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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening, it's now we're in Isaiah chapter 33, and the Bible reads, "'Woe unto thee that spoilest, that was not spoiled, "'and dealt dealest 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 tumult the people fled, "'at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered, "'and whose 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 has despised the cities, "'he regardeth no man, the earth mourneth and languishes, "'Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down, "'Sharon is like a wilderness, "'and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. "'Now will I rise,' saith the Lord, "'now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself, "'ye 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 in 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 uprightly, 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. "'To the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, "'the Lord is our king, he will save us. "'Thy tackleings 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, dear 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 guide him through Isaiah, Lord, as he preaches tonight, and that you bless this service in every aspect. Lord, we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we are continuing our Bible study on the book of Isaiah, and 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 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 gonna look at two things. We're gonna 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 thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. Now, obviously, we know that the antagonist 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 gonna 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 kinda 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's addressing here is the fact that, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Someone who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap. Destruction, he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And so, Assyria can't 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 we are also living by the law of sowing and reaping. We gotta 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 which you've sown, right? And so, if you're sowing to your flesh, you're gonna reap death, you're gonna 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 gonna bless you for that. And so, the Assyrians are completely blinded to this concept. They think that they're gonna conquer these nations, and overtake them, and treat them violently, and mistreat them, and bring them into captivity, as though nothing's gonna happen to them in the long run. But obviously, we have the law giver, the one who brings balance to all of these actions, and he's essentially telling the Assyrian army, this is gonna 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, in verse 12, therefore all things whatsoever ye would, that men should do unto you, do ye even sow to them. So what's the Bible telling us here? You know, if you wanna be treated a certain way, you need to make sure that you're treating people in that like manner, right? Obviously that doesn't guarantee that just because you treat someone well, automatically, 100% of the time, they're gonna 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 sow good seeds in a friendship, in a relationship, and it wasn't returned back into us by the recipient of those deeds, right? That happens, okay? So we can't 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 gonna help anybody else, I'm not gonna love anybody else, I'm not gonna do right to anybody else because I'm always being wrong 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's 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, and if 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, 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, or 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 stumbleth, 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 ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye 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 till 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. In your marriage is the best place to exercise this principle of the law of Samoanian 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. 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 gonna punish Assyrian. He's saying, you're spoiling, you're plundering, you're dealing treacherously, and you're not taking into account that you are gonna have to give an account for this, and you're gonna 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 mote 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'll reap from that is forgiveness. Forgiveness from who? Well, first of all, from God, okay? And in fact, look at verse 38. He says, give, give what? Forgiveness, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto 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 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 will receive it, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom, for with what the same measure that ye meet with all it 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 gonna need a surplus of forgiveness yourself in the future, and you wanna 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, okay? This is why, this is one of the greatest motivations to quickly forgive, okay? 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 wrong 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 wanna 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? Because 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 gonna do that or if I'm gonna 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 wanna 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, tenderhearted, 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 might be some bitterness somewhere around here. You say, 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, 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 our 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, okay? 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'm not, I don't wanna 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, what happened to you happened to me. If it happened to me, what 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 wanna be like the Assyrians thinking that we can 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. This 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 such a blatant offense where you feel you just can't move on, then 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've 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 rebuked 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 teenagers, I'm sure you can bring up a time where I've offended you. Because that's just how it is. Forgive me. I'm sorry, okay? Because at the end of the day, you know, I wanna see 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, you know, if someone ever comes to me and they say, forgive me for this, I automatically say, forgiven, forgotten. And I wanna confirm my love towards that person. 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 wanna 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, some of us, we've known each other for a long time. So we've offended each other multiple times. You can't have a relationship, like, for eight years and not offend each other. I'm sure I've offended Brother Marco countless times. He's probably offended me more than that. More than countless. You know, an infinite amount of times. An egregious amount, no, I'm just kidding. Because we've just known each other for so long. You know, Brother Ulysses, he's my employee, and you know, as his boss, I probably offend him a lot. Who said that? No, just kidding. The point that I'm making here is that when you're in a relationship for long periods of time, there's just more chances that you're gonna offend each other. 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 another. And you know what, I'm not gonna police people and say stop offending people. I think it's just easier to say, why don't you just forgive people? They're offenses. Now obviously, sometimes there are people who are just perpetual offenders. They're just perpetually, habitually just offending people left and right. Now I don't think we have that in our church. We have had it in the past, though. We've had these habitual offenders, and they offend everyone on the spectrum of our church, just like women, children, teenagers, married, single, it doesn't matter who you are. And that's not 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 and have no filter. Obviously we should practice having a filter and not just be impetuous when we speak and just allow everything to just come out. Because in many words we offend. In a multitude of words, there wanteth not sin, the Bible says, the more you talk, the more likely it is that you're gonna offend someone. And I will testify that I've been guilty of that. 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, 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. So 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. So 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, 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? So obviously God's allowing this to come upon his people, but in like manner, you think they got it bad, just wait till you see what God does with the unsaved, with the unrighteous. Look at verse two, you can turn that up brother Ulysses. Verse two 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 this is Judah pleading for God to be gracious with them, you know, in the face of this terrible threat from the Assyrians. Verse three 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 four, 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. 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 seven, 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, they're gonna be ashamed, they're gonna be embarrassed, they're gonna weep bitterly because of the destruction. Verse eight says, the highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth, he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities he regardeth to no man, the earth mourneth and languishes, Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down, Sharon is like a wilderness, Beit Shen 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, saith 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, 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 oh, 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 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. 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 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. You understand? And so he has a 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 it's symbolic of, a literal burning and fire in a place called hell, okay? And so 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 Jesus will baptize with the Holy Ghost, but he will also baptize with fire. So we're baptized in the Holy Ghost, we're 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 his world with fire in the end times, beginning in, what is it, Revelation chapter eight, where he's literally just burning up the entire world, all the trees and the forest, and he's destroying the marine life and all that, he's burning, but literally, he will burn people in hell that currently exist right now in the center of the earth. 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 two, 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, there's people that died 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. 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 damned are burning before the presence 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 hell is naked before him, meaning that he's looking through your heart, but he's also piercing right through it, 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 that's why no one gets pity in hell. It's not like God's sad about people in hell. 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. Just believe in my son. Once they're there, their fate is sealed. They are there forever. You see, you talk about it so 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 are 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 would realize the severity of it. I mean, this past week, I got the witness to this lady, and I was out sowing with my family, and my wife had actually knocked on his door, and my wife came out, she's like a Spanish speaker, and so I was just like, watch out, you know? I speak 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 were both, you know, we just met her, we were like, 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 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 was like, you know, it's really sad, 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 won 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 Jehovah's Witness told this lady, she was like, the reason your daughter's like that is because of your sin. And if you remain in sin, your daughter's 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, 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 hath 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 it, it's just for the glory of God, and she's like, I just fear for my daughter because she thinks 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 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 just like, it's right there. She was like, that's amazing. And so she got saved, and I said, hey, thank you for your time, she says, no, 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 we leave this conversation, and 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 out, listen to what I've done, basically the judgment. And then 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 hath 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 the observance of all the Old Testament rites, 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? What is that referring to? He's saying, who among us shall dwell with God? You say, well, it says devouring fire. Yeah, but our God, listen to this, is a consuming fire though. 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. Let me go through this. Verse 15 says, he that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions that shaketh his hand from holding up bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. So what is it saying? 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 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 uprightly, 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 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 uprightly, 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. 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 try to bribe the prophet, they try to bribe the politician, and this is what they do. No, I don't want that. We need some more pastors to be like, no, I don't need that. Hey, we need some more politicians who go, obviously, 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 eight, and thou shalt take no gift, for the gift blindeth the wise, and preferth the words of the righteous. Now, this isn't saying, 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 discernment. Maybe they're a judge of sorts, and they have to judge matters between people, and then they look at the guy on the left, and he's like, oh, this guy slipped me a lamb one time. You know, he slipped me 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 that 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. You're like, oh, man, you know, we can't really favor this guy or this family because they don't give as much, but 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 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 go to your leases and say, give me the list 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 don't know how much the church gives in general. I have to keep a pulse on that because, you know, I'm in charge of it, and I need to know the state of the flock, right? But as far as like how much each individual gets, I don't know, and I don't wanna know because I don't wanna tempt myself to, you know, potentially pervert judgment because I favor someone based upon how much money they give or something, okay? Because that is a possibility, and so I wanna despise gain. I wanna 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. You know, supposing that gain is godliness, we never wanna have that type of attitude, okay? And so that's important. So he says there, you know, 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? You say, how do I apply that today? Well, here's the thing. We can't really apply it to ourselves right now because we're in no media in November, right? At least we're 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 wanna see this. Blood and gore and, you know, people getting run over and, you know, something happening in India or, you know. It's always these videos from like 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 like Arabic writing or something, just scroll, just shut it down. It's gonna be the most violent thing you've ever seen, okay? Now, I actually like nature as 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, that's cool. I'm just, I show my kids, I'm like, look at that. 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 wanna 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 wanna 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, you know, our culture has become completely desensitized to that type of content, because it's always there. All these pranks, you know, of dudes dressed in drag and stuff, you know, Christians dressed in drag to make a good Christian buck or something like that. It's wicked. That's the person who's desensitized. And anybody who laughs at that nonsense who's a Christian is also desensitized. You know, oh, you think abominations are fine? I don't think trannies are funny. It's disgusting, it's filthy. Let alone having a Christian dress up like a tranny. You gotta be embarrassed. You gotta be ashamed of yourself. Verse 17 says, "'Thine eyes shall see the king in 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, right? 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 in November or not, although you should be doing it, I hope that you become more temporal, not temporal, more eternal minded. I hope you think more about the eternal. Think upon the Lord, because you have more time on your hands to reflect and meditate and think upon the things of God. I've enjoyed No Media in November, I'll be honest with you. You know, times when I would typically go to 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. 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 won't, you know, stammering tongue that you can't understand, it's not gonna like 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, thine eyes 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 them, 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. It's a very difficult thing to do, though, because 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 I can only get you, like this sermon can only get you until Saturday or 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, and 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 there's just, the cycle continues. And so, but you know what? You can minimize that window of time if you do your part to read the Bible, to pray, to practice dwelling on the holy hill yourself. See, I'm bringing you to the holy hill every service. Right? At least I'm trying to bring you to the holy hill every service. But you need to make it your practice to dwell on 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 cannot well strengthen their mast, they cannot spread the sail. 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 on that holy hill. Walk uprightly, speak rightly, speak righteously and uprightly. Make sure we hate bribery and the oppression of the evil upon the innocent. And make sure that we also 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 because the news is just blood and evil, right? And I have nowhere to watch the news anyways because 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, let me just say this, that's nothing compared to Spanish news. Spanish news is violence times 100. And where English news just kinda tells you what happened, Spanish news shows you what happened. And all the news is just decapitated everywhere 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 wanna see that. I don't wanna hear about it. I don't wanna think about it. You know, I don't wanna, 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 and 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, pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.