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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part
95
BREAKING THE
SEALS
(continued)
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves
in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall
on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is
come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev. 6:15-17).
There are some good people who have conceived of the idea that the God of this
universe is a Person of ALL LOVE expressed only through GOODNESS and MERCY. They do not want to think of Him as One who would
punish or correct with the rod both believers and unbelievers. They resist thinking of Him as a God of fiery
indignation and judgment! They prefer not to
think of Him as One who is capable of administering harsh and unrelenting discipline to
those who trample under foot His holy laws and abuse His spirit of grace. To these people God is a one-sided Being a
God of pure love and goodness, but not a God of wrath.
Now, just think for a moment if He were such a Person, He would be a
God without character! Our God is a righteous God who hates the wicked
ways, abominable actions, and malevolent rebellion of evil men. He is a God of justice, whose very nature demands
that He do whatever is necessary to correct what is wrong and establish righteous order in
the earth!
It must be quite convenient, soothing to ones conscience, to have a God who
will always wink at wickedness and overlook sin, and who will never correct the erring. But such a God would only exist in the figment of
the imagination of a deluded soul! Such a God
could never be a reality; and a God who is truly holy and altogether righteous would never
eternally condone that which is so totally antagonistic to His nature and character. In order for Gods righteous kingdom to be
fully manifest there must be corrective judgment administered against all that is evil and
incorrigibly rebellious in Gods universe.
We have met some brethren in this walk of sonship and the kingdom of God who have
exaggerated the bright side of Gods love out of all proportion to its other aspects. The love of God
has been presented in such a way that it is a weakness rather than a strength. It has been presented on the sunny side of the
street with nothing on the other side ever mentioned.
There is a love of God preached that has become such a
one-sided, mushy, gooey, sugar-sweet thing that it contains nothing of the vital and
vigorous concern of a Father for the best interests of a son it would never love
enough to chasten, scourge, and correct that son! They
have perverted love, making it sickening rather than stimulating, causing it to slop over
on every side like a sentimental feeling rather than expressing an abiding concern for the
object of love.
All those who make Gods nature and activity only gentleness have taken one
side of the truth and allowed it to get out of balance.
Gentleness without austerity becomes soft and characterless! Mothers who dote on their children in this way
often raise criminals. The kind of person who
is all sweetness with no steel in him is not inspiring.
He has the same effect as eating too many chocolates! And the off-spring of this false doctrine is one
of the most unlovely by-products of its error the spoiled brat
Christian! He is the man who thinks God has
given him a privileged claim on life. Nothing
bad should ever happen to him now, he should never be sick, never have to suffer or do
without, he should have the shiniest car, the finest home, the best job, the most elegant
clothes, the biggest bank account, and every desire of his carnal heart after earthly things with never a care in the world nor
a cross to bear.
The kind of God we have revealed in the scriptures is a God of both mercy and
judgment. He is not a nebulous nonentity of
sentimentalism. He is a God of character! How I thank God today that He is a God of love and
mercy and there would not be one of us alive today to breathe His fresh air, if it
were not for His amazing love toward us! But
those who do not want to believe that God will administer a sufficient amount of
corrective judgment upon the disobedient and rebellious, should be reminded that God is
exactly that kind of Being. In the very
cradle of human history, we find God pronouncing a punishment upon our first parents on
account of their transgression. He even
pronounced a curse upon the earth itself on account of their sin!
Let every man and woman of God who treasures the beautiful hope of sonship know
that there is the DARK SIDE OF GODS LOVE! If
a person refuses to surrender to the will and way of God the Great Physician will put His
child on the operating table. He will use the
surgeons knife when He sees a tumor of self-will or a deadly virus of wrong thinking
and carnality sapping our spiritual lives, or when He sees the cancerous growth of sin. The two-edged sword cuts deep! It
is a sharp sword and leaves the soul wounded when it cuts, as Jacob was wounded while
wrestling with the Lord. He rebukes and
chastises whom He loves, and if necessary He will proceed to the most desperate actions
indeed, HE WILL KILL YOU TO SAVE YOU! (I Sam. 2:6-10; I Cor. 5:5).
There is going to be a unique and different unfolding of this One we call Jesus
Christ! For He is about to go forth bringing
His judgments to the whole earth, to the entire bestial order that the carnal mind of man
has erected. In the book of Revelation we see
the Christ riding forth on a white horse with the armies of the sons of God following in
His path, judging and making war. In
our present text this action of judging and making war is called the wrath of the Lamb. What
an amazing divine paradox! Few phrases in the
scriptures seem more contradictory than this: the wrath of the Lamb. How
could it be possible for a lamb to evidence wrath? The
Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world on the one hand, and
the wrath of the Lamb on the other hand.
The Lamb precious embodiment of meekness, mildness, lowliness,
gentleness, patience, and sacrifice coming upon the world for which He died in the
hot fury of wrath, until men are found fleeing, hiding in the mountains and the rocks,
seeking refuge from the face of Him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb!
I have heard many explanations, but I have most often heard that Gods wrath
is righteous indignation or holy vengeance.
Many people believe that if God gets angry with sin and pours out judgment,
death, and destruction on evil men, it is just. But if a Christian gets angry with a wrong-doer
and retaliates and takes out vengeance upon his fellow-man, it is evil. It
troubled me deeply, and disturbed my spirit, when I heard these explanations and tried to
embrace them! I could not reconcile within my
heart how a God that loves His enemies, who sends His rain on the just and the unjust, and
so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son to redeem it, could be less than pure, loving, forgiving, perfect, and holy. How could He say to His followers, Do as I say, not as I do!
The wrath of the Lamb! Can this be the
same Jesus? Can these be the same sons of God
unto whom is committed the ministry of
reconciliation? The very thought seems
incongruous! The two ideas appear completely
incompatible and hopelessly unreconcilable! And
they are until we understand the great purpose
and nature of the Lambs wrath. While the two concepts seem contradictory to
natural, human reasoning, they are held within perfect balance within the divine nature
passion and gentleness, holiness and love, justice and mercy. The Lamb does not suddenly undergo some
fundamental change, laying aside His Lambhood, transformed like the proverbial werewolf
into something altogether contradictory, now Himself an Executioner instead of a Saviour. Oh, no! It
is not the wrath of One who has transmuted His Lamb nature, for it is the very W-R-A-T-H of the L-A-M-B! This wrath, therefore, is strikingly unique
not unappeasable rage or beastly savagery inflicting unreparable destruction and damnation
upon mankind but instead, corrective,
redemptive judgment to break the rebellion of men, to bring them to repentance, and
RESTORE ALL INTO HIMSELF AGAIN. That, my
beloved, is the Divine Passion of Love the wrath of the Lamb!
From a previous century come these beautiful words of confirmation of this most
sublime and mysterious truth. George
Matheson, a minister of the Parish of Saint Bernards in Edinburgh, Scotland, wrote:
There is nothing so dramatic, in my opinion, as the sight of an emotion contrary to
nature. When a man who has always hid his
griefs bursts into tears, when a man who has always veiled his anger, gives way for once
to passion, we are impressed with something like a sense of tragedy; it is a bitter day in
summer; it is a storm upon a lake. Some such
impression, in an intensified degree, rises here. The
wrath of the Lamb! It is a conjunction
of the greatest possible contrasts, a meeting of two points not only the farthest removed
in nature, but the farthest removed in human imagination.
The Lamb is the type of the sacrificial Divine Love. Being divine, it is infinite. How can there be a limit to infinite love? How can we think of the love of God as interrupted
even for a moment by a thing called wrath? Can
we any more conceive a limit to the love of God
than we can conceive a limit to the power of
God? If you were told that there was a
moment in the life of the Eternal in which He lost consciousness, you would say,
Impossible! You would feel it to
be a contradiction in terms that the Eternal should lose a moment. Is it any less a contradiction that Infinite Love
should lose a moment? Is it any less a
contradiction to suppose that there should pass over the boundless heart of God the
obscuring power of a cloud of wrath, by which the movements of that heart are restrained
and bounded?
Now, strange to say, the answer comes, not from the outside, but from the
expression itself. The wrath of the
Lamb the phrase is as peculiar as it is dramatic. Why does John not say, The wrath of the
Lion? Remember that, in Johns
view, Christ has two aspects a Lamb and a Lion.
Why does he not simply say that Christ has here put off His lamb-like appearance
and put on the appearance of a lion? Because
he does not mean that! He is not speaking of
the wrath of a lion, and therefore he will not depict it.
The state of mind he is describing is the wrath of a lamb a particular kind
of wrath! He is considering a mode of anger
which is not an interruption of love, but itself a phase
of love. The wrath of the Lamb is the wrath
of love itself! Instead of being a barrier to
the heart, it is one of the wings by which the heart flies.
The discipline which comes from love is the very thing that makes a boy into a man! There is an anger which is incompatible with the
absence of love, which could not exist unless love existed before it. The man who loves his friend will speak hard
things to his friend who is walking into the wrong path; he will speak so harshly as to
endanger the friendship; but the hard words bear the peaceable fruit of righteousness. There is a wrath which belongs distinctively to
the redeeming Lamb, which can only have its
home in the sacrificial spirit. That is the
wrath which the man of Patmos sees!
end quote.
This dual nature the meekness and wrath of the Lamb makes Him what He
is, both the SAVIOUR and the JUDGE of all mankind! In
His redemptive, reconstructive, and restorative activity His face is set against the
dreadful realm of sin and death. Nothing will
ever alter that! He will go to all lengths to
turn men from evil, and restore them into harmony with the mind and heart of God. The sheer simplicity and sincerity of His passion
is enough to melt and win the most sophisticated or the hardest of men. The wrath of the Lamb is beyond our understanding! Yet we are being brought to understand, for all
those holy ones called to sonship to God are ordained as the instruments of His passion to
redeem and restore all things! The blessed
Seer of Patmos was shown in the Spirit the unveiling of the wrath of the Lamb. I want to declare that God is coming forth in this
new kingdom Day in a revelation of Jesus Christ as both the Saviour and the Judge of the
world! He is coming in and through His sons
with a shaking and purging that will affect the very church of the living God! All of the Lords people, on whatever
spiritual plane they dwell, what ever their stage of development in Christ, and in
whichever religious system of man they are imprisoned, will encounter in this new kingdom
Day the fierce passion of the Lamb! The hour
is come when judgment must begin at the house of God, but the whole earth will also reel
violently under the overflow! What a Day!
Many people are afraid of the word wrath. Im not afraid to use it because it is not a
mean or vindictive word! What is wrath? It has always been taught by the carnal church
systems in a negative way and it should not be. What
is the biblical meaning of wrath? The Greek word is orge meaning to reach out with passionate desire and take hold of. It is quite clear that the orge of the Lamb has nothing to do with
uncontrolled anger or vindictive vengeance! The
very simplest definition of the Greek word orge
is passion. The passion of the Lamb! What a word that is! That rendering certainly reconciles the apparent
contradiction inherent in the King James Bible: The wrath of the Lamb. Who
has ever seen a wrathful lamb? Show me one
and I might consider the remote possibility of Christ coming in wrath upon mankind, in the
way it is taught in the church systems of man. But
there are no wrathful lambs!
Our children certainly experienced our wrath on a number of occasions while they
were growing up. It happened this way. When they were cooperative and obedient we loved
them, honored them, blessed them, and did all we could to help them fulfill their desires,
hopes, and dreams. But when they were
disobedient or rebellious they experienced our love on another plane. It was love in the form of wrath! Out of our passion
to help them learn what life is really about and how they should conduct themselves in it,
they received from our hand rebuke, correction, and chastisement. When
their insolence reached a certain point we were stirred
to passionate action and usually it was not very pleasant! But one thing is for sure. Whatever form the punishment took, it was out of a
passionate heart of love and concern for their welfare. It was never administered out of rage, fury,
unbridled anger, hate, or violent and vindictive vengeance.
Oh, no! The judgment was
redemptive in purpose and carried out as purposeful, meaningful correction. It was never designed to mutilate or destroy,
rather to remedy, make right, set straight, adjust, mend, improve, cure, and mature. That is the wrath of a father! Is it not the picture of our heavenly
Fathers wrath?
The passion behind the correction is the
correct meaning of the word for wrath in the
Greek text. Passion ardor, zeal, fervor, emotion, intense action, earnestness,
strong desire, fire, irresistible urge, overflowing love ALL THIS IS THE
WRATH OF THE LAMB! When the Lamb
is stirred to intense action in our lives to change and make things right we then
experience His wrath! Why has there been such
misunderstanding on the part of believers as to the true nature and attitude of God in
respect to His wrath? I submit that it is
because our interpretation of His heart, His judgment, and His intentions has been made in
accordance with mans own carnal and vengeful nature!
The Adamic mind ever seeks retaliation, retribution, and destruction upon those who
commit wrongful, sinful, or criminal acts. It
takes a heart after Gods own heart to say with our Lord, Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do. It also
takes a heart after Gods own heart to then set about precise measures for
correcting, changing, redeeming, restoring, and transforming the sinner!
When we come to the book of Revelation we find that it is a goodness book!
Behold, I make all things new. Thats
good! A new heaven and a new
earth. Thats good! The tabernacle of God is with men. Thats good!
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former
things are passed away. How unspeakably
good that is!
The book of Revelation has a wonderful ending! And the end is the fruit of all that went before. It is the blessed result of the wrath of the Lamb!
The book reveals that God is not out to get us in a negative,
destructive way. Rather, the wrath of God is
out to get us in a loving and constructive way!
Have you considered the truth that when the book of Revelation portrays
judgments they are not judgments that are against you?
They are against evil, they are against the Adamic mind-set, they are
against the flesh, they are against traditions, errors, fairy tales, folklore, and
superstitions, against carnal systems of man-made religion, against self-will, selfhood,
and selfishness but Gods judgments are never against YOU! The Lord has left no room for doubt that the great
purpose indeed, the only purpose of judgment is to RIGHT WHAT
IS WRONG. Thats why the book of
Revelation ends so gloriously! That marvelous
end is the final result of all Gods righteous judgments! Note the expectation in the prophet Isaiahs
spirit as he announces: Yea, in the way of THY JUDGMENTS, O Lord, have we waited for Thee
with my soul have I
desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: for when
THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH, THE INHABITANTS OF
THE WORLD WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS!
(Isa. 26:8-9). Oh, the wonder of it!
Some expositors hold that the events of chapter seven are an interlude or a parenthesis between the breaking of the sixth and
seventh seals, which causes a break in the vision, as though these events are something
added. But John does not intimate that there
is a break in the vision! There is no break
in thought, nothing that is different or out of place.
John introduces two groups, the 144,000 sealed ones and the great multitude that no
man could number, but these two groups are essential parts of the vision. In my view, rather than the events of chapter
seven being parenthetical (something inserted, incidental, secondary, inconsequential, or
nonessential to the opening of the seals) they are rather the result of the six seals that have been opened! The deep and mighty work of God wrought in each of
His elect through the opening of the seals has now set the stage for the sealing of
Gods sons with the fullness of the Fathers nature and the mind of Christ! All this has been preparation for the righteous
judgments of God to be administered through the chosen elect in the power and
demonstration of the Holy Spirit!
When the first seal was opened Christ the Lord rode into our earth conquering and
to conquer. Under the second seal peace was
taken from our earth through the conflict between flesh and spirit; the process of
dethroning the natural man with the Adamic mind and nature commenced within us. At the opening of the third seal we experienced
within the power of Passover and Pentecost as we began to feast on the life of the Lord
and the richness of the Living Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the activity of the fourth seal the old
mind and nature were brought to death within our consciousness and experience through the
many dealings, strippings, trials, testings, processings, and provings the Lord ordained for us. When
the fifth seal is loosed we see our souls, or our soulical life, slain by the word of God
and our testimony, under the altar of sacrifice, crying out for vindication and validation
travailing for the manifestation of our sonship unto creation. Then the sixth seal is broken and every outward
thing we have trusted in, been associated with, and participated in is violently shaken
and completely removed from our experience our old heavens and our old earth with
all they represent once and for all and forever pass away!
Arent you glad! The hour of
glory and honor is now at hand!
It should
not be necessary for me to endeavor to convince any mind possessing spiritual
understanding that the stage is now set for the sealing of God's sons, now to be raised up to
the heights of glory, power, and dominion upon the pinnacle of the spiritual and heavenly
mount Zion! This is but the natural RESULT of
all that has gone before! So, my beloved,
chapter seven is not by any means parenthetical it is the expected effect, consequence, outcome, harvest, conclusion, and
consummation of the breaking of the seals within ourselves, bringing forth the revelation of
Jesus Christ!
This precise pattern may be observed throughout the Revelation, in the breaking of
the seals, the sounding of the trumpets, and the pouring out of the vials. Each time you see what is called a
parenthesis or an interlude in the Revelation, you should think
instead of an outcome, consequence, or result. As
you observe the events preceding the so-called parenthesis you will be able to see clearly
how the events following are indeed the result
or product of all that God has wrought! This is indeed a wonderful key to
understanding the beautiful unfolding of Gods glorious plan and purpose in and
through His called and chosen elect! How
unspeakably marvelous this is!
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the
earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that
the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east,
having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to
whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till
we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads (Rev. 7:1-3).
So many truths come pouring into the soul from this passage, but I am sure the
reader can discern in the action of the four angels the ministry of judgment. Four
is the number of that which is world-wide or universal, and winds which blow with
devastating force are the symbol of judgment. Everywhere
in scripture the winds are revealed as divine agents and used either for blessings or for
judgments. Here, the four winds are
significant of judgments which for the time, the four angels are holding back in order to
permit the Seer to have a vision of something that must be brought forth and established before the winds are permitted to blow! Judgment is ready to come forth upon the whole
world of the sea and the earth, which represent the multitudes of humanity that dwell in
the sea, the lowest realms of wickedness and degradation, and
those who dwell in the earth, that realm which
is lower than heaven, but higher than the sea, the realm of the carnal mind which finds
expression in the institutions of a moral society religious systems, education,
politics, law, government, judicial systems, economic and social orders of this world. Individually
the sea represents our body realm with all its
fleshly passions, lusts, and evil. The earth
is our soul, where we live an acceptable life out of our own mind, will, emotion, and
desire.
Some of us have surely noticed that in the book of Revelation there are two kinds
of trees one kind that grows out of the earth, and another that grows in the
paradise of God, out of the river that flows from the throne of God. In our present passage the trees are those that
grow out of the earth, for the four winds are the winds of the earth, that blow upon the
earth. These trees indeed have life, but it is life that expresses on a carnal level and
brings forth the fruit of that realm. In its
spiritual meaning these trees speak of those deeply rooted things that grow out of our
earthly nature, those expressions, manifestations, activities, movements, institutions,
philosophies, religious systems, traditions, culture, and all workings of mankind which
are the fruit of the earth or the soulical powers of the natural man. The trees also represent the life of God expressed
through the carnal realm of man-made religion. It
is the life of God used to empower and propel the soulical programs, creeds,
organizations, promotions, ceremonies, rituals, and flesh-appeal activities of the old
order church systems of man. Green trees
growing out of the earth! They have received a measure of life, but it is
manifested on a low, earthly plane.
Furthermore, just as the tree of life growing out of the river of God, which is the
life of Christ, feeds mens spirits with the incorruptible life of God, and the tea
made from its leaves brings healing to the nations, so the fruit of the trees growing out
of the earth feeds the soulish life of the Adamic man of flesh it is truly
soul-food! It is that which
feeds, nourishes, and energizes the soulish appetites of man, including the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, all of which
passes away, along with the world, as we now know it.
God will bring judgment upon all the carnal works and creations of man, but the
command of the angel is, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in their
foreheads. The Greek word for
hurt means to be unjust or by extension to deal with,
injure, wound, batter, pound, thrash, mutilate, mangle, maim, debilitate, cripple, spoil,
impair, devastate, lay waste, make desolate, or destroy. If you have seen pictures of the devastation
wrought by hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis, then you have a picture of what it means
for the winds to hurt the earth, the sea, and
the trees!
God is not
unjust! Oh, no; He is altogether righteous
He does only what is good for us! When
our Father brings judgment correction, discipline into our lives it seems unjust; that is the perception of the
natural man. Often when my earthly father
corrected me when I was a child, I thought he was being unjust. Sometimes when he put his belt to me I would fall
down on the floor, screaming, Youre killing me!
Youre killing me! That
was my childish effort to try and get him to cut the discipline short. It didnt work! Today I understand that it was for my good. As our heavenly Father chastens us, even when we
are crying, angry, blaming God, asking why, He will see that we go through it! The sons of God will not minister the strong word
of judgment to the nations until they have themselves been thoroughly judged and sealed
with the seal of the living God! In order
that we may be true ministers of Gods redemptive purpose unto creation, we are being
formed in Gods nature and trained in His ways.
Our Father has a wise and wonderful plan!
His sons will not become administrators of the earth realm until they are
fully prepared and ready. Therefore He has
sent forth His authoritative word of command that the judgments of God, that is, the
dealings of God upon mankind and the nations of the world, should be held back until the sons of God have been perfected and
matured into the mind and nature of the Father!
That is the mystery!
Let not the winds blow until! Hold the winds back hold everything in
restraint for a season endure the corruption, UNTIL THE SONS OF GOD ARE SEALED IN
THEIR FOREHEADS! Bring no judgment upon the
earth realm, the sea realm, or those activities and institutions of men which are produced
out of the flesh the works of the flesh and the systems of the world let
there be no judgment upon any of these things until
the sons of God have put on the mind of Christ! As
I write these things and meditate upon them it becomes crystal clear within my spirit that
there can be no righteous judgment out from
Gods elect until we all have been endued with the mind of Christ.
Any man, apart from the mind of Christ, is unqualified to render any kind of
judgment and he will never be able to judge even his own soul, or his body, or the
trees that grow out of his earth, apart from the understanding and wisdom of the mind of
Christ. Much less is he prepared to
administer righteous judgments to those realms outside himself the world of
mankind. Righteous judgment comes only out of
the heavens of the spirit of the Lord! It
must come out of the mind of Christ, for all
judgment is committed unto the Son (Jn. 5:22). Thus
the divine fiat is issued by the word of the Lord that the four winds be restrained from
blowing upon the earth, the sea, or any tree, until the mind of Christ has been fully
formed in Gods kings and priests! If
only the world could understand this word, oh, how glad they would be!
The beautiful revelation that John received on Patmos, in the spirit, on the
Lords day, many of our religious teachers have taken that revelation and turned God
into some kind of a monster, saying God is so angry with mankind that in the end He will
come in the fiery heat of wrath and vindictive vengeance and pour out unspeakable
judgments, torments, and horrors upon the world, and just do terrible things to the people
of the earth. I heard of one preacher who
stated it crudely, and I trust none will be offended that I quote it just as he said it,
for that is the way people talk today, and what he said describes precisely the attitude
and mindset of millions of believers and thousands of preachers and Bible teachers across
the land this preacher said, Jesus is coming soon and man, is He pissed!
What a terrible, blasphemous concept
concerning THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!
It is a truth not comprehended by most Christians, but the truth is that the
judgment of God can only be understood in the shining light of Gods nature
and God IS LOVE! Love has been described as
AN ETERNAL WILL TO ALL GOODNESS. This is THE
ONE ETERNAL, IMMUTABLE GOD that, from eternity to eternity, changeth not, that can be
neither more nor less, but an ETERNAL WILL TO ALL GOODNESS that is in Himself and comes
from Him, so that as certainly as He is Creator, so certainly is He the blesser of every
created thing, and can give nothing but blessings, goodness, and holiness from Himself,
because He has in Himself nothing else to give. The
judgments of God can never be rightly understood apart from His nature of love. If Gods judgments spring not from His love
then they come not from God at all, for He IS LOVE. What
ought this to teach us about His judgments! The
pen of inspiration wrote, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth
for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness (Heb.
12:5-10). God doesnt go around
purposelessly punishing or vindictively torturing any of His creatures. But He does go about precise paths of bringing
forth correction unto righteousness, as the
prophet says, When Thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa. 26:9). Gods judgments, whether upon saints,
nations, or the wicked in general are all corrective in nature, to make right what is
wrong, accomplished by the motivation of His nature which is LOVE.
Multitudes of believers hold to the notion that every time there is some great
disaster a devastating earthquake, destructive hurricane or tornado, a ravaging
flood, bloody war, terrorist attack (the falling of the twin towers), or ruinous tsunami
such as struck southeast Asia, snuffing out hundreds of thousands of lives in but moments
of time that God is using these FORCES OF NATURE AS THE INSTRUMENT OF HIS
JUDGMENTS. They imagine that by these things
God is destroying mans corrupt order. Often
they quote the scripture I quoted above, When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the
world will learn righteousness. That passage is wonderfully true! But are either man-made or natural catastrophes
the judgments of God by which the world learns righteousness? That is the question! From ancient times mankind has experienced great
wars that killed millions of people, bloodshed, riots, cruelty, tyranny, destruction of
entire cities by volcanic explosions, droughts, famines, floods, earthquakes, ravaging
fires, pestilence, and a hundred more fearful desolations but have any of these, even one of them, in the history of the world, ever
caused the world to LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS? That
is the question!
Let us consider the above concept more closely.
Several years ago, we saw our nation chastened smitten! The greatest terrorist act in American history,
and the history of the world, took place September 11, 2001. Since then we have been placed in a position of
insecurity about anthrax, bomb threats, war, and fear of possible nuclear,
biological or chemical attack. America
experienced a brief period of time when the Congress was supposedly united, even singing
together on the steps of the U.S. Capitol! The
churches were filled with people praying, seeking divine help to cope with the mental and
emotional trauma. But soon those same
politicians returned to political fighting and struggling.
The churches emptied out again, and the country returned to some semblance
of normal. Did the falling of the towers
cause America to learn righteousness? Methinks that it did indeed momentarily wake a few
people up, but as soon as the dust settled they quietly slipped right back into their
slumber.
People throughout the entire church age have been taught to believe that the
disasters, which they term judgments, that strike various nations, are due to
their denial of the living God, their rejection of Christ, their worship of idols and
false gods, their persecution of the saints, their spiritual darkness, materialism,
corruption, trafficking of sex slaves, or their gross sins of immorality. But lets think spiritual sense about these things! Do you suppose the people who died in the twin
towers were greater sinners than the rest of the people in America? The truth is, there are thousands of places in
America where there is more sin, evil, and licentiousness than at the twin towers! When God judged southeast Asia with the
tsunami, do you suppose it was only the people in the coastal areas that were wicked, and
deserving of Gods wrath? What about the
leaders of those nations who were safe in their
mansions miles away; and multiplied thousands involved in sex-slave trafficking,
prostitution, drug running, and a hundred more abominations, who were safe in their cities
far away from the coast; and untold millions who worship in their heathen temples, bowing
down to idols and false gods, with hundreds of millions more who support radical Islam,
yet suffered nothing from the judgment. And
remember many good people, and many of the Lords people, wonderful
Christians, died right along with the sinners!
Were the people who died that dreadful day worse sinners than all the
rest? Did
the tsunami teach those people righteousness? If it did not, then it cannot be the judgment that the Spirit of the Lord
has declared will cause the world to learn
righteousness!
We do such shallow thinking about these things, my beloved. Was God in control when these disasters struck? Certainly He was!
Did He see and care for those unfortunate people just as He takes note of every
sparrow that falls to the ground? Absolutely
He did! But was He really out to teach
them righteousness through these terrible events?
Is Thailand now a righteous nation? Have
they abandoned their false gods and stopped the filthy sex industry? Is Sri Lanka now a godly country? Has Indonesia ceased to harass and persecute
believers, and now become a sweet Christian nation? Has
anything changed in India since the disaster? DID
EVEN ONE OF THOSE NATIONS, OR EVEN ONE CITY IN ONE OF THOSE NATIONS, LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS BY THE JUDGMENT? Answer that question correctly and you will know a
great mystery concerning the ways and purposes of God!
I have no hesitation in telling you that there is a great error abroad in the land
concerning Gods judgments upon the nations. The
vast majority of believers, including some in this message of sonship and the kingdom,
still entertain the notion that God actively judges the nations of the earth for their
sins. I once embraced that conviction too,
before the Lord graciously shed greater light upon my pathway! The idea is that God is, in this age of grace, the
gospel, and the new covenant, still holding the physical nations of the world responsible
and accountable for their sins, therefore bringing judgment upon them under the law of retribution. Let us consider some synonyms of this word
retribution. It means to punish,
to give just deserts, to give out what is coming to one what he deserves retaliation, revenge, reprisal, an
eye for an eye, measure for measure, tit for tat, counterstroke. Is that not quite an interesting array of
attributes to ascribe to our Lord!
Yet the only way God could be punishing nations, giving them what they deserve, paying them back for their sins, and
pouring out wrath, vengeance, and destruction upon them, would be if the nations are under the law.
Law demands retribution; grace does not! You
see, my beloved, it was under the law that God ordained an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth. In His nation Israel,
under the law, the adulterer, the murderer, and even a child who cursed his parents, was
put to death. Before grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ, the nations whose iniquity was filled up were to be wiped off the face of
the earth, even the women, children, and cattle were to be destroyed nothing left
alive! God dealt with Israel and the nations by the law of retribution. The antediluvian world perished in the flood. Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by fire and
brimstone from heaven. The seven nations of
Canaan were ordered to be exterminated. Israel
was driven out from her land, the land and the temple devastated, and the people given to
the sword and captivity. In those days God
did hold nations responsible and accountable for their sins, and God did judge nations!
The good news is that God brought that age of law to an end! He established His new covenant of grace and
salvation! Do you think the new covenant
covers only the Lords called and chosen people, those who by faith in Jesus Christ
have been forgiven, cleansed by the blood, and regenerated by the Spirit? That is not
the testimony of scripture! Under the new
covenant God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM; and hath committed unto
us the word of reconciliation (I Cor.
5:19). The law came by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ! Now instead of
punishment, vengeance, and retribution upon the nations, the word is, Go ye
therefore and preach the gospel (good news) to
every creature (Mk. 16:15). All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go
ye therefore and disciple the nations
teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Mat. 28:18-20). Oh, yes!
God has reconciled the whole world and all nations of mankind unto
Himself in Jesus Christ, He is not imputing their trespasses unto them, and to His called
and chosen elect He has given not the word of judgment and retribution but
the WORD OF THAT RECONCILIATION! Truly Jesus
is our Lord and Saviour, but He is also the SAVIOUR OF THE
W-O-R-L-D! Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sins of THE WORLD (Jn. 1:29). This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of THE WORLD (Jn. 4:42). This is indeed the good tidings of great joy
which shall be to ALL PEOPLE; for unto you is
born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Lk. 2:11).
God is now dealing with the nations by that man whom He hath ordained, who is the
SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. So what would be the
attitude of the reconciler and saviour of the world toward the nations today? Would it not be the same as when He came into the
world to become its Saviour? For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through Him might be saved (Jn. 3:17).
THAT, my friend, is the kingdom message and I fail to see any other message
as representing either Gods Christ, His new covenant, or His kingdom! That is why Jesus said to the woman caught in the
act of adultery, Neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more. The message of the Son of God and the message of
the sons of God is not: Repent, for the wrath
of God is at hand, but, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand! Oh, my! What
a world of difference there is between those two views!
The apostle Pauls attitude toward the nations is expressed in these words: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle, separated unto the gospel (good news) of God, which He had promised afore by His
prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have
received grace and apostleship, FOR OBEDIENCE TO
THE FAITH AMONG ALL NATIONS, FOR HIS
NAME (Rom. 1:1-5). Now unto Him that is of power to stablish you
according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by
the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, MADE KNOWN TO ALL NATIONS FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF
FAITH (Rom. 16:25-26).
Is there a judgment to come upon the nations?
Absolutely! But that judgment
has not been manifest yet, for the winds of that judgment are still held in the fists of
the four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth and cannot be released UNTIL
THE SONS OF GOD HAVE PUT ON THE MIND OF CHRIST! It
will not be a devastating earthquake or a ruinous tsunami, dear ones, for through the
glorious ministry of the manifest sons of God there will be the kind of judgment that will
transform all men, change the world, and
sweep all the nations into the peace, joy, and righteousness of the kingdom of God! Mighty DELIVERANCE is about to come to misled,
misruled, and misjudged mankind! Hold those
winds, angels were on our way to perfection!
It is indeed wonderful!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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