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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the
world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not
learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do
not regard the majesty of the Lord.
Lord, Your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them.
Isaiah 26:9b-11
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Yesterday, we looked at
the matter of righteousness and how we can walk it all the way to eternal life
if we choose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in all we do, traveling the
narrow path that He speaks of in His teaching (Matthew 7:14).
Unfortunately, despite
the promises of God and Jesus as found in the scriptures, many people will
choose to live in sin and wickedness, shunning righteousness in their lives.
They are walking on the wide path to destruction and are doing so because they
choose to shun God and the Savior He sent to save the world out of His deep
love for the people He created.
It’s crazy (and sad) to
me but true.
All people have been
given the chance to live forever with the God who created them with the only
expectation being that they live like His Son lived when He was on this earth.
Living this way ensures they will carry out each day doing what is right and
just, doing the things God desires, the things that are a part of His will and
way.
Yet given this opportunity,
countless people have chosen, are choosing, and will choose to live their lives
their own way or in accordance with the ways of someone else in the world, and
they are doing so to their own demise. They reject righteousness and opt for
wickedness instead for if you are willingly choosing to live apart from God,
you are opting for a life where your will and/or the will of the world
dominates, a lifestyle that will be grounded in sin.
It’s these people, the
people who decline God’s offer of salvation and righteous living through Jesus,
that today’s scripture passage from Isaiah 26 is speaking to. Look again at
these words:
When Your
judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But
when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a
land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
Lord, Your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them. vv. 9b-11
The frightening part of
these verses for any non-believers should be that the people of the world learn
righteousness through judgment. In other words, in order to get the attention
of someone who is rebuffing God’s offer of righteousness through Jesus, simple
grace is not enough. For we receive grace just by waking up to a new day of
life but that wouldn’t be enough typically for a non-believer to all of a
sudden choose to trust and follow Christ. They would go right on with the day,
never acknowledging the blessing that it is by crediting God, and instead going
on living in evil and transgression.
No, grace alone is not
sufficient. Rather, it takes something far more compelling and disciplinary to
get the attention of the wicked and if they still choose to do their own thing,
then the lake of fire awaits them because their name will not be entered in the
Book of Life (Revelation 20:15).
Friends, we need to pray
for the wicked. No one should ever want to see others perish, to be consumed by
the fire. This is why Jesus called on all His disciples to go and make
disciples of all nations, to baptize them into new life in Him through the Holy
Spirit, and to teach all to obey what He commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). This
commission was not optional; it was commanded because we serve a risen Savior
who still yearns for people to be saved and not perish. He does not wish for
people to suffer destruction and neither should anyone else. We should be
exhausting our efforts to lead others to salvation because that’s exactly what
Jesus would have done if He were still here walking among us.
If you are Christian and
counted among the righteous as I am, we have a lot of work to do for the cause
of the gospel and our unbelieving brothers and sisters of the world.
If you are a
non-believer, I pray for you asking that you might receive the free offer of
salvation from Your Creator God, the One who gave you a Savior named Jesus who
willingly chose to die the death you deserved for your sin, the One who paid
the price for you and conquered death and the grave so you might be able to as
well. He, Jesus, is the only way to God and He, Jesus, is the way, the truth,
and the life (John 14:6). He and He alone will guide you to a life of
righteousness and lead you along the narrow way to everlasting life.
Won’t you choose Christ
today and become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) in and through Him?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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