the practice of forgiveness. And if you
want to live a long, prosperous, successful, and healthy Christian life,
practice forgiveness. Practice forgiveness in all areas of life. And not just that,
practice forgetfulness too. Forgive and forget, okay? And I talked
about that on Sunday. Obviously there's certain things that have happened in our
lives that it's hard to forget, right? It's just difficult to forget those
things. But a way to supplement forgetting is not thinking about it. And a
way to maintain forgiveness towards people is not thinking about it, right?
Just put it away from you and, you know, be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. So
that's motivation number one. Forgive people because Christ forgave
you. God forgave you through Christ. But also maintain forgiveness so that you
can receive forgiveness in return when you need it, okay? Because I'm looking at
a crowd of sinners here, okay? And I'm looking at a crowd of people who offend
in all things and in many things, I'm sure. I'm looking at a crowd who
possibly today or this week offended someone, right? I'm looking at a crowd
that is just probably, you know, I'm not saying bitter, but you know, there's
there might be some bitterness somewhere around here. You say, are you, why are you
so quick to judge? Because we're dealing with sinners and that's how we are. I'm
not gonna stand up here and tell you that I've never been bitter towards
someone, that I've never held a grudge towards anybody. I've had that, you know,
whether it's family members, people in my past, other Christians, you know, people
who claim to be men of God and people who claim to be lovers of the Bible. I
mean that from people who you would think they just are the most outstanding
Christians, right? We've been offended by many people but you know what? Thank God
for offenses because it gives us an opportunity to forgive. So practice
forgiveness in your life because you will reap what you sow. If you're just an
unforgiving, bitter individual, do not be surprised when God does not forgive you
your trespasses. Do not be surprised that the time when you recognize
your failure and your faults and your shortcomings before the Lord don't be
surprised when God doesn't forgive you. And you know what? I don't want to
hear about the grievousness of the offense against you because we've all
suffered a very severe offense at one time or another in our lives. Because you
know everyone has a story they're just like yeah that's easy for you to say but
you know you if what happened to you happened to me if what happened to me
happened to you you know you would say something different but the truth is
we've all offended God though we've all offended God and so it's important for
us to practice this and realize that we don't want to be like the Assyrians
thinking that we could just spoil and deal treacherously and not receive
anything in return okay that is a strong motivation for us to stay right with God
to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others hey if someone offended you in
church you know obviously depending upon the severity of the offense maybe on one
end of the spectrum you can just forgive in your heart and just say this person
really offended me hard and I'm still dwelling on it past Sunday someone
offended me they implied that I was ugly they implied that I was fat they
implied that I was whatever and I'm still brewing about it to this day
forgive him or her you know forgive them in your heart but if it's if it's such a
blatant offense where you feel you just can't move on you know the next best
thing is to just approach that person that brother in Christ and say hey you
offended me and look I've had church members come to me and tell me that I
have offended them now I will say this is that when I'm preaching God's Word I
will not apologize for anything that offends you from God's Word and if you
say well you're preaching against me you're right yes absolutely and so this
is a different arena right here I'm not gonna apologize to you for stepping on
your toes and preaching against your sin and you know I'm pointing you out you
know something happens in the church and everyone knows who I'm talking about
when I preach against it or whatever you know I'm not apologizing for that will
you embarrass me well you know them that sin review before all that others may
fear okay but on a personal level I know for a fact within the last eight years
I've offended people for sure I've offended women I've offended men I've
offended probably not children but you know teenagers I'm sure some of you
teenage I'm sure you can bring up a time where I've offended you because that's
just how it is forgive me sorry okay because at the end of the day you know
I want to see recent forgiveness as well and you should desire the same thing
okay the point that I'm making here is let's be a forgiving church and that's
why I'm you know when if someone ever comes to me and they say forgive me for
this I automatically say forgiven forgotten and I want to confer my love
towards that person and and there's no better feeling than to just move on with
our lives you know if you've offended me in the past I probably don't remember
it because I want to have a proper attitude towards my church members and
one of the best ways to do that is just not think about that and look we've some
of us we've known each other for a long time okay so we've offended each other
multiple times you can't have a relationship like for eight years not
offend each other I'm sure I've offended brother Marcos countless times he's
probably offended me more than that more than countless you know an infinite
amount of times an egregious amount of you know because we've just known each
other for so long you know brother Ulyses he's my employee and you know as
his boss I probably offend him a lot who said that I'm just kidding what I'm the
point that I'm making here is that when you're in a relationship for a long
periods of time there's just more chances that you're gonna finish you
know you someone on your team probably offended you your team leader probably
offended you okay your team leader's wife probably offended you someone on
your team offended the team leader someone's gonna offend one and you know
what I'm not gonna police people and say stop defending people I think it's just
easier to say why don't you just forgive people their offences now obviously
sometimes there are people who are just they're just perpetual offenders they
just perpetually habitually just offending people left and right now I
don't think we have that energy we have had it in the past though we've had
these habitual offenders and they just they they offend everyone on the
spectrum of our church just like women yet children teenagers you know married
single doesn't matter who you are you know and that's not a good Christian
conduct either because obviously we should practice the virtue of
discretion and not just say everything that comes to our mind and just blabber
everything will have no filter you know obviously we should practice having a
filter and not just be you know impetuous when we speak and just allow
everything to just come out okay because in many words we offend right in a
multitude of words there wanteth not sin the Bible says the more you talk the
more likely it is you're gonna offend someone and I will testify that I've
been guilty of that okay but we all have to a certain extent the point that I'm
making here is the fact that if ye from your hearts forgive not one another
neither will God forgive you and obviously when we get saved we're
forgiven of all sins past present and future in order to you know so that we
can have salvation but you know what we need forgiveness of sins on a daily
basis though and if you choose not to forgive someone that means God's not
forgiving you of daily sins that means you're accumulating sins therefore
you're accumulating God's wrath upon your life here in this world don't be
surprised if the hammer comes down on you because you're unwilling to forgive
someone and so that's very important go back to Isaiah chapter 33 we see the
law of sowing and reaping Assyria is gonna get what's coming to them because
they're dealing unrighteously with God's people and they're gonna suffer for
that and obviously we see the principle there that you know judgment must begin
at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end of them
be that obey not the gospel of God and so obviously God's allowing this to come
upon his people but in like manner you know you think they got it bad just wait
till you see what God does with the unsaved with the unrighteous okay look
at verse 2 you could turn that up brother Ulysses verse 2 says oh Lord be
gracious unto us so now we see the prayer of the righteous be gracious
unto us we have waited for thee be thou their arm every morning our salvation
also in the time of trouble so either this is Judah pleading for God to be
gracious with them you know in the face of this terrible threat from the
Assyrians verse 3 says that the noise of the tumult the people fled at the
lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered they're exalting basically the
power of God the power of the Lord says in verse 4 and your spoil shall be
gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar as the running to and fro
of locust shall he run upon them the Lord is exalted for he dwelleth on high
he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness so in this prayer they're
expressing how powerful God is and how thorough his judgment is as the
gathering of the caterpillar the running to and fro of the locusts I want
you to notice verse 7 he says behold their valiant ones shall cry without the
ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly so this is now addressing essentially
the pitiful state of the nation of Judah because if you remember in previous
chapters you had ambassadors from Judah going where to Egypt right they're going
to Egypt for help they're bringing all types of resources and they're trying to
buy protection from the Egyptians but it says here that the valiant ones and the
ambassadors shall weep bitterly so these people who are looking towards help from
other nations you know they're gonna be ashamed they're gonna be embarrassed
they're gonna weep bitterly because of the destruction verse 8 says the highways
lie waste the wayfaring man ceaseth he hath broken the covenant he hath despised
the cities he regardeth no man the earth mourneth and languisheth Lebanon is
ashamed and hewn down Sharon is like a wilderness Baishan and Carmel shake off
their fruits this is essentially just kind of giving us a picture of the humble
state of Judah under God's hand of judgment verse 10 says now will I rise
sayeth the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up myself ye shall
conceive chaff ye shall bring forth stubble your breath as fire shall
devour you and the people shall be as the burning of lime as thorns cut up
shall they be burned in the fire and this is basically saying that God is
telling them you know I'm gonna burn you up okay and this is often how God
expresses or illustrates his judgment is through fire and you know a great
example of this is what hell the lake of fire because hell proceeds forth from
God okay and sometimes people think to themselves oh hell is just a separation
from God no no it's fire it's torment it's fire it's burning and if you do
just a basic study on hell in the Bible all of it has to do with burning and
fire and being tormented and all that's just symbolic of what though I'll tell
you what it's symbolic of of burning and fire and torment there is no other
symbolic representation it means literal literal burning and fire okay you say
well why if God is love how can a loving God you know throw someone in hell like
this because according to the Bible the lake of fire proceeds from the presence
of God you can't set let me listen to me you cannot separate hell and the lake of
fire from God's divine nature it comes from God because the fire of God is an
expression of his wrath his anger and I don't know if you know this but God is
angry with the wicked every day the Bible says he's angry he's wrathful
because he's a because he's a loving God because he's a righteous God because he
has a bias for love therefore he hates those who hate those whom he loves and
so he has wrath and he has anger and the Bible says here that he's gonna burn
them like a chaff and like stubble and it will devour them so throughout the
Old Testament you see God's judgment coming upon different nations and of
course Israel and Judah and it's always in the form of fire and obviously yes
that is symbolic but let me tell you what is symbolic of a literal burning
in fire in a place called hell okay and so you know the Bible tells us
regarding Jesus Christ that his fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge
his floor and gather his ring into the Garner but he will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire now what is unquenchable fire it's a fire that
cannot be put out cannot be quenched and the Bible tells us that you know Jesus
will baptize with the Holy Ghost but he will also baptize with fire so we're
baptized in the Holy Ghost we are completely immersed in Christ through
our faith in Jesus but the unsaved the wrath of God abideth on them the Bible
says that God will baptize them with fire and literally he will baptize this
world with fire in the end times beginning in what is it Revelation
chapter 8 where he's literally just burning up the entire world all the
trees and the forest and you know he's destroying the the marine life and all
that he's burning but literally he will burn people in hell that it currently
exists right now in the center of the earth okay it's not a not just it's a
spiritual place but it's not a symbolic place it's literally in the center of
the earth and the proof of that is the fact that Jesus said that as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and when you compare that
to Jonah chapter 2 the Bible says that Jonah was where in hell obviously he's
prophetically talking about Jesus Christ going to hell for three days and three
nights but the Bible tells us that his soul was not left in hell neither did
his flesh see corruption and he burned for three days and three nights because
that's the punishment that we deserve but then he came back obviously he
resurrected the point that I'm making here is that the literal hell exists in
the center of the earth and let me just tell you this there are souls in hell
today that have no rest day nor night there's people that die today and they
lifted up their eyes in hell being in torment and there's also a place called
the lake of fire that is currently vacant but one day will also house the
souls of the damned when death and hell are relocated to that lake of fire okay
and so this isn't a sermon on hell but he's obviously telling them you're
gonna burn up like chaff you're gonna burn up like stubble it's gonna devour
you this is what God's wrath does and we need more preaching on the wrath of God
you say why because there's not enough fear of God in this world there's not
enough fear of God in this land and you know why because there's too much
preaching on the love of God you can never preach too much on the love of God
I agree but let's go ahead and balance that out with the wrath of God as well
because you know what yes God is love but the Bible also says that God is a
man of war the Bible talks about him having wrath and him casting people into
the lake of fire and the fact that he's gonna see them burn that the souls of
the dam are burning before the presence of the of the lamb both night and day so
he's forever for all of eternity listen to this God is just watching people burn
okay the Bible says that you know hell is naked before him meaning that he's
looking through your heart but he's also piercing right through and he can see
the core of the earth where people are burning in hell and you know what it
pleases him well to have people burning there right now because they're
receiving the just punishment of their sin and they're there because of the
rejection of Jesus Christ which is the ultimate sacrifice that he made everyone
who goes to hell is going there to pay for their sins but it's in like manner
they're going there because they rejected the son and this that's why
no one gets pity in hell it's not like God's like sad about people and he's
sad that people rejected his son but once they go to hell the judgment is
set that's where they belong and there's no second chances after that it's not
like God's like okay you've done enough time I'll let you out and just don't do
it again and just believe in my son once they're there their fate is
sealed they're there forever you see you talk about a soul just kind of casually
well yeah because of the fact that every single week we go out and preach the
gospel to keep people out of hell okay and so the people who condemn us for
preaching so hard and talking about the wrath of God these same people aren't
going out week by week preaching the gospel to people we are actually
interacting with the lost and dying world interacting with people who want
the gospel interacting with those who want to be saved we're actually putting
in the effort to get people saved in this world and you know what if you
interacted with lost sinners every single week of your life you would talk
about hell all the time too and you'd realize the severity of it I mean this
this past week I got to witness to this lady and I was out so many with my
family and my wife had actually knocked on his door and my wife came out as like
Spanish speaker and so I was just like watch out you know I speak a Spanish and
so I was going in and the lady was actually coming out because she was
like she wanted to like talk and we both scared the fire out of each other
because we didn't realize that we're both you know we just like met really
whoa you know and she was just like I was just coming out in Spanish she was
like I was coming out to talk to you because I want to hear about this and so
I started giving her the gospel and it was probably the longest lowest hanging
fruit one of the most lowest hanging fruit that I've ever had and you know I
gave her the gospel I explained the verses and all the concepts and she said
wow you know what's interesting she's like I was baptized as a Catholic but
then I left the Catholic Church and I was really fearful for my children's
salvation so I had them baptized in a Pentecostal church but now I'm realizing
that doesn't save you that's a work I'm like bingo she was like actually none
of the works I do have saved me I'm still lost and I'm like yes correct and
she readily received the gospel and she got saved and she called upon the name
of the Lord and you know she was telling me she's like you know it's really sad
let me just let me veer off the principle here just to tell you this
quick story regarding this lady it was really funny she's like you know before
all this she's like I had a Jehovah's Witness come to me and she was doing
Bible studies with me and this is what she told me she said because this lady
had basically a 21 year old daughter the lady I want to the Lord had a 21 year
old daughter who had the mind of a baby basically she was handicapped okay so
she's not you know she's not all there and she's mentally handicapped and so
you know the the Jehovah's Witness told this lady she's like the reason your
daughter's like that is because of your sin and if you remain in sin your
daughter is gonna go to hell this is what the Jehovah's Witness told her and
I'm like and I took her to the story in in I think it was in the book of John
where the disciples said who did sin this man or his parents that he was born
blind and Jesus said you know neither has this man sin nor his parents but
that you know the glory of God can be made manifest in him so I said you know
you didn't sin or anything and this is the result of that it's just for the
glory of God and I and she's like I just fear for my daughter because she's like
things like a baby and I said you know he's the savior of all men but especially
of those that believe and I believe what that's referring to is the fact that God
is the savior of those who don't have the mental capacity to understand the
gospel okay someone who is mentally handicapped they don't they can't
understand biblical concepts of salvation you know I believe they will
go to heaven because he is the savior of all men but especially the savior of
those that believe meaning those who have the ability the capacity to
understand the gospel and believe on the Lord and call upon the Lord and she was
like it's right there she's like that's amazing and so she got saved and I said
hey thank you for your time she says no no no no thank you for giving me the
truth because now I know I'm saved and I thank you for that you know but let me
just say this in that gospel presentation I was not veering away from
the subject of hell though you know and I told her you will go to hell you know
if you if we leave this conversation you don't get saved you die you will go to
hell plain and simple and so that obviously led her to believe on the Lord
and she ended up getting saved let's move on here look at verse 13 it says
hear ye that are far off what I have done and ye that are near acknowledge
my might now that's a very powerful statement from the Lord because he's
saying hey you there in the back you know look at listen to what I've done
basically the judgment and he goes by the way you guys at the front acknowledge
my might that's powerful okay you know the Lord wants them essentially to
remove their acknowledgement from the so-called might of Egypt and start
focusing on the might of the Lord so he's like you know you who are in the
back listen and hear the things that I've done and those of you in the front
acknowledge my power and my might the sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness
have surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire
who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings and obviously the
sinners that he's referring to are people who had not placed their faith in
God throughout this time they were being hypocrites because they were
participating in the solemn feast and of the observance of all the Old
Testament rights but they're obviously the hardest far from God so they're
being hypocrites right but now they're afraid why because they know they're
being hypocrites and I like what he says there who among us shall dwell with the
devouring fire who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burning was that
referring to he's saying who among us shall dwell with God he said was his
devouring fire yeah but our God listen this is a consuming fire so it's a
biblical thing to refer to him as a devouring fire and as an everlasting
burning because our God is a consuming fire and so he's talking about the fear
of them look at verse 15 now we're gonna look at the assurance of the deliverance
for the righteous then let me go through this verse 15 says he that walketh
righteously and speaketh up rightly he that despised at the gain of
oppressions that shakeeth his hand from holding of bribes that stop at his ears
from hearing of blood and shut at his eyes from seeing evil he shall dwell on
high what is the same you know if you want to be delivered Judah those of you
individuals who want to be delivered if you want to dwell on high meaning you
want to be in the presence of God you want to be on God's good side so those
who dwell on high is synonymous with those who are in the place of blessing
you you have God's favor you're in God's presence well here are the conditions
and stipulations in order to do so and what is he saying well you have to walk
righteously and speak up rightly first and foremost what does that mean you
got to walk the walk and you got to talk the talk so it's not enough that you
talk the talk you also got to walk the walk you got to speak right things but
you also got to do right things here's the here's the here's the way the New
Testament puts it don't be a hearer of the word only but be a doer also right
don't be someone who actually just proclaims what the Bible says you
actually live what the Bible says obviously we're not perfect but in
general we should be walking righteously and speaking uprightly as well you know
the Bible tells us in Psalm 24 who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord who
shall stand in the holy place he that walketh the brightly and it says that
doesn't have vanity in his heart who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity
nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing of the Lord here it talks
about walking righteously speaking righteously not only that but he also
says in verse 15 he that despiseth the gain of oppressions and that shaketh his
hands from holding of bribes what does this mean you know the person who I will
bless is the person who hates when people get unrighteous gain right filthy
lucre but he's also not greedy of filthy lucre himself because it says there he
that shaketh his hands from holding bribes what does that mean you know they
they try to bribe the prophet they try to bribe the politician and this is what
they do about that we need some more pastors would be like no I don't need
that hey we need some more politicians who go that obviously that they're
like they do this they go from this to this and not this and go you know we
just need a lot of this I don't want it right this is someone who despises gain
of oppression and also despises bribery the Bible tells us in Exodus 23 verse
8 and thou shalt take no gift for the gift blinded the wise and preferred the
words of the righteous now this is insane don't ever take a gift from
anybody this is obviously in context of a leader a politician a leader of a
nation and the implication here is that there's instances where people will try
to give a gift to a leader give a gift to a politician give a gift to a person
of stature in order to pervert their judgment you know hey here's a 20 think
of this next time you know I don't bring a sacrifice for my sin or something
like that you know some sort of judgment where they want to pervert their their
discernment maybe they're a judge of sorts and that the judge matters between
people and then they look at the guy on the left he's like oh this guy slipped
me a lamb one time you know he slipped me a you know some sort of livestock and
so I'm gonna go in his favor you know this is bribery okay and obviously we
know that this exists a lot in our world today and to a more lesser extent or not
necessarily in the same way with politicians but this exists also in
churches okay where you'll have churches that have these major givers in church
right and so what will happen is you have these big givers in church and the
pastor knows that they give a lot so they will kind of overlook certain
things from those people okay or they'll allow those people to run certain things
you know or to have a certain sphere of influence because of how much they give
well that's a perverting of judgment okay that's blinding the wise like oh
man you know we can't really we can't really favor this guy or this family
because they don't give as much but we can we for sure should favor this family
because they give a lot and we don't want to lose these big givers in our
church or something like that but that's wicked you know that's that's a
perverting of judgment that's resting judgment that's being taken as a
spiritual bribery in a sense okay spiritual bribe excuse me you know it's
like oh man well this guy gives a lot to the building fund this guy gives a lot
to the missions this guy just gives a lot in general therefore I'm not gonna
preach against their specific sin and this is why this is one of the reasons
why and let me just say this is that that's probably like a natural inclination
for a lot of pastors it would probably even be an inclination for me too so
this is why I don't know how much you give nor do I care I will never like go
you know to you Lisa's and say give me the list of the most of the biggest
givers their names and be like whoa you know all right I'm gonna stay away from
preaching against these people for a while or something you know it wouldn't
be right okay so I think it's good to just be you know I'm not saying that I
I don't know how much the church gives in general.
I have to keep a pulse on that because I'm in charge of it.
And I need to know the state of the flock.
But as far as how much each individual gets, I don't know.
And I don't want to know.
Because I don't want to tempt myself to potentially prefer
judgment because I favor someone based upon how much money they
give or something.
Because that is a possibility.
And so I want to despise gain.
I want to despise bribery.
I don't want money to ever be a reason
why I serve the Lord, right?
You can turn that back on again because I'm cooking up here.
Supposing that gain is godliness,
we never want to have that type of attitude.
And so that's important.
So he says there, those who walk the walk and talk the talk,
those who despise briberies and the oppression of the evil,
but also those who don't allow their senses to consume evil.
Because he says in verse 15, "that stoppeth his ears
"from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil."
You know, I like what David said.
"I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
"I hate the work of them to turn aside.
"It shall not cleave unto me."
And you know what, how do I apply that today?
Well, here's the thing.
We can't really apply to ourselves right now
because we're in no media in November, right?
Well, these are supposed to be.
But you know, social media is a really good place,
unfortunately, to see a lot of violent stuff.
And you know, sometimes people will send me violence.
I don't want to see this.
Blood and gore and people getting run over
and something happening in India.
It's always these videos from other countries
where it's not even in English.
Look, let me just help you.
If someone ever sends you a video
and there's Arabic writing or something,
just scroll, just shut it down.
It's going to be the most violent thing you've ever seen.
Now, I actually like nature's metal, though.
And I don't put that on the same par
as violence against people
because nature is just naturally violent.
That's how God made it.
And so I like enjoying nature, you know what I mean?
When you see, you know, a shark or, you know,
just eat some seal or something like that, it's cool.
I'm just, I show my kids, I'm like, look at that.
That's, that's, the Lord made that shark
to have that inclination to eat that thing.
You know, or you see some killer whale
just slapping the snot out of some seal
and not even eat it.
Like the Lord made it that way, you know?
I'm just appreciating God's creation.
But the sin nature of man,
I'm not interested in that stuff, okay?
And you know, I've had people on Instagram
just to kind of like send me stuff like that.
I'm just like, I'm not looking at this.
I'm not gonna click.
I've told them, I'm like, I'm not clicking on this.
You know, this is violent, it's disturbing.
I don't want to set wicked things before my eyes, okay?
And, you know, not allow my senses just to consume evil
and hear evil.
I want to make sure, why?
Because the Bible says, keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life.
And so we want to make sure that we walk in our house
with a perfect heart and not set any wicked thing
before our eyes.
We need to make sure that we love purity
and that which is righteous and holy and just, okay?
Not violence.
And our culture has become completely desensitized
to that type of content, 'cause it's always there,
to all these pranks of dudes dressed in drag and stuff,
Christians dressed in drag to make a good Christian buck
or something like that.
Wicked, that's a person who's desensitized.
And anybody who laughs at that nonsense,
who's a Christian, is also desensitized.
Oh, you think abominations are funny?
I don't think trannies are funny.
Disgusting, it's filthy, let alone having a Christian
dress up like a tranny, you're gonna be embarrassed.
You're gonna be ashamed of yourself.
Verse 17 says, "Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty,
and they shall behold the land that is very far off."
Now, what does this mean?
You know, the person who abides by these stipulations,
the person who allows themself to hate the things
that God hates, not become covetous or greedy,
they talk the talk, they walk the walk,
they are not setting wicked things before their eyes.
Eventually, what is the result of that?
Having a pure heart.
And a person with a pure heart
shall see the King in his beauty.
Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God, the Bible says.
And it says they shall behold the land that is very far off.
Now, spiritually, what is that referring to?
Well, a person who's pure in heart
will think about the eternal, that land.
They're not just kind of temporal minded,
just looking at things that are here.
They're looking at the land that is very far off,
the eternal, the heavenly, the New Jerusalem,
the holy hill, the place where God dwells.
They think upon the Lord.
And I hope that during this time,
whether you're doing No Media November or not,
although you should be doing it,
I hope that you become more temporal,
not temporal minded, more eternal minded.
I hope you think more about the eternal.
Think upon the Lord.
'Cause you have more time in your hands
to reflect and meditate and think upon the things of God.
I've enjoyed No Media November, I'll be honest with you.
You know, times when I would typically go down my phone
and just like Instagram, Facebook, Instagram.
Now it's just like, oh, it's not there.
So let me just think upon righteous things, okay?
Let me just meditate, reflect upon the word of God.
You know, these are important things.
You know, God is very much interested
in what we think about.
Especially when we set our affections on things above,
not on the things of this earth.
He wants us to be more heavenly minded in that regard.
And so the person who abides
by these particular stipulations you see here
will be a person who will see God as he is, so to speak.
Not physically with our eyes, but spiritually, right?
We will, God will become big to us.
And that's important today.
Because I'll tell you one reason why people worry so much
is because God is just very small in their eyes.
They're filling their minds with so much worry
and panic and problems, you know,
that God can't, you know,
God's not big enough for that or something.
It is too hard for God, apparently.
But when you put those things away from you,
you think upon those things which are love you of true report,
that which is righteous and holy,
you know, God becomes very large.
We realize that there's nothing too hard for God.
He becomes the focus of our worship.
It says in verse 18, "Thine heart shall meditate terror."
Where is the scribe?
Where is the receiver?
Where is he that counted the towers?
"Thou shall not see a fierce people,
a people of deeper speech than thou canst perceive,
of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand."
He said, look, if you behave this way,
you'll see the king in his beauty,
and you're not gonna be afraid of the fierce people,
quote unquote.
Like the Assyrians won't be that big to you anymore.
The deeper speech, the stammering tongue,
that you can't understand,
it's not gonna bother you because God is too big for that.
Now, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this,
but verse 20 through 21,
we see the righteous worshiping in Jerusalem.
He says, "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities,
"that I shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation."
Basically, what he's saying up until the very end here
is that when we change what we think about,
what we do when we live righteously,
our attitudes will change
and our priorities will change, okay?
You know, the way you think will change,
the way you talk will change,
the way you respond and react will change.
And so, you know, he's telling him,
look, if you do all these things,
you're gonna behold Zion,
you're gonna behold the king and all his beauty,
the problems will become very small.
You know, it's like, that will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.
Now, we can't do this perfectly because of our flesh
and the world that we live in,
but we can do things to minimize the distractions
that impede us from viewing those things, you know?
And my job as a pastor, one of my jobs as a pastor,
is to help you become more eternally minded.
Very difficult thing to do though,
'cause I have to talk about things that I've never seen,
you know?
And I have to convince you that it is there.
I have to preach in such a way that you kind of,
like the servant of Elisha
is able to see the spiritual realm.
And I have to try to convince you
that yeah, you got problems, but you know what?
Like God is bigger than that.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
I have to try to convince you to approach your life
using biblical principles, and that they work,
and that the Bible is sufficient,
and that prayer is sufficient, and that the scriptures have
the answer.
And I have to do that every week,
because this sermon can only get you until Friday.
And then Saturday, you feel like crap again,
and you're all temporal-minded again.
Then you come back to church on Sunday, I'm like, hey, eternal.
That which is eternal, and God, and the Lord, and salvation,
and soul winning, and church, and the Bible.
And you're like, oh, yeah.
And then you go soul winning, and then for like an hour,
you forget again.
But then you come back Sunday night.
And I'm like, remember what I said Sunday morning?
Eternal, and Jesus, and salvation, and soul winning,
and the Bible.
And you're like, oh, yeah.
And you're like, for sure.
And then Monday rolls around, and then
it's just the cycle continues.
But you know what?
You can minimize that window of time
if you do your part to read the Bible, pray,
to practice dwelling on the holy hill yourself.
See, I'm bringing you to the holy hill every service.
At least I'm trying to bring you to the holy hill
every service, but you need to make it your practice
to dwell in the holy hill on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
We come to the holy hill on Thursday,
then go to the holy hill on Friday,
go to the holy hill on Saturday,
and just try your best to dwell there
by exercising a mind that is thinking about those things.
And obviously verse 23 says that thy tacklings are loose.
They could not well strengthen their mass.
They could not spread the sale.
Then is the prey of great spoil divided the lame,
take the prey.
I like that because basically what he's saying is,
as strong as the Assyrians are,
you know, I'm gonna make them so weak
that even the lame, those who are handicapped,
those who can't even walk will be able to take the prey.
He says in verse 24,
and the inhabitants shall not say I am sick.
The people that dwell therein
shall be forgiven their iniquity.
What is the sermon tonight?
The sermon is simply this.
First and foremost, you reap what you sow, Assyrian.
So careful being unjust with others
because it will come back upon you again.
Recognize that forgiving others,
it will also come back upon you again.
And then lastly is, let's dwell in that holy hill, okay?
Walk uprightly, speak rightly,
speak righteously and uprightly.
Make sure we hate bribery and the oppression
of the evil upon the innocent, okay?
And make sure that we also, you know,
stop from listening to that which is evil and bloody
and seeing that which is evil and bloody, you know?
We need some shaking of the hands, right?
I don't wanna see that, I don't wanna hear that.
I don't wanna listen to that.
That's why I don't like watching the news,
'cause the news is just blood and evil, right?
And I have nowhere to watch the news anyways,
'cause I'm doing no Media November, right?
But the media, you know, when I was on social media,
it's like news all the time.
This is happening, all this, and these people died,
and all this, and you know.
And by the way, that's, let me just say this,
that's nothing compared to Spanish news.
Spanish news is violence times 100.
And where English news just kind of tells you what happened,
Spanish news shows you what happened.
And it's like all the news is just
decapitated heads everywhere, and like mafia this,
and just gory stuff.
And there's a lot of people who just, what do they do?
They don't shake their hands.
They're like, well, they want more of that.
But you know, we should be a people that says,
I don't want to see that.
I don't want to hear about it.
I don't want to think about it.
You know, I don't want to--
no, no, thank you.
And so let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
And thank you for the law of sowing and reaping.
Lord, I know we're motivated to serve you because we love you.
But another motivation is because of what we can avoid,
the consequences we can avoid because of our actions,
but also the blessings that we can inherit
because we sow the right seeds.
And I pray that you help us to take that to heart,
help us to have that inner desire, Lord, to dwell on the holy hill,
that we will rejoice in the law of God after the inward man
and that we would set our affections on things above, Lord.
We love you.
We thank you.