God is in Control Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God is in Control Part 2. He will be reading out of Isaiah 4:2-6.

How will you escape if you neglect this great salvation? If you say no to Jesus this morning and you walk away and refuse to believe, how will you escape the judgment of God? You will not, my friends, escape. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. I want to welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio program.

Thank you for joining us today. We’re going to be back in the book of Isaiah. We’re in chapter four.

We’re learning that God is in control. So join me as we begin this study. He will destroy the kingdoms of this world.

Daniel tells us all about that. You can read about it in Daniel 2 and Daniel 4 and Daniel 7, and you can see it in Daniel 12. But the point being is I want you to understand that this will be a beautiful day.

It’ll be a time where Jesus is not only vindicated, but it’ll be a time where we will rejoice, and we will give glory to God, and we will give praise to God. Hebrews 1. I want you to just go to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, real quickly. Go ahead, get your Bible out.

Come to church with your Bible because this will help you to be a student of the Word of God. You’re already scrolling on your Facebook page. You’re already scrolling on what Amazon deals are out there.

Forget all that, and recognize you’re in the presence of God. It’s a holy presence of God, and open the holy Word of God, and look at verse 3 of chapter 1 of the book of Hebrews, and referring to Jesus Christ, that who being in the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. That’s the phrase I wanted you to see, that in that day Christ will be exalted in glory and honor.

He already is exalted, and he is glorified in the presence at the right hand of the Father, but the day is coming, my friends, where the brightness and the glory of Jesus Christ will sit in the seat of David and will reign in the city of Jerusalem. You say, why do you say that, Mike? Because the Bible says it. That’s why I say at church, and you could come up with all of your different eschatological philosophies that you want, but friends, I’m just sticking with the Bible.

In that day, Christ will be glorified. He will be beautiful and glorious. In that day, all of his enemies will be humiliated and destroyed, and they will eat the dust of this earth.

You say, what do you mean? First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 25 says, referring to Jesus, he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Jesus will reign, my friends. He will come as a lion, and he will rule and reign.

All the agony and the suffering and the slander and the false accusations will be nullified in the glorious way when Christ, the great prince, is praised in that day because he is beautiful and he is glorious. Now, as Christians, as we live in this day, not that day that is to come, we look forward to it. I recognize that many times in Christians, we have seasons in our life where we feel that we are never going to be able to escape sin.

The Bible tells us that we wrestle with sin. We wrestle with it, that this body is still dealing with the temptations of sin. When you came to Jesus Christ and received him as your Lord and Savior, you were delivered from the penalty of sin.

The penalty of sin, that is that Jesus took that penalty on the cross. The wrath of God, the holiness of God that had to punish sin was taken care of in the cross. That’s why we glory in the cross, church.

That’s why we rejoice that our Savior died for us. But I also want you to know that as we are growing in our faith, as we’re plugged into Bible studies, as we’re plugged into mentoring relationships, as we’re plugged into the worship service, as we are under the teaching and the feeding of the Word of God, we can obtain power over sin. The power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Word of God that helps us to be able to say no to sin and yes to Jesus Christ.

That’s why it’s so important. But yet the presence of sin is still here, and we will not be delivered until that day. In that day, you and I will eventually be delivered from the presence of sin, and we will live in a place where there is no sin, there is no sadness, there is no sorrow, there is no curse of sin upon this planet.

We will live in a day where not only all of creation is groaning for, and even that the people of God are groaning for, and even the Spirit of God is groaning for, that day when the presence of sin is absent in our life, and we can live in this utopia society where God is honored and Christ is glorified every day. Won’t that be beautiful, church? That is the hope that Isaiah wants you to have. We’ve seen the period of that day and the praise of that day.

Let’s see the prosperity in that day. I’m still in verse 2. In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious. That branch is Jesus.

You say, Mike, why do you keep saying it? Because half of you have been sleeping, and I’m trying to wake you up. But look at this, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing. It shall be excellent and appealing when Jesus Christ is honored, when righteousness is exalted and embraced.

It will impact this land and the prosperity of this land. It will bear fruit. Even broccoli will taste good.

Amen? Yes, broccoli needs salt and cheese to make it taste good. But the fruit of the land will be wonderful. It’ll be beautiful.

It’ll taste good. You and I, we watch a world that thinks they’re prospering. A world that’s so upside down.

A world that has said that right is wrong and wrong is right. A world that thinks it can just spend its way out of any problem that they have. A world that is in trillions of debt and will never be paid back.

You’re kidding yourself. And any politician who promises you is only lying to you. The prosperity of the world is only poverty.

It’s only poverty. And certainly it is most of all spiritual poverty. But in that day, the true prosperity of God will be upon the land as the curse of sin is gone.

And God will ultimately restore this beautiful place as we live in this millennial kingdom. And everything will be so glorious and wonderful in the reign of Jesus Christ. We won’t be hyped up about who’s against who and who’s against what.

But we will just enjoy that we are blessed and there’ll be so much prosperity. Doesn’t mean that you’ll have everything that you want. It just simply means that the blessings of God will be upon this place in the millennial kingdom.

You will be given assignments and responsibilities. You’ll have a job to do. You’ll wake up every day not groaning that you have to go to work, but you’ll be rejoicing.

Because you will be working in accordance to your giftedness, your passion, your abilities that God has equipped you with. You won’t be in a dead-end job. You’ll have an assignment from the Lord and it will be beautiful and it’ll be wonderful and you’ll enjoy every moment.

Why? Because the Bible teaches us that we’ll have the energy of the Lord. We wake up and we’re tired. We wake up and our bones are cracking.

We wake up and we’re looking for our wheelchair. But you know there’s coming a day when our age won’t matter and our bodies will be renewed. And Isaiah will talk about that later in that we will be like young people again and we’ll have the energy of the Lord and the strength of God.

But the day is coming where God is going to restore our youthfulness. It’s going to be beautiful church. It’s why there’ll be so much prosperity.

But I also want you to see the people of that day. The people of that day. I’m still in chapter 4 and verse 2. In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped or been delivered.

Some translations put it like that. They have been escaped or delivered. This speaks of those who will truly experience this glorious time.

Those who have been saved. Those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. Again remember what are they escaping or what are they being delivered from? They’re being delivered from this particular tribulation time period.

Jacob’s trouble the prophets would call it. Jacob’s trouble. A seven-year period that they are being delivered from.

You come to Matthew chapter 25. In Matthew 25. I know we like to see it as something that’s applicable for today and certainly it can be.

It doesn’t go against the Word of God. But honestly what it’s teaching us in Matthew 25 is about the tribulation period. And you remember it says that Jesus would say I was hungry and you fed me.

I was in jail and you visited me. I was without clothes and you clothed me. And we believe that this is our mandate to meet the social ills of the world and certainly we should do everything we can as a church and as a believer.

But I’m telling you that the true context of Matthew 25 is about the tribulation period where those who refuse to take the mark of the beast and those in the nation of Israel who are coming to Christ. Because there’ll be 144,000 evangelists who are raised up during the tribulation period. They’ll be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and they will be invincible until their purpose is accomplished.

And many will come to Jesus Christ but there will be great persecution. We know in Revelation 6 that there is around the throne of God a group of martyrs who are crying out to the father asking him when will he bring vengeance upon the earth for their blood. Because those who believe in Jesus Christ during the tribulation period will be under intense persecution and intense suffering.

Who are these people? Look at verse 2 again. For those of Israel who have escaped are those who have been delivered. They are the people who are delivered from the tribulation period who come to Jesus Christ more particularly.

But we have a reminder to all of us this morning. The words of Hebrews 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? How will you escape the tribulation period? How will you escape the judgment of God? How will you escape to be cast into the eternal lake of fire? Only if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How will you escape if you neglect this great salvation? If you say no to Jesus this morning and you walk away and refuse to believe.

How will you escape the judgment of God? You will not my friends escape. Oh there is a season the Bible says that sin is pleasurable but it all comes to an end. And we all must make a decision.

And you say well I’m not going to make a decision. Well my friends to make no decision is to make a decision. But what we see here is those who escape this tribulation period are those who are truly redeemed.

Who have truly put their faith in Jesus Christ. And they will enjoy the blessings of in that day. And if you have not come to Christ for salvation this morning.

If you have not put your faith and trust in what Christ did on the cross for your sins. My friends you will not escape the divine judgment. And you will not enjoy the blessings of the millennial kingdom that is to come for all believers.

Now we get to the rest of the chapter. And we come down to verse three. He reminds us he says and it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.

Everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. What I want you to see is the protection of that day. The protection of this beautiful day in the millennial kingdom.

God protects his own. Here the prophet Isaiah is using symbolic language to remind us of the protection of God in those last days. You remember if you’ll just go back real quickly Isaiah 1 and verse 9. We’re reminded that God always has a remnant.

And God is always protecting even when his judgment is upon us. Verse 9 unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah.

You see the judgment of God that Sodom and Gomorrah judgment upon those people because they rejected God. Because they wanted to live a selfish lifestyle. They wanted to go away from God’s plan and purpose and design for their life.

And so they chose a path that was dishonoring to God in their homosexual lifestyle. A lifestyle that offended the very holiness of God. You see my friends when I sin against God.

When I live outside of his purpose, outside of his design, and outside of his plan for my life. I am committing treason before a holy God as I am offending in my selfish sinful lifestyle a perfect and righteous God. And that’s where I need to get to in my spiritual walk with God.

That it’s not about me. It’s about honoring and glorifying a holy and righteous God. That I never want to disappoint, let down, or displease this holy and righteous God who has saved me.

Who has protected me. We come to chapter 3 and verse 10 again in the midst of all this judgment that we learned a few weeks ago. We see this that the prophet says, say to the righteous that it shall be well with them for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings.

God always has a remnant that even as judgment is raining down even upon our nation. God always has a remnant of believers who he is protecting. And we’re to be reminded of that church.

That we can continue to move forward for God. We don’t walk in fear. We do not retreat in our mission and assignment from God just because we’re in the midst of judgment.

But rather we continue to move forward in the sovereign power of God who is protecting the remnant. He is protecting the remnant. What is the source of this protection? Again we see it is the source of this protection is the Lord.

The Lord is the source. Look at verse 4, when the Lord has washed away the filth and the daughters of Zion. Verse 5, then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies.

Who is it that is doing this? It is the Lord who is protecting us. This great protector is God himself. And when our protection is from God, you need no other insurance policy.

Salvation is secure in Christ. He has protected you. He is watching out and covering over you.

Making sure that you achieve what he has purposed in your life. That’s why I’m a strong believer in the security of the saints. In the eternal security of the believer because of John chapter 10 verse 28 and 29 in which Jesus said, I give them eternal life.

Not temporal life. Not partial eternal life. But he says, I give them eternal life and they shall what church? Perish.

I want you to see it. I want you to say it. I want you to feel it.

I want you to sense it. Why? Because I want you to walk out of here with confidence and hope that he will not take away your salvation. They shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. You nor anyone else can snatch your spiritual eternal life out of the hand of God. How wonderful it is to know that we are in the hand of God.

Not only that the hand of God and his anointing and power to be upon us, but we are in the covering and the protection of his hand. And the Bible says, you cannot be snatched out. My father who has given them to me.

Now stop there. I wish I could just drill down on this and you’d be so overwhelmed. We would just rejoice even into the picnic time.

But here’s what the Bible says. My father has given them to me. I know you saw your salvation as only a means of escaping hell.

As perhaps fire insurance to make sure that when you check out that heaven is your home, certainly that is the surface level. But even deeper about your salvation is this. You and I, every believer that trusts in Jesus Christ is a gift from the father to the son.

You are a gift from the father to the son. And he only gives gifts that he knows will please the son. You don’t go out and buy a gift and say, I hope they don’t like it.

I mean, maybe a few of you, I don’t know. Maybe Christmas is coming and you’re going to really get even, right? Because they only gave you a hand towel last year. So you’re going to pass that candle that’s been going through the family through 10 different people, right? But here’s what I want you to know how beautiful church.

You are a gift from the father to Jesus. And Jesus says, my father who has given them to me is greater than all. He’s greater.

And no one is able to snatch them out of my father’s hand. Don’t mess with the father and his gift to the son. Don’t mess with it.

And don’t think that somehow in your finite life that you have the ability to take away Jesus’s gift from the father. Don’t think that somehow you have the ability. Do not think of yourself so highly that you have the ability to take Jesus’s gift away from the father.

You are secure and you are secured by the father. You are protected in your faith. And the question before us, is God able to protect us all? And the answer is yes.

And yes, absolutely. The sight of this protection. Hang in there church.

How could so much be in so few verses? Because the word of God is so deep we could never get to the end of it. I hope that I lead you into a study of the book of Isaiah that will lead you to greater depths than I could ever share with you. But what is the place? Well, again, we see it in verse 5, that the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion.

Again, he says, and above her assemblies, this beautiful place, Mount Zion, that God is honored. A place where God is exalted. You see, it’s not just that.

This is all symbolism. And it’s not just that it’s all something made up. But it’s a literal person, Jesus Christ, the branch.

It’s a literal place that he’s giving to us. It’s a place where we will rejoice and honor God. It’ll be far superior than any place in this world.

It will be the exalted place of where Jesus Christ will reside. And he will sit in that throne of David. And he will rule and reign.

Listen to the prophet Daniel. As he says in Daniel 12, 1, at that time, Michael shall stand up. The great prince who stands, watch over the sons of your people.

And there shall be a time of trouble. That’s that tribulation time. Such as never was since there was a nation.

Even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered. Everyone who is found written in the book.

Now look, you have to be in the book. Go back to verse 3. It shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

And the question is your name in the book? Is your name in the book of life? When roll call is given, is your name going to be called out? Are you in the eternal book of life? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you been just fiddle-faddling with the world? Dabbling in the pleasures of your sin? Or have you truly devoted your life to follow Jesus Christ? My friends, there’s much to be said here and much for us to contemplate. But I desire so much for each of you to have your name in the Lamb’s book of life. And that this church family works tirelessly, rises early and late, and gives a hundred percent and more if possible so that your name will be in the Lamb’s book of life.

And I hope that is true. I hope that is true. What is my response this morning? I hope that if you know Christ that you will choose to be holy.

That what is glorious and is to come will be a reflection, a little bit of taste on this earth, a little bit of heaven on this earth, a little bit of the millennial kingdom. Be distinct. Be different.

Make the case through your life for Jesus Christ to be a believer. Don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t be someone who is against the church, but be holy.

But I would also say be hopeful, church. It’s going to get better. Now, there is going to be some troubles.

There’s going to be some problems, church. Things aren’t going to always unfold like we want them on this earth. But let’s be hopeful that there’s going to be a greater and a grander day that’s coming forward.

And listen, I want the millennial kingdom to come. Why? Because my loved ones are there. Because I want to hold them and touch them and talk to them again.

I want to interact. I want to fellowship with the people of God. I got some questions for Moses, and I got some questions for the apostle Paul.

I’m going to be one of those guys that Paul’s going to be saying, can you distract him because I got to get out of here. He’s got too many questions. Be hopeful, church.

The curse of sin is leaving this world, and your loved ones are going to be with you. Be hopeful, but also be helpful, church. Until then, until that day, let’s be helpful to one another.

Let’s take care of the household of faith. Let’s be helpful in serving. If you just give a cup of water in his name, you’re doing his work.

You got to stay engaged. You can’t get on the back burner. You can’t quit.

It’s too soon. Somebody made you mad. Well, I’m just saying power through it.

People make people mad all the time. Welcome to life. We can’t quit church.

We can’t give up. We can’t walk away from the assignment of getting the gospel to every person on this planet. We can’t quit on our job from heaven.

We must stay fully engaged. Well, Isaiah talks about a day of vengeance, a period in time in which God is going to right all the wrongs in the world. Certainly, the Bible teaches us that vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

We cry out in our hearts for righteousness, justice, rightly so, because within our heart, God has created a desire for righteousness, and yet we will never see it fully on display in this world. We will only see it in the coming kingdom of Christ in the thousand-year reign of the millennial kingdom. And we look forward to that day in which God will establish justice and righteousness in the land.

I want to encourage you to make sure that you are checking us out on YouTube. You can get this entire sermon in the YouTube channel. Just go under our playlist, and we have different books of the Bible that we’ve been teaching and preaching from.

And if you’ll jump into the book of Isaiah, you can pick up and see this whole message and take advantage of learning and growing and developing. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.