Tag: exposed

53.k. Wilderness – 17.q. “For the day of their calamity is at hand”

 

Deu 32:35  Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’

Psalms 94:1   O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!

 Nahum 1:2    The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

 Nahum 1:6     Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

 Romans 12:19    Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

 Hebrews 10:30     For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

 Psalms 73:17-19   until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.  Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.  How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

 Proverbs 4:19    The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

 Jeremiah 13:16    Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

 1 Peter 2:8    and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

 2 Peter 2:3     And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

 Isaiah 30:12-13    Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,  therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

 Habakkuk 2:3    For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

 2 Peter 3:8-10     But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

The Lord will never disgrace the throne of his glory. It is great wisdom, and will help much to the return of sinners to God, seriously to consider their latter end, or the future state. It is here meant particularly of what God foretold by Moses, about this people in the latter days; but it may be applied generally. Oh that men would consider the happiness they will lose, and the misery they will certainly plunge into, if they go on in their trespasses! What will be in the end thereof? Jer 5:31. For the Lord will in due time bring down the enemies of the church, in displeasure against their wickedness. When sinners deem themselves most secure, they suddenly fall into destruction. (Henry)

It is my office to punish sin, and therefore as I know their sins, so I will assuredly punish them. Their feet shall slide; they who now think they stand fast and unmovable, they shall fall into utter destruction. In due time; though not so soon as some may expect it, yet in that time when it shall be most proper and seasonable, when they have filled up the measure of their sins (Brown)

We read these verses and see the coming of God’s vengeance on those who reject and deny Him and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We might even have thoughts of cheering on the coming of this event. Yet when I read these verses I can only humbly bow my head and reverently say; “Thank you, Lord Jesus”. The verses describe the exact punishment I deserved prior to God exposing my Sin and revealing His Son to me. It is not as though I was on a mindful journey seeking to find redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ. No, I was content in my sin and my life apart from God. God, in His love, mercy, and grace, exposed me to Himself through a painful event that opened my eyes to Him and the need for redemption. 

I look back at how the couple across the street invited my wife and I to come to listen to an evangelist on a Thursday night, and how the words of this man spoke deep into my soul, and with utter clarity I was given a clear understanding of the need for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness. God orchestrated it all. Not only that, but the couple across the street were well-grounded and strong believers who continually explained more and more of the bible to us. 

I grasp glimpses of understanding God’s vengeance and His grace, mercy, and love. These always bring me to the same place in my thoughts; “Thank you, Lord Jesus”!

 

43.j. “Wilderness” – 7.q. Sinai – “An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it”

 

Exodus 20:24  An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’

Deuteronomy 27:5-6   And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them;  you shall build an altar to the LORD your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God,

 Joshua 8:31    just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.

 Hebrews 12:28-29  Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire

 The distinction between burnt offerings and peace offerings was given later in greater detail. Yet the mere mention of them at the outset of the giving of the law indicates that man cannot keep the law and must have sacrifice to deal with this inability. This was in expectation that Israel would break the laws God gave them, and need to atone for their sin by sacrifice, all with a view to the ultimate sacrifice God would ultimately provide. This wonderful promise was made in the context of sacrifice and atonement. Even in the Law of Moses, God often made the connection between trust in atoning sacrifice and the presence and blessing of God. Though there was blessing in keeping the law, we ultimately are only blessed by the law if we keep the entire law – therefore we seek and find blessing from God on the basis of His atoning sacrifice.

If an altar were made of stone, it was possible or even likely that attention would be drawn, and glory would be given to the stone carver. God, at His altar, wanted to share glory with no man – the beauty and attractiveness would be found only in the provision of God, not in any fleshly display. (Guzik)

An altar thou shalt make for thy present use, or whilst thou art in the wilderness: this he commanded, partly, that they might easily and readily erect an altar upon all occasions, which it might be hard for them to do there of better materials; partly, to mind them how much more God regarded the inward holiness than the outward pomp of their devotions; partly, because God would make a conspicuous difference between them and idolaters, who used much cost and curiosity about their altars; partly, that the altars might, after they left them, fall down and moulder away, and not remain as lasting monuments, which might be afterward abused to idolatry by any persons that came thither; partly, because they were uncertain of their stay any where, except at Sinai, and therefore must raise such altars as they could suddenly do. But this command only concerned their wilderness state; for there were better and more durable altars in the tabernacle and temple. (Poole)

The alter, sacrifice/offering, and blessing – The cross, Jesus Christ, eternal life

24.u. “In the twinkling of an eye”

1 Corinthians 15:51  Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17    For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

 2 Peter 3:10    But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

 Matthew 24:31    And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

In the Biblical sense, a mystery is simply a thing to be understood by spiritual, rather than by merely human perception. Paul will tell the Corinthian Christians something they could not have known by reason or research. They could not have known this unless God revealed it to them.

 In a single moment, Jesus will gather His people (both dead and on the earth) to Himself, for resurrection. There will come a day when in God’s eternal plan, He gives those dead in the Lord their resurrection bodies, and then in an instant He gathers all His people to meet Jesus in the air. All the redeemed on the earth at that time will rise up to meet the Lord in the clouds, and will receive their resurrection bodies.  Ironside says that the last trumpet was a figure of speech that came from the Roman military, when they broke camp. The first trumpet meant, “strike the tents and prepare to leave”; the second trumpet meant, “fall into line”; the third and last trumpet meant “march away.”

Are you anticipating the last trumpet?  Are you ready to hear it?  Are you ready to face death and enter eternity?  Surrender your entire life to humbly serve, honor, follow, obey, trust, and rely in Jesus Christ.  There is no other way to enter eternity in heaven.  

19.x. “Lest his works should be exposed.”

Joh 3:18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

It is a fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ will increase some men’s damnation at the last great day. Again, I startle at myself when I have said it; for it seems too horrible a thought for us to venture to utter—that the gospel of Christ will make hell hotter to some men than it otherwise would have been. Men would all have sunk to hell had it not been for the gospel. The grace of God reclaims “a multitude that no man can number;” it secures a countless army who “shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation;” but, at the same time, it does to those who reject it, make their damnation even more dreadful. And let me tell you why.

It will increase your condemnation, I tell you all unless you find Jesus Christ to be your Saviour; for to have had the light and not to walk by it, shall be the condemnation, the very essence of it, This shall be the virus of the guilt—that the “light came into the world, and the darkness comprehended it not;” for “men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”

He who hears the truth, but he perverts it; he takes what is intended by God for his good, and what does he do, he commits suicide therewith. That knife which was given him to open the secrets of the gospel he drives into his own heart. That which is the purest of all truth and the highest of all morality, he turns into the gratification and indulgence of his sin and makes it a scaffold to aid in building up his eternal house in hell.

It must increase your condemnation if you oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ. If God’s offer of grace, mercy, and love has been rejected, how great must be his sin? Who shall tell the great guilt incurred by such people?  Oh! who shall picture out, or even faintly sketch, the doom of those who have rejected Jesus Christ and in their heart have cried out, “I am sufficient in myself, I am good enough on my own, I am self-worthy.” Who shall tell what place in hell shall be hot enough for the man who denies and rejects God?  (Spurgeon)

15. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned”

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

James 2:19   “So you believe that there is one God? That’s fine. So do all the devils in hell and shudder in terror!”

 John 3:16 has long been celebrated as a powerful declaration of the gospel. Of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, it may be the most popular single verse used in evangelism. God did not wait for the world to turn to Him before He loved the world. He loved and gave His only begotten Son. God’s love didn’t just feel for a fallen world. God did something about it, and He gave the most precious thing to give: His only begotten Son. God loves the world, but the world does not receive or benefit from that love until it believes in Jesus, the gift that the Father gave. Believes in means much more than intellectual awareness or agreement. It means to trust in, to rely on, and to cling too. The intention of God’s love is to save. God’s love actually saves man from eternal destruction. God looks at fallen humanity, does not want it to perish, and so in His love, He extends the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. The duration of the Love of God is eternal.  Mankind’s love for one another will grow, fade, or change.  God’s Love does not change.  The love of God is limitless; it embraces all mankind.  The intent of God’s Love was to save the world not to condemn it.  His gift, Jesus Christ, was to offer salvation, rescue, forgiveness, hope, healing, joy, peace, and strength.  However, some will, in fact, be condemned as a result of Jesus Christ’s coming into the world. Jesus came to bring salvation, but those who reject that salvation condemn themselves. We never need to leave the reason for anyone’s condemnation at God’s door. The responsibility is theirs alone.   Those who consciously reject Jesus often present themselves as heroic characters who bravely put away superstition and deal honestly with deep philosophical problems. When we think of the love of sin that sends people to hell, we often other think of notorious sin. But the simple demand to be lord of my own life and trust in myself is enough of a sin to deserve condemnation before God. Some will openly express their hatred for the truth of Jesus Christ by fighting against it, others will simply express it by ignoring it, and in effect, they are saying Jesus you are not worth my time.

I sometimes think people stop reading after John 3:16.  God loves the world, God sent His Son. I will not perish. I will go to heaven.  They seem to cling to a simple belief in what the word “Belief” means.  They limit their definition of “Belief” to a viewpoint, opinion, perspective, feeling, hunch, or a principle.  This type of understanding and application of the word belief will end in condemnation.  The true definition of belief in John 3:16 means to trust in, cling too, and rely on.  The difference is, one person will be utterly saved and changed, “born again”, and the other person will be condemned.  One will have eternal life and the other eternal hell.  True belief will change a person both on the inside and outside.  If your belief does not have a deep within the heart, mind, and soul change, and reflect an outward change in how you speak and act, then your belief has not resulted in being “Born Again”, “Regenerated”, “New Creation”, or being “Child of God”.  Way too many people are satisfied with believing in Jesus Christ with only head knowledge and not a changed heart.   Believe and be saved.

12.o. “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!”

Zephaniah 1:7  Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near.  The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.

Romans 3:19    Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Psalms 46:10     “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Isaiah 2:12     For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

Ezekiel 7:7    Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains.

2 Peter 3:10-12    But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,  waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

Isaiah 13:6    Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!

“Stop your mouth at the presence of the Lord God,…. When he comes, and appears in the way of his judgments, do not dispute the point with him, or pretend to offer reasons against his sovereign purpose or in order to argue the justice of them; stand in awe and reverence of him, who is the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent, holy, just, and true; humble yourselves under his mighty hand; be still, and know that he is God, and let not one resentful word come out of your mouth. “for the day of the Lord is at hand; the time of his vengeance on the Jewish nation for their sins, which he had fixed in his mind, and had given notice of by his prophets: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice: his people the Jews, who were to fall a victim to his vengeance, and a sacrifice to his justice, to atone in some measure for the injury done to it by their sins.” (Gill’s Exposition of the entire bible)

I have to admit I have thoughts of what God ought to do to people who are lying, violent, looting, and propagating hate.  These thoughts are rooted in sin and have no place in my heart.  I am not God, nor do I have a drop of water in the ocean of His vast all-knowing understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and power.  Yet I still think in judgmental ways.  It is as if I am saying; (”If I was God, I would….”)  This is where I need to hear and apply “Be Silent”  Be silent, stop the judgmental thoughts, and rejoice in whatever the Lord our God is doing.  I can wait and rest in knowing and believing His ways are just, His plans are true, His steadfast love never changes, and whatever He does is right and holy.