The Context of Judgment

Please go ahead and turn your Bibles to Isaiah 24, where we'll be continuing there. Isaiah 24, we'll be looking at verses 14 through 16 today.

Speaking of God's great salvation in light of an even greater, as far as scope and numbers go, judgment, we have in this passage in Isaiah 24 through 27, what's often known as the

Little Apocalypse, as I've said before, it summarizes all those oracles against the nations that go before it.

It takes those oracles and it gives a summary of what God is going to do in all the earth. And as we have seen judgment after judgment after judgment, one of the questions that's to be answered, why so much judgment?

We'll see that today. Please go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word. Verse 14.

Dear Heavenly Father, your word is precious. I pray as we come to it today that we would come with open hearts, that we would come with opened eyes, that you would give us opened eyes by your

Spirit, and we would see everything that you have here for us. Lord, I pray that we would understand your purposes and judgment.

This would not be something that we are ashamed of or shy away from, but something that we recognize and understand how it is truly for good.

In Jesus' name, amen. So, as I said, there have been many passages of judgment leading up to this, and we must answer the question, why so much judgment?

Why is there so much judgment? You know, in a lot of ways, growing up, especially in the kind of churches

I went to, I felt like oftentimes what was being preached was, you know, the 40 greatest hits, that you've got all these passages that people really like.

And once I started reading the whole Bible for myself, realizing just how much there was of a different emphasis, so much judgment.

Not that the whole scriptures aren't full of the gospel, aren't full of the good news. In fact, this passage here has much good news, but the good news is set in a context of much, much judgment.

You know, it is the great backdrop on which God's gospel stands glorious.

You know, I feel like I use this analogy all the time, but it is that black velvet on which you place the diamond to make the diamond glorious.

It is something where it is great, it is wide and vast for this purpose of making the gospel all the more glorious.

And the more we shine away from God's justice and his judgment, and the more we're unwilling to recognize these truths that God has given us, the less we will appreciate what

Christ has done in the gospel. And so I'd just like to emphasize that today, that it is important for us to recognize just how great

God's judgment is, in order that we can truly appreciate how great his gospel is.

So beginning in verse 14, we have this statement, of glory to the righteous one.

These are people praising the Lord for his salvation. These are people glorifying the

Lord. They glorify him in several ways. They speak of him as the Lord twice over,

God's divine name, Yahweh. They speak of the glory of the name of the

Lord. Now, when someone's talking about the name of the Lord, they're talking primarily about his reputation, right?

And so this is not just something that's private, but something where they're publicly declaring who God is. And they go on and they call him the righteous one.

God is righteous. He establishes righteousness. He makes his people a righteous people.

And it is because he is good and righteous and just that we ought to praise him. And you see, who is praising him?

It's people in the west. It's people in the east, in the coastlands of the sea, which that would be to the west.

And then from the ends of the earth, you know, all around, all around geographically, we see people praising the

Lord. He is to be praised. His salvation is great. And who is it that's praising him? It is from verse 13,

We talked about that remnant that God saves for himself a remnant. So this is the remnant all over the earth declaring

God's praise. You see, God is worthy of praise. He's worthy of praise even when no one's around.

Even when no one's around, we should praise him. We should have, we should be cultivating lives of worship where even in private, we are praising him.

I read a couple of years ago, during 2020, I read several Puritan works on prayer.

And one of the things they pointed out pretty frequently was that the first thing to go in a Christian's life when he begins straying from the

Lord is private prayer, is prayer in one's prayer closet because no one knows, no one knows that neglect.

We should be praising God, even privately. But then also, we should be praising him publicly.

As you see here, giving glory to the name of the Lord. This should be something that we have a great zeal for because of how great that salvation is.

How great is that salvation? Well, you can only know that in context of how great the judgment is that one is saved from.

Isaiah continues on here. He says, I waste away, I waste away, woe is me.

Isaiah describes this, this sympathy he has, this sympathy for those who are perishing in his prophetic burden.

He's not allowed to put that aside and only consider those who God is saving, but he's considering all that earth, all that judgment that we just saw spoken of in the previous passage.

He's considering that and he says, woe, because it is a great woe that so much judgment would come upon all the earth.

These are not, these are not easy things to bear. He says, for the traitors have betrayed.

With betrayal, the traitors have betrayed. Now, this is in Hebrew, the word traitor and the word betrayal.

It's fairly similar to English in that they have similar roots, but it's even more similar. So, if I really wanted to emphasize what's going on here with the poetry, it would be something like, for the betrayers have betrayed.

With betrayal, the betrayers have betrayed. You know, Isaiah is really using this,

I don't know if alliteration is even the right term because it's more than that, but he's using this poetic form to stress how great that judgment is.

This picture of a betrayer, it is the picture of judgment that's being used here. We saw this before in Isaiah 21.

In Isaiah 21 -2, it said, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town, your slain are not slain with the sword or the dead in battle.

Excuse me, 21 -2, I meant to say 21 -2. A stern vision is told to me, the traitor betrays and the destroyer destroys.

Go up, O Elam, lay siege on Medea. And we saw how that was the betrayal of Babylon, that Babylon was betrayed by a former ally.

And then, later on in Isaiah, in 33 -1, it says, ah you destroyer, you yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed.

When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, they will betray you.

The betrayer in Isaiah is giving a label to the instrument of judgment.

What is the instrument of judgment? It is one who betrays. Have you ever been betrayed before?

It's one of the worst feelings in the world. You know, it's more than just a judgment coming from the outside. It's something where you have placed your trust in the wrong thing, and then it comes around to bite you.

How many people have placed their trust in the things of the world, or even in their own sin, thinking that these things will give them true pleasure, they will give them true comfort, and these things all turn on them.

And it's far worse than just some calamity that happens from the outside, but something that you yourself have trusted and that turns on you.

It's a very woeful condition. There are implications for this, for what we see here in Isaiah 24, with God being righteous and with him saving a remnant, right?

He is righteous. What does that mean? Righteous and justice are very similar.

In fact, they're the same words when it talks about righteousness and justice in both Greek and Hebrew. The same word is typically used to mean both.

So God is righteous, and that he is just, not just that he makes people good, but he makes people holy to be able to stand before him, but in that he is just even towards his enemies, that he destroys them.

So this righteousness that the people are praising, it has implications for judgment. Similarly, God is saving a remnant.

That has implications for how many will not be saved. In Luke, it says the following, in Luke 13, excuse me,

I'm blanking on exactly where it is, but it's where Jesus is asked, will many or will few be saved?

And Jesus' answer is very plainly, that strive to enter by the narrow gate, for few will find it, right?

The many on the day of judgment, the many will be destroyed. Now, we often don't think about that, and often it's the case that people embrace false ideas that lead them away from this truth, right?

For example, you have the notion of universalism, right?

So many people embrace universalism, the idea that everyone will eventually be saved, and there are modern day versions of universalism, where there's a universal reconciliation held out.

Maybe people will experience some hell, but it won't be, it won't be eternal, because eventually

God will reconcile them to himself. Now, what is it that makes that so bad, right?

What is it that makes that so bad? If you believe that, you do not appreciate how great the salvation that we've received is.

If I have been saved from a slightly worse situation than the one of my men, that's not that great.

If I've been saved from something far worse, that the vast majority of people born on this planet experience, well, how great and wonderful that is.

You know, if you receive some prize that, you know, one out of every two receive, well, hey, that's great, you know,

I was fairly lucky. But if you get something that only one out of a million receive, how blessed are you?

How blessed are you that God should, out of his grace, out of nothing but his unmerited favor, choose you?

There is something so much greater about this gospel that we believe than the one that claims to be greater because it has more people saved.

The one that saves everyone does not have a great salvation. It has a very, it has this very minimal salvation that's not able to appreciate the true greatness of what

God is doing in the light of judgment. There are a lot of similar beliefs that are very common in addition to universalism, and one is held by the people of the world in some sense.

And this is the idea that the majority of the world is Christian, or at least a very large plurality of the world is

Christian. Now, you see this assumption made in polls all the time, where news articles will tell you what different Christians think and what they think about world events.

Don't believe any of them. They're very rarely, very rarely are they doing things to see whether or not this person is truly a believer.

First of all, one can't see the heart. And secondly, if someone truly believes, it's marked by much more than simply claiming you're a

Christian. So if you've ever, if you've ever thought to yourself that, well, most of the people in the world will be saved because most people are

Christian, or many people in the world will be saved because many, you know, as far as a plurality goes, are

Christian, this is far, far off. Most people will not be saved.

Most people who call themselves Christians are falsely professing Christ. Most people are far from the biblical gospel, have trusted in something other than Jesus Christ.

You look at the religions of the world and the different versions of Christianity that exist. They do not, the majority of them, do not place their trust firmly in Jesus Christ.

They place their trust in something else, usually in themselves. Galatians 5, 4 says that you are severed from Christ, you who would trust in the law.

You've fallen from grace. The one who places their trust in something other than Jesus Christ does not have just a slightly less beautiful gospel.

They don't have the gospel at all. It is something entirely different than the good news. Now, continuing on with other ideas, people have, you know,

I mentioned universalism or the idea that most people will be saved. There's another one that, that, well, most people will be saved, not necessarily because they're all

Christian, but because God will give a free pass to those who have never heard the gospel. There's a lot of people in the world that have never heard the gospel, and God will simply,

God will simply let them into the kingdom because they did the best they can. That misunderstands the nature of judgment and salvation once again.

Why would someone be condemned? They're condemned for their sin. It's not for not believing in Jesus.

The one who doesn't believe in Jesus is condemned already. It is important to recognize that the vast majority of people do not have this hope, that this hope is something much more precious than something that, uh, a majority of people have, but it's something that only a small minority of people can, can hope in and affirm with confidence.

You know, there's also the idea that people have, it's kind of like solipsism. I don't know if you've ever entertained this, but I've run into people who have, and I've never heard this formally taught, but I thought this might be true as a kid, and I'm sure a lot of people have entertained this idea that, well, that just seems really awful for people to suffer for all eternity.

Maybe it's the case that they're not real people, you know, and only God's, only God's elect are real people, and, uh, they, you know, they're more like, you know, animals who are kind of, or robots that are kind of going through the motions.

The only people who have the true experience are the ones who receive salvation because it would just be too mean for God to actually cause all these people to suffer for eternity.

Now, I don't know if you've ever entertained that, if that sounds like a wacky idea. It is a wacky idea, but it's something

I've encountered that people, people wonder if this is the case. Once again, if you have a situation where the only conscious beings are the ones being saved, you have what is essentially universalism.

You have something that's not a full gospel, that's not, uh, the diamond on black velvet, but rather the diamond, uh, just cast somewhere where you can't see how beautiful it is.

God wants us to fully appreciate who he is and his mercy. He wants us to have a great, great joy for all of eternity that is not found in, uh, having something that we can't appreciate.

There's a reason why sin entered the world by God's decree. There's a reason why Jesus went to the cross by God's decree, and that was, uh, more than just his mercy to save us, but so that we would be able to appreciate his mercy in saving us.

You see, God has, God has much more here for us than simply, uh, the kind of salvation that the world imagines.

It's one where very, very few are able to appreciate it, and recognizing that, it should cause us to appreciate it all the more.

Uh, this is not something that can just be, um, set aside as, as something that many people receive.

It is something that's to be, to be, to fill our lives with just such a great thankfulness, and it should fill us, fill us with, uh, an incredible zeal, too.

You know, I, I struggle with, um, when it comes to evangelism, you know, I struggle with not wanting to break, uh, social norms, you know, in approaching people with the gospel.

I'm willing to, I'm willing to be direct. I'm willing to, uh, say the truth, but when it comes to, you know, uh, interacting with someone who doesn't want to be interacted with, you know, you don't already have a channel of communication.

I feel, I feel very uncomfortable with, uh, with breaking those kinds of social norms, but when

I remember that, you know, these people are destined to someplace horrible, unless they hear the word of God, unless they are saved, boy, that changes the perspective.

You know, then, then, you know, as I'm sympathizing them with their condition, and they're, you know, either introverted or whatever, and don't want to talk to me, um, boy, that really changes things, so that I recognize how badly this person needs what

I have to offer, what I have to say. It's incredible. We must appreciate what

Christ has done, and we can only appreciate that in recognizing and recognizing the, uh, the scope of this judgment.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from where we were headed, to save us from all these, all these oracles that you see written in Isaiah, and throughout the

Old Testament, all these statements of curses and judgment. There are so many statements of promise, and Jesus was sent to save us from that curse.

And consider the way he died, too. What do we, what do we read every time we go to the

Lord's Supper? On the night when he was betrayed, Christ was betrayed. This was the means by which

God chose that he would go to the cross and die. He was betrayed. What is the judgment we see here?

It is betrayal. That is the instrument of judgment. See, when Christ went to the cross by betrayal, that was

God illustrating how it was that he was bearing the curse that served to us, us who have trusted in things other than God's Son, us who have trusted in things other than the

Lord. We deserve betrayal. We deserve to be betrayed by all those things and to suffer eternally for it.

But Christ was betrayed on our behalf so that we don't have to experience betrayal if we place our trust in him rather than in whatever it is or even our own selves.

This is a great and beautiful truth. You know, I'll leave you with this one final thought, and that is that if you've ever read or listened to an audio recording of someone reading it,

Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, one complaint that many people make out—now, you have a lot of people who don't like how it's, you know, so focused on hell and judgment, etc .—but

a lot of complaint, or one complaint that many people make about it is that, well, it never mentions

Jesus or it says so little about the gospel. But if you consider that sermon, every single—if you've never heard of this sermon before, by the way, it's a statement about how great the judgment is that is coming, right?

And then it has a few sentences about trusting in God in the end. Why don't you turn to him for mercy?

Everything in that sermon is a platform on which those few lines stand.

That's what makes it—most people consider it, you know, most historians consider it the greatest American sermon that's ever been preached.

It is because judgment is so described as to make the gospel so central, even though very little in terms of sentences are spent on the gospel.

And as you go to the words of Scripture and you ask yourself, you know, how much of this is talking about judgment, as opposed to talking about the answer to judgment?

You know, you could even ask yourself a simpler question, you know, how much of this is the Old Testament versus the New Testament? There is a reason for that.

There is a reason why this judgment is so expansive. It is because it is the backdrop on which the gospel shines glorious, and we do not do ourselves a good service.

We do ourselves a disservice when we refuse to contemplate the judgment that is headed to the rest of the world, and the judgment that will take so many, and how many it will take.

So let us truly appreciate the salvation that God has given us in Jesus Christ. Let us truly appreciate that by truly appreciating the judgment that is coming to the world.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Holy Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for these passages of judgment. I pray that it would lead us to thankfulness, that we would recognize what we have been saved from, that we would not see that as a very mild salvation, but that in contemplating the reality of where we were headed, being children of wrath, of being destined to an eternal state of misery, we would deeply appreciate what you have done for us in Jesus Christ.

And God, as we consider that as well, I pray that you would give us a great zeal for evangelism, that we would, out of love for our neighbors, not desire that they perish, but that we would desire that they receive this great and glorious gospel.