Keep Calm... The King is Coming

Main Point: Before God introduces the hope of the Messiah, He makes us aware of our sin and brings us under the cloud of judgment—keep calm… this is for our good and His glory!

We keep calm because there is a difference between hopeless judgment and godly discipline:

1. Hopeless judgment = Hell and an eternity of separation from God because we lived for everything but God.

2. Godly discipline = Firm consequences and corrective punishment that draw us back to fellowship with God.

NON-COVENANT PEOPLE—Eternal Consequences

COVENANT PEOPLE—Covenant Consequences

God can choose to kill you and purge evil from your community and you STILL be saved/or a member of the covenant community!

1. This means that your righteous has never obtained salvation or granted entrance into the covenant community for you…

2. Instead, your salvation (or entrance into the covenant community) is through the invitation and salvific work of God!

3. Therefore, our life is a privilege within God’s mercy and grace and not a right that was earned or deserved.

When understood in this manner, we have great hope in God instead of fear—even in our death our God still shows us mercy and grace because we are under His covenant.

Let me take this a step further and show you five things that must precede our salvation (as taught in Isaiah).

By understanding these five things, we fix our hope in God and not in ourselves:

1. The knowledge of sin precedes salvation

2. The knowledge of God precedes salvation

3. God’s work in providing salvation precedes salvation

4. The invitation into salvation precedes our salvation

5. Our response of repentance precedes our salvation

My goals for today (and December):

1. Dec. 2 = We want to see how God prepared Israel for the Messiah ()

2. Dec. 9 = We want to see the type of king that King Jesus would be ()

3. Dec. 16 = We want to see the response King Jesus stirs within us ()

4. Dec. 23 = We want to see the work of King Jesus toward us ()

5. Dec. 30 = We want to see the work of King Jesus toward the Father ()

The fifth chapter of Isaiah is a metaphor of God’s developmental care of Israel; however, Israel fails to produce that which God expected.

The conceptual outline of this passage revels the heartbreak communicated by our Lord, we see:

1. Complete Care by God (vs. 1-4a)

2. Complete Uselessness of Israel (vs. 4b)

3. Complete Destruction Promised from God (vs. 5-6 and 24-30)

4. Complete Description of Israel’s Sin (vs. 8-23)

Before we move on, I want to show you two Hebrew words that communicate the passion and emotion behind this text. This verse is “wild grapes” (vs. 4) and the second is “pleasant planting” (vs. 7).

1. Wild Grapes = bâʾash, ( בָּאַשׁ ), to smell bad; to be offensive morally; to be abhorred (as in an abomination, loathsome, odious), to utterly stink.

2. Pleasant Planting = šǎ·ʿǎšû·ʿîm, (sha-ash-shu-im) [שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים], delight — delight in something (an object in which he took delight).

In God’s view, to be fruitless is no small thing; rather, it contradictory to desire of God’s heart and the destruction of that which gives Him pleasure.

1. The fact that Israel produced a useless crop of stink-fruit resulted in the breaking of God’s heart—that is, that which He delights in became impossible to delight in.

2. Even more difficult to swallow is the fact that God DELIGHTS in mankind and allows Himself to be emotionally affected by humanity; however, mankind tends to delight in EVERYTHING but God!

3. The weight behind this text is the idea that God diligently worked to reveal Himself to Israel and lovingly cared for Israel—and Israel rejected the Lord!

Why did Israel reject the Lord?

In order to answer this question, we must ask and answer three questions:

Three Questions:

1. What fruit did God expect from Israel?

2. Why did Israel reject bearing fruit?

3. Why does it appear that God failed in making Israel a productive vineyard?

Deuteronomy 10:12–18 ESV

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Fruit Defined:

1. Fear the Lord:

a. Positive = to show reverent awe and respect for

b. Negative = to live in a manner that strives to avoid judgment from God

2. Walk in all the ways of the Lord:

a. Love Him = their desire and affections directed toward God

b. Serve Him = live in manner that places God first

c. Keep His Commandments = obey the laws and teachings from God

d. Obey from the Heart = make a commitment to serve the Lord

e. Cease Being Stubborn = stop living by an individual standard

f. Love Others (the sojourner) = return the compassion God shows us to others

g. Hold Fast to the Lord as your only God = faithfulness

Fruitless Living = Failing to Worship the Lord in the Manner He Dictates

Exodus 20:2-171. The Ten Commandments Teach How We View and Approach God

Example #1 = The Ten Commandments define worship within two categories (Exodus 20:2-18):

Exodus 20:2–17 ESV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Example #1 = The Ten Commandments define worship within two categories (Exodus 20:2-18):

Exodus 20:2–17 ESV

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

1. The Ten Commandments Teach How We View and Approach God

a. You shall have no other Gods

b. You shall not make idols (or images of God).

c. You shall not use the name of God in vain

d. You shall keep the Sabbath separate and distinct for the Lord

2. The Ten Commandments Teach How We Engage and Love Others

a. You shall honor and respect your parents

b. You shall not murder

c. You shall not commit adultery

d. You shall not steal

e. You shall not lie against others

f. You shall not covet

The Ten Commandments teach us that:

1. We are not free to envision our approach God based upon our personal preference (human subjectivity has no bearing on God)

2. We are not free to treat others as we choose—the Lord dictates how we live in community (we have no personal rights)

Example #2 = Jesus rebukes the Samaritan women for her (and her people’s) approach to worship:

Example #2 = Jesus rebukes the Samaritan women for her (and her people’s) approach to worship ():

Remember, the Samaritans were partial Jews (intermarried with other people groups) that modified the laws and practices concerning how to worship the Lord—THIS IS SOMETHING JESUS DID NOT ALLOW TO GO UNCHECKED

Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan women teaches us:

1. Our preference in how we want to worship the Lord does not provide the foundation for how we should worship.

2. There is a source for true worship

3. There is a correct way for worship

4. Jesus is the one who teaches us how to worship!

First: Submitting to the Appealing Nature of Sin Leads to Fruitless Living

1. Insatiable Materialism = Woe to those who live for wealth

2. Constant Licentiousness = Woe to those who live for pleasure

3. Boastful Defiance = Woe to those who sin without remorse

4. Inverted Morality = Woe to those who pervert truth and righteousness

5. Rampant Corruption = Woe to those who value leaders for the evil they commit and lack of integrity

Secondly: Illegitimate Fears Lead to Fruitless Living

1. We fear suffering in this life

2. We fear missing out on pleasure and good things

3. We fear rejection by others

4. We fear ridicule and shame from our community

5. We fear at a temporal level, but we do not fear at the eternal level

Thirdly: Believing the Lies of the Enemy Leads to Fruitless Living (Borrowed from Piper)

1. Satan lies, and is the father of lies ()

2. Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers ()

3. Satan deceives by disguising himself as righteous and light ()

4. Satan deceives by performing wondrous signs ()

5. Satan tempts us to sin ()

6. Satan works to keep us from receiving God’s word ()

7. Satan works to oppresses us through sickness and disease ()

8. Satan kills and is a murderer ( and )

9. Satan wars against us and the advancement of faith ()

10. Satan accuses us before God, trying to get God to reject us ()

Because these are scary verses, let me encourage you with a few verses that speak of Jesus’ work in view of Satan:

1. Jesus came to destroy Satan’s work ()

2. Jesus made Satan powerless ()

3. Jesus defanged Satan when He was on the cross ()

4. Jesus aids us when we are tempted ()

First, the parable of the vineyard is not about God failing (just as the story of prodigal son is not about God failing); rather, it justifies the righteous judgment and wrath that God is about to poor out upon Israel.

What was true for Israel then, is true for us now:

1. God planned for our salvation

2. God executed His plan for our salvation

3. God opened the way for us to hear the plan for our salvation

4. God invited us into salvation

5. God instructed us how to approach Him for salvation

6. God revealed the immense blessings attached to salvation

7. GOD WAITS FOR US TO RESPOND!!!!

8. However, should we refuse to come to Him, there is no other way to be saved! ()

This brings us to the point of Isaiah chapter 5:

GOD GIVES US THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE, BUT THE CONSEQUENCES FOR REJECTING GOD’S GREAT WORK IS GUARANTEED JUDGMENT!

In the coming weeks we will look at how God further wooed and aided Israel (and us) to Him through the coming king—King Jesus.

[1] James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 18.

[2] Richard Whitaker et al., The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).

Keep Calm... The King is Coming

What Fruit Did God Expect from Israel?

The fruit God desired from Israel was exclusivity in love and devotion!

Why Did Israel Reject Bearing Fruit?

Why Does it Appear that God Failed in Making Israel a Productive Vineyard?