When The Sun Blushes And The Moon Looks Away

Judgment is one of the most misunderstood words in the Bible, and Isaiah refuses to let us treat it like a cheap threat. We sit with Pastor Carl as he opens Isaiah 24 and 25 and shows why God’s justice is not cruel or random. God warns, God gives space for repentance, and God stays faithful and true even when the world shakes under the weight of sin. That tension is the point: the Judge is also the One who goes above and beyond to save. 

We follow Isaiah’s stark images of fear, the pit, and the snare and ask an uncomfortable question: where do we run when consequences close in? Pastor Carl connects Isaiah’s language to Revelation’s pictures of the pit, deception, and the enemy’s defeat, then traces the Bible prophecy thread back to the flood and forward to the promise of final judgment by fire in 2 Peter. Along the way, we talk about the limits of human control, the humbling of kings and powers, and the breathtaking claim that the sun and moon will seem disgraced because the Lord’s glory shines brighter than anything we have ever known. 

Then the tone turns to worship. Isaiah 25 breaks into praise, pointing to a coming kingdom where God hosts a feast, removes the veil spread over the nations, swallows up death forever, and wipes away tears from every face. We also get practical and personal about pride, pretending, and what it means to humble ourselves now and build on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ while the door is open. 

Subscribe for more teaching through Isaiah, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of God’s justice or mercy are you still wrestling with today?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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Even with this terrible, awful judgment that he's brought upon the world, it was good. It was right. It was true. He gave opportunities for repentance. He did not want to exact the judgment. So even in the midst of what we're going through, we give God praise. We give him glory because he's faithful and true. He's warned us of these things that would happen and they happen. And he's there for us.

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The just judge is someone who delivers tough consequences, even when it weighs heavily on his heart. God doesn't want you to face judgment. He goes above and beyond to make sure you're safe. But ultimately, he must make a judgment against sin. If he doesn't, it might raise some eyebrows about his credibility. Today, Pastor Carl is diving into the topic of God's just nature and his righteousness. Well, he has opened the door for you to escape judgment all through his son Jesus. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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Verse 17, but I said, I am ruined, ruined, woe to me. This is actually part of 16 still. The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. He wanted to make this. I mean, I think Isaiah has the same problem. He sees the goodness of God, he sees working, but there's still evil happening. Look, we're talking about all this thing. We're talking about how good God is and what he's about to do. And yet, and yet they continue. They continue to go down this path. Why haven't they woken up? Treacherous, another word for that is traitorous or or deceivers. The deceivers have deceived themselves. They continue to believe the lie. Oh Lord, would you open up eyes to see and ears to hear that you are true? You are faithful. There is none beside you. Oh we need you, Lord. Now verse 17. Fear and the pit. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth, and it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. Here's an idea that, you know, and he's he's referring to an unbelieving world here. They see all the things, these things coming at them, and they and they try to hide themselves from it. They try to do something else to save themselves from the things that are happening, and yet they go one place, they get caught in another place. We cannot escape our own sin. The only place we find safety is in the Lord. He is our merciful Savior, He is our strong tower, He is our safety net. He's the one that we go after. And yet, if you're not trusting in the Lord, if you believe there is no God and we did this, then you're going to fall into more traps and fall into the pit. And as we go through this, there are there are a lot of pictures of similar passages that we see in Revelation. And in Revelation, who comes out of the pit? None other than the dragon. So you have the dragon, you have the Antichrist, you have Satan indwelling these people or creatures or whatever it is. There's a lot of pictures going on in the book of Revelation. But the fact is that the enemy comes out and he deceives many. And yet he shall be caught in the snare. He will not be victorious in this, even though he leads so many astray, he will be caught. And the last part of this verse is very interesting. For the windows from on high are open, and the foundation of the earth are shaken. Does that sound familiar? Do you remember the first time that there was a global judgment? Do you remember the flood? Do you remember some of the terminology about when the rain started? What happened? The heavens were open. And the foundations of the earth were split apart and water was gushing from everywhere. That's what caused the flood. And what did God promise after the flood? He would no longer flood the earth, right? He didn't say he would no longer judge the earth, but he wouldn't judge them with a flood anymore. But now, as you see in the book of Peter, fire is the judgment that's coming in the end. But these same sort of things, the windows from on high will be open and the foundation of the earth will be shaken. The world will not be the same after this judgment. The world was not the same after the flood. And the earth as we know it will not be the same. It will be torn apart. And there's more to it. Verse 19 the earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaking exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut. Its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall and not rise again. In Revelation it talks about an earthquake that will happen, an earthquake that will shake things up like it's never been shaken before and will never be shaken again. The earth, the topophy, everything is going to be changed. And it all because of the sin of the world that was heavy upon it. Judgment had to be poured out, and it will be. It will totter like a hut. Um, I alluded to this earlier. You know, we cannot destroy the earth, we cannot blow it up. It's it's it's it's solid, it's permanent, it's God has put it here and put it in motion, and we can't get it out of motion no matter how you know, no matter what we think we can do. We can make a mess. We can definitely make a mess and destroy what what his plans were for the world, but we cannot destroy the world. And yet, here the earth is being shaken up. It'll be like a hut, like a tent. It's not permanent, it's not in place, it's shaken up, and even the axis will be turned, and maybe this will create you know some of the new earth that's ahead because it's not going to spin the same way. It's all gonna be shaken up. It there's a lot here that we just don't know what it means. But it means heaviness is coming, it means judgment is coming, it means we shouldn't play around. Our God is good. But what it also means is there's something glorious after that, there's something new and beautiful as a result of the evil being uh removed from the world. Verse 21 says, And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of the exalted ones, and on earth the kings of the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners and gathered in the pit, and they will be shut up in the prison, and after many days they will be punished, and then the moon will be disgraced, and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders gloriously. Gloriously. It'll be so glorious to have the Lord here on earth ruling and reigning, and with without, you know, officials trying to destroy him, but he's setting up his kingdom and he's bringing peace, and those who have been fighting against the Lord will be tied up in the pit. The Bible says that the enemy would be in the pit for a thousand years and let out at the end and still deceive people. But it's interesting here in verse 21 the Lord will punish on high the host of the exalted ones. And we've looked at some allusions to this before, too, basically saying that the Lord is going to punish Satan and the angels that fell with him. A third of the angels rebelled with the devil, and judgment is coming upon them, and they will be shut up in that pit for a thousand years. But also the kings of the world, the kings of the earth that did not seek after God, but sought after any number of things. They sought after power, they sought after prestige, they used the power of the enemy consciously or unconsciously, but they rebelled against God, and they refused to turn, they refused to repent, they refused to accept the forgiveness that God had for them, and they continued in their old in their own way. They will be shut up in prison as well and punished. And at verse 23, um we hear about this in the end times that the the sun would no longer shine and then the moon would no longer either. And I've seen something here that I haven't seen before. The moon will be disgraced, and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before his elders gloriously. Why will the sun begin not to be bright anymore? And why will the moon not seem to be shining? It will be disgraced. It's because the light of the Lord shines so much brighter than the moon and the sun. The glory of the Holy One ruling and reigning in Jerusalem on Mount Zion. This is not figurative. It's in a place. It's in a place where He will return and He will set up His kingdom. And there will no longer be darkness because He is our light. And it's a glorious thing. The sun and the moon losing their light is only because there's a brighter light that's come. And I look forward to that brighter light. We should all look forward to that brighter light that is to come. And that brings us to chapter 25, which is breaking out in song a praise of the people, recognizing that Jesus has come. He is our Savior, and He has set up His kingdom. O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things. Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. God, everything you've ever told us from the very beginning is true. You've been faithful, you've never changed, you're always the same, you're consistent, and you don't play games, you tell us the truth, and you show us your love in the midst of all that. And so, even with this terrible, awful judgment that he's brought upon the world, it was good, it was right, it was true. He warned us, he gave opportunities for repentance. He did not want to exact the judgment. So, even in the midst of what we're going through, we give God praise, we give him glory because he's faithful and true. He's warned us of these things that would happen, and they happened. And he's there for us to be a place of refuge and strength. Verse 2 you have made a city ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a place of foreigners is to be a city no more. It will be, it will never be rebuilt. Our kingdom, our ways of doing things, our cities that we've built, our empires that we have built in neglect to acknowledge in God, but rebelling against God as such, those things will never be rebuilt. But building on the solid foundation of our Lord, we're going to be building glorious cities. It's going to be great. Never again will we be building upon our fallness, but we'll be building upon the holiness of a God. Therefore, the strong people will glorify you, the city of the terrible nations will fear you, for you have been a strength to the poor, and a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against a wall. The work of the enemy is profound, it's heavy. He has no mercy. And when we come under his attack, we we feel the heat, we feel the destruction. And yet in the Lord we find a refuge from the storm, we find shade from the heat. And as he sets up his kingdom and he saw what he did to a rebelling world, the nations that are around will acknowledge the holiness and the truthfulness of God. And they will fear God, because fearing God is the beginning of wisdom, right? Fearing God, serving God, respecting God. There will be a time of peace that has never been experienced here on earth before, except in the garden. And that time of peace comes because the Lord is faithful and true, and the nations will recognize it. They will no longer rebel against the Lord, because the enemy will be shut up. Literally. Verse 5 You will reduce the noise of the aliens as heat in a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud, the song of the terrible ones will be diminished. Now, this word for aliens means strangers or enemies of the Lord. We know that God's heart is for the foreigners. I mean, we're we're called foreigners, we're sojourners in this world as Paul describes us. This is not our home. Our home is in heaven with the Lord. And yet, this isn't what he's talking about. He's not talking about receiving refugees into your nation that need help, that uh are fleeing destruction in their home. This idea of aliens, our enemies, people that are infiltrating with evil, with wrong. They've come to destroy, they've come to teach against the things of the Lord. Have you heard the phrase strange fire? Strange fire, demonic miracles, demonic powers. These are aliens that come in. They're strangers. They're strange fire. They aren't coming to be part of what God is doing. They're coming in order to destroy what God is doing. And the song of the terrible ones will be diminished. We celebrate our power, we celebrate our majesty, we celebrate who we are. We did it, God didn't do it. This this song that is uh really just a uh shaking of the fist against God. And it's interesting, this word for song in this word, in this verse, is branch. The branch of the terrible ones will be dismissed. Who's the branch? Remember that phrase that we had? The branch, the big capital B branch, describes Jesus, the Messiah. But with every truth, there's a falsehood with the enemy, right? And the enemy is described as the branch of the terrible ones. And it's his idea to kill, steal, and destroy, but he's this the deceiver too. He'll help you have a good time when you're doing, he'll give you power when he's destroying you. And this this haughtiness, this pride, this arrogance in those who refuse to bow their knee to the Lord, who shake their fist. You know, they're I over the last few years, the celebration of abortion. I've had five abortions and they have these big rallies where they celebrate. Yay! Lord have mercy. This is what we're talking about. They're so far gone, they're so deceived that they think this is a loyal, uh, a noble thing to do, to fight against those who repress. Who are those who repress? Those that point out sin. Sin brings death and destruction. Is it bad to point out sin? Maybe we have to figure out how to do it in a way that they can understand it and receive it. I mean, I granted there are a whole lot of ways that the church through the centuries, millennia, have declared sin and driven people to sin instead of from sin. But the point is, sin needs to be declared. And if our society is so celebrating sin that they will not uh accept the gospel, in fact, they will fight against the gospel and all those who bring it, at some point uh they see a lot of victory. We see darkness rising in our world more and more as we go forward, but at some point that song of the terrible ones will be diminished. The truth of the Lord will be exalted. In fact, his presence in our midst will destroy any argument the enemy has against the Lord and his his followers. Verse six and in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for a people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wise on the lees, and the lees has to do with the stuff that settles to the bottom of the wine. And I'm not a wine connoisseur, so that's as much as I can explain that. In verse 7, and he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over the people, and the veil that is spread over all the nations. What is that? What is this veil that's been cast over the peoples? He will swallow up death forever. Death will be destroyed, sin will be gone. This this veil that's been all over the people, all over the nations, ever since Adam and Eve took a bite of that forbidden fruit. It will be removed, and we'll have a celebration, and he'll be fixing us a feast that we have. It's going to be a glorious feast. We've never tasted food like this before. It's going to be good, no sin in it, and he will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the rebuke of his people he will take away from all the world. For the Lord has spoken. This is his desire for us to remove sin from our lives, to give us life, to give us blessing, and he will do it. He has done it positionally. We are in him, we are ruling and reigning in him, with him, in our hearts and in the world around us. But again, his prophecy is that's a picture of what's going to happen in the future. And this is going to be a glorious time. And it will be said in that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him and he will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. When we see him face to face, ruling and reigning in a world that's beautiful and glorious and repaired, and it's just like we've never imagined it before. We're going to stand before him and say, He's the one we've been waiting for. He's the one that we've been worshiping, that we've been praying to. And again, today, you are in this position with him. We are seated in the heavenly places with our Lord. Are we glad and are we rejoicing in his salvation? I have a hard time being glad and rejoicing in his salvation when I see everything around me falling apart. But that's part of his work. He is at work. And he is working, he's saving, he has saved. He has placed me in him forever. And there's plenty of reason to rejoice and be glad and Rejoice in his salvation. Amen. Amen. If things don't go the way we think they should, we need to realign ourselves with the Lord and thank him for what he has done and what he is doing and what he will do. For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest, and Moab shall be trampled down under him as straw is trampled down for the refuse heat. Moab represents here a people who claim to be part of God followers, but in fact they're not. Those who are true, those who know the Lord, those will be the ones that worship the Lord. And he will spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim, and he will bring down their pride together with the trickery of their hands. Again, we can pretend that we know Jesus, we can pretend that we're Christians, but if we don't, we will be found out. And it's our pride that makes us say, hey, I know God, I do all these good things, I'm in a good place when we don't know him. Oh, may we know him. Oh, may we humble ourselves before him. Oh, may we have a healthy fear of the Lord, or we can receive his glory and his grace, his mercy. The fortress of the high fort of your walls, he will bring down and lay low and bring to the ground down to the dust. All the things that we build up in our lives, he's gonna bring down. All the things that we built up without him, he's gonna bring down. How much better to now humble ourselves before the Lord and say, Not my will, but yours be done. What do you want us to do? And build on that solid foundation as Christ leads and equips and directs, empowers to do the work that he has us to do.

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Thanks for joining us for Come On Up. We've been hearing from Pastor Carl, the pastor at the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina, as he teaches us about the book of Isaiah. Toward the beginning of this book, the prophet Isaiah receives a vision of God's glory, and he is certain that he and the entire nation of Israel will be destroyed in the presence of a perfect creator. But God chose mercy on Isaiah and purifies him of his sin. This is an illustration of how God had mercy on us by sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. We don't have to be afraid to enter into the Lord's presence because the blood of Jesus has already paid the debt of our sin. We are made righteous and holy because of his sacrifice, which was prophesied to us all the way back in the book of Genesis and reaffirmed in the book of Isaiah. We're called to spread this message of hope to all who will hear it. And that is why this program that you're listening to is on the air. If you'd like to hear more from Pastor Carl, you can do so by visiting us online at themountaincross.com. If you're local to Waynesville, we'd also love to invite you to join us in person at the Mountain Cross. We meet every Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. You'll find more information about our services and our monthly faith film nights on our website. Pastor Carl has plenty more to share from the book of Isaiah, so be sure to come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through his word. Come on up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.