If you have your Bible, serve
with me to the 13th chapter of Isaiah. The title of my message
tonight is Shaking. Verse 13. We'll read through
the end of the chapter. Chapter 13 and verse 13. Therefore, I will shake the heavens,
and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of
the Lord of hosts, in the day of his fierce anger. and it shall be as a chaste row,
and as a sheep that hath no man taketh up. They shall every man turn to
his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found shall
be thrust through, and every one that is joined unto them
shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be
dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled,
and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the meads
against them which shall not regard silver, and as for gold,
they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the
young men to pieces. They shall have no pity on the
fruit of the womb. Their eyes shall not spare the
children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldees, excellency, shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited.
Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
Neither shall the Arabian pitch the tent there. Neither shall
the shepherds make their folds there. But wild beasts of the
desert shall lie there. and their houses shall be full
of doleful creatures. The owls shall dwell there, and
the satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands
shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant
places. And our time is near to come. Our days shall not be
prolonged. Let us pray. Our Father, we bow to your greatness
and your power your righteousness and your holiness. We are thankful that you are
true about yourself. And though frail creatures can
never fully enter into what you speak of, our desire is to know thee and
know thee better. We bless you, Lord, for that
greatness, that sovereign might that dispenses this world as
you see fit, because it belongs to you. All the fullness thereof
and all the people that dwell therein. We know, Father, you
will do what is right, for you can do no other. You will do
that which honors and glorifies your holiness and your perfection.
We thank you, Father, that you did not regard us in ourselves
and of ourselves. that your regard for us was before
the world began, before we even existed, as you chose us in Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world. You predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of your Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, because you predestinated
us, you also called us and justified us and glorified us. As we consider these things tonight,
for they are hard to grasp, words such as these strike us in our
very hearts and minds. But let us remember and cause
us to remember the cross of Calvary and the one who hung there in
agonies and blood. Help us to rejoice in that blessed
salvation and know that that transaction between your son
and you was too much for human eyes to bear. Father, we pray
for those of our company who are sick and going through trials.
We remember especially Peanut as he's having these radiation
treatments and feeling the effect of them. We pray for Jenny. She
continues to battle the cancer. For Julie. also for Wayne and
Henry, Robert and Laverne, all the others who requested prayer.
Pray for our children. Pray to bring them to a knowledge
of Christ. Help us, Lord, as we look at this passage to get
a somewhat of a glimpse of who you are and what we are and what
this world is and where it's headed. And that you will not
prolong its days Its days are numbered just as ours are. And
let us realize that it will soon pass off, this universal pass
away, by the word of your mouth. We thank you for your long suffering,
which is our salvation. We thank you in the name of Jesus
Christ, who is worthy of all praise. Amen. As we saw the last time we were
together, we looked at the terror of God and the wrath of the Lord.
We saw that unleashing against Babylon and typically against
great Babylon, the great whore in the last day. Great Babylon
is representative of that conglomeration of all works religion designed
to bring a man to a state where God will accept him based on
his own merit. God will destroy all of that.
And we know that that conglomeration called Great Babylon is described
in language that can only be attributed to utter and complete
terror. There doesn't seem to be any letting up here in the
language of God when he goes against his enemies. And the
remainder of this chapter is a full revelation of the effort
of human language to describe what is really almost indescribable
to our human mind. And all these words fall under
a single theme which the Lord calls a shaking of the earth. A shaking of the earth. In verse
13 he says, Therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth
that shall be removed out of her place, and the wrath of the
Lord of hosts, and in that day, and the day of his fierce anger.
Now what follows in this passage we just read, and if you were
reading along you saw that there was some striking language that
our Lord speaks. And what follows illuminates
this concept of shaking. They are things that are hard
to hear. And no matter how vindictive our own heart might be, the wrath
of the Lord is unimaginable by comparison. I heard our vice
president today speaking about ISIS and the troubles over in
the Middle East. And he waxed bold. Sounded like
he was running for president, but he was waxing bold. And he
said, we will pursue them to the gates of hell. And hell is
where they're going to end up. And hell is where they belong. More than likely, he'll be there
with them. Because of what I've heard of
him and what he speaks, he don't know God from a goose. Hell is described very vaguely
in scripture, but it is described in words that we can somehow
get a hold of the fact that it's a place where punishment never
ends, where men die and yet never die, where they're always thirsty
and never get a drink of water, where it's always hot and fiery
and dark. But those are things we can somehow
get our mind around. We read these passages or this
passage of what our Lord intends to do to Babylon. We can say
this and we know this to be true. The Lord is right in His heart
and in His way. His thoughts and ways exude from
a place of absolute righteousness and unmitigated holiness. And
as we consider these things, what really should govern our
mind is the knowledge of what took place on Calvary 20 years
ago. And there's a reason for that.
We look at this wrath and we say, my soul, not going to consider
the child in the womb. Babies will be dashed to pieces
in front of their mothers and fathers. Wives will be raped. And those things stir us. Those things stir us. But 20
centuries ago, our Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvary Street.
And there and there alone, sin was punished without mercy. For
though Israel is in captivity to Babylon because of their sin,
In the very next chapter, our Lord begins it by saying, for
the Lord will have mercy on Jacob. The Lord will have mercy on Jacob.
But on the cross is a different story. A different story. God's wrath was not poured out
on His enemy that day, but on His darling Son. The spotless
Lamb of God. His only begotten. The one who
neither knew sin nor did sin. And when He takes vengeance on
those that harm or would harm His children, only the cross
sheds light on what He does. The terror unleashed here in
this passage that we just read, the language of destruction and
desolation is actually describable. He describes it. We see it. We can picture it. in our minds
of what goes on. It's actually describable. And
it's actually to be, can be understood by the human mind. But when his
wrath was poured out on his son, he cut out the lights. He shut
down heaven. He shut down the sun. No one
could see. No one can see or even pretend
to understand what went on under that shroud of darkness. It was
evidently so bad, so hard, so great, so terrible, so mighty
that the human mind could not grasp it. So God did not give
us a description of what His total wrath is being poured out. He didn't describe it for us.
Here the terror is described and in the end of days the terror
is described. We can read it in this book.
It's visible, it's discernible, it's palpable and seen by humanity. Men see what's going on. So by
comparison we can reasonably surmise that as terrible as these
descriptions are here, they do not compare to that day when
the sword of justice was drawn from its scabbard and thrust
into the bosom of God's fellow. The sheep were scattered, and
the earth shook, and the rocks were rent in twain, and no one
saw, because no human being, save for the God-man, could even
begin to imagine, or his mind wrap around the wrath and vengeance
of God against sin." God pours out His wrath and anger on these
people here, but we can see everything He does and understand and grasp.
But what was it like in those three hours of darkness? When
God unleashed Himself without mercy on His darling Son, we
cannot know. Vague descriptions are given
in Scripture like that when He said, the Lord shall draw His
sword out of that scabbard and place it in the heart of His
fellow. But that only happens once. It only happened once.
It'll never happen again. when God burns up this world
and casts all its habits and hell also into the lake of fire
to burn for eternity. That's something we can picture.
But that is not that sword of wrath being drawn. That is not the sword of wrath
being drawn for that sword destroys, completely, utterly destroys.
Hell goes on forever. That sword was drawn once. And
when God drew it that one time and thrust it in the bosom of
His Son, He shrouded the whole thing in darkness. We see here
describable anguish, and it is a picture of the wrath of God,
and it's scary enough for me. But mark well the description
of this shaking, and know well that we are but seeing the hiding
of God's power. We are not seeing God's power
displayed. His wrath is poured out, sure
His anger is poured out, but it's tempered with mercy. Because He's gonna show mercy
to Jacob. He's gonna show mercy to Jacob. In Habakkuk, turn over
there. The book of Habakkuk. right after Micah, or rather
right after Mayhem and right before Zephaniah. In Habakkuk chapter 3, God is described as
coming in vengeance. And if we read the latter part
of the chapter, you can see how He, we can picture the things
that go on, how He drives up the river and tears down the
mountains and things like that. But here it says he appears in
verse three and four. It says, God came from Tima,
and that means from the south, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Think about this, see, Lord, dwell here for a moment. God
showed up. His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was as
the light. And he had horns or shafts of
light coming out of his hands and out of his sides. And there
was the hiding of his power, not the display. If we saw that,
boy, they'd say, boy, that's surely God, but that's not God
displayed. That's God hid. How great is He? Our imagination
cannot begin to understand. But we can look at the verses
we've read here and we can see His fierce anger that we can
grasp. Things that we can understand,
things that we can enter into. In verse 14 it says, he says,
"...shall be chased like a roe. The people will run like a deer
runs from a pack of wolves, and the sheep will have no man to
take him up." I saw a thing on Facebook the other day where
these construction workers found a thong, and it was scared and
afraid, and one of the construction workers picked it up and was
holding it, and the minute he tried to put it down, the thong
would just cry, and it sounded like a baby crying. You know,
he felt so safe in the arms of that man. This was a wild creature,
but he felt safe. And the moment he didn't feel
safe, he began to cry. And that's the same way with
this sheep, this lamb. When he's taken up in a man's
bosom, he feels safe, but there's no man to take him up. They shall
every man turn to his own people. That is, he'll look around him,
but there will be none to help. Everyone will flee to his own
land people will just run away. They'll leave everything behind
Everyone that is found shall be thrust through the ones that
are left the ones that don't make it out are going to be killed
And everyone that is joined to them They shall be followed by
the sword also their children also should be dashed to pieces
before their eyes That's hard language and their houses shall
be spoiled and their wives raped and Behold, I will stir up the Medes
against them, which shall not regard silver." You can't buy
them off, you can't bribe them. And as for gold, they shall not
delight in it. They have one thing on their mind, that we're
going to destroy everyone in Babylon. That's all they want. Their bow shall dash the young
men. Young men are always the hope of a nation, for they're
the ones that go to war. They're the ones that help produce
other children. And they shall have no pity on
the fruit of the womb. That's babies. And their eyes
shall not spare the children. This is the language of God.
This is how He's going to do things. We say, oh, that's terrible,
but it doesn't even compare to God dealing with sin on the
cross of Calvary. Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms,
great Babylon, with her hanging gardens and her mighty kings,
rich and famous. The beauty of the chaldees shall
be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, two burnt places
on the face of the earth. They shall never be inhabited.
These words are hyperbolic. They shall never be inhabited.
It's inhabited today, but it's not a good place to be. Neither
shall be dwelt from generation to generation. Neither shall
the Arabian pitch his tent there. This place is not going to be
fit to live. Neither shall the shepherds make their folds there.
Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there. That's all that'll
be out there. Wild beasts and their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures. Doleful creatures. What does
that mean? You ever been in an old building
in some place and you walk in, ain't nothing but rats running
around? I've seen a few places like that when I went overseas.
Go downtown and walk into a building there and you see rats running
across the floor. Owls shall be there. They shall, where there's satyrs,
shall dance there. In other words, these houses
will not be occupied by people. If people go in, they'll go in
for a surprise. Though all beasts of the island shall cry in their
desolate houses, and dragon snakes in their pleasant places. And
her time has come near. and her days shall be prolonged."
This stuff is so self-explanatory you don't need to add any words
to it. This is the wrath of God displayed. This is what we can
see. This is what we can understand. But God never showed us what
it was when He dealt with sin without mercy. So what's that
like? I don't think we'll ever know.
What it cost, the Son of God. to die in our own state. He spared
not His own Son. He spared not His own Son. Having
seen this in all its clarity, it is important to visit the
theme of shaking. This term is used many times
in Scripture, speaking of God's wrath, but is specifically tied
to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ shows
up, Things get shook. Things get shook. When he showed
up in earth and his humanity, earth was shaken to its core.
Everything changed. Twelve men were called by him
and they went out preaching and the great powers of Rome and
the great powers of Israel said, these men have turned the world
upside down. Just twelve men. And they weren't
carrying swords and cutting people's heads off. They weren't converting
people at the end of the sword. They was going about telling
them who Jesus Christ was. They was pointing to that man
of Nazareth that they had hung on the cross. That he had died
and rose from the grave and God had made him Lord. And they said,
that's the Christ. That's the Messiah. And they
kept saying that over and over again. It began to stir people
and things got shook. Nations got shook. And nations
are shook today. Nations are shook today. As I
said before and primarily as we started this study in the
beginning and also specifically chapter 11 and chapter 12 and
the beginning of chapter 13, all of it, all of human history,
what's going on today in this world and what went on in the
first day of Eden is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether men
are in love with Him, or whether they would hate Him and want
to kill Him. That's how the world is divided today. That's how
the world is divided. When Isaiah spoke of that day
when men will be humbled and hide in the dust and cry for
the rocks to fall on them, called the day of the Lord, the day
of His visitation, it is described as the Lord rising up to shape
the earth. The Lord rising up. to shake
the earth. Look at chapter 2 in verses 19
through 21. Chapter 2 of Isaiah. And they
shall go into the holes of the rocks, into the caves of the
earth, for fear of the Lord, for the glory of His majesty,
when He arises to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man
shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which
they made each one of them to worship, to the moles and the
bats." They'll just throw everything that they held as high and holy
and wonderful and they bowed down to it. They'll throw it
out the window and say, it ain't nothing. Somebody's coming. Somebody's rose up and the earth
is shaking. to go into the clefts of the
rocks and to the tops of ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and
for the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake terribly
the earth. That's talking about the day
of the Lord. And when he saw the Lord in His
glory, you remember that? When Isaiah saw the Lord in His
glory and the year the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, he
says in chapter 6, he describes it as a shaking. As they're shaking,
he says, when the Lord came on the scene and His train filled
the temple and smoke filled the place, and these cherubim were
singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, He said, the posts of the doors
moved. The house shook. the house shook,
and the voice of him that crieth, that the voice of him that crieth
in the house was filled with smoke. And he described the shaking
of the soul of his confidence and his self-esteem. After he
had seen that, he says, woe is me. I am undone. I am unclean
and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Woe is me. I've seen the Lord. I've seen
the Lord. That happens when the Lord shows
up. Look over to Daniel for a moment. Daniel saw the Lord in His glory. In Daniel chapter 10. He saw the Lord described almost
exactly as He's described in the first chapter of Revelation.
But listen to his response to what he saw. Now this is what
happens when the men see the Lord. Throughout Scripture. Throughout Scripture. In chapter 10, verses 5 through
8, he says, Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold
a certain man, clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with
the fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like beryl,
and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as
lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like a color to polish
brass, and the voice of his words were like the voice of a multitude.
And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men that were
with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking, shaking fell
upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore,
I was left alone and saw this great vision. And there remained
no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me to corruption, and I retained no strength. This
is what happens when people see Christ. When people see Christ. How unlike this does religion
speak of Christ in this day. But when men saw Him, When He
showed up on the scene, men weren't out jumping and dancing around
and popping their blowgum and inviting them into their heart
and making them lord of their life. They were down in the dirt. They hit the dust and said, woe
is me for I am undone. And only those in religion thought
they could withstand His face, withstand Him face to face. Only
those in religion thought that you could reject Him and disallow
Him and even seek to murder Him, but all to no avail. One day
they too will bow, you see. They too will bow. They will
not bow in awe and love and reverence, but in fear and terror when the
Lord arises to shake the earth. And He's going to shake it again.
He said He was going to shake it again. And this shaking refers
to both His incarnation and to His final return. Look over in
the book of Hebrews. the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 12 we know this chapter speaks of
the comparison of that mount called Sinai that men cannot
touch lest they die And the promise to the children of God that they
have not come to that mount, but they've come to Mount Zion.
But in verse 25 of chapter 12, it says, See that ye refuse not
Him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refuse Him that
spake on earth, how much more shall not we escape if we turn
away from Him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook
the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake
not the earth only, but also heaven." This word, yet once
more, signified the removing of those things that are shaken
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. This is a shaking. And the language
is plain and easily understood. The next time the Lord shakes
the earth, we'll be at the coming of the Lord with His saints.
Everything that is not tied down and anchored to the rock of salvation
will be destroyed. And on that day, that which cannot
be destroyed will remain, it says. But only things that cannot
be destroyed are things that are eternal. That's what cannot
be destroyed. That which is eternal is the
Lord and His church. That's who's going to be left,
you see. That's going to be all of it. All of remaining humanity
will be the Lord and His church. The rest of it, the earth, the
stars, the moon, the sun, the universe, will melt with the
fervent heat and God will make all things new. Everything that is not tied down
is going to be destroyed. That which is eternal is the
Lord and His church. Everything else is kindling for
the fire. Look at what you've got. Look
at what you hold on to. Look at what you put confidence
in. If you can see it, if you can touch it, if you can feel
it, if you can desire it, it will pass away. The Lord's going
to shake this place. He's going to shake that place.
Spiritually, this also addresses the day when the Lord reveals
Himself in that sovereign salvation that saves His elect. On that
day, the elect become spiritual. They are given life, spiritual
life, and all their carnal doings and desires are suddenly shaken.
I can remember it all being shaken. Their efforts at merit and righteousness,
their self-righteousness, their thoughts of willpower lay at
their feet in ruins. And they are shut up only to
the grace of God, imprisoned to that grace, waiting for the
Lord to unlock the door. Only that which cannot be shaken
remains. Only that. The words of Hebrew
12 are a partial quote of a promise spoken by the prophet Haggai. Turn there to Haggai. right after Zephaniah, right
before Zechariah, Haggai. In Haggai chapter 2, verses 6
and 7, it says this, Haggai 2, 6 and 7, For thus saith the Lord
of hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens
and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake
all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I
will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." This also refers to the incarnation
and the final return of the Lord Jesus Christ, His appearance.
Remember, He's going to return to those who are looking for
Him and those that love His appearing. And to the children of God, this
is honey and honeycomb to the elect. And it is also a strict
indictment of the nations that reject the Lord and refuse His
rule. First, the glory referred to here is that of the incarnation
and the crucifixion, the glory that fills this house. At the
incarnation, the angel spake of His glory, the Amaliel sang
of His glory, saying, Glory to God in the highest and peace
on earth to men of goodwill. And on the cross, the glory of
God was foremost in the minds of God and His Son. It was all
about the glory. Hold your place there at Haggai
and turn over to John chapter 12. John chapter 12, our Lord is
speaking in verse 27. He says, Now is my soul troubled,
but what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I to this hour, to the cross. Father,
glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood
by and heard it, said it with thunder. Others said an angel
spake to him. Jesus, knowing what they were
thinking, answered and said, This voice came not because of
me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if
I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying
what death he should die. About his death glorifying God. Then over in chapter 17 in his
high priestly prayer, Our Lord said this in verse 4, I have
glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work that
Thou gavest Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Thou Me
with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before
the world began. God says the desire of all nations
shall come and I'll fill this house with glory. In that blessed
context, in that revelation to the elect, He is the desire of
all of us. He is desire of all nations. Both Jew and Gentile elect desire
Him and some out of every nation, tongue, people and tribe desire
Him. But what is the desire of all
nations? Is there something that is pat
and real and is true of every nation whether they know God
or whether they don't? Is there something true that's
obvious to every man and woman, something they desire, something
that all men desire? There are four things, actually,
that everybody desires, and you can take it to any nation or
any tribe, whether it be here in America, or in the high muckety-muck
academia of Europe, or here, or way down in Africa, or over
in South America to the tribes that have hardly seen any humanity
whatsoever. Every one of them have four basic
desires that is proved by how they live. and what they do in
the matter of this religion that they have, which we are all born
with. What are these four things? First
of all, all nations, all nations, all tribes, all tongues, all
people desire, desire a divinity that's visible. Every one of
them do. No matter where you go, Whether
they know God or don't know God, they've got their gods. They
put them on their porches and they raise them in the middle
of their villages and down in Mexico they have them in little
alcoves in their houses, different sites. They have a crucifix on
the wall, something they can see. Everybody wants to see God. What atheists like to talk about
it and say, well I can't see it, it ain't so. Well, you got
your God. You've got your God. He's called
Mr. Atheist. He's yourself. You see yourself. You believe you rule your own
life. But that's what everybody wants. And you can lay it down.
I don't care where you go. You can study anthropology over
and over again to all places that books have been written
about different peoples. You'll find they all had a desire
for a visible God. They all had a desire. What does
the scripture say about Jesus Christ, the desire of all nations?
Christ is the image of the invisible God. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's come, you see. The desire
of all nations has come. Secondly, all nations desire
an atonement or an answer to sin. An answer to sin. Everybody wants to understand
how they can undo what they've done. All nations do. Some nations have hard means
whereby they hurt themselves and injure themselves and bleed
because they've done something wrong. Everybody wants to have
a sense of an atonement that they can atone for their sins.
They desire that. All nations desire that. Christ
is the propitiation of His people. There it is. He is the desire
of all nations. He is the propitiation of the
elect. He is the forgiveness of their sins. Thirdly, all nations desire a
divine revelation. They want to hear from God. Somehow,
they want to hear from God. All nations do. I was reading
Socrates one time and he says, Oh, if God would just come and
speak to me, I would believe it. I would lay hold of these
things if He would just come and speak to me. This is a man
who is considered one of the wisest men who ever lived. A
man who created a philosophy that many go by in this world
today. It was screwed up, but he believed
it anyway. But he said, If I could just see God, or if I could
hear from Him, He would speak to me. He would speak to me. Christ is the revelation of God.
He is the living and the written word. If God speaks to you, He
speaks in the language of His Son, according to Hebrews chapter
1. He's the desire of all nations. Fourthly, all nations desire
an assurance of immortality. Everybody wants to live forever. They do. Or they've invented
ways to do it. They've invented reincarnation.
They'll go out as a bad person and come back as a cockroach
and keep trying until they get it right and then they'll go
to nirvana and everything will be alright. People talk about eternal life.
People talk about the other side. Everybody who dies now is up
there looking down here. Everybody is. You know, just
listen to folks talk. Well, I know my mama's up there
looking down. If your mama's up there, if she's with Christ,
she ain't looking at you. She could give a hoot about what
happens to you. Her interest is in Jesus Christ and Him alone. But all men desire immortality. This is the desire of everyone,
every nation. Scripture says Christ has brought
immortality to light. through the gospel, everlasting
life. He is the desire of all nations.
For the elect, that's good news, that's wonderful news. Our desire
has come, our desires have been met. We've seen God in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been forgiven by His sacrifice. We've been revealed this through
the preached Word. And we know we're going to live
forever. That's what everybody wants. Even those who don't know Christ.
Even those who reject Him and hate Him and care not for Him. They still have the same four
desires. It's true of all nations. These
words are also an indictment. Though all nations have desired
a visible divinity, all nations have desired an atonement and
a divine revelation and an assurance of immortality, they have rejected
the embodiment of all these things. And they will see Him in that
day, and they will be made to acknowledge that He is Lord and
that He is indeed what they were looking for, but they refused
Him. as the embodiment of it. Back
in John chapter 17 in the high priestly prayer of our Lord,
when He talks about bringing His people to Himself and saving
His people and praying for His people and not for the world.
He says that someday all those who hate Him are yet going to
acknowledge Him. Won't it be something When people
who have by their religion sought to have a visible God. When people by their religion
have sought to have some type of atonement for sin. When people
through their religion have desired some type of revelation. When
people have desired immortality in life when they are faced with
Him and they understand finally that He is the embodiment of
these things. Then it will be too late. He
is the One we wanted. They will know. In chapter 17
and verse 20 of John, it says, Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also shall believe on Me through their word, that
they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.
And they also may be one in Us. Why? That the world may believe. that thou hast sent me." Now
he just said, I don't pray for the world, I pray for them that's
given me, that's given me. But he said, the world's going
to believe it one day. What are they going to believe? There's
the visible God. There's the atonement. There's
the revelation. There's eternal life. And I spent
my whole life hating Him. And now I'm going to perish.
O rocks, follow me. O mountains, crush me and grind
me to powder. They will know. He goes on to
say in verse 22, In the glory which thou gavest me, I have
given them, and they may be one, even as we are one. I in them,
and thou in me, that we may be perfect in one, and that the
world may know. That when He shook the earth,
the desire of all nations came forth, that Thou hast sent Me,
and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. The world's going to
know that. They're not going to hell ignorant. They're going
to hell with tormenting information. That for their whole life they
desired a visible God. They desired an atonement. They
did. Every one of them did. They desired
a revelation. And they desired immortal life, and they missed it when it was
standing right in front of them. They missed it. They'll know, and Scripture says
they will bemoan and they will wail, that they have opted for
handmade deities, for false hope of immortality, They have taken
the words of men and not the words of God, and have chosen
their own merit rather than the merit of the desire of all nations.
You know what's going to happen? He will be glorified when He
arises and shakes the earth. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.