“Our Father”
“This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:9-13
Most of us have been saying this simple little prayer from an early age. As children we committed it to memory. We can repeat it without even giving much thought as to what we are saying. But have you ever really considered just what you are saying?
“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be they name.” When we say this prayer we need to be ever mindful that we are addressing the very Father God, the God of all creation, the all-powerful God, the God who is …the God who was …and the God who will always be! Amen?
When we say this prayer we’re talking to the God who is Omniscient, he’s all knowing, having total knowledge and knowing anything and everything, God knows all that is able to be known. And this exceeds far beyond what our simple little human minds can conceive or understand. God knows things that man will never be able too ever think of or comprehend.
When we say this prayer we’ve addressing the God who is Omnipotent. This is the God who has unlimited power. This is the God who has universal power and authority; this is the God who is all-powerful. This is the God who has all things under his control. God can control everything but this is not to say that he does control everything. God allows things to happen that he doesn’t approve of, God allows bad things to happen but he doesn’t cause them to happen even though he does have the power to control should he so desire. Here we start to get into our free will verses God’s will. It is within the will of God that we have the ability to exercise our own personal will, thus God allows us to do things that go against his will. He doesn’t like it but he allows it, why? Because God gave us free will.
When we say this prayer we are addressing the God who is Omnipresence, this wonderful God is everywhere in all places at all times. Think of a place, anyplace, it matters not where you are thinking about, God is there. God is even in the places you can’t think of, that’s one of the many things about God that makes him so wonderful.
When we look at this salutation, this “Our Father” we have to think of what a great honor it is, what a great privilege, to be able to speak directly to this awesome God, this awesome Deity, the Ancient of Days, the Lord God Almighty. Granted Jesus Christ is the intercessor, it is through him that we speak to the Father, it is through him that we can go directly to this Deity… our God. But if we really think about it when we pray to the Father, we are praying to the Son as well since they are one and the same are they not? There is only one God and his name is Jesus! Amen?
Beloved let me say right here and now that Christianity is a mystery religion. There’s no other way to say it. I’m asking you to believe in a God that is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all at once, all at the same time. I’m asking you to believe that each one is the same person and yet at the same time I’m asking you to believe that each one is independent of the other, that there are three separate entities. And what is my proof? Because that’s what it says in this book we call the Bible! And what am I asking of you in regards to this book we call the Bible? I’m asking you to believe that it’s the very word of the God in a printed form. I’m asking you to believe that its God’s own voice that we can carry around with us should we so desire. That it’s something we can read, commit to memory, use on a daily basis and share with others. I’m asking you to believe that the words recorded in the Bible are the words God handed down to man over the course of many centuries. I’m asking you to believe that God spoke individually to the spirit of over 40 different writers. That he instructed each of them to record what he said in different styles, in different genre’s with different messages that are all one and the same message when you put it all together. And I’m asking you to believe that it is all the story of Jesus Christ, it’s all the story of God’s plan of salvation for mankind and it’s all the truth. How can I say this? Where is my proof? I have none! I’m asking that all of you reading this accept what I say and believe by faith. Remember the jailer in the book of Acts? He asked; “What must I do to be saved?” And he was told; “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”. It’s all by faith. I have faith in this book we call the Bible, I have faith in this God that I serve and I have faith in my Jesus. And I’m asking you to have that same faith as I.
But now lets get back to our salutation to the Father. Back to our “calling” to the Father. If we were ever in a situation where we needed to call upon the president of the United States, if we ever needed to talk directly to the President… oh the trouble we would have in making that call. If we needed to call him today right after reading this I venture to say that our call would never get through. We might get any of a thousand aids or staff members but we would never get a direct line to the President. We would find a chain of command, an army of secretaries and aids and go-betweens but we would never reach the ear of the President. Likewise we will never reach the ear of the Queen of England, the president of General Motors, or the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills. We would never reach the ear of any of the lofty and mighty personalities we hold so high today. And yet as easily as I am communicating with you through this teaching, we all can talk directly to the God of all Creation. Any time we want, from any location, and we don’t need to wait until we have a clear signal or our batteries are recharged.
“Hallowed be thy name”. “Hallowed” means holy, consecrated, sacred or revered. God is holy, and how do I know this? Because the Bible tells me so! (Leviticus 19:2) "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” God is exalted, he is wonderful and all-powerful, he is perfect in every way and yet despite all of this grandeur, and majesty, he is accessible to anyone for any reason, all we need to do is call upon his name in prayer. Isn’t God good? Our Father is in heaven yet his line is always open and we’ll never get a busy signal. He doesn’t have call waiting, and he answers in every language without us ever having to hear a recorded message and then select which one we want to hear. This is what the opening line of this little prayer says to us if we listen with our hearts and think about what we are saying.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What a wonderful thought. What a wonderful prayer. Father we’re crying out to you … now… today… right now. I would love to see this corrupt evil world be transformed to the purity and perfection of heaven. But the stark reality is that we aren’t going to see that because it will never happen until Jesus Christ returns. We aren’t going to see perfection until Jesus comes back to this earth and claims his rightful place of Lord and King of this earth. And if we’re still alive when he comes we’re out of here anyway. Jesus is going to take all his saints who died in his name. And any believers who are still alive are going to be gathered up with him in the air and follow along so either way beloved, WE … ARE … OUT … OF … HERE! If we don’t make the first train, by the power of God we are on the next one. Amen? We’re glory bound and we’re ready to go, we don’t need to pack a bag with all of our medications and pills because this body is going to be left behind and the new one will be in a lot better shape. When I started out with this body ages zero through sixteen it was in pretty good shape. Then I got it a lot stronger from age sixteen through fifty-seven with exercise and weight training. Then mean old mother nature kicked in, gravity took over and everything is starting to go south but that’s okay because I’ve got a new one on order and this new one is going to last forever. If you haven’t made your reservations yet for this departure, you might want to take care of that today. The ticket windows will be open anytime you are ready to make the decision.
Ah dear saint, join with me now, I’d like to take you on a mental trip for a few seconds as we travel to heaven. Imagine if you will … we’re going to a place where the perfect will of God is in full flower. We’re in a place where everything is in order, that there is no pain or suffering, where it’s beautiful all the time, where the only real noise isn’t really noise at all but the singing of praise to our Lord God Almighty. We’re going to a place where there is perfect peace and contentment that rests on every person, place and thing. No envy or jealously, no grumbling or complaining any longer. A place where no one has a better car or house than anyone else. No one has a better spouse or kids; no one has a better job or a nicer lawn. God’s will is perfect and in heaven God’s perfection in all its glory is going to be seen by everyone all the time. Amen? If you’re sick now or not feeling well … we won’t feel that sickness any longer. If anyone is depressed take heart, there will be no depressing thoughts or depression any longer. If we’re overweight, glory … no more obesity. If there is hunger in our lives, there will be no more hunger. In God’s perfect world, in God’s perfect will we will experience an eternity of never again too much heat or to much cold, no tornados or hurricanes, or to much or to little rain. We will never again experience poverty, no more heartbreak, no more abuse, no more fears, no more darkness. No more government or taxes. No more killings, no more drugs or drunkenness. No aids, cancer, heart attack, anxiety, or apprehension. Never again will we experience abuse of any kind, never again will there be any crime or perversion, all injustice will cease. Can you imagine this place my friend? No more prisons of reality, structures made of steel and concrete or prisons of the mind holding captive saints in torment and bondage from God’s blessings. No more ridicule or feelings of inferiority, just God’s perfect will. This is what we are asking for when we say “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.
“Give us this day our daily bread”. I think a nice verse that runs in perfect harmony with this is the opening verse in the 23rd Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. When we say this part of this beautiful prayer we are asking our God to meet all of our daily needs, we are asking him to provide for us not only our food, our nourishment for the body, the things we require for strength and vitality. But also the things we require for our spiritual well being, we are asking for the things we need for our spiritual daily walk as well. We’re saying; ”We acknowledge dear Lord that you are the creator of all things, that you are completely with-in your self un-limited in power, in might and majesty, and fully capable to give us these good gifts. We acknowledge oh Lord that you are Jehovah Yireh, the Lord who provides. We are acknowledging that the Lord who provided for His children Israel in the desert so many years ago is the same God who will provide for us today. And we are asking God to provide for us, since we are the grafted in branch to the tree of Israel and the ones who draw life from the One True God. Scripture tells us that God is the giver of all good gifts. (James 1:17) “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Scripture also tells us that God is our Father and we are his adopted children. (Romans 8:16-17) “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
And as his children, as his child, we have every right to ask for his gifts, not only do we have this right to ask but we have the right to expect his gifts as well.
Before I go any farther, I must emphatically stress … I am not talking about God meeting our list of wants. There is a huge difference between our needs and our wants. At times, for some, our wants are never ending with the list going on forever. And in many cases the list is also unobtainable and certainly not with-in the will of God for our lives. But our needs are easier to define. “Provide oh Lord what we really need today, as we need it, have us be satisfied in your provision and know that we are trusting in you for this. Because you are our God and it is in you and only you that we trust. Amen.”
I live in an old farmhouse and I’ve been remodeling it over the last few years. My wife would tell you that it seems like I’ve been remodeling it forever! I’ve built in closets in bedrooms where there were none when it was first built some 100 plus years ago. In those past years there wasn’t a need for any closets, a simple standing wooden wardrobe was adequate. It’s still there today; we still use it in a room I haven’t gotten to yet. And this piece of antique furniture was sufficient for the entire family. The men had one suit; it was your Sunday go to meeting suit. On Sunday you got dressed in your one suit and you went off to spend the day at the church meeting in the church house. The wife had her one nice dress, it was her Sunday go to meeting dress, she may have had two dresses, but maybe not, and she certainly did not have three dresses. In that day, in that culture they didn’t have it or need it. People had two pairs of shoes … if they were lucky … one for work, one for church, many only had one pair and they just cleaned them up for the church meeting. Nobody had a pair of sneakers; they hadn’t been invented yet. The rest of the week the men wore their one or two pairs of bib overalls, the ladies a couple of house dresses and the kids had just about the same. They trusted in God to meet all their needs but their needs didn’t amount to all that much. They used what they had, if it wasn’t that much, no one said anything. If the clothes were a little bit worn or faded, it was okay because everyone was in the same boat just about.
What is it like today? The men have a half dozen suits sitting in the closet, fifteen dress shirts, two dozen ties, five pairs of shoes and at least two pairs of sneakers. And for the ladies … you can just about double that load with many having one hundred pairs of shoes or more and the houses are packed to the point that they have no place to put the stuff. If you think I’m kidding look at the average yard sale. They have clothes piled up all over the lawn, neatly separated by size for each member of the family. Everyone has twenty times what he or she needs or wears and we never stop looking for more. Right now I’ll bet I have more suit coats in my closet than my grandfathers on both sides ever had in their entire lives. I’ve got brown dress shoes, black dress shoes, two pairs of work shoes, three pairs of sneakers, one a gift that cost over $100.00. Mind you, they were a gift; I’m more the $10.00 Wal-Mart kind of guy when it comes to sneakers.
The average family of four today has more clothes piled and packed in their homes than the entire inventory of the local mercantile had in the days of our grandparents. We as a society have lost the meaning of value; we can no longer distinguish the difference between wants and needs. Today if we see it we want it, and if we want it, in our minds today, it instantly transposes to we need it. And it’s not just in the line of clothing either. Furniture, cars, appliances, toys, big and little ones, the list goes on and on. I’m not trying to make anyone feel as if they are a dyed in the wool sinner if you have nice things, if that were true I’d most likely be one of the worst. But I do want to make the point that we as a people have lost the true meaning of needs and replaced it with our wants.
What we need to do is look on the positive side of this interesting subject and have a little fun. If we really relied on God to meet just our “needs” and dropped some of the “wants” off at the local homeless shelter think how much time it would save us on Sunday morning. If we didn’t have fifty options for dress, we could get up, have a bite to eat, and everyone could get to church on time rather than spending so much time trying to decide what to wear and arriving late. I know for myself my big problem is trying to decide what will fit around the middle rather than what color to decorate myself in. If we didn’t spend so much time selecting our wardrobe we’d actually have time for fellowship before the service rather than during or maybe have time to enter the sanctuary for our own personal time of worship in prayer and quiet meditation as a preparation for our entrance into worship. And again beloved I put myself in the same category as the rest in regards to this.
I think I’m safe in saying I could offer a prayer for all of us that God would help us to remember what our needs are when we pray this prayer that Jesus gave us and help us to hold back our wants just a little. I think I’m safe in saying we all could use a little of the Bible’s instructions in remembering what a want is and what a need is. In the desert God gave his people manna, every day he gave them a fresh supply. They were to take what they needed and no more. If they took too much it turned to rot and was unusable. That beloved was an “OBJECT LESSION” we could all learn from. When Jesus said “give us this day our daily bread” he was instructing us to look for what we need for today … and tomorrow … well that’s another day and we need to go to the Father on that day as well when it arrives. When we go to the Father on a daily basis, we should be mindful to ask him to be faithful to feed our need, when we need it and in the amount we need, it’s when we on our own start to feed our greed that we get into trouble.
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Beloved think of the magnitude of this sentence. For just a moment reflect upon what your debts are to God. When we hear the word “Debt” we instantly think of a cash transaction. We hear “debt” and our minds register “money”, and today it’s usually money on plastic. Money owed on a plastic card is the number one debt in America today. But who here has ever borrowed any money from God? Has anyone here ever said to God, “Oh God, I need a little loan to tide me over for a while”. And I’m not talking about taking His tithe and telling him that you’ll get it back to him a little later when things are going easier. That’s another sermon for another day, and yes I’ve been guilty of that one in the past myself. When we say, “forgive us our debts” we’re not talking of money. Debt means to owe … something owed to one person by another. An obligation or a liability to pay back or return something.
If we’ve never borrowed any money from God then I guess we’re not asking him to forgive us for that kind of a debt. So just what was Jesus talking about when he gave us this segment of prayer? One of the things we need to remember is that we, the carnal man; we tend to look at things in light of our physical world around us. It’s known as our presuppositional disposition, it’s how we are presupposed to view things around us in light of the environment in which we are raised. If you’re born and raised in western New York as I was and you’re presupposed to expect snow in the winter months from early October to mid June, we get the other three seasons in the other four months. That’s our presuppositional disposition. We view things in the here and now reality of today.
But with the words of Jesus, well it’s often a little different. Most often Our Lord Jesus was speaking of things in the spiritual realm. When Jesus ministered to people, yes he ministered to their physical needs, food, feeding the hungry, healing of the sick; he set them free from illness. He even raised some back to life from the grasp of death. But he did something else as well. He ministered to the spiritual side of men. He ministered to those who were tormented by the demonic and the oppression of Satan, the enemy. Jesus did works in the physical and the spiritual realm of man. And it was all for a purpose. Granted it was a multi-purpose work that he did, and he did it to show his love and compassion to all men. He did it to show us his Father’s might and power, he did it to show us the works of the Spirit manifested through the power of the Father. He did this to show us not only in the physical realm but in the spirit realm as well. And beloved Jesus placed more emphasis in the salvation of the soul than he did in the feeding of the body. I once made the statement in Sunday school after receiving the prayer requests, that there were so many requests for the healing of people on the brink of death that we spend more time trying to pray the saints out of going to heaven than we do trying the pray the sinners out of hell. We spend more time praying for healing in the physical realm than we do praying for those lost in the spiritual realm. And it is in this spiritual realm that Jesus was talking about when he said we need to ask the Father to forgive is for our debts. Jesus is telling us that we need to on a regular basis come before The Father and ask for the forgiveness of our sins, our transgressions against God, against our Lord and King. We need to ask him to forgive us this debt of sin that we accumulate on a regular basis.
Forgive us our debt is like saying; “O Father pour out your grace and mercy upon me, bath me in your unlimited kindness and allow my vileness against you to be washed away in the cleansing blood of your Son, my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ”. This my friend, is the debt we are seeking forgiveness for when we pray this beautiful prayer. “Forgive me for offending you O Lord. Forgive me for ignoring you, for tearing at your heart. Forgive me for all my many faults and all my wrong doings, for the sins of my flesh, the sins of my mind, the sins of my heart. Forgive me Father and allow me to stand in your presence in pure spotless garments washed clean in the blood of Jesus. To stand until my next fall from grace … and then Father … forgive me again. This beloved is what (Matthew 6:12) is saying.
Now notice that this is a hinged statement, it folds in two directions. In one direction it folds to ourselves seeking forgiveness. And then it folds in another direction; it folds to another person, offering forgiveness. Jesus has told us that the forgiveness we receive, we are to offer as well. We’ve each got to ask ourselves, “how many wrongs am I willing to forgive?” we need to be constantly asking ourselves,
“How many wrongs are we willing to let find their way to our door and then how many are we willing to forgive?” I can’t answer for anyone other than myself; this is a personal matter for each of us to deal with. Each of us has to set the level to which we are willing to bend when wronged and say; “I forgive you”. Take it before your Lord, seek his guidance and follow what his Spirit tells you to do. The Apostle Paul understood this concept when he penned in the book of (Romans 12:18) “ if it is possible, as long as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Think back to how much we want God to forgive us for our shortcomings and offences and then apply that same amount of forgiveness to the other person that has offended us. Has someone talked about us unkindly? What words have passed from our lips? Has someone said something untrue about us? Has everything we’ve said about other people always been the truth? Maybe what was said was true but it still hurt, and did we really need to say it? Think of what others have done to us and then ask our self; have I done similar?
Beloved, forgiveness is the true key to all good relationships. Forgiveness and communication are the foundation and are equally important to any and all kinds of relationships. Be it family, friends, fellow workers, or church family. Being able to forgive is one of the godly attributes that each of us is able to do. Had you attended the adult Sunday school program of the church I worked in a few years ago you would have seen that we spent almost a year learning about the attributes of God and which ones we as those created in his image are able to obtain and display. Although there are many and we barely scratched the surface of fully knowing who God is we did see that one of God’s attributes that we are to practice is forgiveness. Forgive as we are forgiven.
“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” My personal favorite is the NIV Bible, it says; “deliver us from the evil one”. The book of James tells us that God doesn’t tempt anyone, and well indeed he doesn’t. God doesn’t tempt us to do evil but he has given us free will and the ability to choose, and he allows us the choice to follow that temptation. James writes in his epistle; “When tempter no one should say “God is tempting me”. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” God’s not the tempter, but he does allow us to be tempted through our own free will. The key to avoiding this is to know God’s word, know what it says, how it’s said and if need be know where to look when we need a reinforcement of his word.
And so in closing, let me encourage you to get grounded in God’s word, meditate upon it daily, pray for strength daily. Become a sponge if you will and soak in as much as we can. If possible, the Word of God should be as much a part of our existence as the very breath we take or the food we eat. If we can make God’s word an intricate part of our life, if we can make it a part of our core, when temptation shows up we will be able to resist it. Satan isn’t afraid of us in our carnal self, but he is afraid of God's word when it becomes a part of us, that’s where the power comes from. When it’s me praying on my own Satan can say “who the heck are you”? But when I, pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the old rascal Satan sits up and takes notice because he knows that he is under the authority of that name as much as he dislikes to admit it. If we know and put on the full armor of God every day the battles will be less and they are win-able. Start with the prayer Jesus gave us; start out each day by going to the Father and then dress in the rest of God’s armor. We all need to be like the armadillo. When he’s attacked, he rolls up in a ball and has his plating around him. When we get attacked, we can roll up in the arms of Jesus and have his full protection around us. Satan may try to toy with us but he isn’t about to try going against Jesus. He did that once and he knows it’s a lost cause. Jesus gave us the authority to use his name and it’s in his name that we need to pray.
Grace & peace
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Jesus, the Lamb of Wrath?
Jesus, the Lamb of Wrath?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
Revelation 6:15-17
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
As many of you may already know if you’ve ever heard me teach or preach, or if you have been a reader of my work in this on-line ministry, I love to read, I read book after book. I’ll read anything I can find if I think it will give me a better understanding of my Lord or a deeper insight into the will and ways of God. One of the books I have is entitled “The Lamb of God” by Richard Allen Bodey. Mr. Boedy has put into book form the sermons of an English Pastor by the name of Rev. Clarence E. Macartney who pastored a church in England during the 30’s and 40’s. As I read this collection of sermons it stimulated my mind as to the power and wonder of how God in His infinite wisdom used the gentle lamb to be the symbol of His Son Jesus. And it is from this train of thought that I was inspired under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to write this sermon or teaching if you will. So I thank Mr. Boedy for his work of gathering for this harvest, I thank Rev. Macartney for his works of love to his Lord and I thank the Holy Spirit for leading me to this line of thought.
When I was first doing my studies and taking the various tests needed to obtain my license as a minister one of the questions I was asked while standing before a review panel of presbyters was, do I read magazines or other like materials in regards to my Christ like walk? And I had to answer “No”. And although my response brought forth a light chastisement I was chastised just the same for this answer. You see I had answered their question in all honesty, no I did not read magazines and other like materials at that time, that has changed quite a bit. Now I read several Christian publications seeking additional insight into the world and the events of the world. But had they asked or rephrased the question asking, “Do you read and if so what do I read”? I could have told them that I read the sermons of Charles Spurgen, volumes of them; I read the writings of Augustine and John Wesley, and Martin Luther. I read the books on Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem and Charles Hodge. I could have told them that I read anything and everything I can find on the history of religion and the time line of a thousand years before or after our Lord walked on the face of this earth. I could have told them that I’ve read Steven Runciman’s “The Kingdom of Jerusalem”, “The Kingdom of Acre”, “The First Crusade” or Jerome Carcopino’s “Daily Life in Ancient Rome”. But no one asked about that, no one asked about my additional reading of timeless classics and the wonderful library of history that is open to us. And it’s from all of these sources and many more that I draw inspiration for my teachings and sermons. And with that said we will open with a reading from the book of (Revelation 6:16).
“They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
Our pericope seems to be somewhat of an oxymoron don’t you think? When we think of Jesus, we get a mental picture of a gentle and loving face, filled with love and always showing compassion to everyone around him. Or maybe our minds flash to the image of Jesus surrounded by children eager to be held in his arms, again the kind and loving Jesus. And as you think of a lamb you can’t help but to think of a picture of a sweet and fuzzy little animal that couldn’t or wouldn’t hurt a fly much less be an agent of wrath. Maybe you’ve seen the stained glass windows of some churches that have the Lamb holding the banner of God beside him. Again there is nothing in the beautiful colored glass that would denote anything other than a gentle creature, soft, white and harmless.
So when we come to this passage in the book of Revelation and read of men crying out that it would be better for them were rocks or even a mountain to fall on them than for them to face the wrath of the Lamb we have a hard time forming a mental image of this Lamb. Our minds don’t compute a Lamb that could be in any way something to fear and especially to the point that we were to have a mountain fall on us rather than face this creature, this Lamb. The very thought of dread or fear in this magnitude of a Lamb shocks the senses beyond what we normally think about in regards to the Lamb of God. It goes against our senses and all we have been instructed with-in the framework of our Christian education. So who or what is this Lamb we see in this new light?
As we delve into the book of Revelation the imagery of the Lamb is often before us. We read of the Lamb of God, we read of the Lamb who is the bridegroom of the church. We read about the Lamb that was slain, allowing us to have God’s salvation. We read about the Lamb who is the light of heaven and whose song is heaven’s music. And each of these images of the Lamb rest easy in our hearts and peaceful to our minds. This lamb is the epitome of innocence, the most gentle of all animals. It causes us to ask; “how could a lamb be angry or even in the most remotest way be connected to wrath?” If you think about it there are many animals that are far more capable to display anger or what you could call wrath. For myself when I think of an angry or violent animal that has the physical prowess to instill the wrath or anger of God my first thought is of a big brown bear or a lion, something with huge claws, powerful jaws and huge ripping teeth. I think of a raging bull or worse yet a raging bull elephant. Something so powerful that it can even knock down trees. But the last animal I’d think of is a lamb, how could a lamb display this kind of anger? And yet here between the pages of this wonderful book of Revelation we find the gentle sacrificial Lamb and the wrath of the Lamb as well.
As a preacher of the word of God I have an obligation to present to you, the reader of this teaching, to you the congregation and church of Jesus Christ this presentation of the Wrath of the Lamb. The Lord hasn’t given me license to pick and choose what I present to you or how it’s presented. I enter into prayer asking Him what He has in mind for me and then I wait until I feel the moving of the Spirit. Once I know the Spirit has come upon me I start writing and it just flows, page after page it flows as if the Holy Spirit Himself were moving my hand as I write under His anointing. You would not believe the pages of notes I have in rough draft form let alone the finished typed pages that the Lord has given me. As I said I haven’t been given license or free will to present the message to you that I deem you need but it’s what He deems you need to hear from this electronic pulpit. The very words used in the title of this ministry demand that all of Scripture be preached to you. “All the Gospel … All the time”. I pray I will always write by God’s calling, as directed by Him and through the power and the unction of the Holy Ghost.
The fact remains that God sees all that we do; this cannot be denied or disputed. The fact remains that all men and women will stand before the judgment seat of Christ; this cannot be denied or disputed. The fact remains that all mankind at some point sins and falls short of the glory of God; this cannot be denied or disputed. And sadly I have to say that the fact remains that not all men or women will repent of their sins, thusly I hate to say but must that not all men or women will accept Christ Jesus as their means of salvation. The fact remains that not all men and women will believe that this salvation comes through the name of Jesus and by no other name can they be saved, and all of this friend cannot be denied or disputed. If any of these facts were to be denied or disputed and found to be untrue in any way shape or form then all that I say, all that I believe in, all that I do, and all that I dedicate my life to would be a lie and of no value. And worse yet, if any of these facts were denied or disputed and found to be untrue in any way shape or form the very Scriptures we hold so dear to our hearts would be a lie and be of no value as well.
But praise be to God this is not a lie, every word of Scripture is true, every paragraph, every sentence, every phrase and every word are true and the very word of the living God. Starting with Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21, every word is the truth. Starting with that very first “And in the beginning”, straight through to that very last “Amen” God used to close his work of art and beauty, His work of comfort and consolation, His work of joyful hope and salvation. Every single word is pure truth. And that my friend cannot be denied or disputed! Amen?
In the book of Hebrews we are told, “It’s a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. And if God is a righteous, just and eternal God He has to give righteous, just and eternal rewards as well. For some this includes righteous, just and eternal judgment and wrath as well I’m sad to say.
Friend the church of Jesus Christ has fallen into the habit of giving its hearers the “Feel Good Sermon” only. You know what I’m talking about don’t you? The people want to hear a warm and fuzzy sounding sermon, something that will make them feel good and warm and fuzzy inside. They want to hear things that make them think nice thoughts, about how nice God is and what a nice place we are all going to, that big banana split in the sky where everything is always chocolate coated and sweet to the taste. The people of today want all “Make me happy” sermons. We don’t want to think about anything else and we surely don’t want to hear about the “Wrath of the Lamb” or judgment or heaven forbid make any mention of “sin” or the consequences thereof that follow a sinful nature. We don’t want to hear any of that because it might steal our warm and fuzzy feeling and remind us of what judgment really is. But my friend sin is real, sin is alive and well today and sin is in the world, in the people of the world and in the church too. And for the sinful persons there will be eternal judgment, there will be lost souls and that dear saints cannot be denied or disputed. If it could the entire Bible would be a lie.
The apostle Paul knew this when he wrote to his dear friend Timothy whom he was preparing for a life of ministry as a pastor. In (2nd Timothy 4:1-5) Paul writes: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
With this said … what brought us today to this particular Scripture? This reading of Revelation 6:16. The 6th seal had been opened with only one seal remaining on God’s record of history and destiny. There was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon became as blood. The stars of heaven fell to earth, the heavens opened and mountains and islands were moved out of place. This is the prelude to the final judgment of God and His day of wrath so long held off because of God’s grace and mercy. In holding back His wrath for so long God was affording all men and women the opportunity to repent of their sins and their sinful ways and be cleansed by the blood of Christ, poured out as an offering of atonement at the cross. All people great and small, rich and poor, kings and crooks regardless of who they are, if they are a slave to sin they will be hiding in caves and rocks crying out to the mountains … “fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?” God’s great truth will be revealed. The much dreaded final judgment upon the evil of the world and upon evil men and women. This final judgment will fall upon all those who did not repent of their sinfulness.
As shocking as this may sound to some of us, this is not a new doctrine that suddenly popped out of the Bible from a previously hidden location that men were unable to find until now. It is a truth revealed in Scripture, woven through Scripture like a fine gold thread laced through the tapestry of God. And this truth of God’s judgment isn’t restricted to just the Bible … for many false religions throughout the world have talked of God’s judgment in one form or another. The big difference between these false religions and Christianity is simply that they have missed the whole message. They leave out the atoning blood of Jesus; they leave out the grace and mercy of God found through his Son the Lord Jesus. For some reason most of the world acknowledges that there is a God, that there will be a final judgment and they even joke about it. How many of us have heard or even joked about it ourselves by saying that when they die they want to go to hell just to be with their friends! I don’t know about you but in my simple mindset I think I’d rather find different friends to hang around with. Amen? I’d rather have different friends and we all go on to glory together at the foot of the throne. Amen?
Today there is much emphasis made in the media with regards to not only the separation of church and state but in seeking the complete removal of religion all together. And if you really look at it, it’s not just any religious belief they want to remove, it’s Christianity they are after and they ignore or even endorse the other false religions. They wrap their arms around Islam or Buddhism and say this one is okay but the church of Jesus Christ and His words they want to eliminate from existence. And it’s sad to say but there are many who make light of this as well.
We cry out to our courts and ask for justice. We look at the court system and the scales of justice, that symbol of the blindfolded woman with her scales in her up held hand. We look to the world governments and the United Nations and seek justice not realizing that justice found in the world, justice found in the court system or the world courts is not really true justice. And this true justice I talk about will not come until after the Wrath of the Lamb has come upon the world.
It’s not that God is angry with man or is angry in the same fashion, as man gets angry. It’s not that God is angry, as we understand anger. God is well beyond anything that we could ever understand. In (Isaiah 55:8-9) we read; “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your 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.” God isn’t looking to seek revenge like man does. God isn’t looking to seek revenge in the same manner as man understands revenge, he will never be looking to “get even “ with mankind, it’s not with-in the nature of God to be like that. But God has defined what sin is and in his pure perfection, in His pure Holiness, if God is to be true and God is to be just there must come God’s wrath at some point in the near future. And then the martyred saints of all history will see what perfect justice is after God’s perfect judgment has been dispensed.
I realize that this may be a hard pill to swallow after hearing so many sermons for so many years while gracefully dancing around the gray elephant in the middle of the room we know as sin. You know what the gray elephant is don’t you? In the counseling realm they use that analogy when there is a problem that is right in front of us and we chose to ignore it. . When there is a big problem that is very obvious it’s like a big gray elephant sitting in the middle of the room and everyone walks around him but they never acknowledge his presence. And so this big gray elephant of sin may be hard to acknowledge but if there is salvation found only through Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us this very fact in many places. Then there must also be the opposite as well, that there will be no salvation for those who don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord and repent of their sins. It’s kind of like that law that says for every action there’s a reaction. Were this not fact, why offer salvation at all? If this were not fact why would God have inspired John to pen “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeith in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”. It only stands to reason then that if Jesus came into this world to save us… there must be something he came to save us from. Amen?
Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that Jesus suffered and agonized over his fate in the garden of Gethsemane, Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that Jesus was nailed to the cross. Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that his blood was shed, for the remission of sins. Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that he carried the sins of the world upon himself while he was sin free and the perfect sacrifice. That he died and was buried. And praise God, that he rose from that grave to break the bondage of sin over us forever. And this cannot be denied or disputed. Amen.
Each of us has to recognize and acknowledge that Jesus did this to redeem us from the fate of sin, the fate of eternal punishment for the soul and separation from God. And if the fate of punishment and separation from God were not so there would be no reason for Jesus to have suffered as he did. Even the religions that do not want to acknowledge Jesus as God acknowledge that he was here on earth, that he was crucified and died on the cross. Why would anyone do this if it were not for the sake of God’s love and their wanting to save us from a fate far worse than just simple death and then there was nothing else.
So what are we to do? How are we to avoid the wrath of the Lamb? How are we to avoid this dreaded judgment that would cause men and women to call out and ask for mountains to be dropped on them rather than face the final outcome of the unsaved? We need to look at the words of Jesus. We need to look at the teachings of Jesus. Did you know that 12 of the 30 parables of Jesus Christ leave people not only condemned and punished here on earth but that the same fate awaits them in the next life as well? The same Jesus that said of Judas “it would have been better for him were he never born” also said “Come unto me and I will give you rest”. This same Jesus gave us in the Beatitudes, nine examples of how we can be blessed and gain the kingdom of heaven. This same Jesus told us that if we acknowledge him here on this earth he would acknowledge us in heaven before his Father. This same Jesus has told us that he has gone on ahead to prepare a place for us in heaven. And in using the same logic I used before, this same Jesus has said all these things and subsequently then he must intend for us to be there to enjoy this place in heaven that he’s prepared. If he gave us the nine examples of how to gain heaven, if he has gone to prepare a place for us in this heaven, then he surely must intend for us to be there to enjoy this blessing with him.
If we want to avoid the wrath of the Lamb we need to know the Scriptures. We need to follow the words of Jesus. We need to live a true Christian walk, not only in front of other Christians, but also in front of the entire world. We need to live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loved, do as Jesus did and maintain this attitude until Jesus Christ returns to gather up us his church or we go on to glory through death in advance of His return. Living a Christian life is not all that hard but we first have to know what that life consists of. Sound teachings from the pulpit will help but it takes more than a once a week message to keep that spirit alive inside us. Reading the Bible will help but it takes more than a few minutes of reading each day or every once in a while to keep that spirit alive inside us. It’s an every day walk in the Bible; it’s an every day talking the Bible. It’s an every day experience that really works like the snowball effect on a steep hill to keep that spirit alive inside us. Once we’ve got ourselves moving the farther we go the easier it gets until it’s our normal fare. Until it becomes a part of our every thought and action, until it becomes as common and easy as breathing. Once we get to living and walking and talking the Bible, the words of our leader. The words of our Jesus, once we get in the habit of praying things through before acting, asking the Spirit’s guidance, and learning to be patient enough to wait and to hear Gods voice when He speaks to our spirit, then we are on the right path to avoid the wrath of the Lamb. When we get all of our ducks in a row so to speak the rest will just fall into place and the only lamb we will see is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And my friend this cannot be denied or disputed.
This is why we come to church. This is why we have fellowship and share communion with each other. This is why we gather on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night and hear the word of God and share what God has been telling us with each other. This is why we have life and love and it’s the very core of our existence. If you are still not comfortable in returning to church just yet, that’s okay, God understands. But make a point to at least have fellowship with someone; it doesn’t have to be inside the walls of a church. Allow the Spirit to minister to your spirit and in due time the Spirit will tell you when its time to return to active worship in a church setting. Patience is a virtue, be patient and allow the Holy Spirit to heal your heart. I hope and pray that these little messages help you in remaining close to God. I pray that they are a blessing to you and that you will tell a friend if you know of someone in a like situation as yourself. As I just said, God understands and he loves you and that friend, is one more thing that cannot be dined or disputed.
And so now in closing I would like each of you reading this to think upon the words you’ve read today. Reflect upon what this message may have said to your heart or spirit. Don’t just read this and forget it, but ponder it in your heart like Mary, the mother of Jesus did. Let it sink in and take root. Allow God to minister to you through this and see if maybe this wasn’t a simple message just for you, a little reminder of where God wants us to be and how he desires us to conduct ourselves when we go our into the world. And maybe it’s a message that we might want to share with a friend or loved one. Remember that we may be the only Jesus they see this week and we might be the one that brings to them the difference in standing before the Lamb in wrath or the Lamb in all his glorious love.
Grace & peace
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
Revelation 6:15-17
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
As many of you may already know if you’ve ever heard me teach or preach, or if you have been a reader of my work in this on-line ministry, I love to read, I read book after book. I’ll read anything I can find if I think it will give me a better understanding of my Lord or a deeper insight into the will and ways of God. One of the books I have is entitled “The Lamb of God” by Richard Allen Bodey. Mr. Boedy has put into book form the sermons of an English Pastor by the name of Rev. Clarence E. Macartney who pastored a church in England during the 30’s and 40’s. As I read this collection of sermons it stimulated my mind as to the power and wonder of how God in His infinite wisdom used the gentle lamb to be the symbol of His Son Jesus. And it is from this train of thought that I was inspired under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to write this sermon or teaching if you will. So I thank Mr. Boedy for his work of gathering for this harvest, I thank Rev. Macartney for his works of love to his Lord and I thank the Holy Spirit for leading me to this line of thought.
When I was first doing my studies and taking the various tests needed to obtain my license as a minister one of the questions I was asked while standing before a review panel of presbyters was, do I read magazines or other like materials in regards to my Christ like walk? And I had to answer “No”. And although my response brought forth a light chastisement I was chastised just the same for this answer. You see I had answered their question in all honesty, no I did not read magazines and other like materials at that time, that has changed quite a bit. Now I read several Christian publications seeking additional insight into the world and the events of the world. But had they asked or rephrased the question asking, “Do you read and if so what do I read”? I could have told them that I read the sermons of Charles Spurgen, volumes of them; I read the writings of Augustine and John Wesley, and Martin Luther. I read the books on Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem and Charles Hodge. I could have told them that I read anything and everything I can find on the history of religion and the time line of a thousand years before or after our Lord walked on the face of this earth. I could have told them that I’ve read Steven Runciman’s “The Kingdom of Jerusalem”, “The Kingdom of Acre”, “The First Crusade” or Jerome Carcopino’s “Daily Life in Ancient Rome”. But no one asked about that, no one asked about my additional reading of timeless classics and the wonderful library of history that is open to us. And it’s from all of these sources and many more that I draw inspiration for my teachings and sermons. And with that said we will open with a reading from the book of (Revelation 6:16).
“They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
Our pericope seems to be somewhat of an oxymoron don’t you think? When we think of Jesus, we get a mental picture of a gentle and loving face, filled with love and always showing compassion to everyone around him. Or maybe our minds flash to the image of Jesus surrounded by children eager to be held in his arms, again the kind and loving Jesus. And as you think of a lamb you can’t help but to think of a picture of a sweet and fuzzy little animal that couldn’t or wouldn’t hurt a fly much less be an agent of wrath. Maybe you’ve seen the stained glass windows of some churches that have the Lamb holding the banner of God beside him. Again there is nothing in the beautiful colored glass that would denote anything other than a gentle creature, soft, white and harmless.
So when we come to this passage in the book of Revelation and read of men crying out that it would be better for them were rocks or even a mountain to fall on them than for them to face the wrath of the Lamb we have a hard time forming a mental image of this Lamb. Our minds don’t compute a Lamb that could be in any way something to fear and especially to the point that we were to have a mountain fall on us rather than face this creature, this Lamb. The very thought of dread or fear in this magnitude of a Lamb shocks the senses beyond what we normally think about in regards to the Lamb of God. It goes against our senses and all we have been instructed with-in the framework of our Christian education. So who or what is this Lamb we see in this new light?
As we delve into the book of Revelation the imagery of the Lamb is often before us. We read of the Lamb of God, we read of the Lamb who is the bridegroom of the church. We read about the Lamb that was slain, allowing us to have God’s salvation. We read about the Lamb who is the light of heaven and whose song is heaven’s music. And each of these images of the Lamb rest easy in our hearts and peaceful to our minds. This lamb is the epitome of innocence, the most gentle of all animals. It causes us to ask; “how could a lamb be angry or even in the most remotest way be connected to wrath?” If you think about it there are many animals that are far more capable to display anger or what you could call wrath. For myself when I think of an angry or violent animal that has the physical prowess to instill the wrath or anger of God my first thought is of a big brown bear or a lion, something with huge claws, powerful jaws and huge ripping teeth. I think of a raging bull or worse yet a raging bull elephant. Something so powerful that it can even knock down trees. But the last animal I’d think of is a lamb, how could a lamb display this kind of anger? And yet here between the pages of this wonderful book of Revelation we find the gentle sacrificial Lamb and the wrath of the Lamb as well.
As a preacher of the word of God I have an obligation to present to you, the reader of this teaching, to you the congregation and church of Jesus Christ this presentation of the Wrath of the Lamb. The Lord hasn’t given me license to pick and choose what I present to you or how it’s presented. I enter into prayer asking Him what He has in mind for me and then I wait until I feel the moving of the Spirit. Once I know the Spirit has come upon me I start writing and it just flows, page after page it flows as if the Holy Spirit Himself were moving my hand as I write under His anointing. You would not believe the pages of notes I have in rough draft form let alone the finished typed pages that the Lord has given me. As I said I haven’t been given license or free will to present the message to you that I deem you need but it’s what He deems you need to hear from this electronic pulpit. The very words used in the title of this ministry demand that all of Scripture be preached to you. “All the Gospel … All the time”. I pray I will always write by God’s calling, as directed by Him and through the power and the unction of the Holy Ghost.
The fact remains that God sees all that we do; this cannot be denied or disputed. The fact remains that all men and women will stand before the judgment seat of Christ; this cannot be denied or disputed. The fact remains that all mankind at some point sins and falls short of the glory of God; this cannot be denied or disputed. And sadly I have to say that the fact remains that not all men or women will repent of their sins, thusly I hate to say but must that not all men or women will accept Christ Jesus as their means of salvation. The fact remains that not all men and women will believe that this salvation comes through the name of Jesus and by no other name can they be saved, and all of this friend cannot be denied or disputed. If any of these facts were to be denied or disputed and found to be untrue in any way shape or form then all that I say, all that I believe in, all that I do, and all that I dedicate my life to would be a lie and of no value. And worse yet, if any of these facts were denied or disputed and found to be untrue in any way shape or form the very Scriptures we hold so dear to our hearts would be a lie and be of no value as well.
But praise be to God this is not a lie, every word of Scripture is true, every paragraph, every sentence, every phrase and every word are true and the very word of the living God. Starting with Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21, every word is the truth. Starting with that very first “And in the beginning”, straight through to that very last “Amen” God used to close his work of art and beauty, His work of comfort and consolation, His work of joyful hope and salvation. Every single word is pure truth. And that my friend cannot be denied or disputed! Amen?
In the book of Hebrews we are told, “It’s a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. And if God is a righteous, just and eternal God He has to give righteous, just and eternal rewards as well. For some this includes righteous, just and eternal judgment and wrath as well I’m sad to say.
Friend the church of Jesus Christ has fallen into the habit of giving its hearers the “Feel Good Sermon” only. You know what I’m talking about don’t you? The people want to hear a warm and fuzzy sounding sermon, something that will make them feel good and warm and fuzzy inside. They want to hear things that make them think nice thoughts, about how nice God is and what a nice place we are all going to, that big banana split in the sky where everything is always chocolate coated and sweet to the taste. The people of today want all “Make me happy” sermons. We don’t want to think about anything else and we surely don’t want to hear about the “Wrath of the Lamb” or judgment or heaven forbid make any mention of “sin” or the consequences thereof that follow a sinful nature. We don’t want to hear any of that because it might steal our warm and fuzzy feeling and remind us of what judgment really is. But my friend sin is real, sin is alive and well today and sin is in the world, in the people of the world and in the church too. And for the sinful persons there will be eternal judgment, there will be lost souls and that dear saints cannot be denied or disputed. If it could the entire Bible would be a lie.
The apostle Paul knew this when he wrote to his dear friend Timothy whom he was preparing for a life of ministry as a pastor. In (2nd Timothy 4:1-5) Paul writes: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
With this said … what brought us today to this particular Scripture? This reading of Revelation 6:16. The 6th seal had been opened with only one seal remaining on God’s record of history and destiny. There was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon became as blood. The stars of heaven fell to earth, the heavens opened and mountains and islands were moved out of place. This is the prelude to the final judgment of God and His day of wrath so long held off because of God’s grace and mercy. In holding back His wrath for so long God was affording all men and women the opportunity to repent of their sins and their sinful ways and be cleansed by the blood of Christ, poured out as an offering of atonement at the cross. All people great and small, rich and poor, kings and crooks regardless of who they are, if they are a slave to sin they will be hiding in caves and rocks crying out to the mountains … “fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?” God’s great truth will be revealed. The much dreaded final judgment upon the evil of the world and upon evil men and women. This final judgment will fall upon all those who did not repent of their sinfulness.
As shocking as this may sound to some of us, this is not a new doctrine that suddenly popped out of the Bible from a previously hidden location that men were unable to find until now. It is a truth revealed in Scripture, woven through Scripture like a fine gold thread laced through the tapestry of God. And this truth of God’s judgment isn’t restricted to just the Bible … for many false religions throughout the world have talked of God’s judgment in one form or another. The big difference between these false religions and Christianity is simply that they have missed the whole message. They leave out the atoning blood of Jesus; they leave out the grace and mercy of God found through his Son the Lord Jesus. For some reason most of the world acknowledges that there is a God, that there will be a final judgment and they even joke about it. How many of us have heard or even joked about it ourselves by saying that when they die they want to go to hell just to be with their friends! I don’t know about you but in my simple mindset I think I’d rather find different friends to hang around with. Amen? I’d rather have different friends and we all go on to glory together at the foot of the throne. Amen?
Today there is much emphasis made in the media with regards to not only the separation of church and state but in seeking the complete removal of religion all together. And if you really look at it, it’s not just any religious belief they want to remove, it’s Christianity they are after and they ignore or even endorse the other false religions. They wrap their arms around Islam or Buddhism and say this one is okay but the church of Jesus Christ and His words they want to eliminate from existence. And it’s sad to say but there are many who make light of this as well.
We cry out to our courts and ask for justice. We look at the court system and the scales of justice, that symbol of the blindfolded woman with her scales in her up held hand. We look to the world governments and the United Nations and seek justice not realizing that justice found in the world, justice found in the court system or the world courts is not really true justice. And this true justice I talk about will not come until after the Wrath of the Lamb has come upon the world.
It’s not that God is angry with man or is angry in the same fashion, as man gets angry. It’s not that God is angry, as we understand anger. God is well beyond anything that we could ever understand. In (Isaiah 55:8-9) we read; “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your 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.” God isn’t looking to seek revenge like man does. God isn’t looking to seek revenge in the same manner as man understands revenge, he will never be looking to “get even “ with mankind, it’s not with-in the nature of God to be like that. But God has defined what sin is and in his pure perfection, in His pure Holiness, if God is to be true and God is to be just there must come God’s wrath at some point in the near future. And then the martyred saints of all history will see what perfect justice is after God’s perfect judgment has been dispensed.
I realize that this may be a hard pill to swallow after hearing so many sermons for so many years while gracefully dancing around the gray elephant in the middle of the room we know as sin. You know what the gray elephant is don’t you? In the counseling realm they use that analogy when there is a problem that is right in front of us and we chose to ignore it. . When there is a big problem that is very obvious it’s like a big gray elephant sitting in the middle of the room and everyone walks around him but they never acknowledge his presence. And so this big gray elephant of sin may be hard to acknowledge but if there is salvation found only through Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us this very fact in many places. Then there must also be the opposite as well, that there will be no salvation for those who don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord and repent of their sins. It’s kind of like that law that says for every action there’s a reaction. Were this not fact, why offer salvation at all? If this were not fact why would God have inspired John to pen “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeith in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved”. It only stands to reason then that if Jesus came into this world to save us… there must be something he came to save us from. Amen?
Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that Jesus suffered and agonized over his fate in the garden of Gethsemane, Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that Jesus was nailed to the cross. Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that his blood was shed, for the remission of sins. Each of us must recognize and acknowledge that he carried the sins of the world upon himself while he was sin free and the perfect sacrifice. That he died and was buried. And praise God, that he rose from that grave to break the bondage of sin over us forever. And this cannot be denied or disputed. Amen.
Each of us has to recognize and acknowledge that Jesus did this to redeem us from the fate of sin, the fate of eternal punishment for the soul and separation from God. And if the fate of punishment and separation from God were not so there would be no reason for Jesus to have suffered as he did. Even the religions that do not want to acknowledge Jesus as God acknowledge that he was here on earth, that he was crucified and died on the cross. Why would anyone do this if it were not for the sake of God’s love and their wanting to save us from a fate far worse than just simple death and then there was nothing else.
So what are we to do? How are we to avoid the wrath of the Lamb? How are we to avoid this dreaded judgment that would cause men and women to call out and ask for mountains to be dropped on them rather than face the final outcome of the unsaved? We need to look at the words of Jesus. We need to look at the teachings of Jesus. Did you know that 12 of the 30 parables of Jesus Christ leave people not only condemned and punished here on earth but that the same fate awaits them in the next life as well? The same Jesus that said of Judas “it would have been better for him were he never born” also said “Come unto me and I will give you rest”. This same Jesus gave us in the Beatitudes, nine examples of how we can be blessed and gain the kingdom of heaven. This same Jesus told us that if we acknowledge him here on this earth he would acknowledge us in heaven before his Father. This same Jesus has told us that he has gone on ahead to prepare a place for us in heaven. And in using the same logic I used before, this same Jesus has said all these things and subsequently then he must intend for us to be there to enjoy this place in heaven that he’s prepared. If he gave us the nine examples of how to gain heaven, if he has gone to prepare a place for us in this heaven, then he surely must intend for us to be there to enjoy this blessing with him.
If we want to avoid the wrath of the Lamb we need to know the Scriptures. We need to follow the words of Jesus. We need to live a true Christian walk, not only in front of other Christians, but also in front of the entire world. We need to live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loved, do as Jesus did and maintain this attitude until Jesus Christ returns to gather up us his church or we go on to glory through death in advance of His return. Living a Christian life is not all that hard but we first have to know what that life consists of. Sound teachings from the pulpit will help but it takes more than a once a week message to keep that spirit alive inside us. Reading the Bible will help but it takes more than a few minutes of reading each day or every once in a while to keep that spirit alive inside us. It’s an every day walk in the Bible; it’s an every day talking the Bible. It’s an every day experience that really works like the snowball effect on a steep hill to keep that spirit alive inside us. Once we’ve got ourselves moving the farther we go the easier it gets until it’s our normal fare. Until it becomes a part of our every thought and action, until it becomes as common and easy as breathing. Once we get to living and walking and talking the Bible, the words of our leader. The words of our Jesus, once we get in the habit of praying things through before acting, asking the Spirit’s guidance, and learning to be patient enough to wait and to hear Gods voice when He speaks to our spirit, then we are on the right path to avoid the wrath of the Lamb. When we get all of our ducks in a row so to speak the rest will just fall into place and the only lamb we will see is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And my friend this cannot be denied or disputed.
This is why we come to church. This is why we have fellowship and share communion with each other. This is why we gather on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night and hear the word of God and share what God has been telling us with each other. This is why we have life and love and it’s the very core of our existence. If you are still not comfortable in returning to church just yet, that’s okay, God understands. But make a point to at least have fellowship with someone; it doesn’t have to be inside the walls of a church. Allow the Spirit to minister to your spirit and in due time the Spirit will tell you when its time to return to active worship in a church setting. Patience is a virtue, be patient and allow the Holy Spirit to heal your heart. I hope and pray that these little messages help you in remaining close to God. I pray that they are a blessing to you and that you will tell a friend if you know of someone in a like situation as yourself. As I just said, God understands and he loves you and that friend, is one more thing that cannot be dined or disputed.
And so now in closing I would like each of you reading this to think upon the words you’ve read today. Reflect upon what this message may have said to your heart or spirit. Don’t just read this and forget it, but ponder it in your heart like Mary, the mother of Jesus did. Let it sink in and take root. Allow God to minister to you through this and see if maybe this wasn’t a simple message just for you, a little reminder of where God wants us to be and how he desires us to conduct ourselves when we go our into the world. And maybe it’s a message that we might want to share with a friend or loved one. Remember that we may be the only Jesus they see this week and we might be the one that brings to them the difference in standing before the Lamb in wrath or the Lamb in all his glorious love.
Grace & peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)