Psalm 72:1-7, 18-20
Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-17
Romans 15:4-6
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and a vital part of our hope and
trust in Jesus Christ are the second coming promises, and with them the
question: Are we helping them come to pass, or are we working against them?
David, who lived and wrote many of the Psalms a thousand years before the
first coming of Jesus Christ, trusted in God most of the time, but not
always.
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-20 is a psalm of David, the son of Jesse, for his son
Solomon.
1. Give the king Thy judgments, O God,
And Thy righteousness to the king's son.
2. May he judge Thy people with righteousness,
And Thine afflicted with justice.
We know that both David and Solomon did some bad things that were against God’s will, but in the end they always returned to God with a repentant heart (particularly David); but how much better for them and us, if we lived in the heavenly will of God at all times.
3. Let the mountains bring peace to the people,
And the hills in righteousness.
God has always wanted to bring peace to the earth; in fact, He created it in peace, but the people rejected it in favor of the corrupt ways of this world.
4. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people,
Save the children of the needy,
And crush the oppressor.
Many of you may know that a recent lawsuit was filed to give personhood to
chimpanzees, and MSN did a poll to see how people thought.
On this past Wednesday morning, we voted for the chimps and saw the results
of over a half million votes: only 7% wanted to give rights to the
chimpanzees, with a resounding 87% saying, “NO, they are animals.”
These results show the hardness of heart of the vast majority of the people,
and why we have all the cruelty and injustice in the world; for if we as a
society cannot have compassion for animals, then how can we expect to have
our afflictions ended?
Those hard of heart people are the oppressors that this psalm is asking to
be crushed by God.
These hard of heart people are working against bringing the second coming
promises to fruition.
Unless we learn to have compassion for those who cannot speak for themselves
(the animals), we will never have true peace on earth as we talk about
having at Christmas time.
If we start by removing the affliction of the animals, which includes not
eating them or testing on them, we will find that in the process we have
learned how to remove a lot of our own afflictions.
5. Let them fear Thee while the sun endures,
And as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
This is our prayer, too; for we all need to fully reverence the Lord our God
and do everything in our power to live in His heavenly will and help free
creation from its present corruption, which are all a part of helping the
second coming promises come to pass, just as David is praying for Solomon to
have this ability.
And when we do…
6. May he come down like rain upon the mown grass,
Like showers that water the earth.
7. In his days may the righteous flourish,
And abundance of peace till the moon is no more.
We also pray that this will happen in our day.
18. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel,
Who alone works wonders.
19. And blessed be His glorious name forever;
And may the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen, and Amen.
20. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.
NASB
Let’s now see how Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah 11:1-10, applies to the second coming promises we are talking about.
1. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
Isaiah is talking about the first coming of Jesus Christ, and we should all be like branches of Jesus Christ bringing His peace to earth.
2. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
This is the way we should all be; that is, if we are truly following the teaching of Jesus Christ and the heavenly will of God.
3. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
4. But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
We believe that this prophecy is not talking about physically killing the
wicked people of this world, but rather to convict their hearts and souls of
the evil they are doing with the word of His mouth.
And we can also help by speaking the word of God openly before the world and
help bring about the second coming promises of fairness and peace for the
afflicted, whether they are humans or other animals.
5. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
What will be the result of this second coming promise of a peaceful kingdom here on earth?
6. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the kid,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Are we also one of these children of God?
We should be!
7. Also the cow and the bear will graze;
Their young will lie down together;
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
9. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.
We hope and pray that all of us see and understand what helps bring these
second coming promises to pass: that we would all be filled with the
knowledge of the Lord.
And, it also tells us why the world is so corrupt today: most people are not
as filled with the knowledge of the Lord as they think they are, and as a
result they are actually working against the second coming promises of the
Lord.
We can’t give up; we must keep speaking out the truth of God’s heavenly will
until the second coming promises are fulfilled.
Note the result when this happens:
10. Then it will come about in that day
That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious.
NASB
“The root of Jesse” is a poetic way of saying that the people will return to
God in such an honest and repentant way that they will do everything in
their power to live in the everlasting peace of the heavenly will of God.
In Matthew 3:1-17, we will look at how John the Baptist prepared the way for
the first coming of Jesus Christ, and hopefully we will learn to help
prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus Christ and bring about His
second coming promises.
1. Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of
Judea, saying,
2. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
We should be doing the same thing in word and deed.
3. For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
'Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!' "
We should all be like John the Baptist preparing the way for the second
coming of Jesus Christ.
We don’t have to baptize people in the river as John did, but through our
very lives, or words and lifestyle, others will see and hear and be
convicted in their hearts of the ungodliness of their actions, and repent
and live as the peacemaking children of God who are helping to free creation
from its present corruption.
This prepares the way for the Lord’s return and His second coming promises.
4. Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt about
his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district
around the Jordan;
6. and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they
confessed their sins.
Even some of the clergy came and repented, just as they should today, because they have been supporting the corruption of this earth for far too long.
7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism,
he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath
to come?
8. "Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance;
This is the proof of true repentance.
For until we stop polluting and destroying this earth, and deliberately
killing our fellow human beings and the other animals, we cannot be fully
repentant and end the corruption of the earth.
9. and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
Are we preparing the way for the Lord’s second coming promises?
Or, are we helping the devil to keep his grip of evil upon this earth?
10. "And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
We are the trees!
What kind of fruit are we producing?
We pray it’s the good fruit that is preparing the way for the second coming
promises that will finally end the horrible suffering and death of humans
and animals upon this earth.
11. "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is
coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals;
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12. "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His
threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
This is what will happen to all the people who refuse to repent and end their corruption of the earth with all its bloodshed and corruption.
13. Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be
baptized by him.
14. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by
You, and do You come to me?"
15. But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this
way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted
Him.
16. And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and
behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as
a dove, and coming upon Him,
17. and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well-pleased."
NASB
This is what the Lord should be saying about us; but alas, we still have
some housecleaning to do in our lives.
Hopefully, with this conviction in our hearts and minds, we will move closer
and closer to the heavenly perfection that Jesus calls us to be, for this is
what is needed to prepare the way for the Lord and His second coming
promises.
This is also what Paul tells us in Romans 15:4-6.
4. For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our
instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the
Scriptures we might have hope.
5. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be
of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus;
6. that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is our hope and prayer for all of us: that with one accord we would be
the peacemaking children of God who are helping to free creation from its
present corruption and helping to prepare the way for the Lord and His
second coming promises.
Amen.
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