God is Zealous for His Church

There’s a word in the Bible called ‘zeal’. There’s something about the ‘zeal’ of God that I want to examine.

2 Kings 19:30-31

External Links:Listen to the online sermon (Podcast) »

God is zealous for His people; that includes you. He’s zealous for the church. If you have God at the centre of your whole being, for your future, you’ll take root downward and you’ll bear fruit upward.

Isaiah 37:32

Isaiah 59:16-19

You notice at the end of verse 17 that he was ‘clad with zeal’ as a cloak. Putting it on as a cloak. Whenever the word ‘zeal’ is mentioned, particularly here, so it is, as far as God is concerned, that He is zealous for the truth and for holiness. He manages to clean things up. He manages to do this by putting on the helmet of salvation. There is no way that God will have anything to thwart His purpose, which is to create His church which He gave His life for. Nothing will stand in the way of that. As there was a remnant of Judah, so now is God’s life given for you and me. Just after the word ‘zeal’ it says that when the enemy shall come God will lift up a standard against them. It might that you have been disappointed by something. When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against them. You can imagine the zealous fury Jesus had when He cleaned out the money-changers in the temple. Jesus Christ gave His life for a people like you and me.

Isaiah 9:6

The One who is full of zeal for outworking His purposes, which are holy and true. The One who is jealous for what He came here to do, He is who was born that we celebrate at this time of year. It’s possible for you as a Christian to give Him the lordship of your life. The government shall be upon His shoulder. It’s wonderful, at this time of year, to realise the purpose of His coming. His name is full of wonders. There were 400 silent years at the end of the Old Testament, but Isaiah had prophesied of Jesus’s coming. In every book of the Old Testament you can trace the coming of Jesus. God hadn’t spoken for 400 years and then ‘bang’. The fulcrum of time now revolves around His coming. In our lives, particularly during this year, I know that it has been a re-evaluation and reassessment of what our lives are based on. I know that God has been faithful to all of us. He has been the counsellor. Whenever there’s been figuring out what to do going forward His name shall be called wonderful, counsellor. For the youngsters here, He is your counsellor. You’ve got to want to do what pleases Him. We must be equipped for what God wants us to be and do. He is the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:7

Ever thought about that? Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. We’ve had an election this year, soon we will have one here. Of the increase of His government there is no end because what He’s doing is sorting out things in our lives so that we become compacted together in His church as the bride of Christ. It’s wonderful that each one of us are brothers in Christ as part of His body. One verse which has been on heart this year is that we’re to walk humbly, love mercy and do justice. In this government, of which there’s no end, He establishes it with judgement and justice. ‘The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.’ This may seem a strange thing to say. Do you know He’s so careful about each one here? The zeal God has for his church is supreme. That’s why things happened recently.

Ephesians 5:25

So the reason why Jesus came here and gave His life was for the church.

Ephesians 5:26-27

It’s His zeal which is preparing everything. By that I mean He’s preparing you day by day. So it is together as we take our part in the church, so it is that we can confirm the fact that He is presenting it to Himself a glorious church. Please don’t underestimate God’s zeal to get everything right in the church. We’re the bride of Christ and we’re to take our part in the church. It’s important that as we love one another so others will be drawn to God. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. It doesn’t matter if anyone is planning anything against God, the zeal of God will perform this. You can’t stop Him. He’s a wonderful heavenly father.