Where Judgement Ends (part 2)

There is no political agenda here as I tell this article written by a Doctor. Just listen to what she is saying in light of the bigger picture. They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But for one doctor, the cost of lacking such prevention is much more costly. In fact, it’s costing people their lives. Dr. Brytney Cobia is at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, and she’s been treating coronavirus patients, some who are vaccinated, and some who aren’t. The difference between those who make it and those who don’t is as obvious as it is heartbreaking. She said,

I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re incubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.

I’m sorry but its too late… and will it be too late when we die and are now face to face with the judgement of God with Christ seated in the judgement seat pronouncing a sentence… an eternal sentence. When judgement comes will we be told, i’m sorry but its too late. Will we have to experience the thoughts and pain of loved ones and people that we know knowing that when the time comes they will probably hear the words… “I’m sorry, but its too late.” And when the judgement of Christ comes, when he comes to judge the quick and the dead, at that moment will we hear “Im sorry but it is too late. But even before the moment is it a reality that we could hear, I’m sorry but it is too late?

It is the vivid characteristic of the very word of God, that when judgement is pronounced it is there and it is real and it will come it will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We gotta be sure we are understanding that judgement is coming and it is real. So many today are assuring everyone that there will be no judgement and there will be no wrath of God. There will be no hell … no eternal fire. But how can we do this? Why would we do this?

Dr. Wayne Grudem - “Scripture frequently affirms the fact that there will be a great final judgment of believers and unbelievers. They will stand before the judgment seat of Christ in resurrected bodies and hear his proclamation of their eternal destiny. This final judgment is the culmination of many precursors in which God rewarded righteousness or punished unrighteousness throughout history. While he brought blessing and deliverance from danger to those who were faithful to him, including Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and the faithful among the people of Israel, he also from time to time brought judgment on those who persisted in disobedience and unbelief: his judgments included the flood, the dispersion of the people from the tower of Babel, the judgments on Sodom and Gomorrah, and continuing judgments throughout history, both on individuals and on nations who persisted in sin. Moreover, in the unseen spiritual realm he brought judgment on angels who sinned. Peter reminds us that God’s judgments have been carried out periodically and with certainty, and this reminds us that a final judgment is yet coming, for “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteousness under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority”.

Judgement is real. Judgement is coming. And Judgement will be terrible. It will be and it did in Israel and Judah. Let’s take a look.

Micah 1:10–16 NLT

Don’t tell our enemies in Gath; don’t weep at all. You people in Beth-leaphrah, roll in the dust to show your despair. You people in Shaphir, go as captives into exile—naked and ashamed. The people of Zaanan dare not come outside their walls. The people of Beth-ezel mourn, for their house has no support. The people of Maroth anxiously wait for relief, but only bitterness awaits them as the Lord’s judgment reaches even to the gates of Jerusalem. Harness your chariot horses and flee, you people of Lachish. You were the first city in Judah to follow Israel in her rebellion, and you led Jerusalem into sin. Send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; there is no hope of saving it. The town of Aczib has deceived the kings of Israel. O people of Mareshah, I will bring a conqueror to capture your town. And the leaders of Israel will go to Adullam. Oh, people of Judah, shave your heads in sorrow, for the children you love will be snatched away. Make yourselves as bald as a vulture, for your little ones will be exiled to distant lands.

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

Identity Crisis

Identity in Christ

The first thing we will look at today is the description of the march of judgement over the land and the use of irony by our living God. Second, we will see the beauty of the gospel and its effects on our household.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to be apathetic or even indifferent to the coming judgement of Christ, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see the reality of judgement and the wonders of the gospel; salvation in Christ and Christ alone.

I. Identity Crisis

- The unappointed destiny.

A. And in this lament we see the fall of Israel to the doorstep of Judah with the march of Senecearib of Assyria in 701 BC and we find 12 cities including Jerusalem are in the path of the coming destruction including desolation, refugees, and even hostages are taken. To show the supernatural power of the Word of God… Micha who declare this oracle some 20 years before the events were to take place. Another example of fulfilled prophesy. And the incredible credibility and inspiration of the scriptures that we possess. Know this family… this is so extraordinary that materialist/positivists/deists and those who reject the existence and possibility of the supernatural make emphatic claims that this must have been written after the fact. It is so detailed and so clear and so extraordinary that it has to be impossible.

B. So after showing the fact that the transcendent God is coming down from heaven to get to the high-places with graphic cosmic collision descriptions of mountains melting like water with the incurable wound because the Lord will not relent and He will not come to their aid. There is a clear shift in the oracle that is here to bring a mood of panic throughout the land.

C. There is a fascinating word play here that I think we are prone to error as a westerner who might look at this next part of the prophesy as almost funny. When I did my translating it seemed as if its was an irony and God making fun of them. So it was kinda funny almost comical. The word play that we see here for the Israelite would have seen this as a horrible horrible thing. We as westerners give names based on personal preference and or popularity, but when an Israelite gives a name it was an important identity marker… the name was significantly linked to their destinies. When Abram and Sarai received their new names it also came with a new destiny.

D. And the first word play concerning Gath would have struck everyone in Israel and Judah right in the heart. Right after the death of Saul and Jonathan David would right the infamous lament.

2 Samuel 1:20 NLT

Don’t announce the news in Gath, don’t proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon, or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice and the pagans will laugh in triumph.

E. This is the tragedy on mount Gilboa was then end of an era. A sad and horrible time of grief and lament. And the first word play was here. The names of the cities would play a major role in their judgement. You name, your identity, your destiny is judgement. This is who you are.

- You Gath are the tell town and now your destiny … do not tell it at all.

- You Beth-leaphrah you are the dust house, so now your destiny is in the dust you shall roll. Rolling in the dust was a picture of mourning.

- You Shaphir you are the Beauty town … your destiny is not the ugliness of shame, nakedness, and captivity.

- Zaanan you are known as the “Exit town” your new destiny is no exit at all.

- Beth-ezel you are known as the refuge or the helper town, now your new destiny is a town that no one will help.

-Maroth oh you people of bitter town hoped for better hoped for a new destiny, but you will not… you will get no change, you will get exactly what you are.

-And You Jerusalem the city of Peace, you will experince war.

-Lachish is the harness for horses Town and place know for their resources to wage war in mighty battle. Harness your war chariots and horses and race not into battle but flees like cowards.

-Moresheth-gath the city that sounds like the word for Betrothed… sent them wedding gifts for they are going away to be the bride or your enemy.

-Aczib you are the town of deception and instead of changing your destiny you will indeed be deceptive to the kings of Israel.

-Marashah you are the conquering town. You are the town that conquers. And now your destiny shows that you will now be conquered. You will become the conquered town.

-Adullam you were the place that David went to when he was fleeing from Saul and so not the glory the people of power the people of power will now be taken away to hide in the cave. Your nobility. Your leaders. Hide in the cave of Adullam.

F. And so for the people in the land they will experience something catastrophic… they will have an identity crisis. Because of the cultural context of the people of the time this lament would be vivid and would induce panic of the impending doom. The judgement is real. The judgement is terrible. The judgement is coming. And now the judgement is their new destiny… their new identity. The generations before was known for the destiny of greatness no you will be known as the generation that brought destruction.

G. And this would have had a great deal of impact fulness on the people of the time. If it is really true it will be terrible. But one of the biggest reasons why it is hard to see the gravity of the impending judgement in light of what we see here in Micah is out current disposition. I wonder why we are not afraid? Do we not realize that the judgement we will face in our time will be waaaay worse than what Israel and Judah was gonna experience.

H. But in my study this week Dr. Stephen Dempster writes,

“To speak of judgement in modern western culture is to invite ridicule and laughter. For such a culture there is no sense of eschatology, no idea of an ultimate accounting. Time is viewed as an eternal now. What is important is the present not the past nor the future. People know more about the last 60 seconds than the last 60 years. This has been described as presentism or the CNN-ization of time: The frenetic pursuit of breaking news.”

I. So its not just me. The church today more and more are more concerned about the here and the now. We are willing to part with the beauties and wonders of the future reward of our inheritance of the kingdom of God for small pleasures of the here and the now. This is why I constantly constantly and again I say constantly refer to our current state of Christianity as the ESAU generation. We today are willing to trade away our birth right for a bowl of stew.

J. We trade away more and more possibilities for us to reach others with the gospel when we spend hours upon hours catching up on all on the bingable TV shows to stay current in the present. We spend money that could be used to reach out to the loss so that we can have the latest and the greatest stuff of our current time. Spend and get with the times. So many of us have giftings that we are not using for the Lord because we continue to say that it is not the right time right now because we are concerned more with the right now and then when will it be the right time??? When you are out of time? Shane I know I gotta do things for the Lord. I know I gotta do alot of prep and learning and growing, but I gotta take care of my life now. How is my treasure in heaven, my inheirenence in heaven gonna help me pay the bills I gotta pay nexts week. So we don’t learn from the past and now we will abort the future for the present. And when the future comes around all we are are a bunch of woulda coulda shoulda’s. People are dying, people, are going to hell, people are condemned in judgement, so much could have been done for the kingdom, oh but we had to have that bowl of stew. I hope it was good. Question… did you waste your life? Are you wasting your life?

K. And the Aczib (Deception) preachers continue to say that there will be no judgements because love wins so here are the principles for you to have your best life now.

L. Snap out of it. There are people dying everyday and many of them do not believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. They do not know that there is forgiveness. They do not know the gospel.

II. Identity in Christ

- Salvation in Christ.

A. There is salvation here today. Freely you have received so now we need to freely give what we have been given. And what have we been given? We have been given so much.

B. We have life and life more abundant even when we were so far from deserving it. We have been given so much, yet we don’t want to share it? We don’t want to devote ourselves to it? We know where there is bread and we continue to be silent. We know where there is bread and we would rather be complacent pre occupied with our own life here and now? This is the reality of sin. It is the reality of the flesh and our nature. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. The wages of sin is death. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. There is salvation for us today.

C. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised 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.

Titus 2:11–14 NLT

For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

D. 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.

E. No identity crisis for us Christian. We are found in Christ… I am my beloveds and He is mine. My destiny is set. Life and life more abundant in Christ and in Christ alone.