WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.700 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:08.240 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.660 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:13.640 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:15.779 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.280 in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:21.839 us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.519 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:30.600 sermon. God bless. Okay, we're in Psalm 75. This 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:33.579 will be the last one for this year, and then 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:37.320 we will pick it up again next year. One of the 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.200 things that Christians stand up and confess, 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:42.320 and one of the things that we as a church stand 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:46.240 up and confess week in, week out, is that Jesus 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:52.079 is returning to judge the living and the dead. 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:57.859 And I would guess that there are those of you 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:01.039 here this morning who may not buy into the whole 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:05.079 Jesus is God, conquering the cross, Satan's sin 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:06.959 and death, risen from the dead, all that kind 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:10.280 of stuff, or all the rest of Christianity. And 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:13.000 as soon as I said, yeah, Jesus coming to judge, 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.480 this is what you're thinking. Yeah, this is one 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:18.859 of the reasons. This is one of the reasons why 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:24.159 Christianity is not me. So unappealing. Right 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:27.420 there, the clip of your faith, that poor kind 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.239 of, this is creed of Christianity, judgment, 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:37.540 no thanks. And maybe for a Christian, the whole 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:40.359 judgment of God thing is also maybe off -putting 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:44.319 you, maybe recalls here in memory times where 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:50.560 judgment has been present, rendered on you. Maybe 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.400 Jesus is showing up as a judge on the great day 00:01:53.400 --> 00:02:00.900 of the Lord. Maybe evokes in you those memories 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:03.579 of the nightmares when you showed up to class 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:11.659 with no pants on. Or maybe one of the ones that 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:13.860 I've had these past 15 years since I've been 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:20.250 an ordained pastor, showing up to worship. and 00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:26.550 nobody else comes. Or worse, showing up and having 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:30.550 no idea what I'm talking about. And you all know 00:02:30.550 --> 00:02:33.129 that I have no idea what I'm talking about. And 00:02:33.129 --> 00:02:36.210 like one by one, you'll leave. I tell you, I've 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:42.090 had that nightmare more than a few times. Truth 00:02:42.090 --> 00:02:45.530 is, the judgment of God doesn't elicit the warmest 00:02:45.530 --> 00:02:50.909 feelings, many of us. And we're telling this 00:02:50.909 --> 00:02:55.409 song, Psalm 75, that it's of Asaph. And as Jed 00:02:55.409 --> 00:02:58.270 said a couple of weeks back, most of these songs 00:02:58.270 --> 00:03:02.729 in this third book of the Psalms, they're related 00:03:02.729 --> 00:03:06.729 to worshiping God in the temple, the God of worship 00:03:06.729 --> 00:03:09.210 of God's people. This one, it says, is to the 00:03:09.210 --> 00:03:11.289 choir, and then at the end, at that little title, 00:03:11.289 --> 00:03:13.229 it says it's a song. Everybody's supposed to 00:03:13.229 --> 00:03:16.370 sing this one together. And this one is sung 00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:18.889 to one of my favorite tunes, Do Not Destroy. 00:03:20.529 --> 00:03:24.669 There are other songs that have titles to them, 00:03:24.669 --> 00:03:27.770 tunes that they're supposed to be sung to. Psalm 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:34.810 80, in five songs from now, is supposed to be 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:39.830 sung according to the lilies. Psalm 88 is according 00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:44.349 to Mahalath -Leonov, which I am fairly certain 00:03:44.349 --> 00:03:48.990 is an Elvish tune from Middle Earth. Mahalath 00:03:48.990 --> 00:03:55.060 -Leonov. I don't know. Anyway, this one's Do 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:58.120 Not Destroy, which is, as I said before, almost 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:01.979 certainly a heavy metal screamo tune. Do not 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:07.479 destroy. At the very least, I was waiting and 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:10.240 asking that this was all about judgments, and 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.659 the tune was Do Not Destroy. But here's the thing. 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:20.649 As much as the pushback that we give, from the 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:22.389 emotional pushback in the very least, and sometimes 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:24.850 intellectual pushback to that, to the doctrine 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:30.009 of judgment of God. Did you notice this song 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:35.769 celebrates? Celebrates. If you have that Bible 00:04:35.769 --> 00:04:40.990 open still, Psalm 75, you can look down with 00:04:40.990 --> 00:04:50.860 me at verse one, and this is how it reads. We 00:04:50.860 --> 00:04:56.939 give thanks, for your name is near. We recount 00:04:56.939 --> 00:05:01.420 your wondrous deed. When God comes near, when 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:04.959 the day of the Lord happens, which, by the way, 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:07.000 does have an ultimate day of the Lord, the coming 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.819 judgment, and the return of Christ, but the day 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:11.339 of the Lord is something that happens throughout 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:13.120 them. There are different days of the Lord in 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:16.899 the Bible, but when God comes close, they give 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:20.800 thanks. When we think of God Christ Himself coming 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:25.899 near, judging, the living and the dead, we give 00:05:25.899 --> 00:05:30.240 thanks. And I know, my guess is some of you are 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:34.279 like, I don't know, I don't normally do that. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.360 That's not a general impulse when I think of 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:40.480 that. And so today I want us to look at this 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:43.060 text and I want to suggest a few reasons why 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:47.860 it's white, give thanks. the context of the judgment 00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:53.839 of God. Okay, so the first reason that I think 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:56.519 you go on to give thanks for the judgment of 00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:59.360 God, listen, he did not want evil. You don't 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.360 want evil. The other day, a couple days ago, 00:06:02.579 --> 00:06:05.019 I was with my kids, I was away from home, and 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.779 our little dog Teddy is barking like crazy and 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:10.120 leases upstairs, and Teddy hasn't normally just 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:11.680 barked that crazy. You've been to our house, 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:13.040 many of you, and you know that he barks, but 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.689 not like... And he's doing that kind of thing. 00:06:15.829 --> 00:06:17.850 And so Melissa goes downstairs and she looks 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:21.009 out the window and literally looked directly 00:06:21.009 --> 00:06:22.569 in front of our house, right? Like we've got 00:06:22.569 --> 00:06:25.410 a little tiny front porch and then there's three 00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:27.509 stairs and this right here at the front stairs, 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:33.250 there's two guys getting arrested. Which, I don't 00:06:33.250 --> 00:06:34.949 know what they're getting arrested for. People 00:06:34.949 --> 00:06:36.629 sometimes get arrested and it finds out that 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:38.230 they didn't know what they were being arrested 00:06:38.230 --> 00:06:40.250 for. That's all true. But let me tell you, it 00:06:40.250 --> 00:06:43.079 is unsettling. to have somebody arrested dying 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:48.439 quickly in front of your house. Ryan, we desire 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:51.800 safe neighborhoods, right? You desire safe neighborhoods. 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:54.920 You do not want people in this city, do you? 00:06:55.139 --> 00:06:59.459 No, you do not. This spring, Melissa and I were 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:02.040 at a wedding with a good friend in Kentucky, 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:03.980 and the minister who officiated the wedding is 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:05.540 somebody I went to seminary with at Covenant 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:07.579 Seminary. I was talking to him about what he's 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:09.000 doing now. This is now working in the context 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.790 of the local church. He works for an organization 00:07:11.790 --> 00:07:15.129 that he heads called Christ for Kentucky, which 00:07:15.129 --> 00:07:17.750 he says is for the good of the bluegrass, bringing 00:07:17.750 --> 00:07:20.350 the gospel to the bluegrass state. And I said, 00:07:20.410 --> 00:07:23.709 well, what does that mean you do, right? It felt 00:07:23.709 --> 00:07:26.110 nebulous a little bit. And of course, they do 00:07:26.110 --> 00:07:27.569 quite a lot of things, but one of the things 00:07:27.569 --> 00:07:30.189 that he shared with me that they're doing is 00:07:30.189 --> 00:07:32.870 that they are working to eliminate medical debt 00:07:32.870 --> 00:07:37.389 in Kentucky. You might notice medical debt is 00:07:37.389 --> 00:07:40.839 unbelievably crippling. for so many, it's actually 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:45.459 medical debt is so crippling. What was the number 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:49.480 I read? In Appalachia, one third of the population 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.240 has medical debt that is considered crippling 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:56.420 debt. Okay. So what happens is that they're not 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.420 able to pay and the health care providers that 00:07:58.420 --> 00:08:00.899 are billing them, no, they can't pay. And so 00:08:00.899 --> 00:08:03.379 they can get some of their money recouped for 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:05.819 the work they did by selling some of that debt 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:09.800 to creditors. And so they could sell a massively 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:12.300 discounted feed. I want to say it was 0 .5 % 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:14.120 of the actual number, but it might've been 1%, 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.920 I forget. And so these collections agencies, 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.339 they get all this debt and they can put liens 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:23.420 on their households. They can garnish wages. 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:25.779 And there's all this even what's taking place 00:08:25.779 --> 00:08:29.379 in the amount of bankruptcy. It's actually the 00:08:29.379 --> 00:08:32.820 number one reason for bankruptcy, personal bankruptcy 00:08:32.820 --> 00:08:37.669 is medical debt. And so their organization is 00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:41.470 seeking to fight this. And one of the things 00:08:41.470 --> 00:08:42.870 that's happening here is that this is simply 00:08:42.870 --> 00:08:48.309 an evil thing. Evil thing taking place. And you 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:51.210 want people to stop. And I don't want people 00:08:51.210 --> 00:08:54.350 to stop. And thankfully, my friend and others 00:08:54.350 --> 00:08:58.289 in Kentucky want people to stop. Look in the 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.149 inside cover of the bulletin with me. There's 00:09:00.149 --> 00:09:09.230 a quote that I want to read to you. down to the 00:09:09.230 --> 00:09:14.830 second one. It says, consider an argument from 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:17.289 the less to the greater. In the human spirit, 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:19.889 he who loves purity and chastity and has no wrath 00:09:19.889 --> 00:09:23.789 against impurity and chastity is a moral leper. 00:09:24.330 --> 00:09:27.750 He who pities the poor and defences and has no 00:09:27.750 --> 00:09:30.750 wrath against the oppressor who crushes the weak 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:34.169 and slays the defenseless but loves them too 00:09:34.169 --> 00:09:38.820 is a thief. Divine wrath and divine holiness. 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:43.919 I'm sorry, divine wrath is divine holiness in 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:46.960 activity. You desire the goodness of the world. 00:09:48.340 --> 00:09:52.580 You desire for evil to be done away with. That's 00:09:52.580 --> 00:09:57.220 part of the reality of the goodness, the celebratory 00:09:57.220 --> 00:10:02.399 stuff of God's judgment. You don't want evil. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:07.080 You want an end to war. We desire and we pray 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:10.799 for peace in the Middle East and all the rest. 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:19.019 Verses four and five, they say this. I say to 00:10:19.019 --> 00:10:23.159 the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:26.779 do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your 00:10:26.779 --> 00:10:30.100 horn on me, or speak with a haughty net. This 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:34.419 is what God says. To boastful and those who exalt 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:38.799 themselves, haughtiness and pride must come down, 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:42.220 must stop. What I'm suggesting to you is something 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:48.399 that you desire. God say no. This must end. You 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.340 want people to stop. You want safe streets. You 00:10:51.340 --> 00:10:57.159 want stores where there's no rebelling. You desire 00:10:57.159 --> 00:11:00.799 lovely marriages. You did not want predators. 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.460 It helped to cause the number one reason. for 00:11:04.460 --> 00:11:10.940 personal bankers. God says to this, stop. No 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:14.139 more. There's a time when people say, you know, 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:19.759 what time is it up? No more. Consider this. This 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:21.879 is from Murdoch Cain, the writer who wrote the 00:11:21.879 --> 00:11:25.080 insomniac system. There you have God's command 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:27.820 to let his people go by saying, who is God that 00:11:27.820 --> 00:11:30.970 I shall be? Nebuchadnezzar endeavored to set 00:11:30.970 --> 00:11:33.129 his throne in the kingdom above him, whose throne 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:36.070 and kingdom are forever and ever inherited. Listen 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.710 to the adulation of his degenerate admirers. 00:11:38.970 --> 00:11:43.289 It is the voice of God, not of man. Coming nearer 00:11:43.289 --> 00:11:45.730 to our own time, we have read how Adolf Hitler 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:48.230 gazed at a picture of himself riding proudly 00:11:48.230 --> 00:11:51.230 on the white horse. A picture which bore the 00:11:51.230 --> 00:11:54.950 brashest title in the beginning was the word. 00:11:55.820 --> 00:11:58.639 Then in a voice that deliberately mocked Christ, 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:03.419 the eternal King, he exclaimed, I am providence. 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:07.860 But Campbell says this, but Pharaoh and Zeus 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:11.460 are swept to destruction. Nebuchadnezzar becomes 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:14.299 a companion of the beasts of the field, Herod 00:12:14.299 --> 00:12:18.080 was devoured by worms, and Hitler becomes a suicide. 00:12:19.659 --> 00:12:22.870 And you may not like the idea that's. You know, 00:12:23.009 --> 00:12:25.129 you're impulsed to the idea of the doctrine of 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:27.309 God's judgment. You might not go, oh, that's 00:12:27.309 --> 00:12:29.990 nice. I like that. But there's something in you 00:12:29.990 --> 00:12:36.090 that says you even must stop. Stop. Let's come 00:12:36.090 --> 00:12:40.769 to an end. God says to the Bible, do not transgress. 00:12:42.649 --> 00:12:45.309 I'm suggesting this statement. You do not want 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.669 evil, and this is a reason to celebrate your 00:12:47.669 --> 00:12:51.870 judgment of God. Second reason to celebrate it. 00:12:52.809 --> 00:12:59.850 is that God is the only truly just judge. One 00:12:59.850 --> 00:13:01.789 of the claims against Christianity and one of 00:13:01.789 --> 00:13:03.950 the reasons why some people don't believe in 00:13:03.950 --> 00:13:07.629 Christian faith is because of the witness of 00:13:07.629 --> 00:13:10.529 Christians themselves, and specifically because 00:13:10.529 --> 00:13:12.049 they look at Christians and they say, man, those 00:13:12.049 --> 00:13:18.610 people are so judgmental. And I have no doubt 00:13:18.610 --> 00:13:21.940 that that's the case so often. Christians can 00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:25.019 be unbelievably judgmental. That's true. We can 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:28.899 wag our fingers at others. They don't dance, 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.259 don't chew, and don't go with girls that do. 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:34.519 Mary, do you remember that one? That's an older 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:44.399 slogan. Christians often associate holiness less 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:48.720 with being with the Holy One, Jesus, and more 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.639 with getting her out together and just doing 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:55.559 the right thing. And we do that to ourselves. 00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:58.740 So we become incredibly judgmental on ourselves 00:13:58.740 --> 00:14:02.139 and incredibly judgmental on others. That's true. 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:08.019 Of course, another claim against Christians and 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:11.000 Christianity and why we don't consider Christ 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.720 is that the church is full of hypocrites, which 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.799 it is. Part of being a sinner is often being 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:22.580 a hypocrite. And this is why Jesus, when he's 00:14:22.580 --> 00:14:24.059 talked to his disciples in the Sermon on the 00:14:24.059 --> 00:14:25.840 Mount, he says this, he brings these two things 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.460 together. He says, judge not, that you not be 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:30.440 judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.940 you will be judged, and the measuring you use 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:36.860 will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:38.539 that's in your brother's eye, but you don't notice 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:42.139 the log that's in your own eye? Because you've 00:14:42.139 --> 00:14:43.759 got to be careful in judging. You've got stuff 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:46.440 that you can't see correctly. We don't see well. 00:14:47.230 --> 00:14:49.169 Well, how can we say to your brother, let me 00:14:49.169 --> 00:14:51.389 take the speck out of your brother's eye, and 00:14:51.389 --> 00:14:55.090 there's a log in there. You have a pick. First 00:14:55.090 --> 00:14:57.909 take the log out of your brother's eye, and then 00:14:57.909 --> 00:14:59.850 you can see clearly to take the speck out of 00:14:59.850 --> 00:15:01.750 your brother's eye. Which by the way, he's not 00:15:01.750 --> 00:15:03.210 saying it isn't the speck in your brother's eye 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:04.909 that needs to be taken out. There's times where 00:15:04.909 --> 00:15:07.269 we actually rightly say, hey, let me talk to 00:15:07.269 --> 00:15:09.889 you about this. That's there. But Jesus himself 00:15:09.889 --> 00:15:14.080 connects judging and hypocrisy. Right? And when 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.860 he does that, he says, it's because we are not 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:24.019 good judges. We do not see well. Care for that 00:15:24.019 --> 00:15:29.039 judge. Verses six and seven here in Psalm 75 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.320 says, we're not from the east or from the west, 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:34.820 and not from the river. This comes lifting up. 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.139 And it's not who executes judgment. He's like, 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:39.659 it's not all those things out there. That's not 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:43.690 the right place to vote the judge to judge. God 00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:46.029 who executes judgment putting down one lifting 00:15:46.029 --> 00:15:54.509 up another What it's saying chase Nobody else 00:15:54.509 --> 00:16:00.070 touches And you desire an end to evil you desire 00:16:00.070 --> 00:16:03.870 judgment upon that which is evil in the world 00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:09.559 God is the only tree just judge There's the truth, 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.700 right? Like I said earlier, it's not too uncommon. 00:16:11.740 --> 00:16:14.100 If someone is and that's something they didn't 00:16:14.100 --> 00:16:18.539 do, that happens. And we do it to others too, 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.320 don't we? Falsely accused in another sometimes. 00:16:24.139 --> 00:16:29.879 False accusations. We are bad judges. The Bible 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:32.820 says again and again, God sees clearly. He judges 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:36.620 justly. So verses two and three again. Look down 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:40.440 there. At the same time that I appoint, I will 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:44.480 judge with equity. When the earth thunders and 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:47.659 all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps steady 00:16:47.659 --> 00:16:51.000 with its pillars. It says I'm the one that can 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:55.779 judge right. My suggestion to you is that we 00:16:55.779 --> 00:16:59.139 actually wrong for a just judge, a good one, 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:01.740 who sees properly, because we hate evil, and 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:06.119 we must acknowledge that we're bad judges. That 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.079 case seems like judgment was something that Foxy 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.180 and all the rest of Jesus talks about there is 00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:15.680 her own mouth But we should give thanks the judgment 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:21.759 of God because we did not And because we need 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:30.440 a just judge Okay third Finally the great reason 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:34.119 why would be a thanks for judgment of God? is 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:39.539 because Christ bears it for you, bears the judgment 00:17:39.539 --> 00:17:48.359 of God on your behalf. So maybe you noticed in 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:50.359 the scripture readings that one of the images 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:52.759 that we have in the Bible of God's judgment was 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:56.420 the cup. And one of those actually mentions Egypt 00:17:56.420 --> 00:18:01.460 being judged. One of the really significant images 00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:04.319 of Egypt Evil in the Bible is Egypt. And think 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:06.759 about it, right? Pharaoh felt threatened by all 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.039 these immigrants that had moved down to Egypt. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:12.099 So he enslaved them. He made them work invariably 00:18:12.099 --> 00:18:16.880 hard. He began killing off the little boys. And 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:19.880 if you know the story, judgment comes on Pharaoh 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:24.420 and all the land of Egypt, this evil place, doing 00:18:24.420 --> 00:18:28.279 horrible things, God's world to God's people. 00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:33.049 And the greatest day of God's judgment in that 00:18:33.049 --> 00:18:38.250 story is the Passover. The Passover day brings 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:42.650 together two things. One, there's a just judgment 00:18:42.650 --> 00:18:47.930 on you. And the other is there's a great grace 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:51.309 from God. So if you're a father of the people 00:18:51.309 --> 00:18:55.190 of God, write it into that story, you'd heard, 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:58.880 you were to take a little lamb, kill it and put 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:01.720 its blood on the lintel on the doorpost there 00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:04.640 of your house. And basically you had done that. 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:09.099 If something else had died in your place, taken 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:12.819 the wrath of God before you, you were passed 00:19:12.819 --> 00:19:16.420 over. You had life where you deserved judgment. 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:20.599 Someone else died in your place. One of the great 00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:24.019 images in the Bible, the wrath of God on judgment 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:27.980 is that. And listen to how it's described here, 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:31.940 verse eight. For the hand of the Lord, there 00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:37.660 is a cup with foam well mixed, and he pours out 00:19:37.660 --> 00:19:41.440 from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:48.400 drain it down to the drakes. Thankfully, judgment 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.079 of God, think of the battle hand of the repellent, 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:54.119 right, was pouring out the vintage with grapes 00:19:54.119 --> 00:20:01.940 of wrath. And there, of course, we must think 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:05.039 of the passage that was read from Luke, Chuck 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:10.839 Redford, there in the garden. Jesus himself is 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:15.799 in anguish before he goes to the cross. Interesting, 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:20.019 actually, what we didn't hear in those few verses 00:20:20.019 --> 00:20:22.880 that Chuck Redford, the verse before the verse 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.779 after, and it was one of those things that when 00:20:24.779 --> 00:20:27.339 I put it in the bulletin, You know afterwards 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.960 as a question with that because if you find it 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:31.859 what happens right before the verses that we 00:20:31.859 --> 00:20:33.900 heard is that Jesus tells us the cyclists they 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.400 pray They think that you follow the temptation 00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:39.319 and then the next verse after what we read is 00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:43.740 he goes to a cyclist You didn't do it and they 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:48.980 do But the disobedient his own disciples disobeyed 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:51.579 him and therefore they fall into temptation they 00:20:51.579 --> 00:20:55.230 participate therefore in the evil world But what 00:20:55.230 --> 00:21:01.089 we heard in Shaddik, Jesus praying to the Father, 00:21:03.210 --> 00:21:09.329 Jesus says, Father, take this cup from him. Take 00:21:09.329 --> 00:21:13.170 this cup from him. Why would he ask that? Why 00:21:13.170 --> 00:21:17.089 would Jesus use that kind of image for you? Why 00:21:17.089 --> 00:21:21.940 would he say, Father, take this from him? but 00:21:21.940 --> 00:21:24.640 because this is the great image of God's judgment 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:29.099 on evil and sin. And what does Jesus say? He 00:21:29.099 --> 00:21:32.559 says, yet in our Bible, the worst be done. Because 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:36.460 what Christ does on the cross is he does take 00:21:36.460 --> 00:21:41.700 the proper judgment of evil and sin upon himself. 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:47.720 This is the work of Christ upon the cross. the 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:50.200 judgment that we just say deserve, the judgment 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:52.640 that His disciples just say deserve, right there 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.839 in the garden, right now in that moment, we then 00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:58.779 go in false temptation and participate in the 00:21:58.779 --> 00:22:02.920 evil of filling God Himself. Jesus hangs on the 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:09.240 cross, brings the cup of God's wrath. God did 00:22:09.240 --> 00:22:12.920 not turn a blind eye to the evil of this world. 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:16.480 He were not. You will not turn a blind eye to 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:18.259 the evil that you have done that I have done. 00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:23.799 You will not. But there is a reason to sing and 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.299 to celebrate. Sure, there's a reason to sing 00:22:27.299 --> 00:22:30.440 and celebrate because evil will be judged. And 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:33.900 that God alone is the just judge. But this song 00:22:33.900 --> 00:22:38.119 points us ahead to where judgment and grace come 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:41.759 together across. When this is at the heart of 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:46.900 Christian singing, Jesus paid it all. Jesus bloody 00:22:46.900 --> 00:22:51.680 on the cross, bloody lentil, the bloody host, 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:55.900 that God would pass over the just judgment on 00:22:55.900 --> 00:22:59.819 me and on him. Christ would take it upon himself. 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:05.640 He knew no sin becomes that we might become the 00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:09.759 righteousness of God. Let me end with something 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:12.980 beautiful. I think sort of helps to illustrate 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:16.759 this. So I mentioned this pastor in Kentucky 00:23:16.759 --> 00:23:20.480 who's doing this work to eliminate the burden 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:26.420 of medical debt in the bluegrass state. But like 00:23:26.420 --> 00:23:29.539 I said, medical debt is most often bought by 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:32.680 creditors who can at least pay some of the amount, 00:23:32.900 --> 00:23:35.220 and then they can go after all this money that 00:23:35.220 --> 00:23:40.289 creates such havoc in the world. What they said 00:23:40.289 --> 00:23:44.390 this organization price for Kentucky is why don't 00:23:44.390 --> 00:23:48.309 Christians buy the debt instead of the creditors? 00:23:48.750 --> 00:23:53.269 And so they did this test program Last year 2003 00:23:53.269 --> 00:23:57.130 surely 2004 and they were able to polish nine 00:23:57.130 --> 00:23:59.750 million five hundred thirty nine thousand sixty 00:23:59.750 --> 00:24:03.829 nine dollars of debt for thirteen thousand three 00:24:03.829 --> 00:24:08.450 hundred eighty six Kentucky and now They are 00:24:08.450 --> 00:24:11.829 raising the money currently by the also debt 00:24:11.829 --> 00:24:16.990 for seventy five thousand more Kentucky. It is 00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:19.289 numbered at approximately one hundred and fifty 00:24:19.289 --> 00:24:23.309 million dollars. One hundred and fifty million 00:24:23.309 --> 00:24:27.190 dollars. What are they doing? They're saying. 00:24:28.130 --> 00:24:32.250 We're going to take it on ourselves. The evil 00:24:32.250 --> 00:24:34.769 that is coming down through these through these 00:24:34.769 --> 00:24:38.240 evil empires and evil creditors. We're going 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:43.740 to take it that you might have life. It probably 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:46.519 fails in some ways, but what I'm saying is Jesus 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:49.019 is drinking the cup of God's wrath and saying, 00:24:49.859 --> 00:24:54.660 I will pay the debt that you might have life. 00:24:57.259 --> 00:25:01.839 Judgment of God is not normally something that 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:03.700 we're running out from the streets and saying, 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:08.619 listen to this. But what I'm telling you is that 00:25:08.619 --> 00:25:11.940 it is at the heart of Christian Good News. The 00:25:11.940 --> 00:25:16.980 judgment of God came down. It was justly to come 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:21.380 on us on Christ in the cross. And He willingly 00:25:21.380 --> 00:25:25.900 went there for you, that you would have life. 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:31.279 Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for the songs. 00:25:32.099 --> 00:25:35.869 Thank you that they invite us into. subjects 00:25:35.869 --> 00:25:39.490 that we may skirt around, and that this song 00:25:39.490 --> 00:25:44.650 points us to our blessed Savior, who submits 00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:47.430 the will of the Father in drinking the cup of 00:25:47.430 --> 00:25:51.910 bread for us. Lord, we bless you this morning. 00:25:52.230 --> 00:25:56.269 God, we do pray. Come, Lord Jesus. Come and judge 00:25:56.269 --> 00:25:59.869 the world in your righteousness, in your justice. 00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:04.769 Bring your peace. And most of all, we say thank 00:26:04.769 --> 00:26:06.730 you for your work on the cross. We bless you, 00:26:06.789 --> 00:26:13.269 Lord Jesus. Because we are sinners, we are likely 00:26:13.269 --> 00:26:18.289 to decide to defraud the temptation to justify 00:26:18.289 --> 00:26:21.650 you so often with our hearts and our lives, and 00:26:21.650 --> 00:26:24.349 yet we willingly go to the cross. So we say thank 00:26:24.349 --> 00:26:28.190 you, blessed be the Lord Jesus. In the name we 00:26:28.190 --> 00:26:34.640 pray. Thank you for listening to Second City 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:37.559 Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:39.740 you to worship God and to celebrate the gospel 00:26:39.740 --> 00:26:42.420 of Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this 00:26:42.420 --> 00:26:45.180 podcast and joining us in person each Sunday 00:26:45.180 --> 00:26:48.559 at 10 a .m. You can find us online at secondcitychurch 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.640 .org and on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. 00:26:52.019 --> 00:26:54.039 Thanks again for listening. God bless.