Isaiah 30:1-5 ESV
“Ah, stubborn
children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan,
but not mine,
and who make an
alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down
to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the
protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the
protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to
your humiliation.
For though his
officials are at Zoan
and his envoys reach Hanes,
everyone comes to
shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither
help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
I believe this message today is for the vast majority of the
church here in America. The church, although it is the body of Christ, made up
of true followers of Jesus Christ, united itself in an unholy union with the
government via the 501c3 tax exemption status. Yet, she was deceived, because
she was not required to do this, for she was already tax exempt.
So, the US government basically became her “Egypt” to whom she
turned for support and help, rather than her turning to Jesus Christ, her Lord,
for her sole source of protection and support.
Yet, not only did she form this unholy alliance with the US
government, which meant she had now become unequally yoked together with the
ungodly, but she prostituted herself to the world, too, and she turned the
church gatherings into a whore house where she attracts the world to her
gatherings via many displays of sensuality, worldliness and fleshliness.
She, for the most part, is no longer a beacon in this sinful
world to shine the light of Jesus and his gospel of repentance, but she is
entertaining the world with the flesh in order to appeal to the flesh. And, she
has turned the gatherings of the church into a marketplace where she markets
the church just like any other business, too, using human marketing schemes and
tricks in order to lure the world inside her doors.
Thus, now that she had compromised with the world in order
to attract the world to her gatherings, she also altered the gospel message of
salvation from sin to appeal to human flesh. Thus, it now requires no death to
the old sin nature, no submission to Jesus Christ as her Lord, and no obedience
to Christ and to his commandments. For, in this way, she will not offend the
world, she thinks, and they will want to come back to her gatherings.
But, she sold herself out for a cheap grace gospel which
leaves people still bound in their sins, still following after the lusts of the
flesh. Yet, not only was this to attract the world to her gatherings, but it
was so she could justify her own sinful addictions (practices) and sooth
herself so that she may continue on adding sin to sin.
But, this will be to her shame, because soon she will
realize that this cheap grace gospel cannot save her. This “peace, peace”
message, when all hell breaks loose in our nation, will not protect her from
harm. And, the US government, whom she worships with hand over heart, and to
whom she makes a vow of fidelity, will betray her to death in order to do what
it was created to do, which is to bring us all under the submission of the
beast.
Isaiah 30:8-14 ESV
And now, go, write it
before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the
time to come
as a witness forever.
For they are a
rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to
hear
the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers,
“Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us
what is right;
speak to us smooth
things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn
aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of
Israel.”
Therefore thus says
the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise
this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
therefore this
iniquity shall be to you
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out
and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an
instant;
and its breaking is
like that of a potter's vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its
fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
There are people today within the body of Christ across the
globe, including here in America, to whom God has given the spiritual gift of
prophecy. This is not prophecy in the sense of foretelling the future, though,
but of giving out God’s messages to his people from God’s Holy Word, but in a
way which is applied in all practicality to our world and to the church today.
These messengers of God, like John the Baptist of old, are
preparing people’s hearts to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord (master).
Thus, they are preparing a straight path, too, for the return of the Lord.
And, they are preaching messages of repentance, of turning
away from our sinful lifestyles to following Jesus Christ in obedience to his
will and purposes for our lives. They are also warning of divine judgment and
they are calling God’s people to come out from Babylon (the whore house) so
that she doesn’t share in her sins or in her punishment (Rev. 18:4-8).
But, these messages are mostly falling on deaf ears. Why?
Because the people have believed the lie which tells them that they can have
some type of nondescript faith in Jesus Christ which will forgive their sins
and which guarantees them heaven when they die, but that it doesn’t really have
to alter their lifestyles all that much, or not at all, in some cases.
They have also believed the lie that says that such preaching
about repentance is works-based salvation, and thus those who are preaching
repentance and obedience are false teachers who are still under the law and who
are not under grace, and therefore they are warned that they should not believe
such as these. For they are warned that we are trying to bring them back under
the law, which scripture forbids.
So, they tell these messengers from God to leave the
straight and narrow way, to turn aside from the right path, to stop confronting
them with the Holy One of Israel, and to stop telling them the truth. For, they
like the lies, because the lies comfort them in their sin. They make them feel
good, but preaching about repentance makes them uncomfortable. So, they prefer
the cheap grace gospel to the true gospel because then they can go on in their
sins unhindered and be comforted in them, as well.
Yet, although God has not yet come in judgment against this
modern-day Laodicean-like church, it doesn’t mean he is not paying attention to
what is going on. He is. And, that is why he has called some of his children to
be modern-day John the Baptists in preparing people’s hearts for the return of
the Lord, in teaching the straight way, i.e. the way of righteousness and
holiness. And, he has called them to preach repentance and obedience to him and
to his commands (his teachings).
And, he has called them to warn of divine judgment, to
expose the lies, and to tell the truth, for many people are convinced they are
going to heaven one day who are still bound in sin and on their way to hell.
And, so God wants to rescue them from the lies before he pours out his wrath on
this earth, and before he returns so that they can have genuine believing faith
and have the true promise of salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
Isaiah 30:15-18 ESV
For thus said the Lord
God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest
you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your
strength.”
But you were unwilling,
and you said,
“No! We will flee upon
horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride
upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
A thousand shall flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.
Therefore the Lord
waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show
mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God
of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
So, again, this is a call to repentance, to find true
salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and true freedom from slavery to sin. For,
the Lord longs to be gracious to you, even though many of you still are
unwilling to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to forsake your old lives
of living for sin and self, and to follow Jesus in obedience to his will and to
his ways for our lives.
So, know this. God will send judgment on our nation, and on
his rebellious ones in this nation, but this will be his mercy to his wayward
people in order to get them to return to him as their only Lord and to find
true salvation from their slavery (addictions) to sin.
For, right now so many are blinded by the lies, and they
have been overcome by all the deception. So, in judgment God will lift those
veils of deception, and they will see clearly the truth of what he has been
saying all along. Then, many will reject the lies, and believe the truth, and
thus be saved before our Lord returns.
So, just know this. We will all reap what we sow. If we sow
to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction (decay, death).
But, if we sow to please the Spirit, we will reap eternal life (Gal. 6:7-8; cf.
Rom. 8:1-17).
Give
Me Jesus
Oh,
What Gladness!
An
Original Work / December 2, 2013
Give me Jesus. He’s my Savior.
I’ll walk with Him in His favor.
I’ll abide in His love always;
Follow His ways to the end.
Jesus is the Son of God.
He died upon a cruel cross.
He’s forgiven all my failures
By His mercy and His love.
Give me Jesus – His compassion,
And His mercy; loving kindness.
Let Him teach me how to love Him,
And to please Him. He’s my friend.
Jesus died for all our sin
So we could have eternal life.
He will free you from your bondage
If you trust Him with your life.
Give me Jesus. Let me trust Him.
May I listen to His teachings.
May I follow where He leads me
In His service. He’s my Lord.
Jesus Christ will come again
To take His bride to be with Him.
Oh, what gladness; free from sadness
When I meet Him in the air.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
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