WHEN GOD TURNS THIS WORLD UPSIDE DOWN?

Text: ISAIAH 24:1-12

---

INTRODUCTION:

1. We are going to look at Bible prophecy today. Even people who do not read the Bible are familiar with Biblical terms such as Armageddon and the Great Tribulation and the antichrist.
2. Even many unsaved people have an instinctive fear and dread that things cannot keep going the way they are and that somehow, some way, God is going to judge this wicked world.
3. But unfortunately, rather than going to the Bible to find out what the future holds, men go to psychics and fortune tellers, kooky television shows and Hollywood movies, weird books written by unsaved people, strange religious cults, and so on.
4. There is a certain interest today in Bible prophecy but we need to be careful because most of what is being taught is unscriptural. For example, some cults like the SDA specialize in Bible prophecy. Every now and then I will get an invitation in the mail for some prophecy conference. I know enough to throw the invitation in the trash can but unfortunately some people get drawn into the cults this way.
5. Beloved, we know God is going to judge this world. Of that we can be certain. But we must look to God’s Word for the answer. This sin-loving world has rejected Christ. This sin-loving world has rejected God’s Word. This sin-loving world has rejected the Gospel. Therefore, this sin-loving world is ripe for the judgment of God.
6. Isaiah describes this judgment quite vividly here in chapter 24. There can be no doubt that this chapter is prophetic and is describing events surrounding the second coming of Christ (cf. 24:23).
7. The period preceding His second coming is called the tribulation period; the second half is referred to as the Great Tribulation. Our Lord said, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt.24:21).
8. Verse 1 of chapter Isaiah 24 sets the tone for this prophecy. God is literally going to turn this wicked world upside down. We are going to see today what will happen when God turns this world upside down.

1. EVERYTHING WILL COME TO A STOP (ISA.24:1).

1. Everything is so fast-paced today. I love it when we get a huge snow fall because it slows everything down. We see people walking around, trudging down the street to buy a shovel or a gallon of milk. The roads are empty, cars are buried, kids are playing, everything is white and clean. It’s wonderful.
2. But after a day or two it is back to normal – the snow is all dirty and it is rush, rush, rush – rush to work, rush to the store, rush to the bank, rush to school, rush to the doctor’s office, rush here, rush there.
3. We have televisions with over 100 channels (most of them are garbage), fancy telephones and cell phones and answering machines, and CD’s and tape players, fancy stereo equipment, video recorders, computers, fax machines, microwaves, air conditioners, and all sorts of modern gadgets.
4. The airports are filled with people flying all over the world. The highways are filled with cars bumper to bumper, honking their horns. We have fast planes and fast trains and cars and trucks and buses. We have helicopters and submarines.
5. Daniel the prophet predicted this over 2,500 years ago (Dan.12:4). Back in the 17^th century, Sir Isaac Newton studied this prophecy and wrote these words: "Personally I believe these words concern the end of time. Men will travel from country to country. There may be some means of travel invented which will enable people to go much more quickly than now."
6. Voltaire, the famous French infidel scoffed at Newton and ridiculed his faith in the Bible. Time has vindicated Sir Isaac Newton and once again proven what a fool Voltaire really was.
7. So man is rushing to and fro, here and there at breakneck speed. But soon God will grab hold of this sin-loving world and shake it upside down (Isa.24:1). Everything will come to a stop.

2. GOD WILL GET EVERYONE’S ATTENTION (24:2).

1. Whenever there is a tragedy – a plane crash, a school shooting, an earthquake, etc. people start praying. It’s OK to pray in an emergency. Even the ACLU doesn’t complain. People start reading the Bible. People start going to church. God has finally got their attention.
2. Beloved, do not wait for tragedy to strike. It is better to serve God in the good times than wait until tragedy strikes.
3. Many people have cried out, "Lord help me! If you help me this time, I promise I’ll go to church all the time; I’ll join the church; I’ll read my Bible every day; I’ll tithe, etc."
4. Then God helps them through this crisis and they soon forget all about God and all the promises they made. Finally, God is going to say, "Enough!" (cf. II Peter 3:7-14).
5. Notice the references to "fire" (II Peter 3:7), "shall melt…burned up" (3:10), "dissolved" (3:11), "being on fire shall be dissolved…fervent heat" (3:12). Compare this with Isa.24:6b.
6. In this coming judgment, all classes and ranks among the people will be wiped out (24:2). As we saw Wednesday in our Bible study, God is no respecter of persons.
7. Today the rich have a life of ease. Bro. Brown and I were talking about the Concorde. He said it cost $10,000 for one ticket! The rich have chauffeured limousines, tables in the best restaurants, they wear the finest clothes, they live in beautiful mansions, they have whatever they want.
8. But when God turns this world upside down their money will not help them any (Isa.24:2; cf. Rev.6:12-17).
9. "For the LORD hath spoken this word" (24:3). Therefore we can be certain this day of judgment is coming. Are you ready?
10. Haughty sinners are laughing now, but they will not be will "languish" in that day (24:4).

3. GOD WILL JUDGE THIS WORLD BECAUSE MAN HAS TRANSGRESSED HIS LAWS (24:5).

1. God created for man a beautiful world, but man has defiled it. Just take a drive into parts of NYC or any other big city. You will see people eating out of trash cans, drinking alcohol and vomiting all over themselves, lying in the gutter, shooting dope into their arms.
2. God created a paradise but man has turned it into an open sewer.
3. The land is polluted with the blood of innocent babies, ripped untimely from their mother’s wombs. Sodomites are spreading their diseases through their filthy perversions. And if anyone dares to speak out against their sin, it is now a so-called "hate crime."
4. Man has "transgressed the laws (of God)" (24:5) and "therefore hath the curse devoured the earth" (24:6).
5. What are some of the laws man has transgressed? Man has transgressed the very laws of nature. We now have men going into hospitals and turning themselves into women, and visa versa. We have men dressing like women and women dressing like men.
6. Let’s get closer to home. God set apart one day a week. In the OT it was called the sabbath day. In the NT it is called the Lord’s Day. Yet man has desecrated the Lord’s Day and turned it into a day for sports and shopping and mowing the grass and doing the laundry.
7. The people who operate this laundromat over here asked me to tell our members not to park in front on Sunday. I told them they ought to close down their laundromat on Sunday cause Sunday is the Lord’s Day. They didn’t like that.
8. People skip Sunday School and church. Many churches have even stopped holding Sunday night services because their backslidden members stopped coming out on Sunday nights. I will quit this church and go preach somewhere else before I cancel our Sunday night service.
9. Man has broken "the everlasting covenant" (24:5). Some try and limit this to Israel but this "everlasting covenant" goes way back before there ever was an Israel (Gen.9:8-17).
10. Notice that God promised Noah that He would never destroy the earth again with a flood (Gen.9:15). As we saw before in II Peter 3, the next time God judges the earth it will be by fire. "Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left" (24:6b).
11. Sinners will be burned by the consuming heat and hot wrath of God’s anger (cf. Rev.16:1-16).
12. Sinners are having a big time now, but soon the party will be over (24:7-12).

CONCLUSION:

1. There is a lot of prophecy in the book of Isaiah. And the book of Isaiah is full of warnings such as the one we have been studying today.
2. But there are also many messages of God’s grace (cf. Isa.1:18).