“Rend the Heavens!” – FBC Morning Light (7/29/2024)

Well a good Monday morning to you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to get with God's people yesterday and worship together, fellowship with one another. You know there's a great deal of encouragement that comes to God's people just by gathering together and singing together and hearing the Word together and so forth.

So I hope you were encouraged in that way yesterday. Well today in our Bible reading we're in the book of Isaiah and reading chapters 63 through 66. So we're finishing up the book of Isaiah today and there is at the beginning of chapter 64 I think an expression of longing that is probably on your heart if you are a follower of Jesus.

Think about our culture in which we live and about how you know biblical Christianity and you know what God has to say about things in the Bible is marginalized. It's completely, the effort is to completely push it out of any kind of public discussion.

Say for example some of these big moral issues like the whole gender dysphoria thing and the effort to put children and young people through gender transformation surgery and practices and all the rest that kind of stuff.

And just to deal with the young person who you know a young boy who says I feel like a girl or girl who says I feel like a boy. To deal with that young person in a way that takes them to the scriptures and says well look regardless of how you feel let's look at what the Bible has to say about who you are about your identity.

That approach is totally rejected in the culture. Now within the church oh yeah you would you say whatever you want to within the four walls of your church but that's not it's not even an accepted acceptable approach a potential acceptable approach.

There are for example Christian foster parents who have been in the foster care system for years who in recent months have been denied their license to provide foster care simply because they could not affirm a child who came into their home and identified as the gender that they're not.

They couldn't couldn't do it. All right so so that's just one example of multitudes that we could share with how you know Christianity is marginalized it's pushed out of the the discussion in the marketplace.

And how does that how does that make you feel? Well I think Isaiah this first couple of verses of chapter 64 expresses exactly the longing that we have doesn't it? Oh that you would rend the heavens that you would rend the heavens that you would come down that the mountains might shake at your presence as fire burns brushwood as fire causes water to boil to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble at your presence.

Haven't you ever felt that way with all of this anti-christian anti-biblical you know rhetoric and sentiment haven't you felt like oh Lord would would that you rend the heavens and come down and make your presence known unmistakably known in this world.

Well Isaiah longed for this in here in chapter 64 thousand twenty five twenty six hundred years ago and that request was answered in the coming of Jesus because remember at Jesus baptism what happened what happened the heavens opened the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice came from heaven that said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pre in whom I'm well pleased that that event shook the world at that time and it became very evident to any who would hear him that this one is not just another man and it's going to happen again remember what the Bible says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 it's a great promise that this that the Apostle Paul gives to the church at Thessalonica when they're burdened about loved ones who've passed away and concerned that they are gonna miss the Lord's coming but verse 16 says the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first there's going to be a heaven-rending coming down that will rattle and shake the entire world and so yes it is good for us to long for this because the day is coming when it will happen so let's continue the prayer of Isaiah oh that you would rend the heavens and come down and so our Father in our God this would be the longing of our heart that Jesus would come again that the heavens would be open that he would descend and all the earth would know without any question or doubt that Jesus is the Lord we pray this in Jesus name Amen all right listen have a good rest your Monday hope your week gets off to a great start.

God bless.