The Glory of the Church and Satan's Challenge Against the Church (Isaiah 60:15-19)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“15 Although you have been forsaken and hated, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride and the joy of all generations. 16 You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. 17 Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron. Instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and iron in place of stones. I will make peace your governor and well-being your ruler. 18 No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. 19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”
Introduction
These days, there is a famous sermon that is trending on YouTube. The sermon says that if you accept Jesus Christ, will you truly be saved? Is acceptance alone enough to receive salvation? The sermon also says that this is a tactic of Satan. If you say that you accept Christ but you live however you want and do whatever you want, and think that you will go to heaven when you die. You accept Christ by faith alone but people think you accept Christ with just mere acceptance. This video says not to be deceived. Do you think this is true? I think this video has some truth but this is also Satan’s deception. This is because this also blocks the work of evangelism. When we go out and evangelize, and share the gospel. When you go out to evangelize and share the gospel, what is the meaning of all of this? When we are evangelizing, we are looking for disciples and people chosen by God. We can’t all be chosen by God but there are absolute chosen people of God and we are looking for those people when we go evangelize. But if we don’t share the gospel to those chosen people then what will happen? Romans 10:14 “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” - If you are a chosen people of God then you need to hear the gospel. What is important is that whoever we meet, we need to share the accurate gospel and help them accept Jesus Christ. The Lord God commanded for me to go and share the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is our mission. If the person accepts the gospel or not, that is not up to us. We are in the place to decide if someone accepts Jesus or not. When we hear these kinds of Youtube videos, we need to have the correct discernment towards salvation. Today, God has given us an important message from the main pulpit Biblical passage.
1. The Mystery of the Church
1) The history of Israel
Verse 15 - Just like Isaiah prophecies, Israel will absolutely face its demolition. Israel was forsaken by God but God promised that He will restore Israel once again. There is something important here. The Israelites were able to rebuild the temple of God but it was not as beautiful as Solomon’s temple. But it was not referring to the temple of Solomon. But it is speaking about what a church should be like. What a church should be like spiritually. What is a church? The church is a place where the people of God who believe in God gather. If we look at today’s sermon with these kinds of eyes of what a church should be like then we can see the history of Israel correctly. Today, we must open our spiritual eyes once again. If you look at the history of the Old Testament, it is not speaking about the history of Israel but the history of a church. A church started by the family of Adam and Eve. The being that went against the church was Satan. The way that Satan destroyed the church was by destroying the family. God restored the church once again through the blood sacrifice. Even though the church and family was destroyed, God restored the church through the blood sacrifice. The fundamental reason why God revived the church was through the blood sacrifice. When we hold onto the blood sacrifice, then we will live once again. This was how the history of Israel flowed. Israel was destroyed but God promised their restoration. God restored their faith. God restored their faith through the church. Even though their nation was destroyed, if they restored their faith then everything will be restored.
Isaiah 6:13 “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” - What is the meaning of a stump? It is speaking about the faith of the covenant of God. Through this covenant of the stump, God will restore His covenant. That is why God said that He will make us a joy of all generations. It was done through the blood sacrifice. Through what blood? By the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Satan tried to deceive and attack Jesus by having Him crucified on the cross. Satan thought that he ended Jesus Christ but Jesus Christ resurrected. This stated a new beginning; this was the New Testament. This started the church.
2) The growth of the Church
Verse 16 - The Israelites were destroyed completely and they were like a dead tree. Nothing was left and they were left like a tree that was cut. But the stump was the only thing remaining but through this remaining stump, God promised restoration. God said that they will drink the milk of the nations. This means that God will spread the seed of the gospel. Jesus died on the cross and the Israelites were destroyed but God fulfilled His covenant through the construction of the cross. Why was that? This was because the Lord God is our Savior and redeemer. This was the reason why God chose the Israelites and why He performed all of these great miracles through them. Why was that? He did all of this for the church. This shows how much He loved and wanted to protect His people and people of the church. In other ways, God did not just love the nation of Israel but God loved the people who believed in Him. Just like how God protected the Israelites God promised us the same protection. What is important is that the same works that God arose in the Old Testament, the same works will arise in the New Testament. Just like how God used Moses, God will use us. Just like how God loved Israel, God loves us. This is what a church is.
2. The Glory of the Church
1) The authority of the Church
Verse 17 - This is speaking about the temple of God. When the temple of Solomon was built, it was built with gold and good things. But God said that the church that God will build will be more beautiful and built with better things than gold. It will become a great church. The church of God that He built through the blood of Jesus Christ will be full of His glory.
Ephesians 1:22 “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.” - What is a church? The head of the church is God. This God is the resurrected Christ and the victorious God. He is the Creator God. We are one body with God. We are the glorious body of God. We need to hold onto how glorious we are. Since you are so glorious, Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. This is important.
Isaiah 54:13 “All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.” - Since we have Jesus Christ, we have no choice but to have peace. All children of God will receive salvation. All standards of theology are the word of God. The standard of all things is through the word of God. That is why we must hold onto the word of God. This must be the standard of all things.
2) The glory of the Church
Verse 18 - This means that no one can touch the church of God. No one can touch you. We are one body with the Creator God. God sees you as so precious and important. That is why God says that you will “call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”
1 Samuel 25:16 “Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.” - God protected David during his shepherding years, and protected him night and day. This is absolute. Great blessings will come to those who believe.
John 10:9 “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.” - A gate is referring to the king’s gate. This means Jesus Christ. When we just enter into Jesus Christ, we will receive absolute protection and guidance. We will enjoy the power of the heavenly Throne. This is the blessing of the church that we possess. We must enjoy this blessing. If we are part of the church. We will not be left behind and Satan has no choice but to kneel before us. We have no choice but to have victory and no choice but to be blessed.
3. The Church is a Gathering of Saints
1) Satan's challenge against the Church
Satan will always attack the church and will try to. Within our denomination and the Darakbang movement, many pastors left. This really hurt my heart. I knew these pastors. The reason why they left was they caused problems within the church such as sexual immorality and financial problems within the church. What hurts my heart is that we were all one body but I feel like this is causing my body to rip apart. When I heard about this news, I realized that this is how Satan is attacking the churches in Korea. This is how Satan is blocking growth and oneness within the church. South Korea has received so many blessings from God with all of the growth and improvement that has occurred within this nation. South Korea has become an important part of world missions and world evangelism. But we can see that Satan is trying to attack Korea in many ways by entering into the churches. Pastor Yong-Gi did many great works within the church. But this pastor made a mistake. So this ended up where he ended up going to jail. This shocked the entire world and churches around the world. When I heard this news, I was so shocked. Due to this news, many people left the church. Another pastor was caught coming out of the hotel with another woman. This caused such an uproar. I knew that this would cause many people to leave the church. Many people leave the church because of these events. Many people criticized the name of Jesus Christ through these events but this is all part of the attack of Satan.
Hold onto Genesis 4:7 “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” - Those who commit sin or those who attack others who commit sin, then you should seek what is good for God. What is considered good for God?
2) The predestined plan
It is Ephesians 1:4-5 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” - This is what I am always holding onto. I always confess to God that I am a sinner and I am unholy but despite all of that, God still called me. For God’s greater good and His greater will, God still called me forward. By Jesus Christ, I have become a child of God. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, I have become righteous. In heaven, you cannot enter if you have sinned or if you are a sinner. We can only go to heaven if we have been cleansed of our sins. Just because you believe in Jesus Christ you cannot enter heaven. You have to be cleansed of your sins first. Because of all of this, I realized that God really loved Pastor Young-Gil Cho. Because of pastor Cho, many people accepted Christ and he bore many fruits. But he made a mistake. What is important is because of his sins, he might have gone to jail but what is also important is that he bore many fruits. Do you think God will cancel your salvation because of your one mistake? Why did God allow this problem to occur? In order for him to enter heaven. When you enter into heaven, you need to be righteous. You need to expose the sins inside of you. I am sure when pastor Cho went to jail, I am sure that he repented relentlessly before God. God needed him to expose his sins so that he could enter into heaven. God allowed his sins to be exposed. We need to pray for these people and pastors. When we see the sins of others, we need to pray for them. Through all of this, God wants to make them righteous again through their sins and mistakes. You don’t know what kind of plans that God may have for those people. God could have greater plans prepared for those people and you don’t know how much God could be glorified through these events. When an incident arises, Satan will try to attack the church through legalism. Those who are bound by legalism, when one person commits one sin, they will judge that person mercilessly. But the law of God and legalism was made to love God and love our neighbors. The law of God was made to bring us back to God through the cross of Jesus Christ. But we continue to point at others due to the sins of one person. This will lead to a person’s demise. Why am I saying this? We need to pray for those who left Darakbang. We need to have a vessel of faith.
Conclusion
Hold onto Matthews 6:15 “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” - This was what Jesus Christ said. If Satan holds onto you, then you cannot forgive others. This was why Jesus said it is our duty to forgive others as people of God. If we cannot forgive others, then God said that He will forgive us. The sins of people, if it becomes exposed, it will allow for great reformation by God. If you have the heart of forgiveness, then God will forgive your sins. Just like how God forgave your sins, you must forgive the sins of others.
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