Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
This is one
of the most troubling things I see in the hearts of men and women today. They hear the scriptures that tell of Jesus’
love and mercy but forget that those words are based upon the iron will of
God. He doesn’t just expect obedience,
He demands it. Our natural minds will say
that it seems mean spirited to send someone to Hell just because they choose to
walk their own path. In God’s mind, he
has offered us a narrow path to life (Matthew 7:13-14) and because that way is
hard has given us Jesus and the Holy Spirit to make it tolerable.
You don’t
have to obey God. You can obey your own
will, your own desires, your own lusts.
They lead to destruction as surely as if you jump into a seething
volcano. There is one difference
though. Life doesn’t end when someone
commits suicide or even dies of old age.
If you commit murder, that person’s life does not end. There have been any number of murder suicides
over the years and in God’s eyes the murderer has chosen to decide for his
victim and himself that they are both ready to greet God.
I was reading
how many famous people died in 2013 and was shocked to discover how many were
in their twenties and thirties. The
primary cause of death in these famous people who had money and fame was
suicide. That’s right. They killed themselves. I don’t know everything that triggers someone
to take this route in their lives but each and every one of them suffers from
an incredible ignorance of the reality of life.
Death on this realm is not forever.
Except for a
few crazy people who believe they are doing God’s work, those who murderer (themselves
or someone else) are not prepared to greet the God they have just
offended. When you take someone’s life
before their natural span ends you have chosen their time and have refused to
allow God His honor. Perhaps the Holy
Spirit was working on that soul to come to God when you ended their life. Because you chose to act in the place of God,
He, God, has poured their blood on your head.
Because you did not do it in His time, God will require their blood from
you…forever.
It’s not
enough to say, “Well, I haven’t killed anyone preacher.” Even if you simply lead someone astray or
wound them until they leave God’s house, you have caused grievous harm to their
spirit and God will require that blood from you (Mark 9:42). He does not need to end your life immediately
because He can afford to wait until the natural end of your pitiful lost
existence. You will die in your sins of
disobedience and arrive in perfectly preserved condition before Him to answer
for those sins. It won’t matter if you
believed in Him before you died or not.
God believes in Himself and that is all that matters. Your life and future will be decided BY HIM
for all eternity on that day.
An American
song writer, Matt Dylan, once wrote a song, “You gotta serve somebody.” Even by choosing to disbelieve the God who
created this universe, you have chosen to serve someone. Romans 14:21-23 discusses something as simple
as the food we eat. At the end it makes
a tremendously important point. Habakkuk
2:4 says, “A proud soul is not right before God. The just will live by faith.” This extremely important statement is
repeated in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. In case you didn’t notice that was repeated 3
times, once for Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now getting back to Romans 14:23. We are required to live by faith in God. Sin is the one thing that will keep you from
living in peace with God. Sin is
cleansed by faith in Christ (John 1). No
matter what you believe or do not believe, Romans 14:23 says that whatever is
lacking in faith is SIN. You have missed
the mark.
A child obeys
their parent because they know there is a punishment involved in
disobedience. A good parent offers love
and praise in response to obedience and love and chastening in response to
disobedience. If you are not able to
parent because that person refuses to submit to your authority then the answer
is to put the lawbreaker away where he can no longer trouble the family.
We
incarcerate criminals to keep them from harming us. God’s way is to leave you eternally alive in
a place of torment for your crimes.
There is no more opportunity for forgiveness because you have chosen to
deny the gift of the Savior. According
to the Old Testament, the answer for a natural child who no longer obeyed the
law of his natural father was being removed from the camp of Israel and stoned
to death. It protected the name of the
father and the rest of the nation (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
In Christ it
is different. This life you are living now
is your time to ‘get it right before God.’
God will not receive you into the camp if you fail to accept his gift of
salvation through Christ HERE AND NOW in this life. We know we have salvation because we love the
savior and we know we love Him because we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS (John
14:15-15:10). We know we will go to Hell
because we do not even try to keep His commandments. Grace covers weaknesses, not your deliberate
disobedience and sin.
Israeli Grace
Romans 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people?
God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of
Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know ye not
what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against
Israel, saying, 3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine
altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 4 But what saith the answer
of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not
bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5 Even so then at this present time also
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then
is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of
works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
These eleven
verses deserve far more time and response than I will give them right now. My intention at THIS time is simply to show
that God has not given the place of the Jews to Christians. A change has taken place which not only
affects the Jewish world but the whole earth. That most Jews have not accepted this change
does not make it untrue. Nevertheless, it
still means something special in the world today to be born a Jew, a natural
descendant of Abraham and it STILL means something to God Himself.
What we see
in verses 5 and 6 however is that instead of the old way of sacrificing animals
to cover their sins, the Jewish people must accept the ultimate sacrifice of
their Messiah and King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has been moving in the open hearts of Jewish Rabbi’s and many have
been able to understand through scripture that Jesus is indeed the
Messiah. Having said that, it is clear
through scripture that most will not realize this truth until the great
Tribulation comes. It will make everything
so clear that even the most doubtful will have their doubts removed.
Romans 11:7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were
blinded 8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of
slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;)
unto this day.
Why would God
do such a thing if He had not intended for Christians to replace the Jews? It’s simple.
Even though God has a special place in His heart for the Hebrew people,
He has a desire for all mankind to be saved (John 3:16). God did not step into an already made
creation and choose one people. He
created ALL people and loves ALL people.
The fact that we choose to be disobedient is a testimony to His
unwillingness to own slaves. He desires
loving gracious families. One of the
most important groups to reach are orphans.
God has a special place in His heart for the fatherless and widows.
When He
created Adam and Eve with free will God knew we would fail Him. He even allowed Satan to whisper lies. Why would He do such a thing? Because you cannot choose where there is no
choice. If you think God should abandon
the Jews because they have failed to follow the Torah as it led them to Jesus
then you probably believe He should abandon the rest of mankind as they LIE to
prove God does not exist.
One sad
effect that religion has had on science is to force science to sneak behind
religion’s back to operate. This gave
scientists a natural inclination to disbelieve religion which tended to poison
many of the theories scientists came up with.
In many scientific disciplines it has ceased to be the driving force to
find the truth but rather to prove the theories. Science has become its own religion to prove
its own beliefs. The theory of Evolution
has replace the belief in creation and a creator as the law of the land in
America even though NONE of the so-called missing links of mankind’s supposed
journey from single celled creature to human being have ever been proved.
Every
creature from Cro-Magnon man to Peking man have been shown to be fakes yet the
scientists who put forward those theories refuse to admit the truth to the
general public lest they appear to be liars and their theories false. There has never been a single biblical truth
that has been proved false when science grew up to the level required to prove
or disprove the Bible’s claim; not one.
In spite of this growing body of scientific evidence that the Bible is
accurate and its claims true, we choose a lie rather than an uncomfortable
truth.
Israel’s sin
is a failure to accurately understand and apply God’s Law to Jesus when He
presented Himself riding on a young donkey at the gates of Jerusalem. OUR failure as gentiles is to say this
amazing and unique creation we call the universe is all a great cosmic
accident. We say, “In the beginning
there was nothing…and it exploded.” How
dare we condemn the Jews to oblivion when we ourselves have tried to arrange
that fate for God Himself.
Romans 11:9 And David saith, Let their table be made a
snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompence unto them: 10 Let
their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
God’s
decision on that fateful day when Jesus presented Himself to throngs of people
only to have the Jewish leadership spit on His face and crucify Him may seem
excessive to our short sighted human lives, but to God it was quite
merciful. They denied the Captain of the
Lord’s Host, the Messiah and King of kings.
They have suffered for more than 2000 years because of that sin. God’s grace will soon bring them back into
the fold by removing the scales from their eyes and revealing His Son to them;
but never forget, He locked them out to make a way for you…the wild olive
branch.
Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they
should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto
the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
The first
‘fall’ is piptpipto which means to
fall from a higher position to a lower one.
Paul is saying, “They have NOT fallen to a lower POSITION.” The second ‘fall’ is paraptoma which means to unwittingly transgress or deliberately
sin. This is a good word because it
means that some Jews like the most senior leaders willingly transgressed the
law to end something they saw as a problem while others, specifically the
common people, sinned against God ignorantly.
The entire
purpose was to reach out to the whole earth when His chosen messengers refused
the honor and become isolationists. Our
continued honor from God is supposed to provoke the Jews to a jealous path back
to God. Quite often God has used different
ways to lead us to holiness and forgiveness.
I know God is never shocked or amazed by our actions, but we should find
it shocking how often we as a race fail to humble ourselves to the one who
wields the rod of correction. We
gentiles are certainly no more willing to be corrected than the Jews were.
Bishop J
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