“The Kingdom of God - God’s Challenge vs Men’s: Part 2”

We continue with the text taken from Isaiah 41:20: ‘That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.’

We will follow this, along with a portion of Isaiah 42 tonight and some other Scriptures and, then, consider it in light of the Kingdom of God and the Church.

Before we start, I also want to make clear that, although the Isaiah passage we will look at tonight could have referred to Cyrus, the king of Persia, I have no reluctance to view it as Messianic since Matthew quotes it in reference to Jesus.

So - stick with me as closely as possible for we will be interweaving the two passages along with some other back-up Scriptures as we go along.  

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In Isaiah 41, God brought together the nations for a ‘court hearing’ to give them the opportunity to defend the basis of their worship.

The great need was to know a ‘better way’ than being left to their own devices and continuing on in worshipping the brainchild of men’s own inventions.

So He told them to ‘...come near’ to ‘...come together to judgment...’ so that they could ‘...see and know and consider and understand together’ concerning God and His hand in men’s lives.

And He went on with the promise to ‘...give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings...’, in v 27, to give them the guarantee of His Word to bring life in exchange for darkness and death.

He arranged it so that knowledge of Him - of seeing, knowing, considering, and understanding of Him would be in the face of the One He would send.

It is in 42:1-4 where He described those good tidings with the news about Him: ‘Behold, My Servant, Whom I behold; mine elect... He shall bring forth judgment.’

It is of little wonder, then, that Mark, in Mk 1:14, gave the right clue when he spoke of Jesus’ coming ‘...preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand...’.’ 

And why Jesus said, of the work of His coming Holy Spirit, in Jn 16:8-9, ‘And He, when He is come, shall convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not on Me...’.

He will convict of the sin of not believing on Jesus whereby they could see God revealed in Him, revealed as the redress to God’s  challenge to the nations in Isa 41.

By silencing, crushing, refuting, and convincing, the Holy Spirit would use the unconscious longing for man’s focus of worship as  His servant to the eventual receiving of the Gospel of Christ.

It is the way in which the salvation of the Kingdom of God was to become an actual reality.

Christ’s death and resurrection was to be the Life-Preserver of God’s world-wide kingdom that would evoke belief - that would lift men out from under the deadly power of unbelief to set up His kingdom.

He will ‘place’ or will ‘strengthen’ or ‘teach’ judgment about God in the earth.

To this end, God said of Jesus, in the Isaiah passage: ‘He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

(Or, as Matthew, in 12:20, quoted: ‘...until He send forth judgment unto victory...’, or ‘...brought the judgment to a victorious issue...’.

And Isaiah went on to say: ‘He shall not fail nor be discouraged, until He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.’ 

Thus, the promise was: ‘He shall bring forth judgment’, ‘He shall bring forth judgment unto truth’, or ‘send forth judgment unto victory’, and ‘set judgment in the earth.’

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In Jn 12:37-50 (Jn 12:37-50), John was summarizing those main themes of Jesus’ ministry in this section.

In it, he described the general lack of acceptance given to Jesus and His work among men.

Even God’s own people did not welcome Jesus as that revelation of Himself that God spoke of in His council session with the nations.  

John found an explanation of this people’s unbelief and said, in Jn 12:37-40, it was ‘...in order that the word of Isaiah...might be fulfilled, which he spoke, ‘Lord, who did believe our report? And the arm of the Lord, to whom was it revealed?’

And, in vs 39-40, he went on: ‘He [God] has blinded their eyes and did harden their heart;

Lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and should turn, and I should heal them.’

This was not a divine decree of final condemnation God had put upon them.

No - this was a judicial pronouncement God made. It was because they were making God out to be a liar in their judgment of what He had said and done. (1 Jn 5:10)

In their willful perversion of the truth God gave to them about His Son’s coming work, they pronounced judgment upon themselves.

And that rule stands: it is by a person’s own lack of belief concerning God and His Messiah (and what His Messiah said and did) by which that person already has incurred judgment on himself - the judgment of siding with his own dark inventions designed to negate God’s mind.

John continued on with the summary of Jesus’ mission, in vs 44-46 of Jn 12, by telling how ‘Jesus cried and said: He that believes in Me does not believe in Me but in Him that sent Me. And he that beholds Me beholds Him that did send Me. 

I have come as a light for the world in order that everyone that believes in Me may not remain in darkness.’

Jesus gave them the good news: not only would a person ‘see’ God in Him but that person is taken out of darkness.

It is He Who will lift men out from under the evil power of ignorance to the place of making an informed judgment, as it was represented by the idol worshippers of Isa 41.

It is Jesus Who will bring men out of error about God and out from falsehood and deception about Christ, as represented by the non-believing Israelites in Jn 12.

The promise to ‘bring forth judgment unto truth’ was in force when Jesus arrived. 

To live in darkness and not be able to find a way out would give a person a good reason to lose hope - would it not?

Thus Jesus said: ‘And if anyone shall hear My sayings and shall not guard them, I for My part, do not judge him...’

He had not come to pass judgment on those who did not believe - not at this time, not during the time of the pouring out of His mercy and grace.

‘...for I did not come in order to judge the world but in order to save the world’, He said.

His very presence and His work was the actual judgment in itself for it was the ‘great divide’ that made every man face his own judgment about his beliefs of God.

Either he was on one side or the other. Either he remains a ‘sinner in flight’ or becomes a ‘saint in progress’!

Those against Him are the ones who are judged already (Jn 3:18), not because He passed judgment on them, but because they pass it on themselves.

Jesus went on to show how desperate this situation is: ‘He that rejects Me and receives not My sayings has one that judges him.

The word that I did utter, that will judge him at the last day.’

All who reject Him and ignore His teachings stand to be judged by the One Who will ‘judge in the last day.’ 

Thus, in the gentleness of His grace and mercy, He set judgment on the earth to prepare for final judgment to come. 

In the first facet of that judgment, God promised that Jesus would not treat the weak and helpless in contempt if they were unable to ‘see’ immediately.

‘A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.’

What was it He said to the scribe who agreed with Jesus in spite of how his colleagues rejected Jesus and His teachings?

Now let us go over to Mark 12.

It was after their covert attempt that the scribe rehearsed the two greatest commandments to Jesus: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul and thy neighbor as thyself.’ (vs 32-33)

To that, Jesus said to him, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.’ ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God’! (v 34) 

Jesus was not about to ‘bruise’ this man’s heart nor was He about to quench this man’s thirst for ‘light’ that would justify him aright before God.

Although this man distinguished himself from his base associates and their sin of unbelief, yet he had not ‘nailed’ the import of the little he could see.  

Surely, he sensed something different about Jesus - something his colleagues could not, or would not, admit.

But what was it this man had yet to do that would give him entrance into the kingdom of God?

He needed - very much needed - to consider Jesus!

He needed to consider the fact of the uniqueness of Jesus, to know and understand why He was so important that God would send Him to such ministry! 

So Jesus encouraged him by telling him that his compass was pointing in the right direction since he was able to, at the very least, ‘see’ the certainty of God and the relationship of others within that circle of certainty.

Pointing in that direction meant he was not far from ‘knowing’, and ‘considering’, and ‘understanding together with the divine mind’ the impact of God’s kingdom in his own life.

Even if a man disregards, or, rather, disbelieves Him, treats Christ as worthless, or as no more than a mere human being, Jesus does not judge him for that.

He would not force anyone into His program or kingdom.

That kingdom, in order to come, is based solely on man’s judgment about the purity of this divine truth of Christ. 

And it comes as He works it through the gentleness of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. 

He is the One Who proclaims the nature of that kingdom - softly, consistently, spontaneously - in a spiritual ministry that extends world-wide.

Judgment for making God out to be a liar about His own Son is reserved for the ‘last day’.

He, instead, brings the choice to every man of either condemnation or justification before God.

This particular scribe could not see clearly just yet to the fullest degree and, of course, the final word about him is not given.

But this we do know - the promise God made of Jesus’ work was that, in the light Jesus would give, this man could move onward to it, onward to a ‘judgment unto victory’, since he was ‘not far from the Kingdom of God.’

The door is opened to every man to ‘see’ and ‘know’ and ‘consider’ and ‘understand’ God through Jesus Christ. 

So, God had said of Jesus, ‘He will not cry, nor lift up, nor cause to be heard in the street, His voice.’ 

In Him, the quiet serenity of gentleness, humility, of a regal, unassuming, meek manner reigned.

Publicity, flamboyance, ostentation were not characteristic of Him. He refused any promotional opportunities through the then-current, public-affairs media. 

In a regal and courtly way, He just brought to earth that which approved and supported itself.

‘He just presented His Messiahship in such a way that Who He was, what He did, and what He said commended itself to the world as He and His Father, in concert, affected men and judgment in Christ’s light.’

And He will go on doing that until the ‘last day’ when He, Who is to judge, will judge and separate the wheat from the tares as He garners at harvest time. (I refer you to Mt 12)
 
The nations, the religious communities, the individual - all, on the basis of the choice of either accepting or rejecting God’s answer to His challenge - all pronounce judgment upon themselves during this time of God showering His grace through Christ upon the world.

And - ‘He [Christ] will not fail until He hath set judgment unto victory.’

‘His zeal will not be extinguished nor will anything break His strength, until He has secured for right a firm standing on the earth.   

Never failing, never fading, never faltering, never being crushed nor quenched, He will go on until He plants and establishes justice and until righteousness prevails throughout the earth.’

Thus, in a character portrayed in such majestic, stately terms, it is little wonder that Jesus promised not to judge the one who does not ‘guard’ His revelation of God.  

It is all in line with the promise God gave, in Isaiah 42, that only magnified His great love, patience, and forbearance with the sons of men and their attempts to enter God’s kingdom on their own.    

As I stated last week, this is the one, most vital issue of our day! It takes center-stage in the religious circuit and all else that the religious world brings up as issues is just orbiting around this one, never hitting center point.

If and when the Church sees this aright, it will take up Isaiah’s prophecy to ‘let righteousness go forth as brightness’ and ‘deliverance like a blazing torch.’ (Isa 62:1)

Can we not see, then - do we not see - what a tremendous privilege that is given to the Church for each of its members to live out the life of ‘Christ in us’ and set judgment in the earth?

Can we not see how vital it is to proclaim His message in such a way that people are influenced to ‘put away their gods’ and ‘bring forth judgment unto truth’?

Can we not see the need for the Church to give strength to the weak, to point to the power of Christ in their feebleness and ‘bring the judgment to a victorious issue’?

There are many who may not be far from the kingdom of God - much like the scribe Jesus blessed!

There are many who ‘love God’ and who ‘love their neighbors as themselves’.

But - these ‘many’ do need to ‘consider’ and ‘know’ Jesus also! 

Does the Church heed this call to point to Him alone? Will the Church realize how vitally important this call is to influence men to ‘consider’ and ‘know’ and ‘understand’ Jesus, the Christ?

I leave these things for our meditations this week.

I hope we each will ponder what lies before us in being the witness unto Christ the Church has been called to be.

Amen!  Let us pray!