Psalm 4

 Psalm chapter 4

You guys know I like to do studies that bring in doctrine. Doctrine is what we believe in. It’s basically a teaching on what we believe..  you can kind of think about it as theoretical. But I also desire to offer some practical things that you can do that you can implement and live out. So hopefully, we’ll get the meaning and understanding from what Psalm 4 says, but hopefully we’ll also get something we can live out practically.

Sometimes, when we don’t have the answer to some question, it can interrupt our sleep.   Tonight, I plan to offer you a cure for insomnia.   I just hope it isn’t my message that’s the cure.

With that in mind, let’s pray for the Lord to help us understand what’s being said and to be able to put into practice what is being taught.

Psalms 4:1-8 (NASB95) 1 For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. 2 O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. 3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him. 4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD. 6 Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?” Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD! 7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.

Psalm 4, traditionally recited at night, is the evening counterpart to Psalm 3’s morning prayer.    Sort of like how we teach our kids to pray, when they’re little. “Now I lay me down to sleep…”   Perhaps the earliest version was written by George Wheler in his 1698 book The Protestant Monastery, which reads:[1]

Upon lying down, and going to sleep.

Here I lay me down to sleep.
 To thee, O Lord, I give my Soul to keep,
 Wake I ever, Or, Wake I never;
 To thee O Lord, I give my Soul to keep for ever.

A later version printed in The New England Primer goes:[2]

Now I lay me down to sleep,
 I pray the Lord my Soul to keep[;]
 If I should die before I 'wake,
 I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

 In Jewish thought, sleep itself is not simply rest, it is a “small death,” like a miniature death, where you surrender your soul into God's hands. This idiom of “sleep” representing death, is a new testament concept as well.   Which makes sense, since most of the new testament was written by Jewish authors.   But in 1 Corinthians 11:30 it says, For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

And in 1 Corinthians 15:51 it says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

So let’s think of this for a sec.  Why do you think sleep represents death?

And so, psalm 4 becomes a liturgy of trust in the LORD, at the day’s end.  We at Calvary Chapel may not tend to be very into “liturgy”.   In fact, some of us, in the “evangelical” christian tradition, may even pooh pooh the idea that there is value in liturgy.  Where liturgy is kind of a formula or a ritual that you do by rote, by memory.   Maybe we look at liturgy kind of like a “fake it till you make it” kind of a thing.   But I think there can be value in following a certain prescribed routine.   At least as a way to get started.  Repetition is a way I learn things.   Anyways, for what it’s worth, that’s what I think.

You guys know, I’m a software engineer.   More than once, I’ve laid down in bed to go to sleep, and I have some problem I’m trying to solve at work.  I’ll pray about it, and go to sleep and my mind (by God’s creative design) will keep working on the problem while I sleep.  Sometimes I’ve dreamt about it.  Then I wake up and think to myself, Oh, yeah, that’s the solution.  I’ll write it down or go to work and write it down, and sure enough.  The LORD made our minds to be able to work and the LORD speaks directly to our mind while we’re asleep.

“Answer me when I call…”

David’s opening line is bold. He isn’t demanding instant results, but he shows a confidence that God hears, even in silence. We also see some similarities between psalm chapter 4 and Psalm chapter 3 you'll notice here that it begins with David referring to God in a special way and I want you to see this in verse 1 he says answer me when I call Oh God of my righteousness I want to talk about that. Let’s re-read the verse Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

“when I was in distress”, David is talking in the past.   In the midst of a severe trial, David says, “be gracious to me and hear my prayer”.  Now did you notice that David refers to God as O God of my righteousness? This is another of David's declarations of faith. He is declaring that God can be depended upon as a judge to judge properly and righteously even when men cannot.   We don’t think of God as a “judge” too much. Why?   Because God’s judgement was poured out on Jesus.   God’s wrath towards us was all used up (so to speak) on Jesus.  That’s why we can be confident and have this close intimate faith in God.  God is now our friend.   We’re not presumptuous, we know God and His character.   And we trust in that.

Here's the point; David is going through a situation where men are turning against him but he's saying to God as he opens up this prayer Lord you are the one who judges my situations without negative influence without turning away from the truth and I know that you see the real facts of what's going on and I now that justice is going to triumph in the end I know that it's going to triumph in the and David comforted himself with those kind of statements

I want us to think about our attitude in prayer.  Do we have confidence that God hears and God answers, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the ultimate outcome?   This really boils down to knowing God’s character; that He’s gracious and kind and generous and giving and caring and gentle.

Verse 2 How long, will my honor become a reproach?   In other words, I stand for you LORD.   I boast in You.   Yet, I receive dishonor and reproach.   My question for us, Are you confident enough in God to live your faith out loud?

I know this gets said a lot, but we still live in a country that has “freedom of speech on the books”.   We are allowed to talk about our faith.  We’re aren’t put into jail, or hit or spit on, like Paul, Peter, and even Jesus Himself.   Okay, I’ll admit the soil is getting harder.   The climate toward spiritual things is getting colder.   You might get mocked, or scorned, or rejected or ignored.   You might even lose a friend by talking about your Savior.  But that’s a small price to be consistent with your faith.   If we really believe that someone goes to hell without turning to Christ in faith, we would do more to encourage and invite others to faith in the Living God.

Please reflect on this: what’s more important, your friendship with someone, or their eternal salvation.   I’m not saying we should be obnoxious about it.   We can be “winsome” and try to win some (that’s probably been said before, but that just came to my head).

I will have to say, one of the things that really encourages me is when I hear your stories of boldness and how you have shared your faith with someone.   We’re told to speak the truth in love.   The bible says to preach the word, in season and out of season.   That’s just about all the time.

All of this amounts to giving glory to God.

Here are some scripture references that bless me…

1 Timothy 1:17 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen

Revelation 5:12-13 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

Revelation 7:11-12 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,

“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Verse 3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself, David says, “But know”, knowing something or someone, really knowing is more than just something that goes on mentally in your brain.   It’s experiential.  When you are little, your parents tell you don’t touch that, it’s hot.   What do you do?   You touch it.   Then you know for yourself.   When someone says they used to believe in God, but they don’t now.  Ask them, did you know the LORD?   The best they can say is that they “thought they knew” God.   You can press it, but did you know God?   If they’re honest, they’ll have to say, no. 

You and I can know that the LORD has set us apart, because we’ve experienced conversion.   We’ve been changed.   We’ve been born again.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

Verse 4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.   Other translations say “be angry and do not sin”.   The word “tremble” is well, have you ever been so mad that you were shaking.   This is quoted in Ephesians 4:26 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.  Here in context, David is speaking to those who have maligned and gossip about him and betrayed him.   He still has a heart for these guys.   He says, go ahead, be angry, but don’t let that anger become deep seated bitterness.  Even though their anger had become that. These words are meant to confront wicked men as a warning against their anger overflowing into violence. James 1:19-20 This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Also in this verse, “meditate in your heart, on your bed and be still”.  One of my little pet peeves is when someone promotes meditation for the health and emotional/psychological benefits.   Usually, it’s my company, or the medical community or some TV program that recommends meditation.   What they’re really recommending is eastern or Hindu meditation.  Yes, there might be some health benefits.   There might even be some emotional/psychological benefits, but spiritually it is very dangerous.   Eastern meditation teaches that the practitioner must empty their mind.   Here’s what the bible says can happen when you do that, Matthew 12:43-45 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

An empty mind is open to demonic influence.

Christian meditation is about filling your mind with the scriptures.   Thinking about the goodness of God and all that He has done.

The reason I warn about eastern meditation is because I new someone who started out with yoga, for the health benefits and it led him into the Hindu practices and believing in reincarnation.

Verse 5 says  5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD. This might be a little difficult for a Christian to understand.   We are taught that Jesus’ sacrifice was a one and done.   He died once for all we’re told in Hebrews 7:27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself and 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit

Every other religion is a system of works to earn righteousness.   They are all about do, do, do (if you get my drift).   But true biblical Christianity is about “it is finished.”

So the ultimate meaning of this can be found in Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

The reason this kind of a sacrifice is acceptable is because it is accomplished by faith and performed in the Holy Spirit.

Verse 6 Many are saying, “Who will show us any good?” Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O LORD!

Here in verse 6 he is saying there are many who say who will show us some good in other words people are looking for a change in their circumstances and for some kind of hope in challenging times and so they ask the question you know who can who can show us some good who will lead us into times of prosperity times of peace it sounds to me like the cry of our culture today doesn't it and you know what it's going to continue to be the cry of our culture and it is going to lead the people of this world right into the hands of the Antichrist system because they are going to continue to cry out and say who can show us some good and he's gonna come along and he's gonna say I can. people today want to be happy and they're constantly yearning for to see something good in life and that’s natural but the trouble is they want they want blessing and they want happiness without bending their knee to the Lord you know they're looking for blessing without coming to him who blesses and understanding his word and understanding that God who created this earth and created the people who live upon it knows best how they should live and instead of people looking God in the eye and saying no I'm not going to live the way you tell me to live they want to live their own way and yet they still want to be happy and that's just not gonna happen

Verse 7

notice David's answer to their question of you know who can show us some good David says light up the light of your Face (or your countenance) upon us Oh Lord. David knew that it was God and God alone who's gonna who can deliver what our hearts need and want the most and listen as David ends this Psalm now speaking of the benefits of knowing and and trusting God look at verse 7 you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound here now David is describing the joy that is in his heart from knowing the Lord to the joy that people go through when they're in times of prosperity and you and I when he says there when their wine about he doesn't necessarily mean when the wine is flowing and you're happy because you're drunk he's talking about when the harvest comes in because they had their vineyards and their grain fields and when there was a prosperous harvest there was great joy because they knew that they were gonna be well set for the next year and so David understood that from a cultural standpoint and yet he challenges by saying that the joy the Lord has placed in my heart exceeds that of a worldly joy that is predicated upon some nice thing that just happened to you we might look at this different you know you've put more joy in my heart then when they get a big fat raise and go out and buy a nice house and a nice car or or or something like that you know you've put more joy in my heart then those people can experience why because their joy their happiness is based on temporal changing circumstances.

you have a great harvest one year wonderful the next year is a lousy one what happened to the joy from the year before?

Verse 8 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety 

have you ever been up all night worrying have you ever been unable to get to sleep because you just had this adrenaline rush of some thought that just went through your Head?

David knew what it was like to have those kinds of fears but he also knew what it was to have the joy of the Lord in his heart that caused him to be able even in the midst of difficulty to lie down and not just lie down but to sleep to fall asleep because he knew that he knew that he knew his safety was bound up in the hands of the Lord

This will take some pressing in.  it will take some effort to put your mind on the LORD when it would rather worry.

https://www.youtube.com/live/fCbBJjelyYE?si=xsdnRmRvHhRX7Wk7

Isaiah 65 & 66

 

Isaiah Chapter 65 verses 17 - 25

New Heavens and a New Earth

17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.

God creates - to our understanding this instance of God creating is a little different than when God created in the beginning in Genesis 1:1. It says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.  That was where the Lord brought the universe (the time space matter continuum) into existence out of nothing. The technical term for out of nothing is ex nihilo.  You and I can create things, we can be creative, but we can’t create something out of nothing.  You see how God is incomparable; he's able to speak the word and it is.

This creation of a new heavens and a new earth spoken of here in Isaiah chapter 65 verse 17 is apparently a recreation taking the existing elements, tearing them down and rebuilding the universe anew.

Verses 18-19;  “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
19 “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;
And there will no longer be heard in her
The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.

Instead of remembering, the former things wherein was sin, failure, corruption, disease, death, evil, pain, etc., etc., etc.  We will be able to bask in the joy of the Lord throughout all eternity. This new Jerusalem is also mentioned in Revelation 21 verse two and verses 10 through 27.

Revelation 21:10-27 (NASB95) 10 And 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, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements. 18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and will be throughout all eternity.

Verses 20-24.  “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.
21 “They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 “They will not build and another inhabit,
They will not plant and another eat;
For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,
And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.
23 “They will not labor in vain,
Or bear children for calamity;
For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord,
And their descendants with them.

24 It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.

These verses talk about the change in environment and experience during the millennium.  Environment, being exemplified in nature where a wolf in a lamb will graze together. Experience being an exemplified by the lengthened lifespan of men. Reminds me of the book of Genesis chapter 5 where we get the genealogy of Adam down through Noah.  Another way our experience will be different during the millennium is that we will build houses and live in them plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.  

Here’s an example of building a house and not being able to live in it; my dad just passed away a little over a month ago and we have had to go through his stuff and clear out that house and it still isn’t completely cleared out, but he can no longer dwell in that house.

then the phrase “they will not bare children for calamity”, tells me two things 

1. There will be childbearing in the.

2. Children won’t start out with a sin nature like we are born with.

Another way, our experience will be different during the millennium will be with regards to prayer and how, and when God answers our prayers. In the millennium, God will answer our prayers before we ask. Why is it you think God doesn’t always answer our prayers immediately.?

Chapter 66 

Heaven Is God’s Throne

Verses 1-2.  Thus says the Lord,

“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where then is a house you could build for Me?
And where is a place that I may rest?
2 “For My hand made all these things,
Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord.
“But to this one I will look,
To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

After the peek into eternity and the millennium in chapter 65, God now turns and addresses the nation of Israel and Judah.

Let’s look in our Bibles into the book of acts chapter 7 verses 46 through 51

Acts 7:46-51 (NASB95) 46 “David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 “But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: 49 ‘HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?’ says the Lord, ‘OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REPOSE? 50 ‘WAS IT NOT MY HAND WHICH MADE ALL THESE THINGS?’ 51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

I personally find the Lord’s timing, fascinating that we encounter this scripture here in Isaiah 66 while we’ve been studying, and I personally have been reading the book of acts.

So what is it that impresses God?

Is it a big church building? Is it a giant cathedral?  Is it a wonderful structure? Is it stained glass and a huge pipe organ? Or is it a humble and contrite heart and one who trembles at God‘s word?

1 Corinthians 2:3 (NASB95) I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

Hypocrisy Rebuked

3 “But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck;
He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood;
He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol.
As they have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their abominations,
4 So I will choose their punishments
And will bring on them what they dread.
Because I called, but no one answered;
I spoke, but they did not listen.
And they did evil in My sight
And chose that in which I did not delight.”
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word:
“Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My name’s sake,
Have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy.’
But they will be put to shame.
6 “A voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple,
The voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to His enemies.

7 “Before she travailed, she brought forth;
Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8 “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day?
Can a nation be brought forth all at once?
As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.
9 “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God.

In verses 3-4 god again turns in this scathing rebuke to Israel and Judah for their trust in their religious activities and yet their religion was void of truth and genuine faith. they had no shortage of rituals they took part in but they were perverted and immoral and contradicted what God had told them to do or or what God had said not to do.

Verses 5-6 we trust in God’s word do we also trust in his justice. Are we vindictive? Do we seek our own vengeance? I’m speaking to myself here.

Verses 7-9 this is weird. How can a baby be born without labor? We know that when the pain comes the contractions start, what if without any of these warning signs the birth came. This happens to be true about the nation of Israel, who was born in a day on May 14, 1948.  For 1947 years Israel was written off as a nation and her people were scattered throughout the continents of the entire planet.  Oddly enough, the labor pains for the birth of Israel started right after the nation was founded. They were attacked from all sides.

Joy in Jerusalem’s Future

10 “Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her;
Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her,
11 That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts,
That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”
12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend peace to her like a river,
And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”
14 Then you will see this, and your heart will be glad,
And your bones will flourish like the new grass;
And the hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants,
But He will be indignant toward His enemies.

Verses 10-14 I can honestly say I rejoice over Jerusalem and yet at the same time I grieve for her. My heart breaks at the thought of the Jewish nation in large part rejecting their Messiah Jesus Christ. I can honestly say I have a love for Jerusalem in Israel firstly because God loves them and he is not done with them yet. But also because we received our Bible through them, and our Christian faith is born out of their book. We truly feed off the foundation that was laid for them in the Old Testament. A foundation of justification by faith in God think of Abraham. He was counted righteous because he believed God. Another foundation of our beliefs is that God is eternal and infinite in nature, and that came through the Jewish Bible.

Do you guys remember what the Jewish people today? Call their Bible besides the Bible?  They call it the Tanach.  That is an acronym TNK. It stands for Torah, which means law. Neveim which means prophets, Ketuvim which means writings. We can truly drink deeply of the word of God and delight in the abundance of its glory because of the nation of Israel because they preserved it and transmitted it down through the ages to us.  

Versus 12 and 13, talking again about the millennium, God’s purpose in that is not only that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will have a relationship with him, but also that all the nations will.  There is comfort and peace and wholeness in the Lord, and that will be experienced by us in the millennium.

Verse 14 I wanna focus in on this phrase. “The hand of the Lord will be known by his servants.” The hand of the Lord, represents his actions, his activity, God doing things. There are those who believe that they can move the hand of the Lord by prayer by righteousness by faith. In other words, we can get God to do what we want. Sort of as if God is our divine Butler.  No. Just no.  What we should want is to know God’s will, and do his will, and be his hands and feet. We want the Lord to move us in whatever direction he wants by his spirit. We want to be pliable, we want to be movable. We think we know how things should be, but we don’t have the full picture. We are not all knowing like he is.

15 For behold, the Lord will come in fire
And His chariots like the whirlwind,
To render His anger with fury,
And His rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For the Lord will execute judgment by fire
And by His sword on all flesh,
And those slain by the Lord will be many.

All I can say here is let’s look at second Thessalonians chapter 1 versus five through 10

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 (NASB95) 5 This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed--for our testimony to you was believed.

Also let’s look at the book of Revelation chapter 19 verse 15 through 21

Revelation 19:15-21 (NASB95) 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Back to Isaiah 66 verse 17-21 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens,
Following one in the center,
Who eat swine’s flesh, detestable things and mice,
Will come to an end altogether,” declares the Lord.

18 “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. 19 I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. 20 Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the Lord.

Look at what is going on here, people who sanctify and purify themselves?  But they go to the gardens and eat non kosher things. For us, let’s not take God’s grace for granted let’s not presume upon God’s forgiveness let’s live differently.

Romans 6:1-18 (NASB95) 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Isaiah 66: 22-24“For just as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the Lord,
“So your offspring and your name will endure.
23 “And it shall be from new moon to new moon
And from sabbath to sabbath,
All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.
24 “Then they will go forth and look
On the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm will not die
And their fire will not be quenched;
And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”

So Isaiah got to see into the very throne room of God and view God in all his majesty. He also got to see what God would do in terms of sending the children of Israel into exile and captivity captivity and then calling them out of exile and captivity. Isaiah showed us about God‘s mercy and God‘s kindness and God‘s tenderness, and he also showed us about gods fury, wrath, justice, and judgment. Don’t forget even to the end of Isaiah here in context he’s speaking to Israel but it applies to us as well.

Mark 9:42-50 (NASB95) 42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. 43 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44 [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] 45 “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, 46 [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] 47 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, 48 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. 49 “For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”