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All right Isaiah chapter number 33 we're gonna dig right in tonight Look down and your Bibles there verse number one. There's a lot of things I want to cover and Don't want to be here all night. I got I got a so mentioned before I got playing to catch But there's so much to go through Let's let's just dig right in here in verse number one Bible reads woe to thee that spoilest and thou was not spoiled and Dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee now You know, I there's an entire sermon can be preached us off of this first verse the first thing that we see here before we finish the rest of this verse is that You know saying woe to the people when it says that they spoil they weren't swell So like no one did wrong to these people, but they're doing evil They're doing wrong to other people saying woe unto you that deal treacherously Right, you're a bunch of backstabbers you're a bunch of spoilers and No one even did anything to you I mean It's one thing you could kind of understand when people want to get revenge and they want to execute Justice or judgment on people you did me wrong. So I'm gonna do wrong. You can have an understanding of that I'm not saying that's right What I'm saying is you could least you could least understand when people do that But he's saying you know, what do you people you're just going around? You're like the bully you're going around and picking on people being bad to people. No one even did anything to you, right? You're just going forward doing evil and then it says in In the continuing on with this passage right in the middle there when thou shalt cease to spoil So when you finally stop spoiling it says thou shalt be spoiled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously They shall deal treacherously with thee, you know, the Bible says be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man So it that shall he also reap and this is exactly what's going on in this passage, you know They're aggressors. They're the ones going forward. They're being treacherous. They're spoiling it says you know what as soon as you stop you think you think you got all that and you were able to take advantage of People and do whatever he says now it's gonna happen to you. Now. The tables gonna be turned It's gonna be brought back upon your own head turn if you would keep your place here in Isaiah chapter 33 Turn if you would to Romans chapter 12 Because this is what he's he's condemning and what you know, it's a great truth This is going to happen to people obviously everyone needs to recognize this I wish the world could recognize this, you know, people might not be so wicked if they understood Hey what I do now, it's going to come back up or on my own head, you know when I'm spoiling people I'm dealing treacherously. It's just a matter of time before someone's going to be dealing treacherously with me But what we need to understand as Christians is that you know When people do spoil you when people do attack you the right thing you remember I brought up just a minute ago You know, we could understand when people want to take vengeance we could understand when someone does you wrong to want to do wrong back unto them right and and and to Execute justice because that would be justice right if someone does you wrong for them to receive wrong that is justice But we got to understand Christians is God's the one responsible for executing that justice and that us individually Obviously government is set up by God to be able to punish evildoers That's it. That's the whole purpose of human government but let's face it human government fails many times over in general when you got when you got sinful people and especially wicked people and The more wicked people become in positions of power the more judgments can be perverted and the less actual justice We're going to see through human government, but we still don't have to worry about that We still don't have to get all upset when human government fails when evildoers aren't being punished the way they ought to be Now obviously we should strive for righteousness. We should strive for good laws We should we should we should want that and hopefully seek that but you know what at the end of the day We still don't have to take any matters in our own hands because God is a judge the judge God is the lawgiver. God is gonna be the one that makes sure people get what's coming to them He's the one that brings vengeance. So because of that it's his job. It's not ours We need to remember that look in Romans chapter 12 verse number 17 the Bible reads recompense to no man evil for evil Provide things honest in the sight of all men if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men God's called us to live peaceably We're not supposed to be taking matters on our own hand. We're not supposed to be recompensing evil for evil Someone is evil unto you someone hurt harms you to just go back and just bring evil upon them the Bible saying no Verse 19 dearly beloved avenge not yourself. Someone does you wrong and you say yeah, but it's justice you right That would be justice. But you know what? It's not your job to bring the justice against those people. That's not your place The only beloved avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath For it is written vengeance is mine. I Will repay saith the Lord there's nothing wrong with being you know, happy about justice being served. That's great. Amen but let The one who vengeance belongs to be the one who executes that justice and who brings that vengeance See, we don't want to take the role that God Has taken for himself where we don't want to usurp his authority and start bringing our own vengeance Oh, man, that person did me wrong. That person did me evil. I'm going to show them and You know, this is this is applicable in all of our lives now. Maybe you're not Physically being persecuted, you know to the extreme or someone's beating you up or something, right? That's an that's an easy thing that could come to mind. But how about even just the little things? I mean even the small things you got to let let let the spirit Lead you and and and understand we don't need to right every wrong I mean one of the most common things I think that impacts a lot of people today and they don't even a lot of times You don't even realize it Little things like people cutting you off in traffic and you got all this road rage going on I just heard on the news this morning about some guy that that was just passing someone else I was kind of you know, going too slow for him, whatever and And the guy shot his gun and it hit the headrest in the guy's car and thankfully no one got hurt He was with his 11 year old daughter and you know, and I don't know all the details of this But look we all know that this stuff happens, right? I mean people get way too angry way too upset Oh you offended me you you cut me off you try to get around you. Who do you think you are? And you know what it is is pride It's pride and People then wanting to take vengeance on people who they think slighted them. Hey, they you wrong me. I'm gonna do I'm gonna show you It's not our job And even if someone truly does do you wrong It's not your job to take vengeance on that person who has done you wrong And this is climbing you this can't be any clearer in Scripture return on Romans 12 You're looking to showing you, you know, hate vengeance belongs unto the Lord He's gonna repay verse number 20, so so what's our so what do we do then right? Someone doesn't know What am I supposed to do verse 20 therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him? If he thirsts give him drink Now that's gonna require a lot of humility You cannot be a proud person and be able to fulfill this scripture you can't and If you have a problem being able to fill the scripture then check your pride This this is a hard thing for a human in the flesh to be able to overcome To be able to say hey you did me wrong, but I'm still gonna do good unto you But this is what we are called to do and you know We went into this because in Isaiah 33 say hey, whoa unto you No one's even doing you bad and you're just doing bad on the people and there's a lot of people out there that do this It's a lot of wicked people in this world that are just gonna do evil because they want to do evil to people You mind your own business and someone else is gonna go around and spoil and be treacherous against you for whatever their reasons are We don't have to worry about taking those matters in our own hands though Because just like Isaiah 33 shows and just like Romans 12 shows God's gonna pay vengeance God's gonna make sure that their ways come back upon their own heads and we could take Comfort in that and we could take solace in that knowing that hey, you know what? It's not gonna go unpunished. God's gonna take care of it So, you know what? We're gonna do we're gonna do good unto him Now look at what the verse of verse 20 says therefore if that enemy shall hunger If that enemy hunger feed him if he thirst gave him to drink for in so doing thou shalt Heap coals of fire on his head So you really want to get back at someone do him good You really want to make sure? You say pass the versions. That is bizarre. Why does it say? Why does it say that? Why does it say? Here's why it says that because God is the one who's going to bring vengeance and here's the thing the more Righteous you are the more good you are the more selfless you are the more you willingness to go and help people and do what's? right the more egregious The sin is when someone does evil unto you. It makes it that much worse. I mean When people are living a rough life and a wicked life and kind of doing their own things and then someone Does evil unto them in? A lot of ways you can see where people kind of bring things on themselves But the more righteous you are the more good you do it Escalates how bad and I'm not saying it's ever right to do evil because of course I'm not saying that but it makes it even worse Man say it was it was a horrible thing look at Jesus Christ is a perfect example He did nothing wrong ever you could never say that anything. He did well. He brought that on himself No, because he only ever did good. He always did those things that pleased the Lord Which makes it that much worse? For the people who did evil unto Jesus Christ because he did nothing wrong That's why even you know Jesus even said to pilot. You know he that delivered me under thee had the greater sin He's gonna suffer even more Judas the one who? Walked with him who knew him even better and knew who he was and was around there and and betrayed him that's a greater sin and Especially against someone who didn't deserve it for anything And then verse 21 there in Romans 12 houses be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good And that's how you're gonna feed defeat evil One you defeat it by good because hey look oftentimes you can People can change When you don't respond the way they expect you to respond when someone brings evil against you And you actually turn around and do good to that person The correct one of two ways one it might make them even more angry but to You might pierce through their heart When they realize how wicked they've been and you still do good unto them It Isn't that really what we want anyways though, I mean if you love people Don't you really just want them to genuinely get right? Even if you happen to be the one that suffers Well, this is a way to do that and then you know what even if they get more angry You know what all you're doing is just heaping more coals of fire on their head anyways, right? So they're still gonna get what's coming to them and the more righteous you are the worse. It's gonna be for them So it's a win-win for us We don't have to worry about it Just focus on doing the right thing And this concept of heaping coals on a fire on people's heads. This actually isn't even a new thing in New Testament I'm just gonna quote this for you go back to Isaiah chapter 33 in Proverbs 25 We see the same exact thing being being written there and in the book of wisdom if thine enemy be hungry Give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty give him water to drink For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward So not only are they gonna get what's coming to them. God's gonna bless you Do what's good do what's right? Have the spirit the heart of Jesus when he was on the cross that father forgive them for they know not what they do Right being able to still do good on the people that are doing evil unto you verse number two in Isaiah 33 Bob reads Oh Lord Be gracious unto us so like, you know verse 1 it's woe to thee It's them that are that are being evil that are being wicked woe to that person who's spoiling and they weren't spoiled right and God's Gonna deal with them, but Lord be gracious unto us We have waited for thee Be thou their arm every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble say Lord We're trusting in you right be gracious unto us verse 3 at the noise of the tumult the people fled at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered and Your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run Upon them and this is going to show us now. We're building up to Demonstrating the awesome power of God He talks about you know at the noise of the tomb of the people fled the lifting up of thyself about God The God just getting up and saying okay. I'm gonna deal with this. You know, the nations were scattered People need to have a healthy fear of the Lord. We're gonna get into this in just a minute though This is building up to these to these verses look at verse number five. The Bible reads 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 Now, of course the Bible says in Proverbs 1 7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge But fools despise wisdom and instruction, but I like what it says here turn if you would quickly keep your place here again And turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter number 1 And that's want to point out this this phrase here It says wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times when people have wisdom when people have knowledge. This is of course talking about Wisdom and knowledge you get through the Word of the Lord through I mean true Wisdom and knowledge and the things that are that are important the things that matter from the Word of God not just some you know study of Creation itself which those things are great But the wisdom and knowledge is talking about here is a wisdom knowledge you get from God the truths that the Bible teaches You know righteousness mercy Judgment faith all of these things that that are they'll make you wise and increase your knowledge You know these are good for the people. It's actually going to bring you stability that'll be the stability of your times when you can when you can live in such a way and regard truth and wisdom and knowledge and And guide your path by wisdom and knowledge that's going to make your life stable That's going to bring stability into your life and not just into your life because here We're talking about also on a grander scale the wisdom and truth and knowledge coming from the Lord himself and I still think you know we've read a lot of there's a lot of prophetic passages in Isaiah and in the context of some previous verses I still think we're getting some some future glimpses and future prophecies of The the reign of Jesus Christ on this earth and when we look at Some of the phrases here Talking about filling Zion with judgment and righteousness of course We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be ruling and reigning From Zion in righteousness and that he's going to be the lawgiver. There's a lot There's a lot of verbiage here that that Alludes to that time in the future and we know that when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning that it's going to be a time of stability as He is bringing forth wisdom and knowledge, but I want to show you another time That's that also was a time of great stability the stability of that times When the person who's known for their wisdom and knowledge? reigned look at 2nd Chronicles chapter 1 verse number 8 and Solomon said unto God thou has showed great mercy unto David my father and it's made me to reign in his stead now Oh Lord God let thy promise unto David my father be established For thou has made me king over a people like the dust of the earth and multitude Verse 10 give me now Wisdom and knowledge and this is where he's praying to God just asking If he get you know, if you could ask for anything from God, what does he do? He's asking for wisdom and knowledge He understands the importance of wisdom and knowledge and he's just praying to God God I have a hard job to do God, you know If I'm gonna be king over this people over your people Lord, give me wisdom and knowledge. That's what I need to succeed That's what I need to do this job That's gonna bring the stability Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people for who can judge This thy people that is so great. He wants to be a good judge. He wants to know right from wrong So he needs wisdom and knowledge from the Lord and that's of course what he requests verse number 11 says and God said to Solomon Because this was in thine heart and now it's not as to riches wealth or honor nor the life of thine enemies Neither yet has asked long life But as asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself that thou mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee now notice to even his you know The purpose for wisdom and knowledge it wasn't just oh so everybody could look to me of being so smart Right so that I could have all these accolades and I could be lifted up and everyone could just glorify me for my brilliance That's not why he wanted it. He wanted to wisdom and knowledge so that he could do the job of judging Because at the end of the day, he's the one who had to be the ruler He had to be that final judge in Israel humanly speaking, right? So he's seeking the Lord God help me with this God, I need I need wisdom. I need knowledge. I need these things so I can make good choices make good decisions so that the decisions that I make that have impact over all these other people that we can have peace and prosperity and Righteousness through the righteousness that's going to come by the wisdom and knowledge that he has So God gives him God grants his request verse 12 wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee neither shall there any after thee have the like and Then we see of course just continuing I go back if you would Isaiah chapter 33 What is what is marked with Solomon's reign peace and prosperity No wars stability right After God gave him all this wisdom and knowledge they they go into you know Their golden era their their time to shine their time of just everything's going great. They've got prosperity. They've got wealth they've got all these great servants people serving the Lord and It truly does turn into a time of stability and I think that's a foreshadowing you know even just that the the the story of Solomon ruling and reigning as he did with wisdom and Righteousness and wisdom and judgment is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ to come and And rule and reign in Jerusalem when he comes back to this earth again, it's just it's just another Foreshadowing of that event to come as well, so let's go back to Isaiah chapter 33 Verse number 7 the Bible reads behold their valiant one shall cry without the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly so before I Went into this of course remember. I'll reiterate Where we're just reading verse number six and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of that times and strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is His treasure now we're going to jump into verse 7 behold their valiant one shall cry without 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 languishes Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down Sharon is like a wilderness and Bay Shan and Carmel shake off their fruits And just like the other chapters previous to this you know chapter 32 31 We've seen this a few times come up how You know the fruitful fields are becoming desolate the the everything's being kind of turned around and become backwards Lebanon is known for its forests and it's great wood that that would come out of Lebanon the cedars that would come out of Lebanon It's issues what they were renowned for and here are saying Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down Basically, it's becoming like nothing the same way as Sharon. You know it was a real fruitful place now It's becoming a wilderness. It's just desolate right just open and Bay Shan and Carmel shake off their fruits all these all these places that were known and well known for being very fruitful and whatever Regard whether it be from forests or other things You know he's saying that it's all being brought to nothing verse 10 says now will I rise set the Lord? Now will I be exalted now will I lift up myself? Because why because the people who have been spoiling and acted treacherously now God is going to bring that back on them as we started off reading in verse number one This is the you know that the time where where people are going to act vile and do bad things It's coming to an end here, and he's going to judge verse number 11 says you shall conceive chaff You shall bring forth stubble your breath as fire shall devour you and I love that phrase there I mean, it's just it's it's such a great teaching He's saying you know now when when they conceive instead of bringing forth good things It's they're gonna bring forth weights the chaff is is not what you want when you're when you're when you're Trying to harvest crops like that. That's the useless stuff You want the seed you want the fruit you want the good things the chaff is no good But he's saying when you can see if you're gonna conceive chaff you're just gonna reproduce more Worthlessness when you bring forth you're gonna bring forth stubble so instead of having good fruit They're gonna be bringing forth bad fruit or sort of useless stuff right and he says Your breath as fire shall devour you I know it's their devouring is gonna come just from themselves Or they're their own breath their own their own things that they speak are coming back on themselves to destroy them verse 12 and the people shall be as the burnings of lime as Thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. This is the end of a wicked group of people It ends in desolation their fruit is rotten, and they end up destroying everything and you know when when a when a any Nation or any group of people start getting more and more increasingly wicked This is what this is what happens. God's gonna bring judgment you know Things and it usually the everything's cyclical Because humans don't change and ultimately that their human nature human sinful nature is the same It's always been the same throughout history the same lusts cravings desires when people get led by their flesh it always ends up the same and You know that's that's why things keep happening and the more prosperous people become the more idle time they have the more they end up getting into a lot of debauchery and lasciviousness and and just feeding their flesh and When people just feed their flesh they become more and more wicked and You're gonna end up seeing as people come more and more wicked They're gonna be more and more spoiling and doing evil to people and then what they end up producing is Completely, no good, and they end up devouring themselves and the generations get worse and worse and worse until You know you end up just bringing forth complete rottenness And we're getting close to that time in America I think there's people have gotten so wicked so fast and so so few generations and decades now have gone by But the the wickedness has increased so tremendously That now it's gonna be coming time to reap what's been sown And people are growing increasingly wicked, and that's why we're seeing things that It's almost like living in another dimension for some of us who have been around a little bit longer and have seen the the change even in the world around you in Not even just tolerance of wickedness, but promotion and and forcefulness, and it's scary times Because you can see the authoritarianism of the wicked people that are gonna start forcing And they already have been forcing these things and and you better think like we do and you better believe like we do or else The mobs are getting more and more they're getting angry and angrier They're destroying more and more and they seem to be getting a bigger platform increasingly That's a wicked group of people these mobs that just destroy things and light things You know light things on fire and just all this destruction and harm to people they're spoiling and no one really spoiled them You Got you got these a group of white people Complaining about you know black lives matter And then they go forth and riot and and break glass and do all this stuff and just be really destructive right and then It's like no one's you're spoiling and no one spoiled you And you're not helping anybody with your cause when you're just bringing forth violence and spoiling on people That's not righteous. No one's gonna want to listen to what you have to say if you're gonna bring forth violence No one does that's not the way to do things and that you know regardless of what you think about these causes. You know that's you When people start going forth and doing that It's gonna be brought back on their own heads, and that's you know that's ultimately what is gonna happen and And the more people join into the mob the worst it's going to be and ultimately worse for them Let's keep reading your verse number 13 in isaiah 33 Bible says reads here you that are far off What I have done, and this is God getting his glory now and saying you know you better recognize What I'm doing you better you better see what's going on here here you that are far off what I've done and Ye that are near Acknowledge my might acknowledge that God's the one doing these things. He's saying he's saying you better start Recognizing me for what I've done whether you're near or far pay attention Listen up because God doesn't play around God is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but he's long-suffering and merciful and People get too haughty and proud into thinking that oh What's God gonna do and they you know people think God's not gonna come back They think that nothing's gonna bad's gonna happen. Oh, well. Who is the same attitude a fair ride? Well, who is the Lord anyways? Well? You know a Pharaoh found out who the Lord is and Everybody who's gonna mock God and mock the ways of God. They're gonna find out who the Lord is and You can either find out the easy way the hard way unfortunately a lot of people have to find out the hard way and when God finally stands up and Then fear is just in the hearts terror. We're gonna see that word in here We haven't I don't think we got that yet terror being in the hearts of people because of the Lord and People have this false concept of who God is Turning them into something he's not yes, the Lord is loved. Yes, the Lord is merciful Yes, the Lord is long-suffering and thank God and praise God for all of those things and we love those things I love those things about God, but that is not the only thing that is not all compassing who God is People need to understand that God is a lot more Faceted than just love and mercy and long-suffering because the exact Opposite end of that it's going to be justice and judgment and wrath. Okay, and God encompasses all those things And look at this where it says verse 13, so excuse me verse 14 the sinners in Zion are afraid and they ought they ought to be Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites Who among us shall dwell? With look at the devouring fire now, they're referring to God as the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Turn if you go to Hebrews chapter 12 See the fear of the Lord Bible side where you quoted this is the beginning of knowledge, right and having the fear of the Lord It's better to have that by faith than by sight It's way better to have that by faith than by sight because when you can have the fear of the Lord by faith You're gonna start doing the right thing and not Spark the wrath of God the anger of God upon you for being wicked when you can say whoa Whoa, whoa. Yeah, I know what God doesn't play. So I'm going to to keep myself in check Against doing wickedness when you have the faith that's gonna help you But see when you have to one has to be brought to your site. You're already in trouble Either way, you're gonna fear the Lord. Everyone's gonna fear the Lord one day Better to get it done now and have that in you now by faith Why because our God is a consuming fire Just like just like the hypocrites will find out one day and Isaiah 33 14 Hey, the hypocrites are finally finding out when they're going well who among us is gonna dwell with the devouring fire I mean God's just a devouring fire. How can we possibly stand where the Lord is? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings Hebrews 12 look at verse number 25 The Bible reads see that he refused not Him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Whose voice then shook the earth But now he hath promised saying yet once more I shall not I shake not the earth only but also heaven So he's giving a warning yet. You know what I shook the earth before but you know what there's coming a time We're not just gonna shake the earth only I'm also gonna shake heaven when he comes back There's gonna be thunderings and lightnings right and there's gonna be great earthquakes But then there's also gonna be the heavens are gonna be shaken as well Verse 27 and this word yet once more Signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Fear there's that fear of the Lord verse 29 explains why for our God is a consuming fire Make no mistake about who God is Because on the one hand you absolutely have God is love, but you also have God as a consuming fire And we ought to love God for who he is See God loves God is love, but God loves righteousness and We ought to love his law But see the people who who are the worst offenders of his law the ones that just want to say oh, yeah God is love. You know what? There's a lot more to God than just love because God is also a consuming fire and you want to you want to brazenly Just disrespect and disobey all of God's laws, but then think you're safe by saying oh well God's love Well, you know what y'all you don't have a fear of God. That's a huge problem You're not even understanding who got you've made up a God in your own mind because if you have a God that's only love and God is not a Consuming fire then you don't have the right God You know the right God. It's not the God of the Bible And here's the thing. How can you even possibly say you have love? How can you say and you know, it's such a simple concept If you don't have hate for the things that are against you know, if you have hate for the wicked things How do you love the things that are good? How could you say you love children if you don't hate the pedophile? I Mean, there's a dividing line there. You can't just say well, I just love all of them It doesn't work like that because if you're gonna love on the pedophile, then you don't love the cut the child I'm gonna defend this person. I'm gonna you know, I And this is how sick and twisted our world is Because we've gotten you know, I brought up the Colorado's trial that just ended last week. You know, thank God he got off but what what people have have resorted to is They're lifting up literal a literal pedophile a Literal pedophile one of the guys that died the first guy that got shot and killed is a pedophile a Five children Yeah, you don't really hear a whole lot about that though, do you all you hear is that oh he's a white supremacist And he's a militia guy and all this other nonsense and garbage you don't hear that the guy that he shot molested five kids and Was coming after him But see people want to say oh he's such a hero this child molester This guy is so great. Look you don't make heroes out of these people If the guy would have been dealt with according to Scripture, you know back when he defiled the first child None of this would have ever even happened None of it would have happened They're trying to say oh, well, if you didn't go there with his gun, then none of this would happen How about if that guy if that stinking pedophile would have just been executed the first time then the other four came It wouldn't have been Defiled and then you also wouldn't have had this event happen either So why don't you go to the blame where it really ought to be instead of Instead of with the guy that's just trying to defend himself Anyways, I don't want to get too far off into that I said there's a lot of things here that we need to see in this passage and one of them is that God is a consuming fire and God is a God of judgment. Thank God for his mercy and love but you know what? Thank God for his justice and that vengeance belongs unto him and that he's gonna repay because he does repay We'll leave that to him. God will repay Flip back to Isaiah chapter 10 if you know you go back to Isaiah 33 backwards Isaiah chapter 10 I just wanna show you something here real quick as well As a Chapter 10 verse number 16 about says therefore shall the Lord the Lord of hosts send among his fat ones lean this and under His glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire verse 17 in the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy one for a flame and it shall burn and Devour his thorns and his briars in one day and what were we just reading about this people in Isaiah 33 a little bit more What are they bringing forth chaff? They're gonna be devoured with the fire right out of their own mouth and they're bringing forth the briars and the thorns and the Bible is describing God the same way here as being a fire and bringing the judgment on the thorns and the briars being consumed in one day verse 18 and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field both soul and body and They shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth and the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few That a child may write them again referring to the time of desolation. Yo, Lebanon is going to be Just a wilderness to be cut down Baychan dried up go back to Isaiah 33 So The question is a 33 14 from the sinners from the hypocrites Was who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with the everlasting birds we get the answer to that Verse 15 He that walketh righteously And speaketh uprightly you want to because here's the thing. Yes. Our God is consuming fire, but you know what we could still dwell with him You need to have a fear of the Lord absolutely, but you could still dwell with God He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despises the gain of oppressions despise It's another word for hate. You gotta hate the gain that people get from oppressing other people There's a lot of people oppressing people in this world for money for their own gain for their own benefit That shaketh his hands From holding a bribes shaking of hands means get that away from me, right? Don't don't you try to give me bribe don't you try to pervert the judgment? I don't want that that wicked money That's how you're gonna be able to walk with God you walk with righteously speak up rightly Despise the gain of oppressions a shaking his hands from holding a bribe that stop at his ears from hearing of blood and shut up His eyes from seeing of evil verse 16. He shall dwell on high His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks Bread shall be given him his water shall be sure and you know studying this and reading this It but the first thing that popped into my mind is Psalm 15 Psalm 15 describes this exactly. You don't have to turn if you don't want to you can't be like I'll read it for you Bible says Lord who shall buy tonight tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill was the same who's gonna be with you God who can abide who's gonna be with our consuming fire God Well, the same question is asked in Psalm 15 and the answer is pretty much the same as what we're seeing here He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart He that back biteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach Against his neighbor in whose eyes a vile person is contempt And that word content, you know what contempt is Contem is gonna is is basically like hated and that's when you when you have contempt for somebody You don't like them very much let's say it that way it's a nice way of saying it But I also just want to point this out while I'm reading Psalm 15 I wasn't planning on going into this very much. I'm not going to but it says in whose eyes a vile person is Contemned It doesn't say the action the vile actions of a person are condemned. It says the vile person is condemned This isn't the only place in Scripture that talks about an actual person being having contempt for a person or hatred or abhorrence for a person Now it's not common It's not a lot and I don't think that this is talking about just your average unsaved person But it's talking about a vile person someone who has vile affection someone who does something, you know Extremely perverted and disgusting that is a vile person and it says you know what? You want to abide in thy tabernacle? You want to dwell in my holy hill? Hey, look, don't get mad at me I didn't write the Bible the Bible says what it says and it says in whose eyes a vile person is Contemned does it or does it not say that? That's what it says You're trying to make excuses for what the Bible says or you can embrace what the Bible says and say, you know what? I'm gonna walk uprightly. I'm gonna work righteousness. Why cuz I want to buy it in the in the house of God I'm gonna speak the truth in my heart. Hey, these are all good things people aren't gonna ever You know contradict you for say. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. That's good. That's good. That's right He that back by his tongue. Amen. That's good. No do with evil to his neighbor. Amen. That's good Everyone could love that and receive that easily. No taking up or approach against his neighbor. Amen. That's good. You're doing good You're doing good. You're doing good. But then we get the verse number four in whose eyes a vile person is condemned Well, hold on a second You're not supposed to condemn anybody. Well, you know what that's not what the Bible says Now what the Bible says I'm going with what the Bible says here In his eyes a vile person is contempt, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. I Have contempt for the vile people of this world and you ought to as well He that swear it to his own hurt and changeth not He that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent He that doeth these things shall never be moved. Amen Let's go back to Isaiah 33 I Love how the Bible fits together. I mean you've got these passages that are so Disparate you've got the Psalms Psalm 15 the Psalm of David and then you've got Isaiah the book of Isaiah just in some other context But it's describing the same exact truth Who's gonna who's gonna dwell? With that with that everlasting burning. Well, I'll tell you who is the guy that walks righteously and speaketh uprightly the same truth Look verse number 17 thine eyes Shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off Yeah, the person who's doing these things who's who's walking righteously. You're gonna see those things You're gonna see the king in his beauty. You're gonna see that land. It's very far off right now, but you're gonna see it Because you're walking by faith and not by sight then you start to see the things of faith verse 18 nine heart shall meditate terror And there's that word terror why you have a healthy fear of the Lord and I'll tell you this every man of God Who's come in the presence of the Lord has fallen down in terror before the Lord? And we're talking about pretty righteous by the way, I would consider them very righteous people. I mean you would done really great things for the Lord People that you would look at be like hey, there's a there's a righteous guy there's someone walking uprightly Moses Elijah Right, but when they get in the presence of God man, they're flat on their face Trembling and don't want to lift as much as their head in the presence of God because he's that powerful because they you know God will Command that terror and that fear of the Lord Because of who he is because he's almighty because he truly is almighty and just being in that presence is is amazing So there's nothing wrong About that we ought to have that fear. I mean we So we show we shouldn't think too highly or too much of ourselves and get too lifted up in pride You know the strongest person in the world physically speaking. I Mean you're not even like an aunt to God as far as the power difference of who God is versus you I mean you could give no consideration to a little bug and just squash it like it's nothing That the bug puts up more of a fight against you than you can against God In in power comparison right which is why? Yeah, we ought to have a healthy fear of the Lord Because of what he's capable of the Bible says fear not him that it that is Kill Thank you, you're not him that could kill a body, but but in that that could cast both soul and body into into hell right that's not exactly the way that the verse goes but It's very close in my mind completely just went blank so I have that verse memorized, but apparently not right now Hey it happens forgive me Let's get back to Isaiah 33 Verse 18 that 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 But 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 and this language here described description of Zion is another reason Why I believe this is talking. This is a prophetic event here. This isn't talking about some physical Zion that's just like temporary or temporary because all the the kingdoms of the world are you know end up coming to nothing But that heavenly Jerusalem, that's gonna. You know that is permanent that is forever and that's never gonna be Removed and that's what we are looking to those of us that have faith in God And we walk by faith those of us whose eyes shall see the king in his beauty This is that Zion that we're looking for it's that Zion that has the tabernacle That's never going to be taken down and That tabernacle I think is representative of Jesus Christ the tabernacle is built in the Old Testament is a figure of Jesus Christ And there's a lot of cool details, and you know I know when you're going through Exodus and you're reading about the way that they all the details of building the tabernacle it might seem boring Okay, the first however many times you read through it, but don't skip it Read it there's a lot of great truth in the building of the tabernacle You know Jesus himself said this you know destroy this temple in three days I'll raise it up again, and the Bible talks a lot about our bodies being tabernacles Okay, you're gonna find a lot of great. We're definitely not going into that tonight Don't worry about all the all the things that we could learn and glean from the tabernacle of the Old Testament And how the representative about the badger skins died red and The purple and the scarlet that went into the tabernacle and all the symbolism Representation of Jesus Christ that is in here. We're seeing the 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 It's established. It's set not even one Of the supports is going to be removed. It's gonna be perfectly established Amen verse 21 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 there by look at verse 22. I'm going to focus On this just real briefly before we finish up for the Lord is our judge The Lord is our lawgiver The Lord is our King he will save us God holds all three of us, you know in our country. We've got three main branches of government, right? Well, we have legislative Executive and judicial right the legislative is the branch that's supposed to pass the laws The judicial of course is where we have judges and they judge the laws and the executive is the one who's supposed to enforce and carry out Those laws. Well, you know who God is God is all those things The Lord is our judge. He judges what's right and wrong. The Lord is our lawgiver He's the one who tells us what's right or wrong. He's the one that passes the legislation and the Lord is our King He's the executor. He's the one that carries it out And it makes sense to God is you know, the three-in-one Father Son Holy Ghost God's the judge lawgiver and our King And you know think about that too the Lord is our judge People cast a lot of a lot of negativity on that word judge I'm telling you judgment is a good thing. It really is now we shouldn't be hypocrites That is a bad thing being a hypocrite in judgment and and you know, maybe nitpicking on other people Look you've got your own sins, but here's it here's it but that doesn't make judgment itself a bad thing Because if you just cast out judgment, then you have to tolerate everything So what we ought to do is strive to to live Righteously so that you're not going to be a hypocrite in judgment and you can stand in judgment Now obviously God is perfect and he's the perfect judge and Thank God, but God is a judge You know again the false concept that people have of God is just that Oh God's not gonna care about anything or whatever and people Falsely accuse us to of our faith and what we believe about being saved how you know We teach and believe wholeheartedly that salvation is a free gift Absolutely can't be bought can't be earned anything like that All you do is put your trust in Jesus Christ But then once you receive that that you are saved forever It is everlasting life that we receive it is eternal life It is 100% been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ So once you accept that gift once you accept eternal life, it is eternal last forever So we believe that and then when people hear that they go. Oh So you can just go ahead and do whatever you want and God's just okay with that and that's just fine No, I never said that God's just okay with that You're inferring that but that's not true See we still have we still fear the Lord We don't just say hey, let's do evil that good may come God forbid But the Lord is still our judge now just because your sins have been paid for Eternally and you'll never have to face the condemnation of hell Doesn't mean that God isn't gonna deal with you as a son and chase and entastize you when you do wrong and when you Break his laws, you know what God's a judge and God is also the lawgiver and People today unfortunately people professing to be Christians mock and ridicule the law of God Well, you know who gave the law it wasn't Moses who gave the law, you know who gave the law God gave the law and Shame on you if you ever If you ever show contempt for the law of the Lord if you ever have disdain for God's laws and got your shame on you You call yourself a Christian and you're gonna you're gonna mock and ridicule the law of the Lord You say pastor versus who would ever do that Well, the atheists do it and then a lot of professing Christians will join it Oh, well, that was the Old Testament and they try to make excuses When the Bible says that that whosoever cursed that this father and mother shall be put to death You know what? We don't mock and ridicule that that's the law of the Lord the Bible says the law of law is perfect converting the soul and God is the lawgiver and God's the one who gave us the law. So his law is perfect and righteous and true We don't make fun of that law just because you don't may not understand that law just because you may have been Desensitized to how wicked certain things are in this world. We don't make fun of it If God thought it was important enough to put in the law well guess what he's the lawgiver We better respect that And I could go down the list on all the laws that people want to mock and ridicule I'm not gonna do that tonight. I've done that plenty of times. You know what I'm talking about The laws that people want to ignore and pretend like they didn't exist in the Bible some people not me I love the law though. I'll stand by every single word of God in this book 100% and not be ashamed of any single not any one part of it It's all good, it's all righteous You know what God is the king Amen I Can't wait for the day that Jesus Christ sets up that kingdom here on earth He's judge lawgiver and king and then we're gonna see true Prosperity we're gonna see true stability of the times As we were reading about earlier in this passage Things are gonna run the way they ought to run Let's finish off this chapter we're done verse number 23 thy tacklings are loosed and and this is now There's a this passage it gets a little confusing when you read it through sometimes and I can understand that because there's there's the the us and the them and Sometimes you know got this different perspectives being being transitioned kind of back and forth a lot But when you when you slow down and kind of read through it Hopefully you can you can figure it out, but thy tacklings are loosed They could not well strengthen their masts. They could not spread the sale in general of what we're seeing here The they is not the good people It's the wicked people. So what says their tacklings are loosed, you know, we don't really use it You think of a tackle box you think of fishermen, right and it's similar to this but the tacklings it's about strengthening the mast It's all the equipment the ropes and the pulleys and everything that's supposed to tighten up that sail for that big ship to be able to go forward and speed ahead and and you know Bring all their people to the spoil ultimately is what this is. We're talking about the spoilers It says they could not well strengthen their mast. They could not spread the sail. So basically all of their strength Is Coming to nothing before the Lord they have no real strength so they're all geared up and ready to go and guess what their tacklings loosed and They can't spread the sail and now they've got nowhere to go. They've got no wind to their sails Then is the prey of a great spoil divided the lame take the prey, you know lame is someone You know something that that is, you know injured or weak, you know We're saying so lames gonna take the brain instead of these people who think they're so strong The praise left to the lame verse 24 and the inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein Shall be forgiven their iniquity Amen, you know who the people at dwell there and they're the people who have made the Lord their God they're the people who? Who believe as in verse 22 and I kind of passed over this the Lord's our judge Lord's a lawgiver Lord's our king But then that last phrase says he will save us He will save us The people of that land who are trusting in the judge lawgiver and king trusting in him to save them All their iniquities are forgiven and those are the people that dwell there What a great chapter I love the book of Isaiah so much, you know There's there's there's a lot of negativity in Isaiah because a lot of judgment coming on people But there's also a lot of positive things there's a lot of things to look forward to but you know what I think and especially in turbulent times and When when you've got a lot of wickedness a lot of things going on a lot of violence and things just seem to be getting worse and worse, you know, we can find a lot of comfort in the book of Isaiah because there was a lot of similar things going on here being prophesied and preached against and and Being shown, you know people who are spoiling and they're not you know, they no one spoiled them And you know these days come on Obviously individuals may have you know Everyone has a deal with something or there may be people who who end up being have evil brought upon them But by and large as groups like people who live in America today show me the group. That's just oh, they're completely oppressed Don't buy in to the fraud that the media is trying to divide people over and just continually will not let the race issue just Die and just everything is always about race race race race watch out for that don't don't be brainwashed by the by the media that's trying to pit people against each other and Just have to make everything about race. It's not And you know, it shouldn't be me and you know what for some people I'm sure it is Definitely for the people in the liberal media. It's all about race for them But for the Christian Should never be about that For the Christian. It's about the human race And that's and that's the way that we live and that's the way that we need to and you know what if people do you wrong We're trusting the Lord Vengeance belongs in him. You know what we're gonna overcome evil with good Spot rise that word of prayer. Do you have any father Lord? We love you. We thank you so much for your words for the Wisdom and knowledge Lord, please give us wisdom and knowledge We want to be able to lead our lives with with some stability stability of knowing we're standing on the truth We're standing on what's right. I pray that you would please Help us to be able to overcome our own pride and in areas if people do what's wrong to be able to do what you tell us to do which is to just leave the vengeance unto you and Be able to overcome evil with good dear Lord I pray you please help us to to improve in all these areas dear God and just give us give us wisdom help us understand these these passages that we're reading and ultimately Lord Not to keep any of these truths ourself would be able to share it with other people and to reach the lost dear Lord I pray that you would please use us to your glory and honor God. We're thankful. We're thankful for this church I'm thankful for this church. Thank you for all these people that you've brought together here tonight I pray to please keep us all safe when we go our separate ways and that you would bless The rest of the week for everybody and Help us to be reflective on all the goodness that you brought and we know Lord whatever state We're in we're gonna be content there with But we thank you for the abundance of blessings that we've received that we truly don't don't deserve Thank you for that Lord, and we love you. It's in Jesus name. We pray amen