Biblical Faith is Vindicated in the Judgment of the Wicked
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Biblical Faith is Vindicated in the Judgment of the Wicked
Hebrews 11:29-31
October 12, 2008
Series 3 Sermon 58
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of
Introduction
Christianity is a call to a radical life. The Lord Jesus taught this, the prophets predicted this and the apostles illustrated this with their lives. We as believers are called to live in the world but not to be of the world. We are given material things by our Lord but are called by Him to shun those things and even hate them and destroy them when necessary. We are given families who are supposed to love us and yet some times they will hate us because of our faith. We are given jobs to do that are often difficult but yet rewarding but we do not trust in our work but in God who supplies all of our needs.
Then there is the issue of obedience. One of the things I hope you have taken out of this study of Hebrews 11 is that the world has everything backwards. Romans 1:18 says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Radical depravity has so affected mankind that we no longer think or react or live correctly apart from a sovereign merciful act of our heavenly Father. To live as an unbeliever is to live a life suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. What does that mean?
It means that humanity instinctively knows the truth because God has written His law on the hearts of all humanity but humanity in their depravity has turned that truth on its ear.
Examples. Take worship as your first example. God has written on the heart of mankind the desire to worship. The object of that worship is to be God Himself, the creator of the universe. But because of sin, the worship that is supposed to be reserved for God has now been marred and the worship of self and other man made objects are trying to fill that desire. This is also known as idolatry. Idolatry is the truth of worship turned on its ear.
Take relationships as your next example. Worship and relationships are the two that stand out like sore thumbs in our day. God created Adam and Eve with a holy desire for a relationship not only with God but also with one another. This was good and pleasing in God’s sight and so the Law written in the heart of man is to love honor and cherish one another in marriage. But man in his sinfulness suppresses the truth of God in unrighteousness so instead of the pursuit of holy relationships humanity now pursues relationships for the wrong reason. Ungodly relationships are attractive to the world. To the world that has everything backwards a strong successful long marriage is the exception and not the rule. What the world pursues is soap opera relationships and then it gets worse from there.
These are just two examples of how the sinful world has everything backwards. So it’s not surprising that many Christians have never understood the radical call of Christ to holiness and faithfulness. The Word of God tells us one thing but the boa constrictor of sin that lives in each of us tries to cut off that truth by suppressing it in unrighteousness.
So something has to change. Something has to be done in order to loose us from the chains of unrighteousness and free us up to serve Christ by faith. And that something is called conversion. It is only after you are converted that you can even begin to put to death the boa constrictor of sin that lives within you and tries to control your every thought, word, or deed.
You will never be able to grasp the miraculous nature of saving faith until you understand fully the depth of your own depraved nature. If you think that you apart from God are a pretty good person then you have not even scratched the surface of your own sinfulness. But this is what most people think. If you asked anyone if they thought they were a pretty good person they would almost unanimously say yes. You can go to a prison with a death row and you could ask the people there if they thought they were good people and they would say yes. Most people have a very good opinion of themselves.
But what the Bible does is show us that sin has so permeated us as humans that there are none good, there is none who seeks after God, there is none righteous and all are under the curse of the Law and the curse of sin and the judgment of death. It is in the understanding that we are not good people that we look to the One who is good and holy and righteous for our redemption and salvation and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And only then in that sovereign saving act of regeneration do we start to see things in the proper perspective.
Football coaches will often tell the players during practice that they need to get their mind right. In other words you have to get focused on the right things and get your mind off the wrong things. And as believers we need to do the same thing. We get so caught up in what is happening in the world that is perishing that we forget that our job is to focus on the eternal. The next few decades that all of us may live is a minor blip on the radar screen of eternity and yet everyday our minds are focused on what is going on around us. Why?
Because by nature our minds are misrouted and misdirected. We have spiritual ADD. We try to focus on the eternal and then we are distracted by something that moves or something that is shiny. So how do we get our minds right? Listen to Romans 12:1-2.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The problem that the Apostle Paul rightly identifies in verse 2 is that we are drawn like a moth to the flame to be conformed to this world. And this world has most things wrong. So what we need is to have our minds renewed and that only happens when we grow in grace and have our minds shaped and changed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God.
We have seen this truth over and over in our study of Hebrews when the early Christians were persecuted by the lost world to return to Judaism. We have seen this over and over in Hebrews 11 as the writer highlights people of faith from the Old Testament who lived in direct opposition and contradiction to the world. Abel is killed because he offers the correct sacrifice to God while Cain offers what God had not prescribed. Enoch walks with God while the rest of the world walks after their own desires. Noah builds an ark while the world around him grows more evil day by day. Abraham and Sarah leave the
But to everyone of these faithful people there was a pull. There was a draw back to the world because of their sin nature. And just like them, we modern people of faith have our hearts and our wills drawn back toward the things of the world and the pursuits of the world precisely because of our sin nature.
So we have to get our minds right. They have to be renewed and changed and refocused on eternal realities.
In our day we are bombarded on every side by the images of the world. The world we live in is materialisticly evil. If you don’t have this or that then you are nobody in this world. If you are not seeking more and more material wealth and status symbols then you are nothing to this world. Mark talked about that last week and one of the greatest evils of our time is the sinful tendency of our culture to covet. But that is just one evil when there are many, many others.
The atrocity of abortion marches on and on like thousands of Hitlers on steroids in our nation and there seems to be no end in sight. We watch as punch drunk politicians sell us off as slaves to foreign countries to continue to uphold what greed has produced. We see injustices and we see the church so weak in our nation that it is going the way of the church in
And you want to throw up your hands and say, “I give up!!”
But that is not what real, biblical faith does. Two weeks ago we saw that real, biblical, saving faith would be vindicated by the Lord. I have broken this down into four points and two weeks ago we saw that:
1. Biblical faith will be vindicated in the obedience of God’s people.
That obedience is to what God has commanded and it is done often in the face of an opposing world bent on keeping you from being obedient.
This morning I want us to see the second point about God’s vindication of the faithful as we see from verses 29-31 that:
2. Biblical faith will be vindicated in the judgment of the wicked.
Purpose
My purpose this morning for preaching this message is so you will understand that God will vindicate real faith. Real faith, not false faith, will be proven by God to be true. And that ultimate vindication will come in the judgment of the wicked both temporally and eternally.
Make no mistake. The Lord will judge the wicked. Listen to Psalm 37:7-13. To the faithful the Lord says:
7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. 9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. 10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. 11 But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. 12 The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth. 13 The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.
It would be helpful to us all if we had a proper biblical theology of judgment. But that is a scary word in our day. But judgment will be the ultimate vindication for God.
RPNP
So let’s look together at our point this morning and see that:
2. Biblical faith will be vindicated in the judgment of the wicked.
Look at verse 29.
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
The Egyptians had held the people of
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of
Do you this morning feel powerless because against the great evils in our society today? After all there are many evils that run rampant in our society. The land of the free and the home of the brave is fast becoming Sodom and Gomorrah and the few righteous have been taken out of the places of leadership and in their places have been put yes men spokesmen for what is supposed to be the church.
Over and over we are told that Roe v Wade will be overturned. Over and over we are told that our borders will be defended. Over and over we are told that the politicians greed and self interest will be done away with and fiscal responsibility will be restored. But it has not. The burden on the people grows more and more while more and more people look for a handout from a government that has no money. And we say again and again how long and wonder when the ship will be righted. When will
And the answer to that is very simple. Only when God intervenes. And in His sovereign will He may choose to send revival or He may choose to send judgment and the way things look today it seems to be the latter.
But no matter what the Lord chooses to do, whether that be revival or great judgment real, biblical, saving faith will be vindicated. It has been throughout biblical history and it will be done now and in eternity.
In the story of the Exodus the faith of Abraham was vindicated in the destruction of the greatest nation on earth for their great evil of not only oppressing the people of God but also denying Him as sovereign Lord. Pharaoh answered according to the condition of his own heart when he told Moses, “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?”
He found out in verse 29. Look at it again.
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
The drowning in the Red Sea of the Egyptian army was just the cherry on top of the sundae of God’s wrath and judgment on
There is more in our passage about judgment. Look at verses 30-31.
30 By faith the walls of
The amount of paganism that permeated the land of promise that the Israelites were to inherit was overwhelming. Pagan gods that demanded human sacrifice. People making their children pass through the fires of Molech. Bowing down to the Baals in order to get crops to grow and then you had the countless debaucheries of the fertility cults all of which denied the Lord His rightful place as God. And all of this the wrath of God has been poured out upon. But we see in verses 30 and 31 that
Rahab and the people of
God is in the business of vindicating the faith of His people in the judgment of the wicked. Think back on biblical history.
Abel’s blood cried out from the ground to God and God punished Cain who would ultimately bring about the evil line of people that would be destroyed at the flood. Seth and his offspring like Enoch and Noah would have to endure the evil of this world for a time until their faith would be vindicated. The offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have to endure suffering and slavery and hardship until the Lord in His proper time would destroy the Egyptian Empire and lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.
David would have to endure hardship and struggle until the Lord dethroned Saul and his family. The list could go on and on.
But that list is largely ignored in our day. I heard the other day from a so called church leader that he did not believe that people would be ultimately judged by God because God would ultimately forgive everyone and any preacher who preached God’s judgment truly did not understand the cross nor its significance.
I know that this particular leader, and I would never call him a pastor, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, even though he would never listen to me, if given the opportunity I would explain the cross to him like this. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ proved the fact that God judges sin. In the substitutionary, penal sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross not only did Christ save His elect people from rightful eternal damnation He also had the judgment and wrath of God the Father poured out on Him in full measure like those will receive for all eternity in a place called Hell. If God would bruise and break His only Son to fulfill divine justice how much more will He pour out His wrath on Satan and the evil world?
This is what the New Testament teaches. God’s judgment on the wicked is a constant theme in the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. Remember I read Psalm 34:10?
10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
That is not the only Psalm that deals with the destruction of the wicked. There are many more. But let’s move to the New Testament and listen to the words of our Lord in Matthew 13:47-50.
47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; 48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
When Peter and John were dragged before the Sanhedrin for preaching the Gospel and the prayer meeting broke out among the disciples listen to what they prayed. They did not pray that the Lord would rain down fire and brimstone or that He would immediately judge them. They simply asked the Lord to take note of their threats and enable them to proclaim the Gospel with boldness.
Why would they just say, “Take note of their threats?” Because they understood full well that God would judge righteously in His own time. Remember they were with the Lord Jesus when he proclaimed to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:34-36 these words.
34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Then the Lord told the disciples what that judgment would be in chapter 24. The disciples knew that judgment was coming and those who rejected Christ would not escape.
Now we are told by many today that the idea of God judging the world should not be a part of our Gospel presentations. People are turned off by the idea that God is a judging God. They prefer a God who loves everybody and no one will go to Hell and be judged by Him. But the truth of God’s judgment was all over the Gospel presentations in the book of Acts.
Let me give you an example. This is Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill and in Acts 17:30-31 Paul says this.
30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
And the truth of God’s judgment is in the last book of the Bible as well. Look at Revelation 6:9-11.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
And then we have the ultimate vindication of saving faith and the judgment of the wicked in Revelation 20:7-15. Turn there with me.
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Judgment is coming. The people of God who are marked out by true biblical saving faith will be vindicated. The evil world may take your life but they will not stand in the judgment. They will fall. God will deal with them both temporally and ultimately eternally.
But we still have the great atrocities of our day to deal with. We still have the wicked people in our day who commit such gross immorality and evil and it is flaunted in front of our faces and it is pushed into our noses. So what do we do? How do we react to the evil around us. This is a great tension in my own heart. The anger rises up and I wonder what do we do? Am I sinning by not doing anything? What can I do? What should I do?
I know you have had the same thoughts as you have dealt with these same issues. These confronted me personally when I was in seminary and I worked for a time as a director of a crisis pregnancy center immediately across the street from an abortion clinic and I could see out the front window as girls and women went in and came out and they never went in and came out the same. I watched as the butcher would arrive and leave everyday in his haughty arrogance growing rich on the destruction of the most helpless in our society. I watched as the nurses would walk out at noon everyday to go to lunch and I would wonder how they could put food in their mouths after what they had been doing all day and would be doing that afternoon. I would think about the friendly receptionist who was eager to make an appointment for Dani when we walked in the doors just to check out the place.
When you are forced to see evil personified in front of you day after day it causes you to wonder what to do. So how do we deal properly with this evil that surrounds us?
We could kill the abortionist but there is ten more to take his place and in our society he would then be a martyr. We could blow up the building but they would just relocate. We could block the doors but then we would just get arrested and the people would go in later.
We could get all fired up politically. But who are you going to vote in? Since Roe v. Wade was passed there has been almost 36 years that have gone by. In those 36 years there has been a total of 12 years of Democratic presidents and 24 years of Republican presidents and nothing has changed.
So how do we deal with this great evil and the others in our society? So what is the proper way to deal with the atrocities in our day. Turn over to Psalm 34 with me and look starting in verse 7.
7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. 9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. 10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. 11 But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. 12 The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth. 13 The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.
Biblical, saving faith waits on the Lord to vindicate that faith in the judgment of the wicked. Anything that I could do to a wicked person is nothing compared to what God will do to them in judgment.
So we wait and we pray. And we say to the Lord, “Lord take note of their evils.” And we pray for their salvation and we pray for repentance and revival to come not only to our nation but also to our world. And we praise the Lord and we pray for His Kingdom to come.
Salvation is not in any political movement. Its not in any presidential or vice presidential candidate. Salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ who is not only the heir of all things but also will judge the world in righteousness.
So we not only look to Christ for our salvation but we look to Him for our vindication. Our duty before God is to be faithful to His commands. May the Lord help us to do so.
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