Provoking Judgement or Mercy

Transcription

1 GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, October 8, 2017; Pentecost XVIII Lectionary / Selected: Psalm 80:7-19; Isaiah 5; Philippians 3:1-14; Matthew 21:33-46 (NLT) Sermon Hymn: Judge Eternal, Throned in Splendor (LBW 418) Anthem: Provoking Judgement or Mercy A preacher was waxing eloquent as he envisioned the Day of Judgement: Lightning will flash, thunder will boom, rivers will overflow Fire will flame from the heavens The earth will quake violently darkness will fall upon the entire earth! A small boy s voice lifted from the congregation as he questioned his father, Dad, do you think they ll let school out early that day? I don t think that boy quite grasped the gravity of the Day of Judgement. But neither do I think he s alone in thinking that way. I fear that many people, maybe most people, don t truly fear the Day of Judgement. It seems that if people are afraid of anything at all, it s a natural disaster, or perhaps an attack from a rogue insane nation, like North Korea. And people who actually think ahead prepare themselves to survive future calamities. People of modest means build off-the-grid homesteads in far-off remote places. The wealthy build luxurious underground bunkers that supposedly can withstand direct hits from nuclear missiles, or something near that. What people don t grasp, like that schoolboy, is that God s judgement, when it comes will comprise both natural and supernatural disasters, though amped up to the nth degree, worse than ever previously experienced or even imagined. If we thought Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were unusually

2 catastrophic, let me tell you, we ve not seen anything yet that can compare to God s future judgement. But we don t often hear about God s judgement. For one reason, the secular liberal media simply doesn t believe in it. For most of them, there is no God. The Bible says that that is the very definition of foolishness. It so declares it in Psalm 14:1, and in case someone might miss that, it s repeated verbatim again in Psalm 53:1: Only fools say in their hearts, There is no God. They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! So if they don t believe in any god, let alone the One and Only Living God, then why do we even listen to them? Why do they even have a national audience? Obviously, too many people are too foolish to know the difference, and even too many Christians give them too much trust without bothering to think about what s really being said and the agenda being advanced. For example, are you a member of AARP? It s offers nice discounts, but it also advances a decidedly liberal agenda with your membership fees. If you re a senior, you should join an alternative group. But also, judgement is just simply not a popular or pleasant topic. Yet the Bible speaks at great length about God s judgement. Indeed our Lord Jesus spoke way more about judgement than He did about salvation! And today s Gospel lesson was one of those times. He explicitly lays out the unimpeachable, irrefutable logic of the absolute necessity for God to judge. Why, even the wicked Pharisees and scribes listening to Him that day!2

3 grudgingly had to agree with His parable. But when they realized that the vineyard farmers were a metaphor for them, why, they were incensed. I ve no doubt that had the crowds been elsewhere that day, some of them would have rushed at Lord Jesus with knives, stones and any other deadly weapons they could lay their hands on and attempted to viciously murder Him, just as the wicked farmers in the parable had done to the landowner s son. Which would have prematurely proved His point! Despite the Bible talking about God s judgement so much, it s rarely heard about even in most churches! Nobody really wants to hear about it. Even though God s judgement brings Him glory. Isaiah 5:16 and elsewhere plainly states: But the Lord of Heaven s Armies will be exalted by His justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by His righteousness. As if anything about God was not glorious beyond imagining. Even what we should fear most of God is also as glorious as His love. In a sense, His love and His justice are two sides of the same coin. There truly can t be one without the other. Interesting to recall is our own American history. The First Great Awakening revival spread largely due to Rev. Jonathan Edwards seminal sermon, the famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. People then were quite Biblically literate, unlike today, knowing that if God were to become angry with them, His judgement would be most fearful, but there was a way out Lord Jesus. But in our day, the one name that is simply anathema to!3

4 secular liberals running the media is exactly His name, Jesus. Why, in some places, liberals will tolerantly allow people to pray, but only as long as no one mentions that name. The name of Jesus is simply too dangerous to be heard in public. Why, what unspeakable damage could be done to poor, helpless, innocent children if they were to be exposed to that name?! Oh, dear! So in our day, the liberals have successfully removed the Bible both from public education and acceptable society, such that people not only know little to nothing about God s judgement, but even less about how to avoid it. The American lifestyle for the liberal and ignorant masses, and for most of the world, has been reduced to chasing after worldly things that the Apostle Paul calls worthless and garbage in Philippians 3:7-8. Tom Whittaker, a mountaineer, was quoted in Time magazine saying, One of the things that really attracts me about mountaineering is its total pointlessness. So I ve dedicated my life to it. So, climbing every stunning mountain peak in the world is worth devoting one s life to? What is its worth? Ultimately? To other people? Does doing it help anybody? Does it help make anybody else s life better? And this from someone really famous. 60 Minutes reported: At age twenty-eight Tom Brady has already won three Super Bowls and is ranked as one of the best quarterbacks ever. But it isn t enough. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there s something greater out there for me? he asked in a 2005 interview. I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, Hey!4

5 man, this is what is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it s got to be more than this. I mean this isn t, this can t be, what it s all cracked up to be. We who know the Lord, know oh so well that this, this world, all its stuff, fashions, luxuries, fame, glory, pleasantries, loves, all of it is ultimately worthless, actually less than worthless because all of it interferes and hinders people from knowing what s really worth-ful, namely Lord Jesus. Anne Graham Lotz, in her National Day of Prayer prayer, speaks of provoking God s judgement. Exactly what liberal, secular America is doing. We re just asking for it. Just like Israel and Judah in Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5. Father God said in Isaiah 5:7: The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven s Armies. The people of Judah are His pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead He found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead He heard cries of violence. And here we are. Christian America, grafted into the great tree of God s people, in His vineyard. For decades we produced some sweet grapes. Never enough for we never stopped sinning. But now, our bitter grapes are so numerous that the sweet ones can hardly be found. And then what? What does the Lord say? Isaiah 5:11-12 states: What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning looking for a drink of alcohol and spend long evenings drinking wine to make themselves flaming drunk. They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties lyre and harp, tambourine and flute but they never think about the Lord!5

6 or notice what He is doing. Again in 5:18-23: What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! They even mock God and say, Hurry up and do something! We want to see what You can do. Let the Holy One of Israel carry out His plan, for we want to know what it is. What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine and boast about all the alcohol they can hold. They take bribes to let the wicked go free, and they punish the innocent. Sound like anybody you know? Their glamorous photos are plastered on electronic screens everywhere. But their lives are nothing but beautiful soap bubbles with only air inside. They pop, and it s as if they were never there at all. So why do we listen to them? Why don t we, the people who know better, live lives provoking God for mercy? Spend more quality time in prayer, speaking and listening to God speak to us. He will dispense judgement when the people no longer desire Him even enough to ask for mercy. We re the ones who know Him, and know to beg Him in prayer to have mercy on us. Just like the prophetic worship leader Asaph repeated over and over in Psalm 80: Turn us again to Yourself, O Lord God of Heaven s Armies. Make Your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.!!6