INTRODUCTION
Many passages in the Bible speak of the glory of God’s creation. Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 95 says, “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 104 says, “How many are your works Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small.” The first category we think of is nature. From the towering peaks of the Andes in Venezuela, to the great freshwater lakes of Michigan, to the parched sands of the Sahara the Lord has made a variety of breathtaking biomes for life to flourish in. The water cycle refreshes the earth with vitality. The seasons form a natural rhythm for life. The day and night cycle establishes periods of activity and rest. The stars and the moon give light by night. And the sun sheds its energy, light, and warmth by day.
THE PROBLEM
The problem of sin is old, deep, wide, and even transcends our physical reality into the heavenly realm. But we are Calvinists. There are elect angels and non-elect angels. This means, thanks be to God, there is a purpose to all of this. To the pagan, death is just a part of life. You’re born, you live a meaningless life, and then you die. When the Christian sees death, we say, “There is something wrong with that. That is not natural. Something about this world is fundamentally broken. Romans 8 says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Sin is the problem. Sin is the enemy who wants to knock us down. And despite our delusions, we would not have fared any better were it us in the garden being tempted. We would’ve fallen just as they did.
THE JAB
This question about where to place Jesus goes back much further than the 300s. In fact, the author to the Hebrews had to do the same thing. Listen to chapter 1, “Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’? Or again, ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son’? And again, when he brings the firstborn in the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship.’ Now, what prompted this apologetic argument? Why take verses from the Psalter to prove that Jesus is superior to the angels? The readers of the letter to the Hebrews were enamored by angels, attributing to them a power and a standing that was not warranted. And that is understandable because the Bible does present them as very powerful and important beings. Take Galatians 3:19 for example. It says that the law of God was communicated through angels by an intermediary. This is repeated again in Acts chapter 7 at the end of Stephen’s speech. He says, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” And we have a third reference in Hebrews 2:2.
THE RIGHT-CROSS
It is a strange man who would say, “When I consider a subject worthy of meditation, I gravitate towards judgment day.” But I hope to convince you that that man is not strange at all. That is the sort of man who understands the character of God and the justice of God. We cannot seem to separate in our minds, judgment day, from the concept of terror. In one sense, this is biblical. Hebrews 10:26 says, “if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Are you an adversary? Do you keep sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth? No, you take up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and you fight against sin. You come here every week to renew covenant. You read the Bible to learn more about the God you serve. You pray to Him and cast your cares on Him. God uses means, even warning passages like this one, to remind us of the severity of God.
CONCLUSION – CHOSEN TO BE SAVED
When judgment comes, it will be a glorious day. There are men and women who have done wicked things in this life. They have cast ruin and destruction. And this is the crucial part, some have gotten away with it. They have escaped the law and they have escaped the avenger who carries the sword in service of God. And so yes, they may have gotten away with it in this life, but they won’t in the next. Justice is coming and as Christians that should give us joy. The victims and the recipients of injustice will have their day. And then at one point it will be your turn. It will be your task to call the demons out of their gloomy darkness and judge them. And when you do consider Nahum 1 as your opening text, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.”