Season of Judgement

I'd like to start by telling you a small project that my wife and I had this spring. She told me for Mother's Day she would like some rose bushes. So back in Illinois, we had planted a couple rose bushes in the front of our house, and they were beautiful, and we really enjoyed what they added to the front of our home. So that was a small thing we had to do this spring. I cut down a small tree. We have tons of trees, and this one needed to leave, and we put in a few rose bushes. And in the process of time, my wife had to continue to water them because it's been very dry. There was also a morning where she went out, and she noticed that one of them was chewed about completely gone, and another one was about halfway chewed, and one must not have been very good because it was still around, and that was a little frustrating to find out. So we had to try to discover a solution for this. I talked to an experienced and a wise man, Mr. Thomas, and he told me to get some special earth, and it helped repel whatever varmints were eating on the flowers, and it did work, and it worked fairly well. So we now have these vibrant, small, but vibrant, beautiful rose bushes in our front yard, and they're orange and a little bit of color besides that, but they're really pretty, and I enjoy them so far.

That was just an attempt to lead into where we're going today. We have a picture in the Bible, lots of times, of nature and growing which we see from time to time in our garden. We see this natural process, and God uses it to describe parts of our life and His plan for humanity. He does it time and time again. We have examples of John chapter fifteen, where Jesus says, "Abide in Me." I'm the vine, you're attached to me, receive nutrients, grow, become like me. The Father is taking care of us. That's His role. So they use that. Isaiah five is another one where God talks about Israel being His vineyard. We'll go to that one today. Psalm chapter one talks about trees by rivers of water. We sing about that one often. Hymn number one is one that most song leaders, when they're first learning, will turn to Psalm number one. It's a relatively easy tune. Most of us know it fairly well. But the meaning isn't plain. It's a wonderful picture that goes beyond just a psalm, but all the way back to the garden, floats all the way to Revelation, where we talk about what is by the rivers of flowing water. Anyways, there's lots of different places in scripture. Matthew 13, some of us, we talked about a mustard seed. God talks about growing things all the time in His scripture. I'd like to talk again about growing for today, the Day of Trumpets. Let's start by going to Genesis chapter one and just be reminded.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

God was the creator, we have the account here before us, but beyond being the creator, He is also the maintainer of the earth. He's the sustainer. He's the one that provides all that we have on this earth and it continues to work because of His incredible design. He is the sustainer. In fact, it says that in Hebrews. I'm going to turn there. You don't have to go if you don't want to, I'll just read it for you, but Hebrews chapter one. Right at the beginning.

Hebrews 1:1-3

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power.

That's really where I wanted to get to with that. He upholds all things. Jesus Christ, He worked as creator with the Father, in conjunction with Him, but we also understand that He is sustaining this creation. That's what the NIV translates the word upholding, says sustains. In the Amplified, it reads this way, "Upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power." God is doing that.

Going back to Genesis, if you have saved your spot there, verse fourteen of chapter one.

Genesis 1:14

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years."

Now it's often that we'll refer to this when we're talking about the holy days, that God has separated specific holy appointments for us to come to before Him and meet and learn. But today I wanted to highlight that this says seasons, and we know that there are specific holy day seasons. We refer to them quite frequently. There are the three seasons. We have the early spring, the late spring, and the fall, and the division of the holy days fall within those. Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, then you have Pentecost, then we have these four here in the fall season, the Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and the last great day, or the eighth day. We have these seasons, and I'd like for us to consider the imagery then that the Bible gives us. Think of people and nations all being fields that God is keeping. There are seasons to humanity, there are seasons to the world. We are in a season. We are in season number three. Let's turn to Matthew chapter nine, couple places in Matthew that we'll turn to today, Matthew chapter nine. Just be reminded that Jesus Himself saw humanity in this way.

Matthew 9:36-38

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

So Jesus encouraged this same type of vision that we're talking about today. We want to view things the way He does. We sometimes will look at humanity as a field and His people specifically are special to Him. In 1 Corinthians chapter three, Paul talks about us being His field, which is very personal and very special, because as we heard earlier, there's not a lot of people in this world that are currently so close to God. We are called God's field. And God gives us the increase. It mentions that in 1 Corinthians chapter three. Coincidentally, or connectedly, in the Book of Acts, oftentimes that same word is used when they're talking about the New Testament church and how they would increase. God is working with us when they are successful, when He's successful, when we're successful, when the church is successful, we grow. It's all connected to that imagery. We are part of the vine, we are God's field, we are to be growing.

Now, what does that have to do with trumpets? Well, again, God does plan in seasons, and let's be reminded of what Christ said about the season right before He would return. Let's turn to Matthew chapter twenty-four. You may know this set of scriptures very well, but let's be reminded.

Matthew 24:3-13

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

Now, as we consider what's going to happen at the end times, we might start to feel there are some parallels to our time and this time that's being described in the scripture. And we could continue on in this chapter and receive many warnings from Jesus, but we're going to jump forward. Okay, we're going to jump forward to verse thirty-two. These things that Jesus has given us, He's telling us, these will happen before His return. It's not a maybe. This is going to happen. These are identifiers.

Matthew 24:32-35

"Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."

Once again, we have in this passage imagery of nature, of a field. We understand that seasons come and go, and Jesus is telling us here, having a biblical mindset we can understand the signs of what is coming from this example. We know that the tribulation has markers of a season, and that precedes the return of Jesus Christ. So this fall or this last season we're in, could we consider it perhaps a season of judgment, if we know that this is right before Christ's return. Now, let's read verse 36 here.

Matthew 24:36

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."

And we read that just to be reminded, we don't know the exact day, we don't. Can we know the season? Well, he gave us a description right here. But we don't know the exact day or hour. And so He tells us in verse 42.

Matthew 24:42

"Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."

We have a responsibility, watch for these events, because it's like a season.

Matthew 24:44

"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

So we're to watch, and we're to be ready, we're to be spiritually connected to the vine, we're to be taking in the information we need to grow and be profitable as this time comes up. And if we are connected to our Savior, then we can be disconnected from a dysfunctional and sick influence that we have in the world. We must be connected to our Savior.

Now, when it comes to Jesus' return, we are given expectations what He wants us to be doing or to look like or to be at. And we could continue into chapter twenty-five, but instead I want to stick with the vision that we're at with the growing and the seasons and the nature. So we're going to turn to Matthew chapter thirteen. We were here a little bit earlier today. We read through the parable of the sower. Now we understand that this is speaking about what God sees in the world, and we have the explanation in the second half here, starting in verse 18, we have the explanation of this parable.

Matthew 13:18-19

"Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside."

Now we know that the gospel will go through the whole world. Jesus said it was going to happen, Matthew 24 verse 14. We believe it. We're trying. We are trying to preach the gospel through our efforts as a church organization, as well as other church organizations that attempt to follow God's laws. We know it's going to happen. The gospel will be preached. But he's not here yet, so we'll continue to work. But still, these crops here that don't receive it, this is how God views it. Okay, it was snatched away from them. Maybe they didn't follow through with the word. But by and large, we understand all people are responsible to a degree for their actions. We don't kind of weigh that very much, but we understand in Romans chapter one how Paul talks about what mankind has done. They had a choice, they had an option, they've swapped out what they should be doing. But we want to continue to look at the world as fields here. We'll jump into verse twenty-four. In verse twenty three we read about the good fruits, but let's run to twenty four to the next parable.

Matthew 13:24-30

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

The picture we have here is growing in the world, and we know Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, that we're not to be taken out of the world. We are to live in the world, but we are to not be of the world. We have growing to do while we are connected to Him, but the adversary pollutes. He's polluted the field, and he holds guilt for what he has done, for snatching away the good, for polluting. He has his own guilt for that. We'll talk about that a little bit more on atonement. God expects something from us. He still expects production. We understand that very well, even from these parables. Once we are developed, once we have produced and we are mature, then we have responsibility. So this is going somewhere. We're not just producing fruit because God loves it, but we have purpose. And he wants us to follow through and get to that production. Let's start reading in verse 37 here.

Matthew 13:37-43

He answered and said to them: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

So we read here that there is this season of judgment. After this has grown up, there's going to happen exactly what Christ said would happen, the season of judgment. See, God, He is creating something in us wonderful. We know we are to be the bride of Christ, and He's not just making us to be something that looks good. You've heard people say, "A trophy wife," and I use the term just to parallel that we have a value beyond the production, there's something useful for it. God expects us to shine not just because it looks good, but because it illuminates Him, it points people to Him, it glorifies Him, it brings people to God our Father, Jesus Christ our elder brother.

Now, this requires from us work. It requires effort on our part, and that, as we are preparing for the holy days, is something that we can reflect on, what we are doing, how we are growing. There's a warning of this in the Book of Hebrews. We were there earlier, if you would turn with me to Hebrews chapter five. The author here writes to a people and shares a warning with them, something for us to think about, to remember.

Hebrews 5:11-14

of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

This is a warning to a people that he wrote to that he thought should be more mature. Now, that's not something that is on this particular individual's mind, but it is a warning for us to take in. What does God want from us? What can He do with us? Well, we have to be mature to be useful. Continuing in chapter six.

Hebrews 6:1

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection.

That is what God expects of us, perfection, completion, because we have produced something, we are fruitful. That means we have value. That's why God expects this of us.

Hebrews 6:4-6

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

The warning continues here as we understand that maturity isn't just something that's suggested, but it is, once again, it is expected. We are to mature, we are required to mature to fit what God has in store for us.

Hebrews 6:7-8

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

So once again, we return back to this imagery of a field and production and what God expects and what is useful can continue on, and what isn't useful will be thrown out. Blessing or cursing here is determined then by our production.

And so it's time now for us to jump into dire prophecy, something that is very strong, and we'll go back to Isaiah chapter five. Now we will return here if you want to save a marker, but let's go to Isaiah chapter five. We're going to start in verse one.

Isaiah 5:1-4

Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

Have you ever been sat down by a parent and told to explain yourself, because that's kind of the imagery that I see here. Sit down, okay, now what were you thinking? And in this case, the maker says, "What else could have been done for you to be successful?" And he's serious. There's no excuses available for these individuals. They were planted in a very fruitful location. They had divine cultivation. They had the maker working on this, digging up, clearing stones. He built a tower, he made a wine press. He does everything perfectly, he does everything complete. There's no excuses here. When God is providing what is needed, no fault on Him, and that's where they are in this. God lays out He has an expectation. They were to produce, they were to be fruitful, but where is the production? Now the picture here is definitely larger than an individual. He addressed Jerusalem, he addressed Judah, but we, having an intimate connection to the God family, having entered into a covenant with Him, we also consider: Am I being productive? Because we don't have an excuse. God provides for us all that we need. Let's continue into this prophecy, verse five.

Isaiah 5:5-7

And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

And we read here, this isn't a god that is out of control, this isn't a tantrum, this is him explaining why things will go the way they're going to go. This is a season of judgment. Production is expected of Israel and Judah, and at this point, we can look back on the story, we know they weren't producing the good, they were producing the wild. And he held them accountable. Now let's consider the time of Christ. We know that was the time of the Jews, and we had tribe of Levi, some of Benjamin there. They also weren't producing, and God called them out. But we can't fail to consider our time here, Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob's trouble that we know is going to come, that's the time that we live in. And God speaks to Israel. He looked for justice, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold weeping. The fruit that he wanted, that he expected, is right there, justice and righteousness. He taught him how, he fed him, he gave him what they would need, but instead, oppression, bloodshed, cries of distress, like we heard earlier, the inhumanity that we men put on others.

Isaiah 5:8-10

Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land! In my hearing the Lord of hosts said, "Truly, many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield one ephah."

Now we're going to read six woes that are listed. Now they're all to the same people, they're all related and tied together, but they're these little pieces that we put together one puzzle. Now, in this particular case, it's really nice to have multiple translations to read from, because sometimes the direct translation that we use in the New King James Version doesn't read as clearly as some of the others. So I'm going to read this scripture set from the Complete Jewish Bible. Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there's no room for anyone else, and you live in splendor alone on your land. The Lord of Hosts said in my ears, "Many houses will be brought to ruin, large, magnificent ones left empty. For a ten-acre vineyard will produce only five gallons of wine." And seed from five bushels of grain will yield but half a bushel. So extravagant excess, this selfishly pushing others out, it leads to unproductive individuals may be physically productive, but not producing what God expects from His people. The spiritual fruits aren't there. And it says, "Many, many, there is a lot of wealthy people." Now, it's not a sin to have wealth. We know that there are individuals in the Bible that were very wealthy. The question is, what do we do with the wealth that God gave us? Physical and spiritual. What are we doing? Are we using it just for ourself, as the picture is here? Because that's not spiritually productive. God has expectations for us to use what He has given us, and He has tremendously blessed us. Again, physically and spiritually, and he has expectations, and he has disappointments here. And we can consider today, in the time we live, the extreme divide that we see among the wealthy. We know that there are some out there, just refer to them as the rich and the famous, that are buying up these giant and they build this giant compound on this huge tract of land, kind of like is being said here. And where did they get all that? God is the answer. Ultimately, God is the one that blessed His people to have all that they have. He gave them the choice land, He built it up for them. God had expectations. He's disappointed.

Isaiah 5:11-15

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink; who continue until night, till wine inflames them! The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands. Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.

So this is a second woe, the pursuit of the worldly here, and we know that leads away from fruitful production, which again is God's expectation. It leads to captivity, deprivation of nutrition, that's the hunger and thirst. Leads to death regardless of station. Doesn't matter if somebody is rich and famous or whether they're just a normal person. The consequences of these actions lead to the same thing, this unforeseen, uncomfortable humbling that will happen in the season of judgment.

Isaiah 5:16-17

But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness. Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, and in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.

We have this small break in a very difficult passage. We understand that through judgment, God restores and sets all things right. He's still involved, He cares for all. There's going to be good on the other side, but judgment is coming.

Isaiah 5:18-19

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope; that say, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it."

This is an interesting scripture. We notice the capital H in that, this being the third woe. There might be a couple of different ways to consider this scripture, maybe more than two. I'm going to share two with you. But first, the idea of the rope, I like it from the Complete Jewish Bible again. Because cords of vanity to a cart rope gives the idea of progression. It's talking about this little thing, this little bit of sin, but at the end, it's bigger and bigger. It's a cart so big you need a huge rope to pull it. And in this case, we have that idea of the active pursuit of sin. And so in one case, maybe the sinner, starting small, is a little bit unaware or unaware of the consequences and that this is going to suck him in. So what started as just a small thing in his mind became bigger and bigger and bigger to the point where he's oblivious of this huge issue. And then he exclaims, "Hey, let's see judgment happen," because he's unaware that he's going to be judged. Like, "Yeah, I can't wait to see what God has in store." I've heard some individuals, non-church members necessarily sometimes, express they can't wait to see. The reality is, the judgment period, you don't really want to be witnessing in that. It's really bad. So that's maybe one way to look at it. Another way is a sinner that is progressively getting worse, but is becoming brazen and seemingly losing faith that there is a God, kind of tempting or daring God to do something. Now, there's a parallel that I remember from a comedian, and in this particular individual, he told a story where he was in a cradle and his parents told him not to leave. There's invisible snakes out there, they're going to bite you if you get out, poison you to death. And so he tells this story with very colorful language, that he's getting out of the cradle, and he's just slowly leaning his leg out and says, "Okay, don't bite me, just give me a little lick to let me know you're there." And because there's no invisible snakes, he decides, "Well, I can let my leg out further." He's talking to snakes till eventually he's saying to the snakes, "Go ahead and bite it. Yeah, I knew you weren't there anyway." This progression, this lack of—at first he believed, and then he doubted at the end, that there were really worse snakes. Well, maybe the sinner is like this then, in this case. At first believing there's a God, but then as sins continue to happen and there's no immediate judgment, that they're brazen at this point saying, "Yeah, let's see your judgment if you're really there." Either way, this is a blatant sinner. This is somebody that's doing something wrong, and a lot of something wrong. So much sin that he's got to pull it in a cart. Woe to that person.

Isaiah 5:20

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

And so we have examples again that we could look to, think of the Pharisees. What did they say of Jesus Christ when he was throwing out demons of people? They said, "Oh, he's a Beelzebub." A couple of different places where they said that. Called good evil and evil good. Again, Romans chapter one, Paul talks about how man does that. But what about today? Again, if we're reflecting on where we are Ephraim, Manasseh, what do we see? I'm going to read from the UCG commentary on this scripture. Says the moral failure of Judah and the house of Israel can be seen today as well. Calling evil good and good evil is an earmark of our day. Adherence to God's definition of right and wrong is now called intolerance. Traditional values are labeled backward and repressive. The patriarchal family is called chauvinistic. Opposition to the murder of the unborn is branded anti-choice or restricting a woman's freedom. Rejection of homosexuality is called homophobia, hate mongering, and bigotry. On the other side, an acceptance of all views except the belief in absolute truth is referred to as being open-minded, accepting, understanding. The denigration and marginalizing of husbands and fathers is called equality. Promiscuity and perversity of every form is lauded as freedom and self-expression. Homosexuality itself is simply an alternative lifestyle, and support for abortion is labeled pro-choice. The fourth woe is against those that misinterpret evil as good and what is truly good as evil, bad, selfish, stupid.

Isaiah 5:21

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

We've got some Hebrew poetry here. This synonymous parallelism, it only says the same thing two times in a row. Proverbs three seven is a parallel to this. "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." We know that knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. All that fits into what is being said here. And there's an irony here for these people. They think they know so much. In fact, we just read about it in verse twenty. They think they know so much, but they call evil good and good evil. They've got it completely backwards. Do you see the season? Do we live in a culture that knows a lot? And is our culture humbled because of all the knowledge that we have, or are we lifted up? Are we puffed up? So woe to them! This is time for our personal check. How am I doing connected to the vine? What am I producing, and who am I? Because we know the seasons.

Isaiah 5:22-23

Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man!

Now, as we read this, we understand this clearly extends beyond alcoholic consumption. Not to justify drunkards, it's not justified. That's wrong. But we understand that the pursuit of the worldly, as we read in the second woe, it leads away from fruitful productivity. And here in the sixth, that same pursuit of the worldly, that's selfish. I want to get for me. This leads to injustice. It leads to injustice happening for personal gain. Isaiah's six woes show the progressive consequences of pursuing man's way instead of pursuing God's way, moving from selfishness and sin into this distorted morality, pride, injustice and ultimately judgment, as God has set this down before these people. This happened to Israel and Judah. Despite being set up for success, they went through the steps God said this to them, they were judged. This is happening to Ephraim and Manasseh despite their blessings, we see a judgment season is prophesied. Like Jesus said, it's not a matter of if. When these things will happen.

Isaiah 5:24

Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Unfruitful. Unproductive, this people God set up, they will have a consequence for their choices. There will be a season, a judgment, it's prophesied. This season is going to come, but it's not a time for us to panic, it's not a time for us to run, to quit, to abandon hope, to abandon the work that we have. It's time for God and His children to be steadfast, to continue our work, to move forward, to stay connected to God. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter six. We left off verse eight.

Hebrews 6:8-12

But if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Until the end. That ministry it's talking about, it just means service. We have service towards one another. We are fellow workers in a field. We have an expectation to work, and we are working. Because that's what God set us up to do. We are fruit tied to the vine. We are producing, and we will continue to produce as long as we're connected to the vine, and we will do this until the end. We will persevere through the end of the harvest season, because we are connected to our great God. Faith and patience. Watching and preparing as Christ told us to do. When we watch in faith, we believe that what He said is going to happen, and it will. Patience in continually preparing. We have a role to serve. Will we be ready to serve in that role?

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus said, "Learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors." Can we see the signs of judgment? Do we see this season? Trumpets is certainly a warning of judgment coming, but it's not just a warning. It's also the announcement that the barren and corrupted season has its end. It's not going to stay that way.

In Matthew chapter thirteen, Jesus, in explaining the parable of the tares, he states that the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The season of judgment is also our season for growth and production to maturity. This is a time for us to be fruitful, and He prepares us to participate in the coming kingdom of God. What an honor! So it's not a time for us to abandon our field, it's a time for diligence until the end, to an end, and a new beginning. Through faith and patience, we will continue growing, working, and preparing because a new season is coming. Are we ready to shine? The King is coming, we will hear the trumpet, and if we remain connected to Him and allow Him to give the increase, we will be ready when that season begins. When will the season be complete? What does Jesus say about His coming? At the end of the book, He said, "Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.