Wednesday after the Third Sunday of Advent: December 14, 2011

Isaiah 65: 17 – 25/Psalm 126/1 Thess. 5: 16 – 28/John 3: 23 - 30

Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines, D. D.

Scripture says to us in Hosea 4:6, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” If we don’t know what God has given to us, what He has shared with us, it can cause us to perish because we do not understand or know the things that He has prepared for us, the things which are coming our direction.  Sometimes, we find ourselves panicking in the situation around us when in reality, God tells us what is going to happen before it takes place.

Psalm 119:49-50 says, “Remember the word to Thy servant, in which Thou hast made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction.  That Thy word has revived me.”  Where does the hope come from?  His Word brings hope to our hearts.  The promises that He has given us, He will not fail to fulfill them.  The promise and the provision of God that at a time of tragedy and difficulty, His voice speaks to us that bring hope to our lives.  He is a God who does not desire to destroy but would rather restore.  He is our healer, our strength, and our wisdom.

Scriptures give us a full understanding of who He is.  God, through the prophet Hosea says, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge because they don’t know My word.  They don’t know Me. They don’t know My heart and so therefore, they struggle and pass away.  They have difficulty.”  It may seem for a while like catastrophe is there, but when we have this assurance, there is joy always because we know that the evil will not survive and be victorious.

Somebody asked me, “What can we do to turn the nation around?”    We are in bad shape.  We are bringing corruption charges against one person by a method of corruption. Those who are pointing a finger are probably just as bad as the one they are pointing a finger at.  Where is the justification and the hope?   Where do we begin?  Because we have turned from God’s Word, we have around us a society where we are surrounded by evil.  Sometimes we come to a point to ask, “What can we do? How can we ever survive?”  God’s Word speaks to us of hope. Regardless of how difficult and impossible it may seem, God will not fail to fulfill His promise.

Isaiah 65:17, “For Behold…” When the prophet says this, he is making a declaration something is not going to change; it is going to be, “Pay attention. I’ve got something to say to you.” “…I create new heavens and a new earth.” There are those who take this prophecy and they expound it way out to the nth degree and there is nothing left.  Everything is going to be destroyed, and it is all over.  It is not necessarily what we think, but what God says to us is that important.  “For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.”

Have you been listening to the words of the scientists that we are going to destroy ourselves? Months ago, we were in a crisis because of global warming.  All the icebergs on the poles were melting and the earth was going to be covered with water and we are all going to die with flood.  My Bible says, “God said, ‘Never again.’”   These doomsayers do not know what they are talking about.  Now, they had to change it to climate change.  We’ve had climate change ever since I know. God knows what He is doing.  He understands the needs of the earth in order to preserve and keep it.  He has a plan, and man does not know this plan.  If he does not know God, he doesn’t understand that all these things are in God’s hand.

God is creating a new heaven and a new earth.  Is the old one going to pass away?  Scriptures talks about fire.  Fire cleanses and purifies.  It doesn’t always destroy.  Silver is brought to its purity because of fire.  Steel is made to be intense because of the fire; it makes it strong that it does not bend or break.   Fire has some good qualities to it, but yet sometimes, we think only one side of the picture and we miss what God is saying.

God prophesies, “I will create a new heaven and a new earth.”  This is exactly what it says in Revelation 21, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” God revealed to John the work of Jesus.   Yes, there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth.  For us, we don’t see things happening and we don’t understand what is taking place.  We see all around us changes in our environment that is taking place.  We don’t interpret them perhaps probably.  Maybe, we interpret them in the wrong understanding and we make it tragic.

2Corinthians 5:17 says something about man, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” This was brought about by the cross and the resurrection of Christ for us, as human beings.  We were given new life.   The old things have passed away and behold, all things are new. In our lives, we don’t see that this is already taking place.  We may see a few changes taking place as we walk with God.  We find that we are no longer as impatient as we used to be.  We no longer are as harsh as we used to be.  There seems to be more of compassion, more of an understanding.  It begins to flow because we are changing.  Scriptures are saying that we are changing from glory to glory.  This change may be progressive and not instantaneous.

An interesting thought to confront our understanding is in Revelation 21:10, “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.  Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, on them twelve names of the twelve apostles…and the streets of gold and how these valuable stones will be used as foundation.  Get a picture of what it is saying.  It is telling us that the streets are literally going to be gold; it is telling us that we don’t have to put up with asphalt anymore.  This is talking about perfection and excellence which man, at this point, has not conceived and brought forth in life.  In our area of growth, we have not developed the excellency that God has given to us.  We are progressing, yes; but we haven’t brought it to fullness.  Yet, Peter tells us that this is our task: to declare His excellencies.

As God’s people, where is this new city coming from?  This new Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven and that God is dwelling with us forever.  As Christians, we have this thought that we are going to heaven.  If we are going to heaven and Jerusalem is coming down, and God is going to be here, where is that?  We don’t pay attention to what the Scriptures teach us due to lack of knowledge. We want to get out of this world, but God is creating a new heaven and a new earth.  Why is He creating these if we are not going to be here?   He is going to make it what it was supposed to have been made by man.  When God put man in the garden, He said, “Cultivate it and keep it.” Man failed, but God will perfect it.

This is what the prophecy is telling us.  Things are going to get better, not worst.  God is not a God of destruction but of restoration.  He may bring about the fire for purification, but He is sharing with us so that we are not intimidated or threatened with the events that are taking place around us.  All these things have to happen in order for this earth to become new.  When God says that He will create a new earth and heaven, He means new.  We are so used to this; we don’t even think twice about what is going on.  God deals righteously with justness.  He begins to work in this and tells us this in Scriptures.

We are supposed to be in Advent, which means we are preparing. Do we understand what He is telling us in this portion of Scripture in Isaiah?  God is telling us ahead of time what is coming.  Isaiah proclaims it over and over again.  The picture that God always leave is a picture of prosperity, of greatness, of restoration. It is restoring what we see in the picture of the garden that Adam and Eve could walk in the midst of the cool of the evening with God, face to face, in the beauty of the garden.  No tension, no stress, no traffic, no holes in the asphalt, no tax collectors – everything perfect with peace only.

Because of the sin of Adam, we have come to a point where we are emotionally tensed most of the time.  We are uptight because of the circumstances around us.  God says, “My peace I have given to you.” Have we developed that? New heaven and new earth – the manifestation, the proclamation, the picture that He draws and brings to us is the awesomeness of His commitment to us.

You see the crystal clear water flowing from the throne. This is talking about the beauty of His creation.  His creation was without pollution and corruption. He is going to clean all of these up and bring about hope for us.  Yes, we see the difficulties now, but just hold on to the faith.  Don’t get upset.

I have had the thought and had other people tell me of all the nations becoming Muslim.  What is going to happen to Israel?  Israel has no friends. They are now totally surrounded by her enemies.   What will happen?  Jesus says, “I will put them on their land and they will never leave it.”   How is this going to happen?  I don’t know, but I know that God does not lie.  They lost their land for a time, but in 1940, they were restored. They went back and they had been their ever since.  Now, they are totally surrounded with enemies.    Nations that used to be their friends have now become their enemies.

What is going to happen?  God is cleaning us.  Things are happening.  We see them perhaps as evil.  Fire bring cleansing and purification. Fire is not totally wrong. We don’t like the fire because it burns and causes pain, but the end of it is good.  What would we do if we didn’t have fire?  We couldn’t eat; we couldn’t cook.  It takes something to make all those ingredients to come to maturity to bring something good. The fire is hot that when you put your hand in it, it hurts. But that fire, when the right ingredients are in the midst of it, brings out something that is delicious and awesome.   God shares this truth with us if only we would listen to it.  We read them, go right through them, and we ignore what He is talking about.  We don’t stop and let Him speak to us and open our eyes.

2Corinthains 5:18 says, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” Our task as God’s people is working on restoring and bringing restoration.  This is part of our task as ministers.

God gives to us Scriptures and we are supposed to be working with Him.  We talked about the ten virgins, those who are ready and not ready. When it talks about those who are ready, is it talking about people who are just sitting and doing nothing?  No, they are working and applying themselves to prepare the coming of the groom.  Therefore, they have put their energies into preparation. They are not just there sitting and watching their lamp burn.  They are busy!

In the Parable of the Stewards – the talents have been given; gifts have been given. What have we done with them?  Have we multiplied them, have we caused them to grow or are we just waiting for Him to do His part?  Scriptures says that He is coming back to a glorious Church, not a Church that is defeated and in disarray.  This is what we would expect when the bride and groom come together. Everything is prepared so that everything is a glorious occasion.

This is the picture that He gives to us in Scriptures that brings us hope.  This is what Advent is all about – hope.   We don’t lose our hope.  We may be at a moment of difficulty but we have hope.  This is not the end!   Jesus talks about rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes.  He says not to worry about these things. These are birth pangs.  Something is getting ready to happen. Can we interpret that in our lives?  When we see the struggles and the battles that causes anxiety, stress, and pain, do we understand that we are preparing for something good that is about to take place?

Watch the signs.  Let God speak to us through the signs so that we are not confused.  We’ve gotten so caught up with this system around us that we have been so infiltrated with a system that is anti-God.  When we hear what God says in the Scriptures, we have a hard time accepting it and believing.   Look at the laws of the nations of the world. Many of them are anti-principles of God.  The RH Bill is anti-Christ.  He gave life; He did not take away life.  When we approve of these things, we become a part of that which is against God.  We have to understand this that when we get into the midst of it, there is a time when we have to say, “No.” This is not what God intends.  This is not the way of God.   I read from Psalm saying that the Word of God brings peace and hope in my life.  If I look around me, if I read the news, I don’t have hope.  We are on our way to destruction.

The promise of the Promised Land was all there.  Yes, it took forty years, but it wasn’t God’s fault, but man’s.  In the end, they took over the Promised Land.  The Promised Land was already cultivated by another people.  They prepared it for God’s people to come in and take over.  This is how great God is. We think that it is not fair.  Don’t judge God; God knows what He is doing.  Does He destroy the enemy? He gives the enemy just as much chance as for those who are walking with Him.  He will take from the evil and give to the good.   All the ability came from Him in the beginning. Nobody has anything that did not come from God.  He can move it around because He is the One who gave it.

I share this with you because we read the Scripture so fast that sometimes we don’t allow God to speak to us.  This is where our hope is.  Are we tired of the asphalt? God’s road is all gold which is talking about the excellence that God has given to us.  Trees that are blooming twelve months out of the year and every month a different fruit on the same tree – we can’t comprehend this. Actually, God will not do it because, “It is kind after kind.”  It is the principle that He is talking about.

We try to interpret literally Scriptures, but you can’t do this because in most of things He is speaking in symbols, in parables.  Gold in streets is not gold literally, but it is going to be excellent.  Crystal clear water tells us of purity.  God created all of these things in the beginning, but we have perverted it so that He is going to make it all new.  He is going to restore it.  Why do we have all these organizations talking about having to protect and revive Mother Earth?  These are things that God speaks to us, but as a Church, we are not listening.  God will let the world do it so that the Church gets the benefit of it.

God tells us not to be a people who perish for lack of knowledge.  Spend time with God.  Prepare yourself so that when things happen, you are not intimidated, anxious, or in fear.  God is at work. When the finances begin to be shaky, the stock markets go down, the value of the money goes down, what are we going to do?  Trust Him!  He will not fail to supply.  Are there any Roman coins around anymore?  Can you trade Roman coins?  They failed; they are gone.  What about all the other money in existence prior to our time?  It is gone.  Soon, the money that we are used to will be gone.  It won’t be worth anything, yet we put our trust in that which is passing away.  Put your trust in the Word of God, and you will not be disappointed.

Advent – preparing for the coming of God.  We cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come.  Come, Messiah come!”   Are we ready to receive?  Do we have our decorations up?  Do we have on our good garments?  Are the things in our life bringing out the fragrance of the greatness of God?

This is what Advent is challenging us to do:  be ready; be prepared.  Don’t give up; we have hope. God will not fail.  He will not leave us, He will not forsake us.  We must maintain this in our hearts.  If we do, we won’t be anxious, tensed and we won’t fail.  God will not let us fail. This is our hope.  Advent – the beginning; begin with hope.  Begin with confidence in God.  Begin with His Word, putting our trust in it, and the rest of the year will have nothing but good things prepared for us.  Even if there are some struggles, He turns those things into good.  This is the greatness of our God.  May we, in the midst of Advent, prepare ourselves –emotionally, physically and spiritually.  Know Him.  You can’t do anything if you don’t know Him. You must know Him first.  Know His character and how He acts.  We blame God for so much when it is not God, but us.

Let us understand so that we know when we are stepping over the line.  Make certain that our lives are demonstrating the greatness of God.  He loves us and He won’t fail us.