The Joy of Judgement

The Joy of Salvation Through God’s Judgment

Amen. Well, please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 30. We'll be finishing up Isaiah 30 today. And this most recent passage has been about the joy that the people of the Lord experience as they witness their salvation through the judgment of God.

And so, this verse continues that same theme, but with a very particular note that I felt was worth the message on its own. So, when you have that, please stand, and we will begin with verse 29 and read down to the very end here.

Verse 33. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them, for a burning place has long been prepared.

Indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word.

We thank you for the promises of salvation, the promises of judgment, all the promises that you give. We thank you for the clear passages as well as the obscure ones that are still given for our benefit.

We ask that you would open your word to us today in a way that we may be able to understand it and profit from it, and that your Spirit would guide us in the way that we should go. In Jesus' name, amen.

Joy in the Certainty of the End

So, as I've already said, this passage is about the joy the people of the Lord experience as they witness their salvation through judgment. That is how God saves people. He saves them through judgment.

It is through the enemies of God's people being destroyed that God's people are freed from that enemy. And so, as we look at this and we see all the things it says, the primary emphasis for this final verse is the certainty of that judgment.

That this judgment has long been prepared, and the fact that it has long been prepared by Jesus Christ himself, I'll add, should give us much cause for rejoicing. So, let us focus in today on the fact that God has fixed that judgment, that he has made it certain, and because of that certainty, we can have great joy in it.

So, in verse 33, it says, So, it's talking about this burning place. But let's consider some of the stuff that has come before this, some of the phrases that have come before. It talks about the people singing.

It says, So, it's describing the annual feast they would have and the singing that they would have as they rejoice on the holiday. It talks about his majestic voice being heard. It talks about the fact that all this happens to the sound of tambourines and lyres.

Now, imagine going into battle with such rejoicing. What does that display when you go into battle with rejoicing? Now, a lot of times you'll have people marching, and you know the revolutionary scenes where they've got their pipes and their drums, and it shows a level of confidence.

But what you see here, when the people are going in with celebratory noises, not just noises of order, but noises of triumph, as though the battle has already been won, what you have here is a picture of a confidence of a higher magnitude, a confidence of what will be accomplished because they know it already has been accomplished.

What we see in 2 Kings, I believe it is, I may be getting the book wrong, but I had brought up this reference before where Solomon had been victorious, and he is appointed king. People celebrate because peace has already been ushered in.

They celebrate with tambourines and lyres because peace has already been ushered in. And so the kind of rejoicing that we can have, even in the midst of the battle, even before everything is over, is that God has already accomplished it.

That that end of judgment has already been prepared so that we can, with full confidence, enjoy what the Lord has. Even though there is much to do in this life, even though there will be much difficulty, know with full assurance and with full joy that the end is written.

The end is fixed. It's as though when we're reading a book and they already know how the end goes, it doesn't matter what danger a character in each chapter experiences. You may not even know how the chapter will end, but if you know how the book will end, that can give you a great peace about the whole matter.

And so you, as you go through your trials in your life, may not know how the particular chapter you are in right now will end. But regardless, if you know how the book ends, you can have a great confidence in the matter and you can have great joy despite the present trial.

And guess what? The book has already been written. We have it right here. We don't have every last detail about our lives that has not been revealed, but we know how it ends. It ends with Jesus Christ defeating every last one of his enemies.

He has already accomplished that victory on the cross and he will bring that victory into full manifestation at his second coming. And because of that, we can have great joy. This is just real important to understand the blessing that is the fact that our God controls the universe and his sovereignty is over all.

That we can have peace because of that. Most of the religions of the world offer some kind of uncertainty. You know, we were talking about that last night and earlier this morning during Sunday school.

How few religions offer any kind of assurance. Those who do, don't even have it. If you do not know how the end goes, how can you have assurance? If your God does not determine all things but only some things, how can you be certain that end is as good as it should be?

As good as it could be? You can have no assurance of such things, but if your God is one who has mastered everything and controls everything and has created everything for his own purposes, you can have that confidence so that no matter how difficult your present situation is, you can have a perfect joy, a perfect peace knowing how it will ultimately end.

Topheth, Gehenna, and the Reality of Hell

Now it describes here this pyre. It says it's pyre, this pyre of judgment is made wide and deep, deep and wide with fire and wood in abundance. So it's describing this burning place that is this pit full of wood, full of fuel.

The reason why you would want so much fuel is in order to make the fire hotter and hotter. Just like the three Hebrews that were thrown into Nebuchadnezzar's flames, they added more and more fuel to make it hotter and hotter and hotter.

And it was so hot that those who got near it would die because it was so hot. And this is what it's describing. It's describing an incredible heat to punish the enemies of God so that there will be a great, great judgment against them.

And so if you consider what this is speaking of, this is speaking of the terrible fate that awaits all those who would be enemies of God. This is describing hell. It's describing the great pains that they will experience.

Now these pictures, to what degree do they metaphorically picture hell versus what degree do they literally describe hell? It's difficult to say, but I can assure you that it will be far worse than even the pictures will give our own human imaginations.

Our imaginations are so limited to understand the torment that awaits those who are enemies of God. That we cannot even begin to imagine how great it will be. So it's describing this pyre, and if you think also about the different ways there were of executing someone, the different ways there would be of executing a king, there are different ways to show how dishonored he is.

You could simply behead him, and that would be dishonorable. You could hang him, and that would be an even more dishonorable way. You could also burn someone's body so that it no longer exists anymore.

You know, and that is even more dishonorable. If the body is kept around, there is some hope for it, scripturally speaking. There's some hope that we'll experience a glorious resurrection. Now I am not suggesting to you that if one is burned, they would not be able to experience a resurrection.

But keeping the bones together, from a biblical perspective, is a way of memorializing a person, not necessarily their past, but their future, that there will be a future for them. Amos 2 .1 speaks of Moab, and it says, For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.

So it's describing just how dishonorable it was for Moab to treat the king of Edom this way, to burn his bones to lime, to dishonor him in this way that not even his bones remained. So if you have never considered this question before, of what it looks like to properly honor the dead, I would recommend you very seriously consider what the Bible says about this matter.

That it is not just a matter for each person to decide, just a matter of personal preference, whether you would honor someone by cremation or burial. But the Bible, in speaking of the way that the dead are to be honored, and the dishonor that comes upon someone by failing to memorialize them, and the way that points forward to the hope that we have, that is something very serious, and something we covered a couple of years ago when we went through that book on eschatology, on end things.

Now once again, I would never suggest that someone who has been burned down to lime could not be raised from the dead. God can raise anyone from the dead. But we are called to recognize these truths of the end.

And in recognizing them, that says a lot to how we go about taking care of the dead. Now, it continues on here, and it speaks of who this burning place is prepared for. It has long been prepared. Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.

Now, who is this king? In the context of Isaiah, this is speaking of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. He is the enemy of God's people that will be destroyed so that people will be free from him. But, as we have also seen, there are many places in this passage that are quoted by Jesus, quoted by the New Testament, to tell us that ultimately this is pointing to greater enemies.

This is not merely pointing to Sennacherib. This is pointing to the great accuser. This is pointing to all those who would align themselves with him, and they must all suffer this great fire that is coming.

And this great fire is a certain thing. It has long been prepared for that king. It has long been prepared. Consider what Revelation says about the lake of fire. Who has it been prepared for? For the devil and his angels.

It has already been prepared. And this truth, this truth that it has already been prepared, is what is supposed to give us a great assurance about it. That we're not supposed to wonder whether or not this will take place, but we are supposed to know it will take place because it has already been prepared.

It has already been determined. So, for those who are enemies of God, this should give you a great fear. This should give you a great concern. How will you survive such a fire, such a fixed and certain end?

How will any survive that? But there is great peace for the one who is found in Jesus Christ, because in Jesus Christ there's an escape from all these things. Jesus Christ has already suffered the wrath of God, so that those who are found in him do not need to experience that wrath.

Rather, they can have peace about the matter. And more than just peace, they can have joy, because now that fire that was aimed towards them is now aimed towards the enemies of God. And this is, once again, this is not a cause for us to...

Many people think of hell as something that should only cause, while it should cause sobriety, it should cause a level of concern. For the believer, it is not something that merely causes mourning. It should actually cause joy, because aimed towards God's ends, they are for our good.

It is for our good that the enemies of God would be destroyed, so that we would be saved from our enemies. This is something that we are to ultimately rejoice in, that God has orchestrated things in this way, so that not merely is it the case that we would get to enjoy many of his blessings, but that we would be able to witness his justice, and thereby witness how great his mercy is toward us.

Apart from this contrast, would we understand, would we be able to appreciate our God, would we be able to glorify him and know him fully, if we did not see what is actually due to us, apart from being found in Jesus Christ.

There would not be such an enjoyment and understanding of who God is. You know, and because of these things, also, because of the way that it speaks to this, it should encourage us toward imprecatory prayers.

Imprecatory Prayers and Judgment on God’s Enemies

Imprecatory prayers are prayers of judgment. We pray that God would defeat his enemies. Now, here in this world, there are very few that you can know whether or not they are among the elect. There are very few where you can look at someone and say that, well, they're definitely not among the elect.

Scripture does tell us something along those lines about apostates, that those who have tasted of the heavenly gift and lead it, leave it. There's no way that they can be renewed to repentance. However, for the vast majority of people who are not among God's people at this present time, we do not know whether or not God may save them.

And so our imprecatory prayers are not just to be aimed towards individuals who are currently enemies of God, because God saves many. Rather, our imprecatory prayers should be aimed at God's enemies in abstract, or those who have made it absolutely known that they are God's enemies through apostasy.

But if this is supposed to be a matter of joy, if this is supposed to be something that gives the Christian peace, then that gives us motivation for engaging in real imprecatory prayer the way that David does in the Psalms, praying judgment upon the enemies of God's people.

Now, it speaks of this place. It says, Now, in many translations, that says Topheth. And here in your ESV, you'll see there's a little footnote that says Topheth. And so what is Topheth? Well, Topheth is a particular place, and the Bible mentions this on a number of occasions.

I'd like to read for you one of those. We're going to look at several passages here, but please turn to Jeremiah 7. I will read you one passage that speaks of this Topheth. Here in Jeremiah 7, verse 31, it says,.

So it's this place of burial. It's this place of bodies being burned. It's this place of anguish, this Topheth, also known as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Now, the Bible spans many hundreds of years, even thousands of years, so a lot of times the vocabulary changes over time.

And by the time of the New Testament, Topheth, the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, becomes known as something else. It becomes Gehenna. So if you look in Mark 9, beginning in verse 43, in your ESV it will use the word hell, but every time it's using the word hell, once again you'll see a footnote, it's using the Greek word Gehenna.

It is speaking of the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. It is speaking of Topheth. Okay, so this is the same place. Jesus is using the language of Isaiah, essentially, speaking of the same place to describe hell.

It says in verse 43 of Mark 9,. Now that last phrase, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched, that's more vocabulary that Jesus is borrowing from the Old Testament. And if you look for where that is, you will find that it is in Isaiah 66.

It's in the final chapters of Isaiah. So multiple times here, Jesus is using concepts and vocabulary from Isaiah, speaking of Topheth or Hinnom slash Gehenna, and speaking of their worm not dying and the fire not being quenched, to speak of hell.

So even though Isaiah is talking about Sennacherib, he's talking about this fire that would dishonor this king, Jesus is saying that ultimately this points toward a greater reality. Ultimately this points toward that lake of fire, Gehenna.

It points toward the destruction of all the enemies of God in that place that is prepared for the devil and his angels, but will also accommodate every last one of them who have aligned with that enemy.

Now Matthew 23 has additional things to say about this. Matthew 23. Matthew 23 speaking of the scribes and the Pharisees and the end that is coming toward them. And I'd like you to be thinking about what Jesus is saying about how certain their end is, because that really is the emphasis of this passage that we have here in Isaiah.

It's about the certainty of the end of the wicked. Matthew 23 verse 29 says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

How are you to escape that sentence? There is no way to escape Gehenna. There is no way to escape Topheth. The only way is not by your own effort, not by some mechanism of your own, rather it is only found in Jesus Christ.

It's the only one who can provide any escape. There are a lot of people today who deny the reality of hell, who want to downplay the reality of hell. It's incredible just how unpopular the doctrine of hell is.

A lot of people don't understand that it's to be a cause for joy, to know about the judgment of God's enemies, and they find it such an unpleasant thought, and it is indeed a sobering and unpleasant thought in one sense.

They find it so unpleasant, they simply deny it, they reject it, or they downplay its significance. Even in Reformed circles, at least nominally Reformed circles, there is a movement to deny hell. There are more theologians who are denying that there is an eternal conscious torment.

They'll acknowledge that the flames go on forever and ever, but they make those flames meaningless because the people that go to those flames do not go on forever and ever. And this is against the Christian faith that has been around for the ages.

The Athanasian Creed, I'd like to read to you the very end of the Athanasian Creed because it is so direct about this. This is the very end of the Creed. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the Catholic faith, Catholic meaning universal, meaning all the Christians agree with this. One cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. One cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

So many people want to undermine one of the core things of what they believe and play it down as though it's not a core thing. This is so important. If you play down the reality of hell, the significance of that eternal fire, what are you saying?

You are saying that the end that is due to the wicked is less, and therefore the sins that they have committed against God are less, and therefore the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for such things is less.

Do you realize how this is not just one detail, but this talks about the glory and honor of Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished on the cross? And it minimizes that to say that the sufferings of hell are only for a few moments or only for a short temporary period of time, when in fact they go on forever and ever and ever.

And it is in understanding that that we are able to appreciate how much we have been saved from, how great the mercy of Christ is. And apart from knowing that mercy of Christ, what is the gospel? The gospel is very little at that point.

The Holy Spirit as Water and Fire in Salvation and Judgment

And in speaking more about the certainty of this judgment, this passage talks about the breath of the Lord. Now, the breath of the Lord had been mentioned before in verse 28. It said, Remember when we said that this is the Holy Spirit, it speaks to the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Holy Spirit here in this previous passage was spoken of as a flood reaching up to the neck, a flood of water. Now it's spoken of as a stream of sulfur, a stream of fire. These are frequent images for the Holy Spirit, water, fire.

You see those in the New Testament, often in positive ways. The Holy Spirit, he is a fire that comes down upon the disciples at Pentecost, purifies them and anoints them and prepares them for the task at hand.

He is a stream of living water that flows out of believers, but to the unbeliever, what is he? He is the same thing, but in judgment. Rather than being water or fire that purifies and refreshes, it's water and fire that destroys, that burns up and drowns.

And the stream of sulfur, if you imagine kindling something, if you have dry wood, it can burn pretty easily. But if you just pour gasoline or sulfur all over it, there's no way it's going to keep from being ignited.

That's not something you can put out easily. That's what it speaks of. It speaks of the certainty that this will happen. Not only has it been long prepared, but at that moment of kindling, it is even the case.

The Holy Spirit will ensure that that fire is fully stoked. Now you have this discrimination in the work of the Spirit. You know, the Spirit, on one hand, with believers, he is that water and fire of purity.

With unbelievers, he's that water and fire of judgment. And the thing that distinguishes us for each individual is once again being found in Jesus Christ. It is only in him that we can have any salvation from this certain judgment that is coming.

But it is in him that we can have a full assurance and joy of what will take place, that the battle has already been accomplished, that we can sing to him now. You know, we don't hold off our songs until we find out what's going to happen.

We already know what's going to happen, and that's why we sing with joy week after week after week. It's because even though we don't know how long the Lord may tarry, we know that when he returns, he will make good on all that he has promised, and that victory that he has already accomplished will be made completely manifest.

And this is only found in him because it is only through him that we can have that right relationship of God, of peace with him, so that we are no longer his enemy, but his friend. You know, thinking back to the event last night, for those who were there for it, we had a dialogue between a Mormon, a former Mormon bishop and a Christian pastor.

And it was about whether or not everyone is a child of God. And the Mormons say that everyone's a child of God. Christians say that not everyone is a child of God. In fact, it's only in Jesus Christ that you can be a child of God.

Now, if everyone's a child of God, then everyone has a sufficient relationship with him in order to be spared such things. But that is not what we see here. What we see here is that this is coming towards all who are the enemies of God.

And so the way to be spared this is to be found a son of God. But how can you be a son of God? How can you, just out of your own, become a child of God? It's not something that we can do. And that's something that was emphasized a lot in the discussion yesterday.

From the Mormon perspective, it's something that you do of your own agency. You already are a child of God, and so to have that fully made good on, you just acknowledge it and sort of bring yourself into the family.

But that's not the case. If you're not a child of God by nature, if you're rather a child of wrath by nature, you need God and only God. It's not something that you can do to make you his child. And how can that be?

How can that be if there is only Jesus Christ who is the son of God? And this was one of the questions last night. If you want to be a son of God and there is only one son of God, how does that happen?

You must be found in him. It's kind of similar to the song we were just singing. It said he makes many a priest and a king, and Jesus is our only priest. He's our only king. So how do we get to be made into a royal priesthood?

Because we are found in the one who is the only priest and the only king. How do we get made sons of God if there is only one son of God? We are found in the one who is the son of God. The only hope for being a child of God, the only hope for being his friend, of being spared this great disaster, and it being rather a source of peace and joy to us to know that judgment is coming upon the enemies of God, is to be found in Jesus Christ, the only son.

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace.