The past is nailed to Calvary. The future is tied to the risen Christ.
Isaiah 2:3 “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD.”
Introduction
Last time, we visited Isaiah’s first recorded vision, when he uttered God’s condemnation of a rebellious nation. A people who had rejected their saviour, the one who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
God condemned them for abusing the sacrificial system and for oppressing the widows and the orphans, the vulnerable of society.
Then, in v18, we see God offering them a way to salvation again, not by continual sacrifice, but through faith.
This time we move into a prophecy of judgment "concerning Judah and Jerusalem". In Is 2:2-5 we have a Zion hymn of hope, looking forward to the day of the Lord. A hymn of hope which is dashed into fragments in v6 "you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East."
The World of Today.
V6 can be talking very much of the world of today, where the church has largely abandoned its people. The influence of Christ’s teaching is diminishing as we allow, even encourage, the teaching of foreign religions. We sing our songs proclaiming that we will not serve foreign gods, but our society still encourages others to do so. The result is that we have a growth in the Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Eastern and mystical worship in our society, and a confusion of belief. Even our church leaders will talk of the acceptance and incorporation of foreign worship into the worship of the One true God. How can this work, when He says in the Ten Commandments, which He gave to Moses and the Children of Israel (Ex 20: 3, 4) “You shall have no other gods before me.” “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”? We must take care not to dilute our worship, nor to contaminate it, with worship of foreign gods.
As Christians, we are living today as if there will be a tomorrow, and a series of tomorrows after that. We have rested on our laurels; do we really believe that Christ will return for his people? I think that our belief in Christ’s second coming has become an empty mantra, a set of words which give us comfort, but which have no meaning.
Should this surprise us? We are warned of false prophets (Luke 17:23), the promises of peace where there is no peace. Jer 6:13, 14 “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”
The Day of the Lord.
The day of the Lord will come, Jesus himself has promised it (Matt 26), the prophets foresee it, and the apostles affirm it.
Mal 4:1,2a ““Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.””
Joel 2:30, 31 “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”
We need to keep watch. The scriptures have warned us that there will be wars and rumours of wars (Matt 24:6-8) “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” There is strife throughout the world. Show me where there is not civil or military strife in this world of ours. Jenny and I were listening to the local, South West, news last night and were horrified that there were reports of three terrible killings one after the other.
Political parties in western civilisations use the threat of terror and fear as political weapons to gain power. We saw this in the recent American presidential election, where a central theme was the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism. We can see the same battle lines being drawn here in Britain for our forthcoming elections.
Our attention is being focused on the trials and problems of our daily lives. We are threatened with increasing interest rates; there will be higher, and uncontrollable, levels of inflation in the future. The retailers are so worried that they are already reducing their December, pre-Christmas, prices. We are warned that house prices could decline, and cause negative equity for our mortgage loans. There is an ever increasing personal debt. In Britain it has now exceeded one trillion pounds sterling.
And men and women are working hard in the offices, factories, schools, etc. But some will be taken, and some will be left behind (Matt 24:41). You may be sleeping in your bed, and some will be taken and some will be left behind. These are the words of Jesus, Matt 24:40-42 (read). We ignore them at our peril because a great and terrible day of the Lord is coming.
God will thrust his Holy Arm through the fabric of time and the history (1 Thess 4:16). He will tear up the pages of the annals of the Dominion of Darkness. Just as Christ broke the power of Satan through the Cross of Calvary, when he descended into the depths of hell and experienced the full depths of human degradation, misery and despair and then smashed down the gates of hell, so he will return to purge creation of the decay of sin. (Rom 8:22)
It will be a period of great pain, as the prophet Joel proclaimed (Joel 3:9, 10) “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, "I am strong!” Paul likens the pain of that time to that of a woman in childbirth, racking the whole of creation as sin is purged out.
Christ won the war on the Cross he defeated all the forces of darkness, but the evil one has not accepted defeat. He believes his own lies, he believes he can still win; this can never happen. His power has been smashed for eternity.
The Mountain of the Lord.
So it is that in the last days we can come with many people and say "come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord". (Isaiah 2:3)
God will judge (4) and we shall have to stand before him. The big question is, "in what frame of soul will we stand there?" I am sure that I will stand there in shame, for I will have read out loud at the full story of my life and I will be reminded of my own disobedience, my selfishness, my breaking the law of God. I will have to confess that I am guilty and that I will stand with all the other people throughout history, condemned as a sinner. For Paul reminds us that we all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)
What matters more though is the book in Jesus hands, the Lamb’s Book of Life. If our names are written there, we need have no fear because all our sins will be washed away. A couple of weeks ago Monty reminded us that "our past is nailed to Calvary". Yes, we will stand guilty before God, but we will also stand in white robes, washed in the Blood of the Lamb.
In the light of God all the truth will be seen, nothing can be hidden.
Do you know that you will stand before God on that day of judgement? It does not matter how great or small you may have been, every knee will bow before Him on that day.
Is it something to fear? It does not matter what you has happened or is happening to you in your life, know this one thing, if you have Jesus as your advocate you have the best advocate that all eternity has known. He will not just speak for you, on that day He will claim you as His own. It is not a claiming of some distant and unknown article or part of creation – He has walked where we have walked, He has suffered where we have suffered. When He walked the pathways of hell for us, He experienced all the degradation and filth of the human mind – He plumbed it to its depths. He claims us knowing full well what we are, in the very depths of our souls He knows, and He still wants us (Praise God!!), sinners that we are.
And here lies the great joy that we can know in our lives; one day we will know perfect light, perfect peace, perfect joy, and perfect love in the eternal presence of God. Nothing can take that away from us, absolutely nothing.
Job was stuck on his dung hill. His family had mainly been killed in tragedy. His wife was against him, his best friends could only tell him that he was in this situation because he was a terrible sinner and that God was punishing him. Friends can be that way.
Still Job could say (Job 19:23-27)
“Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock forever!
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes--I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!”
He had an absolute certainty, a confidence whilst sitting on his dung hill, whilst his sores were providing a food source for the local flies. “I know that my Redeemer lives”, “in my flesh I will see God”
These words have been a source of great comfort and strength to me in the past, in times of problems and difficulty – when all the world seems to be falling down around me, nothing seems to be going right, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another.”
Do you have that same confidence? Do you know that on that last day, that day of judgement, your Redeemer lives, that you will see Him with your own eyes? You can know it, right now. All it takes is for you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and He will stand there with you and for you.
I know I will be standing there when the Roll of God’s children is called. I know that many others of us here will also be standing there. Will you stand alongside us and know the peace, the joy, the love which can only be experienced in the eternal presence of God?
Conclusion.
Yes, our past is nailed to Calvary, but our future is tied to the risen Christ. The risen Christ who is going to return for us.
Christ will come again, but will you be ready, or will you have been diverted into the concerns of this world? This does not mean that we become so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use.
There will be a day of judgement; will you be ready for it?
“In what frame of soul will we stand there?”
Will Jesus be standing with you, claiming you as His own?
When the roll is called up yonder, will you be there?
Come to Jesus and claim Him as your own.
