back to index20160720 Wednesday Bible Study
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Heavenly Father, we want to thank you again for this evening. 00:00:07.640 |
We pray, Lord God, that you give us teachable hearts, help us, Lord God, to be eager not 00:00:13.560 |
only to learn, but to glean and to know the heart of Christ and what you have been doing 00:00:19.280 |
all through these years, Lord God, and the prophecies that you've made and how all of 00:00:24.080 |
these things, one by one, are being fulfilled and will be fulfilled one day. 00:00:28.600 |
I pray that you would grip our minds and our hearts, that as a community, Lord, that we 00:00:33.320 |
would learn to praise you and honor you, that we would have more of you in us than the effects 00:00:41.280 |
We pray, Father, that you would bless our time together, just asking for your grace. 00:00:48.240 |
All right, so we're looking at chapter 58 and 59 today. 00:01:05.480 |
So chapter 58, the first question that was asked is, what is God calling the prophet 00:01:14.560 |
So the first thing that we see is, if you look at chapter 58, verse 1, "Cry aloud, do 00:01:20.320 |
not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression, 00:01:28.720 |
In the previous chapter, in chapter 57, who was being rebuked? 00:01:59.360 |
And what was the primary duty of the watchmen? 00:02:08.640 |
So remember one of the descriptions that they give in chapter 57 is that they're like 00:02:19.080 |
So if we look at chapter 58, it's a continuation of that in 58, where what the leaders of Israel 00:02:25.360 |
were not doing, God is calling the prophet Isaiah to first and foremost to declare where 00:02:33.960 |
To call them out in their sins because until they recognize where they stand before God, 00:02:40.320 |
all the religious things that they're doing doesn't matter. 00:02:42.360 |
This is probably the most dangerous position that any human being and even Christians can 00:02:46.960 |
be in, to think that you have salvation when you don't. 00:02:51.000 |
Or even as Christians to think that somehow, you know, our primary concern is what can 00:02:56.040 |
I do to glorify God or what is God's will for my life? 00:03:00.520 |
And then when you come before God, the primary thing that God's calling you to do is repent, 00:03:05.600 |
So if we don't know where we stand before God, then every religious thing that we're 00:03:12.440 |
So the first thing that God calls Isaiah to do is to call them out in their sins, to declare 00:03:16.560 |
to them their transgressions, to reveal their sins, right? 00:03:21.200 |
What was the primary problem that he's telling Isaiah to call out? 00:03:26.640 |
Again, they didn't know where they stood before God. 00:03:30.120 |
He said they were delighting to know his ways. 00:03:34.160 |
So on the surface, it seems like they were right with God. 00:03:37.640 |
There's a lot of sacrifices going on, a lot of superficial religiousness. 00:03:42.240 |
And yet, God calls Isaiah to tell them about their sin. 00:03:47.880 |
What does it mean they forsook judgment of God in verse 2? 00:03:53.560 |
How did you understand that when he said they, you know, they were delighting in the knowledge 00:03:57.480 |
of God, right, and then they were forsaking the judgment of God? 00:04:05.160 |
How did you understand that when you read that? 00:04:07.680 |
>> Kind of like universal, like God loves everybody. 00:04:20.040 |
>> So they didn't understand that God was angry with them? 00:04:23.160 |
>> Or that like God, why would that punish them? 00:04:33.760 |
God is bringing judgment and they don't realize that God is bringing judgment because of their 00:04:41.200 |
They think, they think they, because they think they're standing in right with God. 00:04:45.440 |
So when all of these things are happening, it has nothing to do with them because they 00:04:50.920 |
I mean, I think this is something that, you know, one of the most sobering passages in 00:04:57.120 |
the scripture, not just this, but all the passages in the Old Testament where religiousness 00:05:01.520 |
in Israel was extremely heavy, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of worship, a lot of, you know, gathering 00:05:08.880 |
together, and yet when God shows up, God is angry with them. 00:05:14.440 |
Does that describe what it was like when Jesus came? 00:05:17.800 |
Yeah, a lot of, a lot of temple worship, a lot of temple activity, right? 00:05:23.280 |
Every time Passover came, hundreds and thousands of people flocked to Jerusalem, and yet when 00:05:27.880 |
Jesus comes, Jesus didn't come to praise them. 00:05:30.720 |
His primary word that he had for the nation of Israel was rebuke, right? 00:05:39.440 |
And so that's the period that Israel is in right now, right? 00:05:42.880 |
God is bringing judgment upon them, but they don't recognize this as God's discipline because 00:05:47.600 |
they're at the temple doing a lot of religious things, right? 00:05:51.960 |
So that's what, first and foremost, before he brings restoration, they need to recognize 00:05:59.820 |
And the primary thing that they need restoration from was from their own sins. 00:06:05.760 |
And so that's why chapter 58, 57 ends with the watchman, basically the leaders of Israel 00:06:14.700 |
And then he sends a true prophet, Isaiah, saying, "Go, warn these people about their 00:06:19.480 |
They're, on the surface, they look like very righteous people, but in reality, when they 00:06:23.620 |
stand before God, they're under God's condemnation, right? 00:06:31.380 |
Because they were seeking for their own pleasure. 00:06:45.340 |
Whoever's there first, can you read it out loud? 00:06:47.340 |
You covet and cannot obtain, so you find quarrel. 00:06:49.340 |
You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. 00:06:51.340 |
Doesn't that sound, doesn't that passage sound exactly like that? 00:06:52.340 |
He says you're praying, but then God doesn't answer because you're constantly quarreling, 00:07:14.820 |
you're frustrated, you do not have because you do not ask, but when you do ask, you don't 00:07:18.460 |
get it because you're asking for your own pleasure, right? 00:07:26.220 |
I'm pretty sure James knew this passage when he was writing that passage, right? 00:07:32.780 |
It wasn't because they weren't praying, right? 00:07:40.260 |
It wasn't because they weren't at the worship, it wasn't because they weren't active in religious 00:07:45.700 |
They were doing all of that stuff and yet their hearts were filled with sin and they 00:07:49.180 |
kept on coming to God wondering how come God doesn't answer our prayer? 00:07:55.620 |
We say that all the time like, "Oh, you know, God always answers prayers." 00:08:00.300 |
He clearly says, He does not answer this prayer because your prayers, the content of your 00:08:09.780 |
Like there's not a holy vending machine that if you do some righteous stuff that God will 00:08:14.980 |
Remember there's a condition to prayer, right? 00:08:20.580 |
If you abide in me, in my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish and it shall be 00:08:30.260 |
Prayer is not coming to a genie and saying like if you did enough righteous things at 00:08:34.820 |
church and gave enough and prayed enough and did enough that somehow you're going to come 00:08:39.580 |
to God and that God's going to answer whatever you want, right? 00:08:43.780 |
Even the content of your prayer has to be within the will of God. 00:08:48.500 |
It's like, again, it's not because they didn't pray. 00:08:51.740 |
In fact, they said they love to delight to know God. 00:09:06.020 |
They were constantly fasting, but God says your fast is meaningless. 00:09:10.020 |
So even fasting, even forsaking food and going hungry to seek God, this intense prayer, even 00:09:19.060 |
that he says in God's eyes is useless because they have no idea where they stand before 00:09:23.780 |
And that's what God is calling Isaiah to show them. 00:09:28.460 |
Before revival can come, before the Lord's blessing or shalom can come, you have to deal 00:09:34.300 |
Sin that is swept under the rug is never really swept under the rug because God's under the 00:09:41.180 |
There's nowhere you can go as long as sin is sin, right? 00:09:45.500 |
Fervent prayer, sacrifice, giving all of that doesn't make up for the sin that God calls 00:09:51.900 |
And that's what he's trying to do first and foremost. 00:09:56.780 |
Says they were constantly coming and they were trusting in empty rituals. 00:10:03.620 |
So again, the historical period right before the judgment comes upon Israel, the Syrians 00:10:08.940 |
and the Babylonians, during that period, Israel was independent, especially the Southern kingdom. 00:10:17.860 |
They had a lot of bad King, but they had some good Kings. 00:10:20.660 |
And so there was a lot of sacrifices, a lot of temple activity. 00:10:25.820 |
So in their mind, they were thinking, well, I mean, think about it in modern terms, right? 00:10:31.260 |
I'm active at church, which is what they did. 00:10:35.820 |
I do my quiet time, which would be the equivalent to them praying, right? 00:10:41.340 |
I think religious activity wise, they're probably more fervent than most people today. 00:10:47.780 |
We would probably consider them super Christians, right? 00:10:53.620 |
And yet when they come before God, he said, the primary thing that God's concerned about 00:10:57.540 |
is not you going out and doing work for God is repentance, right? 00:11:04.500 |
So again, this sounds a lot like what Jesus says to, to the Pharisees and the Sadducees 00:11:14.580 |
And this is probably one of the most deceptive things because when we are busy doing God's 00:11:19.900 |
work, where it is on the surface, that's when we feel the safest, but then that's when we're 00:11:27.420 |
At least if you're not a Christian or you're backsliding, you know exactly where you stand 00:11:31.500 |
That you feel distant from God and you know why, right? 00:11:38.400 |
You know that there's things that you need to repent of, right? 00:11:42.860 |
But people who are religious, who are not right with God, are the most frustrated because 00:11:48.940 |
And we're asking the same question that Israel's asking. 00:11:57.020 |
How come my relationship with God seems so mechanical? 00:12:01.820 |
And we keep asking, well, I'm doing, I'm trying so hard and yet at the core of where they 00:12:07.580 |
stand before God, God says, no, until you repent, there is no answer prayer, right? 00:12:15.380 |
So this is at the core of Israel's sin right here. 00:12:23.780 |
Again, just, just these religious rituals that God doesn't consider that in and of 00:12:30.860 |
It's that God desires for the fasting to be to lose the bonds of the wicked, to undo 00:12:35.460 |
the straps of the yoke, to set free those who are oppressed, to share bread with those 00:12:41.380 |
who are hungry, to offer shelter to the homeless, to call the naked and on and on and on. 00:12:54.420 |
In other words, what he is saying is if you're going to come before God and ask and, and 00:13:01.060 |
to seek him, you have to care about the things that God cares about. 00:13:06.020 |
So if you look at all of these things, he's not simply saying that if you, if you read 00:13:10.500 |
through all the prophets in Israel's history, God has a special place for those who are 00:13:16.900 |
And again, I always think about this as a, as a dad of, you know, several kids. 00:13:24.180 |
And if my kids ask me like what I want, I mean, I have a lot of superficial things, 00:13:29.060 |
obviously I want, but if there's, I know what my kids can get, like what I really want, 00:13:37.700 |
But I think any parent would say, if my oldest son asked me what I desire, my immediate answer 00:13:45.100 |
would be take better care of your siblings, right? 00:13:49.980 |
Take better care of your daughter or your, not daughter, your sister, right? 00:13:56.700 |
Your sister and your siblings, like that would be, because if he takes better care of them, 00:14:07.900 |
So if you look at all of these things, he said, you're coming and asking for selfish 00:14:10.580 |
things, but if you really want me to listen, he said, this is the true fast. 00:14:15.580 |
This is what I want you to long for because every one of these things are things that 00:14:24.820 |
This is consistent with what he says, like, if my words abide in you, right? 00:14:29.620 |
If you abide in me, my words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish, because this is 00:14:37.740 |
So that's what he's saying, make your fast about him and not you, right? 00:14:47.700 |
Listen to these five things that God promises if you fast the way God desires to fast, right? 00:14:59.620 |
What is that in reference to when the light breaks through the dawn? 00:15:23.780 |
The picture that we get is like the nation of Israel under this cloud, right? 00:15:28.860 |
And exactly, I mean, in simple terms, it's from darkness to light, right? 00:15:32.780 |
When God shows up and he makes things clear, right? 00:15:36.460 |
Physically and spiritually, psychologically, things become clear when God shows up. 00:15:43.060 |
In other words, when you fast the way that God desires you to fast, when you seek me 00:15:46.820 |
the way I desire for you to seek me, when God shows up, right, the light gets turned 00:16:04.020 |
When you're frustrated in righteousness because you're not right with God, how hard you have 00:16:13.140 |
But when you're right with God, it's almost like God goes before you and bears fruit. 00:16:21.500 |
You know, like a church trying so hard to bear fruit when we're not righteous internally. 00:16:28.060 |
And all we get is the more people you attract to church, the more people who don't like 00:16:34.420 |
The more people you bring to church, more of them leave saying that this is filled with 00:16:43.180 |
So even the way that God designed us to bear fruit, what is the first thing he tells us 00:16:49.300 |
You can't bear fruit if you do not abide in me. 00:16:55.820 |
I mean, think about the things that you're praying about. 00:17:02.900 |
Maybe salvation of a family member or a friend or co-worker. 00:17:08.540 |
You know, no matter how hard you work and how articulate you are and how many great 00:17:13.740 |
books that you give to them, if you're not abiding in Christ, you're trying to reproduce 00:17:22.700 |
and you're trying to bear righteousness on your own. 00:17:25.380 |
You just, we just aren't going to be successful. 00:17:27.500 |
Here it says when God shows up, the light gets turned on, right? 00:17:31.100 |
There's health and then righteousness goes before you, right? 00:17:42.180 |
I mean, this is probably the biggest benefit of being right with God, that our prayers 00:17:50.160 |
The greatest benefit of being a Christian is we have a direct access to our father, 00:17:56.180 |
So to have our prayers frustrated is probably the most frustrating thing. 00:17:59.980 |
It's like having a million dollars in the bank account and not being able to access 00:18:05.620 |
You need to pay your bills and you know you have the money, but you can't access it. 00:18:11.300 |
And so for a Christian, the greatest asset that we have is that we are able to enter 00:18:16.460 |
the throne of grace and call him our Abba father. 00:18:18.860 |
But when we have superficial relationship with God, it's just religiousness. 00:18:23.640 |
And yet we're just harboring all kinds of sins hidden in our hearts. 00:18:27.020 |
And he says, then our prayers are frustrated. 00:18:30.740 |
And in the end, everything that we do, we try to do with all our might. 00:18:33.540 |
And in the end, you just get frustrated, right? 00:18:42.340 |
Again, how often are we frustrated because we're looking for the Lord's will? 00:18:48.260 |
You know, I think the most important aspect of finding the Lord's will is to be in the 00:18:58.720 |
If you're in the Lord's will on a daily basis, the Lord's will become more and more clear 00:19:03.520 |
But if you're not living in the Lord's will on a day to day basis, to try to figure out 00:19:07.360 |
what the Lord's will while you are outside the Lord's will, it's impossible, right? 00:19:14.000 |
The Lord's will was never meant to be accessed from outside of his will. 00:19:20.820 |
You have to be in the house of God, in your personal relationship with God. 00:19:25.380 |
And if you're not there, and then you're looking from the outside and asking for the Lord's 00:19:29.100 |
will, you're just going to be frustrated, right? 00:19:31.300 |
So all of these things, when the light breaks through, all of these things happen. 00:19:38.660 |
Even in scorched land, he said, you will be satisfied. 00:19:45.980 |
So in other words, our satisfaction is not going to come by circumstance. 00:19:51.100 |
By fixing this and adjusting that and changing that. 00:19:54.260 |
It's like, that's not where satisfaction comes. 00:19:56.240 |
Even in a dry land, when everything else is being dried up and dying, he said, you will 00:20:13.300 |
In other words, what was lost will be reestablished when the Lord shows up. 00:20:23.660 |
All of these things are what happens when true revival breaks out. 00:20:49.020 |
And all of these are same things, but basically getting right with God when God shows up. 00:20:55.620 |
But God is not going to show up when there's unrepentant sin. 00:21:00.100 |
God doesn't just show up where everybody is just kind of hiding their sin, you know, 00:21:08.100 |
So God shows up when people are ready to repent. 00:21:12.460 |
The only way that, again, justification causes us to have a, restore the relationship with 00:21:25.980 |
Sanctification is a constant process of recognizing sins internally, externally, sins of commission 00:21:33.780 |
When these things are being repented of, that's when revival breaks out. 00:21:40.260 |
And ultimately they will delight in the Lord and they will be fed. 00:21:44.340 |
Kind of remind you of Psalm chapter 1, right? 00:21:51.500 |
He blesses the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way 00:21:55.580 |
of sinners, seeking to seek the mockers, but it is delight in the law of the Lord. 00:22:01.860 |
He's like a tree planted by the streams of water. 00:22:04.580 |
And it basically describes this tree that's planted by the rivers of water and it is always 00:22:10.620 |
And as a result of always being fed, his leaf is always green. 00:22:29.180 |
And that's, that's what he's telling Israel to do. 00:22:32.740 |
You've drifted away from me and you're trying so hard with all these religious things that 00:22:37.180 |
somehow if you do more religious things that you can somehow bend God to bless you. 00:22:42.060 |
But God always desires to bless them, but he's not going to bless them when there's 00:22:49.540 |
So again, this is, all of this is a picture of revival. 00:22:56.980 |
You know, if you notice in chapter 58, verse 8 begins with promise of light. 00:23:09.020 |
And then verse 10, again, with the light breaking forth. 00:23:13.940 |
It's almost like verse 8 is talking about God's light breaking forth. 00:23:17.580 |
And then verse 10 says, when, when the light breaks forth and you're being revived and 00:23:23.660 |
your delight is in the Lord and you're being satisfied and you're being fed and it said 00:23:27.420 |
you will ultimately be a light in the darkness. 00:23:32.900 |
So if you're not in the light, you can't be the light. 00:23:45.720 |
You can't be a light in the world by having a lot of experience. 00:23:50.700 |
The only way that you can be in, you can be a light to the world is by being in the light, 00:24:07.660 |
Chapter 59, it begins, it says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot 00:24:15.880 |
Clearly he says, God is willing and he is able. 00:24:28.040 |
A lot of times we struggle with, is he willing? 00:24:31.520 |
Well, he says he's, he is willing and he is able. 00:24:35.760 |
He's the one who's constantly calling his people to come to him. 00:24:40.000 |
He's the one, he's the one who's pursuing us. 00:24:42.360 |
He's not like he's pursues us and then when he looks like we're going to pursue him, he 00:24:48.400 |
And sometimes we think that somehow that's the reason why we're frustrated. 00:24:52.560 |
Like he calls us and we try to go and then we can't find him. 00:24:57.560 |
Here it says it's not because he is not able. 00:25:01.840 |
It says because of our sins, that God's face is hidden from us. 00:25:19.000 |
What are five things that mark a rebellious person according to this text? 00:25:35.840 |
The reason why I highlighted this is, this is probably the reason behind all of this. 00:25:45.520 |
And he said the reason why God doesn't answer prayers is because your prayers are self-centered 00:25:51.080 |
Why, why would they have blood in their hands? 00:25:57.480 |
They're willing to kill to make money for their own profit. 00:26:11.880 |
And so if you look at the totality of what he's saying here, he's saying in every way 00:26:21.440 |
You know when the Bible says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and 00:26:24.240 |
strength like every part of who you are to love God. 00:26:27.140 |
So this is a description of a person who is thoroughly corrupt. 00:26:31.240 |
That is not just with his mind, his hands, his tongue, his feet, his thought, in every 00:26:44.800 |
So he calls Israel to repentance and he calls them to justice and righteousness. 00:26:56.120 |
And so if you seek justice and righteousness while there is injustice in you and unrighteousness 00:27:02.040 |
in you, he describes in verses 9 through 14 what seeking and pursuing righteousness while 00:27:07.920 |
there's injustice and unrighteousness in us, what the experience would be for that sinner. 00:27:12.880 |
He said they'll seek light but they're going to find darkness. 00:27:20.900 |
I hope that throughout the week you guys really saw it because I think there's a lot of deep 00:27:32.000 |
That even in the pursuit of righteousness when there's unrighteousness in you, the end 00:27:39.920 |
Again, you know, I encourage you guys to take some time to really meditate and think what 00:27:51.140 |
They desire brightness but there was constant gloom. 00:27:59.200 |
Gloom to me represents opposite of joy, right? 00:28:05.260 |
They're seeking, they're desiring joy but they're getting exactly the opposite. 00:28:13.000 |
Because they're blind, they're groping around in the dark, they can never know for sure. 00:28:17.140 |
You can read the Bible from morning till night and not understand the will of the Lord. 00:28:32.200 |
It's not simply by study, it's not just academics. 00:28:38.360 |
The will of God is not just something that you can know by studying and listening to 00:28:43.960 |
If there's unrepentant heart, you can hear the same sermon and not understand at all 00:28:50.400 |
He said that's why, again, an unrighteous person seeking righteousness, at the end, 00:28:57.280 |
It's like a blind man groping around trying to figure things out but he'll never figure 00:29:08.320 |
They will lose their vigor and be like dead men. 00:29:12.320 |
The very thing that's supposed to give them strength is sucking the life out of them. 00:29:17.680 |
And I'm sure every single one of us has experienced that to a certain degree. 00:29:23.640 |
That when you're passionate for God, you can come clean the church, serve the church, snacks, 00:29:31.400 |
you know, fellowship and every part of this gives you strength. 00:29:35.840 |
But for whatever the reason, when you're not walking right with God, the very same things 00:29:39.080 |
that would give you strength sucks the life out of you. 00:29:45.080 |
Serving other people, the idea of talking to other people sucks the life out of you. 00:30:02.560 |
You know that picture, it took me a while to figure out exactly what he was saying. 00:30:06.000 |
He's saying, you know, they roar like bears and they mourn like the doves. 00:30:15.120 |
They can fight fiercely like a bear and they can be gentle like a dove. 00:30:22.600 |
But in the end, by their own strength, it does nothing. 00:30:28.720 |
There's no power in the bear and there's no power in the dove. 00:30:32.320 |
So in the end, whether you are introverted or extroverted, whether you're a type A personality 00:30:36.640 |
or B or C or D, whatever personality that you may have, he says all of that stuff is 00:30:55.880 |
So one of the questions that I asked, why would someone who departs from evil make himself 00:31:12.160 |
What is that a picture of when they say that? 00:31:28.760 |
It's a description of just how corrupt Israel has become. 00:31:44.500 |
That the righteous are the ones being persecuted by the people of God. 00:31:52.560 |
That's how thoroughly Israel has drifted away from God. 00:31:56.400 |
I mean, you can see that in various periods of Israel's history. 00:31:59.160 |
You can see that in various periods of church history. 00:32:03.440 |
And you can kind of see it even in our generation. 00:32:05.720 |
When you, when a church begins to drift away from God, the one who stands up for righteousness, 00:32:17.340 |
And I think where that is the most prominent is in a very nominal Christian culture, which 00:32:26.080 |
It's not only Orange County, but my experience. 00:32:29.200 |
And again, this is not, you know, this is not specifically and because I'm a part of 00:32:34.080 |
Orange County Christianity myself, but you know, I've had opportunities to visit churches 00:32:39.160 |
from various places all in the United States. 00:32:43.000 |
And I can tell you, there's only two other places that I visited that is equally complacent 00:33:00.480 |
And the only other place that I saw, and I, this other place I didn't see up close. 00:33:06.560 |
Hawaii, Hawaii, just too laid back for, for anything. 00:33:12.840 |
And then the third most difficult place I would say is Southern California. 00:33:20.000 |
And when I say Southern California, I'm specifically talking about Orange County. 00:33:28.520 |
I got saved in LA and I, you know, what's it? 00:33:37.520 |
Anyway, this spiritual environment in LA is a little bit different. 00:33:48.240 |
And then if you are, it tends to kind of, because the environment is a little bit more 00:33:53.640 |
But Orange County is like, you're not, you're not like full on and you're not that bad either. 00:34:00.240 |
You're kind of right in the middle, you know? 00:34:02.920 |
And so nominal Christianity is a norm in Orange County. 00:34:10.040 |
I'm just telling you my opinion, my observation. 00:34:11.880 |
And I think one of the hardest places to be sober and passionate for God is Orange County. 00:34:17.920 |
You know, the Orange County has a reputation of being very, very conservative. 00:34:21.960 |
And we are surrounded by mega churches and almost maybe 50, 60, 70% of the people that 00:34:27.080 |
you may run into, you know, maybe going to church, even if it's not every week, just 00:34:37.680 |
To go to church in Orange County is very easy, right? 00:34:40.960 |
But to be passionate for God in Orange County is very, very difficult. 00:34:48.960 |
I think it's harder to go against nominal Christianity than non-Christians. 00:34:58.880 |
Because you're not being persecuted by non-Christian. 00:35:00.760 |
When you get persecuted by non-Christian, you almost feel like, you know, emboldened. 00:35:07.200 |
But when that comes in nominal Christianity, sometimes within the church, you know, that's 00:35:17.240 |
And again, I'm saying this because I'm a part of this myself. 00:35:20.960 |
So this is a place where we need to be more sober. 00:35:23.920 |
You need to be more sober here than you are in my opinion, than NorCal, right? 00:35:30.280 |
Because you kind of know where the lines are in NorCal. 00:35:32.920 |
You kind of know where the lines are in LA, kind of, right? 00:35:37.280 |
Orange County, it's very difficult to find the line. 00:35:40.720 |
Where is that line where God says you're right and you're wrong, right? 00:35:45.240 |
Where is that line between God comforting struggling sinners versus rebuking rebellious 00:35:58.400 |
It's very difficult to figure out who are the true prophets and who are not. 00:36:19.240 |
He's the Messiah to come, the one anointed, right? 00:36:23.080 |
The only answer to all of this is the Messiah himself. 00:36:26.040 |
There's only one Redeemer and everything that God's been doing was for this purpose. 00:36:33.580 |
And his coming describes him in verse 17 as a mighty warrior. 00:36:59.880 |
So if you see his first coming, you know, he didn't come as a mighty warrior. 00:37:04.440 |
He didn't come to avenge necessarily, but you see him at the end times in the book of 00:37:08.560 |
Revelation when he comes, this is exactly how he's described, how Jesus is described 00:37:18.080 |
Where his first coming, he comes to deal with sin, to give opportunity for sinners to repent. 00:37:24.840 |
But when that period of his grace is done, when he comes to second coming, he's not coming 00:37:33.000 |
What he did the first time was to come and introduce a way of salvation. 00:37:36.400 |
And those who are rejected salvation, he will come in full vengeance. 00:37:39.880 |
And that's how he's described in the book of Revelation.