Malachi 3:4 Then shall the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former
years.
I saw an article today that said the Jews in Jerusalem
prayed for rain and the next day it began to rain and continued for some days. God is beginning to open His hand and extend
His arm to Israel in the midst of her trials.
Scripture says that where sin abounds, grace abounds even more (Romans
5:20). The world believes that Israel
must fall because so many billions speak words of hate and violence toward
her. They feel she must collapse because
of a myriad of bombs, missiles and mortars sent against her. Know this, Israel’s punishments over the
years were hers and hers alone but they were not done to destroy her. If you know God’s word even a little you will
know the punishments have come to redeem her; to lead her to repentance.
Never fear the future of Israel; rather fear your own future
and your own judgment should you be one of those who move against God’s chosen
ones. We Christians are grafted in, a
wild olive branch blended with the tame olives.
Should we forget ourselves and esteem ourselves more highly than we ought
(Philippians 2:3), God is well able to trim the wild olives of weeds. As God opens a door to Israel, the time
approaches when He will close the door for the church and receive us into His
bosom. On that day the chosen of God
will walk the paths of our Lord Jesus in the land of Judah.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be
a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against
false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the
widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and
fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
There are those in Israel AND the Church who have no
understanding of the true grace and requirements of God. When Jesus walked the earth He opened His
heart to a publican named Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2-8). This man who was short of stature had climbed
a tree to see the Son of God. He didn’t
even argue whether or not he was a sinner.
When called to receive the Lord for dinner all the hair splitting
hypocrites began to murmur and complain.
Nobody was hated as much as a tax collector and Zacchaeus was chief
among them.
You must understand that faith requires action on our
part. It is not enough to feel bad for
your sin. It is not enough to want to
hear the truth. Zacchaeus desired the
truth enough to climb a tree…hardly appropriate for a wealthy
businessman…right? Jesus looked up at
him and saw his limited faith. He
invited himself to dinner at the man’s house.
Upon hearing the true complaints of his fellow Jews about his tax
collecting Zacchaeus chose to take another step of faith.
Climbing down to open the door of his house was not enough
to ensure his salvation. Christ says,
“Behold I stand at the door and knock (Revelation 3:20).” It is not enough to cry out, “Lord, please
come into my heart.” Zacchaeus did that
by simply jumping down out of the tree.
Even Jesus did not say He was saved.
Repentance is not saying you are sorry.
Repentance is not feeling guilty for all your sins. Repentance means to turn away from what you
have been doing and walking a new path altogether.
Zacchaeus stood before the God of all creation and
proclaimed, “Lord, I give half of all I own to the poor and I will restore
every penny I have received by improper means or extortion fourfold. That meant if he received one shekel or
dollar or pound or franc or shilling illegally he would repay that person four
shekels or dollars or pounds or francs or shillings. The law said he must restore what he took
plus a fifth part. If he had taken one
dollar he had to pay back one dollar and twenty cents. He went above and beyond in his repentance
and promised to pay back four for every one he obtained unlawfully.
Only after hearing his confession and promise did Jesus
said, “This day is salvation come to this house. He declared Zacchaeus to be a son of Abraham
and reminded the people that the Son of Man came to save that which is
lost. In Matthew 9:2 Jesus is said to
have SEEN someone’s faith. Faith is an
act and action. You can’t do it by
believing alone. It takes action on your
part and that action becomes more specific and more involved the longer you
walk with God. It is because of this
requirement that we die to self and live to Christ (Philippians 1:20-21).
What would have happened if after the crowds left and Jesus
went home Zacchaeus had second thoughts?
He might have said, “What was I thinking? That’s a lot of money!” This happens every day in the church. We get excited and promise God everything but
then we calm down and begin to say, “What have I done?” These are the people shown in the parable of
the sower (Matthew 13:18-23). Personally
I believe that Jesus, who could see the heart, knew that Zacchaeus was sincere
and committed. I have sworn to my own
hurt many times over the years. Have you
ever promised to do something for or give something to someone and then
something didn’t work out the way you thought and it would have been difficult
to do? Of course you have and so have
I. This is called swearing to your own
hurt (Psalm 15) and though it can be painful to keep your word, God will honor
you if you do.
Finally beloved, whatever our sins (and the list in verse 5
above is just a small portion of those that matter), we must repent of them and
press toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians
3:13-14). We should examine the sins
listed: sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, those that oppress the hireling
in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that cheat the stranger from
his right, and do not fear God.
That last one will cause much sorrow in eternity to come. You might think, “I never do those evil
things. I’m faithful to my spouse and
have never oppressed or cheated anyone.”
What about God? “Oh, I don’t
believe in that religion stuff. EVERYONE
knows that religion has caused more wars than anything else.” What will you have to say on that day when
God requires every word you have ever spoken be played back. What will you say when none of them are,
“Jesus please forgive my sins and come into my heart.” What will you say when God says, “You
murdered my Son and spit on His sacrifice?”
6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed.
I was going to stop at the verse above but decided to
continue. Every one of us are under a
death sentence. Whether we are mockers
and liars, humanists and intellectuals, murderers and thieves, it does not
matter to God. Why? Because Christ died for everyone. There is more to it than that of course. We discussed it in the verse above. God requires we change our life and make a
conscious decision to obey Him. Toward
this end, God has promised to give us grace and mercy. There is a timer attached to these
gifts. It can run out when you die or
when Jesus returns. It is because of His
grace and mercy that He doesn’t burn us all down to bedrock and scorch the
planet. God has promised to give you an
opportunity to be saved and He always keeps His Word. Most of us have already been offered this
grace at least once. Many of us have
denied the gift at least once. We are
people who have been given a new lease on life but we have refused to sign the
lease.
God is longsuffering.
The verse actually says, “Yahweh sana ben yakob kala.” I’m sure you know what Yahweh means and that
ben means son. Yakob is Jacob. Sana means unchangeable, consistent,
constant. Kala means destroyed, consumed,
dissolved, removed. God isn’t restoring
Israel because they deserve it. He is
restoring Israel because He promised and covenanted with Abraham. Part of His covenant with Abraham took place
while Abraham was asleep and unconscious.
Abraham couldn’t sin enough to lose it (the covenant, not individual
salvation). We are spiritually the sons
of Abraham. We Christians aren’t
consumed right now because of His longsuffering mercy. Many of us haven’t even begun to obey Him
yet. He is holding his wrath until the
very last moment so we can learn to submit to Him and say, “Yes Lord.”
Keep this longsuffering attitude in mind for the next
lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment