Make Peace with God

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 7:45 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me this morning with the Glad songs “And This is Love” and “God So Loved the World” playing in my mind.

And This is Love/God So Loved the World / Glad / Acapella Project

And this is Love, not that I have first loved You

And this is Love, that You have first loved me

And You gave up Your life

One perfect sacrifice…

God so loved the world He gave His only Son

To face the death that we deserved and overcome

And everyone who hears His word and believes

The promise that he’s heard will never die, will never die…

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 27 (NIV 1984):

In that day—

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

    I, the Lord, watch over it;

    I water it continually.

I guard it day and night

    so that no one may harm it.

    I am not angry.

If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!

    I would march against them in battle;

    I would set them all on fire.

Or else let them come to me for refuge;

    let them make peace with me,

    yes, let them make peace with me.”

In days to come Jacob will take root,

    Israel will bud and blossom

    and fill all the world with fruit.

Has the Lord struck her

    as he struck down those who struck her?

Has she been killed

    as those were killed who killed her?

By warfare and exile you contend with her—

    with his fierce blast he drives her out,

    as on a day the east wind blows.

By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,

    and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:

When he makes all the altar stones

    to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,

no Asherah poles or incense altars

    will be left standing…

God’s Plan for our Sin

God’s plan for our sin was to send his Son Jesus Christ, God the Son, to the earth to become flesh, to die for our sins, to be resurrected back to life in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin, and then after he ascended back to heaven to send his Holy Spirit to indwell and empower the lives of Christ’s true followers to live lives pleasing unto God, to walk in the Spirit of God, and to obey our Lord in doing what he says to do and to become. His plan was to set us free not only from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal damnation), but his plan was to free us from the control of and slavery to sin on a day-to-day basis, to free us to walk with Jesus Christ in true righteousness and holiness, and to give us new and everlasting lives with our Lord in glory.

God loved us so much in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He does not provide his salvation for us because we are righteous in our own merit. We can do nothing of our own to earn our salvation. We will never be good enough of our own accord. It is by God’s grace that we are saved through faith. This is not of ourselves (of our own works) lest any of us should boast. Yet, what is faith? Faith is not just an emotional experience, a belief system, a choice of religion, a church denomination or affiliation, a mere acknowledgement of what Christ did for us on the cross, and/or a membership into a local religious club.

Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny (disallow) himself (his own flesh) and take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him (see Luke 9:23-25). Scripture also teaches that the way we come to know Christ is by forsaking (putting off; dying to) our old ways of living in sin, by being transformed in heart and mind (a working of the Holy Spirit of God), and by putting on (appropriating; applying) our new lives in Christ Jesus, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24). So, God made the way for us to come to faith in Christ Jesus, and we come to faith in Christ via repentance (turning from sin) and turning to walk in obedience to Christ.

The Problem with Man

We read in Isaiah 26 that “though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord” (v. 10).

The Lord has given me a picture of this here in America. We are certainly not a “land of uprightness,” but we are a nation that has been blessed with freedom of religion, and that has been blessed in abundance with the word of God and the teachings of scripture. Everywhere you turn in America there is a church building - though not all church institutions teach the truth of God’s word or the truth of the gospel of Christ. There are church-based ministries, Bibles and gospel tracts, Christian radio and TV stations, preaching, teaching and gospel music all over the internet, and Christian-based books and bookstores galore! We are in no way in want of the word of God in our nation.

Yet, where is the fruit of all this blessing? Why is our nation on such a stark spiritual decline? I believe part of this is due to the influences of our culture and the world system that have infiltrated the church, and because the institution of church has been turned into a marketplace for marketing religion and the church instead of it being a house of prayer and a place for sending out people to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also believe this is due to a movement toward man-made religion, and away from the true teachings of scripture, and a movement of teaching a false grace which is no grace at all. Many of today’s churches are teaching that repentance and obedience are not required for salvation, which then leaves people still in their sins yet believing they are going to heaven.

God’s Solution

Isaiah 26:9 says, “When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.” I believe this includes the people of the worldly church. The reasons I believe this are many, but for now I will limit my comments to this passage of scripture in Isaiah 27.

We have already learned that Isaiah 24-27 is eschatological, i.e. these chapters in Isaiah refer to the last days, i.e. they are messianic. If that is the case, then the vineyard being spoken of here is not physical Israel, but is spiritual Israel, i.e. the body of Christ, the true church, the saints of God. Physical Israel ceased to be the “vineyard”, i.e. the people of God when they, as a nation, rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, God and Lord.

In Galatians 4 we read that Hagar, the slave woman, corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, but the Jerusalem that is above is free. It also states that believers in Jesus Christ are the children of promise; children of the free woman, indicating that all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, including unbelieving Jews, are part of the slave woman. As well, we read in Romans 9 that not all who are physical descendants of Israel are Israel. It is not the natural children who are God’s children but the children of the promised seed, Jesus Christ, who are God’s children.

In these prophecies in Isaiah concerning the last days we read that God will judge his people - the complacent, lukewarm and/or rebellious, idolatrous and adulterous church, which I believe largely refers to the institutional church, in particular here in America, though I don’t really know other countries. The “briers and thorns” appear to be not only a symbol of the result of God’s judgment but also of spiritual lukewarmness of the vineyard due to spiritual neglect – a “land” that is neither pruned nor developed and thus has rampant undergrowth. They can also represent internal enemies of the church, i.e. false teachers/leaders, false teaching (a false and watered-down gospel), and man-made religion, etc. that draw God’s people away from pure devotion to God toward devotion to mankind, and away from the truth of his word and of his gospel to a gospel of men.

Yet, the Lord is still extending the call to make peace with him through repentance and obedience, i.e. through true faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet, one day he will visit us in judgment, and I believe with all my heart that he will judge the institutional, rebellious, lukewarm and man-made church of today (see Rev 2-3). Yet, when he judges, we will learn righteousness. And, when he judges, the church will be revived. And, when he judges, the gospel will go forth to the ends of the earth and people from all nations will flock to Jesus Christ, to his gospel, to the cross of Christ, and to the kingdom of God, i.e. to Mount Zion and to the heavenly Jerusalem, the saints of God. This is what Isaiah prophesied concerning the last days.

This Day of Judgment is fast approaching; yet don’t wait for it to appear before you learn righteousness. Humble yourselves before God today, repent of your sins, and turn to walk in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ from this day forward.