God is With the Righteous

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

    They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

    there is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,

    to see if there are any who understand,

    who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

    there is none who does good,

    not even one.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers

    who eat up my people as they eat bread

    and do not call upon the Lord?

There they are in great terror,

    for God is with the generation of the righteous.

You would shame the plans of the poor,

    but the Lord is his refuge.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

    When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” 

(Psalms 14:1-7 ESV; cf. Romans 3:10-17)

When we humans are born into this world, although we are created of God in his likeness, we are born into sin with sin natures in the likeness of Adam, the first man created of God, and the first man to sin against God. Not one of is good. Not one of us does good (in the sight of God). Not one of us is righteous in the sight of God. We have all turned aside. We have all become worthless. We are liars and thieves and evildoers and those who follow after the ways and the desires of the flesh, and not after the ways of God.

[Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49; Eph 2:8-10]

And this is why God the Father sent his Son (God the Son) Jesus Christ to the earth to be born as a baby to a human mother but conceived of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus could eventually become our sacrificial lamb to die on a cross for the sins of the entire world. For in his death he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God – that we might, by God-persuaded faith in him, be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15,21; Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26]

But not everyone believes in Jesus Christ. Most people don’t. The majority of the people of this world are on a path leading to hell and not to heaven. They are going through a wide gate and following a broad path which leads to destruction (decay, death) which makes no requirements for them to be crucified with Christ in death to sin and to be raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And so they go on living in sin, doing whatever it is that their sinful hearts desire – even many do who profess Jesus as Lord.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; John 6:35-58; Romans 1:18-32; 1 John 3:4-10]

So, even many who profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips are saying in their hearts, “There is no God,” because they are living as though there is no God and as though they will not be punished for their sins and for their rebellion against the Lord. So, even though with their lips they give service to the Lord, yet by their actions they deny him. And so they, too, are corrupt, and they do abominable deeds, and they do not, in practice, do the good that God requires that we all do in his power and in his strength.

[Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; 1 Co 6:9-10; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31] 

And so when God looks down from heaven on the children of man, the children of the flesh, he sees those who do not seek after God, but who have turned aside and have become corrupt and who do not do the good that they ought to do in the eyes of the Lord, because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives and because they do not submit to Christ as Lord and to forsaking their sins to follow Jesus in obedience. And he sees that they have no knowledge of God, even some who profess him.

For these are people who do not honor God as Lord of their lives, who have not submitted to dying with Christ to sin and to living to God and to his righteousness. But they are still their own lord and master, and not God, for they go their own way and not God’s way. And many are they who then persecute and mistreat those who are following the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, for the righteous are an offense to them. But God is with the generation of the righteous who are committed to his ways and who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, and not in sin.

Therefore, although it may appear, at times, as though the evildoers have the upper hand, and as though they are winning, and as though we are losing, if we are following Jesus Christ with our lives we must trust that the Lord is on our side and that he has won this battle for us, even if we do not physically see with our eyes that he has won and that he is winning and that in the end he will win and we will win with him. So we need to just keep making the Lord our trust, for he is our refuge, and one day, when our Lord returns, he will take his faithful ones to be with him for eternity. Amen!

When I Go Home

By G. M. Eldridge

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4

In the moment He appears

And the light from heaven shines,

I’ll forget ev’ry fear,

Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.

Then I’ll see Him as He is

And I’ll know Him as I’m known.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

Ever present is the tho’t 

That a moment waits for me

When unworthy as I am,

His glory I will see.

I will empty all my praise

Before my Father’s throne.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

If the trial I endure,

And your presence I can’t find,

Be near me, Lord, I pray,

Bring back unto my mind

That your promises are firm

And I’m never on my own.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98Zvr1CyXg 

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