King of the Mountain

King of the Mountain Intro

Why do you think that so many people are fascinated with teh question, “Are we in the Last Days?”

With plagues, murder hornets and social urest, there have been articles, facebook posts and radio talk shows promoting varying views of the last days. That we are in the end times and that the return of Jesus is imminent.

Without fueling additional speculation, let me present a couple things that I hope will help bring clarity and focus to our understanding for the times we are in - as well as focus for our message this morning.

No one knows the hour - and so we can speculate or be watchful. We do not want to dismiss the warnings - as many did when John the Baptist announced the coming of Jesus. We also do not want to be consumed with a focus that breeds fear and eliminates the necessity of sharing hope and grace with others.

No one will miss it - there will be trumpets and Jesus coming as the exalted King… does not sound like some secret gathering where people just disappear - ala a secret rapture, but an event that everyone will note and that recognize.

The real question that we each need to be asking ourselves is: Whether Jesus returns in the next 5 minutes or I die a natural death - am I ready? Am I repentant? Am I longing for the day of the Lord or am I living in the day of the Rutter?

This text this morning will help us to look at what the last days will look like from God’s perspective.

I want to acknowledge a couple resources I am using for thius series:

Christ-Centered Exposition: Finding Jesus in Isaiah

Doctrine: Mark Driscoll

Kingdom Come: Sam Storms

Arminian Theology: Roger Olsen

Basic Theology: Charles Ryrie

Isaiah: Warrne WIesbe

You might say that I am all over the place in my choice of reading - nevertheless, I choose to hold each up to teh promise of Scripture and allow the text to reflect what the commentaries say - without taking the commentaries as the gospel truth, word from God.

It will look at the Peace that comes from an Exalted King, the Shame of a people worshipping their stuff, the fear of the Lord being revealed and an invitation to pause - to stop, breathe, and turn the other way.

So first, in Chapter 2 of Isaiah, verses 1-5 we read:

The Mountain of the Lord Exalted

As we get started this morning, I will be posing some questions along the way for you to consider. Questions for discussion and to encourage one another. The first one is this:

As we read through this chapter together, how does Isaiah show the zeal that God has for His own Glory above all other competing high places?

Why is it important that the church exalt the Glory of God?

How is this done (or not done) well at Crossroads?

When we hear people talking about being in the last days, how does that make you feel? When you see it posted on facebook, do you quickly move on from it to something more palatable?

What kind of image does it evoke - even as I am talking about it now?

Most people fall into one of 2 camps:

whole-hearted embrace - affectionately known as chart guy!

Patient indiffernce - its gonna happen, and when it does, I am all for it, but in the meantime, I don’t want to talk about it.

I want to, along with Isaiah, challenge you to a 3rd view. One that you might already appreciate: I call it, Joyful Expectancy.

Isaiah’s vision in Chapter 2 starts off with a sense of joyful expectancy.

The house of the Lord is established on the highest mountain - above everyone and everything else.

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:21–22 ESV

in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

All the nations will flow to it - this streaming of every nation, tribe, tongue, nation is the essence of the salvific plan that sees God glorified and His people redeemed.

Those who come will recognize this House as the Dwelling Place of God, where people will sit at His feet and learn His ways and His paths.

The result of His righteous rule will be a peace where nations trust His authority, people trust His judgment, weapons are no longer necessary and Peace - the peace that Jesus promised to leave with us will officially be the currency of the day.

Only 10 nations in the world are currently not at war.

Over the past 10 years, 81 countries have become more peaceful and 79 have become less peaceful. (Page 9)

101,406 deaths in battle, an increase from 19,601 since 2008. (Page 24)

The UNHCR recorded 57 million refugees, displaced peoples, and others of concern. (Page 24)

Violent crimes cost $1,876 for every person in the world, a total of $13.6 trillion dollars. This figure represents 13.3 percent of the world's total economic activity. (Pages 42-43)

Who here longs for that peace?

Who here lives with a joyful expectancy to see that day arrive?

Do you look forward to the day when you can rest in the assurance and peace of the Savior?

O Church, Come, let us walk in the Light of the Lord… Let us be a City on a Hill, Let us not allow our light to be hidden or snuffed out.

Shame: The treasure chest is empty

Isaiah 2:6–9 ESV

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them!

So all these nations show up, the house of Jacob probably wandering in their midst — I mean they are the chosen ones after all, aren’t they? And in spite of he invitation to walk in the light - they are rejected.

Why are they rejected?

one word… Idolatry.

How do these verses (6-9) convict us of the various forms of idolatry?

Romans 1:25 ESV

because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

If we understand that to teach us that when we worship anything that God has created (including the amount of melanin we have) instead of the Creator that is idolatry.

How do you see people today struggling with the same forms of idolatry?

they rejected God and chose the men and gods of other nationis.

They sought out fortune tellers to scratch their ears instead of the prophetis voices in thier midst - and why? Probably fro the same reason we do - we have a perpensity of listening to those who tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear.

So if we want to drink - we surround ourselves with people who tell us its okay...

We surround ourselves with people who will co-sign our sin instead of confront it - because that would be too difficult and challenging.

Shame is only partly about blame-worthiness. Of course, we do feel ashamed of ourselves when we are guilty, and we should. Sin is, after all, a disgrace. Like Peter, who wept bitterly after his betrayal of Jesus, we rightly feel simultaneously guilty and ashamed of our sins.

But often--according to the experts, very often--our feelings of shame attach to things that have little to do with our moral or spiritual deficiencies and have everything to do with a whole array of other areas in which we think we fall short.

Soo they embrace the occult and the superstitioins of other cultures because they don’t confront the desires of their hearts and in teh process replace God and His provision with the work and produce of their hands.

Who then becomes God?

Who then is being worshipped?

Where does their allegiance lie?

with themselves...

Fear: Humbled before the Lord

Isaiah 2:10–21 ESV

Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

What do these verse teach us about the coming day of the Lord?

And yet, somewhere at the core of their heart… at the center of theri being is a realization thatsomething is wrong. When confronted with a Holy God or the prospect of a Holy God, Terror overtakes them.

When we have walked with God and started to trust in ourselves - it doesn’t mean we do not kow truth - it means that we are walking/living/ operating outside of truth.

When we then see God, what response do we have?

“Hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord.”

Shame cause us to hide. Fear causes us to run. Look, most of us, according to Romans 1 are without excuse. We know God exists, we know He has a standard of righteousness that extends beyond anything we couldaccomplish on our own.

How is this natural desire to run and hide from the consequences of our sin and choices an excellant opportunity to share the hope found in fleeing towards Christ - not away from Him?

We know that He has a Day. A day where everyone and everything will be judges and made right. A day when everything that is lofty and proud, and striving to accomplish things in their own strength to balance those scales of righteousness will fall short and will be brought low - humbled sinners in the hands of an angry - albeit righteous and holy - God.

God will be exalted!

Will you be among those who are exalting Him from a position of relationship or a position of rebellion?

In that day that teh Lord is exalted, anything that you have put your trust in that does not begin or end with Jesus the Christ will be left for the moles and the bats.

In this case Israel - and by extension us - have the same choice to make. Some men trust in chariots, others trust in horses, but I trust in the Name of the Lord our God!

What about you?

Pause, Breathe, Go

Isaiah 2:22 ESV

Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

After leveling everything that people could put their trust in, the fame fortune and everything that goes with it, verse 22 sums it up with: Stop putting your trust in mere mortalswho has only the breath in their nostrils. What is he really worth?

Stop trusting in your own righteousness

Stop trusting in your own religious works to save you from your sin

Stop trusting in your own efforts to keep yourself healthy and safe

Stop trusting in human wealth

Stop trusting in human pleasures

Stop trusting in every idol that clmors forthe highest place in your heart.

Repent! Repent from the false gods you serve or give a place of peace in your life.

Stop being captivated by human glory. At the end of the day, here si the cross and the accomplishments of Christ and everything that He accomplished on your behalf… How can anyting else even compare?

Right now, there is no baseball season… There was no NBA Champion crowned, No Stanley Cup winner… Not even a Little League World Series winner. Take all those trophies, all those accolades, Emmy’s, Tony’s, Oscar’s, and Nobel Peace Prizes… Take them all…

At the end of the day, when the Day of the Lord comes, none of that will matter.

What will matter is that Jesus, Jesus, No One but Jesus will be exalted.

What will matter is this: How do you reflect, communicate, share, and exalt Jesus with your life right now.

As we are making our pilgrimage to our place of rest and peace with Jesus, we are commanded to be witnesses to others who have not yet begun the journey.

Look at Isaiah 2:3 it says,

We have the responsibility to respond. To respond in holiness as we surrender our lives to Jesus and exalt Him in everything

Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever, we do - do it all for the Glory of the Lord, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

And we have the responsibility to say, “Come!” the obligastion, or responsibility to extend the invitatioin to those around us and to the ends of the earth.