Sermon: Warning of Judgment, Urgency to Prepare!

#1744B
Martin G. Collins
Given 20-Jan-24; 36 minutes 2024-01-20

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When we think of bronze statues, The Thinker often comes to mind. The Thinker statue by the Frenchman Auguste Rodin in 1880 is one of the most famous to be popular across international boundaries. Few people realize that it was a portrait of Dante Alighieri, who was the author of "Inferno."

But in somewhat of a contrast, most common in the United States are bronze statues depicting people of uncommon valor or of great human traits. These statues have a presence about them that indicates strength and permanence, at least until this woke business, the ESG, DEI, and climate change and all that came about, and they started tearing down those objects of permanence that are not that permanent anymore.

Bronze is not a pure metal, being a combination of copper and lead. It was one of the earliest alloys to be widely used during the Old Testament period and was later replaced by brass.

Please turn with me to Leviticus 26, verse 18. According to Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, "True brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. However, when brass is mentioned in the Bible, it generally refers to either copper or bronze. The three words: brass, bronze, and copper are often used interchangeably in various English translations of the Bible."

Most of the references to bronze, which is 154 out of 160 occurrences, are in the Old Testament. These references are usually associated with judgment.

Leviticus 26:18-19 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.'

I think that is the judgment that is beginning to come upon this nation for all of the sins that it has accumulated over so long a period of time.

If the Israelites did not obey God, the earth would become hard and fruitless and unresponsive to human efforts so that no crop could grow, even as nothing could grow on brass or bronze. There is no way to grow anything on those hard metal objects. By using the metal bronze, the lesson is taught that the drought and the famine are a result of God's judgment on the land for the sins of the people. Biblically, bronze and iron represent hardness and strength.

Deuteronomy 28:23 "Your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron."

It is not a pretty picture, especially for the farmers who have to try to grow in that type of soil.

God is informing us by means of this metaphor in verse 23 that the ungodly, the disobedient, and the rebellious will not be able to send their prayers through to God. He will not hear when they cry to Him and the heavens will not respond to the request and will not be able to produce rain.

In these verses, bronze represents the result of disobedience and rebelliousness. Its hardness makes it tough to change and its impurity makes it far less valuable than gold or silver. A very haunting use of bronze is its association with bondage and captivity. Bronze shackles symbolize the treatment of fallen leaders by vicious adversaries. Two well known biblical examples are Samson and Zedekiah.

Before Samson was able to rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit, his sinful lifestyle brought him into physical and spiritual captivity described in Judges 16 in most translations as bronze fetters.

Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

Please turn with me to Jeremiah 52, verse 8. Likewise, Zedekiah suffered a similar judgment. The king of Babylon put out Zedekiah's eyes, fulfilling Ezekiel 12:13 where God says, "I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall he not see it, though he shall die there." This is a reiteration of what happened to Zedekiah.

Jeremiah 52:8-11 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon in Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah and Riblah. He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The phrase in verse 11, "put him in prison" is literally "the house of visitations or punishments," describing the place where punishing work such as grinding was enforced on the prisoners. This is probably why the Septuagint renders it "the house of the mill."

Now, in each case, bronze indicates the mixed and inferior nature of sinful man with God's judgment upon him. Judgment is often depicted as a casting away from God's presence. God is holy, and as such, He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. So since the holy God cannot tolerate sin in His presence, He must expel the sinner. And because the entire Garden of Eden functioned as God's sanctuary on earth, it was necessary for Adam and Eve to be expelled from it when they sinned.

Later, when the Tabernacle and Temple served as symbols of God's dwelling amid a sinful people, regulations were established to maintain the holiness of God's dwelling place. And although the priesthood was established to secure an avenue of approach, this was done in the framework of protecting the purity of God's dwelling place.

The impure were cast outside the camp in judgment. And when the Israelites refused to heed the repeated prophetic warnings regarding their religious presumption, their punishment was expulsion from the Promised Land where God had covenanted to live with His people.

In the New Testament period, this judgment is temporarily served by the practice of excommunication from the corporate body of believers, from the group of the church as an organized group of believers. In these cases, the expulsion includes an element of grace meant to bring about repentance in the offender. And this gracious offer of a "second chance" is not to be presumed upon, because the day is coming when it will not be offered anymore.

Now, the idea of judgment can be seen in the symbolism regarding the altar of burnt offering spoken of Exodus 27 and 38. The altar of burnt offering was overlaid with bronze and was located in the outer court of the Tabernacle. The great altar that stood in the court immediately in front of the Tabernacle was commonly called the altar of burnt offering because on it were burnt the whole burnt offerings and all those parts of the other animal sacrifices that were offered to God.

This altar was also called the bronze altar because it was overlaid with bronze in distinction from the altar of incense, which was covered with gold. (You do not have to remember every detail of this. But I am just giving you an idea of how bronze is used throughout Scripture.)

The altar of burnt offerings, which was much larger than the golden altar, was set up in front of the doorway of the Tabernacle, where it was used for the daily burnt offerings and the meal offerings. It was there that the priest made atonement for various sins of the people according to the sacrificial system outlined in Leviticus chapters 1—7. It stood as a witness to the fact that any entry into the presence of God must be preceded by atonement for sin.

So its purpose was to be a pleasing aroma before the Lord. Whatever animal or bird was used was entirely burned up, including its entrails and legs, on the altar by the priest. The offering made atonement for the offeror. The offeror first laid his hands upon the head of the animal so that its acceptance in his place was symbolically assured.

Please turn over to Exodus 27, verse 1. We will see how extensively the use of bronze was in the Tabernacle. Nearly half of all the references to bronze in the Old Testament refers to its use in the Tabernacle and Temple, from altars to bowls to cups, columns, and frying pans, bronze was the metal of choice for implements and structures. And this sturdy and easily worked metal was used throughout the Tabernacle and later the Temple.

Here in Exodus 27 we are going to read verses 1 through 6 and this is concerning the altar of burnt offering. But notice the number of times that it mentions bronze being used.

Exodus 27:1-6 "You shall make an altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide—the altar shall be square—and its height shall be three cubits. You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze. Also you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the network you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze."

So bronze was an extremely important metal used in both the Tabernacle and the Temple.

Bronze was used in constructing the outer shell of the altar of burnt offering as a type to represent severe judgment and righteousness. The sacrifice of the animal substitute pictured the righteous judgment of God upon the sinner. Now, the bronze covered the acacia wood of the altar that was beneath the surface. The wood represents, in a sense, the humanity of Christ that in itself might not be able to stand fiery judgment. The bronze represents the strong character and righteous judgment of the Eternal God.

The combined picture shown here is the strength of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ combined with His humanity. This bronze or brazen altar was a type of Christ dying to make atonement for our sins, meaning that the acacia wood being His humanity and able to be burned up physically. But the outer protection of the bronze on the outside was the Holy Spirit being able to protect Him against all spiritual matters. Acacia wood would have been consumed by the fire from heaven if it had not been overlaid with the strong bronze covering, nor could the human Jesus have withstood the wrath of God if the divine power had not strengthened Him.

Christ sanctified Himself for His church, as its altar, and by His mediation sanctifies the daily sacrifices of His people, who also have a right to spiritually eat of this altar because we serve at it as spiritual priests.

Please turn over to Exodus 38, verse 8. Just a few steps beyond the altar was the bronze laver. It was a cauldron shaped vessel, probably highly polished since the ladies had donated their mirrors for this. The mirrors at that time were highly polished bronze plates.

Exodus 38:8 He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

Now flip over to the New Testament to Ephesians 5, verse 25, and let us make a connection with the New Testament here. The bronze laver and base symbolize our sanctification and cleansing through the instruction of Christ's Word.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Similarly, within Solomon's excellent and superb Temple for God and in front of God's throne was something like a bronze sea. The basin for washing that had been in the Tabernacle was greatly enlarged standing on Solomon's bronze sea.

Please turn over to I Kings 7, verse 13. The Temple, including the Sea, was made of the highest quality and workmanship. No building in the history of mankind has ever been of that level of excellence.

I Kings 7:13-14 Now King Solomon sent and brought Huram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work.

I Kings 7:23 And he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.

Cleanliness and purity are essential in the proper worship of God in the Temple, and its furnishings were kept immaculately clean and polished. This was the physical requirement to maintain the holy stature of the Temple.

Now, bronze is also a symbol of the glory of God. In its finished state, bronze is polished and shiny. It is associated with shining and radiance.

Of course, the meaning of bronze depends on the context in which you find it in the Scriptures. Now, a figure of glowing metal is found in chapters 1 and 40 of Ezekiel and chapter 10 of Daniel. Ezekiel's heavenly creatures had legs that gleamed like burnished bronze there in Ezekiel 40:3, and Ezekiel encountered a man whose "face shone like polished bronze." You find that in Ezekiel 1:7. So in both Ezekiel and Daniel, the brightness of shining metal like fire is one of the symbols connected with the appearance of the glory of God.

Bronze, as associated with radiance, is found in Revelation 1:15. In the NIV, it speaks of Christ in this way: "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters." The New King James version here renders it "fine brass." But as I said earlier, brass is another term for bronze in Scripture. Revelation 2:18 might imply that the simile of feet "like burnished bronze" represents triumphant judgment in the way of trampling down those who rebelliously defy the the truth of God.

Turn over to Genesis 6, verse 13. In one sense, this sermon is a word study, not completely but partially. And it is always interesting to look at the meanings. There are various meanings that even a single word has in Scripture. The judgment encourages preparation for the coming of Christ. So the idea of judgment spurs us to righteous living. And this preparedness is not simply a matter of intellectual knowledge, but a faithful response to God's grace.

As an act of grace, God warns Noah of a coming judgment and reveals a plan of salvation, that is, the construction of the ark. Noah prepared for the judgment by obedience, literally building his own salvation.

Genesis 6:13-14 [This part of Genesis is about the ark being prepared and I would like you to keep in mind the word prepared.] And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch."

So Noah is being told to do something physical in preparation for what was coming and going to happen to the world.

Genesis 6:18 "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife and your sons wives with you."

Genesis 6:21-22 "And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them." Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

We should take note of that in our own lives today. That God told Noah to prepare for what he could see was coming and what God told him was coming to the world. We know what is coming to this world and we should take heed to this and be preparing ourselves for what is coming, because we do not know how much of it will have to go through. Hopefully not the Tribulation, but it can get pretty bad before that. So we should take this to heart about preparing. And that is what I mean by judgment because it can encourage people to prepare because knowing there is a coming judgment upon our nation or around the world that we do not want to end up being part of, we should prepare for that.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

It takes faith and a lot of it. And we need God's help to be able to grow in faith.

Similarly, prior to the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt, the Lord graciously revealed to Moses the provisions for the Passover. Reminiscent of the description of Noah's obedience, the Israelites are said to have prepared themselves according to the Lord's instructions. They obeyed and were spared.

Now this emphasis of spiritual preparedness is continued in the New Testament. Matthew's recording of the visit of the wise men and the ensuing conversation between Herod and the Jewish leaders regarding the place of the Messiah's birth is unique. This episode in Matthew 2:1-6 at the first appearance of Jesus serves as an introduction to the failure of the Jewish leaders to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.

Turn with me to I Thessalonians 5, verse 1. Ironically, the religious leaders directed the wise men to Jesus because they knew exactly where the Messiah was to be born in Jerusalem. And they even quoted from Micah 5:2. Yet they did not go with them to honor the Messiah. Their failure was clearly not a lack of knowledge but unbelief—a lack of faith.

In I Thessalonians 5, Paul applies the need for preparation to the church. He urges us to prepare for the Day of the Lord.

I Thessalonians 5:1-9 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on [or we could say preparing with] the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet of hope and salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So considering the suddenness and the inescapability of judgment, it is necessary for the church to be self-controlled and to exercise faith, love, and hope. The exercise of these virtues is what it means to be watchful. Those who are outside by continuing to practice evil will be caught off guard by Christ's return. The process of separating the saved from the unbelievers will yield some surprises.

Matthew 7, verse 21, please turn there with me. The testimony of Scripture is that many will be shocked when they are barred from entering glory. The presumption gives way to astonishment and disbelief when Christ dismisses them with the cutting words in,

Matthew 7:21-25 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesized in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' [or as the NIV words it "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers."] Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."

To emphasize this somber truth, several of Christ's Kingdom parables present a group or individual who was initially in a place of special privilege being excluded at the end. Jesus Christ's emphasis on the sifting at that final judgment was meant to warn both His original Jewish audience at the time and Christians reading the Word of God today, against becoming complacent about our relationship with God. The extent to which many are surprised at God's final verdict serves as a dire warning about the degree of Satan's deceptiveness and his success in passing off as truth what is counterfeit. He has his counterfeit in everything—absolutely everything.

In the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13, the familiar tone in verse 11, "Lord, Lord open to us!" used by the foolish virgins when they request entry into the wedding banquet, indicates that they fully expected to be let in. Instead, in verse 12, the bridegroom, symbolizing Jesus at His second coming, rebuffs them, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you." Or as the NIV has it, "I tell you the truth, I do not know you."

Please turn over to Jeremiah 1, verse 18. As mentioned earlier, bronze can also represent strength, which is an encouraging one for us today! The use of bronze as a figure of speech is concentrated in the Old Testament poetry and prophets. Two-thirds of the uses in these books are figurative and we see the figurative use of bronze as strength in Job's question.

Job 6:12 "Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?"

Job was pleading for relief and reminding his friends that he could feel shame and could suffer physical pain. He was not made of hard metal that had no feelings. So without God's help, he was not strong like bronze. When he received God's help, he became spiritually strong. Job was pleading for relief and he received it from God, eventually of course.

When Jeremiah was called to God's service, God made him like a fortified city with bronze walls.

Jeremiah 1:18-19 "For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. They will fight against you [speaking to Israel], but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you," says the Lord, "to deliver you."

So God promised His servant Jeremiah that He would give him the strength he needed to carry out his commission and He promised him that he would be strong, invincible, and unmoving in the presence of his enemies and that he would be able to withstand all the assaults against him.

Jeremiah 15, if you can turn over a few pages to that. Jeremiah 15 records the encouraging words of Jeremiah that are written for us to receive encouragement from as well. Notice how closely Jeremiah describes how we often feel about the condition of our own lives today.

Jeremiah 15:15-21 Oh Lord, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake, I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?

Therefore thus says the Lord: "If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me; if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. [That is, return to the world. He had removed himself from the world and the counselors of the world and the government of the world so that he could preserve his own righteousness that God had developed in him—the righteousness of Jesus Christ.] And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and deliver you," says the Lord. "I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."

So this fortified bronze wall is immovable, it is indestructible, and it is an emblem of strength. And it is an emblem of strength that we have as we are faithful to God and have a relationship with Him. This is how God views His servants as He strengthens us to perform our Christian duties. The protective hedge God offers to put around us if we are not of the world and are obedient is, for all practical purposes, strong like a bronze wall.

Let us turn to II Corinthians 12, verse 7. (I find it interesting that Ted [Bowling] went to the same place in his sermon and there is a tie-in also with Joe's [Baity] sermonette. So God knows what He is doing when He works these things together.) Here, Paul described a feeling of personal suffering, health-wise, similar to what Jeremiah felt in his personal suffering from health problems and persecution, and Paul arrived at the same conclusion.

II Corinthians 12:7-10 [a very familiar scripture to you about Paul's thorn in the flesh] And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am [and I will add physically] physically weak, then I am [and I will add there spiritually] spiritually strong.

The way of God is strength to the righteous. And when we come out of the world and are not of the world in both thought and action, then we are spiritually fortified as a bronze wall. We can withstand, thanks to God's empowerment, any and everything our adversary and the world has to throw at us. There is nothing that is impossible for us to resist with God's power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

But, so we may remain fortified, we must prepare for what is coming in the near future, and most importantly, for our responsibilities in God's Kingdom. That is one of the purposes of judgment. God's judgment is a terrible thing against the world because it is going to destroy them or punish them severely. But for us, it is a warning; the judgments of God are warnings for us to do something about what we know is coming, whether it be on a physical stance or especially on a spiritual one. We must prepare.

We know that things are getting worse. There is multiple predictions from multiple angles of things happening to this nation that sound like judgment—God's judgment—and it appears that it has already begun. We do not know how long it will take—years, decades. We do not expect that, but you never know because things just tend to drag on.

But we have to be prepared mentally and physically for what is coming. And that is what I wanted to really express to you, that there is a positive side to judgment and we have that positive side.

MGC/aws/drm