Like Moths To A Flame

 Without Christ hopelessness reigns. People are adrift in an endless ocean  of despair. All becomes a useless meadering among  the busyness of a world consumed by itself. And  people are  inescapably allured like moths to a flame where all hope is devoured in one final  conflagration of destruction.  What they thought was important, money, worldly power and prestige rang hollow as the things of this world slipped from their grasp. What they perceived as light was actually darkness. Their idols dissolving into dust as they grovel before the one they vehemently denied as they made their way on the wide path to the abyss. Terror grips these creatures of the mist as breath escapes and the flames of eternal fire welcomes them to their final reward.

 as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;

My steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the boastful,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For there are no pangs in their death,

But their strength is firm.

They are not in trouble as other men,

Nor are they plagued like other men.

Therefore pride serves as their necklace;

Violence covers them like a garment.

Their eyes bulge with abundance;

They have more than heart could wish.

They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression;

They speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue walks through the earth

And they say, “How does God know?

And is there knowledge in the Most High?”

Behold, these are the ungodly,

Who are always at ease;

They increase in riches.

When I thought how to understand this,

It was too painful for me—

Until I went into the sanctuary of God;

Then I understood their end.

Surely You set them in slippery places;

You cast them down to destruction.

Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!

They are utterly consumed with terrors. (Selected verse Ps. 73)

The hope of the righteous will be gladness,

But the expectation of the wicked will perish (Proverbs 10:28)

The desire of the righteous is only good,

But the expectation of the wicked is wrath. (Proverbs 11:23)

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)

The fool has said in his heart,

“There is no God.”

They are corrupt,

They have done abominable works,

There is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,

To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

They have all turned aside,

They have together become corrupt;

There is none who does good,

No, not one. (Ps. 14:1-3 and 53:1-3)

Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth  were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (Eph 2:12)

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (Gal. 4:4) 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Words of Jesus Matt. 5:17)

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Heb. 9:22)

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

All those blood sacrifices to God by God's chosen covenant people, Israel, pointed to One Person. One Way, One Truth, One Life. The lamb of God who would and does take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) there is salvation (from the terrors of eternal destruction which is eternal punishment and torment in hell) by Him only. There's is no other way to enter into the kingdom of God than by Him. He is the Way, Truth and Life. 

Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. That day itself being but a shadow of what was to come. A type of whom  our worship  should be directed.  For Jesus the Christ  is the Lord of the Sabbath.  When you honor the Son you honor the Father who sent Him. Worship is no longer assigned to a day but to a person. 24 hours a day 7 days week. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." (Romans 12:1-2)

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Col. 2:16-17)

The Apostle Paul revealed this reality of humankind to the church in his letter to the Ephesians 2:1-3:  "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."

He is the Blessed Hope of all God's chosen people. Jew and gentile alike.  Those " who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."... those who believe in His name: and have been given the right to become children of God, (John 1:13)

By nature we are born into this world as children of God's wrath. Each one born with a sinful nature, tainted and in rebellion to a Holy and Righteous God. We are not sinners because we sin. We are sinners because we are born that way. It's in our nature.  (Romans 5;)

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalms 51:5)

It's not belief in worshipping on a certain day, or by your works, eating or not eating certain foods **Jesus explained "what comes out of a person, that defiles a person.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,  thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”** nor worshipping at a particular denomination or another religion that saves. It is Jesus Christ alone who delivers one from darkness to light. And from death to life. Who reaches down from heaven and opens a cold dead heart to God's truth.  For Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Trust and obey, there's no other way.....All other ways lead to eternal separation from the One True God of All Creation. Capitulation to anything else is to your own  condemnation.  Plain and simple.  

He is the one mediator between God and mankind. He is the only name under heaven by which anyone can be saved. (from the wrath of God that is coming upon all His creation) And the only doorway into the Kingdom of God. There is No Other Way!

The enemy is very pervasive and always persuasive in the hearts of sinful mankind. "For the god of this age (the devil, satan himself) prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." He is no one's friend. He has come to seek, kill and destroy.  He is the god of this age who has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (1 Peter 5:8; 2 Cor 4:4)

Prehaps God has been tugging at your heart but you have pushed Him aside. Maybe you don't believe in the God of the Bible. I challenge you. Read the Gospel of John. And ask God for help in revealing his truth. For Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost. 

 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.  For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you,  and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (2 Cor. 1-2; Eph 2:8-9)

God's gift has been presented. It is yours to receive. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, "If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest.   Take my yoke (a symbol of obedience and hard work)  I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest.  My  yoke is easy to bear, and My burden is light." (Matt 11:28-30 CEV)

Works do not save. But God has a plan for all His people. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)

** 

The Last Days

                                         The Last Days

I remember a conversation I had with one who himself was a pastor of a small church. I mentioned that we have been living in the Last Days since the coming, sacrifice, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He just looked at me with this puzzled, incredulous look as if he had never heard that before.  That's what happens with many people who study one thing, believe what they have heard and follow it without question. 

For some reason the only time  that matters to most is ours,  here and now,  and they forget that the church has existed for two thousand years.  The early church of James, John, Peter, Paul all spoke about the time they were living in as "the last days." They thought the  "Parousia"...the second coming of Christ was imminent. It could happen at any moment. 

The Apostles and Jesus the Messiah wrote about the second coming being like a thief. You don't except someone to break into your home and rob you. It comes suddenly and without warning.  And they all said to prepare each day as if that is the day it will happen. The day of the Lord, our gathering together with him, His destruction of the present world order and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. 

And do not let Lot's wife be your example as God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gommorah. She looked back, and became a pillar of salt. She didn't want to leave that world, as sinful, perverted and corrupted as it was. Don't long for this world and the things of this world. They are passing away. For we live in a death system. A created order that one day will be wiped clean to make way for a new heavens and new earth as God intended it to be when  "God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." (Genesis 19:26) 

The last days could end at any moment. You are living in exciting times. We are closer now than ever before when God the Son returns as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I ask you, "who do you say Jesus Christ is?" The Lord Himself will ask each of us that question. May that answer be like that of Peter the Apostle when Jesus the Messiah asked, "Who do you say I AM?  And Peter replied, "You are the Christ,  the Son of the living God. And Jesus commended him saying “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." 

The last day of the last days is nigh upon us....eternity awaits. Whether you are still here when he returns or you stand before him after death at His judgement seat. What will your answer be? Where will you spend eternity? 

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,  has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (Heb 1:1-2)

Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (Paul was speaking to believers of his time and our time)  For this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,  always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim 1-7)

 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly (quickly/swiftly) take place. (The Apostle thought Jesus would return in His lifetime..and all believers should live as if His appearance could occur at any moment)  And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,  who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,  and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. (Rev. 1:1-7)

Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. (either at death, or at the last, judgment; for with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day)  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.  You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:7-8)

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,  and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matt. 24:36-44)

The last days began with the work of Jesus Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension. The New Testament Apostles understood themselves to be living in the last days. They encouraged the disciples of our Lord and Savior to live each day with the anticipation that Jesus would return and a new beginning in a new heavens and new earth would commence.  An eternal theocracy, a perfect world where sin has no place, evil has no rule, death has no hold, and that devil of old, that serpent that tempted, the dragon who breathed out lies, satan himself is vanquished to eternal flames and torment with all who believed his lies and followed him.  For the old order of things will pass away. 

And even knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 

One Way, One Truth, One Life

Without God's Son, without regeneration of the inward essense of a person,  without being born from above, born again, the human race is adrift on a sea of unbridled, profane diversions that can eventually devour the human soul. And deliver into the depths of destruction a feeble and transgression laden individual consumed by the lust of the flesh and of the mind. Absent from the presence of God and the glory of His power. 

Without the only name under heaven by which anyone can be brought from death to life, from darkness to light. A person is just  spinning their wheels into the fiery abyss of judgement. The only way into God's Kingdom is through His Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God. Through whom all things were created in heaven and earth. The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.   The Way, the Truth and the Life, as Jesus the Messiah said " No One comes to the Father except through Me." 

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Jesus Himself said 

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (everlasting) 1 John 5:12)

and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

As this world becomes more and more Godless, more violent and as confusion and every evil thing reveals the corrupt and vile condition of mankind in more and more detestable and irreverent behaviors, far from the will of God. The closer humanity comes to an abrupt demise to all they covet and  practice.

they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,  by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.  But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5-7)

The truth of humanities vile nature is revealed and the more God withdraws His hand and gives the human race over to their own evil desires.   As Scripture proclaims so simply  "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." (Gen. 6:5)

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  (Romans 1:24)

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Tim 3:1-5)

And to give you who suffer and  are troubled rest when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,  in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,  when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. (2 Thess 1:7-10)

Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,  knowing this first: that scoffers (those who mock and make fun of)  will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,  by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.  But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:2-7)

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:10-13)

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.  He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly,unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”(Rev. 21:1-8)

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,

And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. 6:1-2)

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. You will be saved. (Rom. 10:9)

Jesus answered and said  “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3;5-8)

"No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”