If I have not lost you as a reader after all these references
to Jesus Christ, praise God. But let's go to the question of those Jews
who will survive what is called the great tribulation and will enter into
the Kingdom and reign with the Messiah. If you do not yet understand the
tribulation, you will. You may believe the Messiah is coming to set up
His Kingdom and to restore Jerusalem. He is! But first comes the tribulation.
Which Jews will survive the tribulation? Will the Holy Spirit come upon
those Jews that do survive the tribulation? What is the Holy Spirit except
the Spirit that Jesus said He would ask the Father to send following His
ascension? Will the Jews who survive the tribulation think of themselves
as "Christians" and thus enter into salvation? That does not
seem to be the scenario.
The term Christians means followers of Jesus Christ.
In scripture they are referred to as the "body of believers,"
the Church. Believers are those who the scriptures say will have, by the
Grace of God, through faith, received eternal salvation. There is no controversy
among New Testament scholars as to whether the Body of Believers, the
Church, will have been raptured at some point prior to the battle of Armageddon.
The Church includes those individuals (not persons identified
as members of some particular organization) who have received the gift
of the Holy Spirit. It is more likely that the Jews surviving the tribulation
will think of themselves as Jews, obedient to God during this terrible
time. They will not have taken the mark of the beast and their faithfulness
will be counted unto them for righteousness, just as it was with Abraham.
I pray that you personally, in failing to accept the Messiah now, have
the faith to endure the persecution you are about to experience.
By now, you may be asking, what is the true motive behind
your writing this book? Aside from the "warning and pointing,"
referred to earlier, there are two additional reasons I am writing this
book. First, I pray that you receive the gift of eternal life right now,
by accepting Jesus Christ as the Messiah, your personal Savior and that
you accept the cleansing that entails. That cleansing, that renewal of
a right relationship with the Father, is made possible by the sacrifice
of Jesus, wherein your sins are as "separate from you from the east
is from the west," never to be remembered against you again.
If that is your desire, confess your sins to Jesus, ask
for forgiveness, thank Jesus for taking your sins from you by the shedding
of His blood, ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and seek a moment
by moment relationship with Him every day, and be obedient and faithful
to His Word.
The second reason is, if you decide not to act on the first reason, at
least understand that what lies ahead is both glorious and frightening.
It will only be glorious if you choose to obey God during this upcoming
period of severe persecution and punishment. Only your personal faith
in God will provide you with the strength, His strength, to endure. It
is frightening because of what will be required of you if you refuse to
accept the mark of the beast, your only means of proving your faithfulness
when that moment in time occurs.
Now, listen to Isaiah and allow for the possibility that
the Old Testament prophecies applied to a people and times of the past
and to a people and times of the future, simultaneously. You will have
to arrive at that point anyway with some yet unfulfilled prophecy, but
if understanding the Word of God was entirely that simple, why, for centuries
have we lived in darkness? The scriptures say "God has given them
a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should
not hear, to this very day." But listen to what Isaiah says about
the Light of Israel.
Isaiah 10:17-22
17 So the Light of Israel will be for
a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; it will burn and devour his thorns
and his briers in one day.
18 And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field,
both soul and body; and they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
19 Then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that
a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that
day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house
of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend
on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant will return, the remnant
of Jacob, to the Mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel,
be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return; the destruction
decreed shall overflow with righteousness. (NKJ)
The Light of Israel, His Holy One, I say the Messiah,
Jesus Christ, will burn and consume in one day, the thorns and briers,
the fruitful field, both soul and body and there will be so few left that
even a child may "write them." Notice that the "destruction
decreed shall overflow with righteousness." Whose righteousness?
Not yours and not mine. It is God who is righteous and our faith in Him
shall cause Israel to be "overflowing" with righteousness, even
during the great destruction. Righteousness is an attitude, a cloak of
salvation that will envelop you during this time of tribulation. Your
heart will be at peace because of His righteousness in you.
Then Ezra makes it clear that even the remnant stands before God in guilt,
needing a redeemer. If you retain your guilt, you can not attain His righteousness.
Ezra 9:15
15 "O LORD God of Israel, You are
righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are
before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of
this!" (NKJ)
No man can stand before God because of his guilt. The
scripture says God hates sin, it grieves Him when His children sin. Does
it grieve you when your children sin? Of course it does. It also says
every man has sinned. None is "righteous," no not one. Every
name is written either in the Book of Life or in "other books."
Your soul, your spirit is being sustained, awaiting judgment. Listen.
Revelation 20:12
12 And I saw the dead, small and great,
standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened,
which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their
works, by the things which were written in the books.
(NKJ)
The Book of Life is defined in this verse.
Revelation 3:5
5 "He who overcomes shall be clothed
in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life;
but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
(NKJ)
These are great teachings from His scriptures. It implies,
and this is broadly supported in scriptures, that every name, including
yours and mine, is in the Book of Life. How else could it be blotted out,
except that it be there first? It is God's will that every man be saved,
than none perish. It states that those who "overcome" will be
clothed in white garments. Listen to a description of one group of "overcomers"
and what will have happened to them.
Revelation 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on
them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those
who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,
who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his
mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned
with Christ for a thousand years. (NKJ)
During the tribulation, your personal sacrifice, at the
hands of God's enemy, will be the price you pay as you seek to obey God,
provided that you understand that there is not one thing you can do to
earn salvation except to be obedient to God, and to, by grace, accept
His gift of life. Stated another way, even the sacrifice of your physical
body must be a decision you make that is based upon faith and obedience
to the Father, not some macho "I can take anything you can dish out,"
attitude.
I used the word "enemy" in the singular, because
there is only one enemy that you can not, in your own strength, ever overcome.
Satan is the enemy, the fallen angel who is the ruler of this world. Understand
that from the day that Adam sinned until now, man's heart is on a "default"
setting. We are born with a heart of flesh. We serve that heart our entire
lives unless we are able, not in our own power, but by the grace of God,
to have a new heart.
You can not, in and of yourself, overcome the desires
of the flesh. Those desires will overcome you, again and again. God provided
relief that only He could have envisioned and delivered. He sent the Messiah
to provide a means for us to have a new heart, one that is first broken,
then replaced. If one does not, by absolute contrition understand how
fruitless it is to seek to be like God, absent the empowerment of the
Holy Spirit, that one is destined to die in their pride.
Yes we should work hard, study, contribute and share
in the bounty of this world, but this world is perishing and all the bounty
and bodies with it. Life must be about more than what you can do during
your three score and ten allotments, if it is to be "redemptive;"
Or else, all really is vanity. Death is the victor and your achievements,
trophies, assets and "record" soon perish. If you think life
is about life, your God either does not exist or is so infinitesimally
small as to be of no consequence. Our physical bodies are finite. The
only victory you have over the grave is the spiritual victory made accessible
by the Holy Father who sent His only begotten Son to redeem you and me.
But the choice remains yours, right up until your last breath.
I have often wondered what the greatest single cause
of failure is, as men seek to obey God. I will estimate that "pride"
is the answer. It seems, especially after reading Solomon's writings,
that we strive to attain, to possess, to control, to satisfy our physical
needs, in vain. That after all of the "trying" comes the end
and the end is not a pretty sight. Does man have to be "at the end
of his rope" either in age or in circumstance to finally recognize
that life is vanity when lived as if "that is all there is?"
The sacrifice of your life, during the tribulation, if
that is required of you, as you stand steadfast in the declaration of
your faith, will be an act of incomparable faith and obedience. Are you
capable of that kind of faith? Do you have the strength to endure this
test? The answer is yes, at least in some cases, but why would one do
that? In hope, in hope that God will honor their faith, that God really
exists, that there is a heaven and that life is eternal to those whom
"obey." But obedience to death is a large order. Not so large,
again, that you can't handle it, in the strength of God, but an ordeal
that God foresaw.
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to provide a means
of escape, that you might be able to bear the pain of temptation, that
you might depend on the power of the Holy Spirit in getting through the
dilemmas that life in the flesh presents. Listen please. The redeeming
blood of Jesus, the Messiah, was a foreordained condition for the "final"
sacrifice, at least final in the sense that any future sacrifices are
offerings of gifts of righteousness, not for the forgiveness of sin. The
perfect redemptive power of the sacrifice of Jesus, the sinless Lamb of
God, sets aside any further pursuit of sacrifice aimed at cleansing yourself
of sin. Otherwise, Jesus gave His life for nothing.
If we seek "another way" to redeem our souls, we make a mockery
of God's plan of redemption. For instance, does anyone think the blood
of bulls or goats can redeem a soul? Do you believe that great financial
gifts to honorable causes or the dedication of one's life to serving God
can secure your redemption? Of course not. If those acts could redeem
you, again Jesus went to the cross for nothing. If you ignore God's gift
of redemption, what gift will you offer? Even the gift of your sinful
self, as an act of contrition, done in faith, pales by comparison with
the Gift of God. If we try to circumvent the shed blood of Jesus, who
knew no sin, then the Messiah is not yet our Redeemer. Every dedicated
Jew believes God will provide a Redeemer, a perfect, unblemished sacrifice.
It is a fundamental scriptural truth that without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The only sacrifice that
is going to matter is the One that permanently cleanses you, wherein you
have triumph over sin by the power of the Holy Spirit and by your faith
in the eternal love and grace of God.
Hebrews 9:22
22 And according to the law almost all
things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is
no remission. (NKJ)
Isaiah 48:17-18
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you
to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like
the waves of the sea. (NKJ)
Following the period of great tribulation, there will
be 144,000 Jewish martyrs who will have been beheaded for asserting their
faith in God and refusing the mark of the beast. There will be a multitude
without number who will stand in white robes with them, in God's eternal
kingdom. Listen.
Revelation 7:1-17
1 After these things I saw four angels
standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any
tree.
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of
the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom
it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
3 saying, "Do not harm the earth,
the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their
foreheads."
4 And I heard the number of those who
were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of
the children of Israel were sealed:
5 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand
were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed; of the
tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali
twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand
were sealed;
7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand
were sealed; of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed; of the
tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand
were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; of the
tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no
one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with
palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to
our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 All the angels stood around the throne
and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces
before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying: "Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God
forever and ever. Amen."
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these
arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?"
14 And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These
are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day
and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among
them.
16 "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun
shall not strike them, nor any heat;
17 "for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd
them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes." (NKJ)
Notice it says, "These are the ones who come out
of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. "Therefore they are before the throne of God…
Know that the "therefore" that places them
before the throne of God, is based upon their having been washed in the
blood of the Lamb. If you miss that point, you miss the entire basis of
your being able to stand before God. Neither you nor I will ever stand
in the presence of God on the basis of our worthiness. Our righteousness
is as filthy rags. Only the blood of the sinless Lamb, the Son of God,
can make us worthy. We stand in His presence because of His righteousness
and mercy. We do not stand there based on our merit.
I have always want to ask a Jewish friend, "would
you like to be judged by the Law?" I know that I do not want to be
judged by the Law. The Law chronicles our sins. It is the straight edge
by which we can be measured. The scriptures teach that if you are guilty
of breaking even the smallest of the Laws, you are guilty of breaking
the whole Law. No, we do not want to be judged by the Law. We much prefer
to receive mercy, not judgment. The scriptures say that "Mercy triumphs
over judgment." Thank our Holy Father that is true.
The scriptures teach that there is a 1000-year period in which the kingdom
will be restored here on earth. Verse 15, above, is a Millennium scenario
where God's people serve Him "day and night" (thus this verse
does not refer heaven where there is no day and night) and in verse 16
the scene moves on to eternal heaven where there is no sun, only the light
of the Lord. Some will argue that you can't jump in and out of scenarios
that way, but if you have read the scriptures, you find prophecy does
exactly that. Everything is not in a "straight line," but everything
fits.
God's truth is neither contradictory nor false. Literalism
is a very narrow place in which to stand but which of you would like the
responsibility of saying "God did not mean what He said?" Once
you start down that path, instead of "believing" and seeking
discernment, you end up "interpreting" and laying man's limited
thinking on the analysis of the truth. God sums it up for us when He says,
Isaiah 55:1-13
1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come
to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what
does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let
your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- the sure mercies of David.
4 Indeed I have given him as a witness
to the people, a leader and commander for the people.
5 Surely you shall call a nation you
do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because
of the LORD your God, and the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified
you."
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will
have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your
thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
9 "For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts
than your thoughts.
10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do
not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth
from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish
what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 "For you shall go out with joy,
and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth
into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up
the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall
not be cut off." (NKJ)
Daniel said:
Daniel 10:21
21 "But I will tell you what is
noted in the Scripture of Truth… (NKJ)
Jesus, in responding to those who doubted He was the Messiah, said "the
scripture can not be broken." I believe the reason that people who
take the Scriptures "literally" are willing to get chastised
so often is that they take this quotation by Jesus very seriously. We
may not understand what was said or what was meant by what was said, but
that does not make it false. It simply means we don't understand everything
all the time. Here is the context in which Jesus made that statement.
John 10:22-38
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication
in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in
Solomon's porch.
24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said
to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ,
tell us plainly."
25 Jesus answered them, "I told
you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name,
they bear witness of Me.
26 "But you do not believe, because
you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 "My sheep hear My voice, and
I know them, and they follow Me.
28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither
shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 "My Father, who has given them
to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My
Father's hand.
30 "I and My Father are one."
31 Then the Jews took up stones again
to stone Him.
32 Jesus answered them, "Many good
works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you
stone Me?"
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone
You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not
written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '?
35 "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the
Scripture cannot be broken),
36 "do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the
world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38 "but if I do, though you do not
believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the
Father is in Me, and I in Him." (NKJ)
Here, in this next quotation, the apostle Peter offers a very important
teaching about the interpretation of scripture. After reading this, consider
laying this presentation aside, which is only a hint of the breadth of
God's Word, and take up His Word with all urgency, storing it in your
heart. Seek His Face, His Holy Presence, His Wisdom and His Guidance now,
before another day passes. Here is what Peter said about interpreting
prophecy.
2 Peter 1:16-21
16 For we did not follow cunningly devised
fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For He received from God the Father
honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory:
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came
from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 And so we have the prophetic word
confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark
place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy
of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will
of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
(NKJ)
I realize this is a lot of reading, but if you can't
wade through what seems like a lot, how will you ever get through the
Bible? When the Messiah returns there will be no time to "catch up."
Do everything you can, right now, to equip yourself for the moment in
time where you will meet Him face to face. I can personally relate to
the following verses.
Psalms 119:123
123 My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation and Your righteous word. (NKJ)
Psalms 119:81-82
81 My soul faints for Your salvation,
but I hope in Your word.
82 My eyes fail from searching Your word,
saying, "When will You comfort me?" (NKJ)
Psalms 130:5-6
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in His word I do hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord more than
those who watch for the morning-- yes, more than those who watch for the
morning. (NKJ)
Psalms 143:8
8 Cause me to hear Your loving kindness
in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which
I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. (NKJ)
Seeking God may take on many forms, but I do not know
how you can anticipate standing before your Maker without having "listened
intently" to Him. Could a person spend a lifetime in pursuit of knowledge,
power, wealth and fame and have missed the opportunity to have God speak,
directly to him? Of course you could avoid listening to God but why listen
to the words of mere men? To whom do you listen all day? We are "choosing"
to be an audience to someone or something. Time is running very short.
Seek Him now. What else is more important? Certainly not a ball game,
your garden, a good novel, or whatever else has your attention.
The scriptures say that the greatest commandment is to
love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. How does your love
manifest itself? It is excellent to love your neighbor as yourself. That
is the second greatest commandment, but don't miss number one as you pursue
number two. The first great commandment, a summary of the first 4 of the
10 commandments, is "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and
strength." This is the enabling commandment that makes the second
6 commandments (love toward others) "work," to the glory of
God. If you simply pursue the last 6 commandments, you will have done
well, but not well enough, according to scripture.
There is no redemptive power in good deeds. If you fail
to understand that fact, you fail to understand why any sacrificial law
was ever instituted or why the Messiah had to suffer and die for our sins.
If one could "earn" their salvation by good deeds, neither faith
nor sacrifice would be required. Your love for the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit and your understanding of the redemptive power of the
Messiah and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, enable you and equip
you to serve Him as you serve others.
True love will require "forgiveness" every
time. Not one of us is perfect and the love that we extend to others,
if it is to be truly genuine, ignores the unrighteousness, on occasion,
of the recipient. When each of us reflects on our own past sins (and all
sin is of equal importance before God, there is no hierarchy of sin) we
know that if God can forgive us, by the shed blood of Jesus, then He can
forgive everyone else too. The scriptures say that "if you say you
love God but you say you hate your brother, you are a liar and the truth
is not in you."
Loving the unlovely and the unlovable is only possible when you see in
them, the image of God. You know that you were created in the image of
God and so was every person. God would that no man perish and He expects
we who have been cleansed and forgiven to convey His message of salvation.
Listen.
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
(NKJ)
That sentence could not be more clear. Repentance is
the key to life. No repentance, no forgiveness; No repentance, no empowerment
by the Holy Spirit. Repentance is the step you take in response to God's
invitation to enter into His Holy Presence.
Isaiah 57:15
15 For thus says the High and Lofty One
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and
holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
(NKJ)
I pray that my Jewish friends take solace in the fact
that only some of their ancestors missed recognizing the Messiah. A great
many Jews knew that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. The New Testament
that we have is largely a record prepared by and preserved by the Jews.
The Messiah was a Jew, sent by God. God said the following words to the
prophet Isaiah, some 700 years before the birth of the Messiah, His Elect
one. Read this and Chapter 53 of Isaiah and ask your self, "who could
this be but the Messiah?"
Isaiah 42:1-9
1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
my Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him;
he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2 He will not cry out, nor raise His
voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break, and
smoking flax He will not quench; he will bring forth justice for truth.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice
in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law."
5 Thus says God the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath
to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
6 "I, the LORD, have called You
in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners
from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and
My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare;
before they spring forth I tell you of them."
(NKJ)
God has taken steps to reveal Himself to us in so many unmistakable ways.
Prophecy is one way, miracles are another. How in the light of fulfilled
prophecy could one doubt? How could men watch a miracle of God, performed
before their very eyes, and then return to their sin?
Here is one answer.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
9 "The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
10 I search the heart, I test the mind,
even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of
his doings. (NKJ)
The heart that is deceitful and wicked is the heart of
man. God wants to give you a new heart.
Jeremiah 24:6-7
6 'For I will set My eyes on them for
good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not
pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.
7 'Then I will give them a heart to know
Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their
God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.
(NKJ)
A "new heart" is a gift from God. Perhaps my
favorite verse in the entire Bible, written by Paul, a devout Jew, is
embodied in this quotation.
Galatians 2:19-21
19 …I through the law died to the law
that I might live to God.
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
21 "I do not set aside the grace
of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in
vain." (NKJ)
I write to you, not in my righteousness, but His. When
you can say I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, you are able to
draw upon His unending reserve of grace and mercy and to thereby witness
the crucifixion of your own flesh. Listen again. "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me;" This leaves no room for pride. There is plenty
of room for joy, which I must admit sometimes appears self indulgent,
but again, if Christ is going to bless you and use you, rejoice, not in
your own accomplishments but in being His servant. |
