What Are You Telling Us, Lord?
“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earih…In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them… Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servant’s sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name. Is. 63.3-6,9,10 and 16-19
What is God saying to us in this chapter? Why did the professed people of God crucify the Lord Jesus? Because their profession didn’t match their confession. They merely professed their religion outwardly in a political way while their confession of what they were living lagged far behind what they should have been.
Does it sound familiar? That is us, Brothers and Sisters. We all have hypocritical elements about ourselves that if not submitted to Christ will prove our ruin. We would end up crucifying Christ just like they did, wouldn’t we? But we have a second chance through recognizing the cross of Calvary in our lives. We can listen to what God is telling us today so we can have the insight and strength to overcome sin tomorrow.
But let’s not neglect the present moment because that is all that we have in this life.
“Many shall be purified and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Daniel 12:10.
You see, God’s people have always had to be an attuned and ready people. We must listen to His voice everyday to avoid falling and doing what the Israelites did in rejecting the very means of our salvation.
We should really ask this question each and every day, shouldn’t we? What are you telling us, especially in times of distress or loss?
Here in Isaiah 63 there is a beautiful prophecy of Christ’s first coming and a foreshadowing of His Second Coming. Do you notice the response of His professed people in this passage? Are they thankful? Or obedient?
No, how about the state of decency and morality in professed Christian countries like America, Canada and Australia? I was reading an editorial in the newspaper the other day that asked the question: “What is the response of the churches to the bombings in Bali?” This editorial encouraged a political response to the bombings and attacks and named the churches as a likely place to stir up that spirit of vengeance. Let me ask you: can we safely take vengeance into our own hands?
Let’s focus on vs. 16 – do you notice whom this verse is talking about? There were two sons of Abraham, but here Abraham is said not to know the true people of God – why? Neither Ishmael nor Isaac went on to be the people of God for they are only a spiritual people today, and not according to the flesh. Jesus said to the Jews of His time that if they were truly the sons of Abraham then they would do the works of Abraham. In Galatians 3:26-29 it is said that if we are Christ’s then we are inheritors of all the promises made to Abraham. As soon as we are born as His children, then there is born in our hearts the desire to see others share in this same joy-
This is our message today – Jesus is coming back, but this time He has on the garments of vengeance.
When Jesus first came He was clothed with humility in His humanity. But now, the days of wrath are beginning when the only covert we will find from the tempest is in and through Him.
I was recently visiting with some brethren whose unconverted families are very close to them. And these family members were talking about how it was very unfair for Australia to be punished because of America’s proposed war with Iraq. Their assumption was that the bombing in Bali was because of Australia’s backing of George Bush to fight against Iraq.
Is this wise? Is it even right?
I mean, we can’t say for sure who has done this horrible deed yet many are already judging the motives of those who did it to try and avoid further danger for themselves and their families. First and foremost: what should be our response to this horrible deed? Fear? Desire for revenge? Or to pray for the Lord to comfort with His love and presence those who have lost their friends or family members in this attack?
And that the survivors may be led not to revenge themselves in their bitterness but to find forgiveness and freedom through Christ.
Let’s ask the question here: Should we really be focused on political solutions or concepts to avoid danger for ourselves or our families? What is the only thing that God’s people have to fear? “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt. 10: 26-31
Has God ever used the unrighteous in the Bible to punish His professed people?
Oh yes, many times. We think of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans and many others. While I was reading the news the other day after the attacks in Bali, I noticed that the article said that these 4 new attacks around the world had come a year, a month and a day after the attacks in America last year.
Did you notice that?
Did you also know that the Bible talks about a time prophecy of a year, a month, a day and it adds an hour? And it also has to do with the power of the Muslims? “And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” Rev. 9:15
Josiah Litch, one of the leading Adven-tist expositors of prophecy made an incredible prediction in the year 1838 that sometime in the month of August,
1840 the Ottoman Empire would lose its power. Of course, the news reporters of the time scoffed at that idea that one of the leading Empires of the time could come to its end. “No,” an impossibility,” they said. And then, a few days before August llth of 1840, Josiah Litch said that he thought they would come to the end of their power on that very day – the llth of August, to make the prophecy true. You see, the early Adventist people were just confirming what God’s church had always proclaimed, that a day in Bible prophecy equals a year in our actual, calendar time, and that we can trace definitely the past fulfillment’s of Bible prophecy through history.
Revelation 9 had been referred to from quite ancient times by Bible expositors as pertaining to the Muslim, or Saracen warriors of the Ottoman Empire. It’s quite descriptive about the power of the Saracen hordes and how they fought so effectively from horseback. Especially during the Protestant Reformation they were used of the Lord to keep the Catholic armies busy. The armies of Emperor Charles were so busy fighting the Saracens that they couldn’t fight against the Reformers.
Maybe we could mention a parallel of some kind in our time for God’s people have the world to warn today before the national Sunday law comes into effect. Today is our opportunity to overcome the armies of Satan and sin and to show how they work on you and I. We know that the very work that the church has failed to do in the time of peace and prosperity she will have to do in the most forbidding circumstances.
So if the world’s attention is on the extremist Muslims as the enemy right now, then they won’t be looking at God’s people as the enemy. Is that what you are telling us, Lord?
To get ready, get ready, get ready? To warn everyone we can that Jesus is coming soon?
“But as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming of Christ. As men resist the Spirit of God, His Spirit will be less and less manifested in the Earth. It will be a fearful time when the angels fold their wings and cease their watchcare over those who have resisted the Spirit of God. It will then be too late for wrongs to be righted. There will be no more prayers to prevail in behalf of the rejecters of light. The cities around us are filled with wickedness, and after the message of warning has been given to them no more words of peace will be given. Christ is coming, and God will laugh when their fear cometh. But while probation continues, Christ is ever willing to help us to resist evil But oh, the iniquity that is in the world! It is high time we put on the whole armor, lest we drift down the current and be swallowed up with the besom of destruction. A record is kept of how we treat the Spirit of God. Our characters are recorded in the books of heaven, as are our faces on photo-plates here. So our character photos are in heaven, and by these records we shall be judged. May God help each one of us to do his whole duty and get ready for what is before us, is my prayer.” (“The Ladder to Heaven,” Sermon at Nimes, France, Oct. 20, 1886)
This parallel about the day, month and year would only be an interesting footnote to history if it wasn’t for this: Do you think the Muslims, or whoever did this have insight about prophecy so they knew what they were doing bringing these attacks? No, of course not, they don’t even believe in the Bible, if they did, they wouldn’t have done these attacks in the first place. So why did God allow them to come now? To emphasize the role that you and I have to play in bringing out Bible prophecy. So that the people can listen to God’s voice and understand what He is saying in all of this! It’s only those who have the foundation of this message right and build upon it in their own confession that will be able to see and understand.
Yes, the threat of terrorist violence is coming closer to us here in Australia, but isn’t that something that God’s people in ancient times took for granted?
I mean, in the time of Jesus there was constant threat from wild beasts or robbers, the occupying army of Rome, or even your own countrymen, especially if you happened to be a Christian. It is getting to the time that we must stand for the faith courageously, no matter what dangers present themselves. “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Daniel 11:32
And who must we warn, other than the professing people of God, other Christians? But the vast majority of them are given to idolatry like drunkenness and sensuality just like those young people in Bali.
Here is a testimony that can show us what God was saying to His people in the time of Sister White in relation to their duty: “The barren fields in America have been presented to me. In every city in Michigan there should be a monument erected for God. You have been long in the truth. Had you carried the work forward in the lines in which God intended you to, had you done medical missionary work, trying to heal soul and body, you would have seen hundreds and thousands coming into the truth. But this will not be seen while you crowd into Battle Creek, leaving unworked the places which should have the truth. The Lord has said to his people, ‘Get out of Battle Creek.
Work for souls ready to perish,’ and they should get out of Battle Creek. Go to places where the people have not heard the truth, and live before them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do among them practical missionary work. Thus many souls will be brought to a knowledge of the truth. “The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials” pg. 1750
Isn’t it a solemn thought that some of the very ones that we warn today, may not live to see tomorrow? But that is the very work to which we committed ourselves in this message. And we are not to say: “Stay thy hand, O Lord, fp; when His judgments are in the land, then it is that the inhabitants of the world will wake to righteousness.
Does anyone upon the face of the earth have this insight into the future and how to prepare for Christ’s Second Coming? No, only God’s people do. It’s no longer the physical sons of Abraham, nor even those who profess to be His children, but those who show with their lives that they are His children.
Isn’t it about time that we learn to be more effective missionaries? And what must we include in our presentation of the message if we would be effective missionaries in this time of getting ready for our Lord’s return?
Not in vengeance, but in prayer and work for the lost can we find and give healing. Think of all those who are not listening to the Lord Jesus, nor trusting Him, they cannot be happy nor fulfilled without Him, they need the truth. May the Lord help us to hear what He is saying to us today. If we hold on to any sin that will effectually block His voice out of our ears, and we won’t be able to hear. But as we strive to be the most blessing to those around us, we will overcome the world, flesh and devil. This is what He is telling us today, isn’t it? That the only thing that we have to fear is that we will forget the way that the Lord has led us in the past and our teaching in our past history. Once the extremist Muslims are neutralized then you and I that are faithful to this message will be perceived as the enemy. May the Lord grant us grace to listen to His voice today, that we can prove faithful tomorrow.
Amen.