Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The Floods Have Lifted Up

Our Lord Reigns Supreme

Psalms 93:1-2 ESV

 

“The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;

    the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Your throne is established from of old;

    you are from everlasting.”

 

Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the King of the whole world. He is fully sovereign and in control over all that He has made. Nothing escapes his notice. And nothing can thwart his purposes. His purposes will stand for he will make them stand. Although it may appear the enemy is gaining ground, God still is King. His will and his purpose will be accomplished. Amen!

 

They Lift up Their Roaring

Psalms 93:3 ESV

 

“The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

    the floods have lifted up their voice;

    the floods lift up their roaring.”

 

Our Lord has enemies. All who are opposed to Jesus Christ and to his Lordship over all that he has made, and who are opposed to his gospel, in the way he taught it, are his enemies. And they are like floods which lift up their heads against the Lord, and which raise their voices against him.

 

And they are roaring against the Lord and his gospel and his messengers. They are rebelling against the Lord’s commands and his moral standards for our lives, and thus they are altering his gospel to make it more acceptable and agreeable to human flesh.

 

So, what we have now is a flood of people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are being promised heaven as their eternal destiny who are living no different from those who make no profession of faith in Jesus, or even worse, because they believe their salvation frees them of the guilt of sin.

 

Thus, many of them are living in sexual immorality and idolatry while claiming that Jesus set them free. But they see their freedom as license to continue making sin their practice. For they see their salvation as merely forgiveness for their sins, but not as deliverance from their sinful practices.

 

Thus, since they feel as though they don’t have to obey the Lord, and that nothing is required of them, and since they believe they can have an intimate relationship with God while they deliberately and habitually are making sin their practice, they have no fear of God.

 

So, for many of them, their eyes are full of adultery. They never stop sinning. It doesn’t mean that they are constantly committing sinful acts, but that they never died with Christ to sin. They never let him put an end to sin in their lives. And so, they continue sinning as a matter of course.

 

And some of them seduce others to sin by teaching them that nothing is required of them – no repentance, no obedience, and no submission to Christ as Lord. Or else they twist the Scriptures in such a way that they lead people into sin while making them believe they are obeying God.

 

Since so much of today’s market-driven church has bought into this lie, sin is running rampant in a large majority of congregations, and especially sexually immorality is high on the list of the sins being committed regularly because there are no checks and balances to prevent this.

 

And if they can’t convince us to join them in their debauchery, they will attack us, or they will try to shame us into submission, or they will try to shame us into backing down from sharing the truth of the gospel, telling us that we are offending people and making them feel bad.

 

Mightier than the Waves

Psalms 93:4-5 ESV

 

“Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

    mightier than the waves of the sea,

    the Lord on high is mighty!

Your decrees are very trustworthy;

    holiness befits your house,

    O Lord, forevermore.”

 

But praise the Lord, He is mightier than all their tricks and all their schemes to try to bring us down and to try to get us to compromise and to give up and to give in and to join them. He is mightier than all their threats or all their fearmongering or attempts to try to confuse us.

 

And he will give us all the strength that we need to stand strong in our faith and on the word of God (in context), and on God’s standards, and to not give into intimidation to back off or to back away from living the life and from talking the life that God has designed for us all to live.

 

So, we are never to commit sexual immorality. We are never to view porn or sexually charged movies, or to fantasize about sex with other people. And we are not to lust after others or dream of romantic relationships with other people. And we are not to self-gratify, either.

 

We are never to engage ourselves in intimate and private conversations with others behind the backs of our spouses, either. And it goes without saying that we are to never have sexual relationships with anyone with whom we are not married. We are to be faithful to our spouses in all ways.

 

For, it is God’s will that we be sanctified. It is God’s will that we be made holy and that we live separate (unlike, different) from the ways of this sinful world. It is God’s will that we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness for his glory and praise.

 

For, if we continue living in sin deliberately, habitually, and premeditatedly, making sin our practice, and we willfully choose not to submit to the Lord and to obey his commands and to leave our sinful lifestyles behind us, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

So, if you are living in sexual immorality, or any sin, and if you are holding on to that sin, and you won’t let it go, but you are claiming that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and that heaven is what awaits you, please take this to heart. The Bible says you will not inherit eternal life.

 

Please know that Jesus Christ gave his life up on that cross for your freedom from your slavery (addiction) to sin. He died to set you free so that you can now be his possession and so that you can now live for him and for his glory and praise. You just have to yield control of your life over to him.

 

[Read: Heb 13:4; 2 Pet 2:13-19; 1 Co 5:1-2; 1 Co 6:13-20; Eph 5:3; 1 Thess 4:3-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8]

 

The Great Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Francis Foster, 1915

Music by Samuel W. Beazley, 1915

 

How I love the great Redeemer

Who is doing so much for me;

With what joy I tell the story

Of the love that makes men free.

Till my earthly life is ended,

I will send songs above,

Then beside the crystal sea

More and more my soul shall be

Praising Jesus and His love.

 

He has purchased my redemption,

Rolled my burden of sin away,

And is walking on beside me,

Growing dearer day by day.

That is why I sing His praises,

That is why joy is mine,

That is why forevermore

On the everlasting shore

I shall sing of love divine.

 

Glory be to Him forever!

Endless praises to Christ the Lamb!

He has filled my life with sunshine,

He has made me what I am.

Oh, that everyone would know Him,

Oh, that all would adore!

Oh, that all would trust the love

Of the mighty Friend above

And be His forevermore.

 

He is everything to me, to me,

He is everything to me,

And everything shall always be;

I will never cease to raise

A song of gladness in His praise;

Here, and in the world above,

My soul shall sing of saving love;

Life and light and joy is He,

The precious Friend who died for me.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD-LJGRnUZY

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