The Choice is Ours
Isaiah
{65:17} For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
{65:18} But be ye glad and rejoice for ever [in that] which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
{65:19} And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
{65:20} There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner [being] an hundred years old shall be accursed.
{65:21} And they shall build houses, and inhabit [them;] and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
{65:22} They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree [are] the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
{65:23} They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they [are] the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. {65:24} And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
{65:25} The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust [shall be] the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD
Promises.
To be fulfilled? Left unfulfilled? Conditional? Unconditional?
God did make promises to those who would be His elect people and yet over and over and over His elect would abandon Him. They'd have a crisis of faith and in that crisis turn to other gods.
When we make promises to people often they are conditional too, aren't they?
We promise we'll do something as long as the one we are promising will do something first. Usually what we are promising is an incentive for those we are making the promise to, so they'll be more inclined to follow through on their end of things.
I know I've promised my children to reward them if they completed certain things within a certain time. You can bet they learned early on that I meant what I said when they failed to follow through on their end of things and therefore what I'd promised never came to pass. What good is a promise if it's not kept? No good at all, its empty and pointless.
When it comes to relationships between men and women promises are often made aren't they? A marriage ceremony is based on promises. Those promises are meant to be kept and if they aren't then consequences follow.
God promised to make a covenant with His chosen people and He did make the covenant. That covenant was conditional. If the covenant is kept then the promises would be kept, if the covenant was broken the promises are null and void.
God asked NOTHING that was impossible. He didn't ask men to sprout wings and fly and He'd be their God. He asked them primarily to have NO other gods before Him, none!
Time and again the promise was broken, the covenant broken.
While God included a way for people to be forgiven and still be His people and did not just destroy them outright, He never promised there would be no consequences to the sinning. Maybe there would not be eternal death, but sin is something by its very nature that brings about ruin in one way or another.
These verses in Isaiah talk of a new heaven and a new earth, they talk of an idyllic setting for a way of life and yet the promise was for the future and it was a promise that was made upon the condition of God's elect- truly being His elect.
Seriously, just as we can make promises of a grand future for someone and yet that someone turns their back on us, are we inclined to still offer that grand future for them? Not in that way, maybe in another way and there too based on whether or not they have a true love for us, a love that is full of faith and truth.
We can't look for the idealized life here in this world now. Sin has permeated this earth, the entire globe in every continent so completely that there isn't a way for any sort of idealize life to exist here and now, not truly, not without death and heartache of any sort.
Our hope is in Christ's return.
We need to be His elect.
We need to hold fast to Him and His righteousness. By His grace and mercy we are saved and we will be with Him.
The choice is ours. We can keep the promise to be God's elect by the grace of God through Jesus' sacrifice, or we can choose another path- God forbid.
May God help us one and all to be His and that His will be done, now and forever.
Amen.
1/14/10
2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
*******
The gospel is HID to them that are lost. That makes sense doesn't it? To truly understand the gospel, to have the gospel be a reality to us is to have it reveal Christ and Him crucified to save us from our sins. Understanding the magnitude of that magnificent sacrfice can't help but affect a person's life. When the gospel doesn't have any affect on a person it truly is hidden. The gospel like so much in life can be known but not understood and applied. You can know of something but never experience that something. I can know what it is to drive a car but until I'm behind the wheel driving it I'm not experiencing driving. You can know that Christ died for you, that His blood was shed to cover your sins so that you might one day reunite with Him upon His return, but until you confess with a sincere heart and repent of your sins- accepting Christ's sacrifice- the gospel is hidden to you.
The gospel is hid to them that are lost.
The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
The god of this world...
Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Joh 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
The gospel is hid to them that are lost.
The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
The god of this world- Jesus said that He is not of the world just as we are not to be of the world. The god of this world is Satan, make no mistake about it, Satan tempted Jesus this way--
Mat 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Mat 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Worldly things are of Satan. Our treasure should be in heaven not earth. So when we read the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not we have to realize that Satan is blinding the minds of people who choose not to believe. If we do not believe in God there is only one other recourse though many think there are a lot of different gods, religions, and what not to believe in there aren't, not in truth.
There is God and Satan. Satan in all his deceptive power is able to blind the minds of those who choose not to believe in God and those people believe something other than the one true God, our Creator and Redeemer, are deceived. They can dress that *other* up any way they choose but if it's not God ... it's Satan wearing a grand disguise. And yes, even possibly a disguise so deceptive people can't help but believe that it is a good thing believing as they do.
May the gospel be reveal in our lives to the fullest and not be hidden from us.
May 'the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,... shine' upon us!
May the Holy Spirit guide us fully into the fulness of Christ.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Amen.
1/14/11