The Old Testament God — Andrew Strom

Okay. Praise God, let's pray. Father God, we just pray for your presence in this place. I pray for your holy presence to come down upon us, Father. Without you, we can do nothing. Without you, I cannot speak a word that will give life, Father.

I can only speak of me, and it will do nothing. So I pray for your mighty presence here, Father God. I pray for a sense of your holiness. I pray for a true spirit of repentance. I pray that your people be touched today, and more than that, Father God, that you would pierce even to that dividing line between soul and spirit, that your word would truly go forth this morning, Father God.

In Jesus' mighty name, amen. You know, without the anointing of God, I'm just a clanging cymbal and a resounding gong. Wow, it's good to see so many people here. Didn't miss the change of daylight savings overnight.

I hope you guys don't have trouble with my accent. I'm from New Zealand. Just don't hold it against me. I'll try hard to speak properly. I've entitled my sermon today, The Old Testament God. The Old Testament God.

The Old Testament God and the Unity of Scripture

A lot of us have come to this conclusion, I think, almost subconsciously in our heads, that there's an Old Testament God and there's a New Testament God, and we divide them up. We say to ourselves that there must be some huge difference, because when I look in the Old Testament, there's so many wars, there's so many thunderings, there's a God who appeared on the top of Sinai with thunder and lightning.

And you know, this is the kind of thing God was saying in the Old Testament. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. I'm a jealous God visiting the sins on the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

We don't want to hear about a God like that anymore, because we live in a materialistic Western world. We live in a humanistic age where we want a God that's going to meet our needs. And so we've invented a Christianity, and I believe in many cases we've invented a God who no longer represents the God of the Old Testament whatsoever and has very little relation to the God of the New Testament, because actually they're the same thing.

But I want to talk about the God of the Old Testament today because I want us to get a grip on the reality of God, because it's only when you start to understand the God of judgment, the God of vengeance, the God of justice, the God of war, that we start to get a handle on the glory of God.

And without that, seriously, we are often worshipping this little Jesus who's like this wimpy figure with long hair who loves everybody, and we never perceive him in all his majesty at all. We never see his glory.

I am often astonished at people who think that they can get into the presence of God without beholding his glory and what it will do to them if they have sin in their life. They literally think that they're going to walk up to God on judgment day, they're going to walk up to Jesus, it's almost like they're going to shake his hand and say, Hi Jesus, how are you going?

You remember me, you know? No. Many people in front of you in the line are going to be being cut asunder, says the Bible, and bodily thrown into hell. Right in front of your eyes, it's going to be like a line stretching out, and people are going to be judged by God.

You aren't going to be walking up to Jesus and just shaking hands. You'll be on your face before God saying, Please God, tell me that my name is written in the book of life. God, please tell me that. And many on that day will be saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?

Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Please tell me my name's in the book. And Jesus will say, I never knew you. You tell me you asked Jesus into your heart and you gave 10 of your wages every week.

I didn't know you at all. I never knew you for a moment, and you never knew me. Be gone from my sight. We don't want to believe in a God like that today. We believe in a humanistic Jesus who's going to solve all our problems, who we're going to go through the drive-through at McDonald's, or the church equivalent thereof, and get ourselves fixed, make our life happy, make ourselves comfortable, and hopefully get lots of money.

This is the Western world Jesus that we've invented. I want to remind you of this Old Testament God today. We're going to go flashing through the Old Testament. If you can turn with me to Exodus chapter 7.

Now this is the story. We're not going to go right through the whole story. It would take too long. We're just flashing by all these things. I want us to remember a few things today and remind ourselves.

Exodus chapter 7. Moses is coming into the picture here. He's approaching Pharaoh and he's saying, God says, let my people go. And down there in verse 3. So we're in Exodus 7 verse 3. God says this, God says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt, but Pharaoh will not hear you.

So I can lay my hand on Egypt and bring forth my armies and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. What is he saying there? He's saying simply this. I'm going to have this guy for breakfast.

He's not going to listen to you. It doesn't matter what plague I bring, he will not listen to you because I personally am going to harden his heart. I'm going to make sure he doesn't let you go and I'm going to bring a worse judgment the weekend after.

And he ain't going to let you go again. I'm going to bring a worse judgment the weekend after until it's so bad I'm destroying the whole of Egypt. His armies are gone. All the firstborn children are dead because I'm the Lord, the God of all and I will not be mocked and I will not see my children sold into slavery.

This is the God of the Old Testament. We see His actions all the way through. In fact, you could almost describe the Old Testament figuratively and even literally as being bloodbath, war, judgment, God raising up men to speak for Him, them being persecuted and put to death, God bringing tremendous judgment all the way through.

It's like this endless parade, crash, God slamming into the affairs of men because they won't listen to Him and they won't respect Him and they keep persecuting His people and so He's got to send another bloodbath to make sure they do.

We do not want to listen to a God, we don't want to believe in a God like this today. He's not convenient to us. He's not merciful and loving enough for us to handle in our humanistic age. We never hear about Him, we do not want to really know Him.

He's up there in heaven and we think if He's the further away the better because we want to know this lovey-dovey Jesus who's going to give us what we want. And that's the truth of the Western Church, people.

So here we go with Moses and we see that the plagues start coming just as Moses says. They start pretty small. The water's turning to blood and the frogs are coming out of the water and there's lice all over the cattle and then God starts killing all the cattle.

God starts sending fire and hailstones upon the land. Terrible judgments start to occur and all the way through it says Pharaoh hardened his heart. God hardened the heart of Pharaoh so he could keep bringing judgment on the land.

Do we believe in a God of judgment, people? Do we believe in a God of justice? Is it true when the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God? What does that mean, a fearful thing?

But I thought Jesus was... You know, we have all these pictures. We have Jesus with the lamb around his neck. You know? We have our lovely church music which is beautiful but does it represent the thunderings of God?

See, this is where I'm getting to. I want to today go down this pathway of the thunderings of God and forget for a minute all that we've been taught endlessly for day after day after day about love and mercy because it's so one-sided and it's the stuff we love to hear.

It's tickling our ears and some of us it's sending to hell. He's the Jesus we want to believe in. He's so convenient. He meets all our needs. Just like the psychologists when they're starting up a school for bringing in those who have low self-esteem.

They'll set up counseling. They'll do it all. In fact, we're just like that in the church. Setting up counseling. Instead of saying repent, we want to send counseling courses. No, no, no, no. God says repent.

The world says counseling courses. Stuff him. Get away from me. I believe in a holy God who will judge the earth but we don't want to believe in this God anymore. Okay, let's go to Exodus 10. Verse 20.

Just one single verse here. This is what was happening all the way through. Oh, this is when the locusts came. That's right. This is a swarm of locusts that ate every green thing in the land of Egypt but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go.

And it got to the point, you know the story. It got to the point where Moses was going to him and saying the last plague is going to take the life of your eldest child. Do you want to go there? God's going to take you there if you will not let his people go now.

And Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And he had seen sign after sign after sign and that very night his oldest son, the heir to the throne, was dead. And the very next day he said, I'll let you go. But even then God made sure that he hardened Pharaoh's heart so he sent his armies after him so those armies could be destroyed.

You see, God is a God of vengeance but we never want to hear that word. I will repay, says the Lord, the God of the Old Testament. You know, we're talking a little bit well, we mentioned the word Sodom this morning.

Judgment in Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah. I tell you, we're just going to take this little history trip down the road here. We're going to remind ourselves of a few things that we don't want to really talk about too often.

Sodom and Gomorrah. This was a pair of cities that were so sick. But you see, you know what I believe God does even though he knows everything, he cannot bear to look at some things. I'm truly convinced of that because it says the report of the sickness and the depravity that was going on had come up into heaven.

And finally the report of it had gotten so bad in God's ears he decided to go down and have a look and see if it was as bad as he was hearing. So he sent the two angels down and they came to Abraham and they said, God's about to destroy these two cities.

Abraham says, look, if you can find just a number of righteous guys in there, can we just save the cities, please? How about 50 or even 25 righteous men? Sadly, those angels went into town and found only one family.

They said to this guy Lot, they said, get out of town, God's going to destroy this place. These cities are doomed, get going quick. Next thing you know, it says literally, this is where we get our term fire and brimstone from.

The word brimstone means literally sulfur. It's like a volcanic lava or a volcanic fireball descending. That's what happened to those cities. God overthrew them in one day. It's an interesting fact to me.

I presume that he just used two angels to destroy two cities. But you imagine what the harm that could have been done. Jesus was saying on his way to the cross, he said, all I've got to do is say the word and 12 legions of angels will be at my side.

You imagine the damage those things would have done. See, we're just not dealing with this namby-pamby God. We just ain't. In all his glory in heaven, if he ever sets foot on the earth and sees the kind of things he's heard a report of from Sodom, we're in pretty bad trouble.

I wonder if the report of one million dead babies per year in America has reached him. I wonder if the report of gay marriage being put into legislation in Canada has reached him yet. I wonder what's going to happen then.

America, above every other nation, is a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles, to this day has by far the highest church attendance in the world. By far. And yet, God will judge his own people and has proven that he will do it.

He will do it. If they become lukewarm and forget who he is. Let's go to the Elijahs. I like the Elijahs. I call them, you know, there's Elijah 1, there's Elisha, who's the second one, and then in the New Testament there's John the Baptist.

We're not going to look at him today, but let's go to the Elijahs. I like these guys. Okay, 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 17. So it's after Samuel you find Kings. Actually, just at the end of chapter 16 there. 1 Kings 16.

King Ahab came to the throne in Israel. King Ahab. Says this guy, this is chapter 16, verse 30. Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And he was the one that married Jezebel and brought all these idols into Israel.

And they started worshipping idols. And the next thing you know, this guy Elijah arrives. And he says this to the king. He goes straight up to him and says this. The Lord God before whom I stand says there will not be rain or dew in this nation until I speak the word.

And he was gone. Elijah the Tishbite was what they called him. And so a vast drought hit the land. For three and a half years there was no rain. Because the prophet had spoken and he was a man who stood before God.

There's a very important thing in this standing. This place of standing before God. Because you see, he ain't a man who stands in front of this wimpy Jesus. He's a man who stands in the presence of a holy God.

Who we see on Mount Sinai thundering so much. And the glory of God on Moses' face. The people couldn't even stand to look at Moses, let alone God. That's the God Elijah stood before. He says I stand before the one true God, the holy God.

I speak the word there will not be any rain in this nation for three years. Praise God it was so. And they had all these false prophets in the land at that time. They were praying to the God Balaam. 400 of these false prophets.

Elijah said after three years of letting them thirst for a while. Making sure the land was completely empty of water for a few years. And then he said yeah I think they've roasted long enough. I'm going to go and challenge those guys to a duel.

In the face of all the people of the land. He said you build an altar, I'll build an altar. The God who answers by fire, let him be God. So you know these guys they got their altar. Which an altar is just a big stack of wood with rocks.

And usually some animal has been stuck on top of it. This is an altar of sacrifice to their God. And these guys are dancing around. It's in first Kings chapter 18. In verse 27 it says Elijah mocked. See these guys are dancing around cutting themselves and saying.

Baal, Baal please bring fire down on this sacrifice. And they're cutting themselves and dancing. He says they went on all day. And he started to mock them and said maybe your God's off sleeping somewhere.

And then it says when it came his turn to put the altar up. He stuck his altar up and he got his servants. He said to them pour water all over it. In fact it says in some translations he got four barrels of water.

Pour them all over to make it hard for God to light a fire. And then he got them to do it again. And the third time he got them to pour water all over it. Make sure it's hard for God to light a fire. And all around was this huge pool of water around his altar.

And he prayed to God and said God if I'm your servant. Let the people see who is the true God. And suddenly fire came down from heaven. Burnt up the entire thing. Burnt up the stones that it was made of.

And burnt up all the water that was surrounding it. People said the Lord he is God, the Lord he is God. And it says straight away Elijah took those prophets of Baal down to the brook. And slaughtered them all there.

Bang they're all gone. Only Jezebel remained. And Elijah took care of her. Kind of. Through some circumstances. Why do we not want to hear about this God? Why is it that the church didn't make the Passion movie?

Why do we make our Jesus always so nice? Why do our scenes in our movies not show Jesus being cut to ribbons? Like he was. In fact I've heard of an interview where Mel Gibson acknowledged the fact that he could have and should have shown because what used to happen when they were whipped like that was actually their vital organs would be showing.

When they were whipped that badly that was a standard thing that the Romans did. Your bodily organs would be showing through your skin because most of it's gone. Mel Gibson said I just couldn't stand to show it.

It was bad enough what I showed. It was way beyond what we'd ever seen before. But let me ask this question. Why is everything we do so nice? Why is our God, this Jesus, painted to be this incredibly effeminate kind of namby-pamby person?

Where is the judgment of God? Where is the judgment of God? I'm really tired of that kind of Christianity. I'm sick to death of it. I think it has something to do even with the fact that in many Western nations today women are starting to outnumber men in the church.

A lot of men have stopped going to a lot of churches. This is especially true in countries like my country New Zealand and Canada, England, a lot of these Western nations. I wonder why that is. I think it's partly because of this.

We no longer represent a masculine Jesus to the world. It's almost like we've feminized Jesus. You could even say if I was going to be so rude and obnoxious, which of course I'm not, that we've turned Jesus into a big girl.

In so many ways we have. In so many ways we have. But of course I'm nowhere near obnoxious enough to ever say that. And I don't want hordes of feminists raining down upon me. Okay, the next adventures of Elijah.

Prophetic Authority and the Fear of God

Let's go to 2 Kings. Not very far away, 2 Kings chapter 1. We probably won't read this. I'll just get you to turn to it and you can have it in front of your eyeballs there while we talk about it. The reason that we're looking at these things is I'm trying to present to you today a side of God that we've completely forgotten about.

And do you know what? I believe it's the dominant side of God. I'll say that again. We've forgotten the dominant side of God. We only talk about grace and mercy to our detriment today. Everybody's so casual in their approach to God.

I was talking before about how I can't believe people talking about getting into the presence of God. The criteria for that are that you have a pure heart and clean hands. And so many people just sing worship songs with no pure heart, no clean hands and they get a lovely buzz out of it.

They think they're getting into the presence of God. I've got news for you, buddy. You're going to get there and God's going to say away with you if that's your attitude. You worship God with clean hands or a pure heart or you're not worshipping at all.

You're just getting a lovely feeling from the music. You're borrowing from other people's anointing. You're borrowing from other people's worship. You're enjoying a buzz. Get out of it. It's going to kill you.

Elijah and the captains of 50. What happened was this. It's right in the first chapter there, 2 Kings. See, Elijah was sitting up on this hill and the king said to one of his captains of 50, go up there and bring Elijah to me.

I want to see him. Tell him I command he comes. Captain of 50 walked straight up the hill with his 50 men, obviously, said to Elijah, the king commands your presence, sir. Elijah said, if I be a man of God, fire will come from heaven and destroy you and your 50 men.

They were gone. King said, I'll send a second group of 50 men up to the top of the hill and they'll take Elijah and bring him to me. He sent a second 50 men. They climbed up to the top of the hill. They said, Elijah, please come before the king.

He commands your presence. Elijah said, if I be a man of God, fire will come from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. Bang, they were gone. Finally, the king said, I'm just going to keep sending them.

He sent his next captain of 50 up, but this man crawled all the way up the hill and he, probably in tears, said to Elijah, please, sir, will you please come before the king because he would love to speak to you.

Elijah said, yes, I will go with you because Elijah carried something of the dignity of God and God will not allow his dignity to be mocked and he will destroy people before he sees that happen. This is the difference between the Elijah prophets and the ordinary prophets.

See, Jeremiah spoke like an Elijah prophet, but he was chucked into the pit and allowed to just sit there swimming around in the muck. You know, he couldn't escape from this thing. It was concave sides in it.

He couldn't get out of it. He just moaned away to God saying, God, why did you get me to speak those words to the king when you knew this would happen to me? Elijah was not like that. Elijah carried upon him an order of the presence of God that God would not allow it to be touched.

You see, you've got Jeremiah here. See, God's over here. You've got Jeremiah here and you've got Elijah here. And because Elijah carried so much of the presence of God, he would not allow anybody to touch him.

You touch the man and you're dead. You come and approach him the wrong way. You're a goner because the glory of God is at stake. The glory of God is at stake. But we don't want to see ministries like that today.

We want to see prophetic ministries who blow into town, stay in a five-star hotel, and go down a prayer line telling everybody that they've got a wonderful future. And God's going to raise them into a great big ministry.

And God's probably going to give them lots of money. That's what we want to see in the prophetic. We don't want any Elijahs at all. That's the truth. If Elijah's come in the door breathing fire and seeing people die, get out of here.

We don't want that kind of glory of God. I believe that's the revival that's coming. It's a revival of repentance. We'll know revival's hit when this happens, when the crying of the people drowns out the preacher.

Let me give you my definition of revival. When everybody's on their face before a holy God crying so loud that the preacher's got to stop, then revival's come. The rest of it's garbage. I don't believe in all of the flaky fads that we get through the church.

I can't believe in any of them. I don't see people on their face. I don't see people repenting from the depths of their being. Therefore, how do we call it revival? Some of you are looking like stunned mullets today.

That's a Kiwi expression for people who are slightly shocked. Please don't be shocked. I'm only telling you about the God you already say that you know. You say you've asked Jesus into your heart. You say God's close, God's in here.

You say, I serve Jesus. I'm telling you about the Jesus you serve. We just don't talk about this stuff because we want to know the namby-pamby one and forget the God of judgment. And it's going to kill us.

It's going to catch up with us at the end of days. And it's going to kick our butts for us so bad. But we still don't want to know. Elisha. I won't even go there. I'm not going to get you to turn to it.

I'll just tell you about this shocking incident that will shock and horrify you. You ready? Elisha was the guy who got Elijah's mantle. So he was the next Elijah. The mantle of God, the anointing of God fell upon Elisha.

And he was walking up the hill. And these kids, about 40 of them, Elisha was bald, right? Or going bald. They were singing, Go up baldy, go up baldy to Elisha. Elisha just simply turns around and says, If I be a man of God, the bears are going to come and tear you into pieces.

Not even a call of repentance. Not even a saying this, Repent children or you're dead. Isn't this shocking? And of course it happened. Because God will not be mocked. It doesn't matter if it's by children.

It doesn't matter what's happening. It doesn't matter if it's his own people. He won't be mocked. And so we get these horrific stories. All the way through the Old Testament we find a God who will send Joshua into whole nations and say, Leave nothing alive.

They worship idols and everything is tainted by it. Don't even take their gold. It's been used to make idols. Leave everything alone. Slaughter everything in your path and take no treasure. So Joshua would do it.

That was the way they took the Promised Land. It wasn't by compromise. It wasn't by going to the Palestinians and writing a peace agreement. I tell you, Let's start getting a bit more personal. Let's get to Daniel chapter 7.

The Ancient of Days and the Coming Judgment

Go there with me. Some of us read our Bibles so infrequently in the Old Testament we don't even know where all these old books are. Daniel chapter 7 verse 8. Daniel is after Ezekiel which is quite a big book.

You should be able to find that. Daniel chapter 7. And you notice we're heading towards the New Testament. I'm very deliberately going that direction because what we're going to get to today is the fact that we have one God.

There ain't no two Gods. He hasn't changed a bit. Nothing's changed about Him whatsoever. Vengeance is still His. Daniel chapter 7 verse 9. Daniel says, I beheld until the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days did sit.

His garment was white as snow. The hair of His head was white like wool. His throne was a fiery flame as wheels like burning fire. A fiery stream eschewed and came forth before Him. Thousands and thousands ministered to Him and ten thousand times ten thousand people stood before Him.

The judgment was set and the books were opened. I love that phrase. The judgment was set and the books were opened. I'm just reading out of the King James Bible there which is a very poetic way of writing but I think quite applicable.

The judgment was set and the books were opened. Now here we have this Old Testament God and it's very obvious to me that He's going to be the one before whom we're judged. In fact, at the end of the book of Revelation it says this, I saw a great white throne and the person sitting upon it, the earth and the heavens had fled away from His face and there was found no place for them.

In other words, the earth and the heavens were so frightened they fled away from His face. What do you think we're going to feel like doing? And yet, we don't think about it. We don't think about the most important day of our lives.

Did you know that? If you're going to get married, you prepare for it. You have rehearsals. You get together with everybody involved and you go through everything. If you're going to go for a driving test, you prepare for it.

But we don't preach about judgment day, the most important test of our lives. There will be such silence in heaven while those names are read out. The Lamb's book of life, if you're not found written in the Lamb's book of life, it says clearly you're thrown into the lake of fire.

But we never, never talk about it. When did we stop? Why is judgment day low on the agenda? When did that happen? I often liken it to being in a courtroom with a judge and you go there and you think you're on just a misdemeanor kind of charge.

You've just gone up because you're parking in the wrong place and you backed out the wrong way and a cop saw you. So you're going to court and you're going, oh well, it's going to be a $70 fine or something like that.

You walk into the courtroom and you look at the judge and you go, oh my goodness, this guy is just in a silent rage. I mean, who put him in that kind of... I'm up before him and I'm next. What is the maximum penalty for this?

You start thinking, is it a year in prison? You know what I'm saying? This is the situation we're finding ourselves in, the most important day of our lives. All of our life is wasted unless we come before that throne and hear these simple words, well done, good and faithful servant.

Unless we hear that, we're gone. We're done for. There won't even be any appeal. There'll be no lawyers. Americans love lawyers because usually if you pay them enough, you can get yourself off. Doesn't matter what you've done, even if you kill somebody apparently, you can get yourself off if you get the best lawyer.

Sorry, no lawyers. None at all. And so everybody will listen in silence as the names are read out of the Lamb's Book of Life and those who say, no, but Lord, but Lord, it even says they'll literally say that several places in the Bible.

But Lord, but Lord, didn't I go to church every... I cast out demons out of people, God. Away from me. I never knew you. You didn't know me. I never knew you. You never entered into my courts. I never saw you.

Who on earth are you? He won't even bother saying that. He'll just go, get out. It says the angels will seize them, tie them hand and foot, cast them into everlasting darkness where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth.

This is the Jesus we don't want to hear about. This is the day we don't talk about because we're stupid. Because everybody else preparing for a test thinks about it, talks about it, prepares and studies for it and says, if I'm not like this, what's going to happen to me?

We need to study for that test, people. I'm not just talking about head study, I'm talking about heart study. Are we going to make it? Let's get into the New Testament. I'm tired of trying to just look at the old when we need to prove that this God that we're talking about is the same God.

Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Let's go to Matthew chapter 22. Is the God of judgment still alive in the New Testament? Is it just the same scenario? Has he changed at all? Matthew chapter 22. I'm going into the NIV translation because it's a bit clearer.

Matthew 22 verse 1. Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who'd been invited to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent some more servants and said, Tell those who've been invited I've prepared the dinner. Come to the wedding banquet. Verse 5. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business.

The rest of them seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. Verse 7. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Now Jesus was speaking those words just before he was arrested to be killed. He told them that parable about what happens to those who mistreat servants of God coming to bring them the gospel. Then we jump over to the end of Matthew 23.

All this time he's sitting. This is his visit to Jerusalem just before he's about to get killed. And he is rebuking the scribes and Pharisees like you wouldn't believe. He's calling them a nest of snakes.

He says, You hypocrites. He's obviously not trying to weasel out of getting killed by making friends with these guys. That's for sure. Matthew 23 verse 33. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to hell?

Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth.