Micah McCormick: Turn to the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: I started to say the gospel of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Is how it brings us to the Savior and prepares us for his coming.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah chapter 50.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 50, and our passage for this morning covers verse 10 from Isaiah 50 down through verse number 8 of Isaiah chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: So don't let that chapter break throw you off.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to read this section for us this morning before we get into God's word.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 50, verse 10 through 51, verse 8.
Micah McCormick: This is what Holy Scripture says.
Micah McCormick: Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servant?
Micah McCormick: Who among you walks in darkness and has no light?
Micah McCormick: Let him trust in the name of the Lord, let him lean on his God.
Micah McCormick: Look.
Micah McCormick: All you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches, walk in the light of your fire, and of the torches you have lit, this is what you'll get from my hand.
Micah McCormick: You will lie down in a place of torment.
Micah McCormick: Listen to me.
Micah McCormick: You who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Micah McCormick: Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you.
Micah McCormick: When I called him, he was only one.
Micah McCormick: I blessed him and made him many.
Micah McCormick: For the Lord will comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Joy and gladness will be found in her.
Micah McCormick: Thanksgiving and melodious song.
Micah McCormick: Pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation.
Micah McCormick: For instruction will come from me, and my justice for a light to the nations.
Micah McCormick: I will bring it about quickly.
Micah McCormick: My righteousness is near.
Micah McCormick: My salvation appears, and my arms will bring justice to the nations.
Micah McCormick: The coasts and islands will put their hope in me, and they will look to my strength.
Micah McCormick: Look up to the heavens and look at the earth beneath.
Micah McCormick: For the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like gnats.
Micah McCormick: But my salvation will last forever.
Micah McCormick: And my righteousness will never be shattered.
Micah McCormick: Listen to me.
Micah McCormick: You who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction, do not fear disgrace by men, and do not be shattered by their taunts.
Micah McCormick: For moths will devour them like a garment, and worms will eat them like wool.
Micah McCormick: But my righteousness will last forever.
Micah McCormick: My salvation for all generations.
Micah McCormick: Let's go to God again.
Micah McCormick: We always need your help all the time, but we especially need your help as we consider your word, the beauty of it, the warnings of it.
Micah McCormick: And we know that it's your word that gives life.
Micah McCormick: So it's not words that are merely said in human power, but we want these words to come as we look in your word through the power of the Spirit this morning.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: Have you ever been in a conversation where someone says, Are you listening?
Micah McCormick: That comes up often in the home, often from parents to children.
Micah McCormick: I did have occasion many times, perhaps when my head was buried in a book or I was watching TV for my mother to say, Micah, are you listening?
Micah McCormick: I'm not sure what you just said, Mom, but these Hardy boys, they know how to solve a mystery, let me tell you.
Micah McCormick: Children, you who are here today, you need to listen to your parents.
Micah McCormick: But how much more should all of us listen to the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Notice in our passage today how often the Lord asks his people and those who are in the sound of his word to listen.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 50, verse 10.
Micah McCormick: To use an a Pew Bible, it says, Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servants?
Micah McCormick: Chapter 51, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: Listen to me.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 4 of chapter 51, pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me.
Micah McCormick: 51 verse 7.
Micah McCormick: Listen to me four different times.
Micah McCormick: Listen, listen, listen, listen.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes people don't listen to God because they intentionally want to reject what he's going to say.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes people get distracted with other things, but whatever the reason, when we don't listen to God, it's disastrous.
Micah McCormick: We all struggle with listening to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: And the place where we most clearly and directly hear from him is right here, right in this book.
Micah McCormick: So open it and listen to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: And this is very important.
Micah McCormick: When God calls us to listen, he wants us to take to heart what he has to say.
Micah McCormick: It's not enough just to know the words.
Micah McCormick: So the title of the message this morning is Heed What You Hear.
Micah McCormick: Heed What You Hear.
Micah McCormick: I know heed's a little bit of an old-fashioned word, but it just means to give very careful attention to something.
Micah McCormick: And it really encapsulates what the Lord is saying all throughout this passage.
Micah McCormick: I mentioned right away in verse number 10, who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servants?
Micah McCormick: Your Bible, depending on what your translation is, you might see in chapter 50, verse 10, it might say, Who fears the Lord and obeys his servant?
Micah McCormick: This is the same word that's used in chapter 51, verse 1, and chapter 51, verse 7 is translated as listen.
Micah McCormick: Okay, but all throughout this passage, the Lord has a certain kind of listening in mind.
Micah McCormick: Listening that takes to heart what is said, that leans in and follows.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah is writing this, he's prophesying under the Lord's inspiration to a people in his own day that weren't listening well to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: There's threats all throughout this book.
Micah McCormick: There's talk of judgment happening right as Isaiah is prophesying in some ways and judgment still to come, all because those people weren't listening.
Micah McCormick: So, friends here today, are we ready to listen to the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Are we ready to heed what we hear?
Micah McCormick: Micah, were you listening to me?
Micah McCormick: I sure was.
Micah McCormick: Uh you said to put the book down and go finish doing the dishes.
Micah McCormick: That was an improvement from not knowing what mom said.
Micah McCormick: What do you think her response was after I said, Yeah, definitely I'm listening.
Micah McCormick: Then why is the book still in your hand and why are there still dirty dishes in the sink?
Micah McCormick: Um, I don't know.
Micah McCormick: Because I need to finish this chapter?
Micah McCormick: No.
Micah McCormick: Heed what you hear.
Micah McCormick: What kind of listening does God call us to?
Micah McCormick: Well, I'm going to summarize the passage in four headings, and these four headings reflect these four calls to listen.
Micah McCormick: First, listen to the Lord's alternatives.
Micah McCormick: We find that in chapter 50, verses 10 and 11.
Micah McCormick: Then next, listen to the Lord's comfort.
Micah McCormick: That's chapter 51, the first three verses.
Micah McCormick: Third, listen to the Lord's salvation.
Micah McCormick: Verses 4 to 6 of chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: And finally, verses 7 to 8 of chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's triumph.
Micah McCormick: So we'll start with this first heading.
Micah McCormick: Heed what you hear and listen to the Lord's alternatives.
Micah McCormick: Our passage begins in chapter 50, verses 10 and 11, and there's two basic options that God sets before the people.
Micah McCormick: You can either listen and trust, or you can ignore and suffer.
Micah McCormick: Those are the two basic alternatives.
Micah McCormick: Those are the only two options.
Micah McCormick: Listen and trust.
Micah McCormick: There's a warm invitation from God.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 10.
Micah McCormick: Who fears the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Who listens to his servant?
Micah McCormick: Who walks in darkness and has no light?
Micah McCormick: Let him trust in the name of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Now, yes, this is a command.
Micah McCormick: It's not a dinner invitation, but I say it's a warm invitation because of how kind God is to even offer it.
Micah McCormick: These are people that don't deserve yet another invitation to listen.
Micah McCormick: They've failed time and time again.
Micah McCormick: God brought them out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: God set his presence and glory among them in the cloud and the fire, and yet year after year, generation after generation, they struggled to listen.
Micah McCormick: And yet God comes warmly and says, not to Israel.
Micah McCormick: Good riddance.
Micah McCormick: He says, There's still hope for you.
Micah McCormick: Listen, receive, turn, trust.
Micah McCormick: Friends, there's still hope for you.
Micah McCormick: We all come into the world loving darkness rather than light.
Micah McCormick: It's true of every single one of us.
Micah McCormick: But Christ, the light of the world, has come.
Micah McCormick: Turn.
Micah McCormick: Listen.
Micah McCormick: Trust.
Micah McCormick: We walk in darkness.
Micah McCormick: Yes, that's how we come into the world.
Micah McCormick: Christ on that cross, darkness fell for three hours.
Micah McCormick: He suffered the weight of judgment that we deserved.
Micah McCormick: To say, come and receive my free bounty.
Micah McCormick: We'll talk more about that free bounty later in the message.
Micah McCormick: But listen in trust.
Micah McCormick: That's one option.
Micah McCormick: The other alternative is to ignore and suffer.
Micah McCormick: And we see that in verse 11.
Micah McCormick: Look at how verse 11 ends in this very sobering way.
Micah McCormick: The end of the verse.
Micah McCormick: This is what you'll get from my hand.
Micah McCormick: You will lie down in a place of torment.
Micah McCormick: That's the Lord speaking.
Micah McCormick: You can see how personal it is.
Micah McCormick: This is what you'll get from my hand.
Micah McCormick: God is the one threatening to bring this judgment.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes people think that the warnings in the Bible are merely about the temporary consequences we bring on ourselves because of our bad decisions.
Micah McCormick: Now that's true.
Micah McCormick: We make wrong decisions and we do bring consequences on ourselves.
Micah McCormick: And sometimes people acknowledge that with things like, I've made a mess of my life, and now I've got to have to suffer.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes you even have have speakers well-intentioned trying to motivate people, saying things like, you know, the Bible talks about hell.
Micah McCormick: If you're not living a productive life as a member of society, you know what a hell that can be.
Micah McCormick: God is saying much, much more than that here.
Micah McCormick: The Bible says there's a personal God who stands against people.
Micah McCormick: God is not saying here in this passage, when you lie down in a place of torment, he's not saying if you don't reach your full career potential, you might be more likely to struggle with depression.
Micah McCormick: That could be very hard.
Micah McCormick: But the danger here is much, much greater.
Micah McCormick: It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.
Micah McCormick: So this last part of verse 11, this very sober warning about when you ignore, you're going to suffer.
Micah McCormick: What does that have to do with the first part of the verse?
Micah McCormick: Look again at the first part of verse 11, chapter 50.
Micah McCormick: Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches, walk in the light of the fire, your fire, and the torches you have lit.
Micah McCormick: Those are the people that are threatened with this lying down in a place of torment at God's hand.
Micah McCormick: So why are they getting torches and circling up and walking around?
Micah McCormick: And why is that so bad that it brings God's judgment?
Micah McCormick: Well, it could be that this is some kind of false religious ceremony worshiping false gods.
Micah McCormick: It could be that they've got plans to go and kill someone else, and the Lord is saying that's going to come back on your own head.
Micah McCormick: But I don't think that's Isaiah's main point here.
Micah McCormick: Look at the context, and it helps us, even the structure of this passage, these four calls to listen, help us keep together verses 10 and 11.
Micah McCormick: So look at what just came before that in verse number 10.
Micah McCormick: Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servant?
Micah McCormick: There's that invitation.
Micah McCormick: Who among you walks in darkness and has no light?
Micah McCormick: Let him trust the name of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah's presenting these two alternatives.
Micah McCormick: You're walking in darkness.
Micah McCormick: You could rely wholly on the Lord and trust in him.
Micah McCormick: Or you could get some torches and try to figure it out yourself.
Micah McCormick: The judgment is coming for those who think they can make life work on their own apart from trust in God.
Micah McCormick: That's, I think, what's really going on here.
Micah McCormick: There's no third way between listening and trusting and ignoring and suffering.
Micah McCormick: There's no, I'll mainly figure it out myself, but once in a while, God can jump in and help me.
Micah McCormick: There's these are two stark, stark options.
Micah McCormick: Let me speak to you for a moment.
Micah McCormick: If you're here today, maybe as an agnostic, I think that's more common in our world than militant atheists.
Micah McCormick: It is more polite to be able to say, I'm not shaking my fist at God.
Micah McCormick: I just don't know.
Micah McCormick: I'm not really quite ready to trust Him.
Micah McCormick: If you're here today and that's you, we're glad you're here.
Micah McCormick: Thank you for being here.
Micah McCormick: If you're a militant atheist, we're glad you're here.
Micah McCormick: Thank you for being here.
Micah McCormick: But you need to know that your lack of decision won't be an excuse for you on the final day.
Micah McCormick: Because there's just these two alternatives.
Micah McCormick: And wouldn't you admit that really in everyday life you're living by trusting yourself?
Micah McCormick: God has revealed Himself in nature, in your conscience, in His Word.
Micah McCormick: And yet, I don't know, so I'm going to just do what I think is best.
Micah McCormick: That's probably practically how you're living.
Micah McCormick: This is so common today.
Micah McCormick: This we'll call it the walk by the light of your own torch mentality.
Micah McCormick: It's very common among young people.
Micah McCormick: If you're young today and you're here, again, happy to have you here.
Micah McCormick: But young people, no matter what their worldview is, no matter what they would say about God or religion, it's very common to hear them say things like, Well, if I haven't experienced it, it's not my reality.
Micah McCormick: The most important reality you could care about is God and what he says and listening to him and trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: So this is God's first call.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's alternatives.
Micah McCormick: And this is a real, a real turning point because if you listen and trust, the rest of this listening is going to be easy today.
Micah McCormick: It's words of joy by and large and comfort.
Micah McCormick: But if you if you don't want to listen, if you're going to ignore and and just trust yourself, you're going to suffer and the rest of the message won't be as helpful to you.
Micah McCormick: So I appeal to you, listen to the Lord's alternatives and choose trusting in Him.
Micah McCormick: But moving on, number two, listen to the Lord's comfort.
Micah McCormick: The Lord is so kind to bring us comfort, and that comfort comes when we consider the past, and comfort comes when we consider the future.
Micah McCormick: God calls them first to think about the past.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 51, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: These who are pursuing righteousness, seeking the Lord, he says, look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were dug, pointing to the past.
Micah McCormick: Verse number two, they're told more specifically, look to Abraham and Sarah.
Micah McCormick: Who is that?
Micah McCormick: That's the father and mother of the Israelite people, of the Jewish nation.
Micah McCormick: So Isaiah is going back hundreds of years and saying, go back to your beginning, go back to your roots, don't forget your roots.
Micah McCormick: And then we might think God would say, Look at Abraham and Sarah's faith.
Micah McCormick: Don't you want to follow in their footsteps and have that faith?
Micah McCormick: And he he could have said that.
Micah McCormick: But that's not actually what the verse goes on to say.
Micah McCormick: Verse number two takes a turn, it takes a sharp turn.
Micah McCormick: It goes on to say, the Lord speaking, when I called him, he was only one.
Micah McCormick: I blessed him and made him many.
Micah McCormick: But how wrong it is for us to think of any person from the past, even a great person, as our ultimate hero.
Micah McCormick: It's only the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Think about what Hebrews says in chapter 11, all these people from the past as examples.
Micah McCormick: And yet, what does Hebrews 12 hurry on to say?
Micah McCormick: Therefore, since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, lay aside every hindrance and the sin that ensnares, running with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus.
Micah McCormick: That's the very best place to find comfort.
Micah McCormick: He's comforted saints throughout the Bible's history, thousands of years.
Micah McCormick: He'll comfort us today.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's comfort from the past.
Micah McCormick: But then also listen to the Lord's comfort for the future.
Micah McCormick: That's what verse 3 does.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 3 in your Bibles.
Micah McCormick: The Lord will comfort Zion.
Micah McCormick: He will comfort all her waste places.
Micah McCormick: He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Joy and gladness will be found in her.
Micah McCormick: Thanksgiving and melodious song.
Micah McCormick: Israel, Isaiah says, He's done it before, he'll do it again.
Micah McCormick: People of God today, he's comforted you before, he'll do it again.
Micah McCormick: And the promise here, it expands beyond anything God's done for them before in the past.
Micah McCormick: It's even despite all their failure, it's not, I'll do it like before, but not as much because of your failure.
Micah McCormick: It's I'll do it not the same as before, I'll do it even greater than I've done it before.
Micah McCormick: In the past, God brought Abraham and Sarah safely out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: Then they multiply.
Micah McCormick: And the whole nation, years later, is enslaved in Egypt.
Micah McCormick: God brings them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, into the promised land of Canaan, and the Lord says, I'm gonna, I will do it again.
Micah McCormick: But what he says here is not, I'll do it again, I'll make your wilderness like Canaan.
Micah McCormick: He says, I'll take your wilderness, I'll make it like Eden.
Micah McCormick: That's the place of perfection.
Micah McCormick: That's that's the garden of God that he made in the beginning where there was no sin whatsoever.
Micah McCormick: Canaan, as you read the Bible, was always meant to be a picture, an imperfect picture of Eden.
Micah McCormick: What God was doing for Israel is always meant to be a picture of what he's gonna do for all kinds of people everywhere to bring about a whole new Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: And this is a promise, friends.
Micah McCormick: It's not a might or a maybe, it's God saying, I will do it.
Micah McCormick: You can count on me.
Micah McCormick: In the Lord's providence, we just prayed for baby Eden earlier in the service today, right?
Micah McCormick: What a delightful child.
Micah McCormick: And for all of the pleasure that Ethan and Shanik have from their child from Eden, he's not a perfect child.
Micah McCormick: You know, children are they're kind of like Canaan, they're beautiful and awe-inspiring, and they have some thorns and thistles and giants in the land.
Micah McCormick: You know, there's there's some battles coming.
Micah McCormick: Um we we sang that song earlier.
Micah McCormick: If you were listening to the words of that song about a Christian home, those were very prayerful, aspirational words.
Micah McCormick: There was a lot of new creation glory in that song.
Micah McCormick: There's a lot of that song, you know, may our hearts be unperturbed, naria, whispering word, and you know, always patient.
Micah McCormick: That's a great prayer.
Micah McCormick: Probably not going to be finally fulfilled till glory.
Micah McCormick: But but but but for all of us, when we pray for Eden or interact with that young child, we can remind ourselves that perfection is coming.
Micah McCormick: A new creation is coming.
Micah McCormick: Uh just around the corner.
Micah McCormick: Freedom from sin, no, no more no more violence and death, no more war, no more children talking back to their parents.
Micah McCormick: It's coming.
Micah McCormick: Heed what you hear, listen to the Lord's comfort.
Micah McCormick: And then we find our third listen in verse number four of Isaiah 51.
Micah McCormick: Pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation.
Micah McCormick: So, what what's the call going to be here for this listening?
Micah McCormick: Well, let's remind ourselves of where we've been.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's alternatives.
Micah McCormick: Listen and trust him, or ignore and suffer.
Micah McCormick: We know we need to trust in him.
Micah McCormick: If we're ready to do that, listen to the Lord's comfort.
Micah McCormick: There's comfort in the past, comfort in the future, comfort's coming.
Micah McCormick: How does the Lord bring about that glorious comfort?
Micah McCormick: You know, does he just snap his fingers one day and say, old creation is gone, new creation is here, and and in a moment, that's it.
Micah McCormick: No, he doesn't, he doesn't do that.
Micah McCormick: He can't do that.
Micah McCormick: Micah, you're putting limitation on God?
Micah McCormick: No, of course, he has the creative power to make a whole new world with the breath of his mouth.
Micah McCormick: But but when I say that he can't, God is a moral being.
Micah McCormick: He's a God of perfect righteousness.
Micah McCormick: That's not a hindrance or limitation.
Micah McCormick: That's that's a beautiful quality of who he is.
Micah McCormick: He can't not be God.
Micah McCormick: He can't sin or overlook sin.
Micah McCormick: So for him to just snap his fingers and say, old creation out, new creation in, what about his righteous demands?
Micah McCormick: A little bit of our faith and trust can't make up for all of our unrighteousness.
Micah McCormick: But listen here thirdly for the Lord's salvation.
Micah McCormick: Verse 4 Pay attention to my people, listen.
Micah McCormick: And then let's keep reading on.
Micah McCormick: Verse number five and following.
Micah McCormick: My instruction will come, my justice for a light to the nations, I will bring it about quickly.
Micah McCormick: My righteousness is near, my salvation appears, my arms will bring justice to the nations, the coasts and islands will put their hope in me, they will look to my strength, look up to the heavens and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke.
Micah McCormick: The earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like gnats.
Micah McCormick: But my salvation will last forever.
Micah McCormick: My righteousness will never be shattered.
Micah McCormick: The Lord is bringing in righteousness.
Micah McCormick: He's going to accomplish whatever is necessary to secure salvation so that those who trust can receive the final comfort.
Micah McCormick: In both verse 5 and in verse 6, righteousness is parallel to salvation.
Micah McCormick: Without full righteousness, you can't have full salvation.
Micah McCormick: But with full salvation comes full righteousness, and vice versa.
Micah McCormick: And verse 6 says this is a righteousness that lasts forever.
Micah McCormick: Adam and Eve were created with original righteousness, but it wasn't everlasting righteousness.
Micah McCormick: They could lose it, and they did.
Micah McCormick: The Lord is bringing a righteousness that can never be lost.
Micah McCormick: It's his gift.
Micah McCormick: These verses don't spell out the Lord's righteous salvation with as much detail as the whole New Testament gives us.
Micah McCormick: But there is a clue here in verse 4, my justice for a light to the nations.
Micah McCormick: Israel was called to be God's light of righteousness to the nations, and they failed.
Micah McCormick: The Lord's true servant, King Jesus, came and he's described as the light of the world, as the one who was filled and fulfilled all righteousness.
Micah McCormick: That's where this salvation comes from in the ultimate plan of God.
Micah McCormick: Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came.
Micah McCormick: Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Micah McCormick: Hallelujah.
Micah McCormick: What a savior.
Micah McCormick: Heed what you hear.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's alternatives.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's comfort.
Micah McCormick: Listen to the Lord's salvation.
Micah McCormick: And then finally, today, listen to the Lord's triumph.
Micah McCormick: Verse number seven.
Micah McCormick: Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction.
Micah McCormick: So he's speaking now in his own day to a believing remnant who had the law in some sense filling their hearts.
Micah McCormick: So for those that have received and trusted in God's righteous gift of salvation through Jesus, his death, his suffering in our place, that's our foundation for hope.
Micah McCormick: Those people have also received God's work in their hearts to start to change them.
Micah McCormick: One step at a time and to have the law written in our hearts.
Micah McCormick: He speaks to us and he says, Don't fear disgrace by men, and don't be shattered by their taunts, is what is what my Bible says.
Micah McCormick: Your Bible might say their revilings or their insults.
Micah McCormick: It happened to the Lord Himself, the righteous servant of all.
Micah McCormick: You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.
Micah McCormick: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Micah McCormick: He saved others, but he can't save himself.
Micah McCormick: He's the king of Israel.
Micah McCormick: Let him come down now from the cross.
Micah McCormick: We'll believe in him.
Micah McCormick: He trusts in God.
Micah McCormick: Let God rescue him now.
Micah McCormick: For he said, I'm the Son of God.
Micah McCormick: The Bible tells us even the criminals taunted the crucified Lord.
Micah McCormick: But brothers and sisters, if they've insulted our Lord, they will insult us.
Micah McCormick: Let the world despise and leave me.
Micah McCormick: They have left my Savior too.
Micah McCormick: Your neighbors may laugh when they see you going to church on Sunday morning with a Bible tucked under your arm.
Micah McCormick: You may lose friends in the community when you don't affirm everything they think you should affirm.
Micah McCormick: Or when you don't give in to the same gossip that they love to give into.
Micah McCormick: You might even lose your job.
Micah McCormick: And you know, you know that your coworkers, rather than having sympathy for you, they'll be behind your back making fun of you because you you wouldn't tell a little white lie, and you're going to cost them your job.
Micah McCormick: Don't be afraid.
Micah McCormick: Don't be broken.
Micah McCormick: Here's what God says about his triumph in verse number eight.
Micah McCormick: Moths will devour them like a garment, and worms will eat them like wool.
Micah McCormick: But my righteousness will last forever.
Micah McCormick: My salvation for all generations.
Micah McCormick: The Lord will triumph.
Micah McCormick: There's not even a question about that.
Micah McCormick: We're playing the long game as Christians.
Micah McCormick: It's not even about our righteousness at the end of the day.
Micah McCormick: We want to showcase what God has done in us, but it's not about our righteousness.
Micah McCormick: It's the Lord bringing his final triumph.
Micah McCormick: The people that are strolling down those red carpets right now, for many of them, in the final day, the closet door of eternity is going to swing open, and they're going to be looking like ragged, tattered clothes that you wouldn't even have the heart to give to Goodwill.
Micah McCormick: The people that can pursue all the best doctors for all their health needs now, if they don't turn and repent and trust and listen, then they might extend their life a little bit in this age, but they're headed for the worm farm.
Micah McCormick: Not trying to be mean, that's just what the Bible says right here.
Micah McCormick: If you struggle with fearing the opinion of others, and if they think that way, they might even say something, and I just can't bear that.
Micah McCormick: Struggle with the fear of man, the the antidote is listening even more to God.
Micah McCormick: He tells us taunts are coming.
Micah McCormick: But what's that compared to Eden?
Micah McCormick: To an eternal new creation.
Micah McCormick: We can look forward to the destruction of the wicked.
Micah McCormick: But we have to be very careful how we do that.
Micah McCormick: We don't want to look forward to that destruction with any self-righteousness or bitterness.
Micah McCormick: But the destruction of the wicked means the triumph of the Lord's righteousness.
Micah McCormick: And to see our king lifted up and exalted above all of his enemies, we we do want that.
Micah McCormick: The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's Lamb.
Micah McCormick: And this means, friends, that we don't have to pull the wicked down.
Micah McCormick: The Lord's going to do it.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, we want to speak the truth about what God says.
Micah McCormick: We want to witness and work and serve.
Micah McCormick: And we just can stand back and see what God does.
Micah McCormick: Isn't that a joyful thing?
Micah McCormick: We want to pray that God would save many in this age.
Micah McCormick: And we can also pray, Lord, soon bring in that everlasting righteousness once for all.
Micah McCormick: May those who taunt you be put away once for all that you might shine all the more.
Micah McCormick: So heed what you hear.
Micah McCormick: Remember that alternative from the beginning.
Micah McCormick: That's the fork in the road.
Micah McCormick: Listen and step in and trust.
Micah McCormick: Don't ignore and suffer.
Micah McCormick: And then when you heed what you hear, and you listen and you, I want to trust, then listen, it's not just this passage.
Micah McCormick: All throughout scripture, you have the Lord speaking comfort, the Lord speaking salvation, the Lord speaking of his ultimate triumph.
Micah McCormick: Peter, who do you say that I am?
Micah McCormick: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Micah McCormick: Just two alternatives.
Micah McCormick: Peter is with the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Peter had some lapses.
Micah McCormick: Didn't the Lord say, You're gonna deny me?
Micah McCormick: And rather than listen and cry out for grace, Peter said, No, no, no.
Micah McCormick: I'm good.
Micah McCormick: I'll walk by the light of my own torch for a while.
Micah McCormick: That didn't work out for him.
Micah McCormick: But then the Lord came with those words of comfort.
Micah McCormick: Do you love me?
Micah McCormick: Feed my sheep.
Micah McCormick: Come on back from fishing.
Micah McCormick: I called you at the beginning.
Micah McCormick: There's still hope for you.
Micah McCormick: Come on back.
Micah McCormick: That's comfort for us.
Micah McCormick: And Peter knew about God's salvation.
Micah McCormick: He understood more and more, I think, as time went on, what it meant for Christ to be the righteous Savior.
Micah McCormick: He says as much.
Micah McCormick: This is from 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3.
Micah McCormick: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Because of his great mercy, he's given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Micah McCormick: And Peter knew insults.
Micah McCormick: Look at the book of Acts, the early chapters, read the whole letter of 2 Peter, you will see insults.
Micah McCormick: But Peter had this listening ear for the word of God's triumph, and that listening ear sustained him.
Micah McCormick: And I want to leave you with these words from Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3, we'll conclude here.
Micah McCormick: The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
Micah McCormick: And on that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.
Micah McCormick: Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.
Micah McCormick: Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.
Micah McCormick: But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we want to see your final triumph.
Micah McCormick: We want the new Jerusalem to come out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, this garden city of glory.
Micah McCormick: We're ready for Eden to come again.
Micah McCormick: Please, Lord, give us patience as we plead with you to come quickly.
Micah McCormick: Thank you for the comfort that you bring to us.
Micah McCormick: Lord, forgive us for ways that we run to lesser things, sometimes sinful things, not things always that are sinful in themselves, but we take comfort in so many other things so easily when you're there and your invitation is for us and to us.
Micah McCormick: We wouldn't be able to be here today if it wasn't for Jesus Christ, the champion of champions, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who has defeated sin and death and the devil, and the one who holds out to us rest.
Micah McCormick: Rest from our weary labors.
Micah McCormick: Lord, give us these listening ears.
Micah McCormick: Your servant had listening ears.
Micah McCormick: Your servant's ears were bent towards you at all times, and we want his life to be at work in us.
Micah McCormick: So as we sing to you now, as we go from this place this morning, would Christ dwell in our hearts through faith?
Micah McCormick: We pray this in Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.