Restless Hearts Until We Rest In You
Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified (set apart by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude tells the believers he is writing to, to be aware of the pernicious doctrine of these heretics....their false teaching, anti-christ doctrines have a gradual and subtle way of causing a harmful effect....polluting their minds and turning them away from the truth of God. Jude encourages believers not only to fight for their faith but also to depend on their faith for spiritual help. Jude implies that believers must exert themselves in spreading the gospel and defeating heresey. (2 Tim 4:7) And indicates they are facing adversaries of the faith, false brothers, godless men, false teachers, who teach damaging, destructive, dangerous dogma.
But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. (Jude 1:5)
God's chosen people and nation, Israel, cried out to God over their slavery in Eqypt. God heard their pleas to Him, answered that call and raised up Moses as their deliverer. It took some convincing of the King (Ex. 14:5; Is. 36:6 Eze. 31:2) with ten plagues and signs to persuade Pharoah to let God's people go. To remove the shackles of bondage and release the Jews from captivity.
Numbers 1:45-46 tells us all the men 20 years of age and older who did not take God at His Word died in the desert, in which Israel was made to wander. Add an equal number of women then those who died in the desert on the way to Canaan totaled 1, 207, 100 people. That's s a staggering number of nearly 90 deaths per day. (Deut. 2:14-15)
The chosen nation and people of God witnessed many astounding miracles that effected their deliverance from slavery...1/ The plague of blood where the fish died, the river stank and the Egyptians were not able to drink the water....2/The Plague of frogs--that filled the land and overflowed their houses....3/The plague of gnats--They were pests on the people and animals everywhere....4/The Plague of flies--dense swarms of flies poured into Pharoah's palace and into the houses of his officials, and egypt was ruined by the flies.5/the Plague of Livestock--all the livestock of the Eqyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died....6/The Plague of Boils--festering boils broke out on the people and animals throughout Egypt....7/The Plague of hail--When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields—both people and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree. The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were...8/ The Plague of locusts--And the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” The LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt....9/ The plague of Darkness--Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived....10/ The Plague on the Firstborn--So Moses said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ (may also be interpreted figuratively, that not an Egyptian, though ever so spiteful and malicious, and ill disposed to the children of Israel, should offer to do any hurt either to the Israelites or their cattle, or exclaim against them on account of the slaughter of their firstborn, or say one word against their departure, or attempt to stop them, but on the contrary would hasten their going, and be urgent for it....John Gill) Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All experienced by the Eqyptians. Then finally Pharoah allowed the children of Israel to go free.
Yet even the Israelites after being set free rejected God's guidance in the desert. They doubted God would look after them and protect them. Israel's refusal to believe that they could conquor the land God had promised them. Their refusal to go Caanan for fear they would be unable to defeat them in battle and take the land of Caanan. In this doubting of a victory over the Caananites severe punishment resulted. Because of that rebellion against God, everyone over 20 years of age perished in the desert, as they wandered for 40 years. Another thought to ponder should be to remember this stern warning and not think lightly about the result of God's wrath.
An 11 day journey took 40 years because of Israel's unbelief and trust in God that set them free from slavery in Egypt that He would do what He promised. That God had gave to them the land of Canaan as the promise of their new home. For God is not a man that He should lie. Yet, like many people, they walked by sight and not by faith, and their unbelief displeased God. For..." without faith it is impossible to please Him....” (Hebrews 11:6). Their failure to believe God’s word kept them from entering the Promised Land.
Many Christians have the idea you say a sinners prayer and you are magically placed into the kingdom of God. It is an easy believism. A belief without commitment to the one who died to set them free. Without God regenerating a heart, without being born from above, born again. Belief has no substance. No realizing they were an enemy of God. No turning from sin. No walking worthy of the calling they received. Those born from above should desire to live a Holy (set apart) life. As Scripture says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. For without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14).
God tells us to be holy because he is holy. What does this mean? It means being separated and dedicated to serve and fullfill the will of God. Striving for holiness means having a relationship with God defined by obedience to His will and being shaped to have His character. Being holy makes the believer set apart from the evils of this world and useful for Gods kingdom.
And the Apostle Peter in his first epistle chapter 4 stresses that point "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness( behavior that is morally impure, indecent or sexually unstrained), lusts, (sinful longing or desires) drunkenness, revelries ("orgies," "wild celebrations," or "carousing." This type of behavior typically includes excessive drinking, gluttony, lewdness, and other forms of overindulgence and moral laxity), drinking parties, and abominable idolatries (worship of idols or excessive reverence for or devotion to anything other than the one true God). In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Where once they were a slave to sin; following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. Now they are a slave to God. As Jesus Christ said "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”(John 14:21)
Paul addresses that issue in Romans chapter six where he says: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and have become slaves to God. The benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
To the Believers in Corinth the apostle wrote Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor. 6:18-20 NKJV)
Peter discusses the same matter of Sin and the Christian life in His first epistle expounding with these words inspired by God the Holy Spirit: "Therefore, since Christ suffered as a human, you should also arm yourselves with his way of thinking. This is because whoever suffers is finished with sin. As a result, they don’t live the rest of their human lives in ways determined by human desires but in ways determined by God’s will. You have wasted enough time doing what unbelievers desire—living in their unrestrained immorality and lust, their drunkenness and excessive feasting and wild parties, and their forbidden worship of idols. They think it’s strange that you don’t join in these activities with the same flood of unrestrained wickedness. So they slander you. They will have to reckon with the one who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:1-5 common english bible )
And James in his epistle chapter 1 verse 22 tells God's people, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
Yet how can one do what it says if they don't know what it says? Feast on the Way, the Truth and the Life. We do that by reading, studying, and feeding on God's Word? For the word of God is living and powerful. (active) ) Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)
Reformer John Calvin called the Bible God's baby talk for his elect. And The Father and the Son have sent forth God the Holy Spirit into our hearts, which represents our thoughts, feelings and spiritual life. Set aside God's Word, fail to feed on the Word, and ponder it's rich wisdom. The result? One stumbles on a sure path to disaster. It is so easy in this world to be sidetracked into abandoning Gods truth for the things of this world. Something God's adversity the devil is happy to accommodate. For the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan is not our friend. His goal is to thwart the growth and obedience of God's people. And to help lead people away from the only name under heaven from which we can be saved. From the fiery furance of eternal damnation. To the joy of everlasting life in the presence of God and the glory of His power. (2 Thess. 1:7-10)
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The apostle Paul tells us " though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor. 10:4-5) All God's people should be aware of satan's schemes. So that the evil one may not outwit you.
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All of God's people need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. We must put on that whole armour of God to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and most importantly the sword of the spirit, your most valued and effective weapon against the world, the flesh and the devil, the very Word of God. As soldiers of the cross, a follower of the lamb there's nothing more effective to protect oneself from the tactics of the devil.. For satan plots each day to have God's people fail, to implant seeds of doubt, and whisper loudly and plainly "has God said." Know what God says...understand what God means. Hunger for God's word to fill and increase your knowledge of the God who so loved you, that He gave His One and Only Son that you may not perish but have everlsting life. For as the Pslamist proclaimed as He prayed to His God, "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path." And as Messiah Jesus tells His chosen people, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
For you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. St. Augustine’s famous prayer resonates with the very essence of our existence. He reminds us that God crafted us for a higher purpose, destined to seek fulfillment beyond the confines of this world
Jesus reaches out to us with the words, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
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Through His One and Only Son Jesus Christ. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
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