The Reach of Judgment

Please go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word. On that day, this is verse 21,

Isaiah 24, 21. On that day, the Lord will punish the host of heaven, and heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth.

They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit. They will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.

Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

Word. We thank you for these statements regarding your judgment, and what a comfort they are for those who are found in Jesus Christ.

I pray that you would help us to contemplate this passage, to understand it, and I pray that you would use your words to reach our hearts and transform them.

In Jesus' name, amen. So looking at this passage, this judgment, and how far it reaches, we should see comfort for those who find themselves hidden in Christ, and we should see a great warning for those who would trust in themselves and find self -sufficiency, so they do not think that they need anything or anyone, but they will be judged on that great day.

So this begins by talking about on that day. So simply answering the question, what is on that day?

Think about some of the things we've seen before. A lot of these passages sound like they're talking about the very final end.

For example, terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, oh habitants of the earth. But as we saw last week,

Jeremiah applied these things to things that were happening in his own time, and as these passages summarize all those oracles that came before, they speak of things that were contemporary with the prophets, things that would happen at Jesus' first coming, things that would happen at his second coming.

And so there's a mix of several things going on here, but one question we could ask is, well, what does he mean specifically by on that day?

Because there does seem to be a particular time in mind. Well, this is the first time we've encountered it in this section of Isaiah, and chapters 24 through 27 form a whole section by themselves.

And that phrase, on that day or in that day, is used several times throughout. And we could look at each one.

Each one is a little cryptic in its own regard, but I think the final one might be the most valuable to look at.

So if you look at the very end of chapter 27, Isaiah says, It's talking of a gathering of God's people, so that they come and they worship together at Jerusalem.

And it uses much of the same imagery that we've seen before in Isaiah. Those of Assyria and Egypt being gathered together.

Now you heard a lot of this actually referenced in the earlier sermon. The idea of people being gathered together from all over the earth into Zion.

And we even saw Isaiah 2. Isaiah 2, where it talks about people gathering to come and worship the

Lord at Zion. And this is not referring to some distant future that hasn't yet happened.

This is referring to what has been already accomplished in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As it says in Hebrews 12,

The Lord has already provided unity. He has already brought a people together.

Now that might not be fully manifest until the final day, until Jesus Christ returns.

But it has already been accomplished now. And so I would put forward to you when he says on that day, he's talking about what was accomplished at Christ's first coming, but then is more fully made manifest at his second coming.

So I do believe he has both in mind when he says on that day, but primarily it is something accomplished at Christ's first coming.

So a lot of people read Isaiah. They read a lot of books of the Bible as talking about something far off that hasn't happened yet and has limited applicability to themselves.

This passage applies to you. It's speaking of something that you live in its wake, and you are headed to what it is talking about.

This passage applies to you. It says,

Now what are the hosts of heaven? Some have supposed because later on it speaks of the moon being confounded and the sun ashamed, that the hosts of heaven here are talking about the planets and the stars.

But why would the Lord judge them in the same way that he would judge the kings?

When it speaks of the kings of the earth on the earth, it's not speaking metaphorically. So when it speaks of the host of heaven, it seems to be speaking of angelic powers.

This is talking about the Lord judging angelic powers in heaven.

Now the word host literally means army. It's talking about the army, the vast quantity of spirits that exist in the heavens.

Now in the Bible, Bible calls God the Lord of hosts often because he commands an army of angels.

And if you've ever read A Mighty Fortress, and if you wonder what Lord Shavuot means, that is referring to God being the

Lord of hosts. That's the Hebrew word there for hosts. It's the word used here.

God is the Lord of hosts. Now this is not talking about his holy angels. Rather, it's talking about those fallen powers, those evil and wicked beings, demons.

So God will judge them. And then it says, and the kings of the earth on the earth, he will judge the high powers as well.

Doesn't matter whether they are spirits or whether they are men. Having said that this judgment is universal,

Isaiah now focuses in particularly on those who seem the most high, the most untouchable, and he affirms that yes, even those, even the kings, even the spirits that seem so untouchable, even they will be touched by the judgment of the

Lord. And so if you have found yourself to be perplexed and confounded by all that the powers of this world seem to get away with, all the different things that rulers, all the evil things that they do, then rest assured judgment is coming.

This is not something that they will be able to get away with forever. The same is true even for spirits.

Now maybe because spirits are not visible, you don't think that often of them, you don't have any sort of indignation towards spirits.

But if you imagine that they were visible and you would watch the news and the news would report not just on what different rulers are doing that you find distasteful or unjust, but it was reporting on what different spirits were doing and all the evil they were creating in the world, maybe your conscience would be more pricked about how evil they are, about how much damage they are doing in the world.

Maybe you would have a great indignation not only towards rulers, but also towards demons who are unjust, who are evil, who are spreading wickedness in the world that God created.

You can rest assured that judgment will come. Now, speaking of powers, it's very tempting to think that if you have relatively little power, if you have relatively little power, you are in the clear.

But as this passage has said, this judgment is universal. And so Isaiah is just focusing on those who are the most untouchable.

As you see what Jesus says in the Gospels, especially Matthew 5 when he's giving the

Beatitudes, and he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. You know, what are these different accolades referring to?

There is no amount of physical poverty that will save a person. There is no simply lack of power that will save a person.

Rather, it is a person acknowledging that they have nothing before the Lord. It is a person acknowledging that they have no power before the

Lord, no standing apart from his grace, apart from something that he might give to them.

So this is not something that, you know, it's very tempting. Many Christians go to the

Bible and use various proof texts to make claims that everyone who has power is evil because the

Bible has this loose association between those who are in power and those who are evil, right?

And everyone who is poor and lacks power, they are all good. Don't buy that lie.

It is rather the one who sees himself as being self -sufficient that God is an enemy of.

And it is the one who sees himself as having nothing who comes to God recognizing that he has nothing.

Though he might be relatively wealthy, though he might be relatively powerful in the world, the one who recognizes that in God's eyes he has nothing and comes to him with empty hands, that is the one who is truly poor, who is truly weak that God will welcome into his kingdom.

That is the one who will be spared on the day of judgment because as he comes with empty hands, that person appeals to Christ, to Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness of all who come to God and trust in him.

Now it continues on and it says what will be accomplished on that day.

They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit and they will be shut up in prison.

Now this is, you know, Isaiah is full of cryptic passages, but this is certainly one of the more cryptic ones.

However, we have enough passages in the Bible that talk about this that I think that if we look through a few of them, it might become clear what the

Bible is talking about. So let me just, I might be going through verses too fast for you to be able to flip through, but if you just listen to some of these.

Consider what Jesus said when the gospel first began being proclaimed by his disciples. In Luke 10, 17 it says,

The 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

So through the proclamation of the gospel, Jesus Christ saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

And we see in Revelation 20, this is spoken of in Revelation.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.

And a thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. Here you have a picture of Satan being thrown into a pit and he is being cast out of heaven.

It's the same scene that's described here, and it's the same scene that we had seen earlier in Isaiah 14.

If you remember earlier in Isaiah 14, the Bible, speaking of the king of Babylon, speaking of the kings of the earth being thrown into the pit, but alluding also to the high demonic powers of the heavens being thrown into the pit.

And what was he called? What was the king called? Do you remember? He was called Lucifer. Does anybody remember what

Lucifer means? I'm really curious if anyone remembers. Yeah, right, right. It's speaking particularly of Venus.

So as you look at this passage in Isaiah that's talking about these hosts of heaven, these demonic powers, and then making a relationship to them, speaking of the sun and the moon being ashamed, there is this analogy that's going on here that's confirming it.

These are talking about the same thing. These are talking about that locking up of Satan and taking away his power so that he may not deceive the nations and his demons along with him.

Now, if we continue looking through some of these passages, there's also

Jude 1 .6. Jude 1 .6 says, And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Speaking of angels and chains, in gloomy darkness until that day. In 1

Peter 19 you have, In which he went and proclaimed to, excuse me, let me back up to 18.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

Speaking of his resurrection, I believe, especially if you look at 1 Corinthians 15 and what it talks about, the spiritual body being glorified in the resurrection.

In which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when

God's patience waited in the days of Noah. You see, you have in all these different passages statements about, you have in all these different passages statements about the demonic forces being imprisoned, being chained so that they do not have the same power that they once had prior to the proclamation of the gospel.

This is, this is a great assurance for believers. As they come and they wonder, you know, these trials that I go under, the persecutions that the church faces, will the enemy win?

Will the enemy win? The enemy will not win. The enemy is chained. The enemy only has limited capacity.

You know, if you've ever seen a dog on a leash, you know the dog can do a lot. He can sound ferocious, but there's a limit to what he can do while he's on that leash.

If you've ever tried, you know, playing a game with your hands tied or something like that, you'll know that you can get some things done but if someone else who's controlling the game, you know, pushes you over or anything like that, you really can't accomplish a whole lot.

Satan has been chained. The nations, he does not have the power to deceive the nations any longer.

There is a great comfort in knowing that God will accomplish this judgment because he has already chained the enemy.

And there's also one more passage

I would have you consider, and you can actually turn to this one, 2 Peter 2. In 2 Peter 2, it not only speaks of angels being imprisoned, these demonic spirits being imprisoned, but it explains what the application is for us, what the application is for the believer.

2 Peter 2, 4. Excuse me, 2 Peter 2, 4.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved

Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, if he rescued righteous

Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

We live in a world that's full of unrighteousness. It's full of unrighteous powers.

It's full of those who persecute Christians who go after the lust of the flesh and mock

God's church, and it's easy to be discouraged by these things. It's easy to wilt under pressure and to even be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ when you have all these presences all around, whether they be high people, low people, or even demonic forces at work.

But we can be assured, as it says in 2 Peter, that if God has put them in chains, then we can be assured that on the final day that he will keep them in those chains until that judgment on the final day.

And so it says, they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days, they will be punished.

On that final day, they will be punished. You know, as we proclaim the gospel as a church, as we share

God's word with the world, as we fight temptation, all these different things that require some measure of assurance that there will be success in this battle, some measure of assurance that Christ will see us through.

One of the things that God has given us is insight into the spiritual realm and what is going on in the heavenly places, that God has cast demonic forces into a pit.

He has chained them so that their forces are limited. And we can take that, and we can hold onto that promise, knowing that this ensures that the mission that God has given the church, that the church will be successful in it.

And this is something that we can hang onto, especially in the hardest trials, when it feels like the enemy has all the power, when it feels like the enemy is unchained.

When we hear that dog growling, we can know that that dog is indeed chained. His power is limited, and God has all the power.

He has given all power over to Christ, and Christ is ruling. It says that the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed.

Literally, the way this is said in Hebrew is the white one will be confounded and the hot one ashamed.

Describing these heavenly bodies by their qualities. The whiteness of the moon will be made so that it's not white, because it will seem like nothing in the glory of the

Lord. The same thing with the sun. The heat of the sun, the brightness of the sun will seem like nothing in the glory of the

Lord. We see that used several times throughout Scripture. I think the one most of us will be familiar with is at the very end of Revelation, where it says there's no sun or moon because the lamb is its lamp.

There is a brightness to the glory of God that will make even the sun ashamed and the moon ashamed, so why should we be ashamed?

Why should we be ashamed if we have the glory of the Lord on our side?

And this is not something that, yes, it will become more fully manifest, it will become fully manifest on that last day, but this is not something that is not true already now.

It is true already now. It is something that has been accomplished by what Jesus Christ has done.

It is already the case that He has made Himself glorious to the world and making Himself ever glorious to the world through His people.

He is bringing glory to Himself through the church. You know, one of the things, as we've been going through Ephesians, I've been trying to study ahead a little, and one of the things that struck me is a passage in Ephesians 3 where it's talking about the implications of a lot of the, of a lot of the stuff you've heard preached this morning and last week about unity between Jews and Gentiles and what

God is accomplishing through that. And you know, many of you may be familiar with the passage later on in Ephesians 6 -12 where it talks about wrestling not with flesh and blood but with the rulers and authorities, and it talks about the spiritual battle that's going on.

Well, something that it says in the middle. In Ephesians 3 -10, let me go ahead and start at verse 8.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Who are the rulers and authorities? They include at least those rulers and authorities of chapter 6.

They include at least the demonic forces that have now been enchained.

That gospel, the unity of the church, the building up of the church is something that is proclaiming

God's wisdom not just to the world. It's not just that the world sees what's going on and sees this wisdom of God.

But even the powers of the air, even the powers of the air are seeing the glory of God and what is being accomplished in the church.

And God has accomplished much. He has provided a wonderful salvation. He has united a people for himself, a people that are redeemed people who have no hope outside of him.

And though they be diverse and otherwise, there would be nothing to unify him, then he has unified them in himself.

And this is the assurance that we have that the church will prevail is that God intends to glorify himself through the church.

And this is the assurance that you can have as an individual too because God intends to glorify himself even through the individual follower of Christ that the world, the demonic forces will all see

God's glory shining hot through us. So do not despair.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this assurance that you have given us insight into what is occurring in the heavenly realms.

God, I pray that as you give us eyes of faith to see these things and recognize these truths that you've given us, that we would have assurance, that we would understand the limitations of evil spirits, that we would understand the limitations of kings and powers, that as Christ reigns, they have been limited, and that as the church goes about its mission, that it is guaranteed success.

And Lord, I pray that you would fill us with a great confidence and a zeal that would enable us to endure every trial that you have laid out for us.