"Where Judgment Begins" Part 1

An article in Christianity Today, Lloyd Steffen writes… “Honesty is not praised much these days. We pay it some lip service, of course, and we tell our children to be honest in their dealings and with their feelings. But many of us would rather have our children be shrewd than honest. We want them to learn how to be suspicious, how to protect themselves, how to ward off fast-talking people and nicely packaged, well-advertised distortions of reality ...

We hesitate to praise honesty too much, or to encourage it at the expense of common sense, or expediency or the pressures of practicality and the "real world." Even experts in interpersonal relations tells us that too much honesty can destroy a relationship. Honesty now looks like a dubious virtue if not an actual vice. It is studied and examined as a stratagem rather than as a hallmark of character.”

And today in our culture we do not want to speak the truth because we are afraid of the repercussions. Questions are asked to even Christian leaders point blank and there is severe hesitation answering the question without answering the question and yet without them really knowing, they are answering the biggest question… Yes we do fear man more than we fear God if He even exists. We cannot be honest because we do not want to say anything that could cause cancel culture to cancel us. We are afraid we will lose our customers. We are afraid of the insults and the persecution. And most unfortunate… We do not want to say what people don’t want to hear because we are afraid people will leave our church. We are in a time were the world will be in disarray because there will be no truth because people in our world will not be courageous enough to speak the truth.

And if we don’t know the truth then the truth wont make us free. Are we able to speak what is true even when we know that we will be ridiculed, yelled at, despised, set up for schemes, face hostility and all manner of persecution. Are we courageous enough to let them who are perishing when they do not know that they are perishing that they are perishing. They are gonna be condemned. They are gonna be punished. They will face the reality of divine wrath. But will God really bring judgement. Will God really do all the things He said He is gonna do if we do not repent, if we do not change, if we do not worship? Is He really like that? Yes and do we have the guts enough to proclaim it?

For many of you who are following and participating in our CBC social media outreach, you are witnessing first hand the kind of opposition and insults you get for proclaiming the truth. I wanna say that majority of the comments we get are negative and much of them are insulting. They will belittle, they will humiliate, they will cut you down, they will say stuff about your family… but they will also be held accountable for the truth that they heard. They also hear the Word of God and He promises that it will not return to Him void. It is true that we are in need of the people of God being unashamed of the gospel of Jesus and unashamed of the wonders of the law and salvation of God.

Even though we know that the message will not necessarily be received with fanfare and open arms. Even though it is not a message they really want to hear. Even though it is truth that is a light and men loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds are evil. God is still looking for those who will be a voice in the wilderness crying out bearing witness to the truth. Just like Micah did. It is said “This is Micah’s task: to proclaim what no one like to hear.” Let’s take a look.

Micah 1:2–7 NLT

Attention! Let all the people of the world listen! Let the earth and everything in it hear. The Sovereign Lord is making accusations against you; the Lord speaks from his holy Temple. Look! The Lord is coming! He leaves his throne in heaven and tramples the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath his feet and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire, like water pouring down a hill. And why is this happening? Because of the rebellion of Israel— yes, the sins of the whole nation. Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion? Samaria, its capital city! Where is the center of idolatry in Judah? In Jerusalem, its capital! “So I, the Lord, will make the city of Samaria a heap of ruins. Her streets will be plowed up for planting vineyards. I will roll the stones of her walls into the valley below, exposing her foundations. All her carved images will be smashed. All her sacred treasures will be burned. These things were bought with the money earned by her prostitution, and they will now be carried away to pay prostitutes elsewhere.”

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

Transcendance

Immanence

The first thing we will look at today is the wonderful description of the transcendence of God over all of His creation. The second thing we will see is the immanence of God, the condescending love of the Father for His creation.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose heart in light of difficulty and confusion in our current society, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to rejoice in the transcendence of God and rest in the immanence of God, the Word made flesh and the Spirit now dwelling among us.

I. Transcendance

- God is so much more than we can comprehend.

A. Now remember why it is important that we study the minor prophets. One of the major mistakes we make in modern evangelicalism today is a distorted or just plain wrong description of the character of God. What we believe God is like and what He will and will not do. Do we really know what God is capable of? We say things like… I don’t believe that my God could do anything like that. The minor prophets are very very vivid when it comes to this. How vivid… you remember of study in Habakkuk and Zephaniah?

B. And here at the very beginning of Micah, we see yet again the call of judgement. Judgement for the continued covenant breaking of the people of God. But what is interesting here is that God is gonna use the judgement that is gonna happen to Judah and Israel is gonna serve as an example of what will happen to all nations that live in rebellion to the living God.

C. He is calling out for the attention of all the people of the world. Not just Israel and Judah, but I want all the peoples of the earth hear what I am gonna pronounce. I am gonna speak accusations against all of you. Wow… it is the totality of the world and he is not just calling out the sins of Israel and Judah, but he is gonna testify against all the crimes of humanity all over the world. We have heard it said the plan of God is first to the Jews and then to the Greek. Its a bit different here where it is first to all the nations and let me show you what will happen to you as you watch what I do to Israel and Judah. Yaweh is not just their God, I am your God and nothing has escaped my sight. Nothing has escaped my eyes. Nothing has and nothing will escape me.

D. And we begin with a vivid picture of the trancendence of God. Hello… God is coming. Henay! Translated behold look see… this is to get our attention that something dramatic is about to be shared. The Lord is coming.

E. And thats all he had to say… right. Its carries the idea that Dad is coming… you wait till your dad gets home… but its even worse. I called your dad while he was fishing at the dream stream and doing very well and now he had to leave the great Salmon run so that he could drive home and deal with you. God had to come down.

F. But what a vivid and striking picture of the transcendance of God. God had to come down to tread upon the high places of the earth. Think of the highest places, the awesome places, the great places, the greatest parts of the earth. All that is great in the universe is still under the feet of the our living God. It is important today to see as judgment is declared a vivid picture of God’s transcendance in is view here. Let us be reminded today...

Isaiah 40:25 NLT

“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

G. He is so much more. He cannot be contained in the standard of creation. In my work of apologetics, I say time and time again. We cannot prove or demonstrate God in the same way we prove or demonstrate anything in the universe. Why? Because God is not like anything else in the universe. Why? Because He is God, the greatest of all possible beings. If He was not, He would not be the greatest of all possible beings, therefore He is not God. He is so awesome and transcendent that it is possible to demonstrate His existence just by thinking about His ontology.

Psalm 8:1 NLT

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.

H. He is above even all the things that are above the earth. He is above all that is above. He is beyond all that is out of reach. It is too far… He is farther. It is too deep … He is deeper. It is too high… He is even higher. And it is too much to comprehend…He is more than incomprehensible.

I. And more and more in our culture today… we are “humanizing” God and we are “deifying” man. Making God less than He is and making man greater than he is. This is why sin is losing its power of conviction and the gospel is losing its significance. We do not see the great seperation between us and God. The more we make the transcendance of God trivial… the more we will not understand how horrible it is to sin against the living God. The more we will not comprehend why it took the death of the Son of God to pay the price for our sins. The more we trivialize the transcendence of God the less we will fear Him. The more we will disrespect Him. The more we will dishonor Him and the more we will doubt Him in what He says and what He promises to do. We will not believe He is able. The less we will believe that...

Hebrews 10:31 NLT

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

J. The mountains melt like wax. He is so far above, we cannot even fathom just how much. The mountains will pour out like water flowing down a hill.

Dr. Mackay - “This is a graphic description of the tremendous forces unleashed when the Lord comes to judge the earth. Nothing escapes the impact of his presence. The awesome reality will be completely realised ...

2 Peter 3:10 NLT

But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

K. Hopefully this will give us new or even renewed perspective as to whom we are ticking off when we just unashamedly sin the way we do today. The Bible is full of warnings about our transgressions and the consequences of not being or doing what God requires. We can get to the place where it is so easy to sin and so quick to rush into evil. Do we not see who it is we are violating? Do we not understand that He is so Holy that it really does matter how we worship Him… not just that we worship Him. Don’t believe me… just ask Nadab and Abihu. Are we walking around today misunderstanding the transcendence of God and therefore not fearing Him… I mean really fearing Him? Like Matthew 10:28 fearing Him.

Matthew 10:28 NLT

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

II. Immanence

- The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

A. Another picture we see here is the fact that He is coming. He does not stay in His very very high and exalted place but makes a covenant with His creation and wants to have something to do with us. To express His love. To share His greatness with us. To give to us… His condescending love.

B. And even though we sinned against Him. Even though we from the beginning disobeyed in the garden. Even though all have sinned and fallen short. Even though we are by nature enemies, God made a way. We can be saved today. We can have life today. Why?

C. The Immanence of God. Our transcendent God draws near. Our living God desires to be with us. Which makes judgement even more and more real. But it also makes salvation even more glorious. If yo want something done right you gotta do it yourself. And Himself He did. How?

D. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came into this world to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raise on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

E. And the promises continue… all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.

F. Not only do we rejoice and worship the living and transcendant awesome God who is high and lifted up beyond even the heavens, we have peace because our Lord is also immanent the Word became flesh and dwelt among us who will one day come to judge the living and the dead and like a bridegroom come for His bride to take us home so that where Christ is, there we will be also.