Tag: delievered

15.z. “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness”

John 6:65  And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Matthew 12:41   The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.  The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.  “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.  Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

2 Timothy 4:10    For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me

Hebrews 10:38   but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

2 Peter 2:20-22    For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

The Son of God was in their presence.  He spoke wisdom greater than the wisdom of Solomon and preached greater than the preaching of Jonah.  There were in His presence and many rejected Him.  In 2 Peter he says; “it would be better for those who did not know the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back.” Jesus said, “the last state of that person is worse than the first.”  When a person who knows the message of the Gospel and is aware of eternal life through it, and then chooses to reject it, then falls away or is drawn away by worldly passions and pleasures, what is it that so easily pulls them away from Jesus Christ?  How does a person who has tasted what the blessings of forgiveness are and then comes to reject the forgiver?  There are many things that come to mind.  Pleasures and things of this world devour the light of Jesus Christ.  They choose to become blind and deaf to things of God but open their ears and eyes to things of this world.  They choose to believe a lie rather than the truth of the Gospel.

The day of salvation is now.  If you hear His voice speaking to your heart and soul, do not reject Him.  Let Him in.  Hunger and thirst for Him.  A time is coming when the offer of salvation in the presence of the Holy Spirit will cease.  Rejecting it now means you reject eternal life and choose to go to eternal damnation and torment, hell.  You may not ever get another chance.  There are many who say they will choose to believe but sometime later in their lives.  We are not guaranteed a single day in the future.  Think about all of the people who die each day from a host of various accidents.  I am sure they would have said, “if I had only known today was my last day I would have come to Jesus Christ.”  The “day of salvation is now”, do not reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ a single moment longer.

You meant it for harm

Proverbs 19:21     Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

Psalms 105:16-17     When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,  he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

Genesis 45:4   So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

Genesis 50:20    As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Acts 2:24     this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,

 Acts 4:28   to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Isaiah 46:9  remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:

Bad things happen, trouble visits us, and trials drop in on our lives.  How do we know what seems bad, God will use for good?  “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Sometimes it seems as though we think our life will be different and trouble will not find us. Other times we roll with the punch and disregard it or give it little thought. But, then there are those times that find us and we get punched so hard we are left to wonder, what did I do to deserve this.  We wonder if it was a consequence of our doing or that of another – who can we blame.

Look at it from Jacob’s view and the reported loss of his son Joseph, the loss of Rachel during the birth of Benjamin, the famine on the land.  Look at it from Joseph’s view and being hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, wrongly accused, time in prison and forgotten by those he helped. You have to know they felt the weight of these trials and troubles.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

“My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.”

Knowing this does not make it easier or take the weight of the burden we are bearing and trying to put into the hands of God.

We can more easily bear burdens that individually affect us but find it hard to bear those troubles that fall on our family and children where we are powerless and lost for means of making it go away (fixing it).  What can lay harder on the heart of a parent than harm to their child from someone trusted.

In troubling times, waiting, trusting and relying on God is hard and requires daily reliance building faith to continue. “Joy comes in the morning” comes to mind and the night of darkness ends in the light of Him who is able to wipe away our tears, lift us up out of our troubles, and gives us refuge in chaos.

Faith  – in God’s everlasting promises

Reliance  – on God’s almighty sovereignty

Trust  – in God’s plans and purposes

Hope  – to God’s steadfast love

These seem only to be words but in the faith heart of His children they are  courage, strength, power and comfort to face the trials and troubles that come their way.